Weekly Roundup from Across the Americas

March 3, 2010

From the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. AS/COA Online's news brief examines the major—as well as some of the overlooked—events and stories occurring across the Americas. Check back every Wednesday for the weekly roundup.

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Leaders from Across Americas Reach out to Chile

In the days since an 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile claimed roughly 800 lives and devastated infrastructure, leaders from across the Western Hemisphere have rallied to show their support for relief efforts. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton each traveled to Chile in the wake of the disaster to pledge assistance. Peruvian President Alan García, who has not traveled to Chile in a year due to a maritime-boundary dispute, also visited to pledge humanitarian aid, saying: “We need to strengthen our fraternity, our closeness, and in these moments of need, work toward a true union of peoples.” Bolivian President Evo Morales announced that he will donate half his salary to Chilean and Haitian earthquake relief efforts. Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and Peru are among the countries sending crucial supplies, such as satellite phones, field hospitals, medical equipment, and blankets.

Access an AS/COA Online resource guide to the Chilean earthquake, with links to maps, images, and additional sources of information.

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Constitutional Court Orders Removal of Guatemalan Education Minister

February 26, 2010

On February 25, Guatemala’s Constitutional Court ordered the removal of Education Minister Bienvenido Argueta for failing to provide the court with complete information regarding the beneficiaries of President Álvaro Colóm’s flagship social program, Mi Familia Progresa.  This latest development in a months-old political drama augurs poorly for Guatemala’s fragile education system and President Colóm’s claims to be supporting transparency measures in this notoriously corrupt nation.

Mi Familia Progresa (MFP) is Guatemala’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, which provides cash payments to poor mothers, conditional upon them sending their children to school and for health check-ups.  CCT programs have become increasingly popular in Latin America, as they have shown demonstrably positive results on school enrolment and child health. 

President Colóm has hailed MFP as the cornerstone of his anti-poverty platform in Guatemala, but critics have argued that Colóm has used the program to reward voters who supported him in the 2007 elections.  Colóm’s critics also worry that the president has been transferring funds from other ministries to the program to use it as a campaign tool for his wife, Sandra Torres de Colóm, the coordinator and face of the Council of Social Cohesion that oversees MFP.

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Hillary Clinton to Meet Latin America’s New Leaders

February 26, 2010

The first trip to South America by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will take place amidst a series of U.S. policy changes in the region. By confirming that she will attend the new Uruguayan President Jose Mujica’s March 1 inauguration ceremony in Montevideo, Secretary Clinton will have the chance to meet with several of the region’s newly-elected presidents.

The agenda will include post-inauguration ceremony meetings with the new Uruguayan president and also with Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. On March 2, she will fly to Chile where she is scheduled to speak with outgoing President Michelle Bachelet and the newly-elected president, Sebastian Piñera. On Wednesday she will travel to Brasilia to meet with President Lula da Silva and on Thursday she will meet in Costa Rica with outgoing incumbent President Oscar Arias and with the incoming President Laura Chinchilla. Advance planning is also taking place for her to visit Guatemala, where she would meet with several heads of state from Central America and the Dominican Republic.

Some of the likely topics on the agenda are Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s recent expressions of disappointment with President Obama’s policies on the region. According to assistant secretary of state Arturo Valenzuela, talks in Chile will include joint policies to enhance economic competitiveness, and in Brazil she will lobby for Brazilian support for U.S. policies against Iran. Finally, in Costa Rica, Mrs. Clinton will give a speech at the 3rd ministerial meeting on the Road for Prosperity in the Americas where she is expected to emphasize the importance of trade.

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Weekly Roundup from Across the Americas

February 24, 2010

From the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. AS/COA Online's news brief examines the major—as well as some of the overlooked—events and stories occurring across the Americas. Check back every Wednesday for the weekly roundup.

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The New LatAm Group on the Bloc

Latin American leaders convened in Cancun, Mexico on February 22 and 23 for the 2010 Rio Group summit, where they agreed to form a new regional alternative that excludes the United States and Canada and that some posit could serve as an alternative to the Organization of American States. The specific details of the body will most likely be figured out at a 2011 summit in Caracas.

AS/COA’s Christopher Sabatini discusses the newly created Latin American body on Worldfocus. “[The region’s] feeling its own diplomatic muscle and it wants to assert that,” says Sabatini.

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New Guatemalan Law Would Spur Local Community Radio Development

February 11, 2010

On a smoggy Thursday afternoon in late January, Mark Camp, director for U.S.-based Cultural Survival Project, drives a big red truck with Massachusetts plates through Guatemala City traffic toward Congress. Camp—who looks more like an insurance salesman with a ponytail of gray hair, suit and polka dot red tie—has organized volunteers from community radio stations to flood the legislature’s halls on this big day for Guatemala’s community radio movement. Some have traveled almost two days by bus to make it in time. 

“This is a historic occasion—years of trying and frustration have never brought us this far before,” said Camp nervously waiting outside the steps of Congress. “We think we have a real opportunity this year to get a law passed that will recognize the right of communities to have their own radio station.”

For the first time in 12 years of attempts to pass a law to legalize and to grant frequencies to community radio stations, the National Movement of Radio Stations—represented by these cell phone-wielding radio volunteers ready to broadcast live in a Mayan language—have scored a win. The bill, called “The Law of the Community Radio Number 4087,” has received support from the President of Congress’ Pueblas Indigenas Committee and is now being sent back to the General Assembly. If passed, the bill would guarantee the use of at least one FM frequency for community radio in each of Guatemala’s 333 municipalities. Multiple towns could use the same frequency because of their limited broadcast range and one-third of all FM frequencies would be added to a new reserve as they become available.

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Central America’s Rule of Law: Guatemala Captures Portillo But Honduras Rewards Micheletti

January 27, 2010

For decades, impunity has reined in Central America. Dictatorial rule, coups, murder, and genocide have, for the most part, gone unpunished. This month, however, events in Guatemala have suggested a potential turning of the tide. In the last three weeks, Guatemalan authorities have solved the potentially destabilizing Rosenberg case and arrested ex-President Alfonso Portillo for money laundering $70 million when he was in power. Meanwhile, in Honduras, the rule of law appears as in jeopardy as ever, as the Congress has rewarded de facto President Roberto Micheletti and pledged amnesty for all those involved in ousting President Manuel Zelaya. When it comes to the rule of law, Honduras lags as far behind as ever.

Since the Peace Accords brought Guatemala’s 36-year civil war to an end in 1996, Guatemalan activists and international observers have demanded justice for the state-sponsored genocide in the 1980s. For the most part, however—as in most of Latin America—justice has not come. Moreover, since the late 1990s, crime has spiraled out of control, perceptions of corruption are high, and the legal system has proved incapable of apprehending and prosecuting both common criminals and thieving politicians. Pervasive impunity partially explains the horrific practice of lynchings that plagues Guatemala. But the failing of the rule of law in the region also contributes to Guatemalans’ disenchantment with democracy (desencanto democrático).

Not only have Guatemalan voters lost faith in democratic government’s ability to bring economic development and alleviate massive poverty, but vast swaths of the citizenry have come to believe that the laws simply do not apply to the powerful. As the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) has shown, perceptions of corruption and insecurity negatively affect democratic values in Guatemala. Compared with other Latin American countries, it is unsurprising that Guatemala ranks low in popular preference for democracy as a form of government.

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Weekly Roundup from Across the Americas

January 27, 2010

From the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. AS/COA Online's news brief examines the major—as well as some of the overlooked—events and stories occurring across the Americas. Check back every Wednesday for the weekly roundup.

Sign up to receive the Weekly Roundup via email.

Honduras Tries to Turn Page with Lobo’s Inauguration

Seven months after the overthrow of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya left Honduras in a state of political chaos, the Central American country inaugurated Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo as the new leader on January 27. In his first act as president, Lobo declared amnesty for all involved in what was widely regarded as a coup. He won the November election by a large margin, though its recognition was hotly disputed by several Latin American governments.

On the eve of the inauguration, the Honduran Congress also approved amnesty for Zelaya and those involved in his ousting. That, along with a Supreme Court decision to clear chief military officers of coup-related charges, is seen as a step toward reconciliation as the new president takes power.

Read an AS/COA analysis of the inauguration.

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Former Guatemalan President to Be Extradited to the United States

January 25, 2010

A tribunal in Guatemala yesterday ordered the arrest of former President Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004) on charges of embezzlement. The decision came a day before a seven-year investigation led to the formal indictment today in the United States of Mr. Portillo by the U.S. District Court in New York on charges of money laundering.

Mr. Portillo has been accused of siphoning away millions of dollars in public funds and funneling much of the money through banks in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. During his presidential campaign, Mr. Portillo ran largely on an anti-corruption platform.

According to reports, the Guatemalan police have executed four search warrants in different locations but have not yet located the now-fugitive former president.

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Weekly Roundup from Across the Americas

January 13, 2010

From the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. AS/COA Online's news brief examines the major—as well as some of the overlooked—events and stories occurring across the Americas. Check back every Wednesday for the weekly roundup.

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Haiti Rocked by Destructive Earthquake

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, resulting in widespread chaos and substantial casualties. “Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed,” said Haiti’s President René Préval in an interview with The Miami Herald, who described the catastrophe as “unimaginable.” The United Nations and other agencies have warned that the rampant devastation is hampering efforts and The International Red Cross says as many as three million people have been affected and tens of thousands may have been killed by the earthquake, the epicenter of which lies just outside the Haitian capital. Images and reports of the destruction have been widely distributed via Internet and social media. Get updates via Twitter at #Haiti.

AS/COA has compiled a resource page with information about how to support relief efforts and get more information.

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As Central America's Economies Struggle, Guatemala Digs in for a Tax Fight

December 24, 2009

The global economic decline has hit Central America hard. Unemployment has increased, remittances from emigrants have declined and governments face rising deficits and debt that jeopardize their ability to meet increased social demands. The story is similar in much of the world, but the situation is particularly precarious in these countries, because they are among the poorest nations in the Americas and have weak economic and social safety nets.

Governments in the region have responded to the economic decline by promoting fiscal adjustments to improve their balance sheets. El Salvador recently passed a gasoline tax and revised its value-added tax, and President Mauricio Funes hopes to pass tax increases on liquor, tobacco and luxury goods. In Honduras, de facto President Roberto Micheletti proposed sweeping reforms, before withdrawing the media-dubbed paquetazo due to pressure from Congress and president-elect Porfirio Lobo to put off major legislation until the new government assumes power. Meanwhile, Guatemala has witnessed the fiercest budget fight of all. Supporters of President Álvaro Colóm’s proposed reform have taken to the streets and threatened opposition legislators, but these efforts have failed to keep Colóm’s opponents from obstructing congressional proceedings. Thus far, Colóm appears to be losing the legislative battle.

Taxation is a contentious issue in every country in the world, but the topic is especially fraught in Guatemala. Guatemala has long had the lowest tax ratio—tax revenue as a percentage of gross domestic product—in Latin America, a region notorious for weak tax collection. The low tax ratio is part of a legacy of a racist, extractive Guatemalan state, predicated on making profits for economic elites through the cheap (for many decades, forced) labor of a predominantly indigenous majority. Since the state cared little about the needs of most Guatemalan citizens throughout most of the country’s history, social spending was minimal and taxes remained negligible.

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Pollution Threatens Guatemala's Lake Atitlán

December 17, 2009

In a pretend conversation written in Una Hoja de Papel, a child asks his grandfather what Guatemala's Lake Atitlán—Central America’s deepest lake—was once like. "It was very beautiful, crystal clear waters, you could see through the waters to the pebbles on the shore," the grandfather recalls. "It was once nominated as one of the seven wonders of the natural world. The couples chose this destination to spend their honeymoon. Undoubtedly, an enigmatic place of quiet waters and unparalleled splendor." "But, what happened?" the grandson asked. "Simple, we stood idly with our arms crossed," the grandfather said.

Today Lake Atitlan—located within an hour’s drive of Antigua—is drowning in a film of green scum. NASA pictures taken just a few weeks show the lake as massive swirls of blue-green algae or cyanobacteria that, besides looking ugly and foreboding, literally make the lake stink. A result of long-term, excessive pollution.

The situation has gained attention from international media and local publications like Prensa Libre and The Revue. The lake even earned the unfortunate distinction the “Threatened Lake of the Year 2009” by the Global Nature Fund. But is it human pollution or an environmental imbalance that has caused the lake to enter a coma and possibly an impending death?

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Lynching Persists in Guatemala

December 15, 2009

Lynchings are wreaking havoc again in rural Guatemala. In a recent 15-day span, nine people have been lynched here by citizens who chose to take justice into their own hands. And in the past year, lynch mobs have attacked over 250 people, resulting in at least 42 deaths. The numbers are scary, and they reflect the reality that Guatemala has not forgotten a crucial part of its grisly past. In addition to the deaths caused, the lynchings reflect the inadequacy and inaccessibility of state justice institutions and the legacies of violence from civil war and state-sponsored genocide.

Lynching may seem like an antiquated concept to Americans, but it remains a very real part of rural Guatemalan life. The practice of linchamientos differs somewhat from the mob-led hangings of African-Americans that once plagued the American South. Instead, Guatemalan lynch mobs resort to stoning, beating or pouring gasoline on victims and setting them on fire, often resulting in death. Petty criminals have been the most frequent targets, but lynch mobs have also attacked figures of state authority (such as a judge who issued an unpopular rape verdict). Some reports have even attributed lynchings to drug gangs seeking to eliminate competitors.

In the Americas, lynching is not unique to Guatemala. Carlos Vilas has also documented cases in Mexico, Bolivia, Ecuador, Haiti, and Brazil, most often in areas where the state is weak (see below). But lynchings have been particularly pervasive in Guatemala, where the practice attracted a lot of attention immediately after the 1996 Peace Accords. From 1996 to 2000 alone, scholars noted well over 300 lynchings in Guatemala. A decade later, the practice seemed to have subsided somewhat, with only eight deaths in 2008. One might have hoped that the practice would have been headed for the dustbin of history, but the figures from 2009 suggest otherwise.

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Supervisor of Presidential Security Detail Assassinated in Guatemala

December 15, 2009

A senior member of the agency tasked with protecting Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom was shot and killed yesterday in a coordinated attack involving multiple assailants in Guatemala City. The victim, Rubén Sagastume Pozuelos, was the agent in charge of protecting President Colom’s children.

The attack is the latest in a series of incidents involving the Secretariat for Administration and Security (SAAS). In September, the director of SAAS was detained on espionage charges following the discovery of covert audio and video recording equipment in the president’s offices and residence. It also follows a series of death threats against the president received by the agency, which were issued by the Mexico-based Golfo drug cartel.

Colom, who himself was accused of coordinating the assassination of a political opponent earlier this year, has significantly increased the size of the Guatemalan National Police force in an effort to curb drug trafficking and reduce the country’s extremely high rate of homicide. Police estimate that around 1 million illegal firearms are in Guatemala and Guatemala is considered one of Latin America’s most violent countries with an average of 17 murders daily and a large presence of street gangs and drug traffickers.

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Weekly Roundup from Across the Americas

December 9, 2009

From the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. AS/COA Online's news brief examines the major—as well as some of the overlooked—events and stories occurring across the Americas. Check back every Wednesday for the weekly roundup.

Sign up to receive the Weekly Roundup via email.

Mercosur Rejects Honduran Elections, Stalls on Other Matters

Leaders of the Mercosur countries—Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay—along with Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez gathered for a two-day presidential summit in Montevideo. They rejected Honduras’ November 29 elections, saying the elections took place in an illegal context. The presidents also agreed to move forward on free-trade negotiations with the EU but made little headway on their external tariff code, infrastructure projects for smaller countries, or a mechanism for the body’s Parliament to approve legislation. Leaders from the bloc also said they expect Venezuela to become a full member of Mercosur, pending approval by Brazil’s Senate and Paraguay’s Congress. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he expected his country’s Senate to approve Venezuela’s accession as early as December 9.

Latin Americans Worry over Climate Change

With Copenhagen climate change talks underway, a BBC and Globescan poll found that global warming concerns most Latin Americans. Eighty-six percent of Brazilians and Chileans, 83 percent of Costa Ricans, 81 percent of Mexicans, and 72 percent of Panamanians thought it was a “serious problem.” But far fewer believed their government should play a leadership role in setting targets to address the issue. For example, only 53 percent of Brazilians and 25 percent of Panamanians answered affirmatively. This news comes as Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pushes for international agreements to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent compared to 1990 levels.

The Fall 2009 issue of Americas Quarterly explores environmental priorities for the Western Hemisphere.

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Weekly Roundup from Across the Americas

November 4, 2009

From the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. AS/COA Online's news brief examines the major—as well as some of the overlooked—events and stories occurring across the Americas. Check back every Wednesday for the weekly roundup.

Sign up to receive the Weekly Roundup via email.

Deal Reached on Honduran Political Stalemate but Zelaya's Return Uncertain

After four months of a political impasse, negotiators for deposed Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya and interim leader Roberto Micheletti reached a deal that, if approved by the country’s Congress, would allow for a power-sharing government. A delegation from Washington, including U.S. Assistant Secretary of Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon, was involved in this last round of negotiations that prompted the accord. OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza announced that, given the deal,  a general assembly would be convened on November 16 to lift sanctions against Honduras. Ex-Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, a member of a verification committee tasked with overseeing that the deal’s measures are met, said a Cabinet of National Unity will be formed on November 5 in advance of the November 29 elections.

Whether Zelaya will regain his office remains uncertain. As The Wall Street Journal reports, a committee of 14 Honduran lawmakers voted against calling a requisite special session to decide on whether the deposed leader would be reinstated. With no deadline to make a decision and elections nearing, Zelaya may not regain his post.

Writing for ForeignPolicy.com’s The Argument, AS/COA’s Christopher Sabatini and AQ blogger Daniel Altschuler warn that, even with the breakthrough, some will continue to push “ideologically driven revisionism” in their coverage of the Honduran coup. “Allowing a government that came to power through unconstitutional means to ride out an interim period to the next election and then transfer power would set a perilous precedent,” they write. “The deal struck last week offers a responsible, democratic exit from the four-month political crisis in Honduras.”

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Weekly News Roundup from Across the Americas

September 23, 2009

From the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. AS/COA Online's news brief examines the major—as well as some of the overlooked—events and stories occurring across the Americas. Check back every Wednesday for the weekly roundup.

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Zelaya Sneaks Back into Honduras, Catapaults Brazil into Center of Crisis

Three months after the military forced him out of Honduras, deposed President Manuel Zelaya reentered the country and gained sanctuary in the Brazilian embassy on September 21. Since then—and at the time of this report—the country remains in a tense standoff. The interim government of Roberto Micheletti closed airports, declared a curfew, and cut water supplies and electricity to the embassy. Police forces broke up protests with tear gas, with some canisters falling inside the embassy’s compound.

Such moves did little to please Brasilia, where the House approved a motion repudiating Honduras’ blockade of the embassy. While Brazil said it did not play a role in bringing Zelaya back into Honduras, officials allowed him to take shelter and reiterated support for his reinstatement. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in New York for the UN General Assembly, urged an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on the crisis and requested to be present at the meeting.

In a Christian Science Monitor article exploring Brazil’s role in the center of the crisis, COA’s Eric Farnsworth explains why Zelaya chose that country to turn to. “Seeking asylum with Brazil shows that [Zelaya] thinks Brazil is the neutral voice in the crisis, not the U.S., Costa Rica, [or] Venezuela. He's essentially throwing in his lot with the party he thinks has the best chance to get him restored to power,” said Farnsworth, “It's a tangible representation of a power shift in the region.”

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Hunger in Guatemala: The Other Story in Central America

September 16, 2009

Journalists and bloggers, including myself, have been focusing their Central American news coverage on the Honduran political crisis.  But, over the last month, it’s become clear that another crisis is unfolding just next door in Guatemala.  Drought has hit the rural areas, and hundreds of people have already died in a country plagued by chronic malnutrition.  Initially, this crisis hit Guatemala’s “dry corridor,” but it has now affected at least six other departments in the western part of the country, where the concentration of indigenous people is higher.

President Álvaro Colom has declared the crisis a “public calamity,” and, if Congress approves this classification, it will hasten the flow of international aid and speed up domestic budget allocations.  No doubt, we must all hope that the government and the international community can act swiftly to prevent this crisis from getting further out of control.  But we must also hope that the Guatemalan government will see this as a symptom of deeper problems—namely, that land tenure remains vastly unequal, and the country’s ability to feed itself has declined in recent years.

Recent reports have made note of Guatemala’s chronic malnutrition—49 percent of children and 60 percent of indigenous children under five years old are malnourished. But the missing link is the connection with inequality in land tenure and food insecurity.  Land has been the most contentious issue in Guatemala since the colonial period, and dispossession and forced labor for coffee plantations were a pervasive fact of life for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  Land remained a central issue in the civil war and the peace accords signed in 1996, which included pledges to provide land to impoverished—and especially indigenous—peasants.

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Weekly News Roundup from Across the Americas

September 9, 2009

From the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. AS/COA Online's news brief examines the major—as well as some of the overlooked—events and stories occurring across the Americas. Check back every Wednesday for the weekly roundup.

Sign up to receive the Weekly Roundup via email.

Calderón Undertakes Housecleaning

Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón announced that his government plans to close down the secretariats of tourism, agrarian reform, and public service in an austerity measure that could save hundreds of millions of dollars. The three agencies will be absorbed into others. The move followed a cabinet reshuffling that involved replacing the attorney general, the head of state oil firm Pemex, and the secretary of agriculture. An Associated Press report suggests Calderón’s decision to replace Attorney General Medina-Mora with Arturo Chávez represents a choice to go with a stronger approach toward fighting drug cartels. However, women’s rights groups have protested the choice, saying Chávez did little while attorney general in the border state of Chihuahua to resolve the disappearances of hundreds of women in Ciudad Juarez. Chávez must gain confirmation from the Mexican Senate.

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Female Murders in Guatemala On Pace to Overshadow 2008 Total

August 12, 2009

Guatemalan police report that the number of female homicides is on the rise, with nearly 500 victims so far this year—a pace that is likely to eclipse the 672 such murders in 2008. Known as “femicide,” these murders are attributed to machismo violence carried out through juvenile gangs and groups of organized crime. Their targets are women between the ages of 13 and 30 and the murders are taking place primarily in and around Guatemala City. The most recent such murders occurred north of Guatemala City, where the victims were found wrapped in sheets and their bodies showed evidence of physical torture.

A Guatemalan Human Rights Commission report noted that an estimated 98 percent of the cases reported remain in impunity even though Guatemala passed a law against femicide in 2008, recognizing it as a punishable crime.

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Guatemalan President Launches Weekly Radio Show

July 22, 2009

Early this morning, thousands of Guatemalans tuned in to listen for the first time to “Despacho Presidencial” (Presidential Office), President Álvaro Colom’s new weekly radio show. It airs every Wednesday from 7:00 a.m. to 8: 00 a.m. on TGW, a state-owned radio station.

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Weekly News Roundup from Across the Americas

June 10, 2009

From the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. AS/COA Online's news brief examines the major—as well as some of the overlooked—events and stories occurring across the Americas. Check back every Wednesday for the weekly roundup.

Sign up to receive the Weekly Roundup via email.

Political Fallout in Peru after Bloody Clash

Indigenous protesters and police forces clashed in Peru’s northern Amazon region over the weekend in a violent clash that claimed dozens of lives on both sides. The unrest followed months of demonstrations against a set of decrees that protesters said violated their ancestral claims on land and resources in the region. The Minister for Women and Social Development Carmen Vildoso resigned as a result of the controversy over the government’s handling of the clashes. Indigenous leader and head of the Inter-ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle Alberto Pizango was granted political asylum by the Nicaraguan government on June 8, after the government accused him of inciting violence against the police on June 5.

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Weekly News Roundup from Across the Americas

May 20, 2009

From the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. AS/COA Online's news brief examines the major—as well as some of the overlooked—events and stories occurring across the Americas. Check back every Wednesday for the weekly roundup.

Sign up to receive the Weekly Roundup via email.

Colombian Defense Minister Resigns; Uribe Reelection Referendum Approved

Juan Manuel Santos will step down May 23 from his defense minister post to run for president in the 2010 elections. But Santos would declare his candidacy only if President Álvaro Uribe decides against running for his second reelection. If Uribe decides to go for it, Santos said that he’d be a loyal supporter of his campaign.

The Colombian senate brought Uribe a step closer to reelection Tuesday when it approved a path for voters to decide whether the constitution can be changed to allow the popular president to run again.

The Washington Post reports that “should Santos run and win, the Obama administration would have as a partner a U.S.-educated politician well versed in Washington ways.” The article also notes that Santos remains a firm supporter of Uribe’s democratic security policies and would likely continue them.

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Daily Focus: UN Commission to Investigate Guatemalan's Murder

May 14, 2009

On Wednesday the Organization of American States (OAS) gave its support to the Guatemalan government as approximately 1,000 protested outside the National Palace in response to the murder of a prominent lawyer. Rodrigo Rosenberg was killed on Sunday by gunmen, leaving behind a videotape stating that the President of Guatemala, Álvaro Colom, was to blame for his death.

The Guatemalan government denied having any link to the murder, and handed the case over to the United Nations to investigate the killing. It is estimated that up to 98 percent of criminal investigations in Guatemala go unsolved.  As protests increase countrywide, the United Nations International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) will begin an investigation into the killing in hopes of stabilizing the political unrest.  The administration blamed criminal organizations for the murder, stating that the action was retaliation for recent measures taken by the government to reduce the influence of organized crime in the country.

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Daily Focus: Swine Flu South of (the Mexican) Border

April 28, 2009

World headlines are being dominated by the spread of swine flu from Mexico and the United States to Canada, Europe and now the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. But what about Mexico’s neighbors to the south?

Today, Costa Rica claimed the inauspicious title of being the first Central American country to confirm a case of swine flu, and Guatemala (which shares a border with Mexico) has detected three possible infections. On high alert, Central American health ministers are meeting today in Managua with the goal of agreeing to shared measures to combat the spread of the disease. Already, Central American countries are taking precautionary measures. Panama and Costa Rica have taken steps to detect sick passengers at airports. Honduras has not only asked the international community to send doses of Tamiflu, but has also requested that Mexico stop deporting undocumented Hondurans. Nicaragua has prohibited the importation of pigs and pig products from Mexico. But given its close proximity to Mexico, Guatemala may face the greatest immediate challenge in the region.

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