Both the New York Times and the Miami Herald over the weekend feature pieces on Venezuela and new moves by President Hugo Chávez’s to assert greater control over the economy and political institutions. First, the NYT details President Chávez’s most recent seizures of energy industry assets late last week. The paper says the takeover of oil service companies were motivated by rising debt owed to third-party oil contractors and a sharp decline in petroleum prices. For now, Mr. Chávez’s government said it would expropriate at least 13 drilling rigs, 39 oil terminals, and about 300 boats used in the waters and land around Lake Maracaibo. But some industry leaders said the scope of the expropriations could widen. Interestingly, even with the seizures, Venezuela continues to allow more foreign participation in its oil sector than other oil producing nations like Saudi Arabia or Mexico. Venezuela still permits foreign companies to be minority partners in nationalized oil fields. In addition to seeking new bids from Western oil companies, Venezuela has also sought increased participation by state-controlled Chinese and Russian companies for new oil projects, writes the NYT. Meanwhile, in the MH, the paper summarizes the most recent political moves by Chávez to concentrate power and deflate his opposition. In addition to pursuing political rivals on alleged corruption charges and stripping the Caracas mayor of his budget, the report also says the government “has expanded its offensive on the intellectual front by eliminating 60,000 books from the shelves of dozens of public libraries across the country.” And, on Thursday, prominent Venezuelan nongovernmental organizations complained about another measure advancing through Congress that would tighten government control over nonprofit groups that receive foreign money. Under a new proposal, money given by foreign groups would have to go first to the Venezuelan treasury.
The Washington Post writes from Mexico about the accusations being leveled against industrial hog farming in the country after the swine flu crisis. Although health officials in Mexico insist there is not yet evidence linking pig farms owned and operated by Virginia-based Smithfield Foods to swine flu, new tensions have erupted between the world's largest hog producer and “the poor neighboring communities here that have long warned that the farms are a danger to their health.” Smithfield has made Perote Valley in the state of Veracruz a “cog in its global expansion,” says the WaPo. And, after a large 2007 protest against the construction of a new hog farm in the region, the government responded by laying out criminal charges against five residents who had organized the demonstration. Smithfield employs 907 people, making it the largest employer in the Perote Valley. It moved into the region after passage of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. Its pigs are raised under what is called a “vertical integration” method: packing thousands of animals into identical barns covered with metal roofs.
In the Los Angeles Times this morning an interesting story about the Mexican Defense Ministry’s “Museum of Drugs.” The museum, closed to the public, is meant to educate soldiers about progress made in the drug war against narco-traffickers. However, the LAT writes that it also offers “powerful testimony to the inventiveness and enormous resources that traffickers continue bringing to the fight.” The collection of artifacts and mini-exhibits was created in 1985, at a time when Mexican troops were mainly used to eradicate crops of marijuana and poppies by uprooting and burning them. But today, with 45,000 troops deployed across the country, the paper says the museum on the 7th floor of the Defense Ministry could not be more relevant.
Among the pieces on private display is a .38-caliber pistol, seized last year from suspected drug lord Alfredo Beltran Leyva. The weapon is adorned with emeralds, an engraving of revolutionary leader Francisco "Pancho" Villa and a proverb: “I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees.”
And, in the Wall Street Journal, the paper writes this weekend that House Democrats are demanding details of how Guantanamo’s closing will be carried out before offering the necessary funds to do so. The detention facility still holds 245 suspected inmates. Republicans, meanwhile, have also introduced a bill, the “Keep Terrorists Out of America Act,” saying that 60 days before the transfer of any detainee to U.S. soil, the administration must issue detailed reports to Congress and the governor of the destination state.
In other news, stories in the NYT, WaPo, and LAT continue to wrap up swine flu coverage in Mexico. Larry Rother in the NYT writes: “The [Mexican] authorities may have been slow to identify the threat, but once they did, they quickly notified international health agencies, acted efficiently to prevent the epidemic from mushrooming,” negating recent descriptions of Mexico as a “failed state.” The WaPo says José Ángel Córdova, Mexico’s health secretary, has come out of the swine flu crisis as the second most powerful man in Mexico. Moreover, his efforts to halt the flu outbreak have been “winning applause from global health experts for a swift, coordinated, transparent response that probably saved lives here and abroad.” And, like another report last week, the LAT writes that swine flu has entered electoral politicking. President Felipe Calderon has praised his government’s “firm decisions” while opposition leaders point to a “virus of ineptitude.” They criticize the Calderón government for stirring up fear when health officials announced a confirmed death toll of 20 at the outset of the crisis and, soon after, the possibility that more than 100 people had died from the flu.
More from Venezuela in an AP story from the NYT. The paper writes that Venezuelan police uncovered a cache of weapons and explosives at a Caracas apartment and later detained four foreigners on suspicion of planning terrorist acts over the weekend. In making the announcement, Justice Minister Tarek El Aissami did did not link the case to the political opposition but did say the arsenal had the purpose of “wiping out adversaries.” The men arrested were three Dominicans and one Frenchman.
Also in the NYT, a feature of Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo and his paternity imbroglio says disenchanted voters who elected Mr. Lugo on his ethical credentials worry that the scandal will scuttle their chance for change.
From the MH, an AP reporter goes inside one of Brazil’s most dangerous slum neighborhoods and discusses the increased presence of evangelical preachers in Rio de Janiero favelas and the role they are playing in stemming drug gang violence. The report says the church often provides the only organized entity in many favelas, aside from drug gangs.
And finally three opinions. HRW Americas Director José Miguel Vivcano has another opinion piece, this time in the MH. As with his piece last week in the WaPo, Vivcano writes of Venezuela, arguing that President Obama’s friendly overtures toward Hugo Chávez will only work to weaken the Venezuelan leader and boost human rights claims against him. In the WSJ, Mary Anastasia O’Grady levels criticism against those, like OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza, who seek Cuba’s reintegration into the OAS. And in his column in the MH, Andres Oppenheimer writes of Argentina. He says the June 28 elections will most likely help bring a balance to the country’s politics and end the Kirchners’ confrontational governing style as they will likely lose their legislative majority.
Photo: Daily Telegraph
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