The New York Times this morning reports from Mexico on this week’s discovery of a mass grave near Acapulco – likely connected to the disappearance of 20 Michoacan tourists some five weeks ago. As the Times writes – and as I mentioned here yesterday – 18 bodies have been discovered thus far by investigators.
The find came after a phone call directed police to the grave site. There a note, signed by the little known Acapulco Independent Cartel (CIDA), said the murder of the men was a mistake. A You Tube video released Wednesday showed the interrogations of two of the missing men, as well as claims that the executions were revenge against the Michoacan cartel, La Familia – at the request of the Beltran Leyva cartel. This according to the LA Times.
If the bodies are identified as at least some of the tourists killed over one month ago, the whereabouts of two men would still be unknown. Investigations apparently are continuing, according to the Times.
Also, the Washington Post mentions and El Diario de Juarez reports that the body of Mario Gonzalez – the brother of former Chihuahua prosecutor Patricia Gonzalez – was found Thursday, buried next to three or four unidentified bodies near Chihuahua City. Like in the case of the Acapulco clandestine burial site, Gonzalez has become identified with an apparently new drug war phenomenon: the release of You Tube video messages by frequently the drug wars increasingly nebulous murderers. Quoted in the Post’s reporting, Martin Barron Cruz, a researcher at the National Institute of Criminal Science in Mexico City contends the new and twisted “media strategy” has been “learned from the Islamic terrorist organizations and brought to Mexico.”
And finally, also in Juarez, Reuters’ Julian Cardona reports on the now six Americans who have been killed in the city since last Saturday. University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) students Manuel Acosta and Eder Diaz became the latest victims when the BMW they were driving was “peppered” with gunfire, says Reuters.
To other stories:
· This week’s Economist reports on the judicial investigation into ex-Colombian president Alvaro Uribe and the role he played in the DAS domestic spying scandal. Congressional investigations on the matter began earlier this week, and Uribe will soon be testifying, under oath, before the committee carrying out the inquiry. But interestingly, the investigations have yet to touch Mr. Uribe’s national popularity. The Economist:
“Despite all this, the ex-president’s reputation has barely been tarnished. His approval rating a month after leaving office was 80%. And a recent poll found that were he to run for mayor of Bogotá, the capital—a post that interests him—he would get 56% of the vote.”
That’s not quite the case internationally. As EFE reports, Uribe was also summoned this week to speak about the relationship between US mining giant Drummond and AUC paramilitaries in Colombia from 1999 to 2007. The subpoena, from the law offices of Conrad & Scherer, was handed to Uribe by a Georgetown University law student as the former president finished a lecture in DC. On Nov. 22, in Washington, Uribe is expected to give testimony to lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the case, who include some 500 Colombians with family members who are believed to have been killed by the AUC. WOLA’s Gimena Sanchez says the event is “significant because it obligates Uribe to officially speak about the links between the armed forces and paramilitaries and their connection to the brutal murder of trade union activists.” The testimony could also influence US debate about a possible free trade agreement with Colombia. No comment from Uribe’s people on the matter as of yet.
· Also in Colombia, Colombia Reports says the country’s principal left-of-center party, the Polo Democratico, will oppose President Juan Manuel Santos’s proposed Victims Law. PD congressman Ivan Cepeda says the bill must include an independent truth commission, with members elected by the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the Constitutional Court. “As the bill stands,” says Colombia Reports, “the commission would fall under the jurisdiction of the national government.” In addition, the Polo Democratico complains the government did not consult victims or minority organizations when drafting the bill, and according to Cepeda, the legislation is also flawed because it “confuses social welfare with victim's reparation,” and thus is not “fiscally responsible.” For his part, the aforementioned Alvaro Uribe also has spoken out against the bill because it offers the “same compensation to victims of the state as to victims of illegal groups.” The bill was presented to Congress for an official vote on Tuesday.
· EFE reports on the OAS’s mediation of the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border dispute. More good analysis of the situation from Boz.
· Tim Rogers reports for the Tico Times on the possibility of a new “political pact” between President Daniel Ortega and Liberal Constitutional Party chief and ex-president Arnoldo Alemán. The rumors come as the de facto president of Nicaragua’s Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) recently called for general elections to be held one year from tomorrow (Nov. 6, 2011). In a closed-door announcement this week, the CSE also said parties must register by tomorrow in order to be eligible to participate in next year’s vote. More from Tim Rogers.
· The Wall Street Journal says Venezuela has resumed designating a portion of its oil profits to a special fund for social spending directed by President Hugo Chavez. According to oil minister Rafael Ramirez, with Venezuelan oil prices sticking above $70 a barrel, the so-called “Fonden tax” has been “re-imposed on all oil sales.” The tax, says Ramirez, adds to a fixed amount PDVSA already provides to social projects.
· From Cuba, the AP on the opening of the island’s first Catholic Seminary since the 1959 Revolution. Joined by Raul Castro, Havana Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the individual responsible for negotiating the terms of release for some 52 political prisoners jailed in a 2003 crackdown on dissent, opened the doors to the new institution this week. Interestingly, the inauguration was also attended by a U.S. delegation, led by Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami.
· In Chile, the Santiago Times reports that the reopening of torture file logs under President Michelle Bachelet has revealed some 5000 new cases of politically-motivated torture under the Pinochet regime (1973-1990). The additional cases – which will be included in a new version of the report on Pinochet era rights abuses planned for release in February – raises the number of documented victims of torture and imprisonment to 33,000.
· At Foreign Policy, links to Radio Netherlands recent and rare interview with Dutch FARC fighter Tanja Nijmeijer – considered to be the only “non-Latin militant” active in the FARC.
· In Paraguay, Bloomberg reports on a huge titanium deposit discovery in Paraguay – potentially the largest ever discovered. The rights to the deposit are controlled by American explorer-geologist David Lowell, 82, and his CIC Resources, Inc. In a recent interview about the discovery, Lowell says the deposit “could control the world titanium market, a big enough piece of production that whoever operates it would dictate what the price is going to be.” As far as Paraguay’s mining laws go, Paraguay’s congress recently passed, at the request of Lowell himself, a new law to “strengthen mineral claims.” The legislation is currently before the Senate.
· And finally, in Haiti, disaster has arrived yet again, this time in the form of Tropical Storm Tomas. International groups attempted to evacuate those living in tent camps on the coastal plain over the last few days, before the storm made landfall last night. But the New York Times reports on the “standoff” between international groups and “confused and frustrated residents, some doubting a storm was coming and placing little trust in any authority” – a revelation of the “stark hurdles for efforts to provide relief for crises and disasters in a country growing weary of them,” in the Times words. Time, meanwhile, asks where evacuees would even go in a country where so much was destroyed, where so little has been reconstructed, and where disease will now no doubt spread more rapidly. What capacity does the Haitian government have for responding to this all? The New York Times reporting requires no commentary:
“President René Préval made it plain that people were largely on their own, warning them on local radio Thursday, ‘You have to help yourself.’ He encouraged people in the camps to stay with friends or relatives. But Claudette Pierre, a resident of a camp in the capital, Port-au-Prince, had an answer that spoke for many. 'The friends I had to go to died in the earthquake,' Ms. Pierre said."
*Note correction on yesterday’s post: UNASUR's "democracy clause" has not yet been approved. It has only been proposed and will be taken up officially at a UNASUR summit in Guyana later this month.
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