Inter-American Development Bank Cancels $479 million of Haitian Debt

As former US president’s Bill Clinton and George W. Bush made their first joint visit to Haiti Monday, top Inter-American Development Bank officials met in Cancún, Mexico where they announced the cancellation of $479 million of the country’s $1.2 billion foreign debt. According to the New York Times, the debt owed to the IDB is the largest chunk Haiti owes a single international lender. In addition, the Bank also said it would offer Haiti some $2 billion in additional grants (not loans) over the next 10 years. The announcement comes on the heels of a European Union announcement to provide Haiti with a total of $1.36 billion in the coming years as well as a recent Venezuelan decision to forgive some $200 million in Haitian debt.

On the visit of ex-president’s Clinton and W. Bush, the AP reports that the two are paving the way for next week’s Haiti reconstruction conference in New York where Haiti is expected to petition international donors for $11.5 billion in reconstruction aid. Accompanied by tight security, the Clinton and Bush met with Rene Preval and said they would advocate for US trade preferences to be granted on Haitian textile and clothing products through a revision/expansion of the HOPE II legislation (for a critique of and alternative to the Haitian “sweatshop development model,” see a recent piece by Tope Folarin of the Institute for Policy Studies at Foreign Policy in Focus). The two also walked through one of Port-au-Prince’s massive tent camps. This while supporters of former Haitian president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, protested by burning American flags and rubber tires outside the national palace.

Also, from the Miami Herald, a report that members of the Haitian diaspora filled a room at the OAS headquarters in Washington, D.C., Monday to offer their ideas about reconstruction. Sec. of State Hillary Clinton addressed the gathering via video, encouraging increased participation of the diaspora in rebuilding efforts. Ms. Clinton’s chief of staff and Haiti point-woman, Cheryl Mills, also spoke to the group in-person and said the emergency budget request the Obama administration was sending to Congress includes fellowship money for Haitians outside the country to return as “civil servants.”

On to other stories:

· As mentioned yesterday, Sec. of State Hillary Clinton will lead high level security talks with Mexican officials in Mexico City today. The talks, planned several months ago, will also include Defense Sec. Robert Gates, Homeland Sec. Secretary Janet Napolitano, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Adm. Mike Mullen, and Director of National Intelligence Mike Mullen. The AP says US officials will be seeking “ways to help Mexico strengthen its law enforcement and judicial systems” through new coordination that “disrupts drug trafficking organizations and includes communities on both sides of the border in security planning.” The Wall Street Journal adds that the US hopes to use $1.3 billion in Merida Initiative aid to create a model with the same “success” as Plan Colombia. But to do so, says one unnamed US official, “will require a concerted and sustained effort.” The sheer size of Mexico—as well as the fact that Mexico is more decentralized than Colombia—add to the challenges facing those who desire a replication of the Colombia model.

· What apparently will not be on Tuesday’s agenda, say Mexican officials: any discussion of using US law enforcement agents in Mexican territory. “There is no intention to authorize U.S. military deployment in Mexico, neither in operational tasks or in intelligence work or intelligence gathering,” Mexican ambassador Arturo Sarukhan said Monday. However, many analysts predict that a new joint agreement on thwarting organized crime will come out of today’s talks. “'A future strategy will have to look at effective ways to track criminal organizations and their finances, reduce the demand for narcotics and build dialogue with communities that are under stress from the current violence,” the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute director, Andrew Selee, tells the wire service. Also on Mexico this morning, a grisly report about the murder and dismemberment of security officials in Guerrero state. And an LA Times report on the limits of the Mexican military in counter-narcotics operations and internal security. The paper writes: “The Mexican army is increasingly a lightning rod for those who say the Calderon strategy has failed to curb a skyrocketing death toll. Human rights advocates accuse soldiers of abusing residents as they hunt drug traffickers. And there is a growing feeling that, despite the army's firepower and resources, it has been less than effective as a police force.”

· Electoral news from Colombia, include an AP report yesterday on the victory of former foreign minister Noemi Sanin over former agriculture minister Andres Felipe Arias in the Conservative Party’s close presidential primary. Sanin will now face off against frontrunner, Juan Manuel Santos, among a handful of others, in the late May presidential poll. The Latin America News Dispatch posts a translation from La Silla Vacía, which runs down 10 major developments coming out of last Sunday’s (March 15) congressional elections. Meanwhile, Plan Colombia and Beyond has a breakdown of the specific results from that vote and a preliminary look at the composition of the incoming 2010-2014 Colombian congress.

· For more on Gen. Douglas Fraser’s posture statement last week, Just the Facts has pulled together important highlights from the Q & A which followed Fraser’s written statement.

· Ass’t. Sec. of State Arturo Valenzuela also has a piece on US policy toward Latin America up at Americas Quarterly this week, talking about the United States’ “broader policy objectives” in the region. Among the issues he highlights: regional security partnerships (Merida Initiative, the Central American Regional Security Initiative, and the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative); strengthening democratic institutions via the OAS, in particular; green energy/climate change cooperation; and “creating more opportunities” through the US-backed Pathways to Prosperity trade/economic growth initiative.

· EFE breaks news this morning that the US will, in fact, support the re-election of current OAS Sec. General, José Miguel Insulza. The news agency got its hands on a recent letter drafted by Sec. of State Clinton to Sec. Gen. Insulza in which Ms. Clinton says it’s a “pleasure” to announce US support for the Chilean diplomat’s re-election.

· In Venezuela, Chavez opponent Gov. Oswaldo Alvarez Paz was arrested Monday by Venezuelan police on conspiracy charges for comments he made on national television about the country becoming a haven for drug trafficking.

· Two interesting pieces, one in Time and the other in the World Politics Review, look at Brazil and Mexico’s maneuvering on the international stage. Time says Mexico has lost its former position as a spokesperson of the region. One senior Mexican official tells the magazine that “President Felipe Calderón and his compatriots are all too aware that the foreign policy spotlight in the Americas today is ‘shining over Brazil.’” The creation of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States as well as an upcoming climate change summit next November in Mexico, the piece suggests, may be read as attempts by Mexico to “regain its diplomatic mojo.” At World Politics Review, the talk is about Mexico’s “Brazil envy.” David Agren writes:

“While Mexico suffered through a miserable 2009, Brazil emerged from the global economic downturn more quickly. It also continued wielding increased regional influence with its peacekeeping presence in Haiti and involvement in the Honduras political crisis, at a time when Mexico was busy mending fences with other countries in Latin America, such as Venezuela and Cuba.”

· With recent opinions, Noam Chomsky writes on the militarization of Latin America and what he (and some senior Colombian military officials) see as the transformation of Colombia into a regional hub for Pentagon military operations. And as Adam Isacson pointed out here last week, Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero may not have been “famous enough” to make it into Texas history textbooks, but he is being honored around the region this week, on the 30^th anniversary of his assassination. Three opinions (here, here, and here) at El Salvador’s El Faro discuss the impact the “voice of those without a voice” had in his country and beyond.