Bolivians gathered at various sites around the country Wednesday, staging demonstrations in support of their government’s push for an amendment to the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. But many of the protests were not exactly traditional.
As the AFP reports, in many parts of the country Bolivians sat peacefully, chewing coca leaves in a symbolic act of defiance to US-led opposition to the Bolivian amendment, which would remove a ban on coca-chewing from the 1961 Convention. One of those gatherings occurred in front of the US Embassy in La Paz where the BBC says hundreds came to demonstrate against an a recently lodged complaint by the US to the UN against Bolivia’s proposal. The US Embassy suggested the US government would stand by that decision in a short, seemingly contradictory statement Wednesday.
“The United States respects indigenous peoples’ culture and recognizes that acullico (coca-chewing) is a traditional custom in Bolivian culture… The Unites States government’s stance of not supporting the proposed amendment is based on the importance of maintaining the integrity of the 1961 Convention, which represents an important tool in the global fight against narcotrafficking.”
Cocalero and governing MAS party leader Leonilda Zurita contends the US position is out-of-touch with the much of the world. “The countries support us so that we can de-penalize (coca chewing); the only one opposing us is the United States,” Zurita tells AFP.
In addition to the “chew-ins,” marches were organized in La Paz, Santa Cruz and other cities around the country yesterday, drawing together what AFP describes as coca growers, peasants, Indians, miners, makers of coca-based products, activists and MAS lawmakers.
The Andean Information Network has more, including a letter being sent to Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, for which, as of yesterday, signatures were still being collected. According to AIN, “rejecting Bolivia’s amendment conflicts with the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which states: ‘Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions.’”
To other stories:
· In Haiti, conflicting reports about the potential exit of government-backed presidential candidate Jude Celestin. Reuters reports again that the governing party, INITE, has pulled Celestin from a possible second-round runoff, “under intense international pressure.” In a statement signed by INITE’s national party chief, Sen. Joseph Lambert, and others, the party says “Even if we are certain that Jude Celestin has the number of votes necessary to pass to the second round, INITE agrees to pull him from the race as a candidate for the presidency.” But Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) says it has not yet received official word of Celestin’s exit nor has Mr. Celestin himself said publicly he’s dropping out. In fact, speaking to the Miami Herald, Lambert suggests an internal dispute has erupted between Celestin and his party over the decision. Lambert to the Herald:
“Jude doesn't agree. We asked him to remove himself and he said, ‘I am not made that way. It is not part of my mental fabric.’”
Although absent from a series of INITE meetings this week about his possible withdrawal, Celestin is quietly demanding Haiti’s courts resolve the issue, according to The Herald. Some of those INITE meetings, says the paper, have included President Rene Preval. Meanwhile Wednesday, more pressure from Washington and the OAS. AFP reports on a “symbolic resolution” passed in the US Senate – and drafted by Florida senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) – saying “political leadership is required to ensure that a democratically elected government, which is respected by the people of Haiti and recognized by the international community, is prepared to assume office on February 7, 2011, or shortly thereafter.” Reuters says the OAS Permanent Council also issued a somewhat vague statement yesterday, maintaining that the CEP must ultimately decide whether or not to apply the inter-American body’s recommendations but that it gives “its full support for and commitment to the constitutional framework, democratic process, and peace and stability in Haiti.” A frustrated Joseph Lambert, reacting to increased international pressure: “Everyone sees the hands of the international community in these elections. They have law, but we don't have laws? We are not a country anymore?”
· Just the Facts with new and interesting numbers mapping trends in US military and police training in Latin America from 1999-2008. The post comes after the State Dept. finally released its Foreign Military Training Report for 2008 – just two years after it was due. (The report covering 2009 was due in March 2010 and has also yet to be released although DOS officials apparently say it will go public shortly). Adam Isacson on the principal regional trend in 2008, in terms of total military and police personnel trained by the US: a significant decline, which is based almost entirely on a “sharp reduction in training of personnel from Colombia” that year. When Colombia is excluded from the data set, something different emerges. Isacson: “Taking away Colombia reveals the number of trainees in the rest of the region – 9,700 in 2008 – to have been near the highest levels the report has shown.”
· An added wrinkle to issues of security cooperation and training comes in Venezuela where much-anticipated security talks were held yesterday between Venezuelan Interior Minister Tareck El-Aissami and Colombian Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera. While the number of military and police personnel trained by the US has dropped in Colombia of late, it’s nothing compared to Venezuela where US training of such personnel unsurprisingly fell 97.8% between 1999-2001 and 2006-2008. And yet in recent months Venezuela-Colombia security cooperation has emerged as a major headline. In a new accord signed Wednesday, the two one-time adversaries committed themselves to deepening that cooperation. AP:
“Under the agreement, the two countries agreed to share intelligence that will enable them to coordinate anti-drug raids on both sides of the border; increase control over chemicals used to produce cocaine; launch joint investigations of money laundering by drug traffickers; and create a commission to oversee anti-drug cooperation.”
· On a related note in Mexico, AFP reports the Mexican National Migration Institute is denying information in a recent Wikileaked diplomatic cable saying the FBI has been allowed into Mexico to interrogate detained, undocumented migrants.
· A series of reports in recent days about the militarization of parts of Mexico City. Last Thursday, El Universal reported on military patrols in the sprawling municipality of Nezahualcóyotl, begun to allegedly root out La Familia and Zetas cells. Yesterday, two more Universal reports on military operations in DF’s Itzacalco and marine raids of a hotel in colonia Nápoles.
· Amnesty International with a new statement, demanding that Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni Mora be released by the Venezuelan government.
· The New York Times with more on the life of Chiapas Bishop Samuel Ruiz who passed away earlier this week.
· The AP reports that Cuban dissident and former hunger striker Guillermo Farinas was detained by Cuban authorities Wednesday while trying to block the eviction of a woman from a home in the central city of Santa Clara. Cuban human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez says at least 12 individuals in total were detained.
· The LA Times reports on the arrest of former Guatemalan military official Jorge Sosa by Canadian authorities in near Calgary. US officials have accused Sosa of “concealing his foreign military service and of lying under oath when he said he had never committed any crime or offense” while applying for U.S. citizenship in March 2008. That hidden foreign military service included acting as a commander in the Guatemalan special forces unit known as the Kaibiles, which, in the LA Times words, “interrogated and then killed men, women and children while searching a Guatemalan village (Dos Erres) for guerrilla fighters who had ambushed a military convoy.”
· Also on issues of cold war terror, BBC Mundo with an interesting report on the opening of the Oral Archive of Villa Grimaldi in Chile this week. The oral history archive has gathered testimonies from survivors and families of victims held at the notorious Villa Grimaldi detention center. BBC Mundo speaks with one such survivor for its report. The archive’s director, Claudia Fernandez, says it’s the first oral archive of its kind related to the Pinochet dictatorship.
· Chile, as mentioned yesterday, will be on President Obama’s Latin American tour which appears to be set for late March. Renewable and nuclear energy is reported to be atop his preliminary Chilean agenda, says the AP. Andres Oppenheimer speculates about the Brazil portion of Mr. Obama’s trip. And there are reports the president will be in El Salvador on March 23 to talk security, energy, and economy.
· Finally, a last minute State of the Union edit or an Obama ad-lib? There seems to be some question about whether or not Barack Obama intended to describe his March trip to Latin America as helping to forge new “alliances for progress” across the Americas. In the spoken text, he dropped “for progress” (paralleling Obama’s talk of new “alliances” in his May 2008 campaign speech on US-Latin American relations). But, as Boz notes, it looks like the written text has retained the wording “alliances for progress.” Normally this would be insignificant, except when those two words make historical reference to a 10-year, $20 billion aid program, launched by JFK, at least in part, to contain revolutions in the region, and which quickly devolved into the US backing death squads and covert intelligence activities across much of Latin America.
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