Daily Headlines: February 15, 2012

* Peru: Hundreds of women forcibly sterilized in the 1990s under a program created by then-President Alberto Fujimori continue to wait for to justice to be served.

* Nicaragua: The head of the central bank quit after a disagreement with President Daniel Ortega over how to pay for a regional bank for the ALBA bloc.
* Venezuela: Political opposition groups cried foul after the Supreme Court ruled against the destruction of lists of voters who participated in Sunday’s primary election.

* South America: Chilean president Sebastian Pinera received a “surprise phone call” from British Prime Minister David Cameron and they reportedly discussed the dispute between the U.K. and Argentina over the Falklands.

Video Source – YouTube via telesurenglish

Online Sources- Fox News, Bloomberg, News24, Mercopress

Daily Headlines: November 30, 2011

* Latin America: At a global climate conference in South Africa, a representative of the ALBA bloc called for developed countries to take more action against increased greenhouse gas emissions.

* Guatemala: Guatemalan officials urged Canada to prosecute suspected war criminal Jorge Sosa rather than extradite him to the U.S. where he’s accused of immigration fraud.

* Peru: Construction at the proposed Conga gold mine was suspended in response to a six-day protest against the plan.

* Chile: A Chilean judge requested the extradition of a “former U.S. military attaché” suspected in the murder of a journalist days after the 1973 coup.

Image Source – Flickr user UNclimatechange (CC BY 2.0)

Online Sources- Bloomberg, Reuters, BBC News, CTV News, The Latin Americanist

Libya green lights Venezuelan meditation

The armed conflict in Libya keeps escalating as hospitals run low on supplies and several towns surrounding the capital city of Tripoli are under a ‘state of siege”. The window for dialogue between the repressive government and opposition forces seemed to have passed a long time ago. Yet that hasn’t stopped one of Muammar Gaddafi’s few allies from taking a stab at meditation.

Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim said this afternoon that his country’s government would accept Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’ plans for an international mediation commission. According to Reuters, Kaim said the committee could "help the international dialogue and…help the restoration of peace and stability."

Kaim’s remarks were supported by foreign minister Mousa Kousa based on a letter read by his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro. “We authorize (the Venezuelan government) to take all the measures necessary to select the members (of the commission) and coordinate participation in this dialogue” read the note from Kousa that was mentioned during a meeting of the ALBA bloc today.

Some ALBA members supported the Chavez plan as one that could help prevent foreign intervention through actions such as an outside military invasion. It remains to be seen how non-ALBA Latin American nations will react to the plan though several governments have been very critical of Gadhafi’s crackdown against protesters.

Chavez first brought up the notion of a “committee of peace” earlier this week after he reportedly communicated with the embattled Libyan leader. Though the Arab League was considering the plan several western countries like the U.S. and France rejected it. “It’s unclear what a commission could accomplish if (Gadhafi) has ignored numerous calls by the international community to resign” asserted State Department spokesman Philip Crowley yesterday.

Some analysts have expressed doubts over Chavez’ call for dialogue; blogger and professor Greg Weeks briefly noted how his attitude towards Libya differed from his reaction at the recent uprising in Egypt. Furthermore, according to this article from Al Jazeera English:

Some see a contradiction between human rights abuses in those regimes and Chavez’s "21st century socialism" ideology.

"While it's understandable that you’d want to build this multipolar world against western imperialism, if that multipolarism consists of Russia, China, and a bunch of authoritarian regimes then what use is a multipolar world?" (author Nicolas) Kozloff said.

Image- AP/Ben Curtis via CBS News (“Armed residents stand on top of a captured tank flying a flag of Libya's monarchy prior to Muammar Qaddafi's reign, in Zawiya, Feb. 27, 2011.”)
Online Sources- Al Jazeera English, EPA, Semana.com, Two Weeks Notice, The Latin Americanist, Agencia Venezolana de Noticias, Reuters

Yanqui Go Home?

There seems to be a consensus forming at the Rio Group Summit going on in Cancun that an official body of nations should be formed that will be made up of Latin American and Caribbean nations exclusively.

The idea, officially proposed by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, calls for the creation of a formal body made up of Latin American and Caribbean nations without the United States or Canada. The group hasn't been named yet but is proposed to launch next year.

The rhetoric surrounding the group has been unsurprisingly harsh, with Chavez seeing the group as a way to "finally rid ourselves of the colonialism the U.S. imposed on the continent." Adding his two cents, Bolivian president Evo Morales said that he saw the new group as a way for the region to advance without the "control, blackmail and attempted coups" that he says have characterized the U.S.' participation in the region.

The first big question the new group raises is what this will mean for the OAS. Will the new group undermine or eventually replace the OAS?

Also, given that the group is being spearheaded by the Chavez-Morales block, will it be able to successfully include the more moderate and center-right governments of the region or will it simply be ALBA II?

Image Source: Wikipedia Commons
Online Sources: AP, Miami Herald, BBC Mundo

Bolivia’s Morales suggests expanding ALBA

With Bolivia set to host the upcoming summit of the ALBA trade bloc in September, the Andean country’s president proposed expanding the alliance.

Evo Morales suggested that the socialist group consisting of Bolivia, Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua should focus their efforts on areas including political parties and social movements. He also added that future expansion should also include increased military cooperation in light of last month’s military ouster of Honduras’ Manuel Zelaya. “This coup is a threat against the continued growth of Alba,” Morales said on Monday in an interview with a Bolivian state radio station.

Speaking of the mess in Honduras and the ALBA, the Central American country’s interim regime has reiterated threats of Venezuelan interference:

Honduras' interim government on Tuesday gave 72 hours to Venezuelan diplomats to leave, accusing them of threatening to use force and interfering into the country's internal affairs…

The request, however, was turned down by Venezuelan diplomats who said they would not leave Honduras and would not obey the order of any coup government not recognized by Venezuela.

Image- CNN (2008 file photo of Bolivia president Evo Morales)
Online Sources- Miami Herald, The Latin Americanist, Bloomberg, Xinhua

Honduran prez defends ALBA alliance

Honduran president Manuel Zelaya supported his decision to have Honduras enter the ALBA trade bloc. In remarks made to Reuters, the Honduran leader said that the move was necessary in order to combat poverty in his country:

President Manuel Zelaya, a logging magnate seen as a moderate liberal, told Reuters that oil-rich Venezuela's offer to double international aid to the country, one of the poorest in Latin America, is unrivaled.

"I have been looking for projects from the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, Europe and I have received very moderate offers ... that forces us to find other forms of financing like ALBA," Zelaya said in an interview at his presidential palace…

"The war between communists and right-wingers is over, and if what we have now is not giving results, we have to turn to alternatives like ALBA," which also includes Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Dominica, he said.

The ALBA alliance is spearheaded by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez who observed that “the courage of President Zelaya has no comparison.”

The move is expected to ruffle some feathers in Washington especially since Honduras was vital as a base for the anti-communist, U.S.-backed Contra rebels in the 1980s. Conservative ex-President Ricardo Maduro warned Zelaya not to “bite the hand that feeds you” by joining the ALBA. Yet “Honduras did not ask permission from any imperialist country to join ALBA," emphasized Zelaya as he accepted joining the trade bloc.

Image- BBC News

Sources- Reuters, PRESS TV, IPS, euronews, MarketPlace