Daily Headlines: July 24, 2013

* Argentina: Gerardo "Tata" Martino will officially be named as the new coach of the famed Barcelona soccer team weeks after guiding Argentine side Newell's Old Boys to the semifinals of the Copa Libertadores.

* U.S.: The Univision TV network will surpass its English-language counterparts to top the Nielson ratings in two key age groups for the month of July.

* South America: Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro met with Colombian leader Juan Manuel Santos and pledged to continue supporting peace talks between the Colombian government and FARC guerillas.
 
* Mexico: A U.S. federal judge threw out a lawsuit against ex-Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo that accused him of crimes against humanity related to the 1997 Acteal massacre.

Video Source – YouTube via user sntv

Online Sources- The Guardian; USA TODAY; Huffington Post; Reuters

Editorial by ex-presidents criticizes “war on drugs”

A trio of Latin American ex-presidents called for a revaluation of the “war on drugs” in an editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal.

"The war on drugs has failed," said the opinion piece by former presidents Fernando Enrique Cardoso (Brazil), Ernesto Zedillo (Mexico) and César Gaviria (Colombia). They suggested that U.S.-led counternarcotics efforts change their focus towards a more humane and efficient approach:

(…)Cardoso, Gaviria and Zedillo defend in their article the importance of creating informative campaigns about drug use among the public in order to attack the problem at its roots, as was done with tobacco.

The ex-presidents believe that the policy of repression and criminalization of consumption practiced in recent decades has failed both in eradicating the habit and in combating the trafficking rings.

"The alarming power of the drug cartels is leading to a criminalization of politics and a politicization of crime. And the corruption of the judicial and political system is undermining the foundations of democracy in several Latin American countries," the three men wrote in the Journal.

The editorial mentioned the conclusions of a report presented earlier this month by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy on the “war on drugs”. (Cardoso, Zedillo, and Gaviria are part of that group.)

The editorial coincides with a rift between Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and his attorney general over resuming penalties for the personal use of illicit drugs.

Image- javno.hr (Farmer tending to coca leaves)
Online Sources- LAHT, Bloomberg, The Latin Americanist, El Espectador

Ex-presidents call for changing drug policy

A group of intellectuals and Latin American ex-presidents have called for the revaluation of counternarcotics policy.

The group called the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy emitted their report after meeting in Rio de Janeiro. Their report blasted the “war on drugs” and called for making drastic changes:

“The prohibitionist policies based on repressing production, intercepting trafficking and distribution, and criminalizing its consumption have not produced expected results…The goal of eradicating drugs has been farther than ever”…

“(Drug use) has transformed into a taboo that has prevented pubic debate…and confines drug consumers to a closed circle where they become more vulnerable to organized criminal activities.”

The commission also called for the legalization of marijuana for personal use as part of “changing (the) paradigms” of counternarcotics efforts.

Members of the group include former presidents Fernando Enrique Cardoso (Brazil), Ernesto Zedillo (Mexico) and César Gaviria (Colombia) as well as Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa and Foreign Policy magazine chief Moises Naim.

Image- telecinco.com (Ex-presidents Fernando Enrique Cardoso and César Gaviria at the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy conference)
Online Sources- Univision.com, El Tiempo, globo.com

Mexico: Secret deal led to Fox’s presidency, says PRI politico

Vicente Fox’s victory in 2000 and the end of the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s (PRI, in Spanish) presidential hegemony were caused by a secret pact, according to a soon-to-be-released book.

In “La Traicion” (“The Betrayal”), losing 2006 PRI presidential candidate Roberto Madrazo blames then-president Ernesto Zedillo (image) of spearheading the plan in 1994 which called for clandestinely alternating the presidency between the PRI and Fox’s National Action Party (PAN, in Spanish).

So far, Zedillo has yet to publicly respond to Madrazo’s accusations despite being long time political rivals. However, losing 2000 PRI presidential candidate Francisco Labastida denied Madrazo’s charges.

Zedillo’s name has been in the news lately as a possible successor to embattled World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz; Foreign Policy magazine editor Moises Naim brought up that possibility in an editorial published in Sunday’s Washington Post.

Links (Spanish)- Revoluciones, El Tiempo, Periódico AM, Milenio

Links (English)- VivirLatino, Washington Post

Image- Televisa