Valenzuela, Correa Chat; US-Brazil Security Pact Questioned

U.S. Assistant Sec. of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Arturo Valenzuela, spent part of Tuesday in a private meeting with Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa. According to Ecuador’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, the dialogue the two men shared was “very positive.” “It’s very important to be willing to talk,” Patino remarked. “It’s one thing to have differences and another to become enemies.” While Valenzuela himself offered few public comments after his chat with President Correa, Ecuadorean officials said two of the primary topics under discussion were UNASUR (which Ecuador currently chairs) and bilateral relations. According to the BBC Mundo, Valenzuela also brought up the subject of Iran and worries about press restrictions in Ecuador while talking with Correa and several members of his cabinet.

Looking forward, Patino expressed words of optimism for the future US-Ecuador relations: “We hope that this will be the beginning of a series of meetings because we’ve agreed to establish working groups that will allow us to advance in many areas of agreement and also overcome our differences.” Valenzuela also seemed upbeat about progress made in Tuesday’s talks, telling the press that the US will continue to work with Ecuador in a “respectful and dynamic way.” Valenzuela is in Colombia today and then on to Peru.

Perhaps the biggest news out of Valenzuela’s time in Ecuador was his addressing the issue of a new anti-drug deal, apparently being negotiated between US Southcom and the Brazilian defense ministry. I discussed the story here last week, following a Spanish language report in Spain’s El País (based on a story in O Estado de Sao Paulo). The articles discussed the creation of a new US-Brazil counternarcotics “base” in Rio de Janeiro. CIP’s Adam Isacson reports and analyzes the matter further at Plan Colombia and Beyond this morning, writing that Valenzuela acknowledged a new bilateral security agreement was being negotiated with Brazil while in Quito yesterday. However, Valenzuela insisted this was different from a recent Defense Cooperation Agreement the US signed with Colombia last October. The agreement under negotiation, said Valenzuela, was part of “ordinary [US] policy.” [He went further upon arriving in Colombia saying, “Nobody, including myself in the statement I made in Ecuador, has talked about bases; what I have said is that the US, in collaboration with other countries…has a series of agreements around matters of security.”] But as Adam Isacson notes, the US government’s inability to explain the deal in any sort of detail may have detrimental public image effects, a la the Colombia base deal and the reactivation of the Navy’s 4^th Fleet. Already many news agencies around the region have begun reporting on what they call—correctly or incorrectly—“a new US military base in Brazil.” And perceptions do seem to matter.

To other stories:

· Rio de Janeiro, the proposed site of a new joint anti-drug center, has more pressing issues on its mind right now as the state was pounded by some of the heaviest rains in its history. Rio is paralyzed with flooding now, writes the New York Times, and at least 95 have died around the state. Also from Brazil, the US and Brazil reached a resolution to an ongoing trade dispute involving US subsidies for cotton growers—one day before Brazil was to begin WTO-authorized sanctions against the US. The resolution, however, may only be partial as the US granted Brazil temporary assistance funds for its cotton industry and modifications to an export loan program. Any real debate about its own cotton subsidies was put off until the next farm bill (likely to come before Congress in 2012).

· In Peru, EFE reports that President Alan García reiterated Tuesday that he will not negotiate with artisanal miners on strike since last Sunday near the town of Chala. Attacking the informality of the work done by so-called wildcat miners, Garcia has called such mining “savage” because “it's completely unregulated and doesn't pay taxes.” The Spanish news agency says some 6000 miners are still blocking roads in protest following the death of six civilians on Sunday. Human Rights Watch, in a statement yesterday, called on the Peruvian government to investigate those deaths. “An independent and impartial investigation is absolutely critical to ensure that those responsible for these killings are brought to justice,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch.

· IPS has a report on cross-border mining protests in Guatemala and El Salvador as well this morning. There environmentalists and community activists are protesting the Cerro Blanco silver and gold mine that sits on the Guatemala-El Salvador border. The mine is expected to open later this year.

· In Venezuela government dissident Richard Blanco, Caracas’s city administrator, was released from prison yesterday after being held for seven months for allegedly injuring a police officer. Blanco insists the charges were politically motivated and upon leaving jail Tuesday he said he now plans to begin his campaign for a spot in the National Assembly in Sept. 26 elections.

· Also in Venezuela, the AP reports that eight Colombians were arrested by Venezuelan security forces last week and are being accused by the Venezuelan government of being spies. According to President Hugo Chavez, the men were carrying computers and satellite telephones and were using cameras to take photographs of Venezuela's power plants. No comment yet from the Uribe government.

· On press censorship in Ecuador, the AP says 20 columnists and contributors to the state newspaper El Telegrafo resigned in protest yesterday, saying the government is censoring their work. The director of the paper and one if its editors were removed from their posts during the last month while the paper’s deputy director also resigned after disagreements with the paper’s management. The newspaper had been privately run until three years ago when the government took it over amidst financial and legal troubles.

· From Colombia, a Financial Times report looks at Colombia after Uribe, noting both the progress made in some areas of public security and the economy but also shortcomings in not reducing social inequalities nor protecting human rights.

· And from the Wilson Center, Eric Olson and Christopher Wilson have a new report on Mexico and US anti-drug policy. The report, entitled “Beyond Merida,” looks at the new four pillars of US anti-drug strategy. These include 1. Disrupting/dismantling criminal organizations 2. Institutionalizing the rule of law 3. Building a “21^st century border” and 4. Community building through new social and economic programs.