Unearthing Atrocity in Guatemalan Police Archives: April 11-13, 2009

The top story from the Americas in the Washington Post this weekend is from Guatemala where two reports examine human rights and the recent discovery of an 80,000 document police archive containing records of numerous human rights atrocities between 1960 and 1996. The warehouse where the document treasure trove was found opened about 2 weeks ago and is considered the largest such archive ever released in Latin America. Nearly 7.5 million documents thus far have been digitized and catalogued, and, according to the WaPo, they “give detailed accounts of the shadowy world of police disappearances of activists, with photographs of students and labor leaders arrested by police and explicit instructions on how to spy on military critics who were later clandestinely seized and murdered.” Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom has said that he believes the “liberation of the archives will have a positive impact in the struggle against impunity,” but added that, for those who could be held responsible, these archives raise a lot of fears.” In a second piece, the WaPo illustrates such very real fears. According to the paper, the story Gladys Monterroso’s kidnapping “has become a symbol of Guatemala's collective trauma as the nation suffers through a huge surge in abductions and killings that has gone largely unnoticed internationally amid the attention focused on the violence in its northern neighbor, Mexico.” Monterroso, a law professor and the wife of Guatemala’s human rights ombudsman, Sergio Morales, was kidnapped in late March. The abduction came just a half a day after Morales released first report based on the newly discovered police documents, implicating national police in atrocities during Guatemala's 36-year civil war. The WaPo says Ms. Monterroso resurfaced 12 hours later, bruised, bloodied, and raped by her captors in hopes of intimidating her husband.

In the New York Times an opinion piece on the Fujimori trial in Peru by María McFarland Sanchez-Moreno of Human Rights Watch says the verdict against the former president has brought both paradoxical joy “in this once unthinkable moment” and worry “that people would forget how we got here.” Ms. McFarland writes that she too once shared in the widespread relief that Fujimori was acting to end the chaos brought on by the Shining Path insurgency. Still today, she writes, “some will argue that he should not have been convicted. Not because he wasn’t guilty, but because he got things done. However, McFarland adds that the verdict against Mr. Fujimori does show that “next time Peruvians may be able to put their trust in democratic institutions, not autocratic leaders.” As Reuters also reports in the NYT over the weekend, suspected leftist rebels killed 13 troops in two ambushes in a mountainous region of Peru where security forces are fighting cocaine traffickers, indicating that the fight Mr. Fujimori aggressively and illegally waged may not yet be over.

On U.S. Cuba policy, the Wall Street Journal writes that “President Barack Obama plans to tell Latin American leaders later this week that the U.S. is willing to discuss how to improve relations with Havana, but wants Cuba to take steps toward democracy before it is reintegrated into the Western hemisphere's economic and political institutions.” While the U.S. wants the meeting to focus on the global economic recession, Obama administration officials said the president is ready to engage on the Cuba issue if brought up by other leaders. But, according to the paper, the White House will not approve further steps toward the normalization of relations with Cuba until it sees how Cuba responds to an easing of travel and remittance restrictions. In an opinion piece, Maria Werlau of the Cuban Archive project, says neither isolation nor engagement have helped Cubans attain their rights. “Sanctions, though ethically justified, can't work unilaterally; treating Cuba as a normal partner is immoral and counterproductive,” maintains Werlau. She argues in the piece that a new policy of comprehensive conditional engagement supported multilaterally is needed.

From the Miami Herald and LA Times, a series of reports and opinions in the lead-up to the Summit of the Americas. OAS Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza, writes in the MH that the Summit’s timing, in the midst of economic crisis, “offers a great opportunity for leaders in our hemisphere to fashion a fresh, regional development perspective.” He says the OAS is ready and willing to “support a sustainable energy partnership that includes the north-south and south-south transfer of low carbon technologies, such as solar energy, wind energy, biomass and geothermal and ocean thermal energy sources.” An editorial in the LAT argues that the Summit will give President Obama the chance to offer “leadership without big-stick unilateralism.” The paper says the issues of the economy, free trade, immigration, security/drugs, and Cuba are all issues around which a new U.S. Latin America policy must be formed. MH columnist Andres Oppenheimer believes this first issue, the economy, will be most on the minds of Latin American leaders, arguing that a series of U.S. proposals on enlarging alternative energy agreements, expanding the Mérida Initiative, supporting free trade agreements, and reducing healthcare costs through a regional healthcare partnership would help to allay Latin America’s economic worries. And, finally, in the wake of the Fujimori conviction, the MH remembers how the Summit of the Americas was the forum at which leaders first vowed to combat widespread political corruption, signing the world’s first international agreement against corruption in 1994. “Fifteen years later,” the MH writes, “almost a dozen who signed the anti-corruption pact in Miami or in subsequent years are in prison, under indictment, or spent years dodging criminal charges of corruption or violation of human rights.”

In other news over the weekend, the NYT reports from Mexico that frustrated women’s groups are challenging the recent appointment of Mexico’s ambassador to Canada, Francisco Barrio Terrazas. According to the NYT, rights groups estimate that as many as 500 women have been killed since 1993 in Ciudad Juárez and other cities in the state of Chihuahua. Many maintain that the police more rarely investigate cases of violence against women, often because the women are frequently poor. The women’s groups’ “most incendiary assertion” against Mr. Barrio Terrazas is that he once, while governor of Chihuahua, suggested that female victims of violent crimes should not have worn miniskirts and walked through unlit streets.

An AP report in the NYT says Bolivian President Evo Morales is continuing his hunger strike in an effort to press legislators to pass an election law.

In the LAT, WSJ, WaPo, and MH opinions and reports on Mexico, Colombia, and the so-called “war on drugs.” John Ackerman, a columnist for the Mexican weekly, “Proceso,” writes in the LAT that “Mexico’s problems will not be solved by placing high-powered weapons into the hands of a group of supposedly ‘untouchable’ elite police officers.” Rather, the U.S. should focus its attention on helping Mexico build effective and independent institutions in Mexico’s justice system and those federal agencies responsible for fighting corruption. The WSJ reports that antidrug activists will be launching a new campaign against marijuana use in the U.S. which will argue that pot smokers in the U.S. are unwittingly supporting drug cartels in Mexico. An opinion piece in the WaPo says “it’s clear that the drug war, like Prohibition, has led us into a gruesome blind alley. Mike Gray of the “Common Sense for Drug Policy” argues that “ending drug prohibition won’t solve our drug problem”…but it “will put drug addiction back in the hands of the medical profession, where it was being dealt with successfully.” And, from Colombia, the MH reports that the debate over drugs may be traveling in the reverse direction in that country. According to the paper, the Colombian Congress this month will begin discussing a bill supported by President Alvaro Uribe that would prohibit the possession of any drug and would punish addicts and drug users with mandatory clinical treatment. The bill would overturn a 1994 Constitutional Court ruling which maintained that prohibiting the use of drugs violated the constitutional right to ''free development of personality.” Since then, adults are allowed to possess up to 20 grams of marijuana and one gram of cocaine for consumption in the privacy of their homes, says the MH.

Finally, the MH reports that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Haiti this week en route to the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. The trip is expected to come two days after Clinton leads the U.S. delegation at a critical Haiti donor’s conference in Washington. And the WSJ says new fears of poverty in the midst of a global economic crisis will be on the minds of the Latin America’s economic elite gathering in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday at a regional meeting of the World Economic Forum.

Photo: The Washington Post

Evo Begins Hunger Strike over Electoral Law: April 10, 2009

The top story from the Americas in the Miami Herald this morning is an AP report from Bolivia on Evo Morales’s announcement that he would begin a hunger strike Thursday to pressure Bolivia's congress to finally set a firm date for general elections. Bolivia’s opposition-led Senate had stalled in approving a law on elections, mandated by a Morales-backed constitutional reform approved by voters in January. The vote would likely return Morales to power, according to the AP. However, Reuters has now reported that the “overall content” of an electoral law has been approved by the Senate, just hours after the Morales announcement. The details of the election reform law must still be approved and debate was supposed to last late into Thursday night with some opposition members calling Morales government “totalitarian.” For his part, Morales remarked Thursday that “faced with the negligence of a bunch of neoliberal lawmakers, we have no choice but to take this step (hunger strike) ... they don't want to pass a law that guarantees the implementation of the constitution.”

The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. Justice Department has filed terrorism-related charges against prominent Cuban exile, Luis Posada Carriles, wanted by the Castro government for his alleged involvement in plotting attacks against the regime. Posada Carriles once worked as a Central Intelligence Agency operative, says the WSJ, and he is charged with perjury and obstruction of a government proceeding related to his involvement in several 1997 hotel bombings in Cuba that killed an Italian tourist. The charges were filed in a U.S. District Court in El Paso, Texas, and he is expected in court in August. He was released by a judge in 2007 when the court claimed there was a fear that the 81-year-old Posada Carriles might be tortured if he were returned to Cuba or Venezuela, where he holds dual citizenship.

From the New York Times, a story that ran in yesterday’s paper reports on a new 14-page proposal for U.S.-Cuba relations laid out by the anti-Castro Cuban American National Foundation in Miami. According to the NYT, foundation officials lay out “a break from the past” that would “chart a new direction for U.S.-Cuba policy” by directing attention away from the Castro brothers and toward the Cuban people. The paper goes on to say that, in a reversal from the group’s founding principles, the CANF argues that, “American policy should focus not on sanctions, but on proactive policies that direct resources to the island,” specifically calling for an end to the 1997 ban on cash aid from the American government. The proposal, however, stops short of calling for an end to the 47-year-old trade embargo the United States has imposed on Cuba. Download the full CANF report here.

In the Washington Post, nothing in print from Latin America today, but I post here a serious of video reports from the paper on drug violence in Mexico which may be of interest. The reports are part of the WaPo’s new “Mexico at War” series.

And, The Guardian also has a short briefing from Mexico, reporting that Mexico's Chamber of Deputies, has overwhelmingly voted to protect journalists by adding crimes against the press to the federal statute. According to Mexico's National Human Rights Commission, about 45 journalists have been killed in the country since 2000. The paper writes: “A television, radio and print awareness campaign by press freedom campaigners in 2008 galvanised public support, and the Mexican lower house recently voted 263-0 to add crimes against “journalistic activity” to the federal penal code. This gives an additional penalty of up to five years in prison for anyone who ‘impedes, interferes, limits or attacks against journalistic activity.’”

Also in the MH, this morning, more on the debate in the U.S. Congress over U.S.-Cuba relations. The paper writes that “the rhetoric on both sides of the controversial topic has been revved up in preparation for a highly anticipated announcement from Obama that he will lift the remaining restrictions on Cuban family travel and remittances to the island.” Andy Gomez, a senior fellow at the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Affairs, notes that: “For the past 50 years, the Cuban-American community has played a significant role in formulating Cuba policy. For the first time, this will not stop in Miami, but U.S. foreign policy could go directly to Havana.”

And, finally two reports from the AP. First, the AP says Venezuela gave the U.S. Coast Guard credit on Thursday for cooperation in a large drug seizure. The gesture was a rare one and came from Venezuelan Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami who said in a statement that the U.S. Coast Guard discovered 2,030 pounds (925 kilograms) of cocaine on a fishing boat off Venezuela's Caribbean coast. Five Venezuelans were arrested in the seizure. Chavez suspended cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in 2005, accusing its agents of espionage, but the Justice Minister said Thursday’s raid was carried out “jointly with Venezuelan authorities,” adding that it proves that the argument Venezuela “does not cooperate in this fight” is false.

Second, on drug violence in Mexico, that AP reports that a former Guatemalan soldier, who allegedly procured weapons for a drug cartel, was killed in a gunfight with Mexican federal police on Thursday. The ex-soldier was said to be a former member of the “kaibiles,” a group of Guatemalan soldiers trained in counterinsurgency and was accused of delivering weapons and explosives to the Gulf Cartel’s “Zetas” gang.

5 de la Mañana: April 9, 2009

The top story from the Americas in the New York Times this morning is a report from Mexico where the case of a French woman, sentenced to 60 years in a Mexican jail for her alleged role in a kidnapping ring led by her boyfriend, is back in the news, paradigmatic of the flaws and public opinion of the Mexican legal system. According to the NYT, French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants the woman, Florence Cassez, to be sent back to France. Under an international treaty, Ms. Cassez could waive her right to further appeals and ask to return to France to serve her sentence. But in Mexico there is almost universal opposition to sending her back. Given the fact that so many cases go unsolved in the Mexican justice system, the NYT writes that public opinion quickly hardens against suspects when they do appear to be resolved — no matter how imperfect the case. According to security expert, Guillermo Zepeda, a suspect appears before a judge in fewer than 2 percent of crimes. In large part this is because Mexicans have so little faith in any aspect of the criminal justice system that only 12 percent of crimes are ever reported.

In the Washington Post, a scathing editorial on Cuba today criticizes Congressional Black Caucus members who met with the Castro brothers this week in Cuba but not with dissident leaders. One activist in particular, Jorge Luis García Pérez, has spoken out for harsh treatment against him because of his color, says the WaPo. The paper argues that “congressional pressure, and that by leftist Latin American presidents who have been streaming to Cuba in recent months, is very likely to undermine President Obama” as he tries to alter U.S. relations with Cuba while still promising “liberty” to Cubans on the island. According to the paper, “as long as Congress is moving to unilaterally dismantle U.S. leverage -- and shunning Cuba's democratic opposition -- the regime will have no incentive to compromise.”

The Wall Street Journal reports that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva removed the chief executive of Brazil's largest public-sector bank, Banco do Brasil, after expressing his frustration over high interest rates charged to consumers. The WSJ calls the move an example of “the increasing political influence over banking decisions.” A recent study showed that interest rates charged on credit through Brazil's banking system are up to 10 times as high as those charged by banks abroad. Bank officials claimed lowering interest rates would lower consumer confidence and cause investors to get out of the market. But Brazil’s finance minister, Guido Mantega, maintained that given the fact that Brazil is one of the few countries with government-controlled banks, the country “can play a fundamental role” in softening the blow of the crisis.

At the LA Times, a report on immigration examines the detentions, and at times deportations, of some U.S. citizens and legal residents, which are coming under intense scrutiny as immigration officials have mounted workplace roundups and jailhouse sweeps in search of undocumented immigrants. The paper reports that, “unlike suspects in criminal matters, immigration detainees have no right to government-appointed counsel -- and, in some cases, have no access to paid lawyers.” Moreover, fast-track deportation procedures enacted by Congress in past years also limit court review once the expulsion process is underway. Officials in Washington said last month that the Obama administration was expected to limit the use of controversial workplace raids -- shifting enforcement emphasis to target employers rather than workers.

The Miami Herald runs an opinion piece by Marifeli Pérez-Stable of the Inter-American Dialogue which examines the future of the Cuba-Venezuela alliance. Pérez-Stable writes that, since 2005, Venezuela sends Cuba 100,000 barrels of oil daily at subsidized prices. Bilateral trade grew from $388 million in 1998 to $7.1 billion in 2007. And Havana, in 2007, provided Caracas with the services of 39,000 Cubans, including 31,000 health professionals and around 8,000 political and security advisors. She argues there are three scenarios for the future of this relation: 1. A struggling attempt to continue on its present terms, even as oil prices drop 2. A distancing between the two countries if Cuba, under Raúl Castro, opens the economy and eases tensions with the United States, or 3. Unknown relationship changes due a shift in the domestic circumstances in either Cuba or Venezuela.

Also in the NYT, an AP report from Venezuela says opposition figures are denouncing recent moves by President Hugo Chávez to centralize power. “It's a government that's becoming more strongly centered on the figure of the president and it's becoming more repressive,” says Venezuelan historian, Margarita Lopez Maya, a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. New laws will soon transfer authority to oversee the capital of Caracas to an official appointed by the president. Another law brought seaports and airports under federal control recently. And prosecutors have also resurrected a corruption case against opposition leader Manuel Rosales and jailed former Defense Minister Raul Baduel, a government critic who faces an accusation that funds went missing on his watch.

And the NYT writes that a Brazilian court has ordered new trials for two men accused of murdering an American-born nun over a land dispute in the Amazon rainforest. Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, a rancher who had previously been acquitted of orchestrating the murder of the nun, Sister Dorothy Stang, a 73-year-old rain forest activist, will be retried with Rayfran das Neves Sales, who had confessed to pulling the trigger and was already sentenced to 28 years in prison.

Finally, at the LA Times blog, La Plaza, a posting writes that “since President Daniel Ortega's return to power in 2007, the number of Nicaraguans who prefer not to speak openly about political topics has grown dramatically”-- this according to a study conducted by CID Gallup. The Knight Center for Journalism also reports that when a public opinion survey asked whether Nicaraguans feel safe and respected if they make political commentaries in public places, 68% said no. Communications Media Observatory has said the government of Daniel Ortega has limited several freedoms and discriminated in furnishing information to journalists, calling 2008 “the worst year for freedom of expression in the country.”

Around the Americas: April 2-8, 2009

Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Tom Shannon, said at the Inter-American Dialogue a few weeks ago that President Obama will seek to build a “pathway” between G-20 meetings in London and the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Port-of-Spain next week. Shannon emphasized that “our economic recovery not be built on the backs of the poorest, most vulnerable members of society.”

With the G-20 summit over, the landscape around that “pathway” to Trinidad and Tobago is starting to become more clear, but for some, with clarity has come a case of déjà vu.

In a discussion about the implications of the G-20 on Latin America, Mauricio Cárdenas, the director of the Latin America Initiative at the Brookings Institution, says that Mexico’s decision to take $47 billion from the IMF under the recently created Flexible Credit Line may be an indication that other countries, such as Colombia and Peru, will begin to do the same. Cardenas says that, in thinking about Latin America’s relation to the global economy, “the IMF will become the focal point, with almost one trillion dollars in new resources provided in part by the surplus economies, like China.” As Spain’s El Pais writes this means some in Latin America will realize that the “ghosts of Latin America’s past”—institutions like the IMF, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development—are not really dead. The fact that regional institutions like the Bank of the South have not been able to get themselves up and running yet may push cash-strapped economies back to the same international financial institutions rejected in one Latin American country after another over the last decade.

But it is not just old financial institutions which may reenter Latin America in the wake of the G-20 summit. As Foreign Policy in Focus analyst, Manuel Pérez Rocha, writes, a well known Latin American “intervener”, the U.S., may also be tempted to re-insert itself into the region as the hemisphere’s “natural leader”. Some, like writer Saul Landau, maintain that this may be getting ahead of things. Indeed, the recent visit by Vice President Joe Biden to the region saw the United States doing much listening and little preaching, a much more hopeful sign than those given off by a famous trip to the region by another Vice President, Richard Nixon, in 1958.

It is just this sort of posture that Abraham Lowenthal, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, argues Obama should maintain in Port-of-Spain. In the Boston Globe, Lowenthal argues that the U.S. must seek a broad, strategic relationship with Brazil, keep promises to a minimum, avoid confrontation, and above all, listen. According to Jeffrey Davidow, President Obama’s special advisor for the 34-nation summit, this is just what Obama intends to do. Obama “is going to Trinidad with the intention of listening, discussing, and dealing with his colleagues as partners,” Davidow recently remarked.

But again, the line between a regional or global cooperative “partnership” and top-down “leadership” will likely remain fine. As a series of articles this week indicate, certain issues like the not-so-pleasant blossoming of non-state international crime syndicates-- perhaps externalities of the global downturn in part-- may be on the horizon. As Michael Klare writes at Tom Dispatch, “from Mexico to Africa, Russia to China, the pool of the desperate and the bribable is expanding exponentially, pointing to a sharp upturn in global crime. As illicit profits rise, so will violence in the turf wars among competing crime syndicates and in the desperate efforts by panicked governments to put a clamp on criminal activity.” Others argue that new spaces within the state are being carved out for criminal groups to carry out economic transactions. And Latin America may be one of the frontlines in this unfortunate global phenomenon as economic troubles deepen.

Weekly Briefs: April 2-8, 2009

Central America. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that gunmen shot and killed Honduran radio journalist Rafael Munguía Ortiz Tuesday night in the northern city of San Pedro Sula. Munguía Ortiz had recently reported on violence, organized crime, and official corruption.

Roger Burbach of the Center for the Study of the Americas writes at NACLA how Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has betrayed the values of the revolution he once stood for through clientelistic and sectarian social spending and a general dismantling of oversight and accountability.

And Samuel Logan at the Security in Latin America blog reports on how the Guatemala-Mexico border continues to be an open border for illicit activity.

Bolivia. Prensa Latina reports that authorities from Bolivia and Paraguay signed an agreement to strengthen cooperation against drug trafficking on their common border. The agreement follows similar ones that Bolivia signed with Argentina and Brazil.

Also from Prensa Latina, a brief on the announcement that Bolivia will open three universities particularly for indigenous Bolivians. The schools will teach in native Aymara, Quechua and Guarani languages and “recover their people's knowledge, culture and organization.”

And Mercopress writes that Bolivia joined Argentina, Paraguay, and Ecuador in signing an agreement Monday on security cooperation. The accord also calls the newly formed South American Defense Council a “strong contributor to the sub regional integration.”

Brazil. On the effects of the global recession in Brazil, Mercopress reports on a new study of major metropolitan areas in Brazil which shows that over a half million Brazilians fell from their lower middle class status into poverty during the first months of 2009.

Chile. CNN writes that former Chilean President Eduardo Frei has captured the center-left Concertación coalition’s nomination. Frei will face Chilean billionaire Sebastian Pinera in the December general election.

Colombia. At the Center for International Policy’s Plan Colombia and Beyond, a piece on the new backseat position of the U.S.-Colombia bilateral relationship under President Obama. And a video clip of “Colombian President Álvaro Uribe’s more heated attacks on journalists and peace activists in Colombia.”

At Foreign Policy’s Shadow Government blog a piece similar to Scott Wilson’s outlook piece in the Washington Post earlier this week, says “it is worth highlighting the remarkable progress that Colombia has made in combating its long-running narco-terrorist insurgency.”

In the Miami Herald, a piece on the creation of 'barrier'' villages being built by the Colombian government in a pact between President Alvaro Uribe and the joint governing council of the four different indigenous tribes. The story says that, once completed, 10 villages will effectively form a new buffer zone between indigenous lands and private property owners in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains.

In Colombia Reports, a brief report says Colombia's Prosecutor General Mario Iguarán has revealed that his office is investigating 22,000 cases of people who disappeared during Colombia's ongoing violent conflict.

And at Upside Down World, a story on a dispute over the Inter-American Development Bank’s role in promoting water privatization and a broad coalition of social movements who are pushing for an official referendum on the human right to water.

Cuba. At Havana Note, analysis of new House and Senate legislation that would end the U.S. travel ban to Cuba, support statements, and links to the host of organizations supporting the legislation.

In the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, an opinion piece by the former head of the U.S. Cuban Interests Section, Wayne Smith, says “President Obama has the authority immediately to rescind the various executive orders signed by Bush in 2004 on which the restrictions on academic and educational travel” and “can support bills now before the House and Senate to allow all Americans to travel freely to Cuba.”

Meanwhile, the Havana Note also reports on the Congressional Black Caucus trip to Cuba this week, arguing the U.S. should not seek full normalization of relations with Cuba before beginning diplomatic talks, as some CBC members have advocated.

And, at the Huffington Post, award-winning Cuban blogger, Yoani Sanchez writes that “for the third time, in just a year, I've been denied permission to leave Cuba to travel abroad” for her critical blog reports.

Ecuador. On Ecuador, Real Clear World talks about a Bloomberg report which cites Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa saying he would jail those spreading rumors about the introduction of a new currency instead of the U.S. Dollar. According to Correa, rumors of a new currency threaten to destabilize the economy.

Haiti. The AP reports that a House Judiciary Committee delegation led by Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) has wrapped up its visit to Haiti. The group of U.S. lawmakers reviewed operations of agencies involved in drug interdiction efforts, legal immigration, and humanitarian and development issues. They also met with President René Preval.

In The Guardian, development specialist Paul Collier has an opinion piece on the solutions for preventing Haiti from becoming a failed state. He says if the “international community moves beyond gestures to a co-ordinated use of a range of policies” on security, trade, governance and aid, Haiti can be helped.

Mexico. The weekly round-up of stories from Mexico this week:

· On a wrap-up of drug-related arrests, murders, attacks, and more murders the Dallas Morning News has various briefs.

· On an expected increase in U.S. anti-drug funding, the Financial Times reports that Washington is set to more than reverse a recent reduction in the scope of the Merida Initiative, intended to provide $1.4bn to Mexico, by boosting the funds available and extending the program over time.

· On the military justice system, Inter Press Service writes that the Mexican government and legislators have called for a review of a system accused of letting human rights violators off the hook, but since 2006, it has been the human rights group, PRODH who has led a strategy of challenging Mexico’s military justice system at an international level, particularly at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

· On the U.S. border fence, Politico has an opinion piece saying the barrier fails because it has created a “false sense of security for immigration hard-liners while adding to the fears of law-abiding residents along the border.”

· On the cancelled cross-border trucking program, the Dallas Morning News reports that House Speak Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has cast doubt on the possibility that Congress would revive the program.

· On a U.S. military-funded mapping project in Oaxaca, Z Magazine has an investigative report about what use the military may have for geographers in designing “human terrain” counter-insurgency programs.

· On arms sales to Mexico, Narco News says only three inquiries by the State Department targeting firearms exports have been conducted since 2007.

· On the U.S.’s newfound concern with Mexico, the New America Foundation’s Andrés Martínez writes in Foreign Policy that the new media obsession with Mexico (which this weekly “Mexico round-up” perpetuates) stems from a nativist backlash against all things foreign and a nostalgia for a story about bad guys that “are truly nasty” and “not driven by religion or ideology.”

· On “terrorism” and free speech, the LA Times La Plaza blog reports that French singer Manu Chao is under investigation by Mexican authorities for saying the police’s reaction to an uprising in Atenco constituted “state terrorism.” Article 33 of the Mexican Constitution apparently states that “foreigners may not in any way participate in the political affairs of the country.”

· And on Mexican drug lords, Global Post profiles “four key kingpins who stand out for their power and notoriety.”

Peru. More on the Fujimori trial and conviction, as the National Security Archive posts the declassified U.S. documents it provided to the Peruvian court in the case against Mr. Fujimori. And archive senior analyst, Peter Kornbluh, also writes about the trial and the human rights work of APRODEH in Peru for The Nation.

Venezuela. Finally, Trinidad and Tobago Express writes that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez will host an alternative summit on April 14-15 "to discuss and bring common positions" to the Fifth Summit of the Americas two days later. The meeting will reportedly include Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, Bolivian President Evo Morales, Dominican Prime Minster Roosevelt Skerritt, a representative from the Cuban government, and Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo.

Upside Down World publishes an investigative piece on Canadian democracy promotion efforts in Venezuela. The piece by independent journalist Anthony Fenton is critical of Canadian organizations like the Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL), which the writer alleges has undertaken democracy promotion work in Venezuela, similar to that of the National Endowment for Democracy, with Canadian government money.

According to an EFE brief, Venezuelan authorities have seized 11,237 kilograms (24,751 pounds) of illegal drugs so far this year, 3,000 kilos more than the same period in 2008.

And, when most news from Venezuela is political, a pleasant Time report on the famous Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, which is playing three sold-out concerts in the U.S. this week.