One month after the devastating 7.0 earthquake in Haiti, President Rene Preval took to the airwaves last Friday to address his country publicly for the first time. The country must “dry its eyes” and begin the long process of rebuilding, Preval told his countrymen in a short speech delivered at the Univ. of Notre Dame’s nursing school in the capital city and broadcast on Haitian radio. Preval’s words also marked the beginning of a six-day “period of national mourning” which will end with a public “celebration of life” in Port-au-Prince’s main square at the end of this week. This all according to Reuters which adds that PM Jean-Max Bellerive, various government ministers, and Senate President Kely Bastien all joined Preval for his Friday address.
With other reports from Haiti this weekend, the New York Times focuses on the collapse of Haiti’s educational system. “Haiti’s best universities are in wreckage, their campuses now jumbles of collapsed concrete, mangled desks and chairs, and buried coursework. Hundreds of professors and students were entombed,” the paper’s Marc Lacey reports. The Times goes on: “The obliteration of higher education is expected to have longstanding effects on this devastated country, where even in the best of times a tiny percentage of young people went on to college.” Leading the efforts to find temporary solutions to Haiti’s post-quake education challenges is UNESCO, who has called on universities outside Haiti to admit displaced Haitian students.
From Reuters, news that Haiti’s airport is expected to reopen to major commercial airlines on Friday. The announcement comes from the US Air Force who still controls traffic at the airport. American Airlines will be the first to regain access to Port-au-Prince’s landing strip, followed by Air France and Air Canada.
The Washington Post’s Juan Forero files a report Monday on how the small, politically connected Haitian elite is “positioning itself for business opportunities emerging from the country's reconstruction.” In particular, writes Forero, “the textile industry…is gearing up to add tens of thousands of jobs, thanks to U.S. legislation approved in 2008 that gives Haitian garments duty-free, quota-free access to the United States.” The Post says this all is a “cruel irony” for many Haitians who frequently hold the country’s elite responsible for the country’s inequality and poverty. IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno attempted to address such concerns, speaking to the paper about the Haitian business community’s role in reconstruction. “I'm not going to get into who is corrupt, who's not, but what I have found is that the business community realizes that it has to change,” says Moreno. “These are people who are thinking about paying more taxes, about taking part in rebuilding Haiti for the good of the country.”
Moreno continues with an opinion at the Huffington Post this weekend, saying it’s time to “help Haiti rethink and reconfigure.” “Many have questioned whether the government in Port au Prince is up to the task of building a new nation that lifts people out of poverty and ends the negative cycle that has made Haiti the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere,” Moreno writes. “I do not share that view.” Rather, the IDB president argues, his talks with President René Préval have indicated that the Haitian government supports the international community's efforts to “strengthen the government's ability to plan and lead the enormous task ahead.” Among the new initiatives Moreno recommends: a multi-donor trust fund and a “comprehensive development strategy” that focuses on decentralization and the creation of sustainable economic activity outside of the capital. And USAID coordinator, Rajiv Shah, also writes at the Huffington Post. “Haitians have taken the lead in determining the future of their nation,” says Shah, and “the spirit of cooperation now continues.” In what seems to be an attempt to allay concerns that the U.S. is calling the shots, Shah goes on: “The Government of Haiti sets the priorities. Partners answer their call, helping to meet not only the urgent need, but also to support Haiti 's long-term development.”
In other stories this weekend:
· Behind the scenes at last week’s UNASUR summit, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa did end up meeting face-to-face with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. According to Reuters, the private talks resulted in the reestablishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries—a relationship that was frozen after Colombia’s March 2008 cross-border military assault on a FARC camp. Also on Colombia-Ecuador relations, the LA Times’ Chris Kraul has a story this weekend on the increased levels of migration from Colombia into Ecuador as a result of drug violence. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, reports Kraul, issued a statement last month saying “the number of Colombian refugees tripled in the last six months of 2009, compared with the same period the previous year.” Those numbers translate into some 80,000 documented Colombians in Ecuador and as many as 200,000 more who are undocumented. The highest levels of displacement are in seen in border state of Narino where “guerilla groups, narco gangs, and paramilitaries” all compete to control coca cultivation.
· Other Colombia stories this weekend include Alvaro Uribe suggestively hinting that he desires a third term in office. “Eight years is very little time in a country that has only had 47 years of peace over the last 200 years,” Uribe told a reporter who asked about re-election last week. Colombia’s constitutional court continues its deliberation on whether to allow a referendum on a third straight term for the president to go forward. And this morning, Reuters reports that five are dead and four injured after FARC guerrillas ambushed a convoy transporting a Conservative Party candidate for governor in Guaviare.
· Cuba watchers have had much to say in the last few days after vocal anti-Castro, pro-embargo Florida representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart said he will not be seeking an 11th term in office. There’s full analysis of possible repercussions of the announcement from the Center for Democracy in the Americas’ Cuba Central team and the Lexington Institute’s Phil Peters at The Cuban Triangle. Also on Cuba, a very good examination of Cuban medical diplomacy—in Haiti (where over 600 Cuban doctors are now working) and beyond—at Global Post over the weekend.
· The latest edition of the academic journal Latin American Perspectives has a piece by political scientist Steve Ellner who explores “breakthroughs” and “shortcomings” during Hugo Chavez’s first decade in power. I haven’t gotten through the whole piece yet, but recommend nonetheless given Ellner’s reputation for providing fair and thoughtful analysis of politics in the country. Other Venezuela items of note today: from the AP, authorities found 28 airplanes in central Venezuela, presumably being used by drug traffickers. The aircraft have since been impounded by the Venezuelan police and National Guard. And from the LAHT, Hugo Chavez turned the recently expropriated French supermarket chain Exito into a new state-run market called the “Bicentennial Hyper Market.” According to the president, the store will provide “Fair prices and eliminate profit” in providing food stuffs to Venezuelans. The same day—Sunday—Chavez also announced the creation of “bicentennial youth front,” which the president argued would be a counter to student-led opposition groups.
· The LA Times has a fascinating, in-depth report on the “decentralized” business model of heroin traffickers, made up mostly of immigrants from Xalisco, Mexico in the Pacific Coast state of Nayari. Here’s an excerpt, but the whole piece is worth a read:
“Xalisco bosses have avoided the nation's largest cities with established heroin organizations. Instead, using Southern California and Phoenix as staging areas, they have established networks in Salt Lake City; Reno; Boise, Idaho; Indianapolis; Nashville; and Myrtle Beach, S.C., among other places. From those cities, their heroin -- called black tar because it's sticky and dark -- has made its way into suburbs and small towns.”
· The LA Times also reports that Western Union has settled with the state of Arizona over accusations that it has facilitated money transfers for Mexican smuggling groups. And the paper (along with a piece at IPS) runs an opinion this morning on violence against journalists in Mexico. Author Tony Cohen and Tamsin Mitchell write:
“Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to work as a journalist. From January 2004 to December 2009, a total of 27 writers -- 26 print journalists and one author -- were slain, seven of them in 2009 alone. Five others have disappeared. Last month, two more Mexican journalists were killed. Few if any of these crimes have been properly investigated or prosecuted.”
· Lastly, in the Miami Herald, Andres Oppenheimer gets Chilean president-elect Sebastian Pinera’s first interview with a foreign journalist. Their topic of discussion: the OAS and Venezuela. Pinera’s mixed responses: he will follow the tradition of “non-interference” advocated out by his predecessors but will also “seek that the Organization of American States Charter and the OAS mandate to defend democracy and human rights be made more effective.”
No comments:
Post a Comment