Central America. The AP reports that more than 3,800 bullets and 563 grenades seized outside Guatemala's capital city in April following a shootout that left five anti-drug agents dead came from military bases in the country. Investigators say the weapons were not necessarily stolen from the military but rather they have been bought from a third party by traffickers.
Amidst still existent uncertainty in Guatemala, EFE writes about peasant protests last week in the interior of the country. Small farmers are demanding that the government of President Alvaro Colom also attend to agricultural problems and pursue agrarian reform.
IPS reports on Guatemala as well, reporting that many in Guatemala believe the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) is “the only hope for achieving justice, because it is not contaminated or compromised.” CICIG’s “impartial and independent work is essential, and is the only thing that can strengthen the work of the public prosecutor’s office and can help clarify the crimes that throw Guatemalan families into mourning every day,” indigenous activist Rigoberta Menchú told IPS.
And COHA has a report on the state of indigenous movements in Guatemala, saying the country’s indigenous movement is a much needed tool for securing equal rights but could learn from the indigenous experiences of Bolivia and Ecuador about how to resist multinational investment operations.
In Nicaragua, EFE writes that some 4000 opposition figures from political and civil society groups marched last week against alleged fraud in last year’s municipal elections. Pro-government activists also staged a march in support of the Ortega government.
The CS Monitor says that Hillary Clinton meets today with the Millenium Challenge Corporation to decide whether or not to cancel $64 million in U.S. aid to Nicaragua in the wake of municipal election fraud last November.
Meanwhile, Holland will donate more than $1 million to Nicaragua to de-mine parts of the country still covered with land mines from the Contra War of the 1980s.
Argentina. Mark Weisbrot writes in The Guardian that vulture funds are trying to profit from Argentina’s debt default. He says Eric Massa, a freshman Democratic representative from New York, has introduced legislation that would seek to punish Argentina for its default by denying the country access to US capital markets.
And The Economist writes about the tenuous relationship between the Kirchners and the Argentine media, saying the couple has become “more adept at media manipulation.” The report says an expanding “propaganda budget is used to keep small news outlets beholden to the government” and while a new media law being proposed by the government would restrict how many broadcasting licenses a company can own, the law contains no restrictions on the politicization of the media.
Bolivia. AFP reports that Iran has said it is not interested in Bolivian uranium, adding that Israel talks about this only because it wants to thwart closer ties between Iran and Latin America. An Israeli foreign ministry document leaked to media on May 25 said the two countries were cooperating on uranium production in Bolivia.
The AP reports that 8 Colombians were detained by Bolivian anti-drug authorities last weekend when two cocaine factories near Santa Cruz, capable of purifying 100 kilos of cocaine per day, were seized by the government.
And Evo Morales demanded justice from the Brazilian government who recently granted asylum to 58 Bolivians suspected of being involved in a massacre of at least 13 indigenous Bolivians in the city of El Porvenir, department of Pando, last September.
Brazil. EFE reports this week that at least 41 people were arrested Tuesday, among them 19 police officers, in a major drug raid in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The raids targeted bands of paramilitaries vying with drug traffickers for control of Rio favelas. This was the largest such raid conducted by authorities in Rio.
In Le Monde Diplomatique a recent article says Brazil has not achieved economic independence. Rather, the economic crisis is showing that it is more dependent than ever, particularly because of the acceleration of foreign access to Brazil’s financial market.
Bloggings by Boz suggests that Brazil’s financing of anti-drug efforts in Guatemala, among other forms of regional cooperation, is less about Brazil’s desire to confront transnational insecurity and more about extending their influence to Central America to balance Mexico, Venezuela, the US and others.
The Economist looks at education in Brazil and says its schools are what hold the country back from development. They are improving, the report notes, but very slowly. Institutions that administer education are chaotic, teacher truancy is very high, and strikes often disrupt the academic year, says the magazine. However, the article does say that in Brazil’s north-east a network of schools called Procentro, “run by professional managers rather than unsackable political hacks,” is proving successful.
And, on NPR this week, a review of historian Greg Grandin’s new book “Fordlandia.” The book examines the rise and fall of Henry Ford’s short-lived Amazon plantation town, constructed in the in the late 1920s to give the car giant control over rubber production. “As disaster after disaster struck, Ford continued to pour money into the project. Not one drop of latex from Fordlandia ever made it into a Ford car,” writes NPR.
Colombia. The Columbia Journalism Review presents, as part of its video series on investigative journalism a look at “Contravia:” a Colombian television investigative series that is unearthing the largely hidden history of the country’s long-running guerilla wars. Hollman Morris and Juan Pablo Morris, Colombian journalists and brothers, have uncovered links between paramilitary leaders and high officials in Colombian politics and finance with their reporting, and Hollman was given the Human Rights Defender Award by Human Rights Watch in 2007.
From IPS, two reports. On extractive coal mining 75km north of Bogota, the news agency reports on environmental damage caused by the industry and attempts by environmental activists to halt the mining. And IPS also writes about alternative crop production in Colombia, focusing on the village of Florencia. The story says coca paste was once the primary crop of the town but the town began producing cocoa instead, through the environmentally-conscious company Chocaguán, in 1993.
And Adam Isacson at Plan Colombia and Beyond continues his meticulous preliminary analysis of Integrated Action strategies in Colombia.
Cuba. In Spain’s El País, José Miguel Insulza, Sec. General of the OAS, insists that Cuba not be isolated in the hemisphere but rather involved in hemispheric decision making.
Jaime Daremblum of the Hudson Institute disagrees, writing in the Weekly Standard that “with Haiti falling deeper into its tragedy, and democracy under attack in Venezuela and elsewhere, some regional officials have decided that embracing a Stalinist dictatorship is more important than aiding a poor nation and defending freedom.”
The Miami Herald writes about Cuba getting tough on wasteful energy consumption this summer. According to the paper a new government program, which took effect Monday, stipulates the use of energy on the island and intends to “stop the high consumption of electricity that took place in the early months of 2009.”
Meanwhile, in The New Statesman, writer Graham Norwood discusses the beginning of privatization and private property in a post embargo Cuba, writing “if you want to see Cuba before it becomes too much like the rest of the world, go there now.”
Ecuador. Mercopress reports that Rafael Correa predicts the end of the OAS and promotes increased integration through the Rio Group which excludes the U.S. Speaking in Honduras, Correa said “All the steps we are taking are to create a big Latinamerican motherland, which our peoples are demanding.”
Additionally, there are reports that Ecuador will soon be entering the Boliviarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) at a meeting schedule for June 24.
AFP reports even more on Correa’s thoughts about Latin American integration this week as he spoke against European and U.S. election observation delegations in the region. “We are going to UNASUR to propose an organization for election observing in order that at least Latin Americans are observing Latin American elections,” Correa remarked.
Mexico. AFP reports that Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has launched a joint $100 million conservation project in Mexico, along with the World Wildlife Fund. “I believe that looking after the environment will be one of the big generators of jobs in the future,” said Slim at the launching of the initiative in Cozumel.
From Voice of America, news that the state of Chiapas has signed an agreement with the United Nations – the first of its kind in Mexico – to work together to reduce poverty. The plan is supposed to meet the UN Millennium Development Goal of cutting poverty in half by 2015.
The AP reports the arrest in Mexico of a woman wanted in the U.S. for drug trafficking charges. Olga Lerma, an affiliate of the Pacific cartel, is believed to have reaped $2 million in cocaine-trafficking profits for the cartel. The U.S. may seek her extradition from Mexico.
Meanwhile, The Economist says that Mexico is increasingly a user of drugs, not just a producer. The magazine writes: “In the past six years drug use is reckoned to have risen by nearly 30%, and the trend shows no signs of abating. President Felipe Calderón has mainly treated drugs as a national-security issue, but the consequences for public health may be almost as severe.”
At NACLA, anthropologist Deborah Poole and independent media journalist Benjamin Alonso Rascon write about the food crisis in Mexico. They say small producers in Mexico have been hurt by NAFTA and other trade agreements and talk with a local restaurant owner in Oaxaca who says a thorough revaluation of the social relations through which food is produced and consumed is the only way the crisis can be addressed appropriately.
In the Financial Times, a report says the city government of Mexico City has decided to offer holidaymakers in the city free medical insurance. “Tourists will be insured the moment they register in their hotels,” Alejandro Rojas, the city’s tourism minister said—an effort to get tourism flowing again after the swine flu crisis.
And a Congressional Research Service report on Mexican drug violence can be read here.
Peru. A series of reports look at the horrific violence that broke out between indigenous activists and security forces in Peru last Friday. I’ve written about a number of these in the daily headlines, but here’s a listing of more.
In the Washington Times, a Monday headline reads “Suspicions link Chávez to Peru Revolt.” Providing little to evidence for this, the WT quotes a pro-government congressman who says “These people [the protestors] are extremely poor, so you have to ask how they can afford to travel large distances, camp and feed themselves for weeks at a time.” The congressman, Edgar Nunez, adds his belief that Venezuelan funds “appear to be flowing to the protesters through ALBA houses, grass-roots support centers named after Mr. Chavez's alternative trading bloc.”
NACLA has a piece on the events and quotes President Alan Garcia who said earlier in the week that “These people don't have crowns. They aren't first-class citizens who can say…’You [the government] don't have the right to be here.’ No way.” The president also called the protestors “pseudo-indigenous.” The article goes on to say “Aidesep's direct action campaign marked the emergence of Amazonian indigenous peoples as an influential and autonomous force in Peru's current political landscape. The mobilization also sparked a public realization that the defense of Amazonian resources is an issue of national importance and not only a regional or indigenous problem.” And interestingly, the piece says a police union issued a statement lamenting the death of both the officers and their “Indian brothers,” while placing the blame for these deaths squarely on García.
At Freedom House’s blog, blame is also focused on the Garcia government. Freedom House writes “President Alan Garcia has been particularly aggressive in declaring that the violence was the result of a conspiracy carried out by malign forces, both international and domestic, that who do not wish to see Peru advance. No proof has been offered for what appear to be these absurd accusations.” The posting goes on to say “the protesters have undoubtedly made serious mistakes, but the government’s attitude has represented the worst facets of a state that is prone to Lima-centric political fiddling while the jungle (or mountains, or anywhere else outside the capital) burns.”
The Washington Office on Latin America condemns the violence in a press release. “WOLA calls on the Peruvian government to avoid the use of excessive force, to respect national and international laws, and to engage in genuine negotiations to resolve the conflict without further bloodshed. WOLA also supports calls for the Organization of American States (OAS) to conduct an independent investigation on the events leading up to last Friday and the violence that took place that day.”
The Guardian praises indigenous leader Alberto Pizango in an editorial saying, “More than 70% of the forest has been allocated for oil exploration and the consequences for the Amazonian ecosystem, and the people who co-exist with it, have been dire.”
And The Latin American News Review blog posts a couple of disturbing videos showing the aftermath of the violence.
Venezuela. Pablo Kleinman writes at Real Clear World about groups of pro-Chávez red shirts that can be found around Caracas and “have as their main purpose the intimidation of those who speak out against the government.”
The AP reports that the Venezuelan government took over 14 more natural gas plants this week.
And NACLA gives details about Globovision and how it reported the earthquake that Hugo Chávez says was meant to undermine his government
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