A 30-day state of exception in Paraguay ended Monday and the government of Fernando Lugo has nothing to show for it. Lugo announced the militarization of northern Paraguay in an attempted crackdown on the Ejercito del Pueblo Paraguayo (EPP) guerrilla group, blamed for the murder of four individuals in late April. But without apprehending a single member of the EPP, BBC Mundo reports that Lugo will not seek to extend “Operation Py'aguapy,” as the military mission has been called. Rather, Lugo indicated Monday that he’d “look for a legal framework” that keeps the military in charge of security in areas where the EPP is believed to be active, without imposing a formal state of emergency.
As others have written, figuring out what -- and how pervasive -- the EPP is continues to be a subject of considerable debate in Paraguay. The organization is known for carrying out robberies, murders, and kidnappings and has been operating in the country for about a decade, according to the BBC. Dubbed a “terrorist” group by some, a criminal band by others, the EPP may count on as few as 25 active members. And the inability of 3,300 military troops to find a single EPP rebel fighter in 30 days has led some Paraguayans to believe the guerrilla group is more phantom than real. [Some in the country have even compared the group to the Guaraní mythological character Yasy-Yatere who, in the BBC’s words, “roams about while people siesta, and lures naughty children into the woods with a whistle.”]
A real threat or not, “failure” could have serious political consequences for left-leaning President Fernando Lugo, continually opposed by conservatives in the country who control the Congress and much of the economy in the South American country. Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks.
Below the headline, more stories today:
· The nebulous character of a group that appears to have kidnapped former PAN leader Diego Fernandez de Cevallos is also considered in a piece by William Booth in the Washington Post this morning. Booth writes that “the disappearance has rattled the political and business class [in Mexico], stoking fears that the war against powerful crime syndicates might be escalating to more dangerous heights, where elites become targets for the drug cartels.” And “because the Mexican attorney general has declared a virtual news blackout, the Internet swirls with vitriol and rumors.” On Monday, the attorney general’s office pulled out of the investigative process all-together, at the behest of Fernandez de Cevallo’s family, who says it prefers to handle negotiations with the alleged kidnappers on its own. But who are the culprits? Cartel members? A handful of armed guerrillas that may still be active in the country? Common criminals? Nobody has much of an answer still on that question.
· Also in Mexico, Infolatam reports that President Felipe Calderón called on all 32 states in Mexico to proceed more rapidly with reform of their justice systems and their fight against corruption, as outlined under legislation approved in 2008. Seven states, the president said, have already implemented initial justice reforms, but Calderón insists, if corruption remains endemic in ministerial bodies, the judiciary, and the police system, the reforms “will have no impact.” The words came as Calderón kicked of the Second Justice and Security Forum in Mexico City.
· An AP report from yesterday looks at the rising movement of an “ultra-potent” form of heroin from Colombia, Asia, and increasingly Mexico into the US. It’s called “black tar,” says the wire service, which offers the following grizzly description: it “sells for as little as $10 a bag and is so pure it can kill unsuspecting users instantly, sometimes before they even remove the syringe from their veins.” The AP argues the drug could be the second-coming of crack. “Authorities are concerned that the potency and price of the heroin from Mexico and Colombia could widen the drug's appeal, just as crack did for cocaine decades ago.”
· Tensions and violence continue in Kingston, Jamaica as some 1000 police and soldiers “assaulted” a public housing complex occupied by what the AP calls “heavily armed gangsters defending an alleged drug lord.” Christopher “Dudus” Coke is the wanted drug lord holed up in the West Kingston neighborhood of Tivoli Gardens. Coke has been indicted in New York on drug and arms trafficking charges. He’s considered by the U.S. Justice Department to be “one of the world's most dangerous drug lords.” Jamaican authorities reported that two police officers had been killed and at least six wounded since Sunday, and at least one Jamaican soldier was shot dead during Monday's fighting, according to the AP. However, it’s not yet known how many others have been killed inside the barricaded Kingston neighborhood.
· The latest from Honduras includes an Al-Jazeera video report on a hunger strike by two Honduran judges, who appear to have been dismissed by the Supreme Court for their anti-coup politics. Honduras Culture and Politics has coverage of a recent interview President Porfirio Lobo gave to CNN México in which he acknowledged that the events of June 28, 2009 represented a “coup d’etat.” That, says RAJ, is more than what the OAS-backed Truth Commission seems willing to now admit. (In a recent interview with the LA Times, commission head, Eduardo Stein, said the commission now prefers to call June 28 “an alteration of political institutionality,” rather than a “coup”). The AP reports that El Salvador’s Mauricio Funes will seek the reincorporation of Honduras into the Central American Integration System (SICA) at its July meetings. And there are reports of new death threats against some of the anti-coup resistance’s principal leaders, including one-time presidential candidate, Carlos H. Reyes.
· The LA Times has more on the new claims being brought against former FMLN guerrilla leaders Jorge Melendez and Joaquín Villalobos by family members of Salvadoran poet and revolutionary, Roque Dalton. Dalton’s two sons have formally petitioned the attorney general’s office to charge Melendez and Villalobos for the 1975 murder of their father – who at the time was suspected by fellow guerrillas of being a CIA spy.
· The latest poll numbers in Brazil show PT’s Dilma Rouseff tied with opposition leader, Jose Serra at 37% support each [Infolatam has a biographical sketch of third-party Green candidate, Marina Silva, as well, which is worth a look]. Current President Lula da Silva’s approval still stands at an astounding 76%, according to the polling group Datafolha, even as his critics have attacked him for his role in the recent Iran negotiations.
· On Brazil in the world, Mercopress says the country has launched an international public television station for Africa, reaching 49 countries on the continent. And on crime in Rio, Latin America News Dispatch writes on falling drug violence in the city under the new community policing program.
· Time has more on the upcoming presidential vote in Colombia.
· In Trinidad and Tobago, voters appear to have elected the opposition to parliament, making Kamla Persad-Bissessar of the People’s Partnership party the country’s new Prime Minister (and first female leader ever), replacing Patrick Manning.
· In Washington, OAS Sec. General José Miguel Insulza was re-inaugurated this week. Among his promises: making “genuinely multilateral OAS.”
· From WOLA, the Latin America Working Group, and the Center for International Policy, a new report on US relations with Latin America under the Obama administration. The report, entitled “Waiting for Change,” highlights rising military aid to the region, and conversely, a declining US emphasis on human rights. “In 2010, 47 percent of the United States' more than $3 billion in aid to Latin America is going to militaries and police forces,” says Adam Isacson, senior associate for security policy at WOLA and a co-author of the report. “That's the highest proportion in a decade, and it indicates an unbalanced approach. Add to that a new military-basing agreement signed last October with Colombia, and the main face that most of the region is seeing from the Obama administration is a military one.”
· Finally, opinions today. The Institute for Policy Studies’ Manuel Pérez-Rocha assesses Felipe Calderón’s Washington visit at Foreign Policy in Focus. “Calderón’s visit to Washington was yet another sign that the priorities in the U.S.- Mexico relationship haven't changed much since Bush’s days in office,” he argues. Those priorities, Pérez-Rocha argues, continue to be deregulating trade, enforcing intellectual property rights, and guaranteeing ‘energy security in North America’ to meet the energy needs of the United States,” – not human rights and worker rights. The Center for Economic and Policy Research’s Alex Main assesses UNASUR as “an emerging geopolitical force,” independent of the US and the OAS. Alexandra Kirby of the Open Society Institute’s Global Drug Policy Program interviews Daniel Mejia of the Economic Development Research Centre at the Universidad de los Andes. The topics of the interview are the drug war and upcoming elections. And Argentina has kicked off its Bicentennial festivities. Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana offers one opinion on the state of Argentine political and social life in The Guardian. In Pagina 12, historian Mario Rapoport takes the opportunity to offer a more historical view.
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