Daily Headlines: May 21, 2014

* Central America: The U.S. Agency for International Development will work with university researchers as part of a $5 million partnership in order to combat a crippling Central American coffee fungus.

* Venezuela: The U.S. Senate could soon vote on a bill that would raise sanctions against Venezuelan officials accused of human rights violations stemming from protests and political unrest since February.  

* Cuba: Cuban dissident blogger and activist Yoani Sanchez launched a new website today that will reportedly “provide daily news about the communist-run country, but insisted it would not be a platform against the government”.

* Uruguay: The plan to legalize the sale and distribution of marijuana in Uruguay will allegedly be exempted from taxation with the goal of “undercutting the black market.”

Video Source – YouTube user CBS Evening News

Online Sources – Reuters; Tico Times; LAHT; BBC News

Daily Headlines: April 9, 2014

* Argentina: An Argentine court sentenced ten people to up to twenty-two years in prison regarding the 2002 kidnapping and “sexual exploitation” of a missing young woman named Marita Veron.

* Mexico: Death row inmate Ramiro Hernandez is running out of legal options and today he will likely become the second Mexican national to be executed in Texas this year.
 
* Cuba: Sen. Patrick Leahy, the head of the Senate subcommittee that oversees USAID, blasted the administrator of that agency for a “cockamamie” failed social network project launched in Cuba.

* Haiti: A new report found that the percentage of Haitian earthquake survivors living in refugee camps has plummeted by 91% though the study notes the “phenomenon of new families moving into camps and families splitting and occupying more tents constitutes a worrying trend.”

Video Source– The Daily Beast via YouTube (Susana Trimarco, the mother of missing Argentine woman Marita Veron, has become an activist against human trafficking as she continues the search for her “disappeared” daughter.) 

Online Sources – BBC News; The Latin Americanist; ABC News; CBS News; Miami Herald

Daily Headlines: November 19, 2013

* U.S.: A new study published in the journal Neurology found that being bilingual could delay the onset of Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia by several years.

* Latin America: Uruguay’s senate is expected to pass a “far-reaching” marijuana decriminalization proposal this week while Puerto Rican legislators delayed until next a year a bill that would legalize possession of up to one ounce of marijuana.

* Haiti: Police in Port-au-Prince clashed with demonstrators opposed to President Michel Martelly and to call attention to “complaints ranging from the cost of living to high levels of corruption”.

* Cuba: The Cuban government may have inadvertently received information from the U.S. pertaining to a $6 million grant program for dissidents on the island.

Video Source – YouTube via user DNews

Online Sources- UPI; USA TODAY; Fox News Latino; The Huffington Post; The Guardian

Cuba and the Beltway Bandits

Given that the Castro regime has maintained unwavering control of Cuba for nearly 50 years and that Fidel himself has survived numerous American-led attempts to oust him, it's hard to imagine that sporadic funding of dissident programs will have any meaningful impact on fostering change within Cuba.

But Cuba's proximity to the US mainland and large Cuban exile community ensure that it plays an outsize role in American domestic politics. As the Miami Herald reports, this fact has led to the US funding dissident groups within Cuba - namely by giving them access to communications technologies that the US hopes will help foster democratic civil society on the island. Of course one man's "democratic civil society" is a Cuban (government) man's subversive meddling. Last month's arrest of American subcontractor Alan Gross highlighted this, shall we say, difference of opinion.

With Gross' arrest as a bargaining chip, Cuba would love to see an end to such programs which, in all likelihood don't accomplish a whole lot anyway.

And the current trends may favor Cuba getting just that. Obama has ushered in a slightly more nuanced approach toward Cuba policy, but the main driver in his less aggressive stance towards Cuba is an evolution in the sentiment in Miami's Little Havana - where younger Cuban Americans are moving beyond the animosity of the first generation of Cuban exiles and embracing a desire to normalize relations with the island.

Within this climate it's getting harder to justify multi-million-dollar outlays to support the slew of democratization efforts that have popped up with USAID and State money over the years. Yoani Sanchez keeps Twittering, after all...

The bureaucratic way of expressing this reality is for money to begin drying up without any official word as to why. The Miami Herald points out that money has all but stopped flowing to Cuban pro-democracy advocates in the US. In fact no new funding proposals directed toward Cuba have come from USAID since March.

Obama has taken small steps toward changing the core approach to Cuba, but it remains to be seen if he, like all of his predecessors, will fall back on a tough talk, little action strategy. If his current political woes persist or worsen ahead of the next round of important Florida elections he'd be well advised to do whatever wins him votes in South Florida. If the last 50 years are any indicator, Cuba will keep being Cuba no matter what our donated transistor radios have to say.

Online Sources: The Guardian, Miami Herald, Twitter, McClatchy, CNN
Image Source: Washington Post

US Contractor Held In Cuba

Charging development workers with espionage is a common enough practice in authoritarian states. Aside from the classic suspicion of Peace Corps Volunteers as spies, Iran, Sudan, and Nigeria have made waves for recent accusations of espionage against development workers. Generally the arrest causes a diplomatic spat and then, after receiving some concessions, the arresting country releases the "spy" to relieved family members.

With dialogue between the US and Cuba at its most active in years, Cuba may be looking for some additional leverage. The New York Times reported Saturday on the arrest of a subcontractor to a USAID-funded civil society project who was supposedly handing out computers and communications equipment "on behalf of the Obama administration." It added that it was "unclear exactly what the [man] was doing at the time he was detained."

Generally speaking, it's not a great idea to go around handing out computers and phones in a country that keeps a fairly tight lid on information going in and coming out. Still, it remains to be seen if the contractor is an innocent victim who was working within the guidelines of the program or if he was involved in illegal activity. It is interesting that this arrest comes a month after two Americans admitted to having spied for Cuba over the course of three decades.

Of course, there are no small coincidences and big coincidences; only coincidences...


Online Sources: NY Times, Miami Herald, AP, US News, BBC, Washington Post, Seinfeldscripts.com

Farmer out of contention at USAID?

Rumors are seeping around the Internet that Dr. Paul Farmer is no longer in contention for the USAID administrator position, a job which some have speculated could morph into a larger, possibly cabinet level position as head of all US international development (there are currently over 20 US government agencies with ID funds with no central oversight or formal coordination). The Washington Post followed up on this story today, as it was first let loose in Foreign Policy last week. Beltway Blips corroborates the chisme.

Farmer, founding director of Partners in Health, has spent much of his professional career living and working in Haiti, a country on which he has penned two books (both overtly critical of US policy).

Several weeks ago, Secretary Hillary Clinton let slip her mounting frustration with the overzealous vetting process that many appointees are undergoing, presumably thinking of Farmer if not others, and a fair amount of public whining has ensued.

I, for one, see nothing wrong with a serious vetting of a man like Paul Farmer, who has no prior government experience (thus represents a completely unknown entity), has travelled extensively to and throughout war torn countries, and has a public record of being extremely critical of US policy. To be sure, I find nothing wrong with any of those three things (and plenty right about them), but they necessarily complicate the nomination of someone like Farmer to such a high government post. In today's political environment, due diligence is key and there is plenty of it with someone like Farmer.

Moreover, despite being considered an infallible candidate by many (he was called a "saint" by NYT's Nicholas Kristoff who has been playing up the "those crazy government vetters" story,) I have several friends that have worked with Farmer in the past, and despite their admiration for his intellect and passion, they each confirm that he is a very difficult personality not known for his high tolerance of red tape or compromises. This is a potential recipe for disaster in a government agency in which both are endemic.

Thus, while the prospect of having an avowed Latin Americanist and true development visionary at the helm of USAID was exciting, I suspect that it may be for the best that Farmer will continue his illustrious Harvard career for the time being. Meanwhile, lets hope that the administration had some backups in the pipeline or else it will be back to the drawing board.

Sources: Washington Post, Foreign Policy, New York Times, Boston Globe, Beltway Blips

Daily Headlines: July 16, 2008

* Brazil: Soccer star Ronaldinho is expected to leave Spanish side FC Barcelona to sign a three-year, $33.4 million contract with Italian club AC Milan.

* Caribbean: Scientists believe that tons of dust from arid regions in Africa could be damaging Caribbean coral reefs.

* Bolivia: President Evo Morales accused the U.S. Agency for International Development of restricting aid to Bolivia.

* Haiti: The family of a mentally disabled Haitian man who died while under custody at a U.S. immigration detention center are still seeking answers as to how and why he passed away.

Image- AFP

Sources- CBC, Xinhua, New York Times, National Geographic

Bush admin aide quits over USAID investigation

A White House aide resigned recently over allegations that he misused funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Felipe Sixto- the now ex-associate director of the office of intergovernmental affairs- quit his post over "a conflict of interest" relating to USAID funds at his previous job at the Center for a Free Cuba.

Several Cuban-American politicos from South Florida have opined over the matter:

Florida Republican Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart said in a joint statement that they were "deeply disturbed by any allegation of misuse of taxpayer funds" and urged the Department of Justice and the USAID's inspector general "to move thoroughly and swiftly in investigating all the facts in this matter."

Joe Garcia, a Democrat running to unseat Mario Diaz-Balart, said the resignation underscored "the fundamental flaws of a policy designed to win votes in Miami and patronize partisan supporters, not bring freedom to Cuba."

In light of Sixto’s resignation, White House officials said they have modified its policy on funding anti-Castro groups.

Sources- UPI, Postbulletin.com, Houston Chronicle, AHN

Image- grain.org

Daily Headlines: March 3, 2008

* The European Union has eased a good part of a ban placed last month on Brazilian beef.

* Food aid distributed by USAID to countries worldwide including Latin America will be “significantly scaled back” according to the Washington Post.

* Is Cuba’s signing of two international human rights treaties previously rejected by Fidel Castro a sign of change on the island?

* Bolivia’s government has designated May 4^th as the date for a constitutional referendum.

Sources- Voice of America, Belfast Telegraph, The Latin Americanist, Reuters UK, Washington Post

Image- BBC News

USAID chief quits over prostitution link

An alleged affinity for Central American prostitutes may have led to the resignation of Randall Tobias (image) from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Tobias was touted by the Department of State as “a leader in helping the most vulnerable populations” while in charge of the U.S.’ main foreign aid agency. Yet he quit effective immediately on Friday after admitting to ABC News that he was a customer of an escort service featuring Central American women.

Ironically, Tobias had been the Bush administration's “AIDS czar” who “was responsible for overseeing all U.S. international HIV/AIDS assistance” according to Wikipedia.

Links- Reuters, U.S. Department of State, ABC News – The Blotter, White House, Wikipedia

Image- CBS News