El Diario de Juarez, the principal daily of the battered Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez, has rejected reports that it has any plans of “restricting” its coverage of the drug wars. As I wrote here yesterday, the AP characterized the paper’s Sunday editorial, entitled “What do you want from Us?” as a sign that El Diario would be adopting self-censorship of the bloody violence which continues along the US-Mexico border. The editorial followed the murder of the paper’s photographer, Luis Carlos Santiago Orozco, late last week – the second journalist El Diario has lost to drug violence in the last two years.
On Monday, El Diario clarified its position, highlighting that the Sunday editorial explicitly rejected the notion that the paper had any plans of “surrender.” Here’s El Diario’s news editor, Pedro Torres, as quoted in the Washington Post today:
“[W]e will keep on doing the same work as always. We have not changed at all. It is an intolerable situation. But we do not want to give up. We will continue.”
Another reporter maintains that the AP “misunderstood” and “over-interpreted” the Sunday editorial. Monday’s front page story, the paper says, is proof that it has no plans of stepping down its coverage of crime and violence. That story was an investigation on impunity, detailing the Mexican government's failure to make legal cases against four members of the Artistic Assassins gang, recently accused by the government of killing 55 people in Juarez. The four individuals had been “paraded before cameras” by Mexican authorities but were later released, El Diario reported Monday.
The New York Times this morning has more on the El Diario story. It says what others are now reporting with respect to the murder of Luis Carlos Santiago Orozco last week: namely, that Mexican authorities now claim a “personal grievance” was the “probable motive” for the killing of the 21-year-old. However, the Times adds that “officials made no mention of the common calling card of Mexico’s drug gangs: a message left hanging on a street corner warning the police that they would meet the same fate as Mr. Santiago.” And, writing on her Frontera List listserv, Mexico watcher Molly Molloy, adds that such assertions by Mexican authorities are a “common tactic when the government wants to defame the character of the people who have been murdered.”
With one more note on drug-related violence in Mexico:
· A report from the Wall Street Journal today that two Honduran diplomats were briefly detained by a “presumed drug gang” over the weekend. According to the paper, that incident has prompted Honduras to “warn Mexico…that it might close several consulates here if Mexico can’t provide adequate security for diplomats.” The Honduran diplomats were released, in handcuffs, after the car being driven by their captors crashed. This according to a statement from the Honduran government. The car itself apparently belonged to the Honduran consul, Raul Morazán, “raising suspicion that he may have been the intended target.”
· McClatchy has more on the addition of three Central American countries – Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and the aforementioned Honduras – to the United States’ list of “major drug trafficking nations.” The news service says their inclusion was “front page news” throughout the region, but adds that “there was little expectation that the designation would mean the U.S. will make new money and other resources available.” With the addition of the three Central American countries, today only El Salvador and Belize are not considered by the US government to be major Central American transshipment points for narcotics.
· Meanwhile, in Venezuela, the AP reports that two major drug trafficking suspects recently detained by the Venezuelan government were deported to the United States Monday. The two include Jaime Alberto Marin, a kingpin of the very powerful Norte del Valle cartel in Colombia. As the AP notes, “the action came only days after the U.S. criticized Venezuela's cooperation in fighting illegal narcotics.” That criticism was rejected by Venezuelan officials, with Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami calling the manner in which the U.S. judges anti-drug policies of other countries “irresponsible, arbitrary and unilateral.” For its part, the U.S. Embassy did not directly address the White House’s designation of Venezuela as uncooperative in the fight against traffickers but did note Monday’s transfers were a “positive development.”
· More on last weekend’s Colombian air strike against a FARC camp near the Ecuadorean border, from EFE and Al-Jazeera. The former reports that Colombian officials now say 27 FARC rebels – members of the group’s 48th Front -- were killed during the strike. Among those killed was Sixto Antonio Cabañas, the 48th Front’s political chief and member of the FARC’s general staff. Meanwhile, Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera is quoted by Al-Jazeera, calling the offensive a “serious blow” to the FARC operating in the province of Putumayo.
· Changes continue in Cuba, with Raúl Castro dismissing the country’s Minister of Basic Industries (MINBAS), Yadira García, this week. According to El País, the ministry is in charge of strategic sectors of the Cuban economy, including energy, petroleum, and nickel. The changes mean that 60% of the “Fidel-era” cabinet has been changed since Raúl Castro assumed power. Meanwhile, Phil Peters at the Cuban Triangle has the latest on additional prisoner releases. Via the AP, he says the Havana Archdiocese, in a statement last Friday, expects four more political prisoners to be freed shortly. When/If this occurs, that would mean 36 individuals have “accepted the proposal to leave prison and move to Spain.” For more reflections on the recently announced reforms in Cuba, longtime Cuba watcher and filmmaker Saul Landau has a new piece on Truthdig. While in the Miami Herald dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez offers some interesting thoughts about the impact of information technology on the island, arguing “the request to President Obama from the firms Nokia, AT&T and Verizon, asking for an easing of the embargo and trade with Cuba, is a ray of hope for us.” Sanchez:
“When, Raúl Castro allowed us to contract for prepaid mobile phone service in 2008, no one would have imagined that two years later these devices would be used to broadcast news censored by the official press. Through text-only messages we inform ourselves and send news out to the world. Since August 2009, some in Cuba have begun to use Twitter for small alerts, or S.O.S. calls sent from cell phones. And independent journalism and the alternative blogosphere have realized an old dream, long deferred: immediacy.”
· The AP yesterday reported on what was only Haiti’s second presidential debate ever, held Saturday. However, the event seemed to be anything but a success, with the news service calling it “a sparsely attended event that was short on detailed responses from the candidates and disrupted by multiple power blackouts.” Indeed, only 4 of the 19 candidates even bothered to show up.
· In Paraguay, President Fernando Lugo has dismissed the heads of the army, navy, air force, and five additional senior officers, says the BBC. This is the fourth time Lugo has replaced his military’s top commanders since taking office in 2008. Paraguay’s Defense Minister, Gen. Cecilio Perez Bordon, said the moves are an attempt at “institutionalizing the structure of the armed forces.”
· The New York Times with a story on Brazil’s elections, and the corruption scandal involving Lula’s chief of staff who replaced presidential candidate Dilma Rouseff. The news has “exploded onto the headlines [in Brazil],” the Times reports, “suddenly threatening to push the election to a runoff and sully the da Silva government’s reputation.”
· Interesting words from Uruguayan President José Mujica this week. In his daily radio program, Mujica said his country plans to recognize Palestine sometime in the next year, adding that his country will also “continue to have solid relations with Iran,” because it is “in his country’s interest” to do so.
· In Argentina, the Guardian looks at the resurgence of Cristina Kirchner, who has seen a resurgence in her popularity over the last year. Written off as a lame duck just two years ago, the Guardian says “an unexpected economic recovery fuelled by government spending has helped double the president's rating to just under 40%, which is considered enough to win presidential elections set for October 2011.” [Most expect Nestor Kirchner to run again]. MercoPress with more on the economic numbers, which seem to be responsible for the Kirchners’ return.
· Finally, at Rising Powers blog, a primer on Latin America’s economic success of the last year, commenting on the Economist’s recent special report on the region. Roger Scher, former manager of Fitch’s Latin American Sovereign Ratings group, credits economic success to two principal policies: “1) the consensus among Latin American politicians that conquering inflation has benefitted the poor and strengthened democracy; and 2) the massive build-up in foreign reserves that has insulated the region from the global crisis, driven in part by healthy macro policies.”
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