New HRW Report Highlights Military Abuses in Mexico: April 30, 2009

Stepping away from the swine flu crisis for a moment, the LA Times has another top story from Mexico this morning on alleged human rights abuses committed by the army in its prosecution of the drug war there. In a new report released Wednesday, Human Rights Watch highlights 17 specific cases, involving 70 victims, of suspected human rights violations for which Mexican soldiers have not been held to account. In one case, the LAT writes, the case began with gunmen ambushing a military patrol pursuing drug traffickers, the military retaliated by rounding up dozens of town residents, and ended with four girls being detained and allegedly raped by army soldiers. HRW’s executive director, Kenneth Roth, blames much of the problem of human rights abuses on a dysfunctional justice system and has urged President Felipe Calderon to move military cases into the civilian justice system. “It is impossible to rein in organized crime if those fighting it are also flouting the law,” Roth remarked. Mexican officials have denied that the military has abused human rights, arguing that with current laws “no public servant, including those in the armed forces, enjoys impunity.”

And now to the latest on the swine flu crisis and, particularly its most recent effects on public health and the economy in Mexico. The New York Times leads with a headline that the World Health Organization raised its alert level to “phase 5” on Wednesday, the next to highest warning level. The warning system began in 2005 after the avian flu scare, and this is the first time any disease outbreak has warranted such an alert level. “All countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparedness plans,” said Dr. Margaret Chen, director general of the WHO. The Washington Post gives three different looks at the disease from Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak. An AP report in the WaPo says “all nonessential activity of the federal government and private business” has been suspended in Mexico from May 1-5. Essential businesses like transportation, supermarkets, trash collection, and hospitals will remain open. Another report from Cancun says tourism, Mexico’s biggest moneymaker after oil and remittances, is one of the first economic casualties of the flu crisis. The paper writes that Mexican business groups estimate the country has lost more than $1 billion in revenue since the outbreak began as beaches have been abandoned and hotels emptied. And an interesting report from the two border towns of Mexicali and Calexico where the WaPo writes that just 50 feet apart, very different precautions are being taken (or not). “A border population that moves daily between the countries has begun to act as though people are simply safer on the American side, complicating efforts to contain the outbreak,” the paper writes.

Meanwhile, on the U.S. side of the border, the Wall Street Journal reports that President Obama has resisted calls to place tighter restrictions on cross-border movement, arguing that such a move was medically unnecessary and would have devastating economic consequences. The United States’ current border efforts are so far limited to having guards conduct “passive surveillance” of people coming into the U.S. from Mexico. And as of Wednesday night, the Department of Homeland Security said that border guards had referred only 49 suspicious travelers for tests, 41 of whom tested negative for swine flu with 8 cases still pending. And in the Miami Herald, columnist Andres Oppenheimer takes up swine flu in his column as well, arguing the externalities of the pandemic could include a prolonged economic recession, increased migration pressures, and a much-slowed fight against drug traffickers (President Calderon’s daily meetings with his Cabinet's anti-drug national security team have already been temporarily suspended, and troops in Mexico City have been deployed to give out face masks on the streets.) Again, the LAT is the only paper that gives a voice of calm amidst the panic in a piece that argues “genetic data indicate this outbreak won't be as deadly as that of 1918, or even the average winter.”

In other news, an AP story in the MH seems to indicate that the fight against drug gangs has not all-together ceased in Mexico. On Wednesday Mexican police arrested suspected Zeta gang leader Gregorio Sauceda Gamboa, one of Mexico's 24 most-wanted drug traffickers. Sauceda Gamboa was nabbed in his home in the border city of Matamoros, Texas—wearing a surgical mask as a precaution against swine flu. The report says the police who paraded him by reporters were also wearing “tapabocas,” in addition to the black ski-masks they normally use to hide their identities.

From Venezuela, the MH reports that the National Assembly has approved a law that forces Caracas’ elected mayor, Antonio Ledezma to transfer the city's municipal budgets, personnel and infrastructure to a Chávez political appointee. The new law will go into effect following its approval by the president, which is expected shortly.

From Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a McClatchy story on “Shock of Order,” a new policy instituted by Rio’s law and order mayor Eduardo Paes, and apparently modeled after former NYC mayor Rudy Guiliani’s law enforcement efforts in the 1990s. Under the plan, “state military police have continued aggressive raids on the city's violent drug gangs and taken on local crime syndicates,” says the report, but the initiative has gained the most attention for combating small-scale infractions that are part of daily life in Rio, such as street vending.

And finally, ending again with swine flu, the MH reports that Russia banned imported pork from at least 11 U.S. states, even though health officials say there is no link between eating any kind of meat and being infected with swine flu. Costa Rica’s health minister, on the other hand, has recommended that his citizens temporarily stop greeting one another with the traditional kiss on the cheek.

Photo: AP/ Guillermo Arias

IMF Back--But Not Alone--in Latin America: April 23-29, 2009

I’ve written a few times in the past few weeks about the potential reentry of the IMF—that most notorious of international financial institutions (at least in Latin America)—into the region. It began at the G-20 Summit where the Fund was injected with new capital and where some developing nations began to seek an increased role in the institution’s decision making (but also where the Washington Consensus, which the IMF once preached, was pronounced “dead”). News about the IMF spread to Mexico and Colombia, both of whom accepted a new “rainy day” credit line under an IMF program for countries with strong economic fundamentals. And, most recently, the story entered the pages of the Washington Post, who reported Tuesday that “hush-hush” negotiations between the IMF and nearly every country of the region (even those most hostile to the Fund, like Ecuador) are once more taking place.

It seems assured that, as Latin America attempts to prevent a deepening economic crisis from spiraling out of control into a social and political crisis, giving it a chance to bounce back when the global economy begins to grow again, the IMF will either be there at the table once again. Or, at the very least, hiding underneath it.

However, many questions still remain.

No significant reforms have yet been implemented, at least that I am aware of, although, yes, no politician in Latin America would likely survive very long on an economic platform consisting of privatization, trade liberalization, and deregulation, those core prescriptions of the so-called “Washington Consensus” or “market fundamentalism.” Indeed, it was such a package that is largely responsible for the fact that IMF loans to Latin America dropped from $48 billion in 2003 to less than $1 billion last year, as Juan Forero writes in an NPR report.

But, that said, there are new signs that those who very recently led the IMF are subscribers to a very different economic philosophy than that adhered to during the 1980s and 1990s. In a new piece in The Atlantic Monthly, Simon Johnson, the chief economist for the Fund from 2007 to 2008 writes that the deregulation of the financial sector is the principal factor that has caused current economic crisis. “Elite business interests—financiers, in the case of the U.S.—played a central role in creating the crisis,” Johnson maintains, adding that “many IMF programs “go off track” precisely because the government can’t stay tough on erstwhile cronies” [emphasis added].

That, to me, sounds like a significant shift in philosophy at the IMF.

But will it be enough? Does the IMF have any popular credibility in Latin America to be given a second chance? As a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research argues, the IMF has consistently underestimated economic growth in Argentina and Venezuela—the two countries it predicts to have the worst growth in 2009 and 2010. Such revelations do not seem likely to help the Fund’s credibility problem. And even while countries like Bolivia and Ecuador apparently hold quiet talks with the Fund, the definitive victory of both country’s leaders in recent votes makes it difficult to imagine that the IMF could once again have the same political relevance it had one or two decades ago. Indeed, one of the most interesting proposals of late—and one adopted in the Cumaná Declaration that was signed by Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Honduras, Dominica, and Nicaragua before the Summit of the Americas—is that the remaking of the international financial architecture occur, not within the G-20, but rather in the UN General Assembly, beginning at the UN Conference on the International Financial Crisis. These meetings will be held in early June and will reportedly include Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, among others.

The IMF may be back in Latin America. But it’s no longer alone.

Image: Elbag.org

Weekly Briefs: April 23-29, 2009

Central America. From Panama, the Wall Street Journal writes that a good indication about Obama’s feelings on free trade will be determined by watching whether or not he pushes Congress soon to ratify a free-trade agreement with Panama.

Inter Press Service has a piece on the successes of a literacy campaign carried out underneath the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

The Guatemala Times writes about the security crisis in that country providing a very good chronology of events on organized crime and impunity in the last two years—events which have led to the present moment.

And in the magazine Guernica, Salvadoran novelist Horacio Castellanos Moya discusses why he is optimistic about the future of his country after the election of the FMLN.

Argentina. The Miami Herald reports on the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires which sponsored a book reading and forum on Che Guevara as part of the 35^th International book fair. The book discussed, Che's Afterlife by Michael Casey, provides a detailed account of the branding of Che, arguing that Fidel Castro has served as a principal “brand manager.” The MH report says that the book could offer lessons for Obama on how to rebrand the United States in Latin America.

EFE writes that a recent census shows that over half of those living in Buenos Aires’ villas are non-Argentine.

And BBC reports that hundreds of priests in Buenos Aires are protesting death threats against two other priests after a report was issued showing a rise in drug problems in the city and lack of spending on education and decent schooling.

Bolivia. EFE writes and Boz highlights Evo Morales recent alacrity to describe himself as a “Marxist-Leninist.”

Brazil. The MH’s Cuban Colada blog writes that Brazil wants to get Cuba back into the IMF and World Bank. However, Fidel Castro in the past has described the Fund as “the executioner that pulls the string so the guillotine's blade falls on the heads of Third World nations.”

EFE reports that Brazil will donate four helicopters to Bolivia for law enforcement and disaster relief, adding words of strong support for the government of Evo Morales.

Colombia Reports writes that President Lula da Silva will meet today with Colombian legislator Piedad Cordoba to discuss the possibility that Brazil facilitate the release of a FARC hostage.

And, on energy, IPS reports that the U.S. will work with Latin American countries on energy issues based on a “variable geometry” which would allow governments to choose to cooperate in some areas but not in others. According to the piece, this means “it would be possible to work with Venezuela on the heavy crudes in its Orinoco Belt and with Brazil on ethanol, or with Mexico and Brazil on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.”

Chile. On the presidential race in Chile, El Nuevo Herald reports that billionaire Sebastien Pinera will turn over his control of four enterprises to pursue his presidential bid. Also, the Chilean “Left” nominated their candidate, former socialist minister, Jorge Arrate as their candidate to compete against Pinera and the governing center-left Concertación candidate, Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei.

Colombia. At Plan Colombia and Beyond, an Adam Isacson video report from the streets of Bogotá.

Colombia Reports writes that the Ecuadorian government appeared before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague Tuesday to present evidence of the alleged harmful effects of Colombian coca fumigation on Ecuadorian territory.

The AP writes that Dole Fruit Co. is being sued for allegedly making regular payments, for at least a decade, to illegal far-right Colombian militias that killed thousands.

In The Economist this week reports on disputed kidnapping figures being used by the Colombian government. Many human rights groups claim that government numbers are deceptively low and the problem is not as “resolved” as the government would like to make it seem.

And The Guardian writes that the UK has ended bilateral military aid to Colombia over lingering human rights concerns. Colombia calls the move a “severe blow.”

Cuba. In Newsweek, Jorge Castaneda writes about the effect of Obama’s words at the Summit on Fidel Castro, maintaining that: “Castro is too tough a nut to crack with smiles, quasi high-fives, and infinite patience, or with incremental baby steps. He has learned to be, at an enormous cost to his country, the least Latin American of the hemisphere's leaders. Fidel actually cares about deeds more than words; his colleagues prefer rhetoric to substance.”

Cuban Colada reports that Bobby Rush (D-IL) will hold a Congressional hearing on U.S. trade relations with Cuba April 27^th. Rush chairs the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection.

And Alvaro Vargas Llosa, one-time embargo supporter, writes in The New Republic against the embargo saying that “the argument against the sanctions is a moral one. It is not acceptable for a government to abolish individual choice in matters of trade and travel. The only acceptable form of economic embargo is when citizens, not governments, decide not to do business with a dictatorship, be that of Burma, Zimbabwe or Cuba.

Ecuador. Spain’s El País titles its interview with newly re-elected President Rafael Correa “What’s the problem with a Venezuela-Bolivia-Ecuador axis? See the full interview here.

El Comercio in Ecuador reports that Correa will not only govern with strong popular mandate but he will also continue with a legislative majority.

And at Open Democracy an article looks at Rafael Correa’s quite impressive rise—the first person since 1979 to have won the presidency in the first-round of voting.

Haiti. On Haiti, the Miami Herald reports on a significant repatriation of 73 Haitian migrants by the U.S. Coast Guard who interdicted the boat near Miami.

Mexico. The weekly round-up of stories from Mexico this week—the country that just can’t seem to catch a break:

· On drug violence, the AP reports the discovery of 9 bullet-ridden bodies around the popular resort of Acapulco.

· On swine flu, the Huffington Post writes that some Mexican lawmakers in the state of Veracruz are charging large-scale factory hog and poultry operations as the “breeding grounds” of infection.

· The economic impact of swine flu, the LAT’s La Plaza blog says street vendors have and will continue to be deeply harmed by the outbreak.

· On alleged drug war rights violations, a report at Narco News writes that political activists who are part of the “Other Campaign” in Chiapas were detained for robbery, assault, and their alleged participation in organized crime.

· On drug prosecutions, Narco News also reports that Mexico is seeking permission to prosecute drug mules caught in the U.S.

· On trafficking, NACLA has a report that says human trafficking and its criminal networks, not drug trafficking, may have a more serious spillover effect into the U.S.

· On another underreported problem for Mexico, the Guardian writes about a 5.6 magnitude earthquake that shook central Mexico on Monday. The article reports how some in Mexico are “gripped by the sensation that the world might be coming to an end.”

· On drug policy failures, Moises Naím writes in Foreign Policy that “there are some signs that the blind support for prohibition is beginning to wane among key Washington elites” with one new convert being the Pentagon.

· On increased criticism of a military-funded mapping program in Oaxaca, Upside Down World has a follow-up report.

· And two articles not fully available online, but likely worth a read. In Dissent, Jeff Faux writes on “Obama’s Mexico Challenge.” And in the Wilson Quarterly Alfredo Corchado on how “drug violence and corruption threaten to bring Mexico to its knees.”

Peru. In a Q & A with the chief prosecutor in the Fujimori case, José Antonio Peláez, tells Inter Press Service that he believes the convicted ex-president will serve at least 18 years, even if his daughter is elected in 2011 and attempts to pardons him.

Uruguay. El Nuevo Herald reports that 330,000 signatures were submitted to the electoral court to place annulling an impunity law that has hampered human rights prosecutions in the country before Uruguayan voters in October’s elections.

Venezuela. The National Review Online argues that Hugo Chávez’s brand of authoritarian socialism has only brought food shortages and massive inflation to Venezuela.

The AP says Iran’s Defense Minister is in Venezuela for meetings with the Venezuelan government to strengthen military ties.

Respected Venezuelan commentator Steve Ellner critiques PBS’s Front Line report on Hugo Chávez (“The Hugo Chávez Show”) saying the report “makes no effort to present the pro-Chavez side, or an analysis (such as my own) that talks of problems and downsides but also interesting and positive developments.”

And, finally, a report by a U.S. delegation studying the February Venezuelan referendum process is posted at NACLA concludes that: “our observations of Venezuelan popular democracy in action stand in marked contrast with media depictions of Venezuela’s government as autocratic.” For the full report, click here.

Swine Flu [Hysteria] Spreads: April 29, 2009

Four of the five papers I cover daily, the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and LA Times, have returned to the swine flu crisis in Mexico and around the world as their top story this morning. The NYT and WaPo both feature the most famous 5-year-old on the planet today, Edgar Hernández of La Gloria, Mexico. Édgar, it now turns out, is being recognized as the first to have been infected with the swine flu virus, and he’s a survivor at that. The boy is one of hundreds of people in the state of Veracruz who came down with flulike symptoms in an outbreak that now appears to have begun way back on March 9. “I was very bad. I feel good now,” the 5-year-old remarks with simplicity in the NYT today, describing symptoms that appear no different than the common flu. The WaPo adds that the link between pig farms around La Gloria, the boy, and the spreading of the virus around the globe is far from certain. No one has located a pig infected with the virus yet, and adding more mystery, the strain (which the WSJ’s world news headline says has now been reported on 4 continents and 8 countries) appears to, in fact, be Eurasian in origin. The number of suspected cases in Mexico rose to 2,498 on Tuesday with 159 deaths now believed to be caused by the virus there. Moreover, cruise lines have suspended operations to many Mexican ports, flights have been cancelled from Cuba and Argentina to Mexico, and California, with a grand total of 13 alleged cases of swine flu, has declared a state of emergency. I don’t mean to be flippant or understate the potential severity of the swine flu outbreak. Better safe than sorry, I would agree. But no need for global hysteria quite yet it seems (Wendy Orent, author of “Plague” and on the opinion pages of the LAT this morning, seems to agree). For some perspective, 36,000 people die each year from seasonal influenza in the United States alone.

Meanwhile, the Miami Herald takes us away from swine flu for a moment as the paper reports from Haiti where last week’s Senate elections produced no winners in the first round. The results leave 11 seats open in the 30-member Senate, positions now to be filled in a runoff election. Just 11 percent of voters turned out for the April 19 vote. Supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide boycotted the election after his Fanmi Lavalas party candidates were disqualified because they failed to produce documents signed by the exiled party leader. Nine of the 20 candidates advancing to the runoff are from President René Préval's Lespwa party, which already controls six of the Senate seats currently filled.

And in other news this morning, the swine flu appears to have not sidelined the activities of organized crime in Mexico just yet. From Tijuana the LAT reports that 7 police officers were killed late Monday in an attack by heavily armed gunmen. The paper says that Monday's attacks resulted in one of the biggest one-day police death tolls in recent memory. About 500 police officers have been killed in Mexico since December 2006.

In the NYT, the AP writes that Colombia’s Department of Administrative Security (DAS) fired yesterday another 11 individuals connected an illegal eavesdropping program targeting politicians, journalists, and judges. A total of 33 persons have now been let go from the department since the scandal broke in February. Also, on Colombia, the AP reports that Colombian drug baron Eugenio Montoya Sanchez, a top financial manager who supervised money-laundering for a cocaine cartel accused of smuggling $10 billion in drugs into the U.S., was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in federal prison in Miami.

On Cuba in the MH, Asst. Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, Tom Shannon, met with Jorge Bolanos, chief of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington recently—what one anonymous State Department official described as “one of a series” to discuss issues like pending visa cases. The issue of trade may also be on their agenda.

And, another bizarre health issue is being reported on by the MH from Nicaragua. The so-called “crazy sickness,” which makes those afflicted alternate between “states of a coma-like trance and indomitable mania,” has returned to the port town of Bilwi on Nicaragua's northern Caribbean coast. More than 80 cases of the illness reported here in the past two months, including eight more girls who were afflicted while at school on April 21. Some health experts say the illness is more mental than physical. However, according to the MH, “it behaves similar to other viral outbreaks in that it's contagious and can last for months or years.”

Photo: Huffington Post