The top story from the Americas in the New York Times this morning is from Peru where ex-president Alberto Fujimori took the stand in his own defense on Wednesday. Mr. Fujimori declared he was innocent of murder and kidnapping charges as he read from a prepared statement, describing the campaign against guerrillas during his presidency from 1990 to 2000 as a “policy of pacification.” The former president added that the fight he waged was intended to “eliminate the disorder and anarchy that had taken hold of Peru.” According to the NYT, none of the 80 witnesses and nearly two dozen outside experts who testified during the trial have directly linked Mr. Fujimori to two deadly operations by a special Peruvian military unit. Instead, prosecutors have argued that as commander in chief and leader, he did nothing to try to stop the killings of guerrilla suspects and their supporters. If convicted, Fujimori could face up to 30 years in prison.
From the Washington Post, a piece on drug violence in Mexico says that nearly 50 percent of Mexico’s combat-ready troops—45,000 troops in total—have now been deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border. The WaPo says that after Calderón became president in December 2006, he told Mexicans that the use of the military against the cartels would be limited and brief. However, today the use of the military is the centerpiece of his strategy for fighting heavily armed drug cartels, and Mexicans have greeted this deployment of federal troops with a mix of gratitude and dismay. Mr. Calderon has said that when a new police force is ready, they will resume public security duties. But of the 56,000 officers vetted thus far, nearly half have already failed the pre-training process.
The LA Times reports from Colombia with a story about a community organizer, now detained for five months, with no evidence yet brought against him nor a trial date set. The accused, Carmelo Agamez, believes he was arrested for organizing displaced Afro-Colombians in the town of San Onofre, which angered powerful interests trying to secure abandoned lands for cattle, lumber and oil-drilling projects. According to the LAT, the case of Agamez is illustrative of the broader problem of weak rule of law in Colombia where the creation of a stronger and fairer Colombian judicial system is believed to be one of the keys to ending decades of civil strife.
The Miami Herald has a review of Vice President Joe Biden’s recent trip to Latin America. The Vice President visited Chile over the weekend and ended his trip to Latin America with a stopover in Costa Rica to meet with Central American leaders in a run-up to the fifth Summit of the Americas conference. By most accounts, the visit went a long ways toward reforming the U.S. image in the region. Constantino Urcuyo, a political scientist in Costa Rica, says “popularly the image [of Biden] is of a nice-guy gringo, which is the complete opposite of the cowboy image that existed before.” However, some, like Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, believed the meeting with Central American leaders should have taken place in Nicaragua, the country who currently chairs the Central American integration organization, SICA. According to the MH, feeling snubbed, Ortega did not attend Biden's gathering and instead sent his foreign minister to the meeting.
And finally, the BBC reports that Venezuelan Hugo Chávez has said his country is willing to receive detainees from the U.S. detention camps at Guantánamo Bay. According to the BBC report, the Obama administration has indicated it is looking for willing allies to take on some of the 240 detainees currently being held at Guantánamo Bay, but he probably had not imagined an offer coming from Chávez. The U.S. is unlikely to accept the offer. President Chávez, making the statements at the Arab Summit in Qatar, also renewed his calls for Guantánamo Bay to be returned to Cuba, saying the US should finish with “this miserable prison.”
Also in the LAT, an AP story on Mr. Chávez’s visit to Iran where the Venezuelan leader spoke about his relations with the United States under President Obama. “I don't have much hope, because behind him is an empire. He's the president of an empire. ... Now, I think it's fair to give him some time. ... Seeing is believing,” Chavez said. "I hope President Obama is the last president of the Yankee empire, and the first president of a truly democratic republic, the United States.” A joint Venezuelan-Iranian bank is expected to be inaugurated today during Chávez’s visit, with each country putting $100 million into the joint development bank.
And the LAT writes that during Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s visit to San Diego on Wednesday she promised to add two dozen agents in the San Diego area to inspect Mexico-bound vehicles for weapons and drug profits. The measure would be part of the federal government's new anti-drug plan. The new agents will be charged with intercepting high-powered weaponry that is believed to be fueling much of the drug violence in Mexico.
Finally, two pieces from the MH. First, more on the proposal of a Senate bill that would bar the president from regulating travel to Cuba. Identical legislation will be introduced in the House on Thursday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi supports the bill, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has opposed changes to U.S.-Cuba policy in the past, says the MH.
Second, Andres Oppenheimer’s column on the global position of the U.S. dollar. Even after China's agreement with Argentina to trade in their local currencies instead of U.S. dollars, Oppenheimer writes that “we are not likely to see investors flocking to buy yuans -- or euros. At the most, we will see a greater use of non-U.S. currencies on the margins.”
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