Important: Blogging Break

Dear Readers,

I started writing these daily briefs almost 18 months ago. However, starting tomorrow I’ll be taking a break – heading South for a couple of months to exchange New York summer for Brazilian winter. But fear not. The reins are being passed along. Pablo Espinel has been hired on to keep the daily news coming.

Pablo comes with a background in international relations and journalism. He completed a Master’s in international affairs at Columbia and has also written for Newsweek International so you’re in good hands.

He’ll soon be posting his daily briefs at his own public blog Latin America in the Media. Bookmark that site or add to your list of RSS feeds. (Hemispheric Brief will be lying dormant).

However, if you’re currently a subscriber to the “Hemispheric Daily Briefings” Google Group (i.e. you received this message directly by email), you should not have to change a thing. We think we’ve figured out how to get a link to Pablo’s daily posts sent directly to the Google Group list. Of course, please bear with us for the first few days of transition as there may be some minor technical glitches.

Any questions, comments, or concerns, drop me a note. If not, I hope to be back in September. And thanks to all for reading!

Saludos,

JFS

Mexico's Maquila Model Drug Trade

Better than any piece I have read in recent months, a new article by anthropologist Sarah Hill in the Boston Review draws the links between the staggering violence of Mexico's drug wars, in Ciudad Juarez particularly, and the country’s turn toward an export-manufacturing model during the 1980s– or what she calls the “globalization of manufacturing.” Just three years ago, says Hill, Juarez was a still seen by the business community as one North America’s “cities of the future.” With some 250,000 factory workers who helped make up 1/5 of total US-Mexico trade, the border region had “one of the highest economic growth rates” anywhere in the hemisphere. Today, 125,000 of those factory jobs have disappeared, along with 400,000 Juarez residents. Large sections of the city have been simply abandoned, writes Hill. Their replacements: 10,000 “combat-ready federal forces in armored vehicles” brought in to fight the growing presence of violent drug gangs.

As Hill tells it, in the late 1980s the border city was one filled with optimism – even if “head-spinning extremes” lay not far behind. “High tech industrial parks,” she writes, butted up against worker slums while “one of the world’s most profitable Wal-marts sat within view of settlements without decent water, sewers, or paved roads.” With the passage of NAFTA on January 1, 1994, the “maquila model” – which actually began with a 1960s agreement between the US and Mexico – boomed. Rural immigrants flooded Juarez and other Mexican border cities, drawn in by “relatively high maquila wages.” But instead of work, many found unemployment and poverty. And even if they did get jobs, Hill writes, most “struggled to meet basic needs, including fees for schooling that would qualify their children for factory work once they were old enough to earn a living.” The poor and unemployed turned to a new “industry – hardly obvious in the 1990s when most were concerned with the decline of the PRI’s monopoly on political power. Hill’s key observation:

“As globalization of manufacturing ramped up in the 1980s, it did so in parallel with dramatic changes in the production, distribution, and consumption of illegal narcotics. In the early ’90s the global pressures that disrupted the trade routes for cocaine that ran from Andean jungles to U.S. consumer markets converged on Juárez.”

I’ll leave the rest of the piece for you to read in-full here. Again, it’s worth a look, helping to understanding the drug trade as part of an economic process – one which, cloaked in a very dreary and bloody irony, has seen the cartels “take control” of multinational capital. Again, here’s Hill:

"For decades, the maquilas’ critics longed for border businesses to be in control, rather than simply in service, of multinational capital. This is the irony of Carrillo Fuentes’s innovation: he became the Mexican-border trade baron who accomplished all that and more. [Carrillo Fuentes is credited with moving trafficking operations from the sparsely populated Big Bend region of Texas to Juárez in the 1980s]. His generation of traffickers adapted the maquila model to their own use by taking advantage of its infrastructure to move and market their products."

Hill’s piece comes as Mexico comes to grips with a new page in drug war violence. Alfredo Corchado has more in the Dallas Morning News about the murder of PRI gubernatorial candidate Rodolfo Torre in Tamaulipas. Read with Hill, what Corchado says about the PRI candidate is interesting: Torre campaigned on a platform security and “bringing jobs, in part by further integrating the state's economy with that of Texas.” The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, asks whether the murder might get the PRI behind Felipe Calderón’s drug war – a call the president himself made after Torre’s assassination. “United, Mexicans can and will overcome a common enemy that today threatens to destroy not only our tranquility but our democratic institutions,” Calderon said in a broadcast message yesterday. “It's in the divisions between Mexicans where criminals find spaces and vulnerabilities to harm Mexico.” More on calls for “national unity” ahead of July 4 elections from Time’s Ioan Grillo.

Moving along this morning:

· In Guatemala, two brothers – Francisco and Jose Valdes Paiz – turned themselves in to Guatemalan authorities yesterday, admitting to have helped organize the murder which took the life of Rodrigo Rosenberg over one year ago. The bizarre story, from the BBC:

“A United Nations investigation found that Mr Rosenberg had told the Valdes Paiz brothers, who were his cousins, he was being blackmailed and needed their help to hire a contract killer to murder the blackmailer. The pair allegedly hired the killer and, following Mr Rosenberg's instructions, told the killer where and when he could ambush the blackmailer. But it was Mr Rosenberg who then appeared at the time and place given to the contract killer, and had himself shot, the commission found.”

· In Colombia, the AP says a Colombian court has handed out its first set of prison sentences against leaders of demobilized far-right paramilitary death squads. According to the AP: “Edward Cobos, better known as ‘Diego Vecino,’ and Uber Banquez, alias ‘Juancho Dique,’ each received the maximum of eight years in prison dictated by the Justice and Peace law under which they surrendered.” By turning themselves in, the two avoided harsher sentences of up to 40 years for ordering massacres, kidnappings, and forced displacements.

· From EFE, the former deputy director of DAS, Jose Miguel Narvaez, has been accused by the Colombian Attorney General’s office of organizing the 1999 murder of popular journalist Jaime Garzon. The accusations come from testimony provided by former paramilitary, Jorge Ivan Laverde.

· And also Tuesday, the Colombian government said it is amending its extradition policy. According to Colombia Reports, the Ministry of Justice and Interior, by way of a press release, now says demobilized paramilitaries participating in the Justice and Peace program can not be extradited until after they have complied with the national reparation process.” The press release reads:

“With this norm, the national government seeks to ensure compliance with international commitments made by Colombia, among which, as well as being tried for crimes committed in the exterior... maintain the guarantee of a trial on national territory.”

· And lastly on Colombia, the International Crisis Group has a new report out which looks at security policy in the country going forward.

· In neighboring Venezuela, a new US ambassador has been nominated. Career foreign service officer, Larry Palmer, was tapped by President Obama Monday. Palmer currently serves as the president and CEO of Inter-American Foundation. He has held previous posts in the region as US ambassador to Honduras and Charge D'Affaires in Quito, Ecuador. Palmer would replace Patrick Duddy, if confirmed.

· Also in Venezuela, BBC Mundo reports on the “commune” system of local governance, which will likely be institutionalized by the Venezuelan parliament in the coming days. According to a co-drafter of the “Commune Law,” 214 communes are already functioning within the country – one of the major local/participatory democracy initiatives on the Chavez government’s agenda. Not surprisingly, the opposition disagrees saying the commune’s are a form of “centralism.”

· And a Venezuelan rights group, the Venezuelan Prison Observatory (OVP) is calling on the Inter-American Human Rights Commission to investigate an incident at a Caracas prison in which six inmates were killed.

· From Amnesty International, a new report on freedom of expression restrictions in Cuba; the result of what Amnesty calls a “repressive legal system.” “The laws are so vague that almost any act of dissent can be deemed criminal in some way, making it very difficult for activists to speak out against the government. There is an urgent need for reform to make all human rights a reality for all Cubans,” says Kerrie Howard, Deputy Americas Director at Amnesty International.

· Finally, opinions. Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue answers questions about Washington’s policies and views toward Latin America, at Infolatam. The Miami Herald welcomes Haitian President Rene Preval’s decree designating Nov. 28 as election day. And in Roll Call, Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA), who recently visited Honduras, explains why he believes the US must change its current Honduras policy. Here’s the congressman, in his own words:

“Here’s the real rub for the U.S. in all of this: Given Washington’s subsequent silence on the coup, on Zelaya’s exile and on the call for investigations, we are not only losing an opportunity to enhance democracy for the people of Honduras, but simultaneously endangering allegiances throughout South America and undermining our multilateral efforts elsewhere.”

PRI Gubernatorial Candidate Assassinated

Just days before July 4 mayoral and gubernatorial elections in Mexico, popular Mexican gubernatorial candidate Rodolfo Torre Cantú was shot and killed with four others Monday morning on his way from the Tamaulipas capital of Ciudad Victoria to a campaign event in Matamoros. According to the New York Times, the killing of Torre – a PRI candidate who had made security his top campaign concern – is “arguably the highest-profile case of political violence since 1994,” when then-presidential candidate, Luis Donaldo Colosio, was assassinated. Responding to the Monday’s murders, President Felipe Calderón pledged justice. “This was an act not only against a candidate of a political party but against democratic institutions, and it requires a united and firm response from all those who work for democracy,” he told his country in a nationally televised address yesterday.

The Washington Post adds to the reporting, writing that despite the assassination of Mr. Torre – the favorite in Sunday’s race for governor – Sunday’s vote would not be postponed. However, it seems many will likely stay home rather than face potential violence. “I am not going to vote because there is a lot of fear. The tension is very strong,” one Tamaulipas resident tells the paper.

Mexican authorities did not say which drug gang was suspected to be behind the Torre assassination. [The state of Tamaulipas has, however, become a battleground between the Zetas and the Gulf cartel.] But according to the Wall Street Journal, Monday’s murder of a PRI politician marks a “deviation” from prior instances of cartel violence against Mexican politicians. Until yesterday, the paper says, cartels seemed to have been principally targeting parties opposing the PRI.

The murder of Torre and four aides comes after another attack on a Mexican drug rehab clinic in Durango state killed 9 individuals over the weekend. Meanwhile, in Sinaloa, well-known Mexican singer Sergio "El Shaka" Vega was also murdered this weekend when his car pulled up to a toll booth station.

In other stories:

· Colombian police have been tapping the phones of Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa and Ecuadorean police and military officials since 2008. Bloomberg has news of the story, first broken by Ecuador’s El Universo, which adds that both the outgoing Colombian president Alvaro Uribe and his successor, Juan Manuel Santos, had been briefed about the secret DAS program at least three times. Phone-tapping apparently began after the March 2008 cross-border raid on a FARC camp in Ecuador which killed Raul Reyes. BBC Mundo says Ecuadorean prosecutors will begin an investigation into the matter. The scandal erupts just days after Correa told the AP he’d be more than willing to help mediate the conflict between the FARC and the Colombian government.

· El Faro reports from El Salvador that new – and controversial – anti-gang legislation will be presented this Thursday. Critics say the FMLN-backed bill mirrors a similar anti-gang measure of the conservative ARENA party. The FMLN opposed that measure six years ago. But the party is now admitting its flip-flop, saying yesterday that “If we were wrong in the past, then … we can wholly accept that mistake, but the issue is that now the situation demands great responsibility.” The ARENA’s anti-gang legislation – which made it a crime to simply be a part of a gang – was later struck down by the Supreme Court. More in an El Faro interview with Salvadoran Vice Minister of Public Security, Henry Campos here.

· In Honduras, more on the one year anniversary of the coup. IPS has a good report from Thelma Mejía who says “defacto” military veto power in the country continues to block any possible political or electoral reforms in the country. The story comes after the head of the Honduran Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) said the possibility of ending the military’s role as the transporter of ballot boxes during elections was being considered. Just days later, however, the TSE changed its tune entirely after a meeting with senior military officials. According to IPS, the TSE now it “will seek to ‘expand’ the functions of the military [in the electoral process], including the possibility of allowing members of the armed forces to vote. According to Leticia Salomón, an expert in military affairs, one of the most significant consequences of last year’s coup has been the growing role of the military in the public sphere. The country now has “highly politicised security forces, and in the case of the military, the leadership has become a decision-making body, says Salomón.

· The pro-coup El Heraldo reports on FNRP protests yesterday, saying only about 2000 individuals showed up for marches in the capital commemorating last year’s coup. I haven’t seen figures from the FNRP itself yet but Vos el Soberano does have photos. Pro-coup La Tribuna, meanwhile, reports on FNRP marches in San Pedro Sula where some 3000 resistance members took a bridge for nearly three hours. Meanwhile, the FNRP announced it had collected some 600,000 signatures in favor of holding a constituent assembly. For his part, Mel Zelaya watched events from the DR. In a letter released on the coup’s anniversary, Mr. Zelaya’s harshest words were saved for the United States, which, he now claims, was “behind the coup.” As the AP reports, Zelaya cited what he called the “public support the United States wound up giving to the coup.” And RAJ at Honduras Culture and Politics has a list of recommendations about what the Lobo government could do to start a process of real national dialogue. I recommend reading in-full.

· In Paris, the trial of former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega has begun. He stands trial on charges of money laundering. And here’s the New York Times lead: “The former Panamanian dictator was not allowed to wear his trademark military fatigues and appeared confused about the most basic of biographical information: his age.”

· Rogelio Nunez at Infolatam analyzes how some currents within the indigenous movements of Ecuador and Bolivia are becoming a “new opposition” against their respect left-leaning governments. While in Venezuela, the piece maintains that a “third way,” which includes former chavista figures like Lara governor Henri Falcon and his Partido Patria para Todos, is beginning to bill itself as a new center-left, “de-polarizing” oppositional alternative to the current government.

· Regionally and internationally, the AP reports on Syrian President Bashar Assad’s second stop on his Latin American tour: Cuba. The two governments apparently reached an agreement on battling drug trafficking and helping each other dismantle international smuggling syndicates working between both countries. He travels on to Brazil next, as well as Argentina. And in Paraguay, President Fernando Lugo called on his country’s Congress to approve Venezuela’s entry into MERCOSUR. “Let’s think seriously in terms of the future…this will inevitably benefit both economically and commercially our country [Paraguay],” said Lugo, recommending the conservative legislators get over their obsession with the “name” of Hugo Chavez alone.

· Oliver Stone, Mark Weisbrot, and Tariq Ali respond to Saturday’s New York Times piece by Larry Rohther.

· With a historian’s note, CNN reports on the deterioration of Brazil’s national archives building – new home to a large amount of formerly classified material from the country’s twenty year military dictatorship (1964-1985).

· And opinions. Sarah Stephens on Honduras in the Huffington Post, says US policy is coming up short. She cites last week’s letter from 27 Democratic House members to Sec. of State Hillary Clinton as the basis for a policy a change. Also, CDA’s Linda Garrett responds to arguments being made that Mauricio Funes and the FMLN have done little to “remake” El Salvador after one year in office. It’s too early, Garrett argues, to write off the Funes government. And never one to shy away from controversy, Arizona’s Gov. Jan Brewer now says most illegal immigrants entering her state are being used to smuggle drugs from Mexico. In her own words:

“I believe today, under the circumstances that we're facing, that the majority of the illegal trespassers that are coming into the state of Arizona are under the direction and control of organized drug cartels and they are bringing drugs in.”

Jaime Farrant, policy director for Tucson-based Border Action Network counters, saying “We have no evidence that's the truth. We think most people come in search of jobs or to reunite with their families.”

Honduras: A Year Later

On the one year anniversary of the coup d’etat that ousted Honduras’s Manuel Zelaya, AFP begins reporting on the situation in the country, which it calls deeply “polarized,” and far from one of national reconciliation. As an editorial in Tiempo puts it, Honduras is experiencing a situation of profound “abnormality.” The social-political trauma caused by the coup is very different than past coups, the paper writes, “due to the complex characteristics of its authors -- a coalition of individuals holding State power, businessmen, the military, religious fundamentalists, and politicians, never before seen in Honduras.” The paper continues:

“Moreover, the true motivations of the golpistas remain hidden behind a dense rhetoric about defending democracy from a supposed socialist totalitarian threat, when the real purpose was – and continues to be – preventing any possibility for the Honduran people to have their own voice and participation, since, from the elite perspective, the people do not have the capacity to reason.”

Added to this all, says Tiempo, is the power of narcotraffickers in the country – a second force, in addition to the golpistas, who desire a weak Honduran state.

The AP, meanwhile, focuses on whether or not the return of Mel Zelaya might help facilitate a solution to the on-going crisis. Some analysts, like Francisco Rojas, secretary general of FLACSO, say the ousted former leader’s return would open the door for Honduras’s re-entry to the OAS (as well as new deal with the international financial institutions to help the country’s cash-strapped economy). Others disagree, however, continuing to argue Zelaya must be taken to court should he return to his native country.

For its part, the Honduran resistance (FNRP) which developed as the principal opposition movement to last year’s coup is planning a mass demonstration today to commemorate the illegal ouster of the Zelaya government. Turnout could provide a clearer idea about just how deep the roots of the Resistance are in Honduras. In addition, the Honduras Human Rights Platform plans to install its “alternative truth commission” today. Both Tiempo and Honduras Culture and Politics have more on the participants of the alternative commission.

And various letters and press releases from rights advocates this weekend highlight on-going abuses in Honduras. I mentioned the important letter from 27 US members of Congress that was sent to Sec. of State Hillary Clinton last week. So too does the Washington Office on Latin America have a statement citing the persistence of human rights violations, illegal dismissals, impunity, and attacks on journalists. And here’s how Amnesty International’s Guadalupe Marengo puts it:

“President Lobo has publicly committed to human rights but has failed to take action to protect them, which is unacceptable. He needs to show he is serious about ending the climate of repression and insecurity in Honduras - otherwise the future stability of the country will remain in jeopardy."

Behind that headline this weekend:

· The Inter-Press Service has some human rights / citizen security pieces of importance this weekend. First, on Mexico, IPS says the Mexican military’s participation in the drug war has “triggered a jump in violence in the areas where troops are on the ground.” That analysis comes from a new report entitled “Statistical Analysis and Visualisation of the Drug War in Mexico,” published by US statistics expert, Diego Valle. Using the report, Valle makes some interesting distinctions between the original deployment of the military in places like Michoacán and southern Guerrero in 2007 – where violence initially dropped – and the later militarization of the north and parts of Veracruz state, which was followed by significant increases in violence. “The expansion of military operations beyond Michoacán and Guerrero was unnecessary,” says Valle. “Given the resulting increases in violence it is doubtful that involving the army was the appropriate solution.”

· The New York Times, meanwhile, highlights the cancellation of various US summer study abroad programs in Mexico, due to fears – misplaced or not – of rising drug-related violence. And in the LA Times, a report on likely cartel infiltration of police forces in Michoacán. The report focuses on that state’s security minister, Minerva Bautista, who was recently the target of a cartel assassination attempt. Authorities suspect that corrupt police officers – in one of the few states that has not undertaken a major purge of its police forces -- may have tipped off members of La Familia to Ms. Baustista’s movements.

· Moving to Venezuela, another IPS report looks at old problems of violence within the Venezuelan police forces. Alfredo Ruiz of the non-governmental Justice and Peace Support Network describes a situation in which “torture and human rights violations” have “persisted for decades” and where those responsible can still today “be found in many police forces and several military corps.” Since 1995, the organization RedSalud DDHH has documented and helped with over 470 cases of torture and cruel and inhuman treatment all around Venezuela, but particularly in the capital of Caracas. A long history of impunity, the report concludes, remains one of the most pressing challenges for the country.

· A recommended rights-related piece from Juan Forero at the Washington Post this weekend. Forero reports on the Inter-American Human Rights Court’s decision last week which held the Colombian government responsible for the murder of Communist Party Senator, Manuel Cepeda, in 1994. According to the Post,

“As President Alvaro Uribe prepares to leave office in August after eight years in power, investigators at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a branch of the OAS, are grappling with many of these cases. The most recent have triggered a national and international firestorm over the army's systematic killing of peasant farmers to inflate combat kills and revelations that Uribe's secret police spied on opponents, foreign diplomats and rights groups.”

While the greatest number of rights complaints to the inter-American justice system have come from Peru (1400), the paper says it’s “Washington's closest ally in the region, Colombia, “where the most serious cases of abuse” have emerged. “In all, the commission is evaluating 1,055 cases. Dozens of the cases of serious violations took place during Uribe's administration,” says the paper.

· The Inter-American Court of Human Rights also recently condemned the 1981 forced disappearance of Guatemalan indigenous leader, Florencio Chitay Nech.” As in previous cases, the court has urged the Guatemalan government to “carry out an in-depth investigation of what happened and to punish those found responsible.”

· The Miami Herald says Haitian President Rene Preval has “issued two presidential decrees, each designating Nov. 28 as the official date for Haiti's presidential and postponed legislative elections.”

· Both AQ and BBC Mundo have reports on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s visit to Latin America, which includes stopovers in Caracas, Brasilia, and likely Havana.

· Larry Rother in this weekend’s NY Times is none-too-kind to Oliver Stone’s new movie on the Latin American Left, South of the Border.

· On Cuba, a new press release from the Center for Democracy in the Americas on the House Agricultural Committee’s decision to mark-up legislation that seeks to end the US Cuba travel ban and remove impediments for US agricultural exports to the island. According to the release, the Agriculture Committee has scheduled a mark-up of H.R. 4645, introduced by Chairman Collin Peterson with support from 62 cosponsors, for June 30, 2010.

· Which leads to opinions. Mary Anastasia O’Grady is confused about why the US Congress would be bringing up the issue of Cuba and the travel ban right now. True to form, she connects that issue with Hugo Chavez and the one-year anniversary of the coup in Honduras.

“Why were the Obama administration and key congressional Democrats obsessed, for seven months, with trying to force Honduras to take Mr. Zelaya back? Why did the U.S. pull visas, deny aid, and lead an international campaign to isolate the tiny Central American democracy? To paraphrase many Americans who wrote to me during the stand-off: "Whose side are these guys on anyway?"

Such doubts about the motivations of the party in power in Washington will be hard to ignore this week as the Democrats try to put U.S. Cuba policy back on the legislative agenda.”

Similarly, Jaime Daremblum of the Hudson Institute calls Juan Manuel Santos’s victory in Colombia a “defeat for Hugo Chavez” in the Weekly Standard. And Andres Oppenheimer says Latin America’s rich must be more generous. A new report shows the region’s wealthiest individuals got even richer during the global economic downturn of the last few years. “But what should be more worrisome,” claims Oppenheimer, “is that the region’s wealthy plan to give less to charity than their counterparts elsewhere.”

27 US Reps to Clinton: Honduras Rights Violations Continue

Excuse the double post today. But hot off the presses, there's a new letter just out to Sec. of State Hillary Clinton on human rights violations in Honduras. It comes from 27 US congressmen who, contrary to the Secretary's statements in Lima earlier this month, maintain that "political violence continues to wrack Honduras" one year after the June 28, 2009 coup. According to the legislators, they write to:

"...express our continuing concern regarding the grievous violations of human rights and the democratic order which commenced with the coup and continue to this day."

Their call is for US Asst. Sec. of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Michael Posner, to visit Honduras and "make a prompt assessment of what is occurring there with regards to human and political rights."

And perhaps most significantly, the signers say that

"without an early and accurate report [from Mr. Posner], we would be reluctant to see US support for Honduras continue without significant restrictions."

Among others, the signers include Reps. Jim McGovern (D-MA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Mike Honda (D-CA), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Bill Delahunt (D-MA), John Conyers (D-MI), Barbara Lee (D-CA), and George Miller (D-CA).

Again the whole letter is here.

Guatemalan Resignations

From AFP this morning, a report from Guatemala on what the wire service calls a “crisis in the Guatemalan government.” Amidst an attempt to find financing to help rebuild after tropical storm Agatha and following the failed passage of an important fiscal reform bill, AFP says the Wednesday resignation of Finance Minister Juan Alberto Fuentes – along with economy adviser Rubén Morales and the head of energy and mines, Carlos Meany – were “swift blows” to the government of Alvaro Colom. In a country where tax revenue is barely 10% of GDP, Colom cited the failed fiscal reform as the principal reason behind his finance minister’s resignation. [Somewhat interestingly, Fuentes is apparently leaving his post for a position at the CEPAL, which has tax issues at the center of its current research agenda]. Bloomberg now reports that Colom will appoint Guatemala’s current representative to the Central American Integration Bank, Edgar Balsells, as Fuentes’s replacement.

Meanwhile, the resignation of Carlos Meany, the country’s head of energy and mines, came amidst human rights questions. The Inter-American Human Rights Commission recently requested that mining operations at one of Canadian mining giant, Goldcorp’s Guatemalan mines be suspended – a decision which the Guatemalan government has decided to comply with. Meany, a major proponent of mining in the country, according to AFP, was likely displeased with that decision, hastening his departure.

And finally, in the US Senate Wednesday, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) addressed the recent resignation of another high profile figure in Guatemala: Carlos Castresana from the UN backed CICIG. Leahy says Colom’s decision to appoint Conrado Reyes as attorney general concerned him greatly. [The Supreme Court has since annulled that appointment]. And, says Leahy:

“Implementation of many of the CICIG's recommendations has been repeatedly delayed. The entire Guatemalan Government - the executive, legislature and the courts - must act decisively to demonstrate that it can implement urgent anti-impunity reforms, strengthen and professionalize its law enforcement and judicial institutions, and prove that it can be a partner in the fight against organized crime. Reforming the National Police, which is widely perceived as corrupt, ineffective and unaccountable, and whose officers are under-paid, under-trained, and under-equipped, is a critical priority. I hope there is convincing progress in these areas soon.”

In other stories:

n In neighboring El Salvador, the Washington Post reports today that the US and El Salvador have agreed to a new accord by which the two countries will share criminal information on individuals deported from the US to El Salvador. According to the Post, the new accord is “designed to combat transnational crime, including crimes committed by Salvadoran gang members who come to the United States.” Meanwhile, El Faro has a piece which is critical of President Mauricio Funes’s new public security plans. The Funes government is “recycling” the strategy of the ARENA to fight organized crime by making it a crime to belong to a criminal gang, says the paper. When asked by a reporter how one identifies a gang member, the Salvadoran Vice Minister of Security responded with somewhat vague and troubling words: “by tattoos and other types of evidence.” A similar law enacted by ARENA was declared unconstitutional by the Salvadoran Supreme Court in 2004.

n The Miami Herald’s Tim Rogers has a report from Nicaragua, which says Daniel Ortega may be dipping into “Venezuela-funded coffers to bribe, buy, and scatter the weakened opposition.” This, at least, is the claim of some lawmakers and analysts in the country. The charges of bribery come amidst Ortega’s alleged attempt to reach the 56 National Assembly votes needed to reverse a ban on consecutive reelection. According to one Liberal Constitutional Party lawmaker, Jose Pallais, the FSLN offered money, cabinet posts, and judgeships in exchange for his vote. FSLN legislators have thus far rejected the accusations of bribery.

n Moving to Honduras, Pepe Lobo has announced he will be creating a presidential commission for human rights. He’s asking for Spain’s collaboration in the venture, to be headed by Ana Pineda. Lobo added that his plan would be similar to that of Guatemala. More on the truth commission process and its alternative atHonduras Culture and Politics this morning as well.

n In Ecuador, ALBA is holding its summit this week, discussing the issue of “plurinationality” with various indigenous and afro-descendant groups. According to AFP this is the first time ALBA has held its annual meetings together with indigenous and afro-descendant leaders and activists.

n Meanwhile, in Canada, the G-20, which includes Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil, is also holding meetings. Infolatam has a good breakdown of what’s on the Latin American agenda.

n In the last of those three countries, Brazil, Lula da Silva has put the issue of foreign landownership on his national political agenda, saying new regulations must be imposed on how much land non-Brazilians can own. “It’s a matter of sovereignty,” the Brazilian leader said this week. Currently non-Brazilians cannot own more than 25% of the lands in any given province.

n And finally today, this week’s Economist has an interesting piece on the drug wars. It looks at the arrest of Christopher Coke in Jamaica on the same day the UNODC released new numbers on coca production -- which hs fallen across the region as a whole, according to the UNODC. The magazine highlights the dark side, however, of what at first sight appear as positive developments:

“Yet it is precisely such achievements that produce the most scepticism about counter-narcotics. The surrender or capture of 27 Jamaican gang leaders in the past month has created a power vacuum that may be filled by bloodshed. As long as political parties depend on the mobs at elections and the police cannot provide security, citizens will still suffer.”

UNODC and Andean Coca

The annual reports on coca cultivation and cocaine production from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) are atop the agenda this morning. Just the Facts has a great breakdown on all the new data, writing that the headline of this year’s reports is “Peru's significant increase and Colombia's decrease in coca cultivation in 2009.” In fact, Peru is on its way to becoming the world’s top producer of coca (retaking that distinction from Colombia) according to the UNODC – a charge Peruvian President Alan García vehemently rejected Wednesday. [García did, however, maintain that his country has been the victim of “the Plan Colombia effect” – a reference to the idea that a decline in coca production in neighboring Colombia has done little more than push the crop across the border.]

By the numbers, it’s interesting to note that total Andean coca production decreased by 5.2% in 2009, with Colombia seeing the most significant reductions (down 16% from 2008). Again, Just the Facts has the analysis, writing that the 2009 numbers are “the lowest figure UNODC has detected in Colombia since it began measurements in the late 1990s.” And perhaps even more interestingly, the decline came in a year “in which coca eradication - both aerial and manual - fell sharply.” This would seem to counter the argument that there is any sort of correlation between forced eradication programs and reductions in coca cultivation.

In Bolivia, production of the plant barely changed between 2008 and 2009. The Andean Information Network has ten initial observations on the new Bolivia statistics, highlighting significant differences between the UNODC numbers and those reported in the 2010 U.S. International Narcotics Control Strategy. The UNODC cited just a 1% increase in coca production over the last year while the INCSR concluded there was a “9.38 percent increase” (from 32,000 to 35,000 hectares in 2009) – “inexplicably rounded up to ten percent” by DOS. But there’s more, says AIN:

“International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Chief David Johnson further misrepresented U.S. estimates in the INCSR press briefing on March 1, 2010, stating that ‘Peru had a modest increase and Bolivia has a continuing trend of a step up per year in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 percent that’s taken place over the course of the last several years.’ In fact, since the election of Morales in 2005, U.S. statistics have never reflected an increase in Bolivian coca cultivation that reached ten percent, and for most years increases in cultivation in Peru have been significantly higher.”

Behind that headline:

· I mentioned yesterday the fact that Mauricio Funes is still enjoying high approval numbers in El Salvador, one year after taking office. The LA Times this morning paints a different picture, however. The paper says that a year after promising change and the “reinvention” of the country, “Funes faces an avalanche of criticism, from opponents and supporters alike, over broken promises, corrupt management and a failure to halt rising violence that threatens to turn the nation into ‘a criminal state.’” The popular online magazine, El Faro, wrote in a recent editorial that “Salvadorans are not better off than they were a year ago,” adding that “in the middle of the worst public security crisis in a decade, the national police force remains without resources and has been infiltrated by organized crime.” In turn, the Salvadoran economy has struggled, says the Times, and the working-class base of the FMLN has been the most severely hit.

“Funes' failures have hit the poor and working class especially hard. After two decades of one-party right-wing rule, they greeted the rise of the left with great hope. Today they are deeply disillusioned.”

The story comes out as President Funes decided to put soldiers in charge of policing various prisons in the country this week. According to the AP, the Mara Salvatrucha and other gangs are believed to be increasingly running criminal operations from jail.

· In Mexico, the Washington Post’s William Booth covers the recent uncovering of what has become Mexico’s largest mass grave connected to the drug wars. A mine shaft near the popular tourist city of Taxco, the “grave” been out of operation for three years due to a mine workers’ strike. Here’s the pretty horrific picture Booth paints:

“State investigators rappelled down the 15-foot-wide shaft through darkness to reach the bottom, 50 stories down, where they found a cold, dripping-wet cavern filled with noxious gases. As they panned their headlamps around the cave, they found a subterranean killing field. Initially, they thought there were 25 dead, then 55. But as they struggle to reassemble the bodies at the morgue in the capital city, they think they have found the remains of 64 people.”

The story gets more graphic. The recovery of mummified and headless bodies has made identification sometimes impossible, Booth writes. Others appear to have been thrown into the shaft alive, say investigators – all part of Mexico’s “headlines that continue to numb,” to use the paper’s words.

· A different sort of mine-related violence is reported on at Upside Down World where Nancy Davies has a piece on the increasingly violent measures being taken against anti-mining activists in Oaxaca. And, from EFE, a piece today highlights a new report on homicides from the consulting firm Grupo Multisistemas de Seguridad Industrial. Some 19,000 homicides “of all types” occurred in the country in 2009, the group says. That would make the country the sixth most deadly in the world, in terms of per capita homicides. However, in Latin America, Colombia, Guatemala, and Paraguay still rank ahead of Mexico, the report says.

· On Venezuela, a report from VenEconomy looks at the NGO Transperencia Venezuela which recently held its 2010 forum on public administration, focusing on problems of governmental transparency in the country, specifically. At OSI’s blog, program officer Vonda Brown also highlights the work of Transparencia Venezuela, writing that the group has not been allowed to publish “shadow reports” regarding the Venezuelan government’s implementation of anti-corruption measures. However, there’s hope that the words not added to a recent OAS resolution on civil society participation may be help to change that situation. The full story at OSI’s blog.

· The AP reports on the shake-up of Hugo Chavez’s cabinet this week.

· At NACLA, a new piece looks at the Honduran business community a year after Manuel Zelaya’s ouster. According to rights activist Dr. Juan Almendares, it’s the country’s economic elites who instigated and continue to support repression in the country – a difference when comparing today’s violence with that of the 1980s. “It’s important to understand that in the eighties the direct confrontation was more the political sector working together with army,” Almendares says. “But today, the struggle is precisely about the neoliberal economic model, imperial globalization, and this whole campaign by financial capital to gain power over our lands, to take our resources.” The pervasiveness of Honduran business elite power extends even to the anti-coup Radio Globo apparently. As Adrienne Pine highlights, last week Globo journalists were sent a memo instructing them to not insult the company’s sponsors: among them golpista business magnate, Miguel Facussé. And in other Honduras news, Roberto Micheletti received a hero’s welcome in San Salvador where the city’s right wing mayor, Norman Quijano, called Micheletti a “distinguished guest” and a “paladín de la democracia.”

· In Cuba, the AP reports on the case of dissident Darsi Ferrer, found guilty Tuesday of purchasing cement on the black market. However, Ferrer was released from prison after the conviction since he had already served one year behind bars. He’ll serve four remaining months under house arrest.

· A few new poll numbers to highlight. After 100 days, Sebastian Pinera enjoys 54% national approval in Chile. And in Brazil, the PT’s Dilma Rouseff widened her lead over José Serra. Latest numbers have Rouseff up 40% to 35%, with 9% opting for the Green Party’s Marina Silva.

· Finally, some opinions. Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue has a long analytical piece about a new US policy to replace Plan Colombia. While he praises the security gains of the last decade, Shifter argues the program has done little on the drug issue. He cites the recent high commission report on Drugs and Democracy as the basis for an alternative approach. Alvaro Vargas Llosa writes on Venezuela and the Zuloaga case. Andres Oppenheimer has glowing words about Juan Manuel Santos. And we end back in Bolivia. Following Evo Morales recent statement that he wouldn’t hesitate in expelling USAID from Bolivia, Alex Main at CEPR analyzes the state of US-Bolivia relations. He says Morales’s words are consistent with his position since 2006 on the matter of USAID transparency, but:

“Unfortunately, rather than seeking to assuage the Bolivian government's concerns by lifting the veil on USAID's activities, the U.S. government has systematically refused to reveal all of the programs and groups that are currently receiving funding from the aid agency. As the Andean Information Network has noted, the US government's position violates international norms on cooperation calling for effective joint collaboration between the governments of donor and recipient countries on all cooperation programs.”

Christopher Coke Detained in Jamaica

Jamaican drug don Christopher “Dudus” Coke was arrested Tuesday as he attempted to pass through a checkpoint on the outskirts of the country’s capital, Kingston. According to the Wall Street Journal, the 41-year-old Coke was handed over to authorities by Rev. Al Miller, who was apparently driving him to the US Embassy. There, the AP says, Coke planned to turn himself over to US marshals, following the advice of the evangelical minister. [The AP says Coke had even made arrangements with the Embassy officials before-hand, in order to negotiate his surrender]. However, early reports indicate that Coke was apprehended by Jamaican authorities before being able to do so.

In the United States, officials seeking Coke’s extradition on charges of drug and arms trafficking are watching the case closely. A U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York (where those charges had been filed) said Tuesday that “We look forward to working closely with the Jamaican authorities to bring Coke to justice.”

Meanwhile, on the island, Jamaica’s police commissioner is urging supporters of Mr. Coke to remain peaceful. A militarized attempt to arrest Coke led to the deaths of 76 persons one month ago. More from the Miami Herald here.

Behind the headline:

· In Mexico, the AP says at least three police officers were killed Tuesday when armed gunmen opened fire on the municipal hall of Los Herreras, a small town in the northern state of Nuevo Leon. A vehicle near the scene of the crime hints at Zeta participation in the attack. Meanwhile, EFE reports on the Mexican army’s announcement that it will set up a special unit to handle human rights complaints from civilians. To be called Univic (Citizens Liason Unit), the Mexican Defense Secretariat said Tuesday the body “will allow the strengthening of the communication links between civil society and [the] Secretariat, with full transparency in resolving conflicts related to human rights, stemming from actions by the Mexican army and air force against organized crime and originating in the military presence on the streets.” Interestingly, that announcement comes following a new report from Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission, which says “altering crime scenes” and the rampant use of drugs and alcohol are part of the Mexican army’s “systematic conduct.” La Crónica de Hoy has the full story.

· Also, in other Mexico-related news, the BBC has one of multiple reports this morning on the country’s legal challenge against Arizona’s draconian immigration law. In US federal court, the Mexican government has filed a “friend of the court” brief (or amicus curiae) in support of a case brought by various US rights groups against the law. In the brief, Mexico argues that the Arizona law is both unconstitutional and detrimental to US-Mexico bilateral relations because it illegally discriminates against Mexican citizens. The law is set to go into force on July 29.

· The Washington Post’s Juan Forero follows up on a controversial story he wrote a few weeks back, implicating the brother of outgoing President Alvaro Uribe in the country’s paramilitary scandal. Today’s story focuses on the retired police major who made those accusations against Santiago Uribe. Juan Carlos Meneses was “deposed” by a prosecutor from the Colombian attorney general’s office while in Buenos Aires. [Meneses currently lives in exile in Argentina]. Officials will now determine whether or not the police chief’s statements warrant the re-opening of the case against Santiago Uribe.

· In a report issued Tuesday, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime says Peru will soon be surpassing Colombia as the world’s top producer of coca. The amount of land under cultivation has risen 6.8% in Peru from 2008 to 2009, says the UNODC. [In Colombia, coca cultivation fell by 16% over that same period.] However, in the summary of its report, the UNODC does not wager a guess on how much of that coca is currently being converted into cocaine – at least in Bolivia and Peru. “Due to the ongoing review of conversion factors from coca leaves to pure cocaine, [UNODC] is not putting an estimate on the level of cocaine production in Bolivia and Peru this year,” the UN says.

· On drugs and Brazil, EFE says one ton of cocaine bound for Spain was intercepted by custom officials at the port city of Santos, near Sao Paulo. Apparently Argentine customs officials tipped the Brazilians off to the stash stored away in two shipping containers.

· Also on Brazil and drugs, at OSI’s blog Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch and Karolina Walecik write on the crack epidemic in Rio’s shantytowns – focusing on the harm-reduction work OSI grantee Viva Rio is currently undertaking to turn the tide.

· Al-Jazeera has a video report on the removal of Nicaragua’s last land mines left behind from the civil war between the FSLN and the US-supported Contras. “More than 180,000 mines from more than 1,000 minefields are believed to have been cleared – a success applauded by the international community,” says Al-Jazeera.

· ALBA member states will meet this week in Ecuador, says Infolatam. Their goal: to outline common policies to consolidate a new “plurinational” and “intercultural” state model. Also, those taking part in the meetings (Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and likely Nicaragua and Cuba) will discuss ALBA’s “Tratado de Comercio de los Pueblos” (TCP).

· Might Alvaro Uribe run for mayor of Bogotá after stepping down from the presidency in August? In a recent radio interview, the president says he has not ruled the idea out.

· In a bizarre story in Paraguay, BBC Mundo says the Paraguayan People’s Army (EPP) has put a bounty on the head of its own president, Fernando Lugo, as well as other high ranking government officials. The EPP’s offer currently stands at 1000 US dollars (or 5 million guaranís).

· Recent poll numbers show Uruguay’s Pepe Mujica among the region’s most popular national leaders. After completing his first 100 days 74% of Uruguayan’s approve of the former guerrilla-turned-president. Similar numbers in El Salvador, where one-year in Mauricio Funes remains popular despite on-going struggles with crime and violence. A LPG Datos poll shows 65% of Salvadorans approve of Funes. [Those numbers are down slightly from last November when Funes peaked at 78% approval].

· On Funes and his first year in office, the Center for Democracy in the Americas is releasing a new report on the matter today. Entitled “Expectations for Change and the Challenges of Governance: The First Year of President Mauricio Funes,” the report includes an introduction from Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) and includes analysis of the economy, security, social inclusion, human rights, foreign policy, and governance under the FMLN.

· Finally, some opinions. In the Miami Herald, Mark Schneider of the International Crisis Group on Guatemala. The ICG has a new report as well (“Guatemala: Squeezed between Crime and Impunity”), which, in Schneider’s words, “found that CICIG had given Guatemala renewed hope that combating organized crime, drug trafficking and state corruption is possible.” The picture, however, remains largely troubling. He writes:

“Yet Guatemala still faces serious challenges, which make naming an equally tough new CICIG director even more urgent. Its murder rate is among the highest in the world, Mexican cartels have made Guatemala the frontline of their battle for control of the cocaine corridor, and youth gangs and organized crime have undermined citizen security.”

The LA Times gets its editorial out today on the Santos victory in Colombia. The paper calls on the president-elect to transform himself from a military man into a “chief executive.” Laura Carlsen, of the CIP’s Americas Program writes in her Foreign Policy in Focus column on the recent killing of a Mexican boy by US border patrol. And Oliver Stone and Tariq Ali chat with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now about Stone’s take on the Latin American Left, featured in his new movie, South of the Border. The film opens in New York this weekend.

Regional Reactions to Juan Manuel Santos

A day after the election of Uribe heir Juan Manuel Santos in Colombia, two of the most anticipated reactions were those from Colombia’s two neighbors, Venezuela and Ecuador – the country's on-again, off-again sparring partners. According to the AP, Santos indicated before Sunday’s election that he would send an inaugural invitation to Hugo Chavez, should he be elected. And on Monday, Chavez responded to the Santos victory with conciliatory words, saying he wished the new Colombian president success and hoped for “sincerity and respect” as Santos assumes office. The foreign ministry of Venezuela also published a five paragraph communiqué on the Santos victory, congratulating the Colombian people on Sunday’s vote. This according to BBC Mundo. However, the BBC says the Venezuelan statement added that it would be “very attentive to not only the words of the new government and its spokespeople but also to its actions…” And many analysts remain doubtful that any we’ll see any significant change in the tenuous Venezuela-Colombia relationship.

In Ecuador, meanwhile, Rafael Correa called Santos personally to offer his congratulations following Sunday’s vote. The country’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, said his country now waits “with caution” to see what the new Colombian government does with respect to investigations of the 2008 cross-border attack on a FARC camp in Ecuador. Ecuador has demanded Colombia hand over all of its information related to the attack before the two country’s severed relations are re-established.

Finally, in the US, Juan Manuel Santos had no trouble winning over three of the major US papers which regularly cover the region. A Washington Post editorial contrasts Santos with both Brazil’s Lula and Hugo Chavez. “Juan Manuel Santos has demonstrated that pro-American, pro-free-market politicians still have life in Latin America. Mr. Santos … has no interest in courting Iran, unlike Brazil's Luiz Ignácio Lula da Silva. He has rejected the authoritarian socialism of Venezuela's Hugo Chávez,” the paper claims. The Post’s call is on the US to return the favor with a free trade agreement. Ditto from the Wall Street Journal. The paper also praises Alvaro Uribe, citing a “drop in murders of labor union members” under his watch as one of the outgoing president’s major successes [“It is now statistically safer to belong to a union than to be a member of the general population,” the paper claims]. Those words come just days after two DAS agents were arrested in connection with the murder of trade union leader five years ago. And, the Miami Herald’s editorial board also has words of praise for Santos. But unlike the others, the paper says human rights must become the president’s priority. In contrast to the Journal’s take, the Herald writes:

“Although the picture is somewhat improved, Colombia is regarded as the most dangerous Western country for trade unionists. Colombia's military has been accused of murdering young men and later claiming falsely that they were guerrillas. The president's security agency has been involved in a scandal over illicit surveillance of human rights activists and other perceived enemies.”

Behind the headline:

· On violence in Mexico, the Dallas Morning News reports that Mexico’s Western state of Nayarit has become the latest area to be transformed into a drug war battleground. “Best known for the sleepy beach towns that dot its coastline,” the DMN writes, the state is “now facing the kind of brutal drug violence that has plagued the Texas-Mexico border for years.” Over 100 have been killed just this year in Nayarit – 30 in the last week alone. That’s more than the last four years combined, says the paper. And according to organized crime expert, Phil Williams, “The violence remains part of the ongoing realignment” which has continued since the crackdown of the Beltrán Leyva cartel six months ago. Those changes are raising new concerns within the Mexican Catholic Church, as well. The Archdiocese of Mexico, in an editorial this weekend, expressed its concern that organized crime syndicates might “impose candidates” in upcoming July 4 elections.

· With the latest murder tally, the DMN puts the total number killed in Mexico over the last week at 300. That includes the recent murders of two Mexican mayors (one from the northern city of Guadalupe and another in the southern town of San José del Progreso). Meanwhile, a new report from Mexico’s El Universal says 95% of those killed in the country’s drug wars are going uninvestigated.

· New violence connected to organized crime and drug traffickers also struck El Salvador late Sunday. The LA Times has the report about the attacks on two passenger buses in San Salvador’s Mejicanos neighborhood which killed 16 [El Faro says 14]. Here’s how the paper analyzes the incident in Central America’s murder capital.

“The attacks represented a dramatic surge in ongoing street violence attributed largely to gangs but exacerbated lately by a growing presence of drug traffickers, authorities say. Police say gangs have been demanding protection money from bus companies, and major criminal forces, including drug cartels, are believed to be recruiting gang members to do their dirty work.”

More from El Faro, which says today that eight individuals have been arrested in connection with those attacks. More arrests are expected in the coming days, according to the National Police.

· From the AP, a piece on a new US Senate report on Haiti. This time it’s Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, John Kerry, who says Haiti has made little reconstruction progress in the five months since the January quake. It blames an “absence of leadership, disagreements among donors and general disorganization” for the delays. The report comes as legislators consider the authorization of $2 billion of reconstruction aid to the country. On the performance of the government of President Rene Preval and PM Jean-Max Bellerive, Kerry’s report says it has “not done an effective job of communicating to Haitians that it is in charge and ready to lead the rebuilding effort.” More on the report from Jacqueline Charles at the Miami Herald.

· In Chile, former presidential candidate Marco Enríquez-Ominami, is saying that the Concertación no longer exists “como tal” and he’s preparing for the launch of a new party, the Partido Progresista, to “re-found” the Chilean Left.

· In Argentina, the country’s current ambassador to the US, Hector Timerman, was named the country’s new foreign minister last Friday. This after the resignation of Jorge Taiana. Timerman, son of the late writer Jacobo Timerman, is well-known in the human rights community. As the AP reports, Hector Timerman was imprisoned for seven years during Argentina's military dictatorship, co-founded Americas Watch, and coordinated a Latin American peace and justice center after the return of democracy in 1983.

· Foreign Policy has released its annual list of what it calls the “world’s worst dictators.” FP puts two Latin Americans – Hugo Chavez and Raul Castro – on their list of 23, as the Miami Herald reports today. And perhaps even more notable than the simple fact that Chavez made the FP list is the fact that he is placed “above” Raul Castro. [Chavez at #17 and Castro at #23].

· Which leads into the last point today: a response from CEPR’s Mark Weisbrot (also, co-writer of Oliver Stone’s new movie South of the Border) in the Guardian to what he calls a “misleading and one-sided picture of Venezuela” offered by the BBC’s Stephen Sackur during his recent interview with Hugo Chavez. Weisbrot’s claim: “Most of the western world thinks that Venezuela is some kind of dictatorship where Chávez has made people poorer. They have no idea why he has been re-elected twice, each time by a larger majority.”