The top story reported this morning in the Miami Herald is from Panama where the AP writes that conservative supermarket chain owner, Ricardo Martinelli, won a landslide victory in Sunday’s presidential election. Preliminary results showed the U.S.-educated, pro-business Martinelli had approx. 61 percent support while governing party candidate Balbina Herrera trailed in a distant second with 37 percent. Speaking after Herrera conceded, Martinelli said his presidency would bring a “good health system, good education, good transportation and good security” to Panama. Two principal items on the new president’s agenda when his term begins in July 1 will be the global economic crisis and a $5.25 billion project to increase the Panama Canal's capacity and allow it to accommodate larger ships, says the AP. Approved in a 2006 referendum, the canal expansion project is expected to create about 5,000 direct jobs during peak construction, between 2010 and 2011. Also, Panama has agreed to a free trade agreement with the U.S., but the pact has been held up in the U.S. Congress by concerns over Panamanian labor rights and banking rules that could help tax evaders.
The New York Times has a very interesting report on crime and citizen security in Brazil where armed car sales are apparently booming even amidst a recession. “Once the domain of the very rich, armored cars have become a middle- and upper-middle-class obsession,” especially in the city of Sao Paulo, “notorious for roadside assaults and kidnappings,” says the NYT. More than 7,000 vehicles were armored for civilian use in Brazil in 2008, up from 1,782 a decade earlier, and this rising trend seems to be continuing as Sao Paulo continues as the world’s leader in both making and selling bulletproof vehicles. Officially, crime is on the wane, the paper adds. Since 1999, the murder rate in São Paulo, for example has fallen by 78 percent and vehicle thefts by 38 percent, (although armed robberies have dropped by only 6 percent). But it is expected that with a deepening decline in the economic situation of Brazil, street crime will only worsen. A recent wave of “flash” or “express” kidnappings—“unplanned assaults in which robbers take their captives to cash machines and then free them after a few hours”—has added to such fears.
In the Wall Street Journal, a report from Mexico says that Mexican politicians kicked off their campaigns for crucial midterm elections on Sunday, “promoting their campaigns on the Web, the micro-blogging service Twitter, and even on the face masks that Mexicans have been advised to wear to avoid getting the flu.” The paper writes that the vote scheduled for July 5 is crucial for sitting President Felipe Calderon and the PAN who hope to push their legislative agenda through a Congress currently divided between the three major parties. A recent poll shows that more than 70% of the population in Mexico City and the state of Mexico consider the flu mitigation measures enacted by the president have been sufficient and more than half believes the situation is under control. Calderón hopes to translate that approval into votes. However, as the WSJ says, midterm votes usually draw far fewer voters and thus depend more on party organization. And many believe that the former ruling party, the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, could gain an absolute majority in the lower house.
And, finally, also from Mexico, a swine flu update with stories and opinions from the Washington Post and LA Times. First, an AP report in the WaPo over the weekend says no new swine flu deaths have been reported in Mexico, indicating that the virus has perhaps already peaked. The LAT writes from the U.S.-Mexico border, arguing that “attempting to seal off nations -- an inclination of many people and even some countries in the recent outbreak -- will prove futile not only now but in the future.” The paper’s report says infectious disease experts believe such measures cause unnecessary panic and economic harm. An editorial in the WaPo says that the recent swine flu crisis, combined with an economy in decline and drug violence, show that the U.S. must step up its support for Mexico’s government. Choosing sides in Mexican politics, the paper writes: “Mr. Calderón just barely won the 2006 presidential election over a leftist populist candidate backed by Venezuela's Hugo Chávez. Mr. Chávez's fondest ambition remains adding Mexico to his anti-American bloc. That the United States is failing to fully support a friendly, democratic and capable Mexican government is not only shortsighted; it is dangerous.” Meanwhile, in Mexico, the LAT also reports that panic has brought a new fashion trend of sorts. “Tapabocas,” the surgical masks being worn by many amidst flu fears, are the rage these days, even while the government's top epidemiologist, Miguel Angel Lezana, recently admitted that the masks’ main purpose was to simply “make people feel safer.” The LAT writes: “The tapaboca phenomenon in Mexico has yielded some incongruous images: the motorist with face covered, though alone in his car; the couple aboard a motorcycle, masked but not wearing helmets; sunbathers wearing swimsuits and surgical masks.”
In other news today, some stories on the 2008 U.S. Department of State’s annual terrorism report which came out last week. The MH writes that Cuba made the list of “state sponsors of terrorism” again-- but with tempered language this year. The report says that while Cuba “no longer actively supports armed struggle in Latin America and other parts of the world,” the government “continued to provide safe haven to several terrorists.” Venezuela is also accused of “ideological sympathy” for leftist rebel groups in Colombia, which “limits Venezuelan cooperation with Colombia in combating terrorism.”
From Colombia, an AP report in the MH says five active soldiers and three retired officers were detained Friday in connection with the killing of two civilians whom they allegedly presented as guerrillas slain in combat to inflate rebel body counts. Colombian prosecutors are investigating the killings of more than 1,600 people in the past five years who are suspected of being the victims of extrajudicial killings by security force
From Bolivia, the AP, also in the MH, looks deeper into unanswered questions in Bolivia after an alleged assassination plot against the Evo Morales was broken up nearly three weeks ago. According to the story “four European countries are impatient for an explanation.”
Finally, three outside opinions. Americas Director of Human Rights Watch, José Miguel Vivcano has an op-ed in the WaPo on Venezuela, writing: “Venezuela is a complicated country. To its credit, it has competitive elections and independent political parties, media outlets, labor unions and civil society organizations.” But, he adds, among other problems, “the Chávez government has actively undermined democratic institutions that are essential for safeguarding the rule of law.” He argues that “if the Obama administration follows through [with promises of engagement] as it should, the next time Chávez tries to label all human rights criticism as a U.S. conspiracy, few people in the region will take him seriously.” In the LAT, Professor Isaac Campos argues that Mexico should push beyond simply decriminalizing marijuana. “Unless decriminalization is accompanied by a successful program of "education" that persuades people to abstain from using a drug that is relatively innocuous in comparison with, say, alcohol or tobacco, it won't do much to stem the violence,” argues Campos. In the MH, Professor Abraham Lowenthal gives four or five steps the Obama administration must now take vis a vis Latin America. They include passing FTA’s with Colombia and Panama, an increased focus on Mexico, more strategic cooperation with Brazil, moving cautiously toward a rapprochement with Venezuela and Bolivia, and pushing further on U.S. Cuba policy changes.
And, two regular columns. Andres Oppenheimer in the MH says “Latin America's populist leaders are using anti-American rhetoric and ideological banners to justify their goal of staying in power indefinitely.” He praises the largely unnoticed speech of Costa Rican president Oscar Arias’s speech at the Summit a few weeks ago as a “brilliant response” to such leaders. And Mary Anastasia O’Grady in the WSJ writes on Haiti arguing that PM Michele Pierre-Louis is a different type of leader in Haiti. Interestingly, O’Grady says “Like Mr. Preval, who is president again, the PM hails from Haiti's left. George Soros was a big giver to the grass-roots organization she ran previously, and she was once an Aristide ally. But she broke with him over his use of destitute youths to carry out his political violence” and “emphasizes public security” and “is confronting drug-trade corruption in the judiciary and politics.”
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