Just days after signing a new defense cooperation agreement with Brazil, US Sec. of Defense Robert Gates says the United States military seeks deeper security cooperation with other Latin American allies as well. The BBC begins reporting this morning from Colombia where Mr. Gates arrived yesterday. “[Latin American countries] face similar types of problems with insurgents and narcotics and crime, so figuring out how we can further help them in their own efforts and also in their co-operation with each other is an important opportunity,” said Gates shortly before his arrival in Bogotá. Answering questions about whether or not such agreements had anything to do with Venezuela, Gates responded: “These arrangements between ourselves and Brazil, ourselves and Peru, ourselves and Colombia, are about these countries, not about anybody else.”
AFP continues the story, providing more on the words Gates offered in Lima. According to the secretary, it’s the United States military’s intention to “facilitate growing regional cooperation” between Mexico, Colombia, and Peru. [Gates said the idea of establishing either new bases or sending US troops to the latter country has not yet been officially discussed, however].
With more on the US-Brazil agreement of last Monday, the Christian Science Monitor has a good bit of analytical reporting. The paper talks to Fernando Arbache, an anti-terrorism expert in Sao Paulo who teaches at Brazil’s Naval Headquarters who says: “Brazil is going to get recognition, and that is very important. Future wars are going to be as much about the management of information and intelligence as they are about armaments. And Brazil doesn’t know how to do that. The US is the perfect country to help us minimize that risk.” Arbache compares the new deal to the way in which European nations have aligned themselves with the US via NATO. CSIS’s Johanna Mendelson Forman also tells CSM that it’s Brazil, rather than the US, who has the most to gain from the new accord. And, according to Mendelson Forman, Brazil’s rationale seems mostly aimed at long-term military self-sufficiency. “The sense that I get is that Lula is laying foundation for his defense industry,” she says.
To other stories this morning:
· From Mexico City, all the major US papers are reporting on First Lady Michelle Obama’s visit to the Mexican capital which ends today. The New York Times reports again that the explicit focus on Mrs. Obama’s visit has been youth initiatives. In fact, speaking before at the elite Iberoamericana University, Mrs. Obama did not even mention the drug war that has dominated US-Mexican relations in the past years. Coupled with her surprise visit to Haiti, the Washington Post writes, “she had a single overarching message: Children can change the world.” According to the Times, “The challenges facing Mexico’s youth are towering. The struggling economy continues to prompt many of them to risk their lives migrating illegally to the United States, sometimes alone. Obesity rates among Mexican young people are among the highest in the world. Fierce drug gangs threaten their safety and, with offers of fast money, lure them to lives of crime.” The AP adds that Mrs. Obama will wrap-up her Mexico trip today with a round-table discussion with a group of young Mexican leaders. And after the White House recently announced that Mexican President Felipe Calderon would be the guest of honor at the President Obama’s second-ever state dinner in mid-May, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also announced that Calderon will address a joint session of Congress during his visit.
· Also from Mexico today, a new Time report says the Mexican government is considering a crackdown on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in an attempt to thwart drug cartel communications. According to Mexican security analyst, Ghaleb Krame, the problem may extend beyond Mexico. “Twitter is a serious problem not only to Mexican law-enforcement agencies but to any law or intelligence agencies all over the world, because criminals, drug cartels and terrorist cells are getting more sophisticated in their methods of communication.” In the Mexican congress, a group of PRD lawmakers have already drafted new legislation that would closely regulate Twitter and Facebook and “make sharing information that helps others break the law or avoid it a criminal act.” One supporter of the bill has even talked about creating an “online police force.” A vote is expected on the legislation in the coming months.
· In Colombia, there’s a new report this morning from El Nuevo Herald about a disturbing story we reported on some months ago. According to the latest report, the Procuraduría General de Colombia has certified the existence of a mass grave in La Macarena, Colombia with 2000 unidentified bodies. Like prior reporting, the paper says this would likely be the largest mass grave ever discovered in Latin America. Colombian officials say international experts must be brought in to help conduct an investigation of the grave.
· Also from Colombia, an announcement from US ambassador William Brownfield that the US will temporarily suspend its economic aid to the embattled Colombian intelligence agency, DAS. Authorities continue to investigate charges of “illicit activities” within DAS and Amb. Brownfield indicated orders had been made to shift aid from DAS to the Colombian police and Prosecutor General’s Office.
· In Nicaragua, the AP reports that the opposition has launched new criticism at President Daniel Ortega for extending the Supreme Court terms of two pro-Sandinista judges some months ago. In a statement, the opposition Liberal Constitutionalist party said that Ortega's decree represented “a coup against the country's governmental institutions.”
· Via RAJ at Honduras Culture and Politics news that a tentative agreement between the campesino group, MUCA, and the Lobo government has been reached over land disputes in Bajo Aguán after 14 hours of intense negotiations (more from the AP here). The agreement includes “the slow adjudication of some 11,000 hectares of land for the 28 campesino groups” making land claims. According to President Lobo Sosa’s Agrarian Reform Minister, Cesar Ham, the deal constitutes the largest land grant to the poor in the history of the country. (The whole deal can be downloaded via La Prensa, here).
· From the Americas Society, a piece examining the BRIC summit in Brazil which began yesterday.
· NACLA has an interesting piece on Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Brazil, and the Brazilian presidential race.
· A court in Argentina may become the next site of a “universal jurisdiction” human rights abuse case. Spanish judge Baltazar Garzón, now in legal hot water, made such claims famous by bringing claims against the Argentine military junta and Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Now it’s families of victims of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco who are trying to do something similar, brining claims before an Argentina court.
· Bolivia, host of the upcoming alternative climate summit, says “more than 15,000 indigenous people and thousands of grass roots groups from more than 100 countries” will converge on Cochabamba next week for the much-anticipated meeting. Among the participants are some very well-known figures, says the Guardian: “scientists such as James Hansen, James Cameron, the director of Avatar, the linguist Noam Chomsky, author Naomi Klein, anti-globalisation activist José Bové of France, and actors Danny Glover, Robert Redford and Susan Sarandon.
· Finally, some opinions, with a focus on Cuba today. At the Washington Note, Sarah Stephens of the Center for Democracy in the Americas writes on an Obama fundraiser being held by pro-embargo activists at the home of Emilio and Gloria Estefan—and why the President should be listening to the advice of other luminaries who advocate for serious US-Cuba policy changes instead. In the Miami Herald, an editorial looks at that same high-profile fundraiser the Estefan’s are throwing the president in Miami but its message is different, calling on President Obama to support Cuban civil society through the State Dept. and USAID programs. And in an LA Times editorial, the focus is the Cuban economy and the recent decision by the Cuban government to allow barber shops and hair salons to go private. The paper argues: “for Cubans, who deserve a better standard of living, these are positive steps -- profit-making jobs and free-market pedicures.”
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