Chile’s Students Lead Latin America in Marijuana and Tobacco Consumption

March 11, 2010

A new study by the Organization of American States and the United Nations on alcohol, tobacco and drug consumption among high school students revealed that Chilean students consume more marijuana and tobacco than their regional counterparts. The study looked at more than 170 thousand students from Perú, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Uruguay.

Chile’s consumption rate of marijuana in the sampled age groups was 22.7 percent—more than double the regional average of 11 percent. Alcohol continues to be the most prevalent substance used by students in Chile with 70 percent of students reporting that they drank at least once before. The regional leaders in youth alcohol consumption were Ecuador and Uruguay at nearly 80 percent. Perú and Bolivia, by contrast, had rates of 52 and 43 percent respectively.

Among legal drugs, tobacco took the lead. Nearly 70 percent of Chilean students reported having smoked tobacco at least once. This was far above countries like Ecuador (48.8), Uruguay (47.9) and Argentina (47.2) percent.

Other key concerns revealed by the study are younger students in a number of countries trying marijuana for the first time and a rise in inhalant use in Perú, Bolivia and Ecuador.

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Santos to Lead Colombia’s U Party Ticket with Garzón as Vice President

March 10, 2010

Colombia’s Partido Social de la Unidad, a coalition of parties that support President Álvaro Uribe, officially presented former Minister of Defense Juan Manuel Santos as its candidate for the May 2010 presidential elections on Monday.  The next day, Santos chose Colombian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Angelino Garzón as his vice president and said he would offer Uribe a ministerial position if elected president. Garzón and Santos worked together in former President Andrés Pastrana’s cabinet between 1998 and 2002.   

A poll conducted by Ipsos Napoleon Franco had Santos leading with 23 percent of the vote on February 27, the day after Colombia’s Constitutional Court blocked a referendum that could have allowed Uribe to seek a third consecutive term. Other candidates include Senator Gustavo Petro, former Medellin Mayor Sergio Fajardo and veteran politician German Vargas Lleras.  The Conservative Party has not yet named a candidate. Since it is unlikely that a single candidate will secure the requisite 50 percent in the first round of voting on May 30, a second round in June will likely determine Uribe’s successor.

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Colombia, Paraguay to Enhance Security Cooperation

March 9, 2010

Colombia and Paraguay signed a declaration on Tuesday pledging to enhance bilateral cooperation primarily on security matters, but also in commerce, investment and tourism.

The agreement follows the resolution of a recent diplomatic dispute between the two countries that occurred prior to February’s Río Group Summit in Mexico. At the summit, Paraguayan Minister of Defense Luis Bareiro objected to the presence in Paraguay of Colombian military advisors, who had been assisting the Paraguayan military in efforts to capture members of the armed group Ejército Paraguayo del Pueblo (EPP). In an effort to patch things up, Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo then met with Colombia’s Álvaro Uribe in Mexico, after which he publicly thanked Colombia for its assistance.

After signing the agreement today in Asunción, Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermúdez urged Paraguay to continue its efforts to weaken the EPP, which officials allege has been responsible for numerous kidnappings and attacks on police in recent years.

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Manuel Zelaya to Head Petrocaribe's Political Council

March 8, 2010

Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has accepted an invitation to head Petrocaribe’s newly formed political council, Venezuelan foreign minister Nicolás Maduro announced on Saturday. Minister Maduro said that in his new post, Zelaya would "oversee strengthening of political independence and the defense of 'popular democracy' in Latin America and the Caribbean."

Petrocaribe, a Venezuelan state initiative created in 2005, gives preferential oil prices to 18 Caribbean and Central American nations. The announcement came at a governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) meeting in Caracas, to which Zelaya had traveled from the Dominican Republic (where he is living under exile) to attend.

Zelaya, who was overthrown in a June 28, 2009 coup has been living in self-imposed exile since January 27, 2010, when Porfirio Lobo was sworn in as president.

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U.S. Blocks Mexican Shrimp Imports

March 5, 2010

The United States this week announced its intention to prohibit—effective April 20—the import of wild shrimp from Mexico after determining that the country has failed to adequately protect sea turtles. U.S. law (Section 609 of Public Law 101-162) prohibits imports of shrimp unless the harvesting nation has sea turtle protection programs comparable to those in effect in the United States. If the U.S. ban is upheld, it will jeopardize nearly 60,000 tons of Mexican shrimp exported annually. These exports are valued at more than $350 million, representing 42 percent of Mexico’s total seafood exports.

Manuel Montes Díaz, president of Mexico’s National Council for the Promotion of Commercial Fish and Aquaculture Products, came out strongly against the U.S. decision saying, “Mexico has a responsible and sustainable fishing industry” with the means to protect turtles.

Although the move has provoked a vocal Mexican response, the announcement appears to have been timed to coincide with the end of this year’s shrimping season and thus may not actually affect trade. Observers note Mexico will have ample time to improve its sea turtle-protection measures to comply with international standards; the U.S. would then likely drop its opposition to Mexican shrimp.

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Bogotá Transportation Strike Enters Fourth Consecutive Day

March 4, 2010

The city of Bogotá today entered into its fourth day of an ongoing transportation strike that is generating huge economic losses and sporadic civil unrest. The strike was called by an association of small-scale transportation providers, who oppose the city’s plan to continue implementing the Transmilenio project—a long term effort to revamp the city-wide transit system. The owners of the approximately 16,400 buses that have operated independently in Bogotá claim the new system will decimate their livelihoods.

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Chile’s Neighbors Step Up Relief Efforts

March 3, 2010

Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, and Ecuador are showing a display of solidarity with Chile in the aftermath of the February 27 earthquake.  On Tuesday, Bolivian President Evo Morales said he would donate half of his salary to aid Chile, and called for a five-day campaign in Bolivia to raise funds for earthquake relief in Haiti as well as in Chile.

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Spain Probes ETA-FARC Connection

March 2, 2010

Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a message to Venezuela on Tuesday, demanding an explanation from the government for its alleged support of an alliance between Basque separatist group ETA and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC).  

On Monday, Spanish High Court Judge Eloy Velasco accused Venezuela of helping the two groups plot attacks on Spanish soil and issued international arrest warrants for six alleged ETA members and seven Colombians thought to be members of the FARC.  The Venezuelan government facilitated communication between the two groups, the Court found, leading to the FARC asking ETA for help coordinating an assassination of Colombian officials visiting Spain, including Colombian president Álvaro Uribe.
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Velasco’s 26-page report outlines the contacts ETA is believed to have in Venezuela, and says the groups also collaborated on an assassination plot of former Colombian President Andrés Pastrana in 2000.

A statement from the Venezuelan government said the accusations were politically motivated.  At a press conference in Germany, Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said the Spanish government awaited an explanation from Venezuela before pursuing any further action. 

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Mexico City Judges Prepare for Same-Sex Marriages

March 1, 2010

Seventy judges in the Federal District of Mexico underwent sensitivity training today at the Instituto Mexicano de Sexología in preparation for this Thursday, when same-sex marriage becomes legal in the district. According to the Judicial and Legal Services Council the workshops are intended to ensure that ceremonies are performed without “discrimination”.

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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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Mexican Government Fines Popular TV Network

February 25, 2010

The governing body for the Mexican Federal Electoral Institute yesterday imposed a $9.5 million fine on the popular television network TV Azteca for its refusal to air more than 16,000 political advertisements for candidates and parties in four states where elections will be held 2010. According to Mexican electoral laws, all radio and television stations are required to allocate up to 48 minutes of programming per day to the electoral institute for candidates political messages.

Yesterday’s fine is the largest-ever for such a violation and comes after a similar $5.5 million fine—issued in January to the same network—for its failure to air 8,000 electoral ads in the states of Coahuila, Tabasco and Yucatán. TV Azteca’s actions have generated debate among members of the electoral institute about its role in safeguarding candidates’ access to media.

The discord between this particular network and the electoral institute is not new phenomenon. TV Azteca has been fined 38 times in the past, 26 of which have eventually been overruled by the judiciary. The network is owned by Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego, who himself has been plagued by a series of political and financial scandals. There is little speculation about whether the network’s decision is based on political, or purely economic considerations.

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Colombia’s Indigenous Peoples Face Growing Abuse

February 24, 2010

Ongoing conflict and lack of state support threaten Colombia’s 1.4 million indigenous people, who face killings, sexual abuse, recruitment as child soldiers and the persecution of their leaders, according to a new report released Monday by the international human rights organization Amnesty International. The group is urging the Colombian government to adopt firmer measures to guarantee indigenous rights.

The release of the report follows Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) attacks on three communities in Southeastern Colombia this past weekend. 

Colombia’s Interior Minister Fabio Valencia Cossio, who assumed presidential duties while President Álvaro Uribe attended the Rio Group Summit this week, released a communiqué on Tuesday saying that the Amnesty report is too harsh. He contends that the group has failed to recognize the government’s achievements on indigenous rights, which were praised by the United Nations in July. The communiqué also says the cultivation of illicit drugs is a primary reason for the displacement of indigenous communities.

While indigenous people make up only 3.4 percent of Colombia’s population, they constitute 7 percent of the country’s displaced people, according to Amnesty International.

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Honduras Debate Dropped at Rio Group Summit As New Organization is Formed

February 23, 2010

Latin American leaders attending the Rio Group summit in Cancún this week have formed a “tacit agreement” not to formally discuss the possible return of Honduras to the Organization of American States (OAS), said Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom Monday evening.  The heads of state and representatives in Cancún also approved the formation of an alternative organization to the OAS on Tuesday, tentatively called the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, which would exclude the United States and Canada.

Despite the fact that  Honduras has restored diplomatic ties with 29 nations, including France, Spain, Italy, Guatemala and Germany, Honduran President Porfirio Lobo was not invited to the Rio Group meetings. Honduras was expelled from the OAS in June 2009 following the military ouster of then President Manuel Zelaya.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, had said previously that he planned to work to mend Honduran relations with Latin America.  Notably, however, a debate on the formal recognition of Mr. Lobo as president of Honduras, which was originally a principal agenda item at the Rio Group summit, has not yet occurred.

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Canadian Premiers Meet with U.S. Governors

February 22, 2010

A delegation of seven Canadian premiers (provincial governors) completed a three-day visit to Washington DC yesterday where they met with U.S. lawmakers, cabinet officials and public policy professionals. According to the Canadian press, the highlight of the mission was the premiers’ participation, for the first time, in the winter meeting of the National Governors Association, which led to discussions with 20 U.S. governors on issues ranging from environmental protection to energy.

The premiers of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island also met with high-level Obama administration officials including the president’s economic advisor Larry Summers, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

The cordial tone of the meetings was a stark contrast to the events unfolding in Vancouver, where the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team defeated the Canadians 5-3 on Sunday. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour boasted about the countries’ relationship saying, "the Canadians are not just our closest neighbors, they're our best friends…It's breathtaking; what a wonderful relationship." Pennsylvania's Edward Rendell even burst out singing Canada’s national anthem at a press conference. Before proceeding to crone an almost-accurate rendition of O Canada he said, “I've turned what I think are the best lyrics into one verse. I can't sing; I sound like a sick squirrel, but I will try my best."

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Presidents Correa and Uribe Announce Bilateral Talks

February 19, 2010

Official sources in both governments have confirmed that Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe will hold talks at the Rio Group Summit in Cancún, Mexico. The summit will take place from Monday, February 22 to Tuesday, February 23, but the exact date and time of the bilateral meeting has yet to be confirmed.

This will be the first time the leaders have come together bilaterally since Ecuador severed diplomatic relations with Colombia in 2008.  According to several sources, the meeting comes as the result of an informal conversation they had at the Cumbre de la Unión de Naciones Suramericanas (UNASUR) meeting earlier this month on Haitian relief efforts.

Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez has said his government has committed to bringing proposals to the meeting that address a variety of sensitive issues in the hope of “restoring full diplomatic relations.” Ecuador’s president has also expressed his goodwill: “We are glad to be able to work on rebuilding the historically fraternal relations between Ecuador and Colombia.”

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New Uruguayan Government to Keep Honduras Position

February 18, 2010

In a clear signal of continuity of President Tabaré Vázquez' Honduras policy, President-elect José Mujica’s future minister of foreign affairs has said that Uruguay will not recognize Honduras’ new government until “new elements appear that guarantee democratic openness and stability.”

Luis Almagro made the statement at a meeting with foreign press correspondents, where he called the November 2009 election in Honduras an attempt to “whitewash” the coup. In December, Uruguay joined its Mercosur counterparts in again calling for Manuel Zelaya’s “return without restrictions” to power.

Mr. Mujica, like President Vázquez, is a member of the Frente Amplio coalition, and will take office on March 1.

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Young Latin American Leaders from Business, Politics and Civil Society Speak Out in New AQ

February 17, 2010

A Canadian member of parliament, a gay rights activist from Jamaica, an Argentine National Deputy, and a dental entrepreneur from Mexico are among the young leaders who lend their voices to the Winter edition of Americas Quarterly, released today. The essayists’ views are as diverse as they are, representing new political and social ideas that defy old divisions in the hemisphere.

“For many years I’ve been told that youth is the future,” writes Julio Rank Wright, director for Municipal Affairs of the Executive National Council of Arena in El Salvador. “I disagree. We are the here and now. Unless we decide to fill the void created by the previous generation in Latin America, we won’t have anything left worth fighting for.”
The up-and-coming leaders are not content with the changes that have already occurred in the hemisphere—rather they express the challenges that their generation still must confront.

“If Brazil hopes to be a leader among emerging nations, we must overcome serious internal problems such as inadequate income distribution, low investment in education, institutional racism, and digital apartheid,” writes Paulo Rogério, founder of the Instituto Mídia Étnica in Brazil.

Many of these young leaders have come together this week in New York to discuss their essays and the region’s future at an Americas Quarterly and AS/COA conference.

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New Prosecutor to Address Crimes against Journalists in Mexico

February 16, 2010

The Mexican Attorney General’s Office announced a new federal prosecutor for crimes against the media on Monday following complaints about the government’s investigations into the increasing number of journalist deaths.  Gustavo Salas Chávez, a former employee of the federal crimes investigation unit, will replace Octavio Orellana. The Attorney General’s Office did not give a reason for the replacement, but said Salas Chávez had orders to review all of the outstanding killings. 

Sixty journalists have been killed since 2000 in Mexico, according to the country’s National Human Rights Commission.  Almost none of the press-related crimes have been solved.  Orellana, the former special prosecutor, said in December 2008 that most of the journalists who had been killed were not targeted because of their work.

The violence has led many journalists to self censor their work on crime and drug trafficking because of security concerns, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Jorge Ochoa Martínez, editor in chief of El Sol de La Costa newspaper, was found dead with a gunshot to the face on February 1 in the state of Guerrero.  He was the third journalist killed this year.

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Opposition Protests Hit Guayaquil

February 12, 2010

Members of Ecuador’s opposition parties staged massive demonstrations yesterday in Guayaquil to protest the government of President Rafael Correa. The demonstration was called by Guayaquil Mayor Jaime Nebot in response to the federal government’s decision to slash the city’s budget by $17 million, which the opposition believes was a calculated moved designed to undermine officials from opposition parties.

During a 45-minute speech to an audience of an estimated 40,000 people Mr. Nebot called on demonstrators to, “fight to stop the dictatorship.” The mayor declared that protests would remain peaceful for now, but that they would oppose using any available means a shift toward what he called a “Venezuelan type failure.”

President Correa reacted immediately to the protests by criticizing Mayor Nabot’s management and stating that the city government “will not receive 20 cents more that what the law stipulates.” The president also accuses the mayor of being a pelucón (wealthy businessman) whose policies only benefit the rich elite and do nothing to improve a city facing high levels of poverty and unemployment.

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Former Uruguayan Dictator Sentenced

February 11, 2010

A court in Uruguay today sentenced former dictator Juan María Bordaberry to 30 years in prison on charges of “unconstitutional behavior,” “forced disappearance” and “political homicide.” Lower court judge Mariana Motta’s sentence means that Mr. Bordaberry, who has spent the last few years under house arrest for related crimes, will likely be headed back to jail.

Mr. Bordaberry was first elected democratically in 1971, but in June 1973 dissolved the government and staged a coup that placed him in charge of a regime supported by the armed forces. The military removed him from power in 1976—earlier than he would have left office under his original mandate. Bordaberry is the second Uruguayan dictator to be sentenced in the last four months.

The prosecutor in the case, Hebe Martínez Burlé made clear that the 81-year-old former dictator, who now faces the prospect of spending his final years behind bars, can appeal the case “because he has legal guarantees that never existed when he was in power.” However, rumors that Bordaberry spent much of his house arrest sentence on beach vacations may bolster the case for prison time.

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Global Tobacco Survey Findings Released in Montevideo

February 10, 2010

The results of a survey on adult tobacco use around the world were unveiled in Uruguay yesterday, the first country in Latin America to ban smoking in the workplace and in enclosed public spaces. The World Health Organization’s Global Adult Tobacco Survey was administered in the 15 countries with the highest number of smokers per capita, but Uruguay was included because of its government’s dedication to curbing smoking.  Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez, a trained oncologist, attended.

Uruguay’s Public Health Minister María Julia Muñoz said at the ceremony that the number of people in Uruguay who smoke every day had decreased by 24 percent in the last few years.  But while 48 percent of adults apparently tried to stop smoking in the past year, only 8 percent succeeded. 

In addition to the bans that were passed in March of 2006, Uruguay has since fought smoking by raising cigarette prices and requiring cigarette advertisements to devote half of their ad space to publicizing the dangers of smoking.  Other Latin American countries, including Brazil and Colombia, have also banned smoking in indoor public places in the past year.

The forthcoming issue of Americas Quarterly—to be released on February 17—will unveil a statistical snapshot of the degree to which countries in the hemisphere are smoke free and the corresponding smoking prevalence among adults.

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UNASUR to Focus on Haitian Aid Coordination

February 9, 2010

Leaders of countries including Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Haiti arrived in Quito, Ecuador, on Tuesday to discuss a collective response to Haitian President René Préval’s appeal for aid. It was the first time Alvaro Uribe, president of Colombia, had visited Ecuador since 2008 when he ordered the bombing of a rebel camp on Ecuador’s side of the border. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez had also planned to attend, but cancelled his trip at the last minute to attend to his country’s electricity emergency.  He sent Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro in his place.

Rafael Correa, the current president of the 12-member Union of South American States, also visited Port-au-Prince on January 29 to pledge from his country as well as the regional block.

Vice President of Bolivia Álvaro García Linera, also attended, along with representatives from Argentina, Suriname, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Development Bank. The gathering was to focus exclusively on coordinating aid to Haiti, putting aside other political differences between members of the two-year-old block.

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Russia Now Largest Supplier of Arms to Latin America

February 8, 2010

Russia displaced the United States last year as Latin America’s largest overall supplier of weapons and defense-related equipment, according to a recently released assessment by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Mexico and Colombia, however, still purchase the majority of their defense munitions from U.S. companies.

Over the past year, Russian defense companies have signed new military agreements with Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia for a wide range of military equipment. Venezuela alone, which is the second-largest purchaser of Russian weapons, has bought over $4 billion in arms since 2007.

Growing military expenditures in Latin America, which have almost doubled from $24 billion in 2003 to $60 billion in 2008, have been a source of concern for the United States. In Americas Quarterly, Miguel Angel Centeno of Princeton University had previously written on the changing role of many of the region’s militaries.

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Piñera’s Cabinet to be Announced

February 5, 2010

Chile’s new president-elect, Sebastián Piñera, will announce his first cabinet picks on Tuesday, February 9, after what has been a rather complicated process.

During the campaign, Piñera and his closest advisors had committed to a technocratic approach to cabinet selection, however since the election the largest political party in the winning coalition, Unión Demócrata Independiente (UDI) has been pushing to include close political allies in key cabinet assignments. Tension rose this morning when the leader of Renovación Nacional, Piñera’s party, made statements about the political nature of the ministries saying, ”consultants are able to provide technical knowledge but they do not deliver political efficiency.”

These early tensions are being called significant since they may influence Chilean politics and policymaking for the next four years. Observers note that the president-elect has a managerial style that is more technical than political in nature. But a more politicized cabinet would have more power to include a social agenda in the executive’s policy proposals. Balancing these forces will not be easy; UDI is the country’s biggest party and controls 30 percent of Congress.

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Argentina’s New Central Bank President Seeks to Calm Markets

February 4, 2010

In her first public comments, Mercedes Marcó del Pont, the new president of the Central Bank of Argentina, promised today that she would bring about “reasonable” policy changes and that she was “thinking of maintaining the monetary and exchange rate policy with regards to the type of competitive managed float.”

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United States Seeks Noriega Extradition Following Court Decision

February 3, 2010

The U.S. government has asked a Miami federal judge to grant Manuel Noriega’s extradition to France after the Supreme Court decided not to consider the former Panamanian dictator’s appeal.

Noriega is charged with laundering money through French banks.  His attorney, Jon May, will ask the Miami court for a rehearing on February 19, based on dissenting arguments from Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia. Noriega should not be extradited before then, May said Tuesday.

Noriega was convicted of drug racketeering and declared a prisoner of war in the United States in 1992.  He has remained in detention since his sentence ended in 2007, while his lawyers have fought the extradition to France. They claim the Geneva Conventions and Noriega’s prisoner of war status require his extradition to Panama, not to France. The Supreme Court did not rule on that contention.  Justice Thomas wrote in a dissenting opinion joined by Scalia that the Court should rule on Noriega’s argument because it would also resolve important legal questions for the detainees currently held in Guantanamo Bay.

The Panamanian government has also called for Noriega to return to his home country, where he faces a 20-year sentence for ordering the 1985 murder of dissident leader Hugo Spadafora.

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Proposed Cuts in U.S. Aid to Latin America Reflect Changing Priorities

February 2, 2010

President Barack Obama’s proposed budget plan for fiscal year 2011 would decrease aid to Latin America by nearly 10 percent, mostly by cutting military and police support. Released on Monday, the plan—a blueprint of the president’s budget priorities that will now be debated in Congress—calls for economic development aid in the region to stay about the same, while aid for health programs would increase.  Obama’s budget proposal increases overall spending by the State Department, with much of the proposed increase going toward programs in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Colombia and Mexico, currently the largest recipients of U.S. aid in Latin America, would receive less funding in 2011 under Obama’s plan.  Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew said the cuts represent the Plan Colombia and Merida Initiatives moving on to less costly phases.  Most of the helicopters the U.S. promised Mexico to help counter drug cartels under the Merida Initiative, for example, have already been purchased.  Colombian Minister of Defense Gabriel Silva, however, plans to ask U.S. congressional leaders to maintain support for Plan Colombia when he travels to Washington on Monday.

The Obama plan would cut aid specified to combat drug trafficking by $16 million, especially in Colombia, although anti-narcotics programs across the region would still receive $690 million in 2011.  Assistance directed toward Latin American development initiatives would essentially remain constant with 2010 funding, with $736 million allocated for programs such as alternative agriculture techniques, judicial reform in Colombia and support for Cuban civil society.

Cutting aid to Colombia, calling for greater parity between military and development spending, and increasing aid to Central America were also priorities reflected by  the Obama administration in its 2010 budget requests. 

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Paraguay Arrests Member of Armed Insurgent Group

February 1, 2010

Paraguayan officials have arrested a man accused of participating in acts perpetrated by the Paraguayan People’s Army (EPP)—an armed group that officials say has ties to Colombia’s Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). José Villalba was taken into custody in Concepción (a city near the Brazilian border) during an operation by the national police and armed forces. He is the brother of the man believed to be the EPP’s principal leader.

Mr. Villalba is the 10th person to be arrested in recent weeks in connection to the kidnapping of Fidel Zavada, a prominent rancher who was allegedly held by the EPP for 94 days before being released for a $550,000 ransom.

Officials say that the EPP is a splinter group of the Free Motherland Party (PPL), which was involved in the 2005 kidnapping and murder of Cecilia Cubas, the daughter of a former Paraguayan president. Up to a dozen individuals who are also suspected of being members of the group have been spotted in remote jungle areas near the site of Villalba’s arrest. Officials say they are carefully monitoring the group’s movements and are likely to make more arrests soon.

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World Economic Forum Honors Lula

January 29, 2010

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was honored this morning at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, with the forum’s first-ever Global Statesman award. The president was absent from the ceremony after he cancelled his European trip due to a blood-pressure spike that left him hospitalized earlier this week in Recife, Brazil. Brazilian Minister of Foreign Relations Celso Amorim received the award on the president’s behalf.

In a speech prepared by Lula and read by Mr. Amorin, the president said the, “award increases my responsibility as a leader, and my country’s responsibility as an increasingly active player on the global scene.” On the domestic front, it highlighted achievements in economic growth and poverty relief programs. On the international side, it stressed the need to tackle the global economic crisis and climate change, and called for “the need to establish a new international economic order, one that is more just and democratic.”

Early this week President Lula attended the World Social Forum (WSF), a counter-globalization event that meets annually in Brazil on the same dates as the WEF. There, in front of over 10,000 activists, the president criticized the global financial system saying it “triggered the greatest global crisis in recent history through mere irresponsibility.” In front of cheering crowds Lula declared, "I'm going to Davos just as I did in 2003 proud of what I have to say and demonstrate" and "with the mission of telling the developed world that if they had (taken their own economic advice to heart) we wouldn't have had the crisis."

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Sale of Nicaraguan TV Station Provokes Journalist’s Departure

January 28, 2010

Carlos Fernando Chamorro, a popular Nicaraguan journalist and outspoken critic of President Daniel Ortega, announced this week that he will be leaving Telenica Channel 8 after the station was allegedly sold to relatives of the president. The son of former President Violeta Chamorro (1990-1997) and martyred newspaper editor Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, he hosts a nightly news show, Esta Noche, and a weekly program, Esta Semana.

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Porfirio Lobo Takes Office as Manuel Zelaya Leaves Honduras

January 27, 2010

The presidents of Panama, Taiwan, Guatemala, and Dominican Republic arrived in Tegucigalpa Wednesday morning, joining U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Craig Kelly for the swearing-in ceremony of Porfirio Lobo Sosa. The ceremony began at 6:30 a.m. in the National Congress and was scheduled to end at 1:00 p.m. 

Dominican President Leonel Fernández left Santo Domingo in his official jet Wednesday morning, planning to return the same day with former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted from power by the Honduran military on June 28, 2009.  On Tuesday, Fernández and Lobo signed an agreement granting Zelaya’s safe passage out of Honduras. 

Dignitaries from Colombia, Canada, Israel, Italy, Peru, Morocco, Belize, and Turkey also planned to attend the ceremony, though several Latin American countries, including Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela, have not recognized Lobo’s electoral victory on November 29, 2009. 

It was not known prior to the ceremony whether interim President Roberto Micheletti would hand over the presidency to Lobo. Micheletti was hospitalized due to high blood pressure on Monday, the day a new congress was also sworn in. 

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Opposition Still Hopes to Block Referendum in Colombia on Uribe Candidacy

January 26, 2010

A Colombian opposition party called for candidates in the May 2010 presidential elections to work together to prevent President Álvaro Uribe from seeking a third consecutive term in office.  In a January 25 statement on Caracol Radio, Jaimie Dussán, director of Polo Democratico Alternativo party, asked fellow opposition leaders to sign a letter rejecting Uribe’s possible candidacy. 

The letter would be delivered to Colombia’s Constitutional Court, which is reviewing a bill calling for a national referendum on the issue.  The bill passed Colombia’s lower house in September after the Senate approved it in August. 

Dussán, who considers the referendum illegal, wants conservative politicians including German Varags Lleras and Noemi Sani to join left-leaning politicians in opposing it.

Uribe’s supporters hope the referendum can be approved and passed in time for his name to be on the May ballot.  Uribe previously circumvented a constitutional ban on reelection through a national referendum in 2006 before winning his second term by a landslide. 

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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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Transportation Strike Ends in Peru

January 22, 2010

The Peruvian government and a conglomeration of trucking and inter-provincial transportation-service representatives reached an agreement yesterday to end a three-day strike. The transport stoppage had temporarily crippled Lima’s economy and posed a threat to the capital’s food supplies.

The strike originally called for the elimination of Peru’s selective consumption tax on fuel, which the transportation sector claims is excessively burdensome. It began last Tuesday, but was only adhered to by a select group of companies. By Wednesday of this week, however, it achieved near total support as attacks by picketers forced nearly all companies to comply with the strike. Prior to the agreement the government threatened to revoke the license of any company whose employees were caught in any act of violence. A state of emergency was declared in the departments of Lima and Junín.

Yesterday’s agreement came when the government proposed a 30 percent reduction of the gasoline tax, which amounts to approximately $.06 (S/0.2) for a gallon of diesel.  The final reduction that was agreed upon is 50 percent larger than the government’s original offer and will translate into an estimated $80 million in lost revenues for the Peruvian government.

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Calderón Defends the Military

January 21, 2010

The Mexican government issued a strong rebuttal yesterday to a recent Human Rights Watch report that criticizes President Felipe Calderón’s use of the military for policing and other civilian matters. The report contends that “Mexico's armed forces have committed serious human rights violations, including killings, torture, rapes, and arbitrary detentions.”

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