A coordinated attack killed five federal security agents and two soldiers early Saturday morning as drug gangs lobbed grenades and opened up gun fire on multiple police outposts in the Mexican state of Michoacan, the AP reports in the Wall Street Journal. Nearly 20 others were injured in what the wire service calls “one of the boldest frontal offenses carried out against the government.” Officials suspect that the attacks were in retaliation to the arrest of Arnoldo Rueda Medina, a top leader of the La Familia cartel, just before the attacks. Violence began in the capital of Morelia but quickly spread from the state’s capital city to the town of Zitacuaro, a mountain town where three federal agents were killed Saturday. Later two soldiers were also fatally shot in the town of Zamora and other officers were wounded in attacks in Apatzingan, Patzcuaro, and Huetamo. The New York Times adds to the reporting, writing that “On Sunday, Human Rights Watch sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, arguing that Mexico has not met human rights standards attached to the release of 15 percent of the Mérida Initiative fund. And the LA Times writes about President Felipe Calderon’s offensive against drug cartels in general, arguing that “the longer and harder the war is fought, the more complex and daunting it becomes.” From Ciudad Juarez the paper says: “The offensive has exposed corruption so widespread that key institutions, from police forces to city halls, appear rotten to the core. And a battered society has grown increasingly worried about the effects of the massive military deployment on its democracy.”
On the situation in Honduras, the AP in the Miami Herald reports that two weeks after a military coup ousted President Mel Zelaya, the de facto regime in Honduras has lifted an imposed curfew in the country. No longer must Hondurans stay home at night, the AP says, adding that many returned to bars while street vendors and other night workers returned to the downtown area of Tegucigalpa after dark. However, Zelaya supporters insisted the move was simply a front to make it appear to the international community that all is well in the country. “This is to give the world the impression that there is an environment of freedom in the country,” said one Zelaya backer. Indeed, six Venezuelan journalists from Telesur were rounded up and detained as the government prepared to end curfew. They were later released but told not to leave their hotel. Meanwhile, at the negotiating table, there were no new talks with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias scheduled for Monday. The NYT writes about the critical role of the U.S. in getting such talks off the ground this morning. Interestingly, the report says that Roberto Micheletti has enlisted the aid of U.S. public relations specialist, Bennett Ratcliff, who used to work with Sec. of State Hillary Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton. Reports indicate that Ratcliff’s approval has been sought for every proposal the Micheletti team has presented as negotiations begin. And another Clinton confidant, his former personal lawyer, Lanny Davis, is representing a Latin American business council that also has supported the coup. McClatchy adds in the MH that the Obama administration followed the lead of the OAS and did not take the lead in seeking a resolution to the impasse until the inter-American failed in its efforts to do so. “The U.S. basically joined the consensus,” said the Inter-American Dialogue’s Peter Hakim. While a senior U.S. official remarked the U.S. role in the crisis showed an “important shift,” in which the United States will not automatically intervene muscularly. “It doesn't mean we're the equal of Paraguay. We've obviously a big player in the region,” the official said. “But we're not the only one.”
And the Washington Post has a fascinating story about the perhaps unsubstantiated fears of increased Iranian influence in Latin America. For months, U.S. officials have claimed that the Iranians were preparing to build a new mega-embassy in Managua, Nicaragua, the paper writes. But journalists have since “scoured the sprawling tropical city” in search of a construction site for the new facilities and found nothing. This led a U.S. diplomat in the country to recently concede that “There is no huge Iranian embassy being built as far as we can tell.” In addition, Nicaraguan officials say that “Iran's proposed investments in Nicaragua -- for a deep-water port, hydroelectric plants and a tractor factory -- have also failed to materialize” because of falling oil profits in Iran. Nobody is quite sure where the reports of a giant Iranian embassy began, but the false information has spread like wildfire into multiple congressional testimonies, think tank speeches, and press reports. According to Daniel Ortega’s economic adviser, this has all been a grand myth. “They haven't invested anything. They haven't built anything. We haven't even been able to renegotiate the debt. They say the Koran doesn't permit them to. We'll have to study the Koran to see if we can find something that condones it.” The Iranian ambassador to Nicaragua and his wife currently live in a rented villa in Managua.
In other news, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe delivered some $1 million in reparations to a total of 279 victims Colombia’s long-running internal conflict with the FARC over the weekend. The money was the second tranche of a total of $100 million that has been earmarked for reparations in the country this year. Around 240,000 individuals have registered to receive money since the law initiating payments went into effect last August.
The LAT reports that tensions between Colombia and Ecuador still linger over one year after Colombia’s incursion into Ecuadorean territory to kill top leaders of the FARC. Today Ecuador imposed new tariffs on Colombian goods that will affect at least a third of the $1.6 billion in Colombian exports to the country.
Finally, back to Honduras once more. The LAT wrote over the weekend that the Honduran coup was “emblematic of a struggle underway today on the continent, where a crop of leftist leaders with authoritarian tendencies have risen to power through elections, defied the status quo and tested the bounds of democracy.” This seems to be the view of many opinion-makers on the subject. Andres Oppenheimer criticizes the OAS for staying quiet on what he believes is a “silent coup” in Venezuela against Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma. He argues that “If the OAS doesn't expand its Democratic Charter, Latin America will be increasingly more authoritarian, and the OAS will become -- like Ledezma said -- a mutual protection club for power-hungry presidents.” Jackson Diehl in the WP echoes this argument. And Edward Schumacher-Matos writes “We have all been pushing Latin Americans to uphold the rule of law, but beyond simply insisting that Zelaya was elected, few in the OAS, the European Union or other critics have been willing to give much credence to Hondurans for trying to do just that.” This led some Republicans in the U.S. Congress to try, once again to cut off U.S. funding for the OAS late last week, and in the MH today, Republican Sen. Mel Martinez writes that “While there may be the possibility of reconciliation in one country, it does not address the larger dismantling of democracy in the region.” At his confirmation hearing last week, new Asst. Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, Arturo Valenzuela, seemed to agree with this sentiment, at least rhetorically. “It should be clear that the collective response of the hemisphere in support of democracy should not be limited to taking action simply when elected leaders are removed from office by force,” said Valenzuela. Whether or not the OAS and the broader international community share this vision, will be something to now watch in Latin America.
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