Regional diplomats met in Venezuela yesterday for the first full day of a five-part series of regional meetings intended to lay the groundwork for the new Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). The organization is expected to be formalized during a summit in Caracas on July 5 and 6.
AP’s English language coverage of the conference leaves much to be desired, particularly its headline which suggests CELAC to be just another new initiative of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. Not exactly. “We are here constructing the basic regulatory architecture for the functioning of this new institution…We are constructing the dream of integration that the Liberator (Simon Bolivar) sought for all of Latin American and the Caribbean.” That’s neither Chavez nor any of his ALBA allies, nor even Brazil’s regionalists, but rather the vice chancellor of right-of-center Chile, Fernando Schmidt, whose government is co-chair of CELAC preparations.
AFP goes on to highlight a few of the most important matters under discussion this week, among them the creation of a “democratic clause” to prevent the possibility of future coups. The news agency cites Chile’s vice chancellor again, who says the clause is intended to both “safeguard” the democratic institutions of the region as well as the “respect for human rights as an essential condition for the consolidation of a common future peace.”
Telesur suggests that proposals about a democratic clause will be evaluated over the next 30 days by Latin American countries.
Additionally, AFP notes that there was discussion Tuesday about whether or not CELAC will opt for a “consensus-based” decision-making process. That idea seems to have the early support of Colombia and its foreign minister Maria Angela Holguín. More from Holguín on Colombia’s optimism about CELAC, in an interview with Telesur.
For his part, Hugo Chavez also indicated Tuesday that dialogue with Honduras, being facilitated by his country and Colombia, could bring Honduras back into regional system shortly – although this still seems contingent about the Honduran Supreme Court’s appeals panel dropping all charges against former president Mel Zelaya, a decision which continued to be delayed this week.
And beyond Latin America, Chavez told foreign ministers Tuesday that he has started talks with Libyan officials in Venezuela this week in an attempt to negotiate an end to the war in the North African country. The meetings between the Venezuelan and the government of Chavez’s longtime ally Muammar Gaddafi come as NATO airstrikes targeted a Gaddafi compound and a state-run television station in Tripoli on Monday.
On Thursday and Friday another set of meetings are scheduled to take place in Caracas with environmental ministers from around the region. Creating a common position on climate change is expected to be the topic of discussion there. On May 12 and 13 regional energy ministers will hold a similar meeting, followed on May 18 and 19 by a meeting of regional finance ministers. Foreign ministers are then expected to reconvene on June 2 to agree on a working document for the July 5-6 CELAC summit in Caracas. A second summit is already being planned for Chile in 2012.
Today’s bullet points:
· On the never-ending Walid Makled extradition saga, Colombia now appears to be seeking “human rights guarantees” from Venezuela before the drug capo is returned back to his native Venezuela. AP with a brief report, although the details some a bit opaque.
· In Guatemala, 71-year-old drug kingpin Waldemar Lorenzana has been arrested. Lorenzana is suspected of working with Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel in Guatemala, helping to move cocaine from Colombia to the US. He now faces possible extradition to the US, which also appears to have provided unspecified assistance in the arrest. Reuters reports.
· Insight Crime highlights a new 2008 diplomatic cable obtained by Wikileaks and first reported on by McClatchy this week. The document cites a Defense Intelligence Agency report indicating that a number of weapons taken from cartels in Mexico and elsewhere have their origin in the Honduran military. The weapons range from light anti-tank artillery to grenades. In recent testimony before the US Senate, US Southcom chief, Gen. Douglas Fraser said that over 50 percent of the military-type weapons entering the region come from Central American stockpiles left over from past wars and conflicts.
· Also in Honduras, the FNRP earlier in the week reported on the brutal murder and beheading of two Aguan campesino activists from the Movimiento Auténtico Campesino del Aguán, or MUCA. The bodies of the two men were found on April 19. Highlighting the FNRP report, Adrienne Pine also posts a rather absurd full page ad taken out by Aguan oligarch Miguel Facussé in Honduras’s La Tribuna, denouncing by name many of the human rights groups and activists who have implicated his Dinant Corporation in rights abuses in the Aguan Valley.
· In Mexico, six more bodies were found in San Fernando, bringing the new count to 183. AP reports.
· The head of Amnesty International, Salil Shetty, was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil yesterday meeting with favela residents who are resisting forcible removal by municipal officials seeking to open up new areas for pre-Olympic construction projects. According to AP, Amnesty International has begun a new international campaign promoting decent housing as a human right and plans to open a new office in Brazil later this year which will focus on housing issues. Al-Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo has more, noting that, in addition to AI, the UN’s special rapporteur for housing, Raquel Rolnik, is also investigating claims of forced evictions in Rio’s favelas. A report is forthcoming.
· In Haiti, president-elect Michel Martelly says he will push for new taxes on money transfers and international cell phone calls to raise money for education. AP reports.
· The US plays musical chairs with its diplomats in ALBA member states Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua. The most senior official in the US Embassy in Caracas, Deputy Chief of Mission, John Caulfield, will be headed out of Venezuela and into Cuba where he will take over for outgoing Interest Section chief, Jonathan Farrar. Farrar moves on to the US Embassy in Managua, Nicaragua to replace Ambassador Robert Callahan.
· Reuters has more on the new oil windfall tax announced by Hugo Chavez last week, saying it could bring somewhere between $9 and $16 billion additional dollars into the government’s coffers. The new measure sets a top tax rate of 95% on the income of some oil producers operating in the country.
· The Financial Times has an excellent look this week at changes in Latin American international trade over the last decade plus, including a great graphic.
· And finally, in Spanish, Peruvian journalist Gustavo Gorriti, who directs the independent investigative site IDL-Reporteros, talks with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas about the future of online investigative journalism in Latin America. Full video here.
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