After day one of the OAS’s annual general assembly, Honduras – that issue not on the official assembly agenda – has found its way atop the agenda of morning media coverage from Peru. We begin with the New York Times, which says US Sec. of State Hillary Clinton pled the case of Honduras before the OAS GA Monday. According to Ms. Clinton (whose full speech is available here), the United States condemned Mr. Zelaya’s ouster when it happened, but had since witnessed the “the free and fair election of President (Porfirio) Lobo.” The Times says the secretary also praised Lobo for setting up a truth commission to investigate the coup. “[It]’s time for the hemisphere as a whole to move forward and welcome Honduras back into the inter-American community,” said Clinton.
Leading the bloc of mostly South American countries opposed to Honduras’s re-admittance at this time, Brazilian deputy foreign minister said the Central American country’s return to the OAS “must be linked to specific means for ensuring re-democratization and the establishment of fundamental rights.” Among the specifics mentioned: creating the conditions for former president Mel Zelaya to “participate in the political life of Honduras.” [Over the weekend, US Assistant Sec. of State Arturo Valenzuela called Zelaya’s return “not a critical subject at this time” – at least for the US].
The Miami Herald has more on the issue, saying that regional leaders like Mexico argued that a more productive discussion about Honduras would occur if it were held “behind closed doors.” If done on the assembly floor, “we’d be starting a debate over a resolution which, certainly, would be very difficult to reach a consensus,” said Mexican foreign minister, Patricia Espinosa. Mexico too has been hesitant in supporting Honduras’s re-admittance to the inter-American body.
Beyond Honduras, it’s expected that at some point GA discussion will move to the issue of security and arms. According to Mexico’s El Universal, the OAS’s final declaration is to include the adoption of a “Hemispheric Action Plan against Transnational Organized Crime,” through which the foreign ministers gathered in Lima would officially request that the OAS support and coordinate capacity building and technical assistance efforts to “prevent, investigate, and eradicate organized crime” in their respective states. In his speech Monday, Secretary General José Miguel Insulza also echoed the main points of his recent inauguration address, saying “a far-reaching, modern and inclusive multilateralism that uses dialogue and agreements, not sanctions, exclusions or divisions, as its main tool” must be the OAS’s primary goal. In meeting with delegation heads, civil society groups, meanwhile, presented their concerns to the OAS. An OAS press release says these included “recommendations related to the prevention of political crises, women’s participation in social, economic and political decision-making; transparency in arms acquisition, and the inclusion of civil society in the design of environmental policies, among others.”
Also, clearly at the front of Hillary Clinton’s mind this week is the issue of Iran sanctions, and she seems determined to make that issue – to be voted on at the UN shortly – an issue at the OAS. Clinton briefly met with Brazil’s deputy foreign minister, Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, yesterday in Lima to talk about both Honduras and Iran. And, speaking with reporters, Clinton said she “fully expects Iran to pull some stunt in the next couple of days because they know sanctions are on the way.” Boz has more on what he believes is the Obama administration’s genuine support for multilateralism and Latin American regional integration – I’m more skeptical that, from an historical perspective (i.e. beyond just a comparison with the Bush II years), the rhetoric supporting multilateralism at diplomatic gatherings like the OAS is really anything new.
Beyond the headline:
· Significant news from Guatemala this morning where the head of the UN commission responsible for tackling corruption and impunity in that country, Carlos Castresana, unexpectedly resigned Monday. His reason, according to the AP: the Guatemalan government’s failure to uphold its end of the deal and his dissatisfaction with the country’s new attorney general. The Spaniard Castresana has led the much respected International Commission Against Impunity (CICIG) since 2007. But his words Monday were ones of frustration and despair. “Nothing that was promised is being done. On a personal level, I feel I cannot do anything more for Guatemala,” he told reporters. Among Castresana’s most recent frustrations was Guatemala’s decision to appoint Conrado Reyes as the country’s attorney general. Reyes is accused by some of having past ties with organized crime – allegations he denies. Castresana has also become the target of a “smear campaign” following the capture of ex-president Alvaro Portillo on money-laundering charges. Just last week, for example, a radio program alleged Castresana was romantically involved with a staffer. EFE says a replacement at CICIG (whose name has not yet been released) will arrive in Guatemala in the coming weeks. According to Castresana: “The work of Cicig will continue and the person who will replace me is honorable and independent, I can vouch for that.” A bit more from the Central American Politics blog, if interested.
· In Mexico, the number of bodies removed from a deep mine in Taxco, Guerrero continues to rise. Infolatam puts the number at 77 today. Of those, only six bodies have been able to be identified thus far. The majority are believed to be victims of organized crime.
· At another Mexican mine in the northern state of Sonora, federal police were sent in by President Felipe Calderon Monday to evict copper miners who have been on strike for almost three years, protesting health and safety issues at the mine. The Wall Street Journal says the decision is a “blow against what [Calderón’s] administration sees as intransigent labor unions.” The National Mining and Metal Workers union called the police action “illegal” and has called on organized labor to protest around the country. The union also claims that three people were injured by gunfire as police evicted miners. The New York Times says those claims cannot, however, be confirmed.
· The AP reports on other major trade union news from Bolivia were President Evo Morales was re-elected as the head of the country’s largest coca-grower’s union Monday. He’s held that position for over two decades, and while largely “symbolic,” in Morales’s words, the president has promised to continue attending union meetings.
· In Venezuela, criticisms of the recently created Centro de Estudio Situacional de la Nación (CESNA) are becoming more pronounced this week. Critics maintain that the new body, which will apparently report to the Interior and Justice Ministries is set up to limit freedom of information. Specifically, the argument is that the CESNA will have the ability to declare classified public and private information, as it sees fit. According to the head of the NGO Control Ciudadano, Rocío San Miguel (in a long piece from Spain’s Vanguardia), since “anything determined to be part of the national interest can be classified,” a “permanent state of exception” has been created. Caracas Chronicles, meanwhile, suggests that May inflation numbers, still not released in Venezuela, may be the first victim of CESNA censorship.
· In Brazil, state police in Sao Paulo arrested 17 of its own officers over the weekend on charges that they participated in death squads that killed 23 people in April of this year.
· Also from Brazil, the Economist chats with Brazil’s Central Bank chief in an online video interview. And the Wall Street Journal reports on upcoming Brazilian elections, suggesting Dilma Rouseff may be the new favorite to win come October. Explaining her recent surge, the paper says “one explanation … may be an economic forecast of 6% growth this year, as well as expanded government aid for low-income families.”
· In Argentina, the BBC reports that DNA tests have begun on the adopted heirs of the country’s Clarín media empire, Marcela and Felipe Noble Herrera, to determine whether or not they were kidnapped from individuals killed during the country’s military dictatorship. Interestingly, the two have opposed such tests, saying it’s a politically motivated campaign against their adoptive mother. The Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo, however, allege that Ernestina Herrera de Noble, who currently owns Clarín, illegally adopted both children 34 years ago.
· Recent opinions include Mary Anastasia O’Grady on the Venezuelan economy in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times’ columnist Bob Herbert who recently discussed the other oil spill: Texaco/Chevron’s in the Ecuadorean Amazon. Also, the Miami Herald runs an editorial today on Cuba, saying 37 dissidents were temporarily arrested last week at the same time 26 others were in the process of being moved to hospitals nearer to their homes. And the LA Times has a very interesting editorial on what it calls a “truly historic development” in Colombia, lost amidst the presidential election. Here’s the news:
“Thanks to the work of the Cornell Law School International Human Rights Clinic, Colombia has joined the ranks of nations that provide free and compulsory primary school education. Four years of work by the clinic and by the Colombian Coalition for the Right to Education came to fruition last week when the Colombian Constitutional Court ruled that charging tuition for public elementary school was a violation of the Colombian Constitution.”
· Finally, in Washington news, via a tweet from the Inter-American Dialogue, it looks like the Dialogue’s Dan Erikson has just been appointed a senior adviser for Western Hemisphere affairs at the State Department.
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