The full committee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by Congressman Howard Berman (D-CA), will be holding a hearing on lifting the Cuba travel ban this morning (Thursday). As the Washington Post reports, proponents of recently drafted legislation on the matter believe they have their best chance in years of repealing the ban on U.S. tourist travel to the island. Those providing testimony include General Barry McCaffery, former head of SOUTHCOM and a critic of the ban and James Cason, the former chief other US Interests Section in Havana. Coincidentally (or not), Human Rights Watch also issued a new report on Cuba yesterday, saying repression on the island has continued under the watch of current President Raul Castro (click here for the full report). In particular, the investigation shows how the current government has “relied on the Criminal Code offense of ‘dangerousness,’ which allows authorities to imprison individuals before they have committed any crime, on the suspicion that they are likely to commit an offense in the future,” the report’s authors write. The Guardian’s Rory Carroll says the report came out of a “clandestine fact finding mission” to the island in June and July. Reuters cites the independent Cuban Commission on Human Rights who estimated this year that Cuba still holds some 200 political prisoners. While in the Miami Herald, Berta Antunez Pernet, a pro-democracy/anti-Castro activist who will also testify before the Foreign Affairs Committee today, cites the recent brief detention of blogger Yoani Sanchez as one reason why the U.S. ought to continue to isolate itself (and its tourists) from Cuba.
Interestingly, Americas Director for HRW, José Miguel Vivcano, also added Wednesday that the organization favors ending the travel ban, despite Cuba’s human rights shortcomings. “Lifting the travel ban represents an essential step towards ending a U.S. policy that has failed for decades to have any impact whatsoever on improving human rights in Cuba,” says Vivcano. For its part, the Cuban government rejected the latest HRW report, saying it “does not recognize the legality nor the moral authority of HRW as an organization that defends human rights.” “The presentation of this report in a news conference precisely today has no other intention than to divert the public's attention from the hearing by the international relations committee of Congress on the elimination of restrictions on Americans' travel to Cuba,” says the Cuban press officer at the Interests Section in Washington, D.C.
Around the region this morning:
· On Honduras, Deputy Ass’t. Sec. of State Craig Kelly has once again left Tegucigalpa with no noticeable progress made toward a resolution of the crisis. He did meet with both Mel Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti but did not offer a report on his meetings before heading back to Washington. Kelly did, however, repeat the U.S.’s new position of supporting November elections, saying “An important part of the solution for peace in the future is the Honduran elections.” Pundit Alvaro Vargas Llosa, recently in Honduras, does the same in an op-ed yesterday. “Accepting for the sake of argument that Zelaya's ouster was a classic military coup, it is plainly absurd to deny Honduras a solution that liberal democracies usually demand of illegitimate presidencies -- that elections be held and successors seated. This was the objective in challenging Chile's Augusto Pinochet and Argentina's junta between 1976 and 1983,” he writes. Meanwhile, that same Argentina, along with rising regional superpower, Brazil, disagree. A joint statement by Lula and Cristina Kirchner this week reads: “We demand the immediate restitution of President Manuel Zelaya. On the contrary, the elections to be held on Nov. 29 will not be recognized and a very dangerous precedent will be set.” And in the U.S. Congress, AFP says Rep. Ileana Ros-Lhetinen (R-FL) has put together a group of 15 Republicans who are ready travel to Honduras to observe Nov. 29 elections. But House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, does not appear quite so willing to approve the trip without the participation of House Democrats as well—none of whom have yet stepped forward.
· The Wall Street Journal follows up its Wednesday piece on the Venezuelan economy’s weakening with a similar piece on Ecuador today. The paper leads: “Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa is finding that a weak economy, electricity shortages and a confrontational governing style have undermined support for his government, not three years after taking office in a landslide that highlighted the rise of populist leaders in Latin America.” New poll numbers from Cedatos/Gallup show Correa’s popularity has slipped dramatically in recent months, now standing at just 44% (with 49% disapproval). According to the WSJ report, “Economists warn the high level of subsidies [in the country] isn't sustainable. But cutting them back or eliminating them is politically and socially sensitive for a government that built its support on such public spending.” Also, the AP reports on a new media law, 60% of which was passed Tuesday night by the Ecuadorean Congress. The opposition has claimed the law represents an attempt by the government to “control” the media while supporters of the legislation say it intends to increase citizen control of the press.
· Also on the media, there is a fascinating piece in the Guardian today about Paraguayan journalist Candido Figueredo, correspondent for Paraguay’s largest daily, ABC Color. Figueredo “probably South America's most heavily armed journalist,” covers one of the most dangerous beats in the world: organized crime in the tri-border region that separates Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. He has been the target of numerous death threats for his work and has had his own newsroom machine-gunned twice in recent years. The report notes that the region continues to be a principal trafficking route for guns and drugs headed to Brazil and beyond.
· Finally today, two other noteworthy stories. In Puerto Rico, a disturbing report on the grisly murder of a gay teenager. The AP says the case has raised new issues about how far U.S. hate crime laws extend in U.S. territories. According to the news service, “a 2002 U.S. law has not been applied to any cases involving sexual orientation or gender identity [in Puerto Rico] despite calls to use it more aggressively. And in Mexico City, a fight over abortion rights has moved from the state to the federal level. “Lawmakers in Veracruz made it Mexico's 17th state to pass legislation declaring life begins at conception, then adopted a proposal that requires Congress to consider amending the constitution to outlaw abortion,” the AP reports. According to activists on both sides of the Mexican abortion debate, “given the makeup of Congress - and what they called heavy lobbying by the Roman Catholic Church - Veracruz's proposal stands a good chance of approval,” at the national level. Mexican states currently set their own laws on abortion. The new moves come largely as a response to recent legislation in Mexico City permitting abortions.
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