Dilma and Lula implicated in Operação Lava Jato (May 4, 2016)

Brazilian prosecutor general, Rodrigo Janot, asked the country's Supreme Court for permission to investigate President Dilma Rousseff for attempting to obstruct a wide-ranging investigation into corruption at state oil company Petrobras, reports Reuters, based on local media reports from last night.

It would be the first time that Rousseff would be directly implicated in Brazil's biggest-ever graft case, notes Reuters. Justice Teori Zavascki must now decide whether to open up an investigation against her, though there is no timeframe for that deliberation, reports El País. There has been no official confirmation yet of the request for investigation, according to the BBC. The case is proceeding in secret at the supreme court and the federal prosecutors’ office would not confirm the charge, according to Reuters.

She will likely be suspended next week by the Senate, which will vote on opening up a trial against her for unrelated accusations of budgetary manipulation.

Janot's actions put Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the center of the case. He also requested yesterday that the court make the former president a defendant based on accusations that he attempted to buy the silence of the company's former director Nestor Cervero, reports El País.

The requests were based on information revealed in a plea-bargain agreement with Sen.Delcídio do Amaral, an ally of da Silva and Rousseff who was arrested late last year for trying to obstruct the investigation, reports the Wall Street Journal.


Janot's request places da Silva in a key role in the corruption scandal. Janot said the corruption could not have taken place without the participation of the former leader, reports the BBC. Though he had previously been accused of getting real estate under favorable connections, in relation to the case, the new accusations are far more serious, according to the piece. Janot "said Lula and other senior politicians conspired to create a scheme that siphoned off vast amounts of money from Petrobras."

Social Communications Minister Edinho Silva, Political Affairs Minister Ricardo Berzoini and Jaques Wagner, who heads Rousseff's office are also on the list, reports the Associated Press. Brazilian media reported that Janot is also targeting top officials in the opposition PMDB party, according to the AP.
Janot also asked the Supreme Court to investigate the president of the lower house of Brazil’s Congress, Eduardo Cunha, notes the WSJ.

But federal investigators said Vice President Michel Temer will not face an investigation over testimony implicating him in the colossal Petrobras graft scandal. Janot, said accusations against him were not substantial enough to merit an inquiry, an important boost for Temer's standing as he maneuvers to replace Rousseff, reports the New York Times. Testimony from do Amaral linked Temer to two executives who have since been sentenced to prison on charges including fraud and bribery.

Temer's rise to power will mean a likely rightward swing for Brazil's policies, reports Vice News.

"Beyond economics, there is much speculation in Brazil that some legislators have given their support to impeachment in exchange for protection from the massive Lava Jato, or Car Wash, anti-corruption probe centered on kickbacks involving the state-run oil company Petrobras.

"So far the Lava Jato probe has led to 318 of the 594 members of the lower house being investigated for serious crimes or even facing charges. The same is true of 49 of the 81 senate members."

Polarization over the case is splitting Brazilians between those who see a threat to democracy and those who say they're saving it. The latest: filmmaker, journalist and research professor Anita Leandro has removed her film from a festival that invited former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso to participate in a conference on the evolution of institutional democracy, reports Brasil 247. She explained in an open letter that she found the participation of his PSDB in the "legally baseless" impeachment process made the forum unacceptable for showing her film which denounces unpunished crimes of the military dictatorship.

News Briefs

• A Brazilian judge ordered a ban on the Whatsapp messaging service, and another overturned it 24 hours later, restoring service to the millions of Brazilians who use the application, reports the Wall Street Journal. Roughly half of Brazil’s 200 million people use WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, notes the Los Angeles Times. The move is the latest in a series of clashes between the service and the Brazilian government over demands to access data for criminal investigations. Earlier this year a a Facebook executive was arrested for about 24 hours in connection to investigator demands for access to WhatsApp messages. (See March 2's briefs.) Last year the messaging service was also shut down temporarily by a judge over a similar issue. (See briefs for Dec. 18, 2015.) WhatsApp says it doesn’t store users’ messages and thus cannot share what it doesn't have. (See a piece in last Thursday's briefs on Igarapé Institute's Robert Muggah and Nathan Thompson arguments regarding the increasing encroachment of civil liberties in Brazil as part of criminal investigations. "On one side are multinational tech companies aligned with civil liberties groups who are defending open expression and rights to privacy. On the other are Brazil’s justice and law enforcement authorities and politicians seeking to expand the state’s surveillance and investigative capabilities," they write.) 

• Salvadoran arrest warrants have been issued or 21 people tied to a 2012 gang treaty credited with a drastic, albeit temporary, dip in the country's infamously high homicide rate, reports the Associated Press. Yesterday, authorities arrested former congressman Raul Mijango, who brokered the truce, reports Reuters. The former guerrilla commander and lawmaker with the ruling FMLN, was arrested on allegations of bringing banned objects into prisons and being an associate of gang members, according to police statements.

• El Salvador's government and gangs are disputing credit for a drop in homicides last month, reports El Faro. Murders in April were down 47 percent from the monthly average for the Jan-March period of this year. While the government argues that the drastic improvement is due to a crackdown on gangs, gang leaders say it's due to a decision to "suspend offensive actions." (See March 31's post.)

• Haiti's interim leader, Jocelerme Privert, seems increasingly comfortable in his presidential role, and few in the country actually expect to be voting anytime soon, despite an caretaker government agreement that stipulates a power handover next week, reports the Associated Press. Privert got off to a slow start, and just appointed a commission to verify contested elections held last year. He is now suggesting that the postponed presidential run-off be held in October, along with an already scheduled election for a third of the Senate's seats. "We can't go to the polls without first restoring confidence in the process," said Privert. (See last Friday's post.)

• The many contradictions of Cuba's reinsertion into world diplomacy and economy were emphasized yesterday during the premiere of French fashion house Chanel's 2016/2017 "cruise" line. A runway show on Havana's Prado boulevard, attended by international celebrities as police held back Cuban spectators, "offered a startling sight in a country officially dedicated to social equality and the rejection of material wealth," reports the Associated Press.  The show highlighted the island's new place in the international community, but also the new inequalities in Cuba, reports Reuters. (See yesterday's post.)

• Soda sales are rising in Mexico, despite a tax on sugary beverages imposed a couple of years ago, reports the Wall Street Journal. The industry is proving resilient after an initial drop, making the country a key-growth market again for soda giants Coca Cola and Pepsi, according to the piece. (Earlier studies pointed to the success of the policy, see for example Jan. 8's briefs.)

• Chilean fishermen are protesting what they call insufficient government efforts to mitigate the economic effects of a harmful algal bloom, reports Reuters. The southern-central region of Los Lagos has been plagued by the biggest "red tide" in its history for the past four weeks.

• Argentine sports station TyC Sports did an advert splicing together Donald Trump's promise to build a wall to keep out migrants with highlights of the country's soccer team and fans to hype the upcoming Copa America tournament, which will be held for the first time in the United States, reports the New York Times. Conclusion: "The truth is, the best they can do is not let us in.

Era of Cuba glamour is back? (May 3, 2016)

Passengers of the Carnival Corp cruise ship arriving in Havana from Florida yesterday were warmly greeted by residents, a symbolic moment in the ongoing rapprochement between Cuba and the U.S., reports Reuters. The arrival of 700 passenger signifies the reestablishment of commercial travel on the Florida Straits and could be a harbinger of thousands more cruise ships to come, reports the Wall Street Journal. (See yesterday's briefs.)

Legal skirmishes ahead of the trip, due to a Cuban policy prohibiting island-born people from arriving or leaving by sea, led to an unusual backing down by the Communist government. The unusual concession is likely due to diplomatic considerations, rather than concern over incoming tourist dollars, according to the New York Times.

Nonetheless, U.S. cruises are expected to bring Cuba tens of millions of dollars, most of which goes to government coffers, notes the WSJ. The government is attempting to keep tourism, especially newer luxury resorts and cruise ship contracts in a vise, reports the Guardian.

The Guardian piece has an interesting comparison between Puerto Rico and Cuba, examples of two Cold War models. While many make the case for the long-term failure of the Communist model in Cuba, the piece points to the dismal situation in Puerto Rico, which yesterday defaulted on nearly $400 million in bond payments. (See yesterday's briefs.)

Glamour and Cuba: The French fashion house Chanel will hold its first Latin American fashion show in Havana today. It will present the latest collection by German designer Karl Lagerfeld, inspired by the colors of the Caribbean and classic "aesthetics of Cuba," reports AFP. Its the latest in a stream of international cultural events that includes a recent Rolling Stones concert and the shooting of the latest Fast and Furious action movie in the streets of Havana. El País notes that the island is also trending among fashion magazines, with recent articles in Marie Claire, Vanity Fair, W and Porter.

News Briefs:

• Honduran authorities arrested four men in connection with the murder of environmental activist Berta Cáceres in March. Two of those arrested are linked to the company building a hydroelectric dam which Cáceres had campaigned against, reports the Guardian. The arrests were made after police carried out 10 simultaneous early morning raids in the capital, Tegucigalpa, and the coastal cities La Ceiba and Trujillo. They come amid mounting international pressure on the Honduran government to authorize an independent international investigation into the activist's murder. The arrests are not persuading critics however. Her family and the indigenous rights organization co-founded by Cáceres, COPINH, denounced their exclusion from the investigation and called on the public ministry to permit the participation of an independent panel of international experts, said CEJIL in a press release. The New York Times notes that "a steady drumbeat of assassinations of journalists, lawyers, labor and peasant leaders and environmental activists has come to mark Honduran politics ever since a 2009 coup," in addition to gang and drug violence.

• The Venezuelan opposition announced yesterday that they turned in 1,850,000 signatures supporting a recall referendum against President Nicolás Maduro to the Electoral Board (CNE), reports El País. It's the first in a series of complicated steps that must be fulfilled if the opposition is to attain its objective of a recall vote before January of next year, which, if successful, would trigger a new election to select Maduro's successor. If the recall effort succeeds after that deadline, the rest of the presidential mandate would be fulfilled by the government's vice president. (See last Thursday's and Wednesday's posts.) Now the government is demanding the right to audit the signatures, reports El País. At Venezuelan Politics and Human Rights Hugo Pérez Hernaíz analyzes the complicated process ahead, which is regulated by at least three different CNE resolutions issued since 2007. Adding to debates over the timing required for official turnaround of the petition, is whether deadlines will be affected by a new government announcement limiting the workweek to two days. "Government media has been claiming that the opposition has been deceiving its supporters in the matter and that it is outright impossible to do so before January 10. But pro-opposition analysts claim that if the deadlines of the process are thoroughly respected, it is perfectly possible to hold the referendum before the critical deadline."

• Venezuelan government inspectors, accompanied by National Guard troops, inspected two beer plants owned by Empresas Polar to verify the lack of malted barley for brewing put forth as a reason by the country's largest private company to close down the plants in recent days. All four of the company's beer plants have closed over the past couple of weeks, raising questions about the future of Polar’s large-scale food production operations, reports the Wall Street Journal. Company execs say the operations lose money because of stringent price controls.

• Sometimes it seems all the news out of Mexico involves body counts, but there's not nearly enough attention being paid to the violence besieging the country, argues El Daily Post columnist Alejandro Hope, who points to government statistics showing showing that some 2000 people were murdered in the country in March. "That's broadly equivalent to ten times the number of victims in the Paris terrorist attacks last November. And yet, no seems to care in this country. With a few exceptions (such as our friends from Animal Político), violence has simply dropped off the radar of most media outlets. Except for really high profile incidents (e.g., Iguala), most outlets will not cover crime stories."

• Journalists are particularly at risk in Mexico -- the most lethal country in the region for the profession -- reports El País.

• The left in Peru is facing an unpleasant choice between supporting a presidential candidate they perceive as representing the "neoliberal model" and casting blank votes that could usher in rightwing presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the country's disgraced authoritarian former President Alberto Fujimori, writes Gustavo Gorriti in an op-ed in El País. To avoid a Fujimori win will require a massive mobilization of the center and left democratic supporters, he argues, a task as difficult as "convoking the working masses to a May Day rally presided by Scrooge McDuck."

• An Argentine federal prosecutor asked a judge to investigate former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her son for possible illegal enrichment in connection to two businessmen accused of money laundering and tax evasion, reports the Associated Press. A witness released from jail last month, said he helped launder millions of dollars on behalf of a leading government contractor and business associate of the Kirchner family, reports the Wall Street Journal. Kirchner recently said that current President Mauricio Macri is behind judicial probes into her business dealings, an attempt to tarnish her name as a distraction from rising inflation, poverty, and layoffs. (See yesterday's briefs.)

• The Olympic flame arrived in Brazil today. President Dilma Rousseff, who is facing impeachment proceedings in Congress, was due to attend the lighting of the Olympic torch at the presidential palace, though she will likely be removed from office before the opening ceremony in Rio de Janeiro on April 5, reports Reuters.

Dilma tries to rally support, Brazil's political outlook is grim (May 2, 2016)

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff sought to fire up supporters at a May Day rally yesterday in Brasilia.

She denounced an impeachment drive which she likens to a coup d'état and pledged to strengthen government social programs that have raised millions of Brazilians from poverty, reports the Wall Street Journal.

She promised an increase of in the Bolsa Familia cash-transfer program and a three-year extension of the Mais Médicos program that has deployed thousands of foreign doctors to low-income areas.

She warned that her opponents would slash social expenditure if she is stripped of office, reports Reuters.

Still, her prospects are grim, ahead of a likely Senate impeachment trial this month that could force her to step down from office, at least temporarily.
The move could mean further political chaos, with the Workers' Party (PT) promising to not cooperate with a new coalition government that would be formed by Vice President Michel Temer. 

Rousseff decried her opponents' tactics, especially focusing on Eduardo Cunha, a PMDB member and speaker of Brazil's lower house, who has been charged with corruption and money-laundering in connection with the Petrobras scandal
"But many political analysts say Ms. Rousseff’s slow-motion downfall can also be tied to an autocratic persona and a go-it-alone work style that has driven away scores of political allies, former staff members and cabinet ministers, many of whom have endured searing episodes of public humiliation," reports the New York Times. The piece focuses on the disintegration of the Workers' Party coalition, and also looks at arguments that Rousseff is being judged by a double standard as a woman.

The PT is enduring its greatest crisis since its founding in 1980, reports the Wall Street Journal separately. The party has suffered high profile defections and some critics say it sold out by forming coalitions with conservative parties and adopting more free-market policies than it favored in the past.
For example, low income loans available to students have been reduced by the Rousseff administration, as part of an attempt to control the spiraling budget deficit, reports Reuters.

Not that the alternatives are appealing. In a New York Times op-ed Vanesa Barbara notes an increase in nostalgia regarding authoritarian rule in the country, despite the well documented human rights atrocities that accompanied the last bout of military rule after a 1964 coup. According to a 2014 poll, 51 percent of Brazilians think that the streets were safer during the military regime, she writes, and "there is also a widespread perception that corruption, which is undoing the current government, didn’t exist in those days."

What supporters of dictatorship might really be pining for, she argues, is "a time when the conservative elites faced few challenges, when underprivileged people — minorities and the poor — couldn’t expect more than to have to follow orders.

"In the past few decades, and especially since the Workers Party came to power 13 years ago, that reality has changed, even if incompletely. Now democracy means that every citizen is of equal status and everybody deserves a voice. Perhaps all this nostalgia for a military dictatorship is really about keeping people in their place."

News Briefs

• May Day upheaval and announcements around the region: Tens of thousands of protesters, summoned by Argentina's major unions, gathered on Friday to demonstrate against thousands of government layoffs and sharp utility increases adopted by the government, as well as high inflation, reports the Associated Press. The protest brought together rival unions that put aside differences to protest President Mauricio Macri's policies.

• Bolivian President Evo Morales announced a minimum wage increase of about 9 percent on Saturday, reports TeleSur.

• To help beleaguered citizens cope, President Nicolás Maduro announced a 30 percent increase in the minimum wage this weekend. It follows a 25 percent hike in late March, reports the Associated Press. The new minimum wage, effective yesterday is 15,051 bolivars a month. That is about $1,500 at the official exchange rate, but is around $13.50 at the current black market rate.

• Several interesting pieces from the gloom and doom in Venezuela genre: Imports have plunged 40 percent this year and estimates by Bank of America Merrill Lynch suggest the rate at which the Venezuelan economy is crumbling has accelerated this year, reports the Financial Times. And in the Miami Herald Andrés Oppenheimer reports on an IMF economist's prediction that the country's economic system could collapse within the next year and a half. This in addition to a previous IMF report that inflation this year will be 720 percent.

• There is much speculation that this year could be Marduro's last, reports the Miami Herald. A new poll shows that 69 percent of citizens would support his ouster in a potential recall referendum against him. But analysts say about a third of the population continues to support the government, despite the ongoing crisis and Maduro's approval rating is between 25 and 35 percent. The piece quotes Michael McCarthy who notes the die-hard loyalty of Chavistas. Nor has the opposition done a particularly good job of presenting a political alternative to the social programs of the government. (See last Thursday's and Wednesday's posts.)

• Venezuelan's moved their clocks forward half an hour yesterday in order to maximize scarce energy, reports AFP. It's part of a raft of measures that include limiting public employees to an eight-hour workweek and giving students Friday's off. (See last Thursday's and Wednesday's posts.)

• Venezuelan opposition leader Jesús Torrealba was attacked by men throwing rocks as he participated in a protest against power cuts on Friday, reports the Miami Herald.

• A civilian commission in charge of reforming Honduras' police force fired two dozen police commanders on Friday, part of an ongoing crackdown against corruption that has already claimed the heads of five police generals, reports the New York Times. The move comes in the wake of news reports of collusion between police officials and criminal organizations in the murder of top anti-drug officials several years ago. (See April 6's post.) But the purge is also accompanied by an effort by President Juan Orlando Hernández to bypass the national police in favor of a militarized force, notes the NYTimes.

• Children and women are being forced into slavery, including sexual slavery, by Salvadoran gangs, according to Urmila Bhoola, U.N. Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery. While there has been progress on the issue of forced child labor, Bhoola identified a number of issues of concern in the current context of escalating gang-related violence such as forced recruitment of children as young as 9 years old into such gangs, as well as coercion of girls, adolescents and women into participating in sexual activity with gang members, including as so-called "brides" of gang members forced to conduct conjugal visits with them in prison.

• The mandate of the IACHR panel of independent experts assigned to examine the case of the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students in Mexico expired this weekend. The GIEI's term ended in the midst of heated polemic last week, in the wake of a scathing final report that focused on government missteps in the investigation and accusations that a government official mishandled evidence, reports the New York Times. (See last Friday's, Thursday's, and Wednesday's briefs and Tuesday's and Monday's posts.)

• A grassroots proposed, landmark anti-corruption bill in Mexico looks like it will be blocked by the ruling PRI party, reports VICE. The "Ley 3 de 3," a citizens bill drafted by lawyers, academics, and high-profile transparency activists and organizations, would oblige all holders of public office to upload proof of their personal assets, tax returns, and potential conflicts of interest onto the National Anti-Corruption System database. But the head of the PRI in the senate said that financial incentives to encourage citizens to denounce corruption would unleash a "witch-hunt," and party members say aspects of the bill are unconstitutional.

• Another in the list of firsts brought on by the U.S.-Cuba detente: the first U.S. cruise ship to Cuba in 40 years will arrive in Havana this morning, reports the Associated Press. It was not all smooth sailing before the maiden voyage, however, the Miami Herald reports on the legal challenges presented by a Cuban policy prohibiting Cuban-born people from traveling to the island by sea. In the meantime, the Florida Straights, separating the two countries, are more travelled than ever: the number of Cubans trying to cross the straits is at its highest point in eight years and cruises and merchant ships regularly rescue rafters from the straits, notes the AP.

• In fact, the country's population is predicted to shrink by 1 million people over the next decade, reports the Miami Herald. The shift from 11 million to 10 million residents is due to low fertility and birth rates, but also to high levels of immigration.

• Puerto Rico's government will default on nearly $370 million in bond payments due today, reports the Associated Press.

• "Nearly two weeks after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Ecuador, killing at least 654 people, a Venezuelan rescue crew pulled a 72-year-old man from the rubble of a building," reports ABC News.

• Outsiders are increasingly flocking to Peru to try ayahuasca, a potent hallucinogen known locally as "the vine of the soul," reports the Wall Street Journal. While proponents say that it can provide users with spiritual and personal guidance, and others say it can help people overcome traumas, it can be fatal when mixed with other drugs and has been known to trigger psychotic episodes. The stories have spurred growing interest by Western researchers, amid a wider revival of studies into the therapeutic use of psychedelics, according to the WSJ.

Commission to review Haiti's contested presidential elections (April 29, 2017)

Haiti is facing increasing political upheaval, after yet another postponed election deadline passed last weekend. (See Monday's briefs.) 

Yesterday, a five-member verification panel was installed by the interim government. The commission will determine whether the apparent winners of October's contested first round of presidential elections should remain in a much-delayed presidential run-off election, reports the Miami Herald. It has 30 days to evaluate balloting that was contested last year due to fraud allegations. A new election calendar is expected to be published next month.

The commission is aimed at restoring credibility to a very questioned process, according to Interim President Jocelerme Privert.

But the missed deadlines raise questions about the fate of the provisional government, which is supposed to hand over power to a newly elected government on May 14, reports the Miami Herald.

Things on the street are increasingly heated, with almost daily protests by former President Michel Martelly's PHTK party, and threats of opposition groups to counter those demonstrations by also taking to the streets, according to the Herald.  Partisans of rival political factions threw rocks at each other in front of Parliament and riot police dispersed demonstrators with rubber bullets, reports the Associated Press.

The U.S. State Department's special coordinator for Haiti, Kenneth Merten, arrived in Haiti yesterday, hoping to help resolve a political mess that has left an unfinished electoral cycle in limbo, reports the Associated Press. He is in talks with Haitian officials and international partners, though the U.S. said Merten is only there to assess the situation, avoiding language that would give the appearance of meddling, according to the AP. 

News Briefs

• A large slope of trash in a Guatemala City garbage dump collapsed yesterday, killing at least five people, with up to 18 still missing, reports the Associated Press. The authorities said about 1,000 people, including garbage pickers known as "guajeros," worked in that area of the dump and had been asked to evacuate after an earlier slide, but some resisted.

• Two men consultants hired by Republican primary contenders Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in the U.S. formerly worked together advising Guatemalan presidential candidate Manuel Baldizón, whose platform included a call for public executions, reports the Guardian.

• Seventy labor activists were murdered in Guatemala between 2004 and 2013, according the Network of Labor Rights Defenders, reports the Latin American Herald Tribune.

• Venezuelan opposition leaders said that in one day they managed to collect five times the signatures needed to begin a referendum recall effort against President Nicolás Maduro, reports the Wall Street Journal. More than 600,000 people signed, triple the amount needed, reports the BBC. (See yesterday's and Wednesday's posts.) The signatures will be submitted to the National Electoral Council, which will then have 20 days to authenticate them and the accompanying fingerprints. If it does, the opposition must then collect nearly four million signatures in three days to trigger the actual recall vote. Experts warn that government obstructionism and bureaucratic foot dragging could make the process difficult, if not impossible, to actually carry out, reports the Miami Herald.

• Venezuela's opposition led National Assembly ordered the dismissal of Food Minister Rodolfo Marco Torres over chronic shortages of staple goods yesterday, reports Reuters. The vote was held against him after he failed to show up in Congress to answer questions regarding the shortages, reports the Associated Press. Legislators used a constitutional censure vote to order that President Nicolás Maduro dismiss the minister. The government dismissed the move as symbolic, and also said it was invalid because of a recent court ruling on parliamentary procedures.

• ELN rebels in Colombia released a former governor held captive more than two years earlier this month. But to free Patrocinio Sanchez Montes de Oca, whose health was suffering from a gallbladder infection, the guerrilla's required his older brother, Odin, in exchange, reports the Associated Press. The hostage switch came just after an announcement that the Colombian government would enter peace negotiations, and could endanger the process. (See March 31's post.) At the time of the announcement, Santos admonished the rebel group for kidnapping, which he said was incompatible with the peace talks.

• Colombia's Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, the fourth country in Latin America to do so, reports the BBC.

• A new program loosely modeled on the "birthright" model that pays for Jews from around the world to visit Israel is being created by young Cuban-Americans who hope to promote connections between the young exile community in the U.S. and their island counterparts, writes Ernesto Londoño in a New York Times op-ed. "Travelers will stay in Cuban homes, rather than hotels. Itineraries will be designed to link up people with similar professional interests in an effort to help the fledgling private sector."

• British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond is visiting Cuba, the first in his post to do so since before the Communist Revolution in 1959, reports the BBC. 

• The Mexican attorney general said top crime fighters, including Tomas Zeron, head of the attorney general's criminal investigation agency, are under investigation over a key incident in the probe into the apparent massacre of 43 trainee teachers in 2014, reports Reuters. The probe was triggered by a report from an IACHR-backed panel of independent experts who questioned he circumstances in which a charred bone fragment was discovered in a river. (See yesterday's and Wednesday's briefs and Tuesday and Monday's posts.)

• Brazilian prosecutors filed charges against a political strategist who worked on President Dilma Rousseff's successful 2010 and 2014 campaigns. João Santana and his wife and partner in their consulting firm, Mônica Moura, were charged with corruption, conspiracy and money laundering for allegedly receiving $7.5 million in payments diverted from Petrobras, reports the Wall Street Journal. Prosecutors also filed money laundering charges against Marcelo Odebrecht, the former chief executive of Brazil's biggest construction company, Odebrecht SA, yesterday.

• Brazilian photographer Mauricio Lima, who won this year's Pulitzer Prize for for Breaking News Photography for his work with the New York Times, devoted part of his acceptance speech to denouncing what he called a coup against Rousseff, spurred in part by anti-government bias in major media corporations, reports Glen Greenwald in The Intercept. "I would like to express my support for freedom of speech and democracy — which is exactly what’s not going on in Brazil at the moment," said Lima.

• Zika virus-caused prenatal brain damage is far worst than past birth defects associated by microcephaly, reports the Wall Street Journal. New data shows that Zika eats away at the fetal brain, particularly the areas that control thought, vision and other basic functions.

• Nacla has an interview with Mexican environmental activist Gustavo Castro Soto, the sole witness to Honduran activist Berta Cáceres' murder in March. On the subject of the "criminalization of human rights" in the region he discusses how free trade agreements potentially open up corporate lawsuits against governments which seek to protect the human rights of local communities. "This is such an important issue that few take into account. It is not just Berta, nor just COPINH, but all the social movements in Honduras, and in the region, which face this threat."

• Argentina's Central Bank aims to implement an inflation-targeting system in September, with the goal of reducing annual inflation to 5 percent by the end of 2019, reports the Wall Street Journal. President Mauricio Macri's new administration said it won't publish inflation indices till June, but estimates from Buenos Aires and the province of San Luis, said prices rose 37 percent on the year in March.

Lootings and protests in Venezuela (April 28, 2016)

Prolonged power and water cuts in Venezuela are fueling citizen anger and protests, just as a petition drive to trigger a recall referendum on President Nicolás Maduro gets underway. (See yesterday's post.)

There were lootings and riots in cities around the country, reports the Associated Press.


Caracas Chronicles reports on Maracaibo, where protests were particularly strong. About 3,500 troops were deployed to keep the peace yesterday, reports Efecto Cocuyo.

And Caracas Chronciles has a new interactive map documenting incidents of looting around the country.

Hundreds of people in Caracas and thousands in Maracaibo lined up yesterday, eager to add their signatures to the effort which kicked off yesterday, reports the Wall Street Journal.

But there are still many hoops to jump through before an eventual vote could be held. The opposition is now gathering nearly 200,000 signatures, representing 1 percent of the nation's more than 19 million voters. If they are successful, they will then have to collect a further four million signatures over three days to trigger an election. (See yesterday's post on the technical nuances set by the electoral board.)

A recent Venebarometro poll showed some 60 percent of people said they favored Maduro's resignation, reports the WSJ.

Separately, the Wall Street Journal has a photo essay showing Venezuelan's empty refrigerators.

In the midst of ever growing inflation, the country is actually in danger of running out of printed money now, reports Bloomberg.

Venezuelan Politics and Human Rights blogger David Smilde provides a wonderfully refreshing and interesting counterpoint to all the constant "disaster" reporting out of Venezuela. His post focuses on the everyday difficulties in moving around and obtaining groceries in Venezuela.

"For those who have enough money and are in good health, daily life in Caracas has become and endless series of uninteresting challenges interspersed with dirt-cheap delights. Stresses can be compensated for by the opportunities inevitably afforded by economic distortions. 

"But for the poor who depend on price-controlled goods and the sick who cannot obtain medicines it has become an endless series of cruel challenges interspersed with harsh realities. Opportunities for extra income through bachaqueo are confronted by the fact that it is next to impossible to really obtain the variety of price-controlled goods required by a household. And people with chronic illnesses can only wait for the moment when 'no hay' takes its toll."

News Briefs

• Brazil's ever expanding political crisis could have some unexpected victims, including potential permanent damage to civil liberties in the country, argue Igarapé Institute's Robert Muggah and Nathan B. Thompson in the Boston Globe. They point to last month's scandal, when a judge released questionable wire taps of President Dilma Rousseff and former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as an example of how judges and prosecutors are increasingly going after suspects' private data. "Draconian surveillance legislation is accumulating in the country’s legislature. Alongside China, India, and Russia, Brazil is turning into a key front in the fight for digital liberty and a bellwether of what’s to come around the world. ... The lines are drawn. On one side are multinational tech companies aligned with civil liberties groups who are defending open expression and rights to privacy. On the other are Brazil’s justice and law enforcement authorities and politicians seeking to expand the state’s surveillance and investigative capabilities. What’s missing is a sense of proportionality. The central debate between the two sides should be how to balance the legitimate needs of the criminal justice system with citizens’ personal freedoms, online and off."

• Rio de Janeiro favela residents are "living in terror" after 11 people were killed in police shootings in the past month, according to Amnesty International. A surge in police killings augers ill for human rights 100 days ahead of Rio Olympics. There has been a surge in the police use of excessive force in Rio de Janeiro state in recent years, and the majority of victims are young black men from favelas and marginalized areas. (See post for Nov. 4, 2015.)

• The director of Mexico's criminal investigation agency, Tomas Zeron, defended the handling of evidence in the case of 43 disappeared Ayotzinapa students, after criticisms from an international panel of experts. (See Monday's and Tuesday's post's and yesterday's briefs.) He said he visited the site where charred bone fragments which could belong to the students were found on Oct. 29, 2014. He acknowledged visiting the same site the day before, but said no evidence was picked up that day, reports the Associated Press.

• WOLA reports on the key findings of the IACHR-backed GIEI group, noting that their last report on Sunday focused principally on avenues of investigation that were ignored by the government, and how the official investigation's single-minded focus on one (increasingly challenged) hypothesis created obstacles to finding the truth of what happened to the missing students. (See Monday's and Tuesday's post's and yesterday's briefs.)

• Two soldiers and three federal police officers in Mexico will stand trial in connection with the torture of a young woman that was caught on video. They are accused of torturing the woman after she was detained in February of last year in Guerrero, reports the Associated Press. (See Monday's briefs.)

• A new financial-discipline law for Mexican states and municipalities aims lower borrowing costs for responsible local governments, while promoting financial discipline at the local level said President Enrique Peña Nieto yesterday. The move comes as the federal government is reducing spending in response to low oil prices, reports the Wall Street Journal.
• Key parts of Chilean President Michelle Bachelet's landmark labor reform were declared unconstitutional by a court yesterday, invalidating union protection aspects just weeks before the legislation is due to take effect, reports Reuters.

• A Pulitzer Center report focuses on the difficulties caused by child protection legislation in El Salvador. While the 2010 Ley De Protección Integral De La Niñez Y Adolescencia (LEPINA) is aimed at protecting children's rights, an unintended negative effect has been to maintain youths in abusive households due to a focus on the right to a biological family.

• A Peruvian peasant who won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize this year, is under harassment for her continued opposition to a large mining project seeking to move her off her land, reports TeleSur. She is a subsistence farmer who has kept mining giant Newmont from opening at $4.8 billion open-pit copper and gold mining project. (See April 21's briefs.) She reported that gunmen opened fire at her house while she was away to receive the accolade and her husband was home alone. The Yanococha mining company is holding her family prisoner in their home, limiting their freedom of movement and constantly intimidating them, she told TeleSur. A previous winner of the Goldman prize, Honduran Berta Cáceres, was murdered last month. (See March 4's post.)

• A sibling squabble between the Fujimori scions in Peru could endanger the presidential chances of Keiko Fujimori in June's runoff election. She threatened to throw her younger brother Kenji Fujimori out of the political movement founded by their father, former President Alberto Fujimori, after Kenji said he'd run for president in 2021 if she loses this round, reports Reuters. His declaration fed into fears of a dynastic ambition in the family, and contradicts earlier statements from Keiko promising that no one with the Fujimori surname would seek the presidency in 2021.

• Of the many shady dealings revealed by the "Panama Papers" document leak, the ones pertaining to Haiti show how politically connected characters negotiated questionable side deals in a petroleum deal, reports the Miami Herald. The data links a close friend of then-President Michel Martelly, Georges Andy René, who headed a government agency charged with promoting investment, with an effort to cash-in on a purchase of oil from Trinidad and Tobago.

• In the wake of the "Panama Papers," the U.S. and Panama signed an information sharing deal that will formalize the Internal Revenue Service's ability to get information on U.S. citizens’ bank accounts in Panama, reports the Wall Street Journal.

• Argentine President Mauricio Macri's austerity policies are contradicting his promises to work for "zero poverty" in the country. "Five months into his term, Macri's policies have so far swelled the ranks of the poor, souring public opinion and raising the risk of backlash against an economic overhaul that is winning over foreign investors," reports Reuters.

• Victims of human rights abuses in a secretive German colony in Chile hope that Germany's decision to declassify documents will give them more information about the torture, slavery and child abuse that went on at Colonia Dignidad, reports the Associated Press.

• Latin America's newly empowered middle class citizens are pushing forward anti-corruption and transparency efforts that are pushing back against a long-standing tradition of graft in the region, reports the Washington Post. The piece quotes Guatemala and Brazil as prime examples, but also notes that "new anti-corruption laws are on the books or are working their way through legislatures in Mexico, Colombia and Chile, a response to citizen demands for cleaner government."

Venezuela's opposition to begin collecting signatures of recall referendum (April 27, 2016)

Venezuela's National Electoral Commission (CNE) released documents that would allow opposition politicians to begin a referendum attempt to finish President Nicolás Maduro's mandate early yesterday.

They CNE had previously resisted handing over the papers, which are needed to collect the signatures of one percent of eligible voters, the first step in setting off a recall referendum, reports the New York Times.

The MUD opposition has 30 days to deliver the next batch of 197,978 signatures, representing one percent of eligible voters in each state in support of the referendum, explains the Caracas Chronicles. The geographic requirement was only made clear this week, and other hoops include a requirement that signatories then validate their signatures at the local CNE office.

Another Caracas Chronicles piece rather colorfully describes the effort as: "a showdown so unbelievably lopsided that David and Goliath should both file injunctions for copyright infringement, and then sit together while weeping softly to Enya. Today's signature drive will be but the first in what is sure to be a long string of bouts consisting basically of CNE kicking us in the balls and then expecting us to thank them."


If the opposition is successful, the following step requires 20 percent of voters would have to agree to the recall. Finally, Maduro's opponents would have to garner more votes than the President obtained in the election which brought him to power, nearly 51 percent.

Should the opposition succeed in winning a recall referendum this year, the result would trigger a new presidential election. If a recall succeeds in ousting Maduro next year, his vice president would serve the remaining two years of the term. This is one reason the government seems to be stalling the process, as it would likely lose at the ballot box, according to an expert cited by the NYTimes. Efecto Cocuyo has details on the referendum initiation process.

The secretary general of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, expressed his satisfaction towards the CNE's decision to hand over the recall paperwork, reports the Caracas Chronicles.

All electoral posts can be subject to recall referendums once half the term is up, explains Efecto Cocyuo. The last presidential recall attempt was led by the opposition in 2004, against former President Hugo Chávez. The signature gathering effort for that was lengthy, taking up most of 2003, with several technical difficulties regarding the validity of the signatures.

The move comes as the country's Supreme Court stymied another avenue the opposition wanted to use to oust Maduro: a constitutional amendment reducing the presidential term in office. (See yesterday's briefs.)

The country is facing an acute energy crisis due to a drought that has nearly shut down the country's largest dam, El Guri, reports the Wall Street Journal. (See yesterday's briefs.)

The latest in Venezuela's increasingly desperate energy saving measures, is a further reduction in public employee's hours. The public sector will now work for four hours on Monday and another four on Tuesday, reports the Caracas Chronicles.

Public employees account for more than a third of Venezuela’s formal labor force, notes the WSJ.

Schools will also shut down on Fridays. Other measures include rolling blackouts across the country, which have prompted some protests, a half hour time change to maximize daylight working hours, a reduction in mall hours and government urging that citizens reduce use of energy intensive home appliances, reports Reuters.

Last night residents of Maracaibo, the country's second largest city, looted bakeries and blocked streets with burning tires in protest against shortages of basic services in blackout affected shantytowns, reports the WSJ.

Press workers protested yesterday, saying journalists are suffering aggression in covering anti-government protests. Specifically against 13 journalists covering a protest by legislators at the CNE last week, reports Efecto Cocuyo.

In general, Venezuela is the most vulnerable of oil producing countries, which are facing the effects of a dramatic slump in crude prices, reports the Guardian. Energy accounts for almost all of Venezuela's exports and pays for vital imports.

News Briefs

• InSight Crime and Revista Factum broke a story yesterday linking a prominent Salvadoran businessman to planes that appear to be used for smuggling drugs into the U.S.  José Enrique Rais, who is politically connected at home, is under investigation in the U.S. in relation to four aircraft that could be used for drug smuggling. K9 units detected drugs in at least one of them, though Rais has not been formally charged with crime in the U.S. and denies the allegations. He is a priority target for the DEA and "subject of international investigation for his ties to to the organized crime groups, shell companies, cartels, and corrupt politicians," according to a Florida sheriff's petition filed with a U.S. judge. Separately, one of the journalists who reported the piece has denounced personal attacks by Rais' lawyers, reports InSight Crime.

• Yesterday Salvadoran security forces carried out raids parts of the capital as part of a new crackdown on gangs, reports AFP. The raids  were carried out by a new taskforce made up of 800 police officers and soldiers focused on urban missions. (See March 31's post.)

• El Faro has a more detailed account of a human rights case opened by El Salvador's prosecutor's office against security forces, who allegedly carried out two massacres last year. (See yesterday's briefs.)The cases were initially reported on by El Faro (San Blas, see post for July 23, 2015) and La Prensa Gráfica (Pajales).

• Nómada reports on how Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales and the G-8 (a group of the country's most powerful family corporations) are facing off against the Public Ministry and CICIG efforts to 1980's human rights violations and more recent tax evasion. "...R etired generals and big corporates, seem to be driving the two-month recently installed president to go up against the AG-CICIG and the US Ambassador," according to the piece.

• The issue of reintegrating the FARC's child soldiers into society is a crucial element for a lasting peace deal, reports the New York Times. "If poor or botched reintegration programs fail to offer opportunities to former child combatants, Colombia’s powerful paramilitaries and trafficking groups may offer them a tempting alternative," WOLA's Adam Isacson told the NYTimes. The feature focuses on the difficulties former child fighters face after leaving the guerrilla group.

• Thousands of protesters gathered in Mexico City yesterday, demonstrating against the government's apparent mishandling of the investigation into the 43 disappeared teachers' college students in 2014. About 2,000 people were led by the parents and relatives of the victims, who carried small torches and black and white photos of the missing students, reports Reuters. The families are also angry about the government's treatment of an independent group of experts reviewing the case, whose mandate ends this week. On Sunday the panel, known as the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), said it had been repeatedly blocked in efforts to obtain evidence from Mexican authorities and said the attorney general's office did not let its members re-interview detainees accused of the crime. (See yesterday's and Monday's posts.)

• The IACHR-backed group of international experts investigating the Ayotzinapa disappearances did "not conclusively establish what happened to the students. But it’s impossible not to interpret [their second report on the issue delivered on Sunday] as an indictment of Mexico’s notoriously corrupt and often brutal justice system," argues a New York Times editorial. And the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement that the office is "concerned about the many challenges and obstacles reported by the experts," including the ability to examine other lines of investigation such the possible roles of the military and other officials in the case, reports the Associated Press. (See yesterday's and Monday's posts.)

• There is increasing evidence showing the regular use of torture by security forces in Mexico. The issue persists because of a lack of accountability of security forces to anybody else, argues El Daily Post columnist Alejandro Hope. Interesting fact: a recent survey found that 29 percent of Mexican adults agree that torture is sometimes necessary and acceptable to protect the public.

• The prosecutorial team behind Brazil's wide-ranging Operation Car Wash probe into corruption at state-owned oil company Petrobras will continue, assured a prosecutor yesterday. He was attempting to assuage fears it could be shut down by a new government coalition would replace President Dilma Rousseff's administration if she is impeached, reports the Wall Street Journal. While Rousseff hasn't been implicated in the massive Petrobras corruption scandal -- though she was chairwoman of the company during much of the alleged wrongdoing -- her eventual successor, Vice President Michel Temer, has. So have the leaders of the House and Senate.

• Brazilian authorities said they repatriated $125 million last year from funds sent to to foreign bank accounts by corrupt officials, politicians and businessmen, reports the BBC. It's a record figure over eight times what was recovered over the past decade, and was made possible by a policy of negotiating plea bargains with suspects has helped them recover assets, according to the Justice Ministry.

• A lawyer for Mexico's Gulf Cartel who was gunned down in Dallas in 2013 was an informant for law authorities and living legally in the U.S., reports the Wall Street Journal. Lawyers in the murder trial which started yesterday said a rival cartel boss hunted down Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa using a sophisticated tracking operation, reports the Guardian.

• An Alabama tractor company is angling to become the first U.S. business to set up shop in Cuba, and is about halfway through a long approval process, reports the Miami Herald.

• The Archbishop of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, who played a key role in bringing about Cuba and the U.S.'s diplomatic detente, is retiring, reports Reuters. Only the second Cuban to be made Cardinal, Ortega was a sometimes polarizing figure, reports the Miami Herald. Critics felt he should have been a more outspoken defender of human rights and freedom on the island.