Carter Demands US End Embargo, Travel Ban

Former President Jimmy Carter’s three-day visit to Havana came to an end Wednesday with a rather historic news conference. The BBC reports, highlighting former President Carter’s unequivocal denunciation of both the US travel ban on Cuba and the US trade embargo on the island. The latter, Carter said, should be “immediately ended.” He also attacked the US government’s decision to keep the island on the “state sponsors of terrorism” list, calling that policy “unfounded” and in need of revision. To that end, there are reports that Carter even met with diplomats from Spain and Colombia who both welcomed Cuba’s policy of accepting FARC and ETA members as part of an effort toward peace and reconciliation in their countries.

Also very notable, Carter called for the release of the Cuban Five, a group of Cuban intelligence agents who have been jailed in the US for over twelve years after infiltrating anti-Castro groups in South Florida.

I’ll direct readers to Peter Kornbluh’s excellent coverage of the Carter visit and press conference at The Nation for all the details. But it’s worth highlighting here the quite amazing number and diversity of meetings Carter held during his three days in Havana. After a six-hour meeting and dinner with Raul Castro on Tuesday, the list of individuals Carter met with Wednesday included dissident bloggers Yoani Sanchez, Reinaldo Escobar, and Claudia Cadelo; Cuban rights activist Elizardo Sanchez; Catholic activists Dagoberto Valdes and Oswaldo Paya; various members of the Ladies in White; a dozen recently released members of the “Group of 75” who have been allowed to remain in Cuba, the apparently retired Fidel Castro, two mothers and three wives of the Cuban Five, as well as imprisoned USAID contractor, Alan Gross.

On Monday Carter also talked with Jewish and Catholic religious leaders in Cuba, including Cardinal Jaime Ortega who successfully negotiated the release of many of the “Group of 75” dissidents over the past six months.

It’s the Gross issue which has drawn most American press coverage in recent days, and, as Carter indicated upon his arrival in Havana, he was not on the island – at least this time – to secure Gross’s release. But as he spoke Wednesday, Carter remarked there were various “confidential matters” he would be discussing with President Obama when he returned home.

After accompanying Carter and his entourage to the airport Wednesday, Raul Castro expressed notable optimism as well, offering a few brief comments on the Carter trip. “[Carter] is helping something that's humanely just – to advance the solutions to common problems,” said Castro. “I think this was a good visit. He met with whomever he wished, declared – as you saw – whatever he wished. Now, you be the judge.”

More coverage from IPS and the Havana Note, which notes that, despite the former president’s meetings with members of nearly every major dissident group on the island, anti-Castro hardliners (also here) in Washington could not, unsurprisingly, be satisfied.

Today’s bullet points:

· From the AP wire in Guatemala, news this morning that the man considered to be the country’s top drug trafficker, Juan Ortiz Lopez, was detained in a joint US – Guatemala operation. Guatemalan Interior Minister Carlos Menocal says Ortiz was arrested at a house in the western city of Quetzaltenango with two other individuals after being surveilled by DEA and Guatemalan intelligence agents for nearly a week. US Attorney Robert O’Neill unsealed a U.S. federal indictment against Ortize in Florida Wednesday which charges Ortiz with two counts of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. No word yet about possible extradition plans.

· In Colombia, the case of top Venezuelan capo Walid Makled is back in the news after Colombia’s attorney general, Luisa Ortega announced this week that Makled should be sent to Venezuela rather than the US. According to AP, Ortega said that last Friday the Colombian Supreme Court cleared the way for Makled’s extradition to his native Venezuela to face narcotics trafficking and murder charges. That has some in the US, namely US congressman Connie Mack (R-FL), once again quite upset. In a letter to Juan Manuel Santos this week, Mack suggests he knows Colombia’s interest better than Colombia does:

“Security of your nation is paramount to many in Congress, and despite the Obama Administration’s signals to the contrary, the threat of Hugo Chavez is taken seriously by many American lawmakers.”

More on the Makled case and Connie Mack in an earlier Brief here, as well as the CS Monitor this week.

· More drug talk. Wired Magazine with a long look at Colombia’s “jungle-built, Kevlar-coated” drug subs. McClatchy says 60% of Mexicans think the drug cartels are winning the drug wars in their country. EFE reports on a new Wikileaked diplomatic cable about US worries over high-powered weapons entering Mexico from Central America. The Guardian on an experiment in Bolivia to turn illegal coca harvests into an organic fertilizer:

“Every year Bolivia confiscates almost 700 tonnes of illegal coca from drug traffickers. The government's coca director, Luis Cutipa, believes that turning this excess into fertiliser will deprive criminals of their raw material for making cocaine, much of which goes to Brazil and on to Europe. He is optimistic that compost made from coca can be made on an industrial scale.”

And from the BBC, a look at how Brazil is quickly displacing the US as Bolivia’s new counter-narcotics partner. The two countries signed a new anti-drug cooperation agreement this week which will replace the “void” left after the US Drug Enforcement Administration was expelled from Bolivia in 2008. The so-called “Brazil-Bolivia Action Plan” agreed to this week builds on prior cooperation agreements between the two countries and includes new initiatives for Brazil to train Bolivian security forces, as well as the deployment of Brazilian drones to patrol the Brazil-Bolivia border. There’s also talk, says the BBC, of expanding the agreement to include Peru.

· Another new presidential poll in Peru (IMA) shows Alejandro Toledo back in the number one slot ahead of April 10 elections with 23.9%. He’s followed closely by Ollanta Humala with 21.9%. The IMA poll then has Keiko Fujimori falling to third (17.6%), Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in fourth (16.9%), and Luis Castaneda in fifth (13.8%). Interestingly, most polls show the fifth-place candidate, Castaneda, doing the best in nearly every possible second-round match-up – a fact which led the former Lima mayor to make the bizarre request this week that his three more conservative competitors (Toledo, Fujimori, and PPK) step down and back his candidacy against Ollanta Humala. The story from La Republica.

· In Chile, the AP reports on a new, $15 million lawsuit that has been filed against the Chilean government by the daughters of assassinated army chief, Carlos Prats. The suit targets former Pinochet intelligence chief, Manuel Contreras, and other high ranking pinochetistas. Chile's Supreme Court last year sentenced Contreras to 20 years in prison for the assassination of Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires in 1974.

· In Mexico, senators from the PAN and PRD (as well as many members of Duarte’s own PRI, it seems) have rejected a proposal by Chihuahua governor Cesar Duarte that would have made three years of military service obligatory for Mexican youth. La Jornada reports.

· The AP writes on the death of Lula da Silva’s VP, José Alencar. Mercopress also with an interesting report on the late paulistano industrialist who is credited with easing business and investor worries about a trade union president.

· Mercopress also has the details of stop-two on Hugo Chavez’s regional tour: Uruguay. The two countries signed new energy agreements Wednesday but the focus of the reporting has been international – namely the war in Libya – an intervention which both presidents, each in his own way, again rejected in a joint press conference in Montevideo. Those words came amidst another somewhat bizarre announcement: that former Nicaraguan foreign minister and one-time UN General Assembly president, Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockman, will now be representing Libya at the UN. D’Escoto was born in Los Angeles, although does not hold US citizenship apparently, and is currently in New York on a “tourist visa.” US UN ambassador Susan Rice said Wednesday d’Escoto must leave the country and re-enter on a diplomatic visa before he can take up his new post. Rice threatened D’Escoto with expulsion if he “acts like a representative of a foreign government on a tourist visa.” D’Escoto is apparently planning to hold a press conference at the UN today. He did an interview with Telesur yesterday, discussing his new gig.

· And finally, also on wars and the absurd, US congressman Michael McCaul (R-TX) penned a provocative piece in the Houston Chronicle yesterday. The headline: “Let's make a commitment to war on Mexican cartels.” His suggestion: “I believe we should explore a joint military and intelligence operation with Mexico, similar to the 1999 Plan Colombia. This plan aimed to destroy that country's cocaine trade, eradicate its cartels and restore its economic and national security, and we certainly saw results.” As a follow-up, McCaul will be chairing a hearing today entitled “The U.S. Homeland Security Role in the Mexican War Against Drug Cartels.” He spent his day Wednesday introducing new legislation that would classify six Mexican drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.” More at the Houston Chronicle.

Carter Talks with Raul; Meets with Dissidents/Bloggers Today

On day two of his visit to Havana, former US President Jimmy Carter met with Cuban President Raul Castro Tuesday. Although there are few details yet about the specifics of those talks, Cuban state television, according to Reuters, reported yesterday that Castro repeated an offer both he and his brother, Fidel, have made on numerous past occasions: that Cuba was willing to hold talks with the United States on any issue, so long as those talks occurred on “equal terms” and with “absolute respect” for Cuban independence and sovereignty.

Reuters says there was no immediate indication whether or not Carter and Castro took up the issue of Alan Gross’s imprisonment, or, in what way the matter might have been discussed. While there’s been significant speculation about the matter in recent days Carter indicated Tuesday that he was “not [in Cuba] to take [Gross] out of the country.”

“We are here to visit the Cubans, the heads of government and private citizens,” Carter said. “It is a great pleasure for us to return to Havana. I hope we can contribute to better relations between the two countries.”

A press conference is scheduled for later today before President Carter and his wife Rosalynn return to the United States.

In a series of meetings this morning, the former president is also expected to meet with a group of Cuban dissidents – among them bloggers Yoani Sanchez and Claudia Cadelo, members of the Ladies in White, and twelve members of the recently released “Group of 75.” That decision was with words of praise by rights activist on the island. Elizardo Sanchez, among those getting face with the former president, said Carter was “acting with coherence” by agreeing to meet with dissidents before leaving. On her Generación Y blog, Sanchez thanked Carter for his “deference and respect.” She tells Reuters that by meeting with critics of the government, Carter was “inviting the great plurality and diversity of voices that…are in the country.”

Today’s bullet points:

· Across the way in Haiti, the preliminary release of election results was delayed on Tuesday. Election officials say the discovery of “irregularities and fraud” at several vote-counting centers mean Haitians will have to wait a few more days for word about who their next president might be. AP: “While not disclosing specifics, Gaillot Dorsinvil, the president of the Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council, issued a brief statement saying officials found a ‘high level’ of fraud and irregularities of various kinds at the tabulation center in the capital, Port-au-Prince.” Previously, election monitors had praised the March 20 process for its lack of disorganization and far fewer allegations fraud than in November. Final results are still not expected to be issued until April 16.

· Also in Haiti, the Miami Herald reports on a Korean textile magnate’s plans for a new garment factory to be built in Haiti’s Northeast. The Herald:

“A major supplier to U.S. retailers Target, Wal-Mart, Kohl’s and GAP, Sae-A is expanding its garment-making operations to Haiti as the anchor tenant in a new 617-acre industrial park being created in the country’s underdeveloped northern region. For the first time, Haiti’s 2 million-a-week T-shirt-stitching industry will also include the country’s only knit and dyeing mill with Sae-A pumping 6,000 tons of ground water a day for its export operations.”

The report says that the factory comes as part of a $300 million Haiti-US-Inter-American Development Bank job-creation plan. Under the terms of the package Haiti provides land for the factory; the US builds worker houses, an electricity grid, and waste treatment facilities; and the IDB contributes money for road building and infrastructure. The factory is expected to create some 20,000 jobs in the region, and Sae-A has made an initial promise to pay assembly line workers at least four times Haiti’s current average per capita GDP of $640. The new factory plans to open in March 2012.

· Visiting Guatemala this week, Deputy US Assistant Secretary for Central America and the Caribbean, Julissa Reynoso, announced the creation of a new, admittedly “small,” US anti-crime assistance fund for Central America. Prensa Libre reports on the announcement of the “Challenge Grants” program in which Central American countries who demonstrate a commitment to building capacity will be eligible to compete for additional US security assistance. Reynoso said the fund would be in addition to the $200 million the State Dept. allocated earlier this year for regional anti-crime/anti-drug initiatives through CARSI.

· Also in Guatemala, new poll numbers from the firm Borge y Asociados this week show Otto Perez Molina with a commanding 47.2% to 13.7% early lead over first-lady and soon to be ex-wife of Alvaro Colom, Sandra Torres.

· And from IPS, another excellent report on the recent mass eviction of some 3000 campesinos in the Polochic Valley in Guatemala’s northern province of Alta Verapaz. At least one individual was killed during the evictions which wre carried out by private security forces hired by sugar planters who have entered Guatemala en masse since 2005 seeking to get rich on the ethanol boom.

· In Honduras, the FNRP is going forward today with a national strike, according to La Tribuna and others. It seems unclear what sort of participation there will be. As El Heraldo reports, some leaders in the teacher’s movement began meetings with members of Congress late Tuesday evening to discuss differences over the proposed education reforms that have caused much of the recent protest.

· Erin Rosa at Narco News has a critical report of last week’s 10-point “Mexico Initiative” re: reporting on the country’s drug wars.

· The Guardian reports on the murder of two Mexican journalists in Nuevo Leon this week, one from Televisa and one from the daily La Prensa.

· The US may soon not be the only country flying anti-drug drones in foreign airspace. AFP reports that Brazil and Bolivia were expected to make official yesterday a new agreement that would bring unmanned Brazilian aircrafts into Bolivian skies for the first time. The agreement is part of on-going joint counternarcotics efforts between the two countries.

· Reuters reports on the Univ. of La Plata’s decision to give Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez its Rodolfo Walsh journalism award for promoting popular media in Venezuela. Journalist and author John Dinges comments: “For a journalism school to give (Chavez) a prize setting him up as a model seems to be a contradiction or it means the La Plata journalism school has adopted the view of communication viewed by Chavez: that ... state-controlled, direct communication is preferable to independent media and journalism as we know it.”

· Mercopress has more on a series of bilateral agreements signed between Chavez and Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner on Tuesday. Chavez is in Uruguay today where UNASUR is expected to be the major topic of discussion.

· And finally, Roque Planas at AS/COA with a good look at the changes and continuities in Brazil’s foreign policy under Dilma Rousseff – specifically how Brazil has voted at the UN in recent weeks. If Lula and Dilma’s joint visit to Portugal this week is any indication, one notable continuity appears be in charting an economic path which remains critical of international financial institutions like the IMF.

Honduran Teachers Continue Protests, Despite Suspension Threats

Teacher protests continued in Honduras Monday, despite a threat from President Pepe Lobo that his government would begin suspending, without pay, those who did not return to their classrooms this week. AP reports that Honduran police used tear gas and water cannons to break up a demonstration on one of Tegucigalpa’s principal avenues yesterday. Teachers were joined by both students and members of the country’s 14,000-member health workers union for much of Monday’s demonstrations. In its Spanish-language coverage, AP says approx. 30% of healthcare facilities were affected by yesterday’s work stoppages, although it appears healthcare workers had at least temporarily ended their strike sometime late yesterday.

There’s talk in La Tribuna this morning of possible dialogue beginning between the country’s teachers union (FOMH) and the government, although it remains unclear what the result of that dialogue might be. For its part, the AP suggests the conflict could deepen in the coming days, rather than subside, after a call for a Wednesday general strike was made by the National Resistance (FNRP) over the weekend.

The protests, triggered by six months of unpaid wages to Honduran teachers, are now entering their third week. Demonstrators have are also voicing their opposition to a new education bill which would restructure the country’s public education system. Today’s reporting from the AP adds that the return of former president Manuel Zelaya, ousted in a June 2009 coup, was among the demands voiced during Monday demonstrations.

At a Monday news conference President Pepe Lobo did little to address the demands of protestors, instead insisting their goal was to “destabilize” his government. Lobo:

“All of this is part of an ideological strategy to provoke difficulties, especially now that there is the possibility of returning to the OAS at the next general assembly in June.”

In addition to suspending striking teachers without pay, Lobo argued over the weekend he could take steps to unilaterally dissolve the country’s teachers union, if protests continued.

There were also reports of demonstrations outside of the capital Monday. The FNRP says Miriam Mirando, leader of OFRANEH (Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras), was arrested – but later released – as protests blocked a road connecting San Pedro Sula with La Ceiba. San Pedro Sula’s Tiempo has more saying some schools remained closed Monday while others appear to have re-opened for at least part of the day.

Today’s bullet points:

· In Venezuela, the AP on Sunday reported that university protestors in Venezuela had ended their month-long hunger strike, maintaining that President Hugo Chavez’s government had met their demands. One of the leaders of the protests, Diego Scharifker, says Venezuela’s education minister promised demonstrators that the government would increase budgets for university scholarships, cafeterias, transportation and other student services. The apparent breakthrough came after four students sewed their mouths partially shut to, in the AP’s words, “dramatize the strike.”

· Former US president Jimmy Carter arrived in Havana, Cuba Monday – the beginning of a three-day visit to the island which will include talks with Raul Castro later today. The AP says he and his wife Rosalynn were greeted at the airport by Cuba’s Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez, and Jonathan Farrar, the head of the US Interest Section in Havana. Also traveling with Carter, according to the Miami Herald, are Robert Pastor, the White House’s Cuba point man during Carter years; Jennifer McCoy, director of the Carter Center’s Americas Program; and John Hardman, president of the Carter Center. Former president Carter spent Monday meeting with some of the island’s most important religious figures– first leaders of Havana's Temple Beth Shalom and later Roman Catholic Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the man who helped negotiate the release of the last 52 of 75 dissidents arrested in the “Black Spring” crackdown of 2003. A press conference is scheduled for sometime Wednesday. Freedom House’s Matthew Brady, in the Miami Herald, and Lilia Lopez at the Havana Note with optimistic opinions about the Carter visit.

· El País’s Javier Moreno runs a weekend interview with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Among the matters discussed: Calderon’s refusal to consider some sort of peace pact with organized crime, as well as Calderon’s feelings about the United States and its role in fueling violence with weapons and an appetite for drugs.

· Venezuela’s El Universal interviews former Costa Rican president Oscar Arias about the state of democracy in the region.

· In Argentina today, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will receive the University of La Plata’s Rodolfo Walsh prize for promoting popular communication and community media. The Financial Times reports, calling the decision a controversial one. Chavez begins a tour of the region in Argentina today.

· The Guardian reports on the business and education delegation the UK’s Liberal Democratic leader and current deputy PM, Nick Clegg will be leading to Mexico in the coming days. Later this week he’ll apparently be addressing the Mexican Senate – the first UK politician to do so and will be doing it in Spanish, no less.

· Bloomberg mentions a new free trade zone which in the works between Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Chile. All four countries are expected to meet in Lima in early May to finalize the new arrangement.

· Reuters on emerging differences between the IMF and Brazil over the best way to keep inflation down. The IMF has called for Brazil, and others, to further rein in stimulus spending. For its part, Brazil, according to Reuters, has thus far used high interest rates, curbs on lending, and new barriers against the entrance of speculative capital, or “hot money,” as a means of reducing inflationary risk.

· With news that oil is back over $100/barrel, Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA announced ambitious plans to increase its oil production from 3.01 million barrels per day (bpd) to 5 million bpd by 2014.

· The Washington Post yesterday charged President Obama with NIMBY-ism for supporting Brazil’s offshore oil drilling plans last week.

· David Grann at The New Yorker revisits the bizarre Rodrigo Rosenberg case in Guatemala, almost two years later.

· And finally, IPS on the growing opposition to the US/Europe military strikes launched against Libya within much of Latin America. Those who have spoken out against the military operations in recent days include Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, as well as the ALBA countries. Among those quoted is Uruguay’s Jose Mujica who told an Uruguayan newspaper this week that, “This attack implies a setback in the current international order. The remedy is much worse than the illness. This business of saving lives by bombing is an inexplicable contradiction.”

Humala Moves Into the Lead in Five-Way Peru Race

Two weeks before an April 10 first-round vote in Peru, Ollanta Humala has risen to the top of a five-person race according to a two new polls released Sunday. Humala, a former military officer often described as a “left-leaning nationalist,” has the support the 21.2% of Peruvians, according to a new CPI poll sponsored by RPP radio and conducted between March 21 and 24. That’s up from nearly six percentage points from another CPI poll released just one week ago in which Humala was polling in fourth position.

This week’s CPI poll puts congresswoman Keiko Fujimori in second at 19.9%, Alejandro Toledo falls to third at 18.6% while economist Pedro Pablo Kucyznski and former Lima mayor Luis Castaneda are now running in a close fourth and fifth position with 16.1% and 15.5%, respectively.

A second poll, released by Ipsos-Apoyo on Sunday, confirmed Humala’s rise. That poll has Humala running in first with 21.2%. He’s followed closely in that poll by Fujimori (20.7%) and Toledo (20.1%). (Note: Ipsos numbers have been corrected).

La Républica points out that 30% of Peruvians still remain undecided re: their presidential choice, adding that this year’s presidential race is shaping up to be the most unpredictable since 1962.

Interestingly, the only candidate who appears able to beat all others in a possible second-round is Luis Castaneda – a man whose first-round stock has fallen precipitously in recent weeks. Conversely, the only candidate who would lose most – if not all – hypothetical second-round match-ups at the current moment is Ollanta Humala.

But nevertheless, it’s towards Humala – along with his ideological opposite Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (PPK) -- that English-language accounts have turned their focused in recent days. The AP and Reuters this morning focus on the former, noting the “distance” Humala has attempted to put between himself and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. It also highlights the fear-mongering which has kicked into high gear by the right-wing Peruvian media. In recent days the right-leaning daily El Comercio, for example, has, in the AP’s words, “painted [Humala] a socialist who would ‘try to nationalize companies’ and impose the very model that led to the collapse of eastern European economies under Soviet rule.”

On this point, it’s worth revisiting two talks Humala gave in the United States last Fall – one at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington in September and another at the New School in New York City in October (short video here and a report from Latin America News Dispatch here). It’s also interesting to note that Humala has won over – at least in part – his former political rival, current President Alan Garcia, who spoke with Colombia’s El Tiempo about a variety of issues, including the upcoming election, over the weekend. More from La República.

On PPK, I’ll link again to the profile the Economist did last week, highlighting the self-proclaimed millionaire’s former work at the IMF, the World Bank, and as a Wall Street investment banker. (PPK was also Alejandro Toledo’s Finance Minister and Prime Minister and is also apparently an accomplished flautist). The magazine also mentions the fact that PPK holds dual US and Peruvian citizenship – a particularly sensitive issue in Peru given its recent past and something PPK now says he will give up, should he be elected.

Weekend bullet points:

· Reuters reports that former US president Jimmy Carter, along with his wife Rosalynn, will be traveling to Cuba today for a three-day visit. According to the news agency, the trip is expected to include talks with government officials and religious leaders (both Jewish and Catholic) about the state of US-Cuba relations. A meeting between Carter and Raul Castro is currently set to take place Tuesday afternoon. Former president Carter’s Atlanta-based NGO, the Carter Center, said the trip was a “private, non-governmental” one but there is significant speculation that the visit could lay the groundwork for the eventual release of imprisoned USAID contractor Alan Gross. In its weekly Cuba newsletter last Friday, the Center for Democracy in the Americas had more – including mention of the fact that Carter was the first US president (sitting or former) to the visit the island since 1928 when he traveled to Havana in 2002. Andres Oppenheimer also spoke with President Barack Obama recently about US-Cuba relations. He writes in the Miami Herald that Obama seemed uneager to discuss any new gestures he might make toward the Castro government. We’ll see if that changes after the Carter visit.

· The Carter trip also comes just weeks before the Cuban Communist Party holds its first congress since 1997. The Congress is expected to tackle issues of economic reform, in particular, and Reuters reports this weekend that Cuban Economy Minister Marino Murillo stepped down from his post on Friday to oversee the preparation of those reforms.

· In Honduras, the AP reports that Sunday President Porfirio Lobo has threatened to suspend, without pay, those teachers who fail to return to their classes today (Monday). If teachers do not return by April 4, Lobo says he will fire those who remain on strike and dissolve the teacher’s union. Many teachers say their protest will go on. Jaime Rodriguez, president of the middle-school teachers’ union tells the AP, “We are in the streets and we will stay there.” Others say Lobo’s threats are only creating greater protest intensification. Honduras’s 14,000-member hospital workers union vowed to join the strike on Monday, along with other social movements, while the FNRP is calling for a general strike to begin on Wednesday. The strikes – the largest public protests the country has seen since those directly related to the June 2009 coup – began three weeks ago to demand over six months of unpaid wages be paid and to oppose a new education law that teachers and students believe threatens the country’s public education system.

· In addition to protests, the AP says a Honduran supreme court judge dismissed three arrest warrants against former president Manuel Zelaya on Friday, apparently allowing Zelaya to return to Honduras without the threat of detention. However, the Friday ruling did not throw out corruption charges against the former president. Reading Zelaya’s statements after the Friday decision, it does not yet appear that his return from exile is imminent.

· In Mexico, the New York Times examines US-Mexico divisions made manifest in the resignation of US Ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual. Mary Anastasia O’Grady also comments in the Wall Street Journal, siding with Pascual.

· The LA Times reports on a recent wave of migrations from Mexico’s north to its capital, Mexico City, because of drug violence. According to the paper, despite reports of cartel activity in and around DF, traffickers remain cognizant of “the risks of igniting major provocations in a city that is home to the federal police, army, navy and intelligence services, not to mention many of the cartel leaders' families.” Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera reports on a new study from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre [IDMC] which estimates that some 230,000 people have been displaced by Mexico’s drug violence. About half, the study concludes, appear to have taken refuge in the US. More from AP.

· Juarez’s El Diario joined Mexican publications La Jornada, Reforma, and Proceso in not signing last week’s reporting guidelines pact. Animal Politico collects some initial opinions about the aforementioned pact from Mexican journalists and activists – most of whom are quite skeptical.

· Al-Jazeera’s Brazil correspondent Gabriel Elizondo examines what he calls “Brazil’s slow break with Iran.” A-J: “In the surest sign yet of a new Brazilian posture vis-à-vis Iran, Brazil voted on Thursday in the UN Human Rights Council to authorize a resolution for a special rapporteur to investigate possible human rights abuses in Iran. It’s the first time in a decade that Brazil has voted for anything significant that runs counter to the current Iranian government’s liking.”

· For his part, Lula da Silva was in Montevideo this weekend to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of Frente Amplio’s birth. Mercopress reports in English (here and here); Uruguay’s La Republica (here and here) in Spanish.

· After issuing somewhat ridiculous words of praise for Syria’s Bashar Assad Sunday, Hugo Chavez begins a five country tour of the region today, starting in Argentina before visiting the aforementioned Uruguay, Bolivia, Colombia, and also Brazil. Mercopress reports. The trip follows an anniversary celebration of Mercosur’s creation 20 years ago, which took place over the weekend in Paraguay. The issue of Venezuela’s entry into the bloc – something only Paraguay continues to hold up – was, unexpectedly, much discussed. On that matter, TeleSur has a good interview with one of Uruguay’s most respected academics, historian and political scientist Gerardo Caetano, who lays out the case in favor of Venezuela’s entry.

· Free Speech Radio News looks at a new probe being launched by human rights activists in Argentina against US and international financial institutions which may have supported Argentina’s military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983.

· The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas posts a statement from the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters condemning the “criminalization” of local radio stations in Mexico after two such stations were pulled from the air by Mexican authorities last week.

· And finally Counterpoint, a new magazine which appears to be funded by the Center for American Progress, reports on Georgetown University’s Latin American Board, founded and chaired by former Spanish president José María Aznar and, if the report’s got it right, the training ground for a new generation of Latin American free marketeers.

Toward "Pacted" Journalism in Mexico?

In a 10-point accord released Thursday, some of Mexico’s most powerful media executives, representing over 40 media groups, say they will begin limiting their publication of violent drug war images and stop printing “propaganda” that might glorify cartel activities. The Washington Post reports on the announcement, saying the “guidelines” are non-binding and will still allow for the publication of some sorts of violent images – although it remains unclear, at least from early reports, what limits are under the new pact.

Notably, a number of Mexico’s most important newspapers and news outlets – among them Reforma, La Jornada, and the weekly Proceso – refused to sign on to the agreement. Carmen Aristegui of CNN Espanol criticized the pact directly Thursday, calling it a move toward “patriotic journalism.” Proceso journalist GenaroVillamil said the accord “opened the door to a form of prior censorship.”

The agreement appears to be a “nod” to President Felipe Calderon who has long criticized the media for how drug violence is reported. Calderon praised the new guidelines in a statement Thursday:

“Media participation is crucial in building state security policy, underscoring the importance of this agreement. We encourage other parts of society to promote initiatives like this one to confront those who want to destroy the peace and security of all Mexicans.”

On the Committee to Protect Journalists blog, Mike O’Connor, the CPJ’s Mexico representative seems to have mixed reactions to the Thursday accord. On the one hand, O’Connor says the agreement “could set professional standards” in a country where journalistic coverage of the drug wars has been “haphazard.” The problem: the fact that “organized crime cartels are so powerful in many parts of the country that they will likely be able to block some of the most important elements of the accord with the same intimidation they use to control much of the press already.”

O’Connor adds that the new guidelines also state drug war violence should be covered in its proper “context” – an almost impossible goal to meet when, according to the CPJ, journalist’s lives are at stake. CPJ Americas program head Carlos Lauría seems more supportive. He’s quoted by Reuters this morning saying:

“I think this is positive in a sense that they are getting together and forming a united front…There is nothing worse than the current situation where the media is being cowed into silence in many parts -- in places where the government has lost control.”

Today’s bullet points:

· Also on Mexico, IPS reports on rising incidents of “forced disappearances” in Mexico. According to IPS, “the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances is gathering and analyzing information about some 30 activists who have been forcibly disappeared, to include the cases in their 2012 report.” That report is expected to strongly criticize the Mexican government for the lack of attention it has paid to the issue. Human rights groups working in Mexico suspect more than 3,000 individuals have been forcibly disappeared in the country since 2006. Impunity, activists and legal experts say, remains the principal enabler for the persistence of such crimes.

· The Latin America Herald Tribune says new PRI leader, Humberto Moreira, is calling on the Mexican government to double-down on its militarization of the drug wars, saying more – not fewer – army troops and federal police should be sent to Mexico’s borders, specifically its southern border. According to recent statements made by Moreira, President Calderon’s anti-crime strategy has been a failure because of poor planning and a lack of resources, specifically an inadequate number of troop deployments.

· And Mexico’s El Universal reported earlier this week on a new request from the Instituto Federal de Acceso a la Información y Protección de Datos (IFAI) to the country’s Centro de Investigación y Seguridad Nacional (CISEN). IFAI is demanding that more information be released by the government about persons killed in confrontations with criminal groups and Mexican authorities from 2000 to 2010. Specifically, IFAI wants CISEN to release more specifics about who exactly has been killed. Should the request be answered, the move would be an important victory for access to information advocates in Mexico.

· The AP reports on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights decision late Wednesday, condemning Uruguay for its legal inaction in the 1976 disappearance of María Claudia García Iruretagoyena de Gelman. Rights experts have called the case a “watershed” for ending impunity stemming from Uruguay’s 1973-1985 military dictatorship. Most significantly the IACHR decision, according to the Center for Justice and International Law, “renders ineffective” a 1986 impunity law (the Expiry Law of Demanded State Punishment) which continues to protect members of the Uruguayan armed forces from prosecution for human rights violations committed during the dictatorship. The Gelman case was the first against Uruguay to reach the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, according to AP.

· From IDL-Reporteros, an interesting interview with prominent Cuban blogger and journalist Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo.

· IPS looks at whether or not two developing world blocs, the BRICs and IBSA, can be complementary bodies of alternative integration.

· With Obama back in the United States, Hugo Chavez is set to embark on a similar tour across the region. He visits Dilma Rousseff in Brazil on Monday, March 28, to continue a tradition of quarterly Brazil-Venezuela talks begun under Lula da Silva’s presidency. The Venezuelan president then heads on to meet with Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in Buenos Aires on Tuesday. On April 1, Chavez will be in Colombia for a meeting with President Juan Manuel Santos, the third since Santos was inaugurated in August 2010. And later in April, it looks like Chavez may be visiting Mauricio Funes and the FMLN in El Salvador, perhaps to inaugurate a new fuel storage facility built there as a joint El Salvador-Venezuela venture. (Funes also seems to be planning in trip to Caracas in the coming months, according to Prensa Latina).

· On the presidential race in Peru, the AP profiled Alejandro Toledo earlier in the week – the man who still remains the frontrunner in a tightening presidential vote. The Economist, meanwhile, looks at neoliberal economist and former investment banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski’s rise.

· The Economist also offers its recap this week of elections in Haiti.

· WOLA’s Adam Isacson, at Just the Facts, writes on the tragic murder this week of Gloria Gaona, the Colombian judge overseeing the case against military officials charged with murdered three children in Arauca. Just the Facts: “The murder…also sends a chilling message to judges, prosecutors, investigators and witnesses in cases of alleged military human rights abuse. Most of these individuals already work in conditions of frequent threats and insufficient security. The Supreme Judiciary Council estimates that 750 judges have been threatened since 2007.”

· Final parting shot opinions on Obama’s Latin America tour: Michael Shifter in La Tercera and the Institute for Policy Studies’ Manuel Perez-Rocha at Foreign Policy in Focus.

· The Center for a New American Security has released a new policy brief on transnational organized crime in the Western Hemisphere.

· And IPS on the rise of the Latin American multinational corporation.

Obama in America Latina: a Postmortem

A final postmortem this morning on Obama and Latin America. The Wall Street Journal’s parting thoughts seem to gauge the general sentiment: while offering “attention and respect” to Latin America, Obama returned home yesterday with little in terms of real “accomplishments.” Ditto from the Washington insiders at Politico who talk about a “big trip” that was “short on progress.” The Miami Herald’s headline is a bit kinder but the message is essentially no different: high marks for conciliatory tone and cordiality but many questions in the region about “what will be left behind when the glow of the visit fades.” That is, on a variety of issues – among them guns, crime, drugs, immigration, or even trade, Obama, for better or worse, announced nothing of any new significance – for better or for worse. Speaking with the WSJ, Kevin Casas-Zamora of the Brookings Institution notes what many others have as well: US domestic politics and the multiplicity of crises there-in continue to contain the possibility of any shift – be it to the ‘right’ or to the ‘left’ – for the administration’s Latin America policy:

“When it comes to the truly crucial issues that are at the heart of U.S.-Latin American relations, to really move the relationship forward requires politically costly decisions here in the United States.”

Obama’s short visit to the tomb of slain Archbishop Oscar Romero seems to have been the moment which is being most discussed, particularly among rights groups. Francisco Altschul, El Salvador’s Ambassador to Washington, called Obama’s decision to pay homage to the late Archbishop was the most significant aspect of the president’s whole trip. Historian Greg Grandin offers similar thoughts in his commentary at The Nation yesterday. “By lighting a candle for Romero, Obama,” writes Grandin, “was tacitly doing in El Salvador what he wouldn’t—or couldn’t—do in Chile: apologize for US actions that resulted in horrific human tragedy.”

Insight Crime echoes what I mentioned here yesterday: that Obama’s mention of $200 million in “new” US anti-crime assistance does not, in fact, appear to be anything particularly new. The money was announced last month by Bill Brownfield and looks like it will be channeled through the existing CARSI structure, at least for now. But El Faro has written this week that the Salvadoran government plans to increase the size of its anti-crime prosecutor’s office from 15 to 150 and that expansion may be facilitated by some of that $200 million from the United States. This may, in fact, turn out to be the most significant initiative of the Obama visit, and it looks to be connected to Funes’s new initiative, also announced this week, to create some sort of replica of the CICIG for El Salvador over the next year. I haven’t seen anything significant on either of these developments in the US media, but they do some quite noteworthy.

The New York Times has more on drugs and crimes in Central America, more broadly, in a troubling piece about the growing incursion of Mexican and Colombian drug cartels throughout the region. On Honduras, specifically, the piece is cites official US acknowledgement that “the 2009 coup in Honduras kicked open the door to cartels” – a door it now seems more than a little difficult to shut.

Working backward from El Salvador, it appears human rights groups and the Chilean left were not the only ones who seek stronger US support in prosecuting human rights abuse cases from the Pinochet era. Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, in an interview with the AP, says that in the coming weeks he will “formally request classified U.S. intelligence documents” that coud aid in prosecuting Chilean officials responsible for the more than 1,200 human rights violations committed under the dictator’s watch. According to the wire service, those words were Pinera’s most forceful to date about the need to continue the prosecution of former Pinochet officials.

On Obama’s “regional speech” in Santiago, Chile specialist Greg Weeks links to a variety of Chileanist commentators in the blogosphere – the majority of whom were unenthusiastic about the Santiago speech on Monday.

Regarding Brazil – where trade was supposed to be the administration’s number one priority –Brazilian foreign minister Antonio Patriota, just a day or two after Obama’s visit, seems to have immediately turned the talk back Mercosur – a regional trade partnership which puts explicit limits on the sorts of deep, bilateral trade agreements some in the US might ultimately have desired.

Finally Florida congressman Connie Mack (R-FL) seems to have been given the task of offering a Republican response to the Obama trip. The talking points are not unfamiliar ones: by not advocating free trade agreements with longtime US allies Colombia and Panama and not more vigorously seeking to isolate Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, President Obama’s Latin America policy remains “unfocused,” according to Mack’s assessment.

Today’s bullet points:

· In Honduras, significant protests against controversial educational reforms being proposed by the Lobo government have rocked the capital in recent days. The demonstrations have been organized by Honduran teachers and university students. On Wednesday, El Heraldo says the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras (UNAH) became a “battlefield” between security forces and demonstrating students. La Prensa has more. The Knight Center highlights an incident of assault on at least two journalists by Honduran security forces (riot police launching a tear gas canister at a Honduran journalist and cameraperson who were covering the protests). Similar actions took the life of 59-year-old school teacher Ilse Velasquez during March 18 demonstrations. Adrienne Pine has some of the latest updates from the crackdown which lasted late into the evening at the offices of the association of secondary school teachers (COPEMH) – a building which also apparently houses the Honduran Truth Commission. RNS at Honduran Culture and Politics also comments, noting serious divisions within the Lobo’s own cabinet about the sort of force used in the crackdown. Lobo thus far has continued to back the actions being taken by his security forces.

· Colombia Reports, meanwhile, says Colombian and Honduran defense ministers met Tuesday to strengthen their cooperation on security and drug trafficking matters.

· In Guatemala, Plaza Pública with a long report on another worrying use of security forces – this time in the Alta Verapaz town of Panzos where over 500 police officers plus the national military were used from March 15-17 to dislodge indigenous groups occupying African palm and sugar plantations. (Greg Grandin, who knows a thing or two about Panzós, also mentions the event in his post at The Nation).

· The CS Monitor examines one of the countries that Connie Mack was upset Obama skipped in Latin America: Panama – specifically focusing on President Ricardo Martinelli’s ambitious attempt to turn his capital, Panama City, into a “global hub.” CSM:

“President Martinelli wants Panama to be known as the next Miami as a shopping and airline hub; the next Chile for copper exports; the next Dubai as a business and real estate capital; the next Rotterdam as a shipping hub; and the next Singapore as a global logistics center."

The project has apparently begun with the recent construction in Panama City of the first Trump Tower anywhere outside the US. The tower will soon stand as the tallest building in Latin America.

· In the other country Republicans wanted Obama to visit, Colombia, Julian Assange has offered his first interview with a Latin American news outlet. The Wikileaks founder spoke with Semana here.

· Also from Colombia, Reuters and the Washington Post say new Wikileaks cables show US spy drones began operating in Colombia in 2006.

· On Wednesday, the final two dissidents from the Group of 75, Felix Navarro Rodriguez and Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, were formally released to their homes in Cuba. Reuters reports and Amnesty International has a statement.

· The AP reports on a major Ecuador-Mexico transnational anti-drug bust that led to the arrest of one of Sinaloa’s top bosses and an in-law of Joaquin “el Chapo” Guzman, among others, in Ecuador.

· Infobae.com has a bit more on the recent decree issued by the Chavez government in Venezuela which has altered 48 of 138 articles of the country’s armed forces law.

· Reuters with a look at the Venezuelan opposition’s attempt to find a candidate its various factions can all agree on more than a year-and-a-half before presidential elections.

· El Universal highlights a new complaint issued to the UN by the Committee of the Relatives of the Victims of February-March 1989 (Cofavic) in Venezuela about rising numbers of extrajudicial killings being carried out by “vigilante groups” in the country.

· Boz highlights a slew of new poll numbers from around the region.

· And finally, in the upcoming London Review of Books, Perry Anderson, one of the most important living historians today, offers his take on the presidency of Lula da Silva and the future of Brazil. According to Anderson, Lula represents “the most successful politician of our time,” and if you have 30 extra minutes at any point over the next few days, I highly recommend reading through the whole piece to understand why.