The New York Times and LA Times lead off this morning with reports from Peru. The paper writes that the Peruvian Congress overturned controversial presidential decrees on extractive industries in a 82 to 14 vote on Thursday. The measures would have opened up large tracts of the Amazon to extractive industry development, but tensions appear to have been between indigenous protestors and the Peruvian government. The decrees had been part of what the NYT calls a “regulatory overhaul for a trade deal with the United States” that was intended to open parts of jungle to investment and “allow companies to bypass indigenous communities to attain permits.” Indigenous leaders said they would lift blockades that they have maintained on many roads in the affected region after the vote. “Today is a historic day for all indigenous people and for the nation of Peru,” remarked Daysi Zapata, a leader of the Peruvian Jungle Inter-Ethnic Development Association. The AP piece in the LAT also adds that President Alan Garcia admitted he had been mistaken for not including indigenous groups in discussions about development in a speech he gave late Wednesday night.
In Colombia, the Wall Street Journal writes that the UN Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, Philip Alston, says hundreds of innocent Colombians have been killed by Colombian soldiers and falsely identified as guerilla fighters in what is a “more or less” systemic practice carried out by “significant elements” of the Colombian military. While Alston said he found nothing to indicate that such extra-judicial killings were state policy or that President Alvaro Uribe and his defense ministers knew of them, he did say that it was not possible for the Uribe government to claim these actions were simply carried out by “a few bad apples.” Alston will issue a full report on his findings in four to five months.
On U.S.-Cuba relations, the AP in the Miami Herald reports that the two countries are very close to resuming stalled migration talks. A State Department official said Thursday that the two countries are in the process of finalizing dates for the talks which have been suspended since 2004. Last month, U.S. officials delivered a diplomatic note to the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., asking to resume the biannual migration dialogues in order to “reaffirm both sides commitment to safe, legal and orderly migration.” Speaking to the AP on Wednesday, Cuban Assembly leader, Ricardo Alarcón, said Raúl Castro's government hopes to expand the agenda of discussions beyond migration to include environmental issues and efforts against terrorism, drug smuggling and natural disasters. He also criticized the Supreme Court’s decision not to accept the case of the Cuban Five, saying the men’s freedom will be “at the top” of any list of priorities in talks with U.S. leaders.
And the AP in El Nuevo Herald also reports on potential cooperation between Bolivia and Colombia on counter-narcotics efforts. Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca was in Bogotá Wednesday and said his country hopes to learn from the Colombian model for fighting drug trafficking. “We are interested in exchanging experiences,” Choquehuanca said while meeting with his Colombian counterpart, Jaime Bermúdez. The Bolivian government also apparently hopes to increase cooperation around information sharing and best practices for police force operations, the Bolivian foreign minister said. Although the two countries find themselves opposed ideologically, Choquehuanca said their relations are ones of “mutual respect” and are “constructive.”
In other stories from the major U.S. papers today, the AP writes that the drug war is entering electoral politics like never before in Mexico. The news agency writes that unlike past elections, ahead of the July 5 midterm elections for 500 congressional seats, six governors and 565 mayors, “President Felipe Calderon's party…is aggressively painting opponents as soft on drugs and itself as the only party gutsy enough to take on the cartels.” However, at the same time, a growing citizens’ movement made up of individuals who are disillusioned with what it sees as ineffective politics as usual is urging voters to cross out all candidates in protest.
On Haiti, the MH says “two months after foreign donors pledged more than $300 million in aid to Haiti, the hurricane-ravaged Caribbean nation has yet to receive any of the promised funds -- or even an outline of where the money will go.” This is according to Haitian Prime Minister Michèle Pierre-Louis who spoke Thursday. “We are in dire need of financial support, so it would be helpful to know exactly if they want [the funds] to go into agriculture, in environment, education or health. This was the plan that was presented and they all agreed on it,” said Ms. Pierre-Louis. She added that one of Bill Clinton’s primary roles as new UN special envoy to the island will be to “see what follow-up can be done” to the donor’s conference. Ms. Pierre-Louis noted, in particular, the great help that Cuba has provided to the country in rebuilding after devastating hurricanes, saying “With the Cubans, it's a very good cooperation. They don't bring money, they bring their savoir faire in health, in education.”
On developing news in the Cuban spy story, the MH writes that the Myers’ couple has petitioned the court to release them under house arrest where they would be in the custody of Brad Trebilcock, Gwendolyn Myers' son.
From the LAT, a report on border protection and the inter-agency turf wars between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the DEA says disputes may have been resolved. The U.S. departments of Justice and Homeland Security announced an agreement Thursday that will give designated immigration agents expanded powers to pursue drug investigations. According to the LAT, “an ‘unlimited’ number of ICE agents to be cross-designated as DEA agents, giving them the authority to investigate suspected drug smugglers at the border and internationally -- a prerogative that in the past has been jealously guarded by the DEA.”
The AP remembers Hortensia Bussi, the widow of former Chilean Socialist President Salvador Allende. Bussi died in Santiago on Thursday at the age of 94.
Finally, two opinions. The MH criticizes restrictions on press freedoms in Venezuela, arguing that it is “time for the fence-sitters -- Chile, Mexico, the United States, among others -- to take a stand on the universal right of press freedom, and call on Mr. Chávez to end the harassment.” And the LAT has an editorial supporting the Colombian government’s decision not to extradite a former FARC guerilla who was a principal jailer of the three American contractors rescued with Ingrid Betancourt last year. The LAT writes that “[Martin] Sombra is the highest-ranking member of the FARC ever to be taken alive. He has agreed to cooperate with Colombian officials, and now the public -- and in particular, the rebels -- need to see their own country hold him accountable, both to instill a sense of closure and to serve as an example to others.”
No comments:
Post a Comment