Reparations and Apologies Offered in Guatemala: May 6, 2009

The Washington Post this morning has a front page story online from Guatemala where the paper writes about the issuing of reparations and state apologies to survivors of the country’s civil war. According to the WaPo, since President Álvaro Colom assumed office in January 2008, Guatemala has paid an approx. 200,000 survivors of individuals who died during the brutal 36-year war which ended just over one decade ago. The reparations program began in 2003 but in its first four years only 3,000 survivors had been given compensation. Under Colom, the state has handed out 10,477 additional payments, delivered with a personal letter from President Colom himself asking for forgiveness for the losses they suffered as a result of the abuses committed by the state during the war. Interestingly, 70% of recipients are women who lost husbands, parents, and children. And many were raped as well, a violation that recently became grounds for reparation as well, writes the paper. Moreover, the reparations program has also built more than 800 houses for war victims and plans are in the works to build thousands more. “Of course you can't compensate people for their village being wiped out. There's never going to be adequate monetary or personal human recognition for any of those deaths,” says Barbara Bocek, the Guatemala country expert for Amnesty International USA. But “any amount of actual cash to folks in those circumstances is gigantic.”

In the Miami Herald a special report from Bolivia examines media persecution in that country as President Evo Morales’s “standoff with the media escalates.” The government has recently filed criminal charges against a major La Paz newspaper over corruption-related headlines, created a new state-controlled television network and newspaper while others allege the government is intimidating those who print or broadcast news with which government disagrees. For his part, President Morales has claimed the privately-owned media have sided with his opponents. Since January, Morales has refused to speak with the local media, and attendance at presidential press conferences is limited to the international press corps. The paper under investigation by the government, “La Prensa,” is part of the largest private chain of newspapers in Bolivia, Grupo Lider, which is owned by two well-known families who own all of the country’s major daily papers. But “La Prensa” claims it is being investigated as part of a “government offensive to corner any media that are critical of the government.” At the Inter-American Press Association annual meeting in Paraguay in February, the Bolivian National Press Association reported 46 cases of physical attacks, harassment and verbal assaults on its members and warned that the free press was under assault in Bolivia. But Mr. Morales has invited a delegation of international journalists to the country to investigate. A date for IAPA’s visit is forthcoming.

Also on press freedom, the New York Times reports from Mexico that a newspaper reporter for “El Tiempo” in the state of Durango was shot to death Sunday. The journalist, Carlos Ortega Samper, had published a story one day prior saying he had received threats from local government officials, including the mayor of town of Santa María El Orothat, in connection with recent reporting he had done on conditions in a local slaughterhouse. In the same story, Ortega wrote that he was investigating a local police officer for alleged corruption. The Committee to Protect Journalists, based in New York, called for a thorough investigation. The organization has said Mexico is one of the most dangerous places for journalists in the world. Since 2000, 25 journalists have been killed--most covering organized crime and government corruption--with at least eight deaths considered a direct reprisal for the journalist’s work.

The LA Times this morning has a report on drug cartel violence, also from Mexico. The paper writes that infamous drug lord Joaquín ‘el Chapo’ Guzmán is instructing his associates to use deadly force, even across the U.S.-Mexico border, to protect increasingly contested trafficking operations. Police and federal agents in Arizona said they had recently received at least two law enforcement alerts focused on Guzman's reported orders, and it is believed that Guzman personally delivered the message to “use their weapons to defend their loads at all costs” in early March, during a three-day gathering of his associates in the small Mexican border town of Sonoita, few miles south of the Arizona. Interestingly, Michele Leonhart, acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Mexican smugglers were also under pressure because their Colombian partners were no longer extending them credit. A recent internal report of the DEA, obtained by the watchdog group Judicial Watch, shows reported weapons-related assaults against border officers rose 24% last fiscal year, compared with 2007, and assaults involving vehicles rose 7% in the same period.

And, in the Wall Street Journal today, the paper begins to tie up its swine flu reporting from Mexico. According to the WSJ, Mexico City's restaurants and shops are set to open their doors again, while schools will gradually reopen, bringing the city of 20 million slowly back to life. The WaPo had an interesting take on why all but one of the swine flu deaths worldwide occurred in Mexico, saying the unwillingness of victims to have their condition checked out by a doctor and the high cost of antiviral medication may have contributed to Mexico being hit particularly hard. But, according to the WSJ, for some, the flu scare brought “some unexpected upsides, like spending time with the family at home.” “We realized we didn't need to go out to enjoy our own family. Thanks to the flu, I feel closer to my kids,” one woman tells the paper.

In other news, the AP reports from Venezuela in the NYT, writing that “the National Assembly gave preliminary approval Tuesday to legislation that would let President Hugo Chavez's government seize control of some oil service companies without following usual legal procedures for expropriating private businesses.” The law would let the federal government ''declare the expropriation, total or partial, of companies' goods or shares that provide the referred services.'' It says the owners could be paid in cash or securities, and the draft law says workers at affected companies could be offered employment at PDVSA.

And, the LAT writes that President Obama will ask Congress for $27 billion for border and transportation security in the next budget year. The paper says this is an attempt to fulfill a promise to the Mexican government that the U.S. will work to prevent the southbound flow of illegal weapons while also “setting the stage for immigration reform by first addressing enforcement.” The spending is an 8% increase over this year's and will enable the administration to hire more agents and enhance security at air- and seaports. The president will also request more money to expand screening for illegal immigrants in jail and to improve a Web-based program for verifying workers' employment eligibility—a shift from the Bush administration policy which emphasized border fence construction, increased detention space for illegal immigrants, and more teams to raid work sites.

Photo: VagabondJourney.com