Experts' Ayotzinapa probe shows government mishandling (April 26, 2016)

After a scathing report from the Inter-American Human Rights Commission group of independent experts investigating the disappearance of 43 students in Mexico in 2014, victims' parents lambasted the government yesterday. (See yesterday's post). They accused accused authorities of lying to them, planting evidence and not adequately investigating the case, reports the Associated Press.

The most important elements Sunday's report focus on the government handling of the investigation, notes El Daily Post columnist Alejandro Hope. As the GIEI mandate draws to a close, he notes that the experts will leave without having been able to answer key questions about the tragedy: what happened to the students and what was the motive for the attack?

"Yet, they provided an invaluable service to this country: they exposed as no one else the incompetence and malicious neglect of the authorities. There might a debate as to what exactly happened to the students and, yes, the GIEI did not offer an alternative to the "historical truth." But one thing is beyond doubt: the official story is built mostly on confessions, many of them extracted by means of torture, almost all without corroborating physical evidence. That is no way to conduct a supremely important investigation such as this one.  Showing that fact to the world could (maybe) shame Mexico into reforming its terribly flawed criminal justice and law enforcement institutions. If so, that would be an incredibly valuable legacy of the GIEI, no matter what happens to the Ayotzinapa case in the future."

The disappeared Ayotzinapa students might define the Enrique Peña Nieto's presidency, but the human rights scandal likely won't affect his party's electoral chances. The PRI will likely continue to be the dominant political force in the country, despite citizen rage and frustration over the case and human rights issues in general, reports the New York Times. 

Mexican officials seem more concerned with Donald Trumps defamatory comments about their citizens than the botched Ayotzinapa investigation and signs that the government is attempting to discredit the GIEI group's work, notes Pro-Publica journalist Ginger Thompson has a New York Times op-ed. (See yesterday's post.) Trump is a good distraction for cynical citizens who are tired of reports of corruption and abuse. "It's simpler to focus on foreign demons, rather than on internal ones, particularly when the foreigner spouts the racist attitudes they suspect many Americans share," she writes.

News Briefs

• UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday voiced "deep concern" after another deadline was missed to hold a presidential runoff in Haiti and called for the elections to take place, reports AFP. (See yesterday's briefs.)

• Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced an anticipated cabinet shakeup, ahead of a peace deal with the FARC guerrilla group, reports El País. Seven new cabinet members include several women and representatives of all political forces except for opposition leader Álvaro Uribe's Centro Democrático. Santos said the new line-up would be "a cabinet of peace" and "one that would consolidate the economy," reports Reuters.

• Violence is down in Colombia, unless you work in human rights. In 2015, the total of murdered rights activists was 63 — almost a 15 percent increase on the total for 2014, according to Colombia Reports.

• Land restitution in Colombia is is failing to adequately process the return of land to victims of displacement, according to NGOs. A new report from the University of Antioquia and a series of NGOs says that little headway has been made over the past five years in reclaim around 8 million illegally stolen hectares, according to Colombia Reports.

• Estimates about the FARC's hidden wealth, such as The Economist's recent estimation that they had assets worth $11.4 billion in 2012, draw attention to a crucial aspect of peace talks, explains InSight Crime. "Money and power can not only give an armed group increased leverage at the negotiating table, they also increase the risk that dissident factions will choose to maintain their criminal activities rather than demobilize."

• Venezuela's Constitutional Court anticipated that a proposed constitutional amendment shortening the presidential term to four years would not be applicable retroactively to the current government, reports El País. The court is referring to an opposition proposal aimed at cutting short President Nicolás Maduro's mandate, and would seem to cut off legal strategies to oust him. It's the latest thwarting of opposition maneuvers against Maduro, which have included plans for constitutional reform or a recall referendum, reports Reuters. (See March 9's post.)

• Rolling blackouts of up to four hours started yesterday in 18 of Venezuela's 24 states, reports the Associated Press. (See last Friday's briefs.) But electricity problems are only part of a wider infrastructure deficit, reports Atlantic's City Lab.

• David Smilde on the drought affecting Venezuela (and spurring the energy crisis, according to the government).

• El Salvador’s human rights prosecutor said that police and soldiers used excessive force or executed presumed street gang members during two supposed confrontations in 2015, reports the Associated Press. One of the cases involved the deaths of eight people in March 2015 at a ranch supposedly taken over by gang members. (See July 23's post.) The other case occurred in August 2015, when five gang members died in a supposed shootout with security forces, none of whom were injured.

• The killing of Honduran environmental activist Berta Cáceres has created a dilemma for the Obama administration: "The White House supports Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez — even as some U.S. officials suspect state or state-supported assassins killed the activist," reports the Los Angeles Times.

• Rectification note: The newly installed OAS-backed anti-corruption mission in Honduras (MACCIH) will not be intervening in the investigation into Cáceres' murder, reports El Tiempo. (See yesterday's briefs.) This despite earlier declarations by President Juan Orlando Hernandez and OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro to the contrary. 

• Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and her Workers' Party may be obliged to support a call for new elections if she is suspended for an impeachment trial in the Senate, reports Folha de S. Paulo.

• "... The most important means for understanding the truly anti-democratic nature of what’s taking place [in Brazil] is to look at the person whom Brazilian oligarchs and their media organs are trying to install as president: the corruption-tainted, deeply unpopular, oligarch-serving Vice President Michel Temer," writes Glen Greenwald in The Intercept. "Doing so shines a bright light on what’s really going on, and why the world should be deeply disturbed."

• The conservative BBB (bullets, beef and bible) bench in the Brazilian Congress stands to win if President Dilma Rousseff is impeached and Vice President Michel Temer steps up to the plate, reports El País. The Segurança Pública, Evangélica e do Agronegócio fronts have already been discussing their main demands with the VP and are critical regarding a "lack of dialogue" with the current administration.

• Brazilian authorities are cracking down on illegal Amazon logging. Reuters reports on a five-day operation coordinated between the country's environmental agency and a foundation for indigenous peoples, carried out the Yanomami people's territory.

• Brazil's Supreme Court revoked the house arrest of founder and former CEO of investment bank BTG Pactual, paving the way for André Esteves to return to his position, reports the Wall Street Journal. Esteves was arrested in November on charges of obstructing a federal investigation into corruption at state-run oil company Petrobras. The case is under seal, so the court did not reveal information about the decision.

• Ecuadoreans use a referendum vote to revoke a constitutional law barring presidents from seeking a third term in office, according to a decision by the country's high court yesterday, reports TeleSur.

• Cruel irony: Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa repeatedly demanded the release of the full archive of leaked "Panama Papers" documents, boasting that his government was unblemished by the scandal. But the documents actually show that the secret documents show that he and his estranged brother, Fabricio, caught the attention of anti-corruption authorities in Panama in 2012, reports McClatchy DC.
   
• Getting over Zika panic? Read this Los Angeles Times feature on Brazilian parents confronting the tribulations of raising children with microcephaly and it will come rushing back.

• Last week the U.S. wrapped up a four-day cultural diplomacy mission to Cuba that included representatives from U.S. government agencies, Usher and Dave Matthews, among others, reports the Miami Herald.

• A Bolivian judge ordered DNA testing to prove the paternity of a boy allegedly fathered by President Evo Morales, reports the Latin American Herald Tribune. The scandal when that paternity came to light may have cost him a referendum vote that would have permitted him to run for another reelection. (See Feb. 22's post.)

• Waiting in the wings: Kenji Fujimori, the youngest son of imprisoned former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori said he will run for president in 2021 if his sister loses the upcoming runoff election, reports Reuters.

• Guatemalan news website Nómada is a finalist for a One World Media Special Award.

• Mexico City is launching an innovative experiment in digital democracy: citizens can petition for issues to be included in a new constitution using Change.org, and can  annotate proposals by the constitution’s drafters via an editing platform, reports Quartz. It's worth noting, however, that the constitutional assembly is under no obligation to consider any of the citizen input.

Tortured witnesses and other issues with Ayotzinapa investigation, new GIEI report (April 25, 2016)

A group of international experts from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)  investigating the September 2014 attacks on 43 trainee teachers in Mexico presented a second devastating report yesterday.

They found inconsistencies, errors and omissions in the government's official investigation, along with evidence of suspects being tortured, reports the Guardian.

Some of the students were abducted by municipal police officers, with a military intelligence official looking on and state and federal police officers in the immediate vicinity, according to witnesses, reports the New York Times. The report, together with an earlier one from last year, detail a night of terror inflicted on protesting students and bystanders by security officers.

It contradicts the government version of events, the "historical truth" insisted on by officials who say the students were killed by a drug gang, burned in a nearby trash dump and disposed of in a river, reports the New York Times in a separate piece.

Among other findings, the report asserted that five suspects whose testimony underpinned the government's conclusions gave confessions "under torture or cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment," notes the New York Times. Such evidence is  not admissible in Mexican courts.

The allegations of torture could endanger convictions in the case, one of the highest profile human rights cases in the country's history, as the government's version of events hinges, in large part, on the testimony of some drug gunmen who now say they were tortured into confessing, reports the Associated Press.
The report says a study of 17 of the approximately 123 suspects arrested in the case showed signs of beatings, including, in some cases, dozens of bruises, cuts and scrapes, notes the AP.

The cases are only a sampling, and there are indications of torture of other suspects, reports Animal Político.

The government version of a fire at the Cocula dump in which the bodies were burned is built on the back of testimony by tortured witnesses, reports Animal Político.

Mexico's Attorney General's office announced an investigation into allegations of torture, reports Animal Político.

The GIEI report also shows an analysis of phone records that show seven of the students' cell phones remained active days after the attack, further undermining the Cocula dump fire theory, notes Animal Político.

Full report by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI).

The new report found that the disappeared students did not belong to any criminal group, nor were they planning to interrupt a political event, both tenets of the government report, according to the Guardian.

The IACHR experts again recommended investigating the drug business in the area, following up on the September report that noted avenues of investigation that went ignored by Mexican officials, such as buses being used to carry opium paste to the U.S.

The group also accused the federal government of not cooperating with the investigation and of permitting a smear campaign against them in an attempt to discredit the final report and harass them out of the country. 

"In a context of strong polarization in Mexico, the [GIEI] has become an object utilized by some to generate greater polarization," the team said in its final report.

Last week group members had already publicly complained that the government was making their work impossible, reports the New York Times.

"The conditions to conduct our work don't exist," said Claudia Paz y Paz, a panel member who earned international recognition for prosecuting a former Guatemalan dictator on charges of genocide. "And in Mexico, the proof is that the government opposed the extension of our mandate, isn't it?"

A piece by Francisco Goldman in the New Yorker makes the case that the Mexican government has consistently undermined its own independent investigation. (Goldman has an eight part series for the magazine on the case, this is the last installment.)

"The Mexican government had accepted GIEI's mission in order to demonstrate that it possessed the will, if not always the capabilities, to investigate, solve, and achieve justice for a crime that had shocked the world. Ayotzinapa became symbolic of so many other crimes that have occurred in Mexico, and epitomized the lawlessness and violence of a drug war that has led to an estimated hundred and fifty thousand deaths and some twenty-seven thousand disappearances."

Mexican public officials responsible for human rights skipped the meeting, a sign of tensions between the GIEI and the government, reports the Guardian. It will be the last report by the GIEI, as it's mandate ends this week and is unlikely to be renewed by the Mexican government, notes the NYTimes.

Mexico’s attorney general’s office took to Twitter on Sunday to defend its investigation and actions, saying it had done nothing to impede the experts. It also defended claims of a controlled burn in the garbage dump and denied any allegations of mishandling evidence or allowing torture to occur, reports the Guardian.

In an earlier report the GIEI released in September already questioned Mexican investigators conclusions, including that the bodies of the students were burned in a garbage dump the night they were disappeared in Iguala after being attacked by police. (See briefs for Sept. 8, 2015.)

For those who are having trouble following the years-long chain of reports, refutations and accusations the New Yorker piece has a good review of the many events in the investigations.

News Briefs

• Another torture video (see April 18's briefs) this time starring Mexico City police, has horrified citizens and spurred an official investigation, reports El Daily Post. 

• This weekend a march in Mexico City demanded justice for thousands of Mexican women who face sexual violence, reports Animal Político. (Photos and videos.)

• A former Honduran police chief says documents detailing collusion between drug traffickers and high-ranking police officers in assassinations of two top antidrug officials are part of a crude set-up. In fact, the plot and corruption in the country's institutions, is far bigger, said former chief, Ramón Sabillón Pineda. The documents failed to expose the broader involvement of political figures beyond the police force, he told the New York Times. The documents divert attention from general collusion between drug gangs and the country's political elite, he said. The leaked documents show Sabillón was aware of the documents and asked for them to be kept under guard, though he said his signature was forged. (See April 6's post and April 18's briefs.) Last week Honduran authorities announced they were suspending two former national police directors as well as 25 officers for their alleged involvement in the 2009 murder of General Julián Arístides González, who at the time was the country's top anti-drug official, reports InSight Crime. Two of the former police directors implicated in the murders by the New York Times coverage have also denounced the documents as false, reports InSight Crime separately. The case will be taken up by the new OAS-backed Support Mission Against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH).

• Honduran environmental activist Berta Cáceres (whose case will also be taken up by the MACCIH) was bombarded by death threats in the days leading up to her March murder, reports the Guardian.

• A Nómada report revealed documentation linking a Guatemalan congressman who is currently under investigation for corruption to a police unit responsible for murders, torture, and disappearances during the country's 35-year civil war. InSight Crime has the English translation.

• A 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Ecuador over a week ago has succeeded in overcoming economic ideology: the humanitarian disaster that claimed over 600 lives has pushed the country towards tax hikes and international loans, a path that was up until now resisted by its leftist leaders, reports the New York Times. (See last Thursday's briefs.) But the country is only the latest in the region to face the facts of falling commodity prices and adjusting economic policy to match, argues the piece.

• As expected, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff used the opportunity of a U.N. visit on Friday to appeal for international support in light of a political campaign to oust her from office, which she argues is a glorified coup d’état, reports the New York Times. Though she limited her comments at a U.N. speech, saying only that she had faith that her fellow citizens will prevent a setback to democracy, she later made her case to reporters invited to the Brazilian ambassador's residence. "In the past, coups were carried out with machine guns, tanks and weapons," she said. "Today all you need are hands that are willing to tear up the Constitution." said she would appeal to the Mercosur bloc of South American nations for Brazil to be suspended if democratic process is broken, reports Reuters. Mercosur has a democratic clause that can be triggered when an elected government is overthrown in any of its member states, as happened in Paraguay in 2012. Her words was criticized by Brazilian media and politicians who said it would paint a negative international picture of the country.

• Poor economic performance, especially high inflation, have eaten away at prosperity promised to Brazil's lower classes, and undermined the popularity of the governing Workers' Party, opening up Rousseff to impeachment, reports the Washington Post.

• Street protests yesterday marked the date of yet another missed election deadline in Haiti, reports Reuters. April 23 was the agreed on date in a February political accord that created an interim government, aimed at carrying out a delayed and questioned presidential run-off election, reports the Miami Herald. The timeline was affected by a political battle over the formation of an interim government, delays in the creation of a new electoral body and demands for a vote recount. Provisional President Jocelerme Privert told the Miami Herald that he expects an elections calendar by the end of May. 

• The horrific killing of three deaf women in Haiti highlights the pervasive victimization of people with disabilities -- especially women and girls -- and and prompted rare public protests by their advocacy groups, reports the Associated Press.

• A much anticipated push for reform in world drug policy fizzled last week at UNGASS 2016, despite earnest attempts from Latin American countries pushing for a less prohibitionist regime, reports InSight Crime. "With the huge obstacles to a new international consensus made apparent, reformist countries around the region instead look set to continue national level experiments with drug policy." (See last Wednesday's and Thursday's posts.)

• An opinion piece by Transform's Steve Rolls warns that the drug warriors who blocked reform made a terrible miscalculation. "A striking element of the General Assembly meeting has been the series of member states taking the floor to berate the failings of the outcome document – not so much what it says, but what it doesn’t say: its weakness on human rights, harm reduction, and regulation," he writes.

• Speaking at the U.N. special session on drugs last week, Venezuela's Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez denied that her country has an endemic drug trafficking problem, "despite overwhelming evidence the country has become a key drug transshipment point," reports InSight Crime.

• The death of five rave attendants in Buenos Aires last week, apparently of drug overdose, has prompted police investigation and political hand wringing regarding drug use at music events. In response, the Rosario municipal council passed a measure mandating harm-reduction policies at electronic music festivals such as pill testing. Another proposal would force organizers to provide potable water to party goers, in an attempt to avoid dehydration spurred by synthetic drugs, reports Página 12.

• El Daily Post's Alejandro Hope has more on the relatively null impact of Mexico's proposed marijuana reform. (See last Friday's post.) An internal government report leaked to the press found that "raising the personal possession threshold for marijuana from 5 to 28 grams would allow somewhere between 2000 and 2500 prison inmates to regain their freedom. That represents between 0.8 and 1 percent of Mexico's total prison population and approximately 5 to 7 percent of all inmates charged with a drug-related offense."

• Colombia's Inspector General said the country's softened approach to coca eradication benefits criminal organizations known as BACRIM, which means the paramilitary groups could be the big winners of a peace deal between the government and the leftist FARC rebels, reports InSight Crime.

• A new poll in Peru shows presidential candidates Keiko Fujimori and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in a statistical tie ahead of the June 5 runoff, reports Reuters. It's the third opinion poll in a week that shows PPK's lead shrinking.

• Peru's poverty rate fell more slowly last year than in previous years, reports Reuters.

• Clarification note: A reader pointed to an apparent discrepancy in two articles I cited on Friday, on the subject of homicide stats in Mexico. El Daily Post columnist Alejandro Hope wrote about how the numbers in general went up, but were down in March in Sinaloa compared to last year, while El País reported an increase in Sinaloa in the first months of this year. Both are apparently right. Hope is comparing government stats for March 2016 to the same month of last year, while El País is pointing to a 52 percent increase in homicides from January to February of this year. Trends might not be as clear cut as the articles make them seem, however. El País does not note that government stats then show a 56 percent decrease in March of this year. And the decrease that Hope notes in March is tempered if you look at the average for the first three months of this year compared to the same period of last: there were 211 homicides in the first three months of last year, and 246 this year.

Mexican president proposes minor marijuana changes (April 22, 2016)

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto announced yesterday that he will ask Congress to decriminalize personal possession of up to an ounce of marijuana, legalize its medical use and shift public policy from prohibition to prevention of the drug’s consumption, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The move is intended to accommodate demands for marijuana based medications for treatment of epilepsy for example, while also reducing incarceration rates for possession of small amounts of marijuana, reports Animal Político.

The move would place Mexico in the mid-range of marijuana regulation policies in Latin America: on the one hand Cuba and Venezuela forbid it entirely, while Uruguay set up a regulated market, reports the Associated Press.

El Daily Post columnist Alejandro Hope dismisses the proposal as "extremely limited."

But it's a u-turn for Peña Nieto, who has opposed legalization attempts, reports the Guardian. He had planned on skipping this week's United Nations special session on drug policy, but wound up going after heavy criticism from home.

Polls show Mexicans don't approve of full on legalizatoin: 71 percent of Mexicans are opposed to recreational marijuana, though 64 percent approved using it for medicinal purposes.

Last year the Mexican Supreme Court opened the possibility of judicial legalization of marijuana with a decision that declared that individuals should have the right to grow and distribute marijuana for their personal use. (See post for Nov. 5, 2015.)

Earlier this month an integral cannabis regulation bill, along the lines of the Uruguayan reform, was presented in the Mexican Senate. (See April 8's post.)

News Briefs

• March set a record in violence in Mexico, with 1,725 homicide victims, reports Animal Político, based on a new Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Pública report. The average of 55.7 victims a day is the highest since the government started publishing these statistics in January, 2014. Indeed, this year's first trimester in general already represents a worrisome increase. "Violence in Mexico is on a really sharp uptrend," notes El Daily Post columnist Alejandro Hope. "The big problem is as much the trend as the level of violence. In March, the number of homicide victims grew by 19% compared to the same month last year." Deaths in Sinaloa, "El Chapo" Guzmán's former stomping grounds, are up 52 percent this year, due to gang turf wars aimed at controlling drug routes, reports El País.

• The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, or EAAF, published the full results of their probe of evidence found at a trash dump, where Mexican authorities say the bodies of 43 students disappeared in 2014 were burned by a drug gang, reports the Latin American Herald Tribune. The EAAF report maintains that there is no evidence that the bodies of the 43 students were burned at the Cocula dump.

• Speaking at the Ungass 2016 session, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos reiterated that the war on drugs is a failure (see yesterday's post) and stressed the importance of new approaches that prioritize human rights and treat drug consumption as a public health problem, reports EFE. "How do I explain to a poor Colombian farmer that he's going to jail for growing marijuana when in states like Colorado or Washington here in the United States anyone can freely produce, sell and consume that same marijuana? It doesn't make sense," Santos said.

• The Paris climate agreement will be signed today in New York, a binding protocol that Latin American countries have overwhelmingly agreed to, reports Inter-Press Service. Countries in the region, many of which are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change, are calling for the adoption of global measures to curb global warming.

• El Salvador's newly minted Fuerzas Especializadas de Reacción El Salvador (FES) were presented earlier this week as a violent crime fighting measure, and will be permitted to use lethal force if they find it necessary, reports La Prensa Gráfica. One of their main tasks will be to find and capture the 100 most dangerous gang leaders in the country. The move comes as El Salvador is cracking down on gangs and violence. (See March 31's post.)

• Legislators in El Salvador made negotiating truces with the gangs a crime this week, in response to reports of pacts between the country's principal political parties and the criminal organizations, reports El Faro. They also created mechanisms for mass roundups, including minors.

• Opposition legislators in Venezuela chained themselves to a stairway of the country's electoral board yesterday, demanding paperwork needed to activate a recall referendum against President Nicolás Maduro, reports Reuters. (See yesterday's briefs.)

• The latest in the "Venezuela keeps getting worse" genre: Venezuela's government will instate four hour daily blackouts in response to the country's worsening energy crisis, reports the Associated Press. The move will cover many of the country's largest cities, including Caracas. It joins other measures intended to save on electricity, including three day weekends for public employees, early closures for malls, and an upcoming clock reset to maximize daylight during the working day, reports the Wall Street Journal.

• Brazilian VP Michel Temer said he's ready to take the helm if President Dilma Rousseff is suspended by the Senate for an impeachment trial, reports the Wall Street Journal. He criticized the president's depiction of the impeachment process against her as a coup d’état, and said talk of a coup is damaging the country's international reputation. Regardless, his leadership would start under grim circumstances: a recent poll found that less than 2 percent of the population would vote for him, he is linked to a massive corruption scandal, and he himself could be accused of the same budgetary crimes Rousseff allegedly committed, reports the New York Times.

• Enough with the House of Cards comparisons, Netflix has taken notice: The internet television network announced that filming of its new original series based on recent corruption investigation Operation Car Wash, will begin this year in Brazil. The yet-to-be-titled series will be created and directed by José Padilha (of Elite Squad fame).

• Two people were killed when a Rio de Janeiro bike path collapsed yesterday. The elevated bike path was supposed to be a legacy project of the city's upcoming Olympics, reports the Associated Press. An investigation is underway, but shoddy construction and graft are common features in many projects, according to the piece. The accident draws attention to safety concerns amid a construction blitz ahead of the sporting event, reports the Wall Street Journal.

• Peruvian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori has proposed the death penalty for those convicted of raping minors younger than seven years old, reports El País. The current constitution only permits the death penalty for acts of terrorism, but it's not applied as the country is a signatory of American Convention on Human Rights.

• A massive earthquake last weekend in Ecuador officially caused 577 deaths, but rescue workers on the ground are saying there are a lot more fatalities that are unaccounted for. It is the worst humanitarian catastrophe in recent history, writes Martín Pallares in a New York Times op-ed. He tells how the tragedy has spurred a citizen response that has pushed state relief efforts into a secondary role, and argues that its a rare moment in a country where President Rafael Correa has done his best to push aside civil society.

• A Virgin Mary statue, which remained intact in an earthquake ruined Ecuadoran town has become a beacon of hope among the rubble, reports the New York Times.

• Cuba lifted a ban on Cuban-Americans entering or leaving the island on commercial vessels, clearing the way for cruise operator Carnival Corp to set sail next week, reports Reuters.

• Business relations between Cuba and the U.S. seem to have only one speed: slow, reports the Miami Herald.

• The death toll from an explosion at a Pemex petrochemical plant in Mexico has risen to 24, reports the Associated Press. Eight workers are still unaccounted for and at least 136 were injured, reports the Wall Street Journal. Authorities say the explosion was caused by a leak of an as-yet unknown origin.

• Belize has accused neighboring Guatemala of amassing troops on the countries' shared border after the death of a 13-year-old boy, apparently at the hands of Belizean soldiers, reports the Associated Press. Guatemalan authorities say they've sent 3,000 soldiers to the border, reports El País. Guatemala claims parts of territory governed by Belize as its own.

• Delegates at the International Banana Congress are desperately seeking to stop a fungal disease wiping out fruit crops around the world, fearing that "Panama disease" will hit Latin America next, reports the Guardian.

More from UNGASS frontlines (April 21, 2016)

Countries from around the world exposed extremely varied approaches to drug use yesterday, at the second day of the U.N. General Assembly special session to address global drug policy. On the liberalization side, for example, Jamaica defended its policy of decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana. On the other hand, Cuba opposed the legalization of drugs or declaring them harmless. Hardliners against liberalization include advocates of "zero tolerance" against drugs, such as Iran and Indonesia, reports the Associated Press. (See yesterday's post.) 

Speaking after the U.N. General Assembly voted to maintain support for prohibitionist policies, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos told the Guardian that it is "insane" to keep employing failed policies against the global drug problem. He called on drug war hawks to understand that "the old way of doing things is the wrong way." He will address the general assembly today. (See yesterday's post.)

A Tuesday speech by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto calling for legalization of medical marijuana was hailed as a radical departure from prohibitionist policies by the media (including this blog). El Daily Post columnist Alejandro Hope argues that it's "much ado about nothing." He deconstructs Peña Nieto's proposals, arguing that it's mere tinkering with existing policies and wonders whether it's a distraction tactic from Mexico's increasingly criticized human rights record. (See briefs below.)

Among the many negative effects of the war on drugs in Latin America is a high and growing rate of incarceration of women, most of whom are jailed for non-violent drug offenses, explains Maya Thomas-Davis of Equis: Justicia para las Mujeres in a Guardian op-ed. They share a similar profile, she writes, "they are first-time offenders; sole carers for children and other dependents; have had minimal access to education and little formal employment; and in many cases they have experienced gender-based violence." (See post from Nov. 3, 2015, on a series of studies by the Mexican Colectivo de Estudios Drogas y Derecho (CEDD) that show an increase in widespread incarceration for non-violent drug crimes around the region.)

News Briefs

• Mexico's U.N. office said there is a crisis of impunity for rape cases in the country. There are about 15,000 reports of rape each year, only 20 percent of which receive a sentence, reports El País. (See April 14's post.)

• After Cuba's exuberant welcome of U.S. President Barack Obama last month, a chill has set in on the island's would be reformers, reports the Associated Press. Omar Everleny Perez, one of Cuba's most renowned advocates of economic reform was fired from a University of Havana think tank for sharing information with Americans without authorization, among other alleged violations. This comes after a four day Communist Party congress that ended Tuesday in which officials called for a defensive stance against U.S. "imperialist intentions." Perez told the AP that he believed Cuban authorities were retaliating against his criticisms about the slow pace of economic reforms.

• The leaders of El Salvador's three main gangs told El Faro that they had an electoral pact with the FMLN to favor them in the 2014 presidential election. Any cooperation is now over, they said, assuring the paper that they won't allow the party to organize in their communities. They were promised  reduced pressure and open channels of communication by an FMLN government, said the gang leaders. (See March 31's post.)

• Ecuador's government is searching for ways to pay for the two to three billion dollar reconstruction of homes, roads and buildings destroyed by a powerful earthquake this weekend. (See yesterday's briefs.) This comes as Ecuador is facing a deep economic contraction due to the collapse in oil prices and sagging exports of bananas and flowers, reports the Wall Street Journal. President Rafael Correa said yesterday the government would temporarily increase some taxes and might issue new bonds on the international market, reports Reuters. Correa estimated the tragedy could knock 2 to 3 percentage points off growth, meaning the economy will almost certainly shrink this year.

• Venezuela's pro government National Electoral Council is delaying an opposition attempt to recall President Nicolas Maduro. The opposition MUD coalition has requested forms it needs to collect nearly four million signatures in three days in order to trigger a recall referendum. But the CNE has delayed approving the request, leading the opposition to threaten mass mobilization reports El País.(See yesterday's briefs.)

• In an article intended for an audience unfamiliar with Venezuela, Venezuelan Politics and Human Rights blogger David Smilde reviews the current political stalemate in the country and concludes that the struggle between government and opposition forces represents a crisis of representation.

• A Business Insider piece covers a HRW/PROVEA report detailing extrajudicial executions and other human rights violations carried out by security forces in Venezuela as part of a crackdown on violent crime. During raids carried out by the national guard, national police, intelligence-service officials, and state-police forces last year, 245 people were killed.  (See April 4's briefs.)

• Later this week Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will speak at a U.N. gathering of global leaders to sign the climate deal negotiated in December in Paris. The opportunity will allow her a global platform to defend her government as she faces impeachment at home, reports the Wall Street Journal. She will use her visit to New York to defend herself against an impeachment that she has called a "coup d'etat without weapons" against a legitimate democratic government, reports Reuters. (See Monday's post.)

• Speaking to foreign journalists yesterday, Rousseff lashed out against her political opponents, noting that the House Speaker Eduardo Cunha who spearheaded her impeachment in the lower chamber is charged with far greater crimes, reports the Guardian. "This process was initiated by a misuse of power, revenge, an explicit revenge ... I feel the victim of a process, a process in which my judges, especially the speaker of the chamber, has a background that does not behove him to be a judge of anything – it behoves him as a defendant."

• An explosion at a major Pemex petrochemical facility in the Mexican state of Veracruz yesterday killed at least 13 people, reports Reuters. Local emergency officials said hundreds of people had been evacuated from the site.

• The daughter of slain Honduran environmental activist Berta Cáceres is calling on the EU to stop aid to Honduras and on European companies to suspend investment in hydropower projects until the country complies with human rights norms, reports the Guardian.

• Community activist in Peru have succeeded in heading off a $5 billion open-pit mining venture by Newmont Mining Corp, a modern day David and Goliath tale, reports the Guardian. The efforts have been spearheaded by Máxima Acuña de Chaupe, a subsistence farmer who has refused to sell her 60 acre plot of land in the middle of the proposed dig.  Activists say that Peru's rightward swing in this month's presidential elections could lead to an escalation of conflicts between local communities and mining companies, reports Vice News.

• A Colombian community built by women displaced by conflict could be a model for policies after a FARC peace deal is signed, reports the Guardian. The community, known as the City of Women, has been an experiment in empowering women who had lost everything to the country’s rampant violence. 

Mexican President backs marijuana legalization in U.N. speech (April 20, 2016)

Yesterday the U.N. General Assembly kicked off the three day drug session by adopting a "people-first" framework for drug policy, according to the U.N. press release. The new approach was drafted last month in Vienna by the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the UN's top policy-making body on the issue.

"The document recognizes that to address and counter the world drug problem, appropriate emphasis should be placed on individuals, families, communities and society as a whole, with a view to promoting and protecting the health, safety and well-being of all humanity."


But the document was heavily criticized by civil society organizations who said it doesn't go nearly far enough. (See March 14's post.)

The agreement leaves in place the prohibitionist policies banning narcotics use, despite growing international discontent with the "war on drugs" – and the concerns of the nations that called the meeting, reports the Guardian.

Latin American countries in general argued for the U.N. to accept a trend of legalizing soft drugs, saying aggressive war on drugs has failed, leading to thousands of lives being destroyed worldwide, reports Voice of America. They hope to reduce the violence that has accompanied the war on drugs, notes the New York Times.

The battle-lines in the General Assembly pit the Latin American countries against supporters of existing anti-drug conventions, such as Russia, China and smaller countries with some of the strictest drug laws, including those that impose the death penalty, such as Singapore, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

While the meeting is unlikely to lead to major reform of drug treaties, it highlights how divided the world has become over the right approach to drug laws, according to the NYT. 

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly special session on drugs yesterday, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said he is open to legalizing marijuana in his country and that his government would announce new measures in coming days, reports Reuters. (See Monday's and last Friday's briefs.)

"I am giving voice to those who have (in public forums) expressed the necessity of changing the regulatory framework to authorize the use of marijuana for medical and scientific purposes," Peña Nieto said yesterday.

His speech was surprising, considering he has been an opponent of drug legalization and almost skipped the U.N. meeting, announcing his attendance as part of a last minute switch.

Guatemalan president Jimmy Morales was also critical of the existing international drug control regime, saying that: "People – not substances – [should be] at the center of these policies," reports the Guardian.

News Briefs

• The Intercept has an interview with Mexican environmental activist Gustavo Castro, who is the sole witness to the murder of Honduran activist Berta Cáceres. He was barred by Honduran authorities from leaving for over a month, an experience that gives insight into the workings of the country's justice system, notorious for impunity. "The government wanted me under its control. It has no laws that protect victims. Nor does it have regulations or protocols or a budget to protect human rights activists. Nor does it have regulations for protected witnesses. So they wanted me under their so-called protection where there is no law that obligates them to do anything," said Castro. "... It was a state of complete insecurity and a constant violation of my human rights."

• The new OAS backed anti-graft mission in Honduras (MACCIH) is getting off to a strong start, or at least promising one. It announced that it will investigate a multi-million dollar corruption scandal involving President Juan Orlando Hernandez. (Last week there were reports that it will also be assisting with investigations into the murders of environmentalist Berta Cáceres in March, and anti-drug official Julian Aristides Gónzalez in 2009, see April 11's briefs.)

• Questioned last week by the New York Daily News, Hillary Clinton gave a somewhat garbled defense of her decisions as U.S. Secretary of State during Honduras' 2009 coup. She said calling the ouster of President Mel Zelaya in the middle of the night, when he was smuggled out of the country in his pajamas, would have affected U.S. aid to the country, victimizing poor citizens. She also said she was aiming to avoid further bloodshed which could have flung the country into civil war "terrifying in its loss of life." Karen Attiah criticizes Clinton's stance in a Washington Post op-ed, noting that "what Hillary fails to mention is that bloodshed reigns supreme in Honduras today, not only in terms of its astronomically high murder rate, but also for activists, LGBT persons, journalists and indigenous leaders. ... As Honduras and other Central American countries continue to grapple with corruption and violence, the presidential race is as good a time as any to reexamine U.S. policy toward the region. Clinton’s questionable record as secretary of state will invariably influence her polices toward Honduras and the region if she is the next president. Clinton’s dodgy answers on her role in Honduras should alarm anyone concerned with human rights and stability in Honduras, Central America and around the world."

• Though Cuban President Raúl Castro called on aging revolutionaries to spend more time with their grandchildren and to make room for young leadership, the Cuban Communist Party congress ratified Castro and his hardline deputy in top leadership positions, reports the Associated Press. (See Monday's briefs.) Castro indicated that he and his second in command might step down from the party leadership before the next congress in 2021, saying this year's session was the last to be led by Cuba's revolutionary generation. His presidential mandate ends in 2018, when he is expected to be replaced by a younger president. But his reelection to the party post added to a sense that younger leaders are being passed over, according to the New York Times. Five younger party officials, including three women, ascended to the party's powerful 17-member Political Bureau. But Cubans hoping for more change were disappointed by the Congress, which meets every five years, according to the AP.

• Fidel Castro used his speech to the congress yesterday to say goodbye, telling party members that he would soon die and urging them to fulfill his communist vision, reports the New York Times.

• The impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in the lower chamber of congress spurred celebration in certain factions across the country, but doesn't do much to alter Brazil's grim situation of political and economic turmoil, reports the New York Times. Inflation is at 10 percent, unemployment is at a seven year high, and the economy is expected to contract by 3.8 percent for the second year in a row. "We may be witnessing the end of Dilma but not the end of the Brazilian crisis," Sylvio Costa, the founder of Congresso em Foco, an anticorruption watchdog group. Should her impeachment move forward in the Senate, as is expected, the country's government will be further paralyzed when she is forced to step down for the trial in the upper chamber. (See Monday's post.) 

• There seems to be widespread agreement that Rousseff's administration did employ the budgetary tricks she is accused of using to hide a growing deficit ahead of her 2014 reelection campaign. The question however remains whether that is an impeachable offense, reports the New York Times. Experts say she borrowed about $11 billion from state banks to fund social programs, but its unclear how much of a crime that really is.

• "... The real reason the president is being impeached is that the Brazilian political system is in ruins. Her impeachment will provide a convenient distraction while other politicians try to get their own houses in order," argues Folha de São Paulo columnist Celso Rocha de Barros in a New York Times op-ed. Observers worry that a government led by Vice President Michel Temer could declaw the wideranging investigation into corruption dubbed "Operation Car Wash" which has implicated many lawmakers in wrongdoing. "The crisis brought on by the Operation Car Wash scandals should have been part of Brazil’s painful — and extraordinary — process of establishing a functioning judiciary and fighting corruption. But Ms. Rousseff’s fall is not the logical conclusion of that happy story. Far from being the dawn of a new era, it may very well turn out to be the way the old political class reasserts control over the country — and escapes jail."

• The Guardian reports more on the largely overlooked comment by an opposition lawmaker on Sunday who voted to impeach Rousseff, lauding the torture used against her and others during the dictatorship era. (See Monday's post.) Asked about the comment yesterday, Rousseff told foreign journalists that "It is regrettable that this moment in Brazil has opened a door to intolerance, hate and to this kind of statement."

• A second large earthquake (6.2 magnitude) hit Ecuador early today, hampering rescue and relief efforts for victims of the larger (7.8 magnitude) quake last weekend, reports Reuters. The coastal town of Pedernales, at the epicenter of the larger quake, is no stranger to tragedy, reports Reuters separately, noting its history of reinvention in the wake of disaster. Remote towns along the coast were completely cut off for days by the earthquake which has already claimed at least 500 lives, reports the New York Times. Quote of the day: "You ask what buildings fell? The question is what building didn't fall," Eduardo Alciva Domínguez, 59, a fisherman told the NYT.

• The Venezuelan opposition plans to unveil a measure to cut short President Nicolas Maduro's term in office, reports AFP. Thousands of opposition supporters gathered yesterday to demand a referendum that would oust the leader, but such a move would need to be done by the national electoral board, which the opposition accuses of being controlled by the president's allies. Caracas Chronicles has a good "insider baseball" piece on the various schisms within the MUD opposition, and the diverse tactics they're espousing to try to get rid of Maduro. In the meantime, citizens are becoming increasingly impatient with the leadership's "underwhelming response to post-6D obstructionism, even as the need for a change in regime becomes ever more of a life-or-death proposition," writes Emiliana Duarte. "It's a classic case of chicken and egg: People are demobilized because MUD events lack substance, and the MUD doesn’t convene events because people are demobilized. And that’s why, for all the attempts to downplay expectations, yesterday's Cabildo Abierto mattered so much."

• A colorful column in Caracas Chronicles by Francisco Toro mulls the difficulties of the international press in covering Venezuela's apparently eternal downward economic spiral. "... foreign journalists in Venezuela are under constant pressure to find new ways to say the same thing. The result is a kind of arms race with journalists trying to outdo each other on how to communicate a single, grim, overwhelming fact: the country is preternaturally fucked."

• Activists say that Peru's rightward swing in this month's presidential elections could lead to an escalation of conflicts between local communities and mining companies, reports Vice News.

• Peruvian journalists say they are facing "systematic judicial persecution" for expressing unpopular opinions and exposing official corruption, reports the Latin American Herald Tribune.

• Panama will adopt international tax reporting standards and participate in the automatic exchange of tax information by 2018, said President Juan Carlos Varela, according to Reuters.

• Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales has left the comedy stage, but it doesn't mean he's done with jokes. He used the opportunity of a Facebook Live interview with the Spanish-language edition of the New York Times to mock Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s proposal for a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, reports the Latin American Herald Tribune. "To the gentleman who wishes to build that wall, I offer cheap labor ... We have good workers and with great pleasure we will build it for you – just tell us the dimensions and we can do it," he quipped.

• Former Chilean President Patricio Aylwin, who led his country in the transition to democracy after Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship, died in his home yesterday at the age of 97, reports the New York Times.

• The Monsanto seed company reportedly rejected a request from the Argentine government to get more time to force farmers to pay for genetically modified seeds, reports Bloomberg.

• As experts from around the region call the "death of the pink tide," Daniela Blei analyzes what it means in The New Republic. Populist governments around the region are coming to an end and disillusionment with leftist leaders has grown. "The old right isn’t making a comeback. Rather, the left no longer enjoys majority support," she writes. Redistributive policies, sustained by a global commodities boom, made a real difference in people's lives across the region, but were not sustained when economic downturn imposed budgetary constraints. "It’s too early to declare that populism has died, or is irrelevant to contemporary processes, as some political scientists have suggested. Leftist populism will soon resurface, if not in exactly the same way." Her conclusion? The Latin American left should look to the example of Uruguay. The country has low corruption levels, is a leader in clean energy, and has had a largely successful and unifying road to socially inclusive growth, she writes.