Daily Headlines: October 18, 2013

* Peru: Disgraced ex-President Alberto Fujimori was once again in court and could receive another eight years in prison on top of the 25-year sentence he’s currently serving for human rights abuses during his rule.

* Caribbean: The Caribbean Community gave its “regret” over a recent Dominican court decision that could eliminate the citizenship of thousands of citizens with a Haitian background.

* Chile: With roughly a month to go in Chile’s presidential election, former leader Michelle Bachelet leads the polls but may not be able to avoid a runoff.

* Mexico: Mexican officials admitted that they would likely miss a second deadline to certify hundreds of thousands of police nationwide.

Video Source – YouTube via Univision Noticias 

Online Sources- Los Angeles Times; Reuters; The Latin Americanist; Caribbean Journal; ninemsn

Daily Headlines: August 24, 2010

* Latin America: A tropical storm warning was put into effect for areas of Mexico’s pacific coast while roughly 600 Guatemalans were homeless due to a tropical wave (image).

* U.S.: Rest in peace Mario Obledo; the Latino civil rights leader and co-founder of MALDEF died last week at the age of 78 years.

* Brazil: Security for the upcoming World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics have come under renewed scrutiny after gunmen briefly invaded a luxury Rio de Janeiro hotel on Saturday.

* Central America: Would Central America benefit from a massive anti-drugs package similar to the Merida Initiative?

Image – EFE
Online Sources- Miami Herald, The Latin Americanist, MSNBC, Fresno Bee, LAHT, CNN, Reuters

Problems with Merida Imitative says GAO

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found problems with the carrying out of a $1.6 billion counternarcotics plan to Mexico and Central America.

Only 9% of the aid under the Merida Imitative has been spent between 2008 and 2010 according to the GAO report, which was presented to the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere yesterday. The report noted that there was a lack of sufficient oversight over the plan including the failure of setting targets to see if aid was being spent properly. The GAO even said in their study that Mexico has purchased some equipment on its own due to the delay in receiving Merida Initiative funds.

Federal officials tried to emphasize the increased collaboration with Mexico as a positive result from the Merida Initiative. "We are determined, working with Mexico, to do everything in our power to reduce this violence," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley to the press. For one analyst, however, the GAO report shows several shortcomings of the U.S. antidrug strategy:

The shortfall in U.S. assistance hurts Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s fight against organized crime, said Adam Isacson, senior associate at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights and policy research group...

“When you consider the urgency with which politicians talk about violence in Mexico and the threat it poses to us, to have only delivered 9 percent after two years is pretty remarkable,” Isacson said in a telephone interview from Washington.

The agency’s study was published days after one of the bloodiest weekends in Mexico including a car bombing and numerous shootings.

One Mexican government estimate said that almost 25,000 deaths related to organized crime have occurred since Felipe Calderon became president in December 2006.

Image- Los Angeles Times (eighteen people were killed when gunmen opened fire at a party over the weekend in Torreon, Mexico).
Online Sources- AP, The Latin Americanist, Voice of America, New York Times, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: December 7, 2009

* Mexico: According to the Government Accountability Office only two percent of U.S. counternarcotics aid under the Merida Initiative has been sent to Mexico.

* Chile: Thousands of Chileans honored the late folk singer Victor Jara who was tortured and killed days after a 1973 military coup.

* Colombia: At a conference in Colombia the U.N. warned that major cuts would be made to anti-landmine funds unless countries ante up and help.

* Cuba: U.S.-Cuba migration talks that resumed in July after years of suspension will be put on hold again until February.

Image – AP (“Soldiers guard next to a transportation warehouse where a tunnel was found, near the US-Mexico border in Tijuana, Mexico, Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009.”)

Online Sources- Los Angeles Times, AP, Al Jazeera English, Voice of America

HRW: Withhold Security Aid to Mexico

In a letter sent yesterday to Secretary Clinton, Human Rights Watch called on the State Department to withhold tens of millions of dollars in security aid to Mexico unless it agrees to allow recent human rights abuse allegations to be tried in civilian courts.

Human Rights Watch states in the letter a finding from its recent report on Mexican military abuses that, "Mexican military courts-which routinely take over the investigation of military abuses against civilians-have not produced over the past 10 years a single conviction against a member of the military accused of committing a serious human rights violation."

Under the $1.4 billion aid package that is known as the Mérida Initiative, the US must withhold a 15% portion of the funds until the secretary of State reports that Mexico is meeting specific human rights conditions. Those conditions include prosecuting human rights abuses in accordance with Mexican and international law.

Online sources-Los Angeles Times, Human Rights Watch

Image-MSNBC

White House presents Mexico anti-drug strategy

The Obama administration revealed today a comprehensive plan designed to stem drug-related violence in Mexico.

The plan presented at a press conference by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Deputy Attorney General David Ogden distinguishes itself in the increased deployment of officers to the U.S.-Mexico border and a stronger effort to combat arms smuggling across the border. According to Napolitano, the $700 million strategy under the Merida Initiative would aim to help the Mexican government break up drug gangs and subsequently decrease their access to weapons from the U.S.

The plan was cited by one report as “extending or expanding” plans created under Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush. Yet Napolitano differed from the Bush administration by emphasizing that a lengthy border wall "is not the best way" to prevent drugs from being smuggled into the U.S.

The plan includes many additional details such as:

• committing the White House and Congress to the Merida Initiative;
• increasing intelligence efforts under the FBI by creating a Southwest Intelligence Group and working with Central American countries to combat gang violence;
• using the Treasury Department to investigate money laundering by drug gangs;
• pledging more funds for narcotics treatment including “integrating substance abuse services into national healthcare systems”.
  

Image- Reuters
Online Sources- MSNBC, BBC News, ABC News, El Universal, boston.com

Reports: 20 killed in Mexican drug-related violence

Reports claim that at least 20 people were killed including due to violence between drug gangs and the Mexican army in the northern border state of Chihuahua.

The deaths occurred this morning when hitmen executed six people in the town of Villa Ahumada. A subsequent shootout and car chase between the suspected sicarios and Mexican troops led to fourteen more deaths. One soldier was reported among the dead along with all of the gang members.

The seemingly out-of-control violence in Mexico has led to worries of a spillover into the U.S. Doubts have emerged over whether the three-year, $1.4 billion Merida Initiative will be sufficient to counter Mexico’s violence and corruption. Some are even planning for the worse to occur:

Texas officials are working on a plan to respond to a potential collapse of the Mexican government and the specter of thousands fleeing north in fear for their lives after recent reports indicated the country could be on the verge of chaos.

"You hope for the best, plan for the worst," Katherine Cesinger, spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry, said last week. "At this point, we've got a contingency plan that's in development"…

Destabilization in Mexico might be only a remote possibility, but lawmakers said preparing for any potential disaster is prudent.

"It seems very far-fetched that something like this could occur," (State Sen. John Carona) said. "At the same time, I think it would be naive to believe it's impossible."

Image- AP ("A soldier stands atop an armored vehicle outside a police station in Cancun, Mexico, Monday, Feb. 9, 2009.")
Online Sources- El Universal, Milenio, Reuters, El Paso Times, AP

Obama Urged to Change U.S. - Latin American Relations

Friends of Brad Will, named after the independent journalist killed in Oaxaca, called on President-elect Obama to move away from decades of failed "war on drugs" policies that have served to fund and arm corrupt police and military powers, like the one that killed Will.

Let's see if Obama really will be about change.

Friends of Brad Will today called on President elect Obama to take note of the failures of the "war in drugs" in Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean and to reject funding corrupt security forces there. The advocacy organization established when the U.S. reporter Brad Will was murdered by Mexican security forces in front of witnesses in a crime still unpunished also urged the President Elect to call for the release of Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno, wrongly accused by Mexican government officials of the murder of Mr. Will in Mexico in 2006.
"Mr. Martinez was framed by Mexican authorities to cover-up for officials from the State of Oaxaca who were filmed shooting into crowds during the 2006 teacher's strike." said Miguel Rivera, of Friends of Brad Will. "We demand his release and call on the Obama Administration to cease the proposed funding of helicopters and Blackwater and Dyncorp mercenaries through Bush's Merida Initiative to the Mexican and other Western Hemispheric militaries."

In a letter today to President Elect Obama, the respected Washington DC-based Witness for Peace stated, "Instead of spending billions in a failed "supply-side" strategy that funds human rights abuses, destroys the environment and fuels a decades-long armed conflict, end military aid and invest in real alternative development abroad and drug prevention and treatment at home."

The growing call to stop the Merida Initative builds upon the opposition of the AFL-CIO, US Steelworkers, and many others.

About the investigation of the murder of Brad Will, Rep. Manzullo (R, Illiinois) wrote to outgoing Secretary of State Rice, "Why should the U.S. Government give money to a government to "fight organized crime" when the very Mexican officials trusted with spending this money, including the Mexican Attorney General, refuse to cooperate with officials of the U.S. Government concerning a U.S. victim of a Mexican criminal act?"

Friends of Brad Will also called on the Mexican government to vacate the arrest warrants of others wrongfully accused of the death of the American journalist. Their names are: Hugo Jarid Colmenres Leyva, Octavio Pérez Pérez, Miguel Cruz Moreno, Leonardo Ortiz Cruz, Edgar Santiago Navarro, Gualberto Francisco Santiago Navarro, Marco Antonio Rojas Lazaro, Gustavo Vilchis Ramírez.

Source : Friends of Brad Will

U.S. gives Mexico anti-drug funds

On Wednesday U.S. officials released the first portion of a multimillion counternarcotics package destined for Mexico.

U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza formally released $197 million of the $400 million Merida Initiative at a signing ceremony in Mexico City. Most of money in that first part of the deal will be used as "military cooperation and economic support funds" according to Garza.

Congress passed the funds for the Merida Initiative several months ago after legislators placed human rights conditions to the package. The conditions were designed to ensure that funds would be used properly though some Mexican officials at the time were none too pleased.

It remains to be seen if the Merida Initiative will make a significant dent into Mexico’s rampant violence. The situation has gotten so out of hand that some Mexicans are calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty:

The initiative from Humberto Moreira, governor of the northern border state of Coahuila, would allow the death penalty for convicted kidnappers who killed or mutilated their victims. He said as far as the people of his state were concerned, the only issue was how to execute convicts, not whether to do so.

It is highly unlikely, if not impossible, that the death penalty could be reinstated because of legal obstacles, experts said. But that is almost beside the point. Moreira has tapped into public panic over soaring crime, a climate of fear that has made law and order the country's No. 1 worry.

Image- BBC News
Sources- The Latin Americanist, AP, AFP, Reuters, Los Angeles Times

Daily Headlines: July 1, 2008

* Spain: Soccer 1, sex 0.

* Venezuela: Was President Hugo Chavez “personally involved” in the “Maletagate” scandal?

* Mexico: $400 million in anti-narcotics aid is destined from the U.S. to Mexico as part of the Merida Initiative.

* Brazil: Former first lady and anthropologist Ruth Cardoso died late last month at the age of

Image- The Telegraph (“Lap of honor: Fernando Torres and Sergio Ramos carried the trophy around the pitch.”)

Sources- AFP, New York Times, Bloomberg, Guardian UK

Daily Headlines: June 6, 2008

* Cuba: Two children of famed revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara denounced the “embarrassing” commercialization of their father’s image.

* Brazil: Military police arrested an army sergeant who recently revealed his homosexuality in a magazine article.

* U.S.: Officials in Massachusetts are suing H&R Block for “unfair and deceptive conduct” against black and Latino mortgage borrowers.

* Mexico: Yesterday we mentioned that some Mexican officials are disappointed with possible human rights conditions to be attached to the Merida Initiative. Turns out that President George W. Bush wants Congress to drop those clauses which he believes are “unreasonable.”

Sources- MSNBC, Los Angeles Times, The Latin Americanist, Bloomberg, BBC News

Image- is it just me or is everything shit?

Daily Headlines: June 5, 2008

* U.S.: Rest in peace Mel Ferrer; the Cuban-American actor, film director and producer died Monday at the age of 90.

* Peru: The human rights trial of ex-President Alberto Fujimori was suspended yesterday so that he may undergo surgery.

* U.S.: Prosecutors are presenting their appeal in a U.S. court against a 2007 decision freeing Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles.

* Mexico: Some Mexican officials are disappointed with human rights conditions added by U.S. legislators to the multibillion dollar counterdrug Merida Initiative.

Sources- Los Angeles Times, AFP, The Latin Americanist, Associated Press

Image- China Daily (“In this Jan. 24, 1993 file photo, Mel Ferrer is shown at the funeral for his ex-wife, actress Audrey Hepburn in Tolochenaz, Switzerland.”)