Today’s Video: Land for Progress

Some residents of the Colombian city of Cartagena were not too pleased with the inconveniences caused by security measures and traffic restrictions during the weekend’s Summit of the Americas. But for approximately 1000 Afro-Colombian families the conference served as the ideal backdrop for them to receive the deeds to thousands of acres of ancestral lands.

As you can see in the below video via the Colombia government, President Juan Manuel Santos and his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, presided the hand over ceremony in the neighborhood of San Basilio de Palenque:

The restitution of land “to you and other Afro-Colombian communities is another step towards the end of the long conflict in this country and will help you become participants in the new Colombia,” said Obama during the ceremony on Sunday evening.

Both Obama and Santos reached several bilateral agreements over the weekend such as declaring May 15th as the official start of the free trade pact between both countries.

Furthermore, Obama announced that the U.S. would support Colombia’s bid to join the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the U.S. will extend the validity of visas for Colombian visitors on temporary basis from five years to ten years.

Video Source – YouTube via Noticias Uno Colombia, SIGCOLOMBIA

Online Sources – Bernama, Straits Times, El Espectador

Colombia to extradite suspected drug capo to Venezuela

A suspected drug smuggler held in Colombia will be extradited to Venezuela instead of the U.S.

Colombian Interior Minister German Vargas Lleras confirmed yesterday that his government would hand over Walid Makled to Venezuelan authorities within the next five days. Lleras confirmed that the decision was made since Venezuela filed the request for extradition before the U.S. Furthermore, Lleras acknowledged that Makled is wanted on more serious charges in Venezuela including the murder of a journalist.

Lleras thus confirmed remarks by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos where he said that Makled would be extradited in exchange for two alleged “big drug lords” currently in Venezuela.

The upcoming extradition of Makled is just the latest chapter in the improved ties between Venezuela and Colombia since Santos assumed the presidency last year. Over the past week alone Santos praised his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez, for extraditing a pair of suspected guerillas to Colombia. Last weekend Santos and Chavez met and signed a number of bilateral agreements such as improving trade relations. More importantly, Santos helped broker a meeting between Chavez and Honduran leader Porfirio Lobo that could ease the Central American country’s return to the Organization of American States.

The Colombian government’s decision was heavily criticized by some U.S. legislators and right-leaning publications as a diplomatic failure of the Obama administration. Ardent anti-Chavez Rep. Connie Mack claimed that having Makled in U.S. custody “would have been a huge victory in our region's drug war." An editorial in the Investor’s Business Daily went as far as comparing sending Makled to Venezuela to the U.S. not seeking the extradition of Osama Bin Laden from Sudan in 1996.

Makled previously claimed that he would only divulge information on alleged ties between the Chavez administration and narcotraffickers if her were sent to the U.S. Yet Makled could change his tune after Lleras mentioned "we have given full access to the American government for any matter they consider useful" and that such access was already underway.

As reported on the Christian Science Monitor’s website, Makled provided hints of some of his accusations during a recently aired interview on Univision:

Makled did not directly address allegations that he is a drug lord, as US prosecutors claim, but said that he regularly paid millions of dollars in bribes to Venezuelan government and military officials to gain lucrative business concessions…

He claims at one time to have had as many as 40 generals on his payroll, though he says he didn’t have to recruit any of them. “It was more like they recruited me,” he told the interviewer with a laugh.

In the interview, Makled also says Hezbollah is “absolutely” active in Venezuela but is saving the details for the court. “They make money and then send all that money to the Middle East.”

The Makled affair has also deepened the rift between two former close-knit allies: ex-president Alvaro Uribe and Santos who served as defense minister under Uribe. In a tweet posted today Uribe claimed that the U.S. “intent” to seek Makled should’ve surpassed Venezuela’s “formal” request. After Santos declared on Monday that Venezuela was free of FARC rebel camps, Uribe implied the opposite in a series of tweets tagged "terrorist hideaway".

Image- LAHT
Online Sources- Too many to list!

Brazil’s shift to democracy could inspire Middle East says Obama

Brazil’s transition from military rule into a thriving democracy can serve as an example for other countries including in the Middle East according to U.S. President Barack Obama.

In the speech given in Rio de Janeiro’s Municipal Theatre, Obama emphasized that Brazil is “a country that shows democracy delivers both freedom and opportunity to its people.” “As two nations who have struggled over many generations to perfect our own democracies, the United States and Brazil know that the future of the Arab world will be determined by its people,” Obama said to the crowd of roughly 2000 people.
In part of his speech (which can be seen below) Obama explained the example of Brazilian democracy for the world:

Though Obama neglected to back Brazil’s bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, he touched on the importance of close relations between the U.S. and the growing global power. “Let us stand together…not as senior and junior partners, but as equal partners,” said Obama.

Earlier on Sunday Obama visited the Ciudade de Dios (City of God) favela where he watched children perform capoeira moves and also kicked a soccer ball around with some kids. Despite the welcoming crowds in that slum and during his speech, an estimated 200 people protested near the Municipal Theatre protested against U.S. foreign policy.

Today’s speech was supposed to take place in Rio’s Cinelandia plaza but was changed abruptly days before Obama arrived in Brazil. The U.S. Embassy did not explain why the venue was switched, though Cinelandia was the site where a key 1984 protest took place against the ruling dictatorship. Obama seemed to have acknowledged this in his speech when he discussed Brazil’s shift to democracy.

Tonight he is expected to tour Rio’s famed Christ the Redeemer statue before moving on to Chile on Monday. He will be there until Wednesday when he travels to El Salvador, the last country on his visit to Latin America.

Video Source – AP via YouTube
Online Sources- BBC News, MSNBC, Folha.com, USA TODAY, Los Angeles Times, The Latin Americanist, Bloomberg, Reuters

Clinton, Bush to help Obama for Haiti relief

President Barack Obama has sought help from his predecessor- George W. Bush- to help in the relief efforts for Haiti.

According to AFP, an anonymous White House official claimed that Bush "will join (ex-president Bill) Clinton in helping with disaster relief" for the country still reeling from Tuesday's massive earthquake. Furthermore, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said today that Obama spoke with Bush last night to create an alliance similar to one made by Clinton and George H.W. Bush in the aftermath of 2005’s deadly tsunami in the Pacific.

Earlier today Obama announced that at least $100 million would be allocated in humanitarian and rescue aid to Haiti where the Haitian Red Cross estimated the death toll between 45,000 and 50,000 people.

Clinton already has ties to Haiti after being named U.N. special envoy to Haiti in 2008, and he recently called on all Americans to help in the relief efforts. Meanwhile, the alliance with Obama comes as the White House has tried to avoid the mistakes made by the Bush administration after other natural disasters:

The administration urgently sought to show it had learned from the mistakes of Obama's predecessor, who was criticized for the initial U.S. response to a tsunami disaster in south Asia in 2004 and for his handling of Hurricane Katrina's onslaught on the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005.

The White House also took pains to show Obama was staying on top of events, in contrast to Bush, widely seen as detached as Katrina battered New Orleans for days more than five years ago…

That attitude could boost Obama's earlier promise to devote more attention to Latin America and the Caribbean, a region that felt neglected under the Bush administration and had not been high on the current president's policy agenda either.

Image- ABC News (January 2009 image of Barack Obama and George W. Bush).
Online Sources- FOX News, New York Times, AFP, ABC News

Senate confirms Eric Holder

On Monday night the Senate confirmed Eric Holder as the next U.S. Attorney General. The career federal prosecutor, judge and Washington lawyer thus becomes the country’s first African-American Attorney General.

Holder’s links to certain Latin American-related affairs was a point of controversy after he was picked by Barack Obama last December. In confirmation hearings last month, Holder was grilled over his role at the Department of Justice (DOJ) during the Clinton era including the 1999 pardons to sixteen convicted Puerto Rican nationalists. Holder’s views during the hearings against torture and waterboarding were later criticized by ex-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

In addition, several lawmakers questioned Holder’s role at the DOJ during the Elian Gonzales saga and his work for negotiating a plea deal over Chiquita Bands’ hiring of Colombian paramilitaries.

Despite doubts by some Congressman, Holder won bipartisan support and backing from law enforcement groups:

Even though 21 GOP senators voted against him, Holder’s nomination was never in danger. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee and one of Holder’s biggest critics, announced last week he was backing the nomination, and that sealed the deal...

Holder also had widespread support from outside advocacy groups, including law enforcement associations. Former FBI Director Louis Freeh and other prominent Bush DOJ officials backed him as well, undermining any potential GOP opposition to his nomination.

Image- AFP
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, politico.com, ABC News, Vivirlatino, CNN