Breaking News: Agreement Reached in Honduras

The Organization of American States’ Victor Rico announced just after 11pm Thursday night that a deal has been reached between Mel Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti, bringing the 4 month long Honduran crisis to (what appears to be) an end. The AP quotes Zelaya who spoke with Radio Globo after Thursday night talks. “We are optimistic because Hondurans can reach agreements that are fulfilled. This signifies my return to power in the coming days, and peace for Honduras.” The intransigent Mr. Micheletti, called the pact a “significant concession” on his part, but added that he authorized his negotiating team to “sign a final accord that marks the beginning of the end to the political situation in the country.” Details are still emerging on all the elements of the accord but reports indicate that the de facto president, Mr. Micheletti, at last acceding to proposal that it be the Honduran Congress (rather than the Supreme Court) who decides on Zelaya’s restitution as president of Honduras. There was also agreement from both sides that a unity government be formed until November elections. However, as Reuters adds, “it was not clear what would happen to other elements of the agreement if Congress votes against Zelaya's restoration.” Moreover, it seems no ink has yet been placed onto the accords, as Honduras’s Tiempo says a signing ceremony is set to take place sometime this morning.

El Heraldo recaps the nine points of the accord which are known. These include: 1. The creation of a national unity government 2. Rejection of amnesty for political crimes 3. Ending calls for a national constituent assembly 4. Recognizing and supporting November elections while 5. Transferring power of the armed forces and national police to the electoral tribunal 6. Creation of a truth commission to investigate what occurred on June 28 and after 7. Creation of a commission that will make sure the provisions of the accord are carried out 8. Asking the international community to re-normalize relations with Honduras 9. the restitution of Mr. Zelaya, as decided by the National Congress.

According to Victor Meza, other remaining points to be part of the accord include nailing down the details of a “schedule for carrying out the agreement,” deciding how to form of a unity cabinet, and how to form a truth commission.

The breakthrough comes after a visit from U.S. Ass’t Sec. of State Tom Shannon who called the accord “a great moment for Honduras, and its people should be proud that Hondurans have achieved this accord.” In fact, Reuters is calling the agreement a “U.S.-driven deal,” and Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, speaking from Pakistan, said the U.S. had been “intimately involved” in reaching the Thursday pact. She went on: “I cannot think of another example of a country in Latin America that, having suffered a rupture of its democratic and constitutional order, overcame such a crisis through negotiation and dialogue… This is a big step forward for the Inter-American system and its commitment to democracy.” And finally both Shannon and Clinton said the U.S. would now work with Honduras to ensure November elections are legitimate. Stay tuned for more details as they come out.

In other news around the region:

· A resolution to one crisis in Central America and perhaps the beginning of another political crisis in the Caribbean. Reuters reports that Haitian Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis has officially been voted out of office by the Haitian Senate. A simple majority in the 29 member body made the decision Thursday. “Eighteen Senators voted against the prime minister, which means the president has to replace her. We will write to the president to inform him of our decision,” said Senate leader Kely Bastien after the vote. The principal argument against Ms. Pierre-Louis made by her opponents was that she “failed to use effectively millions of dollars made available through an oil discount agreement with Venezuela to repair buildings and roads damaged in storms last year.” The Miami Herald adds that others have argued the now former PM did not move quickly enough to solve Haiti's crucial problems of unemployment, lack of significant foreign investments and environmental deterioration.

· In Nicaragua, AFP reports rising tension between the US embassy and the Nicaraguan government after the US Ambassador to the country, Robert Callahan, publicly criticized a Supreme Court ruling that paves the wave President Daniel Ortega to seek re-election. AFP writes: “Thousands of Nicaraguans pelted the United States Embassy here with rocks and homemade explosives on Thursday,” while Ortega issued a statement Thursday calling Callahan’s words an “inadmissible” interference in Nicaraguan affairs. [Also noteworthy is the fact that the U.S. has “62-acre embassy complex” in Nicaragua, apparently opened just two years ago, according to AFP].

· In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez said Thursday that three men accused of being Colombian spies in his country will be prosecuted. The men include 2 Colombian nationals and one Venezuelan. Chavez accused the US of being behind the supposed DAS agents. “Who is behind this? The hand of the United States,” Mr. Chavez remarked Thursday. [In other Venezuela stories, the MH reports on how shortages of electricity and water are eroding Mr. Chavez’s support in different parts of the country. And the LA Times has more on the investigation into multiple murders along the Colombia-Venezuela border.

· On the still unfolding Chevron case in Ecuador, the NYT reports that the American man who taped conversations with Ecuadorean officials—which seemed to show corruption on the part of Ecuadorean officials involved in the case—is himself a convicted drug trafficker.

· And finally, looking ahead to next week, Steve Clemons at the Washington Note directs attention to a major speech Sen. John Kerry is expected to make next Friday, November 6, on U.S. Cuba policy. Rep. Bill Delahunt will also be at the conference in Boston where the speech will occur.

Shannon, Kelly, Restrepo, and Llorens Urge Flexibility from Zelaya and Micheletti

The delegation of U.S. diplomats, led by Ass’t. Sec. of State Tom Shannon, began meetings yesterday in Tegucigalpa, visiting with both ousted president Mel Zelaya and the country’s de facto leader, Roberto Micheletti. The AP writes that Shannon—accompanied by his deputy, Craig Kelly, NSC adviser Dan Restrepo, and U.S. Amb. Hugo Llorens—strongly encouraged “flexibility” from sides. In Honduras’s Tiempo, various Honduran analysts suggested that the high profile U.S. delegation represents the first arrival of individuals with “real power in their country and the world” to deal with the Honduran crisis. DOS spokesman, Ian Kelly, meanwhile, said Sec. of State Hillary Clinton now “believes that the United States could play a constructive role now to encourage all sides to return to the negotiating table.” But after meeting with the Shannon team, Mel Zelaya remarked that the U.S. had not changed its position on his own restoration as president. “Shannon expressed his desire for an agreement as soon as possible ... on my reinstatement,” Zelaya told the press from within the Brazilian embassy. Additionally, Honduran papers report that it’s been proposed by Micheletti negotiators that talks restart tomorrow at 10am.

Apart from meeting with the group of U.S. diplomats in town, the Micheletti regime spent part of Tuesday also formalizing a complaint against the Brazilian government in the International Court of Justice for the country’s sheltering of Mr. Zelaya. Micheletti’s foreign minister has argued that Brazil is violating its diplomatic status and “could seek unspecified compensation for alleged damages to the Honduran state.”

In other Honduras-related news, new actions were taken in the U.S. Congress connected to the ongoing crisis. First, SFRC chairman, John Kerry, and House International Affairs Committee chair, Howard Berman, have submitted a letter to the Law Library of Congress, requesting that a flawed report, published in August on the legality of Mr. Zelaya’s June ouster, be retracted. The two say the report “has contributed to the political crisis that still wracks” the country and “contains factual errors and is based on a flawed legal analysis that has been refuted by experts from the United States, the Organization of American States and Honduras.” The pro-Micheletti Florida congresswoman, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has already said she plans to write a counter to the chairmen’s letter. A group of conservative Republicans, led by congressman Aaron Schock (R-IL), are also petitioning the GAO to produce a comprehensive report on the United States’ involvement in the Honduran crisis. Responding to the request, WOLA’s Vicki Gass called the action part of a “witch hunt.” And in Honduras itself, there are new reports of violence, perhaps linked to rising tensions between pro and anti-Micheletti factions. On Tuesday the father of the current vice minister of defense, Gabo Jalil, was kidnapped, the third such suspicious act against someone linked to the coup regime in the past week.

Around the region this morning:

· The New York Times writes on Chile and its popular President Michele Bachelet. “With only five months until she leaves office, Ms. Bachelet is increasingly likely to be remembered as one of her country’s most popular leaders. Polls this month show her public approval to be above 70 percent, and in recent weeks she has recorded the highest levels since Chile went from dictatorship to democracy in 1990.”

· The Wall Street Journal reports on new legislation proposed by Argentine President Cristina Kirchner to reform the Argentine political system. According to the WSJ, “The bill would force all political parties to hold open primaries and would ban private campaign financing. It would also require political parties to have a minimum number of members, which would likely reduce the number of parties in the country…While supporters said the legislation would modernize the political system, critics said the government is simply rewriting the rules to tighten its grip on power ahead of a 2011 presidential election.”

· The AP writes that there will be no congressional debate in Nicaragua over a controversial Supreme Court ruling that ended term limits last week. In a party-line vote, the country’s Sandinista-led National Assembly rejected debate on the matter. U.S. Amb. to Nicaragua, Robert Callahan, joined his voice with those criticizing the re-election ruling, saying it was made improperly and “threatened to undermine the foundations of Nicaragua's democracy.”

· The Miami Herald continues following developments in Haiti, this morning reporting that Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis is expected to be replaced very shortly. Reports indicate that President Rene Preval has already, in fact, selected Ms. Pierre-Louis’s replacement: Jean-Max Bellerive, the current minister of Planning and External Cooperation.

· At the UN, the ritual vote condemning the U.S. embargo on Cuba occurred Wednesday. This time the General Assembly voted 187 to 3 (U.S., Israel, and Palau) against the embargo. Two countries abstained.

· Along the Venezuela-Colombia border, the discovery of two new massacres could raise the total number killed in the area over the last two weeks. On Saturday, the bodies of two men were found in the Colombian town of Arauquita, near the border with Venezuela. On the other side of the border, in the Venezuelan state of Apure, two more bodies were also found, occurring at the same time and under the same circumstances, according to initial reports.

· Bloggings by Boz has an interesting breakdown of what exactly the House Subcommittee for the Western Hemisphere has been up to over the last 32 months. See his full breakdown of subcommittee hearings and what they might reveal about House concerns vis a vis Latin America.

· And finally, Washington Post columnist George Will writes on U.S. drug policy and his recent discussions with new drug czar Gil Kerlikowske.

Shannon Delegation Arrives in Tegucigalpa as U.S. Gets More Active in Honduran Negotiations

Ass’t Sec. of State Tom Shannon, accompanied by President Obama’s Latin America adviser on the NSC, Dan Restrepo and Deputy Ass’t. Secretary of State, Craig Nelly, arrive today in Tegucigalpa for talks that are expected to last about two days. Reuters reports that the diplomats plan to meet face-to-face with both Mel Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti during their visit as the U.S. seems to be playing a most active role in the negotiation process. State Dept. spokesman, Ian Kelly, called the need to reach an agreement in Honduras, “quite urgent” on Tuesday, a marked change in tone from earlier DOS statements on the crisis. “We want to see an election, which is coming in about exactly a month, to enjoy the kind of international legitimacy that these people of Honduras deserve for their government,” Kelly added. In Honduran papers, La Tribuna is stressing that the Shannon-led delegation will urge “flexibility” among both parties to the conflict. But for his part, Mr. Zelaya said Tuesday that he would be unwilling to accept a “tercería”—that is a third individual, that is not himself, to replace Mr. Micheletti until November election. Zelaya said such a partial resolution would not be accepted by the international community and would, in essence, be a “second coup d’etat.” Earlier in the day, Micheletti had said he would be open to the idea of a “tercería” but per usual, emphasized that the restitution of Zelaya to the presidency is not up for discussion. And in a report filed early this morning, the AP now reports that Micheletti is saying negotiations about the crisis should wait until after November elections, saying dialogue at the current moment “is not going to fix anything.”

In other reports and opinions on Honduras this morning, I recommend another absolutely fascinating article about life inside the Brazilian embassy, written by AP writer Esteban Felix. Here’s some of the best excerpts:

“Day or night, through every window, police officers and soldiers stare in at me and the other journalists through binoculars….Troops and police have erected platforms so they are at eye-level with the windows. The other journalists and I stare at them. They stare at us. Right now a police officer is staring at me through his binoculars. ‘Hi,’ I think.”

“The Zelaya supporters have put up a curtain to block the floodlights and covered windows with newspapers, but that has made little difference. Soldiers bark like dogs, meow like cats and crow like roosters just as my REM cycle gets going and I'm jolted awake almost nightly. Troops last week blasted us with music from 1:30 a.m. until 7 a.m. The playlist included the grating Spanish ballad ‘Two-legged Rat,’ an accordian-laced tirade against an ex-boyfriend made famous by Mexican singer Paquita La del Barrio. Its lyrics begin, ‘Filthy rat, crawling animal, scum of all life ...’ and it got worse from there.”

In the New York Times, Otto Reich and Dan Fisk both write letters to the editor about the paper’s coverage of pro-coup regime lobbying efforts. According to Reich, “All my testimony, op-ed essays, articles and media interviews are my own doing. No one directs me, and no one reviews my statements before publication. I do so because I see it as the duty of a citizen in a free society to dissent from his government’s policies when his conscience so dictates,” and both men say they oppose holds placed on Latin American diplomatic nominations in the Senate. Reich also has a piece in Foreign Policy this week, saying President Obama should handle Honduras in the same way Reagan dealt with Grenada in 1983. In short, for Reich, that means using the Honduras as a means to stop Venezuelan expansion. And finally, an interesting opinion at Real Clear World by Mark Feierstein, a former DOS official and now vice president of the GQR polling firm that conducted the most recent surveys on Honduran opinion regarding the coup. He says the poll numbers show that Hondurans desire a resolution to the crisis which would include 1. Michelleti leaving office 2. The holding of a constitutional convention 3. The holding November elections to choose a new president and 4. Some sort of unspecified agreement about finding a non-Micheletti option as president in the interim period.

In other news around the region this morning:

· The Wall Street Journal reports on the insurgent candidacy of the young Marco Enriquez-Ominami in Chile. The paper writes: “Analysts say even if Mr. Enríquez-Ominami is unable to beat the odds and win, his campaign will have lasting effects on the local political culture, leading to more democracy within parties and to more-open debates on social issues.”

· The LA Times says the United States’ Cuba policy still “faces a world of expectation” as the United Nations casts its now annual, ritual vote against the U.S. embargo today. According to the Inter-American Dialogue’s Dan Erikson, “the Obama administration is moving very slowly and incrementally . . . but when you add it all up there has been a lot of activity, most of it under the radar but all toward greater engagement with the island.”

· On the drug war in Mexico, the AP reports the arrest of a man said to be the head of “La Familia” operations in the state of Michoacan state. The Mexican military, meanwhile, also uncovered a major drug/migrant smuggling tunnel—complete with electricity and an air supply—just 100 feet from the California border. And the LAT’s Ken Ellingwood writes about how the drug war has created a whole new “drug vocabulary” in the Mexican media.

· In Venezuela, the AP writes that President Hugo Chavez claims to have captured two Colombians who he says were conducting espionage on Venezuelan territory while purporting to have been investigating the killing of 10 soccer players earlier this week.

· Finally, in two Miami Herald opinions, an editorial says Haiti could be headed for disaster as lawmakers attempt to oust Prime Minister, Michele Pierre-Louis. The paper argues that “Ms. Pierre-Louis has apparently won the confidence of international groups and potential investors. Her removal would destroy momentum to rebuild Haiti with support from abroad.” And an opinion by the vice president of B’nai B’rith argues there is a rising wave of anti-Semitism spreading across Latin America by way of Venezuela-Iran ties.

Community Policing in Brazil Seeks to Foster Goodwill

A new community policing program in Rio de Janeiro has attempted to create “goodwill” and trust between security officials and favela residents, normally fearful of the police. As the Washington Post’s Juan Forero reports this morning, the old image of heavily armed police officers entering the city’s shantytowns to end violence with violence has not all-together ended (as last week’s deadly confrontations showed), “but in a handful of other once-violent districts,” says the paper, “the strategy is to replace the militarized police with patrol officers.” Capt. Pricilla de Oliveira Azevedo, the head of one such community policing unit in a Rio favela, says the program allows the police to be better positioned to “develop intelligence from residents about drug trafficking” and “determine where new state funds are needed to build homes and provide social programs.” “It is difficult to be able to change a 50-year situation in one year, but our intention is to change the minds of people and their impression of the police,” Azevedo tells the Post. Until the program was started, police had almost entirely withdrawn from favelas, only entering to engage drug traffickers in violent gun fights, while “off-duty police officers and firefighters formed their own militias, which extort local businesses and also fight the drug dealers for preeminence.”

In Haiti, the Miami Herald reports this morning that current Prime Minister, Michele Pierre-Louis is fighting for her political career as several lawmakers are demanding she—along with many of her top ministers—be removed. Those working most actively against Ms. Pierre-Louis are a group of six senators, allied with President René Preval. And the political crisis has now led to increased involvement of foreign diplomats and even Sec. of State Hillary Clinton who spoke with President Preval by phone this week. It remains unclear exactly what has sparked anger against the prime minister, according to the MH, but it almost certainly relates to economic troubles that continue to plague the Caribbean’s poorest country. Others see the moves against Pierre-Louis as a form of political positioning by current lawmakers ahead of scheduled November 2010 elections. “Since becoming prime minister, she has struggled with limited human and financial resources and with a structure of government that has been emasculated over decades of mismanagement and selfish politics,'” Robert Maguire, a Haiti expert at Washington’s Trinity University, tells MH.

In Honduras, this morning there are (yes, once again) glimmers of potential hope. As El Faro and others reported yesterday, OAS negotiator John Biehl spoke Monday on Chilean radio and said he believed an agreement between Mel Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti will be announced this week. The statement came as a surprise to many, after official talks collapsed last week. “Things have continued getting much closer [between the two parties],” remarked Biehl. Biehl’s words were followed Monday by a State Dept. announcement that it had increased its participation in the negotiation process. Sec. of State Clinton was reportedly on the phone with both Zelaya and Micheletti this week, saving her “toughest comments” for Mr. Micheletti with whom Clinton spoke for over half an hour. The NYT calls the efforts “the first time the Obama administration has taken a leading role in pressuring the leaders of the de facto government to restore democratic order in Honduras.” And Honduran papers are now reporting that U.S. Ass’t. Sec. of State Tom Shannon will arrive in Tegucigalpa tomorrow to help in resolving the ongoing crisis. Zelaya’s chief negotiator, Victor Meza, said he did not yet know the exact agenda of Mr. Shannon yet but added that the OAS’s head of political affairs, the Bolivian Victor Rico, would also arrive to facilitate further talks.

Meanwhile, there was news of violence against the family of Roberto Micheletti over the weekend. The de facto leader’s nephew was found shot to death, execution-style, on Monday, but officials have said there is no evidence that the killing was related to the June coup that put his uncle into power. In an unrelated attack, a military colonel was killed outside of Tegucigalpa as well Sunday. A motive for that crime has yet to be discovered. Time has a somewhat amusing article this week also on Zelaya’s former Tourism Minister, Ricardo Martinez, who traveled to a tourism convention in El Salvador recently to tell tourists they should postpone their visits to the country until after the end of the crisis. “I'm not saying I am encouraging travel to Honduras, because I have shown you that the situation [for tourism] does not exist. But what I am saying is, ‘Please don't forget us, because we are going to solve this crisis. And once we do, we are really going to need your help,’” says Martinez. And the Nation has a short piece by Canadian filmmaker-journalist Avi Lewis who has just finished a two-part short video documentary on the situation on Honduras. Links to the videos are available within the article.

In other news today,

· The AP reports that Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa was in London this week to ask that European countries pay some $3 billion to encourage his country not to drill for oil in the Amazon reserve. Environmentalists say the plan could set a precedent in the fight against global warming by lowering the high cost to poor countries of going green. Germany and Spain, in particular, have shown interest in the idea.

· Meetings between Guatemala’s Alvaro Colom and Mexico’s Felipe Calderon led to a new electricity sharing plan between neighboring countries, which both hope will lead to an intra-regional electric grid stretching from Mexico to Colombia. Colom and Calderon also signed new bilateral accords to cooperate in the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime.

· Time has another piece this week on the huge drug bust that led to the arrest of some 300 La Familia associates in the U.S. last week. In particular, the piece looks at the how U.S. measures to curb meth use led to La Familia entering the U.S. market for the drug.

· And finally, in an editorial this morning, the Wall Street Journal writes the “Chavez model hits Nicaragua.” The paper calls the constitutional court’s ruling against term limits last week “classic strong-man stuff on Hugo Chávez's Venezuela model.” The paper then accuses the international community of simply standing by and watching. With its usual provocative (and somewhat misleading) argumentation, the WSJ goes on: “Hondurans deposed Mr. Zelaya because he was showing similar designs on changing their constitution to be able to run again and stay in power. Hondurans have to live in Mr. Ortega's neighborhood, and their action against Mr. Zelaya may well have saved them from Nicaragua's fate.”

New Poll Numbers Show Significant Support for Zelaya, Constituent Assembly, and Re-election

New poll numbers, obtained by the polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner (from Oct. 9-13), show that ousted Honduran president Mel Zelaya has retained a significant amount of public support since the June 28 coup that removed him from office. According to survey numbers, 60 percent of the Honduran public now disapproves of the removal of Mr. Zelaya (just 38 percent still support the move). And now two-thirds of Hondurans approve of Zelaya’s performance as president; 19% said he had performed “excellently” while 48% said his performance had been “good.” In contrast, by a margin of 2-1, Hondurans have a negative opinion of the man who supplanted Zelaya, Roberto Micheletti. But nevertheless, a strong majority (81%) believes elections ought to take place in November and some 54% of Hondurans appear to even believe such elections would be legitimate under the current de facto regime.

The full survey data here also shows some interesting numbers related to re-election and the idea of a constituent assembly. When asked if the Honduran constitution should be amended to allow for re-election, 55% said “yes” (43% oppose the idea) while holding a constituent assembly is the most desirable way to deal with the current political crisis, according to most Hondurans [54% say a constituent assembly should be pursued to end the crisis].

These new—and very interesting numbers—come as talks to restore Mr. Zelaya remain on life support. On Sunday, Zelaya went so far as to call the actions of Mr. Micheletti last week a “second coup d’etat,” even while maintaining that an agreement might still be reached before November elections. The OAS’s lead negotiator in Honduras, John Biehl, also tried to remain optimistic. “The position of Hondurans in favor of reaching a peaceful accord is overwhelming,” said Biehl over the weekend. But, at the same time, there were new calls this weekend for an electoral boycott from some sectors of both the Honduran Left and Zelaya’s own liberal party. According to Tiempo some 300 Liberal candidates (six of them being congressional candidates) for various public offices said this weekend that they would not participate in November elections without Zelaya’s restoration. This has led the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) in Honduras to threaten those who instigate a general boycott of elections with jail time.

Meanwhile, delegates of the Carter Center, visiting Honduras last week, also expressed their worries about the electoral process being free and fair, and said they would not send election observers in November unless the current political crisis was resolved prior.

Finally, The Guardian has a terrific report from Fabiano Maisonnave, held up with the Zelaya team inside the Brazilian embassy for the last month. Maisonnave describes in incredible detail what life inside the embassy has been like. He writes: “The interim government only allows certain kinds of food and goods. Forbidden items include cigarettes, new clothes, sleeping bags, pillows, footballs, batteries, iPods, televisions, cell phones, refrigerators, raincoats, prescription drugs: things, in other words, which could improve the quality of life. Sniffer dogs are used to check that food does not contain drugs. Sometimes police keep soft drinks and desserts for themselves. Zelaya's food comes separately and is prepared by his daughter because he fears being poisoned. Three weeks ago, checks took so long that the food went off. Thirty people had diarrhea, clogging up the embassy's six toilets. Three toilets are reserved for Zelaya, his wife and closest aides.”

Around the region this weekend:

· Frente Amplio candidate, Pepe Mujica won a plurality of votes in Uruguay’s presidential elections Sunday but did not secure the majority needed to win in the first round. As the WSJ reports, exit polls show Mujica took between 47% and 49% of the vote compared to 30% for his nearest rival, ex-president Luis Lacalle. The two will now face off in a second round on November 29. Perhaps Sunday’s biggest surprise, however, was the much stronger than expected showing of the young, right-wing candidate, Pedro Bordaberry, son of former Uruguayan dictator, Juan Maria Bordaberry. Bordaberry is said to have won nearly 18% of the vote, nearly doubling what pre-election polls showed him obtaining. While many of Bordaberry’s votes will go to Mr. Lacalle in the second round, Spain’s El País writes that there is little doubt that Mujica will be able to secure a victory in round two. The more interesting question is whether or not the Frente retains its parliamentary majorities. In other Uruguay election news, it also appears that a referendum to annul a controversial amnesty law failed Sunday.

· The Wall Street Journal reports this weekend on President Felipe Calderon’s attempt to remake the Mexican police. Under the direction of Genaro Garcia Luna, the WSJ writes, the Mexican government is trying to “persuade college-educated sons and daughters of the middle class to become part of a new, professional police corps.” Garcia Luna says he is modeling the new Mexican forces after the FBI and hopes to “gradually replace the army on the drug war's front lines with this two-and-a-half year-old force of around 40,000 cops.”

· In Rio de Janeiro, stricken by drug violence over the last week, the federal police decided to move two top drug lords from one Rio prison to a more secure location in a different part of the country. The BBC writes that “authorities…believe orders for attacks are coming from gang leaders who have already been jailed.”

· In Venezuela, 10 soccer players were killed along the Colombian border in what Venezuelan security forces say is the work of “warring factions” in Colombia. The murders led Venezuelan security officials to increase border security efforts. Venezuela has also deported to the U.S. a Colombian man linked to a pyramid scheme in that country. The Colombian faces money-laundering charges in the U.S.

· The Washington Post reports on marijuana eradication programs in both the U.S. and Mexico while an editorial on the paper’s opinion pages calls the new marijuana memo issued by the DOJ last week both “sensible and potentially problematic.”

· And finally, two opinions this weekend. The WSJ’s Mary Anastasia O’Grady writes on the economy and the new media law in Argentina. She argues that “as the antimarket economic model [of the Kirchner’s] hits the skids, the nation is turning against its architects and a free press will not remain silent. This is why the president forced a media law through the legislature two weeks ago, creating a new ‘audio-visual’ regulatory board controlled by the executive.” And in an LA Times editorial, the issue of “re-electionism” is taken up. First providing a recent history of “re-election” in the region, the paper writes the following: “…while we don't believe in one-size-fits-all democracy, we do believe in alternating governments. The longer a single party stays in power, the more likely it is to take control of the courts, electoral institutions and the national purse strings, making it harder for opposition parties to compete. This is why the move to lift term limits has been so emotional in the region, leading to everything from a fistfight among legislators in Argentina when Menem sought to change the law in 1993 to a civilian-military coup against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya over the issue in June.”

Honduran Talks Move from "Obstructed" to "Dead"; Over 300 from La Familia Arrested in the U.S.

Obstructed but not yet broken, talks between representatives of Mel Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti restarted yesterday and continued on late into the night. But, yet again, the day ended and no resolution to the four-month old crisis was found. And this time, all accounts indicate negotiations have completely collapsed. “As of now we see this phase as finished,” Zelaya envoy Mayra Mejia said of talks just after midnight. In the same old story, the reinstatement of Mr. Zelaya remains the point on which Micheletti refuses to budge. According to the AP, early Thursday the Micheletti team proposed that both supporters of de facto president Roberto Micheletti and ousted president Manuel Zelaya be allowed to consult whichever branch of government they wish to decide if Zelaya should be restored to office [for a translated version of the Micheletti full proposal click here]. [Zelaya has indicated he wants the Honduran Congress to take up the issue while Micheletti has long insisted the Supreme Court decide on Zelaya’s reinstatement.] According to La Tribuna, just a few hours later, Zelaya negotiators countered the offer with its own proposal, arguing that both sides ask the Honduran Congress to restore the powers of the state to the form they had prior to June 28. Micheletti negotiators eventually rejected the counterproposal and, at 12am, Zelaya’s team said negotiations had ended, although advisers of the de facto regime maintain they will present yet another solution this morning. “When we say today, they say tomorrow. When we say tomorrow, they say the day after tomorrow. It's a game of delay,” Zelaya’s chief negotiator, Victor Meza, remarked with frustration late Thursday.

In Washington, meanwhile, Honduran election authorities came for visit Thursday and insisted they would be able to hold a free and fair election come November 29. The group of three Hondurans argued that the ballot box remains the best way to resolve the current crisis. “The majority of Hondurans want the elections to go ahead to resolve the crisis,” says Juan Saul Escober, the president of the electoral commission. Another Honduran official said that more than 118,000 poll workers have been trained to staff voting stations with U.S. funding. “The government of the United States is following a two-track policy: they support the negotiation of a political deal, but are also backing the election process,” the official said after a meeting with State Dept. officials.

And two opinions on Honduras this morning as well. In the LA Times, Abraham Lowenthal says that because of both liberal and conservative interventionists, Honduras has once again become a “sore spot” for U.S. foreign policy. “In today's circumstances, as in the 1980s, both liberal and conservative interventionists in Washington press their viewpoint with little detailed knowledge, understanding of or apparent interest in the nuances of Honduran politics,” Lowenthal argues. Prof. Lowenthal goes on. “The outlines of a solution have been clear for weeks: the brief return of Zelaya to office; the establishment of a transitional government to hold elections; the holding of the scheduled elections in November without Zelaya's participation; the dropping of charges against both Zelaya and those who removed him from office; and agreed-to monitoring of the scheduled elections. Such a compromise solution might well soon be announced, but even if that happens, it has been delayed for many costly weeks -- at the expense of Honduras and of many Hondurans -- because of the interplay of obstinate Honduran political factions and political skirmishes in Washington that have little if anything to do with Honduras.”

And in Forbes, Vivianan Krsticevic and Juan Mendez of the Center for Justice and Int’l Law provide a must-read legal response to the recent (and flawed) Law Library of Congress report on the ouster of Mel Zelaya.

Also today, major news in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal who all report on a19 state raid by the U.S. Justice department on Wednesday and Thursday which targeted members of the Mexican drug cartel, La Familia. Thus far, 303 arrests have been made in what Attorney General Eric Holder is calling “the largest strike ever” against a Mexican cartel. “While this cartel may operate from Mexico, the toxic reach of its operations extends to nearly every state within our country,” Holder maintained.

Arrests were made in 38 U.S. cities, with a particularly heavy focus in Dallas, Atlanta and Seattle. Authorities have also seized more than $32 million in American currency, 2,700 pounds of methamphetamine, 4,400 pounds of cocaine, 16,000 pounds of marijuana and 29 pounds of heroin, reports the Times. And the WSJ adds that this week’s raids were the culmination of 44 months of investigations by U.S. officials. Mexican authorities, meanwhile, arrested at least six La Familia cartel members at the same time that U.S. raids took place.

Rock Music, Military Tunes, Church Bells and...Pig Grunts Played Outside the Brazilian Embassy

With talks still stalled, the de facto regime in Honduras sent the military to the Brazilian embassy this week to “play loud rock music, military band tunes, church bells” and, yes, “recordings of pig grunts” over loudspeakers. This according to a Reuters photographer inside the embassy. The embassy’s most famous resident, Mel Zelaya, called the noises “torture,” adding that the “powerful sound systems that can be heard from 20 blocks away. ... We can't fall asleep.” Beyond the use of “sound torture,” numerous statements over the last two days would seem to indicate there is absolutely no positive movement toward the reinstatement of Mr. Zelaya to the presidency, even in a limited capacity. “We obviously believe that (Zelaya's return) is not possible. We believe he violated the law,” Arturo Corrales, a lead negotiator for Micheletti, recently remarked. Mr. Micheletti’s Defense Minister, Adolfo Sevilla was even more emphatic. After saying Zelaya and Co. should be happy the military is only playing music in front of the embassy instead of bombing the building, as the Minister said they apparently do in other countries, Sevilla went on to argue that there is “zero” chance that Zelaya be reinstated, short of a foreign invasion. And speaking at the Brazil Summit in Sao Paulo, former OAS Sec. General (and ex-Colombian president), Cesar Gaviria also seemed pessimistic. According to Gaviria, “It’s impossible to bring Zelaya back to power since the Court, the Congress, and the military are not with him.” Continuing, the former Colombian official said he believes a “transition government must be found” and an “international monitoring process” set up for November elections. [Another participant in the Brazil Summit, former Mexican foreign minister, Jorge Castaneda, blasted Brazil for giving Zelaya shelter in its Honduran embassy].

In other Honduras news, the OAS presented its most recent Honduras report yesterday in Washington. Despite huge setbacks this week, Sec. General Insulza insisted that the OAS is not willing to simply stop negotiating. “The talks have stalled and it’s necessary to continue to push them forward,” Insulza said Wednesday. Meanwhile, in Honduras, a new decree has been issued by the de facto government which says all demonstrations, marches and public meetings must be approved by the National Police 24 hours in advance, regardless of their purpose. Once again, the current regime in power says the order is in line with “articles of the constitutions and current police laws,” a claim some analysts strongly disagree with.

Around the region this morning:

· The Miami Herald reports on a Congressional hearing held Wednesday on the persecution of human rights activists in Colombia. Activists who testified before the House panel said, in the words of the MH, they are “under constant attack for their work, facing murder, death threats, illegal surveillance, arbitrary detentions and prosecutions.” Margaret Sekaggya, United Nations Special Rapporteur, also spoke before the House Human Rights Commission panel, saying she remains very worried about “a pattern of harassment and persecution against human rights defenders” in the country. At least 11 rights activists were murdered last year, according to the Colombian Commission of Jurists, and in the first nine months of this year, nine human rights workers have been reported killed.

· Also on the issue of human rights, the Washington Post this morning reports on the bizarre case of Gustavo de la Rosa, perhaps the most prominent human rights activist in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. De la Rosa was recently detained by U.S. Customs officials at the US-Mexico border and is now apparently being forced to accept asylum in the U.S., even though he was never seeking it. According to a recent Customs and Border Protection statement: “If during the [border] interview someone entering the country expresses a fear for his life, our officers are required to process them for an interview with an asylum officer. Our officers are not authorized to determine the validity of the fear expressed. The applicant does not have to specifically request asylum, they simply must express fear of being returned to their country.” The story comes as the murder rate in Juarez hit a new high this week. New statistics show that 1,986 homicides have occurred this year, compared to 1,171 for the same period in 2008. This month alone nearly 200 individuals have been killed, an average of 7 murders/day.

· In Rio de Janeiro, the death toll in an ongoing battle between drug gangs and Brazilian police rose to 33 Wednesday, after seven suspected drug traffickers were killed by security officials.

· The LA Times reports on China’s advances into the Gulf of Mexico in search of oil. “The state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp., or CNOOC, reportedly is negotiating the purchase of leases owned by the Norwegian StatoilHydro in U.S. waters in the Gulf of Mexico, the source of about a quarter of U.S. crude oil production,” writes the paper.

· The BBC reports on new attempts by the Venezuelan government to reign in the country’s undisciplined police forces, by setting up, for the first time, a national police force. According to the BBC, “The government hopes to phase out some of the agencies with the worst reputations, such as the metropolitan police in Caracas, and replace them with the new force. A code of conduct has been launched and recruits will be obliged to take classes in human rights. In addition, any officer who has charges pending against him or her will not be allowed to join.” [Also, new polls show that Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez’s approval rating has fallen from 61 percent last February to 53 percent last month. Inflation, economic stagnation, and faulty public services seem to be most on the minds of those who disapprove.]

· And finally, Andres Oppenheimer writes [critically] in the MH today on Spain’s role in pushing the EU toward a softer position vis a vis Cuba.

Violent Clashes in Rio Raise Serious Questions about Public Safety

The death toll rose to at least 25 after multiple days of violent clashes between members of Rio de Janeiro drug gangs and Brazilian security officials. Earlier this week the showdown led to the shooting down of a police helicopter flying over a Rio favela—just one mile from the famous Maracaná stadium at which the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2016 Olympics and 2014 World Cup finals are expected to be held. Talking to the New York Times, one Rio resident says “The images of the downed police helicopter ‘really shocked Brazilians, and now everyone is worried about what will happen with the Games. We need to tell the world where we stand so that people outside Brazil understand what measures we are taking and are not so worried when planning to come down here.’” The Times goes on to say that much of the violence is due to the fact that Rio police abandoned many of the city’s shantytowns under a prior security policy that emphasized the containment of drug traffickers. This allowed gangs to become extremely powerful in particular areas. And now, only recently, has the Rio government tried to adopt a “community policing approach” to stemming the violence in dozens of shantytowns. The approach involves having police officers establish a more permanent presence within the shantytowns rather than simply guarding favela entrances and exits. “For the first time the police are not coming into the favelas shooting, and then leaving only to draw the hatred and scorn of the residents,” says Silvia Ramos, the coordinator of the Centro de Estudos de Segurança e Cidadania at the University of Cândido Mendes in Rio. But other analysts insist that the new approach must also include new low-income housing projects and infrastructure improvements if it has any hope of succeeding. Rio experienced 4,631 homicides last year; a decline from 5,143 murders in 2006. But, to put the number in perspective, there were just 523 murders in New York City last year.

There’s been little to no new headway made in “unblocking” stalled negotiations in Honduras. However, late yesterday, Arturo Corrales, one of Roberto Micheletti’s chief negotiators, did make a surprise visit to the Brazilian Embassy to meet with Mel Zelaya, apparently at the deposed president’s request. “We exchanged information about what has occurred in the negotiation process, he asked me questions, I made proposals,” Corrales told reporters upon leaving the Embassy. But Zelaya negotiator, Victor Meza, once again reiterated Tuesday that Zelaya’s team would only return to official talks when a “constructive proposal” was provided by the de facto regime. Meanwhile, in Washington, OAS Sec. General, José Miguel Insulza placed blame squarely on the Micheletti regime for the most recent obstruction to talks. “One of the sides presented a proposal that includes a matter not included in the San José Accords,” Insulza explained Tuesday, referring to the Micheletti idea that the Supreme Court must approve Zelaya’s reinstatement. Insulza is expected to present an OAS report on the situation in Honduras today in Washington. Mel Zelaya is also expected to ask for more international pressure against the Micheletti government. For its part, the U.S. government appears to have already heeded the call, at least partially. La Tribuna reports that the visas of six more Micheletti government officials and prominent businessmen have been revoked (La Prensa puts the number at 26 visas this morning), among them that of current Micheletti press secretary, Rene Zepeda Flores. Others included in the recent visa crackdown include the Executive Secretary of the Foro Nacional de Convergencia Nacional (Fonac), Leonardo Villeda, the President of the Honduran Congress, José Alfredo Saavedra, the country’s human rights commissioner, Ramón Angel Custodio, and Defense Minister, Adolfo Leonel Sevilla.

And finally, FP’s “The Cable” reports that Sen. Jim DeMint may be ready to release the holds he has placed on the confirmation of top Latin American diplomats because of Obama administration Honduras policy. His new justification: DeMint says he believes the State Dept. may soon announce that it has plans to recognize upcoming Honduran elections. After meeting with current Asst. of State, Tom Shannon (coincidentally the same man whose confirmation as Ambassador to Brazil he is holding up), DeMint said, “We got a lot of agreement in the area of coming to terms with recognizing the upcoming elections there. That's what I'm waiting for from our government, signals that we're going to recognize those elections and move forward. He (Shannon) realized that it is essential that these elections go forward and are recognized,” DeMint went on. But Shannon has not yet gone so far as to say the U.S. would actually recognize them…and so the holds remain for now.

Around the region this morning:

· The BBC has more on the surprising Monday announcement by the Nicaraguan Supreme Court which lifted a constitutional ban on re-election. According to the BBC, the court’s unusual decision came after a petition from President Daniel Ortega and a group of over 100 pro-Ortega mayors. Six justices, all regarded as seen as allies of Mr. Ortega, determined that the constitutional ban on allowing re-election was “unenforceable,” and the electoral court in the country has indicated that it would support the Supreme Court’s ruling. As Boz writes, there remain a number of very suspicious elements regarding the timing of the court’s decision, so stay tuned for more.

· Reuters reports that the case against Colombian VP Francisco Santos has been reopened, related to the VP’s possible connection to paramilitary groups in the country. “The attorney general opened an initial investigation in 2007 after a former paramilitary boss, Salvatore Mancuso, testified that Mr. Santos had proposed creating a paramilitary group in the late 1990s.” The investigation was suspended, however, for lack of evidence. President Alvaro Uribe came to the immediate defense of Santos Tuesday.

· And in Cuba, the AP reports that New Orleans Mayor, Ray Nagin, is the latest public official to make a special mission to the island. The mayor was in the country for six-days, along with a group of state and local officials, to study the country’s disaster-response system, which he believes is a model from which New Orleans could learn a great deal. Nagin also met with the head of the Cuban Chamber of Commerce and spoke to tourism officials and at the Port of Havana, says the AP. “They [the Cubans] don't have to go to Vietnam for rice…They could get it directly from us. We grow it all,” remarked Nagin about the possibility of opening up trade ties with the island.

And Yet Again..."The Dialogue [in Honduras] Has Been Obstructed"

Over one week of talks in the setting of the so-called “Guaymuras Dialogue” officially stalled late Monday with no accord reached between negotiators representing the de facto government and Mel Zelaya. As the LA Times reports, both sides had said Monday ought to be a deadline (of one form or another) for reaching an agreement, which never materialized. Late Monday Zelaya’s team said it had no intention of returning to the negotiating table until the Micheletti side produces a more serious resolution to the crisis [for a full statement from the Zelaya team as they left talks click here]. Last week, Micheletti argued it should be the Supreme Court, not the Honduran Congress, who decides whether or not Mr. Zelaya should be reinstated. The Supreme Court has long opposed the return of Mr. Zelaya. According to long-time Latin American diplomat, Enrique V. Iglesias, head of the Ibero-American General Secretariat, “We had great hopes [last week], but it seems things have bogged down again.” Victor Meza, who only days ago seemed to indicate that a solution had been reached between the two sides, spoke with little optimism Monday. “Micheletti has not shown any political will. He is using the talks as a distraction tool to win time. He is trying to drag out the process with inadmissible and insulting proposals.”And for his part, Mr. Zelaya himself told reporters via telephone Monday that “the dialogue has been obstructed.”

This latest impasse came as the Micheletti government both accused Zelaya supporters of once again planning an armed insurrection and finally lifted an emergency decree that had curbed civil liberties for weeks [the Micheletti government rescinded the decree nearly two weeks ago but never had published the move in the official Gazette until yesterday]. Soon thereafter a pro-Zelaya television channel (Canal 36) and radio station (Radio Global), which had their offices closed and equipment confiscated, went back on air, reports the BBC and others. As AFP writes the decision to restore constitutional guarantees would make it appear the Micheletti government is paving the way for November elections. A debate between five presidential candidates (including close ally of Mel Zelaya, Cesar Ham, of the UD) in Tegucigalpa Monday also gave the impression that electoral politics were moving forward despite the lack of a resolution to the ongoing crisis. And, as mentioned yesterday, there are now murmurs within the State Dept. that the U.S. too may be rethinking how it can recognize Honduran elections.

Around the region this morning:

· A major announcement from the Justice Dept. Monday indicated yet another small step toward a new U.S. drug policy. The memo (click here) says the DOJ will no longer focus on prosecuting individuals who comply with state regulations on medical marijuana use. Coupled with the announcement late last week that the House Western Hemisphere sub-committee will help create a 10-member panel to review U.S. drug policy in its entirety, there seem to be some major drug policy shifts occurring at the present moment [For a breakdown of the newly created panel’s objectives, see Boz here].

· After an outbreak of drug violence in Rio de Janeiro that has now taken the lives of at least 21, the Wall Street Journal reports that President Lula da Silva has announced he will deploy federal police to the area and allocate some $60 million in aid to the city. After meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Monday, Lula added that “it will take time to resolve the problems of the gangs, organized crime and the drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro.”

· Also on violence in the region, El Faro writes this morning that the UNDP plans to present a new report on Central America today which will argue that the sub-region is the most violent in the world, with an average of 33 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. The most dangerous area remains the northern triangle of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. In the words of the report, “Central America has become the most violent region in the world. With the exception of those areas such as southern Africa, the countries of Central America as a whole have the highest homicide rate on the planet.”

· In Nicaragua, Reuters reports that the constitutional arm of the Supreme Court has lifted a ban restricting reelection. According to the news service, “The move by the country's highest legal power means Ortega could run as a candidate in the 2011 presidential election without having to seek national assembly backing to change the constitution or hold a public referendum on the issue.”

· As Uruguay approaches a weekend presidential election, the Supreme Court there also made an historic decision Monday, calling a two-decades old amnesty law unconstitutional. In addition to choosing a new president Sunday, voters will also be deciding whether or not the impunity law (the “ley de caducidad”) should remain on the books. According to former VP Gonzalo Aguirre, Monday’s ruling “supports the conviction that on Sunday the law should be annulled by popular vote and that this will lead to the reopening of dozens of cases that could not be prosecuted because of the amnesty.”

· A Miami Herald report on Cuba says that after 9/11, Cuba sent over 20 supposed diplomats to U.S. embassies around the world to offer information on “terrorist threats,” all of which were eventually deemed to be fabricated. Now, according to MH reporting, “two former U.S. government experts on Cuba say the post-9/11 ‘walk-ins’ were part of a permanent Havana intelligence program -- both before and long after 9/11 -- that sends Cuban agents to U.S. embassies to mislead, misinform and identify U.S. spies, perhaps even to penetrate U.S. intelligence.”

· And in The Guardian this morning, Ariel Dorfman comments on what President Barack Obama can do for Latin America touching on Cuba, Honduras, drug policy, Plan Colombia, immigration policy, and more.

Supreme Court or Congress? Differences about Who Should Decide Mel Zelaya's Future Break Talks

After first extending the deadline for talks by 12 hours—then by three more—dialogue between negotiators representing Roberto Micheletti and Mel Zelaya broke down late Friday with no agreement reached. Nevertheless, both sides said they would once again head back to the negotiating table on Monday, even as Zelaya made new calls on domestic supporters and the international community to step up pressure on the de factor government [the ALBA alliance of left-leaning Latin American leaders, meeting in Cochabamba, Bolivia, were the first to heed the new calls of Mr. Zelaya by approving a new set of economic sanctions, writes the AP. While the Miami Herald reports the Honduran Resistance movement may be losing steam domestically.]

As reported all last week, the reinstatement of Mr. Zelaya to the presidency remains the issue around which deep divisions between the two sides still exists. In a proposal submitted on Friday, Mr. Micheletti insisted that it was the Honduran Supreme Court who must decide whether or not Mel Zelaya should be allowed to return to the presidency [the Court in the past has been a strong ally of Mr. Micheletti and thus, Zelaya’s chief negotiator, Victor Meza, called the Micheletti proposal “completely unacceptable”]. To the contrary, Zelaya negotiators have contended in a counterproposal, read at an impromptu press conference Friday evening, that it is the Honduran Congress who should be the final arbiter on the issue.

Meanwhile, on the human rights front, there were also reports late last week that the de facto government was blocking human rights investigations to be undertaken by the government’s own prosecutor’s office. HRW’s Americas Director, José Miguel Vivcano—in a statement Friday which also called for an increase in international human rights investigations—said that “by obstructing investigations, the [Honduran] security forces are making a mockery of the law.” And on Sunday a three-member OAS human rights delegation reportedly arrived in Tegucigalpa [with EFE reporting that a second UN team may also soon arrive] to conduct a two-week study of abuses committed since the June 28 coup. The identities of the three individuals who make up the delegation have remained secret for security reasons. The Committee for Missing Prisoners in Honduras has said the number killed since June 28 stands at 12, with one more individual, trade union activist, Jairo Sanchez, dying over the weekend after being in critical condition in a Honduras hospital for a month. [Human Rights Defense Committee president Andres Pavon says another 25 people have been wounded by military gunfire during protests].

And finally in other reports and opinions over the weekend, Time’s Tim Padgett says there are growing signs that the U.S. may be willing to abandon the condition that Mr. Zelaya must be restored to the presidency for elections to be recognized. “A number of well-placed sources in Honduras and the U.S. tell TIME that officials in the State Department and the U.S.'s OAS delegation have informed them that the Obama Administration is mulling ways to legitimize the election should talks fail to restore Zelaya in time.” And former Sec. of State James Baker argues in the Washington Post that “matters [in Honduras] will only deteriorate if the international community refuses to recognize the results of the coming Honduran elections.” He argues lessons from Nicaraguan elections in 1990 should be used in the case of Honduras in 2009. Baker goes on: “Non-interference in the domestic affairs of a sovereign country is a cardinal principle of the U.N. Charter. In keeping with it, we should defer to the Hondurans' interpretation of their constitution. This calls for Micheletti to serve as interim president until the expiration of his term in January, or earlier if he stepped down as part of a compromise. Under either timeline, the constitution's order of succession should be followed. In the meantime, protecting constitutional rights -- particularly the country's freedoms of speech and the press -- will powerfully demonstrate the interim government's dedication to constitutionality and the rule of law.”

Around the region this weekend:

· In a series of pieces on Mexico this weekend, the LA Times reports on a new round of killings in the Guerrero, likely connected to the activity of La Familia drug cartel, known to be in the area. The New York Times’ Marc Lacey reports both on new fears that Mexican investigators are faced with in investigating drug-related crime in the country and the new fears the Central American migrants passing through Mexico have of being kidnapped. And the AP reports on the detention of a Mexican human rights activist (and member of the Chihuahua human rights commission) by U.S. Customs, allegedly for the man’s own safety.

· Two pieces in the Miami Herald and New York Times write on Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez, recently denied an exit visa from Cuba to attend a ceremony at Columbia University recognizing her work.

· The LA Times, in an editorial, and the Wall Street Journal, in Mary Anastasia O’Grady’s weekly column, take up the issue of Felipe Calderon’s decision to dissolve a state-run electricity company last week.

· The Financial Times has an interview with Colombia’s Alvaro Uribe about the possibility he may be seeking re-election.

· In Brazil, a recent eruption of gang violence over the weekend which took the lives of 14 (while also leaving a police helicopter shot down and buses burned) has some worried about the city hosting the Olympics in 2016.

· And finally, the AP writes that Cuba’s first ambassador to El Salvador since the 1960s arrived in San Salvador Sunday. President Mauricio Funes restored relations with the island after his election last spring.