The Uruguayan Senate, in a 20 to 6 decision Tuesday, voted to officially ratify the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) charter. As the ninth country of twelve to support the charter, the organization has gained the necessary entries for its charter to gain "full legal effectiveness," says Mercopress. Opposition to the charter in Uruguay came from senate members who maintain the body is little more than an instrument of Brazilian diplomacy. Others disagree, pointing to UNASUR’s effective intervention into regional crises between Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador.
But even its supporters argue new steps must be now taken to institutionalize the organization’s political structures.
“In Latin America we have an abundance of forums which act as stages for presidents, but what we need is an institution not dedicated to ‘thick rhetoric on integration’ but that makes things, that gets things done,” former Ecuadorean President Rodrigo Borja and UNASUR’s first, albeit short lived, secretary general tells Mercopress.
Small movement in that direction may have occurred last week at a UNASUR summit in Guyana. Most notably, the small South American country, which takes over the rotating leadership of the union next year, hosted the approval of a “democratic clause,” which, reports indicate, “contemplates closing borders, suspension of trade, air traffic and supplies with the country where a de-stabilization of the democratic system takes place.” The idea was formally proposed following the recent crisis in Ecuador and that country’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patino added last week that any government who reaches power by “undemocratic, unconstitutional and illegitimate actions will have its rights in the group suspended.” UNASUR members are to decide on the country’s return to the organization only when “democratic problems” are resolved. However, the definition of “undemocratic or unconstitutional actions” still appears undefined. Patino:
“When incidents of such nature occur, interruption of democracy or attempted interruption, countries will immediately convene either heads of state or the council of Foreign Affairs ministers and with the available information will decide if effectively it is a constitutional breakdown or affects democracy, and from there we will adopt a decision.”
Interestingly, the only three countries who have yet to ratify the charter are the aforementioned Colombia and Brazil, along with Paraguay. Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo suggested this week he would push his parliament to act on the charter soon, perhaps after it votes on the incorporation of Venezuela into the Southern Cone’s economic bloc, Mercosur. As for the former, AFP reports that the Colombian government plans to present a single candidate to replace Nestor Kirchner as the head of UNASUR. The body will meet again later this week to take up that issue, on the sidelines of the IberoAmerican Summit in Argentina.
To other stories:
· On Haiti, the Miami Herald reports that some US lawmakers are saying Sunday’s electoral chaos could cost the country billions of dollars in reconstruction aid, should the country’s crisis deepen. In his opening statement at the 2010 Hearing on Latin America, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) says he and others had urged President Rene Preval to “enact much needed reforms to ensure the credibility of [Sunday’s] elections” – recommendations which the Haitian president “refused” to implement. Now, says Lugar, “political uncertainty…threatens to exacerbate the human suffering in Haiti” and the United States willingness to direct funds through the Haitian government “depends on the fair, transparent, and legal resolution of the current political crisis.” Lugar recommended, among other things, that the Preval government replace the nine-member Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) last summer. But as a Wikileak-ed June 2009 memo from then US ambassador to Haiti, Janet Sanderson, indicates, Preval has, for some time, been concerned with other aspects of the 2010 presidential elections. By way of Jonathan Katz at the AP:
“A leaked memo by a U.S. ambassador to Haiti said President Rene Preval's primary concern ahead of last weekend's election for his successor was to ensure the winner would not force him into exile.”
Quoting from the June 2009 memo (written seven months before the January 2010 earthquake):
“[President Preval’s] overriding goal is to orchestrate the 2011 presidential transition in such a way as to ensure that whoever is elected will allow him to go home unimpeded. Based on our conversations, this is indeed a matter that looms large for Preval.”
The memo goes on to call Preval “Haiti’s indispensable man.” It also calls his decision making “erratic” and suggests the president has neglected his health after fighting prostate cancer while also returning to his fondness for the drink.
· Also from Senator Lugar’s statement at the 2010 Hearing on Latin America, the ranking member on the Foreign Relations Committee maintains that while talk of the US “neglecting” Latin America is often overstated, there is “little doubt” that US engagement has been “crisis driven” for decades. Lugar’s proposed remedy:
“If we are going to achieve stronger regional cohesion and prosperity, we must establish a clear sense of our interests and develop a more comprehensive means of engaging with our neighbors. This engagement must go beyond managing perceptions in the region. We need to underscore that the United States is dedicated to working with our Western Hemisphere partners on economic development and growth, strong democratic institutions, the rule of law, energy security, environmental protection, human rights, and many other objectives.”
· From the Miami Herald, more Wikileak material – this time on Venezuela. A US Embassy cable from 2009, following conversations with Venezuelan nuclear scientists, paints a quite dysfunctional and “dismal” (the Herald’s words) picture of the country’s nuclear program. The cable also notes scientist skepticism about the government’s sincerity and capacity for following through with a civilian nuclear cooperation deal signed with Russia in 2008.
· The New York Times reports on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s decision to open up the Miraflores presidential palace to recent flood victims. The Times: “Appearing on state television at Miraflores clad in an olive drab military uniform, Mr. Chávez welcomed 26 families who had been displaced by torrential rains in recent weeks. The rainfall has caused flooding and landslides that have killed 25 people (EFE says 29) and forced more than 30,000 Venezuelans to flee, civil defense officials said.” The families will apparently be allowed to stay for one entire year with President Chavez after losing their homes last week. Also, according to EFE, Venezuela’s electoral council (CNE) says regional and municipal elections, scheduled for this Sunday, will go on as scheduled, despite the floods.
· IPS has a report on Brazil’s militarized seizures of two Rio favelas, saying human rights abuses committed during last week’s raids “are jeopardizing local residents’ newfound support for security forces.” The complaints refer only to the military police, says IPS, not the civilian police, the armed forces, or the BOPE (the military police’s elite special forces unit. That comes as little surprise to Antonio Costa, president of the Rio de Paz (Peace) Movement who says the military police have long been the target of accusations by human rights organizations.
· The Miami Herald on detained US contractor, Alan Gross, as the one year anniversary of his imprisonment in Cuba approaches.
· The Guardian reprints a Le Monde profile of Juan Mendez, the Argentine jurist and human rights defender who was recently named the new UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. Mendez, a torture victim himself during Argentina’s brutal military dictatorship (1976-1983), is the first non-European to be named to the post since its creation in 1985.
· Via AQ, ECLAC’s 2010 Social Panorama of Latin America indicates poverty has fallen across the region because of a strong economic recovery and important income redistribution policies. Interestingly, according to ECLAC Argentina, Peru and Venezuela experienced the greatest reductions in poverty, “between 20 percent and 30 percent.”
· And finally, Nick Kristof in today’s New York Times, on Haiti and poverty, which, Kristof argues, is to blame for both the devastation caused by the 2010 earthquake and the current cholera crisis. Kristof’s solution?
“Ultimately what Haiti most needs isn’t so much aid, but trade. Aid accounts for half of Haiti’s economy, and remittances for another quarter — and that’s a path to nowhere…’Sweatshops,’ Americans may be thinking. ‘Jobs,’ Haitians are thinking, and nothing would be more transformative for the country.”
No comments:
Post a Comment