After 4,483 Days, FARC Releases Colombian Soldier

After 12 years in captivity (or as Plan Colombia and Beyond writes, 4,483 days, to be precise), Corporal Pablo Emilio Moncayo was released by FARC rebels Tuesday. The group which received Moncayo in the hand-off included a Colombian priest, the International Red Cross, and Sen. Piedad Cordoba. A Brazilian military helicopter again provided the exit transport.

Moncayo, just 19 when he was captured by the FARC, was eventually flown to the city of Florencia, Colombia where he was reunited with his family (the exact location of his release by the FARC was not disclosed, says the AP). Moncayo’s father drew international attention in 2007 for walking in chains across the country to raise awareness about his son’s situation. In a public statement following his release, the Colombian soldier thanked the efforts of Venezuela, Ecuador, and Brazil who he said helped secure the hand-off. According to Sen. Cordoba, a long-time negotiator with the FARC, the rebel group has said the release of Moncayo would be the last unilateral release of a FARC hostage (21 additional soldiers and police officials still remain in the guerrillas’ hands while the government body Fondelibertad says at least 79 individuals in total remain held in captivity by the FARC and other armed groups). And while Alvaro Uribe said he was open to a humanitarian agreement that might include prisoner swaps for remaining FARC captives, as Adam Isacson notes, the words do not represent any significant change from earlier positions taken by the president on the issue.

To other stories this morning:

· The UN Haiti reconstruction conference begins today in New York. The Wall Street Journal reports that Rene Preval will be presenting an “action plan” to individuals gathered for the talks and representing some 120 countries from around the world. The plan would include an initial pledge of $3.8 billion over the next year and a half (note: Reuters differs slightly, saying just $1.3 billion is being requested for the first 18 months, and nearly $4 billion over the first 3 years, but most reports use the figures quoted in the WSJ). The plan estimates $11.5 billion will be needed in total. This aid money would first go toward the immediate short-term needs of the country—particularly the issue of shelter—while also helping to rebuild the country’s damaged port, schools, and hospitals. The statement Mr. Preval will present reads, “We see Haiti as an emergent country by 2030.”

· The Washington Post’s coverage of Haiti focuses on the US end of the aid issue, saying Sec. of State Hillary Clinton is expected to pledge an additional “$1 billion or so” for reconstruction efforts. But, say US officials, this time the aid will go toward “building up Haiti’s fragile government, instead of working around it.” “We are completely focused on how to build the capacity of the Haitian government effectively, Clinton’s chief of staff and Haiti point woman, Cheryl Mills, tells the paper. As the Post itself writes:

“In an emergency spending request sent to Congress last week, the administration says it will help reconstruct the Haitian government, paying for new ministry offices. More broadly, the goal is to develop the framework of a modern state -- spending money to help Haiti create building codes, regulatory systems and anticorruption standards. U.S. funds would be used to train and pay Haitian officials. “

· In the New York Times the focus today is on how little of the aid already pledged to Haiti has actually been given to the Haitian government thus far. “More than $1.35 billion has been committed to Haiti in humanitarian assistance…,”the paper writes, “but less than $23 million in cash has been given to the Haitian government so far…” The report also focuses on the creation of a special reconstruction commission through which donors and the Haitian government would be required to sign off on reconstruction projects and expenditures. The government said Tuesday that such a commission would be led by Bill Clinton and President Rene Preval (note: in the past the name of PM Jean-Max Bellrive has been more frequently associated with the commission, not Preval). The Times’ piece also notes that some European diplomats are getting frustrated with the US State Dept.—and the Clintons in particular—who appear to be running the UN conference that some are calling “The Bill and Hillary Show”. A second NYT report looks at the issue of decentralization away from Port-au-Prince, also central to the government’s action plan.

· And in a piece at the Huffington Post by longtime UN reporter Evelyn Leopold there is also word of an idea being floated by some UN officials, including new UN Haiti mission head, Edmond Mulet, which would see large donors (Brazil, Canada, France, Spain, and the EU) pledge support for specific sorts of reconstruction in a geographical area or on a thematic project (land registration, fixing power grids, repairing roads etc). The goal of such a plan: reducing a duplication of tasks.

· In the LA Times this morning, more about ongoing violence against journalists in post-coup Honduras. As mentioned yesterday, five journalists were killed this month alone with 0 arrests coming out of the murders. The paper writes: “The violence illustrates the depth to which Honduras remains unsettled and on edge, even after a new president was elected in November and installed in January amid promises to heal national divisions.” The paper notes all the reporters killed were shot in drive-by attacks. Some were opponents of the June coup; others had few known political leanings; and still others who have been targeted supported the coup.

· More on crackdowns against freedom expression in Venezuela by Time’s Tim Padgett this morning. In talking about the detainment (and later release) of Globovisión’s Guillermo Zuloaga last week, Padgett’s intro is an attention grabber.

“Guillermo Zuloaga isn't exactly a paragon of responsible journalism. In 2002 he and his Venezuelan television network, Globovisión, backed a military coup against democratically elected President Hugo Chávez. Since then, Globovisión has been so gratuitously and vociferously anti-Chávez it makes Rush Limbaugh's attacks on Barack Obama seem even-handed.”

But Padgett goes on: “So who could make a media martyr out of a guy like Zuloaga? Chávez may well have done it on March 25, when his left-wing government arrested Zuloaga for making comments ‘offensive and disrespectful’ to the President.” Those words included Zuloaga’s comments at a media freedom conference in Aruba that it was a shame Chavez had not been overthrown for good in the 2002 coup. Zuloaga also stated that the 2002 putsch occurred because Chavez first ordered anti-government protestors be fired upon—an opposition charge that has never been proven. Padgett also goes over the case of Oswaldo Alvarez Paz and says “It's not due process of law that's being criticized in these cases. It's the law itself (namely, the idea that criminalizing free speech is not compatible with the notion of human rights) that's under international scrutiny, even in judicially challenged Latin America.” There’s a lot more excellent—and very even-handed—analysis in the article, so I recommend giving it a full look.

· From the AP, the suspect arrested in the murder of three individuals with US consulate links in Juarez is saying assassins were targeting the vehicle of a Texas jail guard who was killed in one of the two vehicles attacked just over two weeks ago. The words hint that El Paso jail officer Arthur H. Redelfs, husband of a US consulate employee also killed in the attack was the primary target of the hit.

· In Guatemala, Carlos Arago Cardona was convicted of “illicit association” in the murder of Rodrigo Rosenberg last year and sentenced to two years in prison. The verdict was the first in the bizarre Rosenberg murder case. Seven others are still on trial.

· Cuban hunger striker Guillermo Farinas rejected an asylum offer from Spain earlier this week—an offer which Spain hoped might prevent another dissident death and further steps backward in the international community’s relationship with the island.

· A Miami Herald piece today looks at how women—particularly former “beauty queens”—are becoming key participants in the world of drug trafficking. As if from a movie, the most recent case involves Colombian model Angie Sanclemente who has allegedly been transporting large amounts of cocaine from Argentina to the EU in her suitcase at a price of $5000 per trip.

· The New York Times reports on another externality of sorts, associated with the drug trade: the rescue (and re-locating in “sanctuary houses”) of exotic animals from drug traffickers and paramilitary leaders in Colombia. With Camels, lions, and tigers, the animals offer what Simon Romero calls a “strange window into the excesses and brutalities carried out in this country’s endless drug wars.”

· A correction on something I reported here yesterday. The “short-list” of candidates for a top human rights position at the UN is for a new assistant secretary general position on human rights—not for the position of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (that position continues to be held by Navanethem Pillay who will lead the selection process for the new ass’t. secretary general position). For more, see Colum Lynch at FP’s Turtle Bay blog.

· Finally, a few opinions. In the Miami Herald, Andrew Selee, David Shirk, and Eric Olson write on “five myths about the Mexican drug war.” A Wall Street Journal editorial denounces the detainment of Guillermo Zuloaga and Oswaldo Alvarez Paz, as does a piece by conservative columnist Carlos Alberto Montaner (who connects the arrest to Venezuela-Cuba links) in the Herald yesterday. And at Foreign Policy in Focus, John Feffer, publisher of World Beat (one of the best and most entertaining weekly foreign policy columns around), compares the Haitian and Chilean quakes ahead of today’s UN conference. According to Feffer, “mundane indicators, such as national income equality, marginal tax rates, and number of government building inspectors” tell us the most about the difference between the two cases—words international donors would be wise to consider. “Neither politics nor economics alone determined outcomes but, rather, political economy: the way political structures and actors interact with economic forces,” says Feffer.

More Domestic Opposition to Mexico's Drug War?

With the passing of another weekend, reports on drug violence in Mexico again fill early week papers in the US. The New York Times this morning has coverage of the “massacre” of 10 youth—ages 8 to 21—traveling in a pickup truck in the state of Durango Sunday. The murder of the group, on their way from a small farming community to collect student financial aid money, is called “baffling” by the paper. Officials, however, note the area has increasingly become a battlefield between the Sinaloa cartel and the Zetas. Moreover, the murders were part of some 21 reported murders around the country on Sunday alone.

Meanwhile, both the Times and others add that an arrest has been made in connection to the murder of US consular official and her husband in Juarez two weeks ago. Ricardo Valles de la Rosa, leader of the Barrio Azteca prison gang, was picked up last Friday in connection with the killings. Reports indicate that the arrest came with FBI help. Valles de la Rosa has been sought on both sides of the border for his involvement in drug trafficking.

In the Wall Street Journal this morning, Nicholas Casey reports that the drug war in Mexico is now taking its toll on Mexico’s elites. The paper writes on the death of two university students at Monterrey’s Institute of Technology and Higher Education on March 19. In the Journal’s words, the killings signal another important shift in public opinion:

“The killings have brought the country's bloody drug war close to home for Mexico's middle and upper class, which have remained at a distance from the daily turf battles between rival cartels. Now the elites are joining poorer Mexicans in questioning the use of lethal military force to fight drug cartels in their cities, and whether the army could be killing more innocent victims than it claims.”

The report continues with opinions from Human Rights Watch Americas Director, José Miguel Vivanco who says the Monterrey Tech case illustrates a general lack of accountability in Mexico's army. The paper paraphrases Vivanco: “Victims of military abuse have few avenues to ensure their cases are fairly heard, because human rights complaints are handled by military tribunals with little incentive to convict.” It’s on these points which both NACLA and IPS also have recent pieces. First, NACLA reports on a Mexican Supreme Court decision from earlier this month which upheld limits on the amount of information the country’s attorney general’s office must hand over to the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH). In effect, says human rights lawyer Luis Miguel Cano, the new law gives the attorney general “discretion to decide what information it will withhold from the CNDH” and limits transparency and accountability for actions taken by Mexican security forces. Second, IPS writes on a UN Human Rights Committee statement last Friday which says Mexico has failed to make progress on human rights issues related to violence against women, journalists, and abuses committed by military troops conducted police work.

Finally on Mexico and the drug war this morning, the LA Times also has more on last week’s arrest of heroin kingpin, Jose Antonio Medina Arreguin, who, the paper says, Ventura County prosecutors are now working to extradite for a California trial.

In other stories:

· A day before the UN international donors conference on Haitian reconstruction is set to begin in New York, the Washington Post’s Colum Lynch reports that the Haitian government plans to unveil a $3.9 billion reconstruction action plan. The plan would apparently redirect large amounts of aid money away from Port-au-Prince and to the interior of the country, “creating provisional economic hubs to compete with the capital.” The proposed plan is the first phase of reconstruction efforts, the paper says, and comes out a study conducted by both Haitian and international reconstruction specialists. The plan also calls for a “Multiple-Donor Fiduciary Fund” to oversee reconstruction monies. Also at tomorrow’s NY meetings, Sec. General Ban-Ki Moon is expected to announce the appointment of current interim Haiti envoy, Edmond Mulet, as permanent head of the UN’s mission in the country. In the Miami Herald, Jacqueline Charles examines those who continue asking whether Haiti is prepared to manage a massive infusion of new aid. “There is a lot of goodwill to give money. That's not the problem,'' said Ciro De Falco, coordinator of the Inter-American Development Bank's Haiti Task Force, quoted in the report. “The real challenge is execution, implementation.” The paper adds that new legislation was presented to the Haitian parliament Monday, which if passed next week, would give broad new powers to the Haitian government and create an “Interim Haiti Recovery Commission” to be chaired by PM Jean-Max Bellerive and Bill Clinton. And via CEPR’s Haiti Watch, a set of US civil society group recommendations for Haitian reconstruction was also released yesterday (full document here). The plan includes both short-term recovery objectives and long-term reconstruction and development goals which should be taken into account ahead of tomorrow’s UN conference.

· The LA Times and others reported yesterday on the FARC’s release of a Colombian military soldier, held captive for the last 11 months. The International Red Cross, Sen. Piedad Cordoba, and a Brazilian helicopter were all involved in the release. The rebel group may also soon free another Colombian soldier who has been held in captivity for the last 12 years. The Latin America News Disptach highlights the release in its news round-up yesterday, adding that “Colombian President Álvaro Uribe opened the door to the humanitarian [prison swap] agreement in a speech on Sunday…” As the BBC writes, Uribe said such a prisoner exchange agreement would, however, be conditioned on freed FARC rebels not returning to the ranks of the FARC, or to other “criminal activities.”

· In Bolivia, gubernatorial elections are set for this weekend. At the Democracy Center’s blog, Jim Shultz has a recent post previewing the poll, focusing on four races in particular which may be worth watching (including the MAS candidacy of former Miss Bolivia, Jessica Jordan). Schultz’s overall prediction: “Regardless of the final MAS/Opposition split among the governorships, what is certain is that the opposition will be in a far, far weaker position then after the 2005 elections that thrust the governors into the leading role. There will be fewer opposition governors and those that remain will have political bases that are much less secure. Nor will there be any genuinely effective opposition to MAS and Morales at the national level.” He continues: “MAS has succeeded in becoming what is known in political terms as a "big tent", a tent so big that it includes not only MAS' core original base but a beauty queen and long-time functionaries of the old parties.”

· More journalist murders in Honduras this weekend brought the total to 5 in the last month. According to the AP, the latest killings took the lives of radio voices Jose Bayardo and Manuel de Jesus Juarez in the eastern province of Olancho. No motive has yet been determined, but, in a recent statement, the Washington Office on Latin America says “continued human rights violations and pervasive impunity will undermine the government's capacity to rebuild trust in democratic institutions and embolden perpetrators of political violence.”

· In Ecuador, questions of press freedom surround the sentencing of editorial writer, Emilio Palacio, to three years in prison for writing an article in August which “made fun of official Camilo Saman for supposedly sending bodyguards to the newspaper to complain about a news story.” The court determined Palacio “insulted the head of the Ecuador government's National Financial Corp.” which apparently can get you some serious jail time in the country. In Chile, Sebastian Pinera will be the latest Latin American president taking to the internet. Global Voices says Pinera and his entire cabinet have just opened Twitter accounts. In Venezuela, meanwhile, Twitter has Hugo Chavez in a spin, according to Reuters this morning. Venezuelans—many of them opponents of the president—are using the “microblogging” site in record numbers. [Seven of the top 10 most followed Twitter accounts in the country are strongly critical of Chavez, while his defenders do not appear until number 66 in the list]. Interestingly, however, the report does note that Venezuela’s Twitter boom may, in part, be due to Chavez’s government itself. “When Chavez came to power in 1999, internet access was a privilege of the rich and only 5.8 percent of Venezuelans used it. But thanks in part to the government's own efforts -- it launched thousands of free Internet centers in the country’s poorest and most remote shantytowns -- access has shot up.”

· In other news/events related to the digitalization of Latin America, Americas Quarterly will be hosting a live online discussion tomorrow, March 31, on technological inclusion in the Americas. “Paulo Rogério, author of The Digital Integrator in the Winter issue of Americas Quarterly and founder of Brazil’s Instituto Mídia Étnica, will lead an online discussion that addresses the underlying conditions behind exclusion from the digital revolution and how these challenges can be addressed,” a magazine release on the event says.

· A major ideologue of the Bolivarian Revolution and co-founder of the PSUV broke with President Hugo Chavez yesterday. Left wing thinker and former military man, Alberto Muller Rojas, announced his resignation from politics Monday saying he was tired of seeing “more of the same.” In an interview with Diario Panorama, he also called the last three months in Venezuela “wretched.” In 2007, Muller Rojas was one of the most vocal critics of the polarization of the military among Chavez supporters.

· I’m not sure if Brazilian President Lula da Silva reads the WSJ but he took some of the advice offered there this weekend, announcing yesterday the beginning of a massive new, $880 billion infrastructure plan for the next six years.

· Two Latin Americans (Argentine Juan Méndez and Brazilian Paulo Sergio Pinheiro) are on the short-list of four to become the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

· Finally, two Haiti opinions this morning include an editorial in the LA Times and Prof. Vijay Prashad at Counterpunch, who writes on foreign aid lessons for Haiti today which might be learned from the 1982-1990 famine in Ethiopia. His piece includes this astounding statistic of the day. “According to the World Bank, for every $1 of aid sent South, $25 goes to the North in debt-servicing.”

Examining Brazil's Rise and Future

New poll numbers released this weekend say Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s popularity has hit a record high. According to the polling group Datafolha, 76% of Brazilians see the outgoing government of the charismatic, one-time trade unionist as either “good” or “great.” That’s up three points from a similar poll taken last February. The president credits improved socioeconomic numbers for his ongoing popularity.

That news leads into two Brazil analysis pieces run by the Wall Street Journal over weekend. First, Paulo Prada writes about Brazil’s rise on the world stage—with some analysis of what remains to be still accomplished. “For the past century, Brazil has been a land of great potential—but few results. With runaway inflation and stratospheric national debt, the country was too much of a mess for anyone to take it seriously on the world stage. How times have changed,” Prada begins. Challenges that the next Brazilian government must tackle include “a bloated and corrupt public sector,” crime, a lagging public education system, and infrastructure improvements, the WSJ goes on to write, but the promise outweighs the shortcomings in Prada’s analysis. The paper credits an interesting mix of robust social welfare programs, fiscal prudence and aggressive state development bank policies, which have opened up new lines of credit for Brazil’s boom, even through the global recession of the last two years. Looking forward, the Journal quotes Lula himself who compared past and future in a speech in late December, “If the past year was about measures to stimulate consumption, now our emphasis is on reinforcing investments and thereby making the wheel of the economy roll in a healthy and sustainable way.”

A second WSJ piece by Antonio Regalado focuses on Brazilian electoral politics, arguing Brazilians will be looking for more of the same, not change, when they head to the polls later this year. “Brazil has never been so good as now,” says Jesus Dias Ferreira, a 62-year-old resident of Rio de Janeiro. “There is a soccer saying, ‘If a team is winning, don't change it.’” But it remains to be seen whether Lula’s handpicked successor Dilma Rouseff or center-right Sao Paulo Gov. Jose Serra best represents voter views of continuity, the paper maintains. In particular contrast to Lula, neither marshals the charismatic image that the outgoing president has used to unite the country behind his political program. Interestingly, Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue argues that the many believe the biggest difference between a potential Rouseff and Serra government would be in foreign policy. Some say that “if Dilma wins, it is a huge setback for Washington,” Shifter says. That opinion may be misplaced, however. “Brazil sees itself as an important power that is a counterweight to the U.S. in the Western hemisphere” and a crucial player in trade and political alliances among the so-called BRIC nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China, Shifter contends. “That shapes their identity and is the role that they want to play in the world.”

In other Brazil news this morning, EFE also has a piece on another major development of the last year: the country’s rising military budget. In the coming days it is expected that Brazil will announce the purchase of 36 new fighter jets. Brazil also recently purchased some 50 new military helicopters and five new submarines from a French military manufacturer.

On to other major stories from this weekend:

· The Economist this week looks at the new look of US-Mexico drug war cooperation, saying Sec. of State Hillary Clinton and her Mexican counterparts sought “more than soaring rhetoric” during last week’s high level meetings. A broadened counternarcotics strategy is the talk of the day in Mexico, including an increased focus on social development, organized crime, and intelligence sharing. This latter novelty will apparently occur through something the magazine calls “fusion centers.” That is, embedding American intelligence agents with Mexican analysts. The magazine continues, arguing such an increased American presence would have irked many the Mexican nationalist before, but in the words of Denise Dresser, professor of political science at ITAM, “the situation has gotten so bad that you’re starting to see a wearing down of that reflexive, historical anti-Americanism.”

· Also, on Mexico, the drug war, and its related effects, the New York Times notes that $85 million in illicit cash was seized by custom authorities on the Mexico border last year—a 22% increase over the prior year. The seizures come as part of a pumped up US effort to check traffic going south into Mexico. On Sunday, more than 7000 marched in protest against a recent wave of violence in Monterrey. Just hours later, two soldiers and one civilian were wounded in a shootout in the city. Also Sunday, an interview with President Felipe Calderon was aired on Fareed Zakaria’s news show, GPS. There Calderon said US gun lobbies are blocking the implementation of tough restrictions on assault weapons sales in the US—weapons which often make their way into Mexico and have fueled drug war violence. Calderon also told Zakaria it would not be useless for Mexico to “legalize” drugs without the US also doing so (note: Calderon uses the word “legalize,” rather than “decriminalize”).

· And the Wall Street Journal reports that US customs officials are no longer deporting Mexicans charged with various crimes in the US to Ciudad Juarez. “‘Starting March 4, Mexicans who have served time for crimes in the U.S. and who were set to be deported into Juárez, the Mexican city next to El Paso, Texas, have instead been transferred to other entry points into Mexico, including Eagle Pass, Laredo and Del Rio, Texas, according to a law-enforcement official in Washington who wasn't authorized to speak about the changes publicly,” the Journal reports. ICE deported 136,126 “criminal aliens” last year. More than two-thirds were apparently sent back to Mexico, according to the report. Juarez mayor José Reyes Ferriz has also been lobbying the US on this point for some time it seems. A study by Juarez city officials last year showed that about 10% of those killed in the city were former deportees. Read in conjunction with a disturbing weekend Washington Post piece on ICE deportation quotas for undocumented immigrants, this news may decidedly mixed in the grand scheme of things.

· The US Justice Dept. released late last week its 2010 National Drug Threat Assessment which looks at trafficking and drug abuse trends within the US over the last year. Many of the trends, as one would expect, are explicitly connected to the situation in Latin America, according to the report.

· On Haiti before this week’s donor’s conference in New York, the New York Times reports on how January’s quake accentuated social inequalities in the country. The piece is somewhat disturbing, discussing “revelry” at nightclubs in wealthy sectors of the city being “as loud” or “louder” than before the quake. The whole piece is recommended, but here’s an excerpt:

“People in tent camps reeking of sewage are living in areas where prosperous Haitians, foreign aid workers and diplomats come to spend their money and unwind. Often, just a gate and a private guard armed with a 12-gauge shotgun separate the newly homeless from establishments like Les Galeries Rivoli, a boutique where wealthy Haitians and foreigners shop for Raymond Weil watches and Izod shirts.”

· The Miami Herald reports on how the recent attention on rights abuses in Cuba may derail congressional action to ease trade and travel sanctions. In the New York Times, meanwhile, Marc Lacey looks at how some business groups are “dreaming of profits in post-embargo Cuba.” The report comes out of a conference last week in Cancún which brought together American travel industry executives and Cuban government officials to discuss the future of US-Cuba business relations.

· More on Venezuela this weekend as another Chavez opponent is in the news for allegedly “striking a police official.” The lawmaker, Wilmer Azuaje, was subsequently barred by the Supreme Court from talking to any media outlet about the case. Azuaje says the charges leveled against him are false and politically motivated. Venezuela’s National Assembly removed the legislator’s immunity in the case last week, opening the door for prosecution.

· The Economist reports on the growth of organized crime—particularly related to financial crimes—in Ecuador. The paper maintains that “…whereas violence has declined in Colombia and Peru, Ecuador has acquired a reputation as a new capital of financial crime.” “The Financial Action Task Force, an inter-governmental body, [last month] declared that Ecuador has not shown ‘a clear high-level political commitment’ to address its ‘strategic deficiencies’ in fighting money laundering and the financing of terrorism.”

· Finally, wrapping up with opinions. On Haiti, Ban-Ki Moon in the Washington Post and editorials in the New York Times, the Post, and the Herald. Sen. Chris Dodd, also in the Herald argues not for US occupation of the country but for Haiti to be placed under some sort of informal UN international trusteeship. On Mexico, Andres Oppenheimer says the country is fighting six wars, not one, facing challenges ranging from oil to water shortages to education and beyond. Steve Chapman, at Real Clear World, calls on Californians to legalize weed as a means of fighting drug traffickers. And on Honduras, Mary Anastasia O’Grady in the Wall Street Journal continues to hammer on US Amb. Hugo Llorens and what she calls the United States policy of “dividing Hondurans” while “strengthening the hand” of chavistas.

Globovision Head Detained, Released in Venezuela

A second high-profile critic of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez was detained by intelligence officials Thursday. This time it was Globovision president, Guillermo Zuloaga, who was picked up at a northwestern Venezuela airport, flown to Caracas for questioning on what Venezuelan attorney general Luisa Ortega calls spreading false information “offensive” to the government of Hugo Chavez, and then released. That charge apparently stems from a speech Zuloaga gave Sunday at a forum on press freedoms in Aruba, sponsored by the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA). According to the Wall Street Journal, via Globovision itself, Mr. Zuloaga’s release came with the condition that he would not leave the country (Zuloaga says he on his way to Bonaire for an Easter holiday while the attorney general claims the head of Globovision was on his way out of the country for good).

The brief detention of Zuloaga comes as former Gov. Oswaldo Alvarez Paz remains in jail for comments he made on the Globovision two weeks ago, critical of the Chavez’s alleged relationship with narcotraffickers and the FARC. Quoted in the WSJ’s coverage, Miguel Henrique Otero, editor of the Venezuelan daily, El Nacional, responds to the two arrests. “They [the government] want to scare anyone who has an opinion. It’s as if every Venezuelan is on parole and could be arrested at any moment.” It’s interesting to note, as the WSJ does, that media crackdowns by the Chavez government have specifically targeted television stations while the country’s major opposition newspapers have remained in large part “exempt” (although some newspaper owners fear they could be next, according to the report). The media has been a criticized by President Hugo Chavez since the 2002 coup which temporarily removed him from office—an action Chavez says major media moguls supported.

More on the arrest of Zuloaga from the New York Times which reports that the head of Globovision could face a prison term of 3-5 months for his “offensive” commentary, or 3-5 years if convicted on the charge of “divulging false information.” This according to the country’s attorney general.

In other news:

· A major arrest in Mexico’s struggle against drug cartels came Wednesday as the country’s police detained José Antonio Medina, aka “the King of Heroin” or “Don Pepe.” The LA Times says Medina was picked up in Michoacan and, as is the practice, paraded before the media in a press conference Thursday. Officials say Medina ran a heroin ring that smuggled about 440 pounds of the drug into Southern California per month, totaling somewhere around $12 million in monthly profits. Medina’s ring is considered by most experts to be independent but closely allied with “La Familia,” the brutal Michoacan-based drug cartel. The AP adds that while heroin use in the US is largely considered to have stabilized (or even decreased), the principal source of the drug has shifted from Colombia to Mexico in recent years.

· In other drug violence-related stories today, the Wall Street Journal runs a piece on violence in Juarez and its effects on maquiladoras and others businesses in the city. Until two years ago, the paper writes, the city was a “thriving manufacturing hub.” Today, “some executives now carpool to work in a convoy, fearing they could otherwise be abducted. Whole factory work forces are undergoing kidnapping training. Routes to and from the bridge in El Paso are now patrolled by armed military guard.” The New York Times has a note on a major prison break in Matamoros in which 41 prisoners—apparently aided by prison guards—escaped a state penitentiary. The Times also reports on how US border patrol agents are stepping up cross-border cooperation with their Mexican police counterparts. These efforts include more “coordinated operations” and “intelligence sharing,” writes the paper. The report goes on: “The move toward cooperation intensified in the past year after law enforcement leaders in both countries recognized that working separately, they were losing ground against increasingly aggressive and bloody Mexican drug trafficking and immigrant smuggling organizations...” The piece also notes that training Mexican police officer at the border in Nogales, Arizona has been the major experiment related to this new initiative. Interestingly, however, the AP also reports today that Mexican police remain the “biggest culprits” in perpetuating a system of bribery and corruption within the country. Forty-five percent of all instances of bribe demands come from the police, says a new study by BRIBEline. Most of those cases are for purposes of extortion.

· Via CEPR’s Haiti Watch, word and analysis on President Obama’s formal request to Congress this week that $2.8 billion be added to this year’s budget for Haiti reconstruction and recovery efforts (as Haiti Watch notes, much of the $2.8 billion requested by Obama will be used to reimburse funds already spent in Haiti). The BBC says the Senate is close to a deal on a bill that meets the president’s request, and The Cable has more on Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates’ trip to Capitol Hill yesterday to testify about the requested monies. The World Bank estimates that a total of $11.5 billion will be needed for reconstruction. News today says the EU will likely pledge $1.3 billion at next week’s UN donors’ conference. A group of 193 US NGOs also plans to give $464 million for reconstruction and $421 million for relief in Haiti. And, an editorial in the New York Times focuses on Haiti again this morning, worrying that a sense of urgency within the US may be waning even as the emergency in the country deepens.

· Another interesting Haiti story in the Miami Herald this morning looks at how an international coalition of journalists, organized in what is being called the Haiti News Project, are helping the country’s newspaper industry get back on its feet. The project’s head is Joe Oglesby, a former editorial page editor of the Miami Herald. The main objectives of the project include providing equipment and technology, professional training, and tents for homeless reporters. More at the group’s new site, available here.

· Repression against anti-coup resistance activists in Honduras continued this week with the assassination of Honduran professor Jose Manuel Flores at the Tegucigalpa school where he taught classes. Flores was ambushed by hooded individuals and shot in the back while he entered the school Tuesday. A statement from the rights group Rights Action denounces the murder and continued targeting of the FNRP. And via Prof. Adrienne Pine’s blog, Quotha, a statement from the coalition Human Rights Platform has information on the continued threat of violent evictions targeting members of Aguan United Farmworkers Movement (MUCA) engaged in land occupations in the Aguan Valley.

· Repression in Cuba is the subject of another Miami Herald editorial this morning. Meanwhile, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-SD), an advocate of changes to US Cuba policy, called on Cuba to release US contractor, Alan Gross, yesterday as a means of helping persuade Congress to lift the travel ban.

· The online magazine Upside Down World asks why new billionaire Chilean President Sebastian Pinera is getting a salary raise?

· Via La Silla Vacía, the latest poll numbers ahead of late May’s presidential vote in Colombia. A breakdown of the top three candidates puts Juan Manuel Santos with 34.2%, Conservative Noemí Sanín with 23.3%, and Antanas Mockus with 10.4%.

· Finally, with opinions, Mexico-based journalist Mike O’Connor at Global Post is much more skeptical than most that Tuesday’s changes in US-Mexico anti-drug cooperation will have any significant impact. “…we need to remember the bright words from our diplomats in Mexico,” he says, “because they will provide interesting reference points when, not so long from now, the whole thing falls apart. Calderon, or his successor, will be then be lauded by American officials for boldly moving to plan B. Only, no one is talking about what that might be.” And, at the Havana Note, a piece by Tom Garofalo, coincides with many points on Brazil made by Mark Weisbrot yesterday. The specific focus of Garofalo’s piece is Lula’s recent trip to the Middle East. He writes, “…Lula and Brazil are…staking out a global role in which they bear the responsibility that comes with power -- including for peacemaking. The world, the President said, needs ‘the intervention of new elements, and we can help with this.’”

Funes Asks that El Salvador be Forgiven

With our headline again this morning, reporting on the commemoration of the 30^th anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador. Around 1000 marched in the streets of San Salvador Wednesday to honor the slain archbishop while the Salvadoran state publicly honored Monsingor Romero for the first time ever. President Mauricio Funes asked for public forgiveness on behalf of the state “for the thousands and thousands of innocent victims,” including Romero whose assassination threw the country into a bloody civil war that lasted more than a decade and took the lives of some 75,000 persons. As highlighted here yesterday, the LA Times coverage also discusses a recent interview given by air force captain Alvaro Saravia to the Salvadoran daily El Faro earlier in the week. Saravia, long implicated in the murder of Romero and now living in hiding in some unnamed “a Spanish speaking country,” detailed the alleged involvement of Mario Molina (son of former Salvadoran President Arturo Armando Saravia) in the assassination. The younger Molina, says Saravia, hired a gunman for $400 to carry out the murder of Romero.

The New York Times adds to reporting with more quotes from Funes’s commemoration and the unveiling of a Romero mural at the San Salvador airport. “I know that it is a relief to society, that it is a balm for a country that is tired of violence and that seeks the reconciliation of spirit,” said of the state apology. However, during a press conference with the local media after the speech, Funes maintained his position about the executive’s inability to investigate the murder of Romero and other dirty war victims. “I apologized because the state failed to investigate, but it is not for me to investigate, that is up to the judges of the Republic.” Various human rights groups, including the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, have called for the opening of such investigations—a call the DC-based Center for Democracy in Americas echoes in a statement released yesterday.

In other stories:

· Two days after the US and Mexico renewed—and apparently readjusted—counter-narcotics cooperation, opinions and analysis are circulating. In a Newsweek report, the magazine says Mexico-Iraq parallel being made by some should give Mexico hope, not despair. That includes the words of former US drug czar, Barry McCaffrey who told the Mexican media recently that “Juárez is vastly more dangerous than Baghdad and Kabul,” and former Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castaneda who has called the “parallels” between the Iraq War and the Mexican war on drugs “striking.” Newsweek writes:

“Both [Mexico and Iraq] seem to have been wars of choice, launched by presidents with an excessive faith in military force and a preference for loyalists over technocrats in their cabinets. Both have tarnished the reputations of occupying armies because of abuses committed against innocent civilians. Both saw an exponential increase in violence in their first years, taking place mostly between local warlords defying the authority of the state. (The death toll in Mexico rose from 2,700 in 2007 to 5,600 in 2008 and 6,600 in 2009.) Both were led by presidents who stuck with ineffective strategies for far too long. And both have drained the treasuries and political strength of their authors….But… Not only is the drug war a simpler problem with a simpler (and more reachable) solution, but the comparison to Iraq provides more reasons for Mexico to hope than to despair.”

The magazine rejects the idea that Calderon launched a war of choice and argues that the problem has not been the war itself but rather the Calderon government’s “execution” of it. On that point, Newsweek ends by returning to an Iraq analogy, arguing that Tuesday’s strategy announcements could represent the equivalent of a “surge.”

· Shannon O’Neil at the Council on Foreign Relations calls Tuesday’s announcement a “welcome move.” “The joint strategy will expand beyond the previous military focus on dismantling drug trafficking organizations and reforming law enforcement institutions to incorporate initiatives to improve border surveillance and to address social and economic factors that underpin the violence,” says O’Neil. Jorge Castaneda, in the LA Times, rejects the notion that there have been any successes in Calderon’s war on drugs. His recommendation: a new strategy by which Mexico lobbies for decriminalization “of at least marijuana in the United States.” “Most important…it would demand a totally different, ‘de-narcotized’ U.S.-Mexican agenda. This would mean placing Mexican development at the top of the agenda, along with immigration, energy and infrastructure and social cohesion funds,” argues Castaneda. And finally, Andres Oppenheimer gives some perspective to Mexican violence. Citing a new study by the Brookings Institute, Oppenheimer notes that the country’s murder rate is five times less than that of Jamaica, half that of Brazil, and significantly lower than US cities like Washington and New Orleans. As Brookings’ scholar Kevin Casas-Zamora, the study’s author, tells Oppenheimer, “Violence in Mexico is concentrated in a few cities, mainly in Sinaloa, Chihuahua and Baja California…In Ciudad Juárez, it's out of control. But in the country as a whole, it doesn't come even close to Washington, D.C.'s.”

· The US also added 54 alleged Mexican narcotraffickers to a list that allows the US government to freeze bank accounts and penalize those with whom they do business. The new additions target the Gulf cartel and their hit men group, the Zetas, specifically.

· Also Wednesday, OAS Sec. General José Miguel Insulza was re-elected to a second term, despite harsh criticism from some corners in recent weeks. Insulza received 33 votes of support with only Bolivia abstaining (but not opposing) the secretary-general’s re-election. This according to EFE. Those votes includes late nods of support from a diverse group of countries including the US, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Peru. With an opinion on the OAS, Jaime Daremblum of the Hudson Institute criticizes the organization from the right by attacking what he calls “a bloated and largely unaccountable bureaucracy” and its road to “irrelevance.”

· Two other inter-American notes of the past week. IPS has more on this week’s annual meetings of the IDB and a process of internal reforms agreed to by the development bank at those meetings. The news service’s Emilio Godoy writes, “At the end of the IDB's annual meeting Tuesday…delegates from the institution's 48 member countries agreed to a general capital increase of 70 billion dollars, greater transparency in the allocation of funds, and a stronger focus on climate change.” That number is significantly less than the $180 billion in capital the IDB had sought, and, says IPS, this difference reflects a continued lack of confidence in the Bank on the part of donors. “A bigger bank is not necessarily a better bank,” Paulina Garzón of Amazon Watch tells IPS. “We want a commitment to a methodology for evaluating projects to ensure that they are environmentally sustainable.”

· Via CEPR’s Haiti Watch, information about Tuesday’s hearing on foreign assistance to Haiti which brought various human rights NGOs before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. Another interesting Haiti piece in the Washington Post yesterday looks at how telecommunications companies are trying to make Haiti a “mobile nation” in the wake of the January quake.

· President Obama, in a written statement Wednesday, called the deteriorating human rights situation in Cuba, “deeply disturbing.” The US State Dept. also named jailed Cuba dissident Darsi Ferrer an honorable mention pick for its State Department Freedom Defenders Award this week.

· A car bomb in the Colombian port city of Buenaventura killed 9 and wounded around 50 yesterday. The Colombian military has blamed the FARC for this most recent attack. Meanwhile, I recommend Adam Isacson’s most recent post at Plan Colombia and Beyond which examines in great detail allegations of Venezuela-FARC ties, as well as recommended next steps and responses. On the US side, Isacson writes, “instead of confusing signals that Colombia could misinterpret as a green light for military action, it’s time for more precise language.”

· Finally, as Brazilian President Lula da Silva plays host to controversial Belarussian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, CEPR’s Mark Weisbrot has an interesting opinion in the Folha de Sao Paulo, arguing that Lula ought to hold his ground against US (and Brazilian opposition) pressures to sanction Iran. He writes: “Lula meets with all sides to the dispute because he is trying to play a mediating role, and to prevent another unnecessary war. That is what mediators do…The world needs this kind of leadership - badly.”

US-Mexico Anti-Drug Cooperation: A New Look?

The United States and Mexico revised the terms of counternarcotics cooperation Tuesday, “refocusing their efforts on strengthening civilian law enforcement institutions and rebuilding communities crippled by poverty and crime.” This according to the New York Times’ Ginger Thompson and Marc Lacey who write that the new strategy agreed to in high level talks in Mexico City will “expand on and improve” programs included under the Merida Initiative, among them “cooperation between American and Mexican intelligence agencies and American support for training Mexican police officers, judges, prosecutors and public defenders.” (According to the LA Times, President Obama is seeking $310 million in security aid for Mexico in next year’s federal budget). US officials also say they will move resources away from creating a wall on the US-Mexico border and towards new and improved screening systems prior to border checkpoints. The paper continues:

“The most striking difference between the old strategy and the new one is the shift away from military assistance. More than half of the $1.3 billion spent under Mérida was used to buy aircraft, inspection equipment and information technology for the Mexican military and police. Next year’s foreign aid budget provides for civilian police training, not equipment.”

Citing data from the Washington Office on Latin America, the Times notes that Pentagon assistance to Mexican counter-narcotics efforts amounted to $78.2 million in 2009 and 2010.

The Washington Post leads its coverage of the Mexico meetings by saying, although the rhetoric about US-Mexico anti-drug cooperation changed, “few concrete proposals for fighting the powerful drug cartels” were offered Tuesday. The paper does highlight a verbal commitment made by Sec. of State Hillary Clinton and her Mexican counterpart Patricia Espinosa to create a “joint survey to better understand the whys and hows of drug consumption in the two countries.” But Clinton flatly rejected any discussion about decriminalizing drugs in the two countries.

From the Wall Street Journal, reporter David Luhnow calls the new approach a “guns and butter” strategy, emphasizing the new social and economic strategies discussed by Ms. Clinton and Ms. Espinosa. “To combat the long-term effects of the drug trade, we want people to feel economic security and health security,” Clinton said in yesterday’s public news conference. Also, the Journal says US drug czar Gil Kerlikowske will be making a follow-up visit to Mexico in the next few days at which time he is expected to announce a new plan seeking to stem drug consumption.

Also Tuesday, the AP writes that planes filled with some 450 additional Mexican federal police officers arrived in Ciudad Juarez during yesterday’s talks. The new “surge” brings the total number of federal agents in the city to 3,500. More than 2600 were killed in Juarez in 2009 and some 500 have already been killed there this year.

In other major stories today:

· Today marks the 30^th anniversary of the assassination of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, the much beloved clergyman from San Salvador who spoke out against social injustice and was murdered while saying mass in 1980. The event contributed to the beginning of a bloody, 12-year civil war. The government of Mauricio Funes will be honoring Romero’s death with a state commemoration—the first such official remembrance of Romero in El Salvador’s history. As the LA Times notes, the murder of Romero has long gone unprosecuted. But that could be in the process of changing. Salvadoran daily, El Faro, published an interview earlier this week with, Rafael Alvaro Saravia, the air force captain who had previously admitted to his role in the murder of Romero. Via Tim’s El Salvador blog, in the interview, Saravia denies being the gunmen who actually carried out the assassination, instead implicating other high profile individuals in the crime—specifically, Mario Molina, son of former Salvadoran president Arturo Armando Molina and the now deceased ARENA founder Roberto D'Aubuisson. Tim also has posted a YouTube video with excerpts of the Saravia interview (with English subtitles). The anniversary of Romero’s assassination also brings a new call from Amnesty International to overturn an amnesty law which protects those responsible for the murder and disappearances of thousands—including Romero—during the country’s civil war. But the Funes government reiterated its position on the amnesty law again Tuesday, saying it will not answer questions about the law at this time.

· Also, more words of remembrance on Romero from former US ambassador to El Salvador, Robert White, at Commonweal.

· From Venezuela, the arrest of opposition figure, former Zulia governor, and COPEI party member Oswaldo Alvarez Paz on “conspiracy charges” is drawing significant criticism this morning. Alvarez Paz was detained by Venezuelan intelligence officials Monday after giving an interview to the anti-Chavez television station Globovision two weeks ago. In the interview, Alvarez Paz accused his government of having relations with narcotraffickers, including the FARC. Reuters says the charges against the former governor hold a maximum sentence of 16 years. COPEI released a statement yesterday about the arrest, saying “the national government, once again using the institutions it has taken over, tries to silence criticism and denunciations by those who do not think like it does.” HRW Americas director, José Miguel Vivanco responded to the arrest as well Tuesday. “Throwing someone in prison for expressing an opinion is an egregious abuse of power,” the Wall Street Journal quotes him as saying.

· In other breaking news from Venezuela, Hugo Chavez is entering the blogosphere! On his Sunday broadcast of “Alo Presidente,” Chavez remarked that through a new presidential blog he could “reach millions, not only in Venezuela but around the world.” “I am going to dig my own trench on the Internet…Our Internet -- the Bolivarian Internet -- has to be an alternative press,” said Chavez. Foreign Policy notes that there is no specific launch date for Chavez’s new blog yet (from one blogger to another, my guess is that Chavez is having difficulty choosing between Blogger or Word Press). Word has it that a specific room in Miraflores will also be designated the president’s “computer room.”

· In a recent post at the Chronicle of Higher Education’s site, an interesting piece by Stan Katz on why travel to Cuba should be allowed once again so as to fuel mutual understanding through education.

· The Wall Street Journal reports today on how Haitians are selling steel construction rods, pulled from the country’s quake rubble, to China who then apparently recycles the metal. “The recycling industry is providing jobs to thousands of Haitians struggling for daily survival in the aftermath of the quake,” and with a significant multiplier effect, says the paper.

· From Al-Jazeera, news on the rescue of five Colombian oil contractors from FARC captivity by Colombian troops.

· Marking the World Day of Water, Bolivia’s Evo Morales petitioned the UN earlier this week to make access to safe drinking water a basic universal human right.

· NACLA has a report on the increased militarization of the Peruvian countryside and what the magazine calls the “deployment of the country’s security apparatus into resource-rich zones to serve as protection for corporate interests.” In addition, extraction firms are increasingly in the business of contracting private security groups who may be “conducting of espionage operations on groups opposing resource development projects.”

· Journalist Ben Dangl writes in The Progressive on the issue of new US military bases in Colombia. “…Plans for the expansion of the bases show that the intent is to prepare for war and intimidate the region,” says Dangl. The outposts could also serve to increase US training of Latin American militaries. “The bases will be used to strengthen the military training of soldiers from other countries,” John Lindsay-Poland, the co-director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean Program tells the magazine. “There is already third-country training in Colombia, and what the Colombia government says now is that this agreement will strengthen that.”

· And finally, also on Colombia, Laura Carlsen’s column in Foreign Policy in Focus looks at Colombia’s legislative elections of 10 days ago. Carlsen, a pre-electoral international observer of the poll, writes that “the real crisis of [the vote’s] legitimacy lies in the broken chain between a voter’s free choice of representation and the real ways that candidates come to power.”