Former Haitian pop singer Michel Martelly was announced as the official winner of Haiti’s presidential elections Wednesday, bringing an electoral season that feels like it has lasted an eternity to its final conclusion. With just under 68% of the vote, Martelly was proclaimed the victor against contender and former first lady, Mirlande Manigat.
The Provisional Electoral Council also announced the final results of the country’s legislative vote, confirming that outgoing President Rene Preval’s INITE party had, indeed, won a majority in the Senate. As the AP notes, that could present an obstacle for Martelly as he seeks to gain Senate approval for a new Prime Minister.
Martelly received the news in Washington, D.C. where he was as part of a three-day international visit that includes talks with US and international organization officials. On Wednesday, he met with US Sec. of State Hillary Clinton. The Miami Herald has the coverage.
One day before that meeting, a group of 53 Democratic House members sent a letter to the Secretary of State demanding the US “dedicate significant attention to the critical and urgent task of improving the appalling conditions in IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps.” CEPR’s Haiti Watch continues to stay on top of Haiti-related news and notes the letter and this week’s meetings between president-elect Martelly and Ms. Clinton come on the heels of a new Humanitarian Bulletin on Haiti released by the United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). That report says just 19% of the US$175 million funding required for basic water and sanitation needs of “transitional shelter and spontaneous camp residents” have thus far been met by donors. Overall, the Miami Herald reports just 37% of the original $5 billion in international funds allocated for Haitian reconstruction have been thus far been delivered.
Today’s Bullet Points:
· In Argentina, the only witness in a case against a former Argentine military officer, Lt. Col. Manuel Fernando Saint Amant, suspected of being involved in the 1977 death of Bishop Carlos Horacio Ponce de Leon, vanished Monday but, according Página 12, was found late Wednesday. On Wednesday, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner mobilized federal forces to begin a search for fifty-two year Victor Oscar Martinez. In 1977, Martinez was traveling with the Bishop to deliver evidence of human rights crimes to the Vatican's representative in Argentina when the car they were traveling in crashed, killing the Bishop. According to the AP, the government suspects the car accident was provoked by the military to prevent the bishop from reaching the Vatican’s embassy. [Another activist bishop, Enrique Angelelli, had died in a similarly suspicious car accident the previous year]. After surviving, Martinez says he was detained and tortured by the Argentine military who demanded information regarding the late bishop’s human rights work. Martinez’s brief disappearance this week – which does not yet seem to have an explanation – brought back memories of the 2006 disappearance of Jorge Julio Lopez. After denouncing a former Argentine police official of crimes against humanity, Lopez vanished and five years later remains missing.
· In Chile, President Sebastian Pinera signed a new bill Wednesday, committing the country to new access to information standards. The signing came during the second annual conference on transparency in Chile organized by the country’s Transparency Council, created as part of a 2009 Transparency Law. La Tercera reports on the event and the new bill in Spanish. The Santiago Times translates some of the recent coverage into English – specifically the forthcoming launch of a new website for public access to government information. More from Freedominfo.org.
· The AP reports on the discovery of a 26 bodies at what seems to be a new grave site in the Mexican state of Durango. BBC Mundo focuses on the discovery of 68 living individuals – among a number of Central American migrants – being held against their will in a home in the Tamaulipas city of Reynosa. The former abductees say they were taken while they traveled by bus by individuals who identified themselves as members of the Gulf Cartel – the principal rival of the Zetas. And from Insight, an interesting look at “uniforms” now being worn by many Mexican drug trafficking organizations. “[Ma]ny of the uniforms used by DTO members are almost indistinguishable replicas of those used by federal or municipal police...allow[ing] them to blend in and conduct robberies, kidnappings, or killings with impunity,” says Insight. Interesting comparisons to the modus operandi of DTOs in Colombia as well.
· Mexico opinions: the Latin America Working Group’s Lisa Haugaard at the Huffington Post comments on a wave of anti-drug war mobilizations that have begun to sweep across Mexico in recent weeks. CIP/Americas Program director Laura Carlsen comments on the on-going ATF gunwalking scandal. And WOLA’s Adam Isacson at Just the Facts on why Congressman Michael McCaul’s (R-TX) proposal to add Mexican cartels to the “foreign terrorist” list may not get very far.
· The CS Monitor reports that at least nine Latin American countries are currently developing unmanned drone programs to monitor everything from drug trafficking to gang activity to illegal logging. The new phenomenon has led some in the region – among them Mexican Senator Fernando Baeza – to demand an international agreement be established defining the scope and limits of new drone missions. The countries currently creating unmanned, unarmed drone projects include Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
· More on the Walid Makled saga at the Economist. Apparently Makled’s extradition to Venezuela has been put on hold again – perhaps for another month – as US agents continue to “debrief” the Venezuelan drug kingpin in a Colombian prison.
· In Peru, Mario Vargas Llosa has announced he will be voting for Ollanta Humala in a June 5 presidential runoff – this after referring to Humala as either “cancer” or “AIDS” – nobody seems quite sure which – before round one voting. Spain’s El País and Peru’s La República report.
· In Colombia, NPR with a short piece on Medellín’s participatory budgeting system.
· Two opinions on the conclusion of the Cuban Communist Party Congress: Geoff Thale of WOLA on why the meeting marked an important moment of change – at least in terms of economic policy. Cuban historian Rafael Rojas, in El País, on why it represented political continuity.
· In a speech marking “Diplomat Day” in Brazil, Dilma Rousseff outlined in perhaps the clearest terms to date, her foreign policy objectives. She called Latin American integration her “top foreign policy priority;” followed by deepened relations with emerging powers China, India, and Russia; and finally continued “constructive” relations with the US and Europe. EFE reports.
· And regional economic news, with a focus on Brazil: The Wall Street Journal reports on the latest interest rate hike at Brazilian Central Bank. The raise of one-quarter brings the country’s benchmark interest rate up to 12%. The Economist writes critically of Brazil’s handling of inflationary worries. Finally, an editorial in the Wall Street Journal today recaps the showdown between the US and the developing world – particularly Brazil – at the IMF last week. You get the sense that the international ramifications of the US financial crisis, particularly in the developing world, are only now really beginning.
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