Latin American leaders are close to agreeing on the formation of a new regional organization, to be exclusive to the countries of the region—thus excluding the U.S. and Canada. According to the AP today, the new organization has yet to be named, but leaders envision it as “the premier political forum for Latin American nations.” Further details are likely to emerge this week as representatives from 32 countries gather in Cancun, Mexico for the Unity Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The AP’s report on the new regional body—being described by many as counterweight to the OAS—follows others from the weekend. Last Friday, the Financial Times was the first to file a report, calling the new initiative a “Mexican-led” project and “a clear sign of Latin America’s growing confidence as a region.” In an interview with the paper Salvador Beltrán del Río, Mexico’s under-secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, said the new regional body would expand and replace the current “Rio Group,” founded in 1986. Even amidst ongoing differences between various Latin American nations, Beltrán del Rio noted there was “significant agreement” among all Latin American leaders that such an organization would be beneficial for giving the region some much needed “space.” Nevertheless, the proposal is not without its detractors. According to former Mexican foreign minister, Jorge Castaneda, the creation of the body may cause a further weakening of the OAS while the Inter-American Dialogue’s Peter Hakim says he holds doubts that such an organization will be able to find the “political glue” necessary to remain unified and effective. “I haven’t seen much success from Latin America’s integration efforts, and I can’t imagine that this is going to be terribly different,” he tells the paper.
Following the FT, some reports on the new Latin American regional body have already turned to Hugo Chavez. BBC Mundo, for example, says it’s Chavez, rather than Mexico itself, who intends to propose the new organization at this week’s Mexico summit. However, the BBC goes on to quote Mexican foreign minister, Patricia Espinosa, who said Saturday that the “diverse and pluralistic” region must advance on integration that “benefits each of the region’s countries and its communities.” An AP report over the weekend, meanwhile, adds more skepticism about the sort of effectiveness a new Latin American-exclusive body might have at the present moment. Writing in Mexico’s Proceso, former Mexican ambassador Olga Perciller says “At few moments in its recent history has Latin America been so polarized in terms of its political projects and various leaders. Launching a new organization is always possible but having it be a success, that’s another thing. ”
To other stories from this weekend:
· The Washington Post reports today that a commission has begun working to map out the reconstruction of greater Port-au-Prince. It’s head: the Haitian-born Howard University graduate, Patrick Delatour, who currently serves as the country’s tourism minister. Delatour, the paper writes, is responsible for “selling a future for Haiti to his own people and an audience of international donors, who will help fund an urban rebirth starting from virtually zero.” And he is doing so in a loft outside Port-au-Prince that now serves as the primary HQ for reconstruction planning. Already Delatour has begun discussions with the French government and a number of American universities about providing technical assistance in planning and engineering for the reconstruction of the city, but he adds, he’s “confident in Haiti's ability to offer the leadership that is necessary.” Time picks up the story of reconstruction from there, with reporting that PM Jean-Max Bellerive plans to take a “good recovery action plan,” one that “won't just rebuild what was destroyed but present the Haiti that we're all dreaming of 10 years down the line,” to a UN donor’s conference in NYC next month. But, Bellerive goes on to say, thinking about such a plan is difficult amidst so many urgent needs. “When you still have 10% of your population living in the streets, when basic human shelter problems aren't resolved yet, you can't say you're satisfied.” As so many other reports have noted as well, particular responsibility has fallen to Bellerive himself as President Rene Préval continues to “come under sharp criticism for his remote and lackluster example during the catastrophe.”
· With more Haiti stories, President Preval himself arrived in Mexico on a Mexican plane yesterday for the Rio Group summit. There he told reporters that the death toll from the January quake might reach 300,000. The New York Times reports on how survivors of the quake in need of aid are using text messaging to reach aid groups. More on the arrival of the rainy season in the Wall Street Journal this weekend, along with the increased reports of illness like diarrhea, pneumonia and malaria that are quickly accompanying the change in weather. And, from the AP, PM Jean Max-Bellerive also said this weekend that the government plans to expropriate private land to provide areas for the resettlement of homeless Haitian quake survivors. Such a plan has been advocated by aid and human rights groups, among them Human Rights Watch, which said Friday that “there is little evidence that meaningful efforts have been made to negotiate the land acquisition and secure proper land titles. It is essential that this be given priority.”
· Via Plan Colombia and Beyond, news about a recently released report, “Truth Behind Bars,” from the Berkeley Law School’s International Human Rights Law Clinic. The report documents the impact of U.S. extraditions of former AUC paramilitaries from Colombia. Such extraditions have added numerous challenges to the search for truth and justice in Colombia, the report argues, as victims have been unable to pursue “economic redress” against the accused and Colombian prosecutors have been unable to gain important information to further judicial investigations. The International Human Rights Law Clinic’s recommendations for the US government include: 1. To create an effective and efficient procedure for judicial cooperation, 2. Incentivize extradited paramilitary leaders to disclose details about all their crimes and the identities of their accomplices in the military, government and national and foreign businesses, and 3. Initiate investigations for torture committed by extradited paramilitary leaders. The report will be the topic of discussion at the Washington Office on Latin America, this Friday, February 26, for those in the Washington, D.C. area.
· From Mexico, the LA Times writes this weekend that the killing of a group of teenagers in Juarez at the end of January will likely be seen as turning point for the country’s fight against drug cartels. Tracy Wilkinson writes: “Some in Mexico are wondering whether this is their nation's tipping point, a moment when public outrage that has bubbled along finally overcomes the fear and fatalism that largely silenced or intimidated Mexican society.” Here’s Marcos Fastlicht, a Mexico City businessman who heads an organization calling for more citizen participation in crime prevention: “For the very, very first time, people, civil society as a whole, have come together and decided, this is enough. And they've said that to Calderon . . . to his ministers . . . that they are not going to take any more" neglect and broken promises.” New polls also show a significant decline in the support of Mr. Calderon’s government, with his anti-crime policies being the subject of most discontent. The Economist this week also highlights Mexico’s drug war in Juarez, as does Time who reports that those who have long been criticizing Calderon’s drug war strategy were joined this week by “some of the government’s key allies.” Among them, members of Calderón's own conservative National Action Party, regional business lobbies and the Roman Catholic Church. And also from the LA Times, news, via an opinion, that drug violence may be causing more and more Mexican immigrants to put down deeper roots in the U.S. rather than planning a return back to the country.
· Last week’s U.S.-Cuba migration talks ended after one day, and the LA Times says, the meetings were largely overshadowed by a U.S. decision to meet with dissident groups Saturday and the imprisonment of US contractor, Alan Gross. Also, interesting news by way of Miami Herald’s Cuban Colada blog that political prisoners in Cuba have petitioned Brazil’s Lula da Silva to talk with Raul Castro about the possibility of their release. The letter from 42 Cuban political prisoners to the Brazilian government says Lula can be “a magnificent interlocutor” who “can get the Cuban government to embark on the economic, political and social reforms that are urgently needed, advance in its respect of human rights, achieve the long-hoped-for national reconciliation, and bring the nation out of the profound crisis in which it finds itself.”
· From BBC Mundo, three stories of interest: a report that three Paraguayan businessmen were arrested in Miami for alleged links to Hezbollah; a statement from UN official and CICIG head Carlos Castresana in Guatemala who says the country’s security and justice systems have practically collapsed and are incapable of protecting citizens from rising crime; and news on the reopening of the Rettig and Valech Commissions in Chile this week to receive new citizen claims of human rights violations. The commissions will then decide on reparations for such victims and their families.
· Finally, the usual Monday opinions from Andres Oppenheimer on Brazil-Iran relations and Mary Anastasia O’Grady on Nicaragua-Venezuela relations.
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