Weekly Roundup from Across the Americas

May 19, 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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Calderón and Obama Condemn Arizona Immigration Law

U.S. President Barack Obama welcomed his Mexican counterpart Felipe Calderón to Washington this week where the two leaders decried a tough immigration law approved by Arizona last month. During remarks, Obama said he would ask the Department of Justice to take a “very close look” at the law to determine its constitutionality. “We're examining any implications, especially for civil rights, because in the United States of America, no law-abiding person, be they an American citizen, a legal immigrant, or a visitor or tourist from Mexico, should ever be subject to suspicion simply because of what they look like.” Calderón rejected SB1070 as “discriminatory.” In his first official visit to Washington, the Mexican president will deliver remarks to U.S. Congress on Thursday. Read an AS/COA analysis about Calderón’s visit.

AS/COA will explore bilateral relations during our March 25 conference in Mexico City. Get a full list of speakers, conference agenda, and more information about the event, which is free and open to the public. The event will be liveblogged in English and Spanish.

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Calderón on First Official State Visit to the U.S.

May 19, 2010

Mexican President Felipe Calderón visits Washington today on his first official state visit to discuss immigration and security with President Obama.  President Calderón is also meeting with Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today. This evening, President Calderón and his wife, Maragrita Zavala, will be the guests of honor at a State Dinner to be held in the East Room of the White House.  President Calderón will address a joint session of Congress at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow. 

Drug-related violence on the U.S.-Mexico border is a topic of discussion with President Calderón pressing Obama on the increased demand for drugs in the U.S. as fueling the increased violence.  While Calderón has praised the Obama administration for acknowledging that many of the weapons used in crimes in Mexico originate in the U.S., further cooperation will be necessary to stem the violence. As Diana Villiers Negroponte writes in Americas Quarterly, the extension and expansion of the Merida Initiative will be critical to these efforts.

President Calderón, a vocal critic of Arizona’s SB1070, is expected to press for comprehensive immigration law reform at the federal level.  In recent weeks, President Calderón has issued travel warnings for Mexicans traveling to Arizona amid increasing pressure at home to cut off commercial ties with Arizona for having passed SB1070 into law.

In remarks on the South Lawn today following a welcoming ceremony for the Mexican president, both leaders expressed their desire to work cooperatively to address these issues. President Calderón called for “a border that will unite us instead of dividing us,” with President Obama responding, “I say to you and the Mexican people: Let us stand together.”

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Lula Enters the Blogosphere

August 12, 2009

There is little doubt that President Barack Obama's success in the election was due in great part to his online campaigning and digital media savvy—on top of his political skill, charisma and youthful good looks, of course. President Obama has almost 2 million followers on Twitter, and his blog is read by an estimated 13 million people. These social media tools don't just keep him cool, so to say; they have allowed his administration to engage constituents and fans alike on policy issues like health care reform, even as Obama's popularity has diminished over the past month.

In Brazil, the latest newcomer to the blogosphere is none other than President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. O Blog do Presidente (The President's Blog) was launched in July, but the buzz started earlier this year, when the government announced that it was experimenting with layouts and ideas, and even considering signing up to twitter—although this hasn’t happened yet.

Lula is said to have been impressed with President Obama's and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's blogs, and with their clear and personal messages. But even before O Blog do Presidente went live, it was received with skepticism by the Brazilian press and, it was flooded with negative feedback from other bloggers.

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More Talk at the DC Water Cooler: Obama’s Latest Nominations

June 11, 2009

President Barack Obama is zipping along with nominations and appointments related to all things Latin America. I am not going to share a laundry list of every post coming from the administration, but here are some highlights and what people are saying. 

First, Arturo Valenzuela. As I wrote here months ago, he was nominated as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs in May. Valenzeula, a Chilean-American, served at the State Department and the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton and was an adviser for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.  

If confirmed by the Senate, he’ll be leaving his current job as director of the Center for Latin American Studies in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. His expertise is democratization, security issues, and of course, Chile. And, he really knows how to deal with the media. That’s important.

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Daily Focus: Venezuelan Drug Bust

May 13, 2009

Venezuelan authorities seized 4,370 pounds of cocaine and arrested three suspects in central Miranda state on Saturday. In a separate case, 1,830 pounds of marijuana were seized in the western state of Trujillo. Anti-drug officials in Venezuela hailed the seizures as a symbol of “the Venezuelan state's commitment in the head-on fight against drug trafficking.”

Back in April, President Hugo Chávez dispatched federal agents and security forces to take over major seaports and airstrips in four Venezuelan states. Experts offered disparate interpretations for the move; some saw it as an effort to crack down on opposition leaders in three of those states, others as an attempt to placate critics in the US, Russia and Iran.

U.S. officials have expressed concern over the drug trade in Venezuela since Chávez suspended cooperation with the United States Drug Enforcement Agency in 2005. In the interim, cocaine exports have grown more than fivefold. If Chávez continues his visible commitment to anti-drug enforcement, it is a potential point of cooperation and reconciliation between the Chávez and Obama administrations, each of which has voiced a desire to mend U.S.-Venezuelan relations.

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How the Media Misinterpreted the Summit of the Americas

April 28, 2009

I swore I wouldn’t write another blog on the Summit.  In fact, I had even urged the AQ staff to move on—that it wasn’t that important.  And yet here I am with an insatiable desire to slake my thirst for just one more blog post. 

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Daily Focus: U.S.-Bolivian Relations

April 21, 2009

Lost among all the buzz surrounding the widely publicized handshakes between President Obama and President Chávez in Trinidad and Tobago is yet another conciliatory gesture the U.S. President made this weekend—this time toward Bolivia.

President Evo Morales, who was recently a victim of an alleged assassination plot that left three dead in Santa Cruz last week—including two non-Bolivian conspirators—had publicly raised suspicions that the plot was related to a coup attempt last year, in which he cast blame on the U.S. government.  On Saturday, Morales reportedly approached Obama and asked him to publicly repudiate the attempt on his life.

At one of Obama’s final news conferences on Sunday, he specifically mentioned Bolivia in a statement opposing any violent overthrows of democratically elected governments in the hemisphere.  The U.S. relationship with Bolivia has been icy in recent years.  It appears, however, that behind the shadow of the Obama-Chávez handshakes, there may be room for renewed dialogue between the new administration and leftist governments in the region that had vocally opposed the Bush administration.  Morales, who is speaking at a public forum in Harlem (New York City) tomorrow, will have the opportunity to follow suit on Obama's gesture over the weekend—whether he decides to actually do so, however, is another question altogether.

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Post-Summit: Where Do We Go From Here?

April 20, 2009

As the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago recedes, several impressions dominate.  The first is that most of the hemisphere remains enthralled by Obama-mania and his message to the hemisphere of inclusion, social justice and the more humble exercise of U.S. power and influence.  There is a real electricity there, and on balance, much of the hemisphere is ready to put paid to the paralysis of past meetings and engage constructively with the new Administration.  I’ve participated in a number of Summits previously, the only one with a similar positive spirit was the first, in Miami in 1994.

Some of the hemisphere remains skeptical, including the leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and others, but their pronouncements at the Summit were notable for the backing they did not receive from other leaders and simply came off as being tone deaf.  Because really, even as global economic recovery continues to be of primary concern, which hemispheric leader wanted to use valuable time at the Summit to hear a diatribe from Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega—who gamed Nicaragua’s election and now works hard to subvert Nicaraguan democracy through the institutions of democracy—about the previous alleged sins of the United States?  Or to hear Bolivian President Evo Morales prattle on about goofy assassination plots he claims were cooked up in Washington.  Talk about magical realism…

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Another Czar is Born!

April 17, 2009

Indeed, as some feared and others hoped, the Obama administration does like its czars and special envoys. 

We’ve already got the war czar, climate czar, health czar, urban affairs czar, drug czar, and a special envoy for the Summit of the Americas, to name a few.

And as of April 15, we now have a border czar when Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano named former federal prosecutor Alan Bersin, 62, to the newly created post at a press conference in El Paso, Texas.

Well, his official title is Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs.

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Managing Expectations at the Summit of the Americas

April 16, 2009

The Carnival Victory and Caribbean Princess cruise ships have sailed into Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, to provide an additional 3,000 hotel rooms as delegations and guests get ready for Friday’s arrival of the hemisphere’s 34 democratically elected heads of state for the Fifth Summit of the Americas.

Expectations are high as U.S. President Barack Obama—popular in the region as in much of the world—prepares to meet his Latin American counterparts. Beyond meeting with five hemispheric leaders at the G-20 Summit in April, and Obama’s one-on-one talks with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (in Washington), Mexican President Felipe Calderón (in Washington as President-elect and in Mexico City today) and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (in Ottawa), this is Obama’s moment to create a first impression with leaders who want to see for themselves how his policies will differ from the wildly unpopular ones of the last eight years. In fact, hemispheric leaders are lining up and “expect to have 10 or 15 minutes with the President” at the Summit, notes Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General José Miguel Insulza.

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Obama Lifts the Cuban-American Restrictions

April 14, 2009

It should come as no surprise that it happened, nor should the timing. President Barack Obama’s lifting of the restrictions on Cuban-Americans’ travel and remittances to the island was a campaign promise and presented an easy way to set the tone for the Summit of the Americas from April 17 to 19 in Trinidad and Tobago. It won’t go as far as most will want, but it helps to set a new debate within the United States—which is where policy change toward Cuba has to play out, not the Summit of the Americas.

The restrictions on Cuban-American travel and remittances to the island, implemented by the administration of President George W. Bush, were never popular, even among many Cuban-Americans. While their stated purpose was to deprive even more the Cuban government of resources, the truth was they seemed downright mean spirited and inhumane—an example of a policy that had gone to yet another unprecedented extreme: of denying family members the right to unite and help one another in need. But even at a strategic level, if the intent was to promote independent activity and thought on the island, denial of individuals to send money or transmit ideas through person-to-person contact gave the Cuban regime even more uncontested ability to shape the perceptions and destinies of the people who remained on the island.

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Drug Flashback: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Drug War

April 8, 2009

As if President Barack Obama didn't have enough on his plate—the Mexico drug war has really come up and brought the administration's focus back into this hemisphere.  Besides grappling with a global financial meltdown, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq, the stunning severity of narcoviolence—and the "spillover" into the U.S.—is demanding immediate attention from the U.S. government, perhaps sooner than people would have thought or certainly hoped. 

Congress is paying attention, holding several hearings and questioning officials from the Departments of Homeland Security, State and Justice, among other agencies. Unfortunately, the hearings have demonstrated there is no comprehensive strategy or clear coordination, or direction, in confronting the drug problem.  In all fairness, it's still quite early in the Obama administration and people who would otherwise be working on this issue have yet to be installed in the government. And, the Merida Initiative—the $1.4 billion, three-year counternarcotics program for Mexico, Central America, Haiti, and Dominican Republic initiated under the Bush administration—has only recently gone into effect.

After Congress made a big enough stink, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Mexico last month, and President Barack Obama is due to visit Mexico City on April 16, before he goes to the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad. (Actually he’s arriving the evening of the 15^th and leaving the 17th.)

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Los Límites de la Amistad: Avances entre Estados Unidos y América Latina

March 30, 2009

Hoy en día las palabras “nueva relación” se dispersan por Washington con más facilidad que el viento. Después del triunfo y las celebraciones, la fuerza de cambio que el presidente Barack Obama proyectó en su campaña, ha comenzado a ponerse a prueba minuto a minuto, y América Latina no está exenta de este escenario.

Hay optimismo, de eso no existen dudas. Sobre todo después de las designaciones de Dan Restrepo en el Consejo de Seguridad y de la posible nominación de Arturo Valenzuela como Secretario Adjunto para la región. Dos hombres que representan un nuevo aire; que no ven a América Latina a partir de las relaciones con Cuba y que pueden dar un renovado impulso a la maltrecha imagen de Washington en el hemisferio sur.

Las esperanzas también hablan de un nuevo estilo de diálogo, que cambie la verticalidad que se ha dado en el intercambio entre Washington y el resto del hemisferio. Una actitud que sería reemplazada por un presidente Obama con oídos abiertos, dispuesto e interesado a escuchar las opiniones de sus homólogos en la región.

Un panorama al que sin duda, el presidente Lula quiere sacar máximo partido, como lo demostró en su visita a la capital del país donde no vaciló en hablar sobre los “absurdos” impuestos al etanol brasileño y los peligros del vicio del proteccionismo.

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Don’t Forget Immigration! Hillary Clinton’s Spring Break in Mexico (or The real Cancun)

March 26, 2009

There’s a lot on the agendas of the three cabinet members and President Obama when they travel to Mexico this month to meet with Mexican officials, including President Felipe Calderon.  First it’s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (March 25-26), then Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano (April 1 and 2), and then the President—on his way to the Summit of the Americas.

For the first time in U.S. history the full complexity and proximity of our relationship with Mexico is being dealt with at the level it deserves.  Everything from drug-cartel related violence, the economic crisis, trade, security, intra-regional relations, trade, NAFTA, and immigration will be on the list of items to be discussed. And the best part is that, at a rhetorical level, the administration is approaching this with the appropriate level of partnership that the relationship deserves—a trend started with President Bush’s Plan Merida program to support Mexico’s war on narcotics trafficking.

My concern?  That immigration will slip through the cracks.  To be sure, the context is set to deal with it in the right way: bilaterally.  But the risk is that issues like the drug violence, trade spats and the economic crisis that have dominated the media coverage (particularly the former) will crowd out one of the most important bilateral issues we face: the flow of humans across our borders that serve the U.S. labor market and—through remittances back home—provide a crucial social safety net to poor communities in Mexico.

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El Salvadoran President-Elect Mauricio Funes to Travel with VP Biden to Costa Rica (Or why this isn't El Salvador Retro 1980s)

March 25, 2009

On both the left and the right a lot has been made of Mauricio Funes’ victory in the March 15 presidential elections in El Salvador. Those on the left say this is yet another vindication of the failure of the neo-liberal model—another in a string of left-leaning leaders that have come to power through the ballot box. On the right, observers see this as a sign that the 1980s sky is falling—the nemesis of the Reagan administration now occupies the presidential palace.

Truth is, quite frankly, it’s neither. This isn’t the outsider politics of recent memory. First, let’s take a close look at who the candidate is and the evidence of the FMLN’s evolution. First, Funes. The man, an outsider to his party, is hardly a firebrand revolutionary. The former TV journalist is not the camouflage-wearing, bush-trained guerrilla of the FMLN past. Nor for that matter does he fit the pattern of the other outsider candidates that some want to equate him with. He’s not a former military officer (either official or out of the bush) like President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela; he’s not a political newbie, academic like Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa; he’s not a full-time provocateur/protester like Bolivian President Evo Morales; and he’s not a career, unrepentant revolutionary (and accused child molester) like Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. (And full disclosure, I don’t believe necessarily that Correa or Morales are as radical as the others. While their career trajectory has been unorthodox, they represent the dysfunctionality of the party systems that preceded them, more than a hard ideological turn one way or the other.)

Funes on the other hand is a professional; a polished politician who preaches moderation. Immediately after the election he called for moderation and reconciliation. His slogan. “a safe change,” is positively Obama-esque.

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The Obama-Lulathon

March 16, 2009

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and President Barack Obama met in the Oval Office on Saturday morning.

The White House said Larry Summers, head of the White House's National Economic Council, General Jim Jones, head of the National Security Council (NSC), Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg and Dan Restrepo, the NSC’s director for Western Hemisphere affairs attended the meeting. Among those attending on the Brazilian side, Minister of Foreign Affairs Celso Amorim, Chief of Staff Dilma Rouseff and Finance Minister Guido Mantega.

On the menu: the upcoming G-20 summit, the Summit of the Americas, the global financial crisis, biofuels and, privately, the custody case of David Goldman.

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President Lula: A Social Democrat Defends Free Trade

March 12, 2009

Who’d have guessed it?

When Brazilian President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva and U.S. President Barack Obama meet on March 14th, one of the top items on their agenda will be free trade—pushed by the former labor leader President Lula.  This is the same President that, when elected, roiled markets due to investor fears that he would reverse the sound macroeconomic policies of the past decade.  It is the same Lula who, in the WTO negotiations in Cancun, led a group of developing countries to demand market access concessions that led to the acrimonious collapse of the negotiations. Now that same President is preaching the need to avoid protectionism in the midst of the crisis.

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Does the U.S. Embargo on Cuba Protect Human Rights?

February 25, 2009

Frankly, the Cuban embargo has always been a difficult issue for me. Publicly I’ve avoided the issue largely because I’ve always believed it’s been a huge distraction for what is the main issue concerning Cuba: the almost incomprehensible level of repression and control that the Castro regime exercises over its population. So, in my often-failed objective to avoid discussing the embargo, I want now (in the heightened debate over President Barack Obama’s Cuba policy) to try to weigh the pros and cons as I view them in my own humble opinion. Fortunately, as a very thoughtful and balanced recent staff trip report by the Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations demonstrates, a number of groups are trying to bridge the divide that has traditionally hamstrung policy toward Cuba.

Cuba defies modern explanation, especially in this hemisphere: constitutional and legal restrictions on the rights of citizens to congregate, denial of citizens to express political views, sham elections in which only one party is allowed to compete, the regular detention and harassment of human rights activists by the police or state-controlled neighborhood committees, and jailing of dissidents through kangaroo courts on trumped up charges of treason and violence. In a 1997 report, Human Rights Watch described it best in the title of its study, Cuba’s Repressive Machinery.

This level of institutional, legal and political control is incomprehensible for many in a hemisphere that experienced (in all but country—Cuba) the third wave of democracy starting in 1978. In part, I think, Cuba's hemispheric anomaly explains the lame and sometimes pathetic response of many regional human rights groups to the abuses on the island. Many quite simply can’t fathom that level of control, having grown up under more bloody but less subtle forms of authoritarianism.

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Mr. Obama Goes to Ottawa

February 18, 2009

But do people really care?

Well, north of the border, it’s very big news that Obama is traveling to Ottawa. Beyond his exciting Rock Star status, Obama revived the presidential tradition of making Canada the first overseas trip, following the footsteps of four of the last nine presidents.

You couldn’t tell that though by hanging out at White House briefings, talking with other foreign affairs reporters, or about any of the anticipatory prep and advance work for this visit. The Ottawa trip is very ho-hum.

And why should anyone in the U.S. really care about Obama going to Ottawa—Canada’s Washington, DC—to meet with Conservative party Prime Minister Stephen Harper (no relation to yours truly) and Liberal party opposition leader Michael Ignatieff? Obama is scheduled to be there for a mere five to six hours.

Some press reports characterized this stop as a “training wheels trip” – a kind of “practice run” for future pow-wows abroad. It’s way too cold anyhow and the accents can be rather off putting.

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Talk at the DC Water Cooler

February 12, 2009

A popular DC parlor game these days is about who is getting what position in the Obama administration. There have been numerous articles about the administration’s foreign policy agenda and what related appointments suggest about the president’s priorities –Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Middle East, Iran, and Iraq.

Yet, among all this verbiage—Latin America is usually left out. Has this part of the world just fallen off the map with the administration?

With that void, many are picking up on the water cooler talk about possible appointments and as a way to deduce what direction Obama’s Latin American policies could take.

It’s already well known that Tom Shannon is asked to continue “for the time being” as assistant secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. What does “for the time being” mean? Shannon reportedly wondered the same thing. He’s expected to stay put at least until the Summit of the Americas in April.

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Expanded Trade is Essential for the Hemisphere’s Economic Recovery

January 27, 2009

As Barack Obama begins to define his presidency, one pending question is what shape the new administration’s trade policy will take. For that, we’re sure to get more answers at the confirmation hearings for U.S. Trade Representative-designate Ron Kirk. But, one thing is certain. Over the past several years, trade has become something of a four-letter word for many, and Americans tend to place some of the blame for our current economic woes on trade agreements.

Despite what the Lou Dobbs’ of the world say, free trade is not the enemy. Trade critics often argue that job loss in the United States is the direct result of our trade agreements. But new data show the trade deficit decreased from $208 billion in October 2008 to $183 billion in November 2008—a $25 billion drop in just a month—even as the unemployment rate rose above 7 percent. In fact, Department of Commerce numbers show that the United States has a $10.3 billion trade surplus with its 14 free-trade agreement (FTA) partners. This should argue in favor of more trade agreements, not against.

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The Start to More Sensible Immigration Policies May Just be Around the Corner

January 16, 2009

Washington is abuzz this week. Yes, Beyonce will be sharing the stage with Garth Brooks at Sunday’s Lincoln Memorial concert, but a new tune also may be developing in regard to U.S. immigration policies. Both the incoming administration and congressional leaders have signaled that the chorus for ’09 may yet be a new, practical approach to fairer treatment of our nation’s immigrants.

For one, imminent changes are on the horizon at Homeland Security. At yesterday’s confirmation hearings, Secretary-designee Janet Napolitano again emphasized her sharp differences with the Bush administration’s program to build a fence along the Mexican border: “I don't think I would be giving good advice to the committee if I said that's the best way to protect our border." And Napolitano knows. As the Arizona governor, she has first-hand experience with securing the border. But more impotantly, under Napolitano, fixing the “broken” U.S. immigration system would be a priority.

This week we also saw President-elect Obama continuing the 28-year tradition of the U.S. president-elect meeting with his Mexican counterpart prior to inauguration. At a joint news conference with President Felipe Calderón, Obama underscored the importance of the bilateral relationship, vowing to open “a new page” on topics such as immigration. In the meeting, the Mexican press reports that Obama committed to enacting immigration reform that includes family unification. However, that news didn’t make it into the U.S. media.

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Viva Bill Richardson!

December 11, 2008

It was difficult for any Latin Americanist (not to mention Latin American) not to feel a swell of surprise and pride when New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson broke into Spanish at the end of his speech announcing his appointment to Commerce Secretary last week.

The announcement further filled out President-elect Barack Obama’s economic team. Governor Richardson adds to the moderate perspective and international perspective of a very capable, talented team. But as his heavily Mexican-accented closing remarks indicated, he also brings a unique focus to the job. The son of a Mexican mother and American banker father, raised briefly in Mexico City, Richardson doesn’t come from the working class immigrant world. But he does bring with him a true commitment (and responsibility) to the hemisphere and Hispanic voters.

In his closing remarks, he spoke first to Hispanic immigrants, thanking them for their support and promising that their vote brings a voice. And then he spoke to the “millions of Latin American citizens” pledging that “hay que fortalecer los nexos y recordar la importancia de un hemisferio unido.”

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How the Media Oversold the Shift to the Left in the Americas. And How This Is Good News for the Obama Administration.

December 1, 2008

The whole idea of a massive shift to the left in Latin America was overblown by the media from the beginning. It became a convenient story for journalists and way to bash the Bush administration, but the truth is that the electoral results that swept the Western Hemisphere in 2005 and 2006 were neither left nor right. They were a demonstration of a broader process of change and inclusion that defied left-right categories.

Now journalists and bloggers are talking about a shift to the center. But much of this was evident in public opinion polls a few years ago. In countries such as Venezuela and Bolivia—the supposed bastions of extreme leftism in the region—the majority continues to support the fundamentals of "neo-liberalism," such as free trade and markets.

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Protecting Journalists in Weak States

November 17, 2008

This week brought another tragic murder of a journalist in Mexico.  Armando Rodriguez was a well-known crime editor for El Diario in the violence-ridden, Mexican border-town of Ciudad Juarez. The hit (conducted while he was waiting to take his daughter to school, by gunmen who sped off) prompted strong condemnations by international NGOs and the OAS Inter-American Commission's Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression.

Yet despite the international outrage at the murder of a journalist doing his job, this isn't an easy case. We can safely assume that the murder was committed by extra-governmental groups--either narcotraffickers or corrupt police or military acting unofficially. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, this is the fifth murder or Mexican journalist. The vast majority of such cases go unsolved.

The problem is what can be done to protect journalists when the state is itself attempting to regain control over the country. Much of the traditional human rights perspective has been based on protecting journalists and civil society from the government. But this is something more sinister and complex: how do you protect journalists from lawless groups that the government (presumably) is trying to control itself?

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