Central America. In The Nation, Tom Hayden writes a long feature piece on Mauricio Funes and the FMLN in El Salvador. Among his points, he writes that “If the Funes-FMLN coalition holds together, it will be a microcosm of the political currents already evolving, both in unity as well as tension, across Latin America.”
The AP reported this week that four men and a woman, connected to a Colombian drug cartel, were arrested in Panama for plotting to murder a U.S. DEA agent.
CNN writes that Venezuela plans to provide $50 million in aid to Nicaragua after the U.S. cancelled the remaining $62 million left on Millenium Challenge Corporation funds due to the country. Further, the Nica Times writes that the Venezuela aid will come from the ALBA solidarity fund and there are new calls for the removal of the US ambassador to Nicaragua by some within the Sandinista government.
Also on Nicaragua, a Freedom House blog writes about numerous forms of repressive action taken by the Sandinista government against women in the country. Among such claims, HRW has said “women’s rights organizations protesting the ban on abortion have been investigated and intimidated by the government, which ramped up its campaign against these organizations in 2008.”
And Inter Press Service reports on the effects of the economic crisis on Guatemala, writing that the downturn has led to the dismissal of many teachers and halted important infrastructure projects in rural Guatemala.
Argentina. The AP covers the arrival of a Cuban doctor who was finally allowed to leave the island to visit her ailing mother in Argentina.
And El País reports on the frantic scramble for votes less than two weeks before legislative elections in Argentina. The paper says the Kirchners are trying to gain support in the densely populated areas of Gran Buenos Aires while the opposition claims a “dirty war” is being launched against them, particularly candidate Francisco de Narváez who is being investigated for drug trafficking connections.
Bolivia. The Latin American Herald Tribune writes that Bolivia intends to mine its own lithium without foreign partners. However, the head of the mining agency in Bolivia did say the country will need partners to provide the technological equipment necessary for the industrialization of the metal.
Brazil. The Wall Street Journal writes this week about the building of walls, or so-called “eco-barriers,” around favelas in Rio. The government says the barriers are meant to keep shantytowns from steadily expanding across the city's scenic, heavily forested hillsides. Opponents claim they are a means to imprison Rio's poorest residents.
The AP writes of criticism leveled against Lula by human rights groups at UN meetings in Geneva this week. HRW criticized the country, saying “Brazil's support for abusive governments is undermining the Human Rights Council's performance,” and citing its abstention on resolutions criticizing labor camps and torture in North Korea, widespread rape in Congo and possible war crimes in Sri Lanka. Connectas, a Brazilian human rights group, also criticized Lula’s government for its ambiguous stance on Sudan.
Two articles on the Amazon. The Economist writes in a long piece that Brazil’s government claims land reform will slow deforestation of the Amazon but many environmentalists disagree and feel ignored by the Brazilian government. And in Foreign Policy, an article says Brazil can save the Amazon, but asks, does it want to?
And in El País, Lula da Silva himself has an op-ed ahead of a meeting between the so-called “BRIC” countries. In the piece Lula again calls for an increased role for developing nations in the global economic and political system.
Chile. El País interviews Marco Enriquez Ominami, now an independent third candidate for president in the upcoming Chilean elections. The 36-year-old resigned from the Socialist party to run as an independent in December elections.
Also, Chile’s UN ambassador Heraldo Munoz speaks with Real News about Latin America and the new role of countries like China and India in the region.
Colombia. Colombia Reports writes that U.S. authorities are not cooperating with the Colombian justice’s investigation into Chiquita Banana. It is alleged that Chiquita paid out $1.7 million to paramilitary death squads in the country.
Also, Colombia Reports writes that the DAS intelligence agency has spied on HRW Americas Director Jose Miguel Vivcano and bishops of the Catholic Church in the past. “The unwarranted and illegal wiretapping began in 2004 and was initiated and led by DAS official Jaime Fernando Ovalle Olaz, who was sacked from the agency in October 2008 when opposition Senator Gustavo Petro discovered the DAS was intercepting his phone calls and e-mails,” writes the paper.
The AP reports on this same matter, saying that the Colombian Office of the UN High Commission for Human Rights expressed “profound worries” about the illegal wiretapping scandal unraveling in Colombia.
And The Economist has a report on a recent ruling by Colombia’s Constitutional Court which said tens of thousands of wastepickers should be officially recognized as “entrepreneurs.” One practical effect of the ruling is that Cali’s city government must suspend waste management contracts in order that co-operatives of recicladores have time to organize themselves and bid for the contract.
Cuba. The AP writes that Cuba's U.N. ambassador in Geneva called Human Rights Watch and other human rights groups “mercenaries” paid by the U.S. government. HRW defended itself calling the accusations unfounded and adding that it receives zero public money.
And two opinions takes on what has been a long and tenuous relationship between Cuba and human rights groups like HRW at the Havana Note from Patrick Doherty and Steve Clemons of the New America Foundation.
The Miami Herald writes that the Supreme Court will not review the spy convictions of the “Cuban Five,” despite calls from many international legal groups that the case be reconsidered.
The Boston Globe over the weekend explored different ideas for what to do with Guantanamo after the detention center there closes. Among those ideas mentioned, one that I have written about: working with Cuba to create an international medical facility for health research and treatment.
And in The Nation, a review of historian Lou Perez’s new book looks at the place of Cuba in the U.S. political imaginary throughout the last century plus.
Dominican Republic. The Inter American Dialogue just released a new report, “Dominican Republic: Democracy for a Better Life,” which it says recounts the first of a project called National Dialogues on Democracy in Latin America sponsored by the Inter-American Dialogue and the Organization of American States.
Ecuador. The Latin American Herald Tribune reports on Ecuador’s repurchase of 91 percent of the Global 2012 and 2030 bonds that have been in default since last December for approx. $900 million. Ecuador would have had to pay some $8 billion in principal and interest on those bonds over the next twenty years.
Mexico. An interesting article at the blog Mexidata.info argues that the term “cartel” is a counterproductive misnomer for talking about drug trafficking in much of Latin America. While perhaps Pablo Escobar’s “cartel” was a bit more deserving of the term, writer Patrick Corcoran says: “Today, the so-called Mexican cartels are highly fluid organizations that share little with the Escobar model beyond a profit motive and violent tactics. The prevailing scenario today is not a small group of quasi-armies fighting over smuggling routes, but a constellation of organizations making and breaking alliances according to the necessity of the day. Mexico is much closer to a season of Survivor than a game of Risk.”
El País writes about President Felipe Calderón’s attempt to recruit university students to be part of the elite police forces in Mexico, a strategy to root out corruption and drug gang infiltration of security forces.
Peru. The Living in Peru blog writes that the Ministry of Transports and Communication has officially closed the local Radio Station La Voz de Utcubamba in the Peru’s Amazonian Region, alleging that it had not “sent the documentation regarding licenses for some of the station’s equipment.” The station is the only one that has transmitted live coverage of the Bagua conflict. More on the closing of the station at Bloggings by Boz.
Inter Press Services reports on calls for justice from indigenous groups around South America after the Bagua massacre.
The Latin American Herald Tribune reports that human rights group APRODEH say 61 people remain missing in the northern Amazon region. Juan Jose Quispe of APRODEH added that in the aftermath of the clash, Peruvian authorities have been guilty of “flagrant violations” of human rights, adding that most of the detainees at the police station in Bagua “were mistreated by police.”
In Peru’s El Comercio this week, an editorial argues that freedom of the press is essential for both democracy and justice.
EFE writes that, in a throw-back to the Cold War, President Alan Garcia claimed that Peru was being threatened by “international communism.” He said there had been a “genocide of police” by “extremists” that want to hand the country over to “foreign models.”—words that sound more like the 1970s than 2009.
And on Real News, an interview with independent journalist Ben Powless who has been reporting in Bagua.
Venezuela. The AP reports that Globovision executives have called on President Chávez to negotiate with the television station in order to discuss, face to face, rising tensions between the outlet and the government.
McClatchy reports that Chavez’s expropriation of oil service providers in Venezuela may spark labor unrest as many workers have yet to receive new state contracts as promised. Chavez stopped short of nationalizing big U.S.-based multinationals such as Halliburton or Schlumberger that carry out technical and highly skilled work in producing oil.
From Colombia Reports, a report says that Chavez is claiming that the Venezuelan opposition has started to copy Colombian paramilitary violence in Zulia and Tachira states in an attempt to destabilize the country.
For NACLA, Steve Ellner writes a very interesting and fair-minded piece about community councils in Venezuela. The councils have tackled local development desired by community members, writes Ellner. He adds that problems with efficiency and corruption have existed within the councils but adds the creation of councils was partly a reaction to existing inefficiencies in the state bureaucracy.
At Upside Down World, a similar subject is examined in article focusing on community media. The piece looks at Avila-TV, a pro-Chávez but non-state run television station that has attempted to offset the influence of major media outlets in the country.
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