Twenty-two Spanish and Portuguese speaking nations closed the annual Iberoamerican summit in Argentina this weekend by, in the AP’s words, “adopting a provision threatening exclusion for any member country that doesn't abide by democratic process.” The group’s secretary general, Uruguayan economist and former Inter-American Development Bank chief Enrique Iglesias, called the move a “major advance.” Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman contended that no Latin American forum should allow a country that does not respect the “democratic order” to participate. The Latin American Herald Tribune, in its reporting on the event, says the 2010 summit will be “remembered as the meeting that armored the region against coup attempts.” And, perhaps going furthest, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, called the adoption of a democratic clause by Iberoamerican group a “before and after” moment in the history of the region. Correa:
“We are establishing procedures so that never again in our America will those unable to win at the polls be able to conspire against legitimately elected governments.”
According to the AP, unanimous approval will be required to suspend a member nation from the Iberoamerican group for its non-democratic actions.
Quickly glancing at the full “Declaración Especial sobre la Defensa de la Democracia, Estado de Derecho y el Orden Constitucional en Iberoamérica,” I’m having difficulty finding many significant differences between the new Iberoamerican democracy clause and the Organization of American States own “Inter-American Democratic Charter”– beyond the obvious exclusion of the United States and Canada from the former. I’m also trying to figure out how the Iberoamerican declaration compares to a similar democracy clause agreed to at last week’s UNASUR summit in Guyana. I’ve yet to see the exact wording of the UNASUR document, which, says the BBC, must still must be approved by member state presidents before it goes into effect. But, reports thus far, suggest the UNASUR clause may outline a list of possible sanctions (closing borders, suspension of trade, and suspension of air traffic, among them) against governments that take power in an “undemocratic” or “illegitimate” way. From my reading, that would be decidedly different from what’s outlined in the OAS democratic charter and this weekend’s Iberoamerican democratic clause – both of which discuss the suspension of violating states from respective regional bodies but are short on the details of what might constitute other “concrete actions.” But we may have to wait and see what comes of the UNASUR declaration.
Beyond talk of coup prevention, also adopted at the Iberoamerican summit was regional agreement on education. Its objective: to achieve full literacy by 2015 and ensure free and universal primary and secondary education for citizens of member states. More from BBC Mundo on the group’s education plan, “Metas Educativas 2021.” [The summit’s final, 57-point declaration is here, and again, focuses principally on the issue of education.]
Still unresolved after this weekend: naming a new UNASUR secretary general. A meeting on the issue was supposed to occur on the sidelines of the Mar del Plata summit, but Mercopress reports Saturday that no consensus was reached during a short meeting between member states Friday. We do have a handful of new names apparently floated at the meeting, moving beyond former heads of state to include Brazilian foreign policy adviser, Marco Aurelio Garcia, former Colombian education and foreign affairs minister, Maria Emma Mejia, and Venezuelan oil minister, Ali Rodriguez Araque. Talks are expected to resume on the matter at Mercosur’s December 16-18 meetings in Foz de Iguazú.
In other summit news:
· ALBA member states issued what the AP calls a “stern warning” to rich nations Friday, at UN climate negotiations in Cancun, Mexico. Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Ecuador say they will “not accept the refusal by some developed countries to extend their binding emissions targets under the Kyoto Protocol,” which expires in 2012. According to Venezuelan climate negotiator, Claudia Salerno, “If there is no second period of Kyoto, it is very difficult that there can be any balanced package” of climate-related decisions made in Cancun. Responding to the ALBA position this weekend, the EU’s delegate to the Cancun talks had the following to say: “If countries park on extreme positions, it's just not possible to come to a consensus; that is certainly something that is still hanging like a Sword of Damocles over this conference.” More from The Guardian.
· In municipal and regional elections in Venezuela Sunday, the AP reports that the opposition appears to have picked up the mayor’s office of Venezuela’s second-largest city, Maracaibo, while chavista candidates captured 7 of 11 total mayorships and the governorship of at least one state, according to initial results. The opposition’s victor in Maracaibo is particularly interesting given the name of her husband. The newly elected Eveling Trejo is the wife of former Maracaibo mayor and defeated opposition presidential candidate, Manuel Rosales. Rosales remains in asylum in Peru.
· Also on Venezuela, the State Department appears to have recently declassified a new trove of Venezuela-related diplomatic cables, ranging from the 1992 attempted coup led by then Lt. Col. Hugo Chavez to the 2004 recall referendum.
· The Washington Post reports on increasing collaboration between the DEA (based in the US Embassy and border city consulates) and elite marine units within the Mexican Navy. The collaboration, the paper says, includes “more direct information sharing” as well as “training” in “urban combat” and “counterinsurgency.” The Post, which gained the information through interviews and recently leaked diplomatic cables, says the revelations reflect a “sense of urgency on the part of the U.S. government to find a professional partner to combat drug violence in Mexico.” Human rights advocates argue many of the same problems that plague the Mexican military are found within the country’s naval special forces. Maureen Meyer of the Washington Office on Latin America, in the Post:
“By bringing the navy in for short-term operations - to take somebody out and leave again - they preserve some level of immunity. But having the navy doing patrols on the streets is blurring the lines, and that's the big risk now.”
WOLA adds that the US has set aside some $310 million for the Mexican Navy since 2007. And to be fair, the Post’s revelations are not necessarily new ones. As some have noted, Narco News had an early report on similar joint US-Mexico operations last June.
· The LA Times reports on the arrest of a 14 year boy, born in San Diego, who claims to have been carrying out killings (including beheadings) for Mexico’s South Pacific Cartel since he was 11. The boy, Edgar Jimenez Lugo, was arrested in the state of Morelos as he tried to board a flight to Tijuana with his two sisters.
· La Silla Vacia profiles the good and the bad of incoming Colombian Attorney General Viviane Morales.
· The Salvadoran National Assembly, late last week, approved a new access to information law. El Faro reports.
· Al-Jazeera’s Sebastian Walker with a video report of on-going post-election protests in Haiti, just days before the CEP is expected to give some indication of who won the country’s highly controversial elections just over one week ago. AFP today says some 2000 people came out for weekend demonstrations, demanding those elections be annulled and that current President Rene Preval be arrested. The Haitian police report five possible deaths during those demonstrations.
· The AP says Bolivia, Peru, and Brazil will meet shortly to discuss new coordinated anti-drug and anti-organized crime efforts along the countries’ shared borders. Meanwhile, US Asst. Sec. of State Arturo Valenzuela travels to Central America to discuss similar issues of “security cooperation” with heads of state in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. In Guatemala, he’ll also be meeting with CICIG chief, Francisco Dall’Anese.
· In the Washington Post, a long interview with incoming Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff includes a variety of questions on foreign policy. Also in the Post, a short AP report on outgoing President Lula da Silva’s decision to give diplomatic recognition to Palestine as he leaves office. Uruguay made a similar move in November.
· The Cuban Supreme Court has commuted the death sentence against Ernesto Cruz Leon, a Salvadoran convicted for his role in a string of hotel and restaurant bombings on the island in 1997. His sentence was reduced to 30 years in prison, says the AP. Meanwhile, the Miami Herald reports that jurors in the trial of suspected anti-Castro terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles are prepared to hear “key evidence” gathered by Cuban authorities and the FBI. Such evidence includes Posada's taped interview with a New York Times freelance journalist, who quoted him admitting that he masterminded the deadly plot to attack the Havana hotels in 1997. As the paper notes of the trial, Posada Carriles “stands accused of lying under oath about his leading part in the hotel bombing campaign that killed an Italian tourist -- though he is not charged with causing the death.”
· An LA Times editorial says a recent wave of high profile Mexican drug capo arrests may be reason to be “optimistic” about anti-drug efforts in Mexico.
· And finally, one of the more interesting Latin America-related Wikileaks I’ve seen thus far. From the US Embassy in La Paz in late March 2006, on US perceptions of Evo Morales and his three inner circles made up of “domestic political operators,” “Bolivian intellectuals,” and “Cuban and Venezuelan advisers.” The US Embassay on Morales:
“Radical cocalero union leader turned President Evo Morales Ayma is a pragmatic leader whose domestic political instincts are extraordinarily acute. Morales is an expert at spinning stories in his favor, co-opting the platforms of his adversaries, dividing his opposition, and appealing to his bases. A leader with strong anti-democratic tendencies, over the years he has been known to bribe, threaten, and even physically intimidate anyone who has stood in his way, including government officials, politicians, and cocalero colleagues.”
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