The public health crisis caused by the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico is the top story from Americas in all the morning papers this weekend, detailed in various reports from the New York Times, Washington Post, and LA Times. On Friday the NYT wrote that public museums had been closed and schools for millions of students shuttered in and around Mexico City. Officials also urged people with flu symptoms to stay home from work. By Friday, 61 had been reported dead, with young adults ages 25 to 50 being most deeply affected, according to the WaPo. On Saturday, President Felipe Calderón issued an order that would give his government emergency powers to address the flu outbreak by isolating those who have contracted the virus, inspecting the homes of affected people and ordering the cancellation of public events as questions surrounding the alacrity of Mexico’s response surfaced over the weekend. A report in the LAT says the virus was not identified until Thursday afternoon—in a lab in Canada—raising questions about Mexico’s health system. Those who did venture outside found the military and health workers handing out “tapabocas” at subway stops and street corners. Eighty-one individuals were suspected to have died from swine flu in Mexico by Saturday. According to one 42-year-old lawyer interviewed in Saturday’s reporting “There’s 20 million of us in this city and I’d say half of us have these masks on today. I know all of us will die one day, but I want to last out the week.” This morning the NYT writes that Mexican officials are expecting a major drop in tourism because of the flu crisis while at the World Bank meetings this weekend, officials moved to provide that nation with millions in emergency aid and set up a special fund for longer-term assistance because of fears that the recession would deepen due to swine flu. The U.S. Embassy said it would suspend the processing of thousands of tourist visas this week after Mexico decided to limit public gatherings. “We are going to come to an agreement to distribute to the world the real situation in Mexico,” says Alejandro Rojas, Mexico’s Tourism Minister. But it will be a difficult sell. By Monday, the number of flu-related deaths rose to 103, and the number suspected to have been sickened across the country stands at approx. 1,600 since April 13. Twenty suspected cases have now been found in the U.S. and Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, recently announced that American health officials have declared a public health emergency, saying the declaration would allow the U.S. to “release funds and take other measures,” but adding that “the hurricane may not actually hit.”
Meanwhile, the flu outbreak has not ended all other happenings in the region. An AP story in the Miami Herald reports that elections in Ecuador went off without irregularities on Sunday. Incumbent Rafael Correa is believed to have won at least 54 percent of the vote, making Correa the first president elected without a runoff in 30 years. “I voted for Correa because there is honesty in his government. He's very different from the others and gets things done,” remarked Manuel Guerrero, a 56-year-old dentist who voted for the U.S.-trained economist. Another Correa supporter added that he is “better than the thieves that came before him.” The AP says that “since taking office in January 2007, Correa has tripled state spending on education and healthcare, doubled to $30 a monthly payment for single mothers and launched subsidy programs for small farmers and people building their own homes.” And the NYT adds that the charismatic Ecuadorean president has responded to the economic downturn by seeking more than $1 billion in loans from China and imposing restrictions on hundreds of imported products in an attempt to prevent United States dollars from flowing out of the country.
And on the pages of the Wall Street Journal an interesting opinion weekend debate between former drug czar John Walters and Yale law professor Steven Duke over drug legalization. Walters, citing the Drugs and Democracy Commission, says a “predictable spate of drug legalization proposals” have come out of the spike in Mexico border violence. But, he argues, if such proposals were adopted in the U.S., “making highly addictive drugs easier to get and use,” drug-related suffering would increase dramatically. Walters adds that “it would weaken the moral authority of President Calderon’s fight and the Mexicans would immediately realize that we [the U.S.] have no intention of reducing consumption.” Professor Duke counters, arguing that drug legalization could raise billions in taxes while eliminating the exorbitant profits that fuel drug violence. Duke cites the Portuguese decriminalization experiment that began in 2001. According to a new Cato Institute study, the numbers of Portuguese drug users has not increased since decriminalization. “Indeed, the percentage of the population who has ever used these drugs is lower in Portugal than virtually anywhere else in the European Union and is far below the percentage of users in the U.S.,” says Duke.
In other news, a variety of reports and opinions on U.S. Cuba policy. The NYT reports that the Obama administration is quietly pushing forward with efforts to reopen channels of communication with Cuba after the Summit of the Americas. According to unnamed White House officials, informal meetings were being planned between the State Department and Cuban diplomats in the United States to determine whether the two governments could open formal talks on issues including migration, drug trafficking and other regional security matters. Carl Meachem, Sen. Richard Lugar’s senior policy advisor for Latin America, says “we in Washington have to focus on our own objectives, and not on events in Havana. What we’re doing is threatening to President Castro, and there will be reaction. But we have to keep moving forward.” Carlos Saladrigas, chairman of the Cuba Study Group, echoes this sentiment in a MH opinion piece this weekend where he argues that “By opening up to the Cuban people with information, contacts, ideas and resources, we help to empower them to be the protagonists of their own future.” Another opinion in the MH argues that Havana must reciprocate. One possible measure: for Cuba “to permit the normalization of postal services between the two countries.”
On the Mexican legal system in the NYT, an interesting report on the training of Mexican prosecutors by a group of American state prosecutors. The paper writes: “In what experts say is nothing short of a revolution, Mexico is gradually abandoning its centuries-old Napoleonic system of closed-door, written inquisitions — largely a legacy of Spanish colonial rule — that had long been criticized as rife with corruption, opaque decisions, abuse of defendants and red tape that bogged down cases for years,” adding that “for the first time, defendants will be presumed innocent until proved guilty (…) “The police will use more forensics and meticulous fact-gathering” (…) and “Plea bargains, mediation and probation, never tried before in Mexico, will become standard.” The changes are in part organized by the Conference of Western Attorneys General and the National Association of Attorneys General in the U.S. who are training Mexican lawyers under a $7 million USAID program aimed at creating change in Mexico’s court system.
In the NYT Magazine, a fascinating story on the use of homemade submarines by drug traffickers in Colombia. According to the piece, 70 will be made in the jungles of Colombia this year, up from approx. 45 last year—each for as little $500,000 and assembled in fewer than 90 days. The subs are now thought to carry nearly 30 percent of Colombia’s total cocaine exports.
Lastly, four opinions. In the WSJ, former Asst. Secretary of State, James Rubin, commends the President’s decision to greet Hugo Chávez last week in Trinidad, saying “Mr. Obama's new diplomacy is well-suited to an era of democratic government and instant communication. By refusing to snub Hugo Chávez, Mr. Obama makes it harder for dictators and anti-American activists to demonize the U.S.” In the NYT, President Jimmy Carter takes on the NRA, writing in support of reinstating the assault weapons ban. President Carter writes: “Across our border, Mexican drug cartels are being armed with advanced weaponry imported from the United States — a reality only the N.R.A. seems to dispute. The gun lobby and the firearms industry should reassess their policies concerning safety and accountability — at least on assault weapons — and ease their pressure on acquiescent politicians who fear N.R.A. disapproval at election time.” And two more looks at Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America. Mary Anastasia O’Grady writes in the WSJ that the book is “widely regarded in free-market circles as ‘the idiot's bible,’ criticizing Galeano not so much for his Marxism but rather for his roots in “structural economics” championed by Argentine economist Raúl Prebisch and the United Nation's Economic Commission for Latin America in the 1950s and 1960s. While Marjorie Miller at the LAT writes that “almost 40 years after Galeano wrote ‘Open Veins,’ Latin America is still beleaguered by a poverty and inequality born of the colonialism he described. A smaller percentage of the population is poor, but because of population growth there are many more people living in poverty. The average income of Latin Americans is higher in real terms than it was decades ago, but the average income of North Americans has grown even more, creating a wider gap.”
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