Dilma's Human Rights Agenda

Earlier in the week General José Elito de Carvalho Siqueira, Chief Minister of Brazil’s Institutional Security Cabinet, caused a stir in Brazil, declaring the country had “no reason to be ashamed of the fact that it had political desaparecidos” during its nearly two decades of military dictatorship. The general’s words were immediately met with rebuke from new president Dilma Rousseff, herself a victim of torture and imprisonment by the country’s military regime.

El País this morning seems to suggest the general’s apology, rather than his initial comments, are what’s important in the story – an indication, according to the paper, of civil-military reconciliation.

There were reports earlier this week that incoming Human Rights Secretary Maria do Rosario plans to press forward with the project of installing a national truth commission to investigage cases of cold war torture and disappearances but there are some new questions about just how far such a commission would be willing to press. El País notes that, unlike her predecessor, Paulo Vannuchi, do Rosario has begun, for the first time, to call the country’s dictatorship its “period of exception.” Similarly, Dilma Rousseff has been quite vocal in saying she holds no “resent” nor desire for “revenge” over past military abuses. Those words may have won over some military leaders, namely Lula hold-over, Defense Minister Nelson Jobim, who, writes El País, now says he will not oppose the creation of a truth commission. [The paper says Jobim has even suggested the military would participate in the work of the commission, should it be created].

A couple of other issues remain very unclear, even as the idea of a truth commission moves forward. One, writes BBC Mundo, is whether or not the incoming government is willing to support the annulment of a controversial amnesty law which continues to shelter human rights violators from prosecution. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights recently demanded the country scrap the law after finding the Brazilian state guilty for the forced disappearances of more than 60 left wing activists between 1972 and 1974. That decision comes after the Brazilian Supreme Court affirmed the law’s constitutionality early last year. A second issue, as Taylor Barnes recently discussed at Foreign Policy, is Brazil’s continued reticence over opening up state security archives.

Quoted in the BBC’s coverage, Marco Antonio Villa, political analyst at Sao Paulo’s San Carlos University, says he’s skeptical about how aggressive Dilma will be in pushing a human rights agenda, noting that if Lula was unable to move forward on such matters, things will be no easier for a new president. But after raising the issue early on, others argue a failure here could be an early blow to the government’s credibility, particularly with some members of its base. WOLA’s Adam Isacson: “To be defeated on this matter in the first weeks of her presidency would be a disaster.”

In other stories:

· While economic issues have been atop the new Brazilian president’s agenda in her first days in office, the AP this morning looks at the future of citizen security in Rio favelas where so-called “community policing” programs have been implemented in a number of shantytowns in recent years. The initiatives, the AP writes, began in Rio’s Santa Marta in 2008 and have since been expanded to a dozen shantytowns. The AP, on their mixed results:

“The program has transformed the slums, bringing improved security, utilities and investment, and incorporating local businesses into the formal economy. But the changes also have driven up rents and increased bureaucracy, pushing many of the poorest residents further to the margins.”

NACLA, meanwhile, runs a piece looking at the impact of November raids into two Rio favelas by state security forces. “The perception of greater public safety in Rio,” NACLA writes, “is credible only to those willing to look past both the human rights abuses carried out in its midst and the systematic corruption among Rio police that is linked to much of the major crime in the city.” There’s also an issue of pre-Olympic politics, the article suggests.

· The Miami Herald reports on the seating of Venezuela’s new National Assembly – an event met by protests and counter-protests outside the national parliament Wednesday. The politics over a US ambassador in Venezuela continues as AFP reports today the US State Dept. is backtracking from earlier statements which suggested the nomination of Larry Palmer as ambassador to Caracas was dead. State spokesman PJ Crowley now says the Obama administration is sticking by its man:

“[The fact is we are not looking for another candidate to be the U.S. Ambassador to Caracas. We’ve made clear that we felt very strongly that Larry Palmer was the appropriate candidate, fully qualified, and would have been and would be an effective interlocutor to improve relations between the United States and Venezuela. We have not changed our view, even though his nomination is technically expired. We supported him prior to the end of the last Congress and we continue to support him. And we regret very much that Venezuela has rescinded agrément, but the fact is we’re not looking for another candidate.”

Crowley’s readjustment followed a Washington Post editorial yesterday saying Obama’s desire to send a different ambassador to Caracas would be “handing [Chavez] a considerable propaganda victory.” The Post concludes by lambasting Crowley for saying the US is “interested in having good relations with Venezuela. And obviously that involves, among other things, having ambassadors at post who can help to, you know, manage that engagement.”

· In Peru, EFE reports that presidential frontrunner Luis Castaneda says he’s the target of a “dirty war” after Peru 21 published a story earlier this week saying one of his vice presidential selections offered to pay $250,000 to be included on the Castaneda ticket. The accused, Carmen Rosa Núñez de Acuña, also allegedly offered to invest significant cash in the regions of Piura and Cajamarca and provide as many as 37 trucks to the Castaneda campaign.

· El País on the beginning of economic restructuring in Cuba, which will reportedly include layoffs of some 1.3 million state employees (or 25% of the state’s payroll). CNN says skateboard exchanges are the most recent form of person-to-person diplomacy between the US and Cuba.

· El Nuevo Herald on the economic worries of some Latin American governments, revealed through Wikileaks cables, regarding China’s explosive economic entrance into Latin America. The doubt: China’s penchant for dumping cheap products in national markets after taking primary goods. Andres Oppenheimer with similar skepticism about the sustainability of Latin America’s economic bonanza, particularly if the regions fails to invest in “infrastructure, education, innovation and other future-looking endeavors that would allow them to diversify their exports.” Oppenheimer cites new studies from the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America (CEPAL) which provide some evidentiary basis for concerns. The latest issue of the CEPAL Review also addresses some of these matters, particularly how to move continue the move away from speculative, financial growth and toward growth based in production.

· Finally, three articles – a piece in Foreign Policy, a piece in the New York Times from earlier this week and a Nick Kristof opinion in today’s Times, which try to strike an optimistic tone about Haitian reconstruction, one year after the country’s devastating quake.