Mexican President Felipe Calderon traveled to the heart of the drug war Thursday—Ciudad Juarez. There he was greeted with very little praise and support for his current anti-drug/anti-crime policies as masses of demonstrators gathered in the streets of the heavily guarded city to protest the president’s visit. This as the LA Times reports that President Calderon tried to re-emphasize a modified anti-crime strategy while in Juarez. The paper writes: “The president said it was time to launch a much-discussed expansion of the drug war to include efforts aimed at tackling social issues, such as unemployment and addiction.” To show his commitment to such social elements of citizen security, Calderon brought with him to Juarez his ministers of health, education and public security. Nevertheless, the president has reiterated that he has no intention of pulling out the some 10,000 Mexican troops currently stationed in and around the city.
He also tried to meet with the families of 15 young people, massacred at a high school party at the end of January. However, the report goes on, many refused, instead joining the protests which called on the president to first apologize for comments he made after the killings insinuating the student’s involvement in the drug trade, and then, second, to resign.
The BBC’s coverage of Calderon’s trip to Juarez adds a description of the tense Q and A session that followed the president’s speech to community leaders. “You came here one or two years late,” a local leader told Mr. Calderon, after he spoke. Another woman shouted, “You are not welcome here.” Outside protestors waved signs saying “Army and police, leave!” and “Calderon out.” More than 2600 were killed in drug-related violence in Juarez in the last year alone.
In other news this morning:
· The New York Times reports that President Hugo Chavez signaled a major shift in oil policy late Wednesday, awarding new contracts to various Western oil companies. This included a new contract with US-based oil giant, Chevron, to develop oil fields in the Orinoco River Belt—“an area the size of Costa Rica in southern Venezuela that may contain one of the world’s largest recoverable oil reserves.” Seeking to allay oil company distrust, Mr. Chavez spoke to Western oil companies directly in a late Wednesday speech broadcast on state television. “Dear friends, partners, allies, you know you have all the guarantees of our Constitution and our laws.” He even warmly greeted Chevron’s president for Latin American and African operations, Ali Moshiri, telling Moshiri he should bring President Barack Obama down to the Orinoco Belt sometime. Other companies that participated in the contract auction were Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan and Repsol YPF of Spain. Many analysts say Chavez’s about-face has less to do with any shift in the president’s politics and more to do with a realization that his “long-term economic survival is at stake.”
· Also from Venezuela, the director of one of the last major anti-Chavez television channels, Globovision, stepped down yesterday. The reason for Alberto Federico Ravell’s resignation was somewhat mysterious but Ravell indicated via Twitter late yesterday that the board of directors at Globovision had pushed him out, against his will. Additionally, the Economist this week offers a take on growing Venezuela-Cuba relations, particularly in the areas of health, agriculture, the energy sector, and, some say, the military.
· On Haiti today, the Washington Post’s coverage includes a piece on how those directing aid programs in other countries around the world have fears that they will lose significant money from their budgets this year because of the Haiti quake. The paper writes that “the U.S. government's disaster-assistance program has committed more than half its annual budget to help earthquake-ravaged Haiti,” worrying those working in places like Somalia and Sudan. USAID officials denied Thursday that they have ordered any cutbacks, the Post reports, but that is contingent upon passage of a supplemental spending bill that Congress is expected discuss and vote on in the coming weeks. Democracy Now has had a few reports in the last few days about growing protests in the country, particularly those led by women. Also there’s discussion of new calls from many Haitians for the return of exiled former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide as disillusionment with the Preval government rises. In The Nation, journalist Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, discusses recent statements supporting debt cancellation by the G-7. She says last week’s words indicate a very important change, but adds that the international community should go further in recognizing the right of Haitians to reparations. And from Al-Jazeera, Avi Lewis has a 25 minute video report from Haiti—a part of the international broadcaster’s new and quite good “Fault Lines” video journalism series.
· IPS discusses the issue of reparations for human rights victims in Chile as well today. “A bill signed into law in December by President Michelle Bachelet that created the National Institute for Human Rights also established an advisory commission to certify victims of forced disappearance, politically-motivated murder or imprisonment and torture under the dictatorship,” IPS’s Daniela Estrada writes. That commission, an extension of the 1991 “Rettig Commission” and the 2004 “Valech Commission,” is in charge of examining requests from victims of human rights abuses seeking monetary, medical, educational and housing benefits provided as reparations. More information is available at a new site set up by the Chilean government: www.comisionrettig.cl.
· In Ecuador, the AP reports that “tens of thousands” of protestors went into the streets of the country’s port city of Guayaquil to demonstrate against the government of Rafael Correa on Thursday. The protests were led by Guayaquil’s conservative mayor, Jaime Nebot, who accused Correa of trying to emulate Hugo Chavez. According to the AP, tensions between the municipal leader and the president piqued recently when the national government allocated $175 million for Guayaquil's administration rather than the $192 million it had requested.
· On Cuba, an in-depth report on the detention of US contractor Alan Gross at Politics Daily and a BBC Mundo piece on renewed bilateral economic ties between the island and Russia.
· In Bolivia, the Guardian reports on Evo Morales’s efforts to launch the country’s first satellite into orbit within the next few years--with Chinese aid. This week the Bolivian Space Agency was created by Morales, and, the paper writes, by 2013 the satellite Tupac Katari should be sent into space to improve communications in rural areas of the country. Venezuela launched a similar satellite last year, also with help from the Chinese. And, at the BBC, a report on the role of women in the Morales revolution. The president’s new cabinet, made up of 10 women and 10 men, reflects women’s increasingly important role in the country’s politics. Women also now occupy 30% of the seats in Bolivia’s traditionally male-dominated parliament.
· Finally, at AQ, a piece on Salvadoran president Mauricio Funes and from Andres Oppenheimer, a preview of Brazil’s presidential race, based on discussions with former president and sociologist Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
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