Top Latin America Stories, April 22, 2015

El Salvador's intractable gang violence

A new wave of gang violence in El Salvador is prompting a more militarized approach to security in the wake of a two-year truce's failure. Homicide rates in El Salvador are the highest in the world, and have risen this year to an average of 15 per day. March had the worst statistics in over a century: 481 deaths.

About 30 percent of those murders were gang members killed in skirmishes with the national police, said President Salvador Sánchez Cerén on Monday. Since the beginning of the year 22 officers have died in attacks.

Last week the president announced the creation of three army battalions -- with 1,200 troops -- to combat crime in El Salvador's most dangerous municipalities.

InSight Crime says there is "essentially an ongoing crisis in the government about how to deal with the gang issue following the dissolution of the truce. There are no easy answers, and hawkish positions seem to be winning the day on all sides, especially since the violence seems to be getting worse."

This weekend, nine members of the Barrio 18 gang were killed following a shootout with soldiers. Later that evening, an army sergeant was found murdered in his home, reports El País.

Though the 2012 gang truce was internationally praised, the Los Angeles Times reports that it may have allowed gangs to consolidate and grow.

Salvadoran authorities are shuffling nearly 2,500 gang prison inmates as part of a revamped penal policy. They will be grouped based on the danger they represent, rather than gang membership. Eliminating gang specific jails aims at fighting criminal organization structures working from inside the penal system. An estimated 70,000 adults and youth are gang members in El Salvador, according to the AP.

The escalation of military involvement and the transfers might lead to a combined assault against the government by the country's largest gangs, though sources are conflicting regarding this rumor reports InSight Crime. 

The increasingly militarized approach and escalating violence continue to fuel an exodus of children and families out of the country, even though many of them may not make it as far as the U.S. border this year, reports the International Business Times.

News Briefs

• Honduras' security policies are making a dent in murder rates, said President Juan Orlando Hernández yesterday. "In 18 months we have been able to dramatically reduce the homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants by more than 20 points," he said at the State Departments Conference of the Americas. The success has much to do with the "frank and close" relationship to the U.S., he said.

• John Kerry sounded a similarly self-congratulatory note celebrating the regions diplomatic transformation and pointing to the U.S.-Cuba rapprochement as an example.

• But the U.S.'s diplomatic success at the Summit of the Americas deserves to be reinterpreted, argues Gabriel Hetland at NACLA. The U.S. evolution on hot-button Latin American topics is due to enhanced regional unity and alternative diplomatic forums, he argues. "Recent mainstream media accounts of Latin America acknowledge the region’s increasing independence from the U.S., and note that this is one of the factors that pushed the U.S. to change its stance towards Cuba. These accounts do not, however, properly acknowledge the fact that Latin America’s increased independence is due to the actions of “anti-U.S.” leftist leaders, like the late Hugo Chávez, and, just as importantly, the popular movements that brought these leaders to power and have kept them in office."  

• Mexico's Senate approved the National Anticorruption System yesterday, modifying 14 articles of the national Constitution. They seek to remedy an ongoing institutional crisis of credibility and to eradicate a problem that costs the country nearly 10 percent of it's annual GDP, reports El País. The reform creates mechanisms to seize corrupt politicians' wealth and forces public servants to declare their patrimony and interests (though these will not be made public). The law also targets companies and individuals who bribe officials.

• Mexico's Green Party faces record 180m peso ($11.7m) in fines for breaching electoral campaign rules amid growing anger over its tactics ahead of midterm elections in June, reports The Guardian. More than 96,000 people have signed an online petition demanding that electoral authorities withdraw the party’s registration after it flooded the country with political advertising before the campaign period officially began. Despite the name, the party has little focus on environmental issues, but could play a key role in maintaining a working majority in congress for the governing PRI party.

• Though Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina casts doubt on the continuity of the U.N. International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala's (CICIG) (see Monday's post), its role in the prominent bust of a customs bribery ring last week made support for the international body a trending twitter topic over the weekend. Soy 502reports that #CICIGsí showed widespread support for the CICIGs continuity. In March WOLA released a Spanish language report on the CICIG. The report, titled: “The International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG): an Innovative Instrument Against Criminal Networks and for Strengthening the Rule of Law,” is based on an in-depth analysis of key documents and interviews, and identifies the main lessons learned over the course of the CICIG’s eight years of operation in Guatemala. 

• What happened to the optimistic picture of a booming, oil rich Brazilian economy?, asks a BBC feature piece. The Petrobras corruption scandal -- in which dozens of high Workers' Party officials are accused of accepting bribes from the state oil giant -- has combined with stagnating commodity prices to tarnish Brazil's shining image, according to the piece. "After decades of low expectations, Brazilians had come to think in recent years that the nation was finally emerging into the world stage as a global power, only to see it again stuck with corruption and low growth."

• DEA administrator Michele Leonhart resigned after reports that DEA agents partied in Colombia with prostitutes and accepted arms from paramilitaries.

• West Africa's cocaine market has huge growth potential, warned the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Panama yesterday. Of the 40 tons of cocaine that arrive annually from Latin America -- mostly en route to Europe -- some 15 tons remain in the region. This is in part because drug dealers like to speculate with stock, but also has to do with the region's potential for consumption, reports EFE. 

• Latin America will supply some 300,000 data analysts in the next five years, according to a SAS manager Juan Carlos Puente. That represents about 7.5 percent of Big Data's worldwide job supply, he explains in an EFE piece. 

• President Juan Manuel Santos lashed out yesterday at opponents he accuses of fueling a wave of booing that has greeted him in the days since a deadly attack by leftist guerrillas dealt a major setback to negotiations with Colombia's biggest rebel movement, reports the AP.

• Nearly 300 people suspected of sex crimes against minors were detained by Colombian authorities this week, according to AFP. It is part of a much needed crackdown: according to UNICEF nearly 90 percent of forensic examinations related to sex crimes in 2013 involved minors.

• A Chinese ship carrying weapons illegally to Cuba has been released by Colombian authorities who say they don't have the capacity to unload, store or destroy the weaponry found aboard. According to Reuters, the ship was carrying over 1,000 tons of explosives, 2.6 million detonators, 99 projectile heads and around 3,000 canon shells -- though the ship's documentation said it was carrying grains.

• The head of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, said he will said he will sue news outlets that published stories in January saying his bodyguard had defected to the United States to testify that his former boss heads a drug ring of political and military officials, reports the AP.

• The Jamaican University of the West Indies has planted several cannabis plants outside its medical school, just days after its effective decriminalization of marijuana. It's time to demystify ganja said the school's dean, according to EFE.

Top Latin America Stories, April 21, 2015

The Inter-American Human Rights Court: Ayotzinapa, Extraordinary Sessions and Venezuela

The Inter-American Human Rights Court's Commission on Human Rights' five-person interdisciplinary group of experts studying the Ayotzinapa case in Mexico suggested new lines of investigation and the broadening of existing lines of inquiry, according to a report it submitted yesterday, reports CNN México. The group also requested they take declarations and analyze photographic, document and video evidence.

The group especially recommended the Mexican government respect the rights of the disappeared students' families, reports Página 12. In particular to investigate reports of coercion. 

Nearly seven months after the disappearance of the students in the municipality of Iguala, the group's advances were presented in four areas: search process, investigation, attention to victims and public policies regarding forced disappearances. This is the group's second visit to Mexico. Relatives of the disappeared students, together with human rights activists, are traveling through Europe to raise awareness of the case.

The Inter-American Human Rights Court is holding extraordinary sessions in Cartagena this week. Four cases -- none related to Colombia -- will be heard, and there will be a seminar on transitional justice on Friday. The four cases involve suits against Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador and Chile, covering HIV contagion, violence against women, gender discrimination, guarantees of due process for preventative imprisonment and acts of torture, according to El Universal. 

The Colombian Foreign Minister assured the court, at the opening of the session, that last weeks FARC attack that left 11 military dead is a cause of indignation and pessimism, but that the peace process will continue nonetheless.

The Court Commission issued injunctions yesterday to keep jailed Venezuelan opposition leaders safe. Leopoldo López and Daniel Ceballos are "in a situation of gravity and urgency, as their lives and personal integrity are at risk," said the court yesterday according to EFE.  The Venezuelan government has fifteen days to respond to the court regarding measures to keep imprisoned political leaders safe.

News Briefs

• A federal prosecutor before the Argentine Court of Appeals dismissed the case accusing President Cristina Kirchner and her Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman of shielding Iranian officials accused of masterminding a 1994 terrorist attack on a Buenos Aires Jewish center, yesterday. Prosecutor Javier De Luca said there was no crime to investigate, in line with two lower court decisions that similarly dismissed the case. The accusation of a coverup centered around a congressionally validated memorandum between the two countries -- while a law can be unconstitutional, it cannot be a crime, said De Luca in a 27 page decision submitted to the court yesterday. As the drama played out over the last three months, each court decision has been greeted by supporters and detractors of Fernandez's administration accusing the other side of using Nisman's death for political reasons, reports the AP. The original case was brought forward by Alberto Nisman, prosecutor for the bombing investigation, who said he had come across proof of a conspiracy between Argentine and Iranian officials to cover up guilt in the terrorism case. He was found dead from a bullet wound to the head a few days later. His death, which is still under investigation, has polarized Argentine society. The New York Timessays the dismissal, by a prosecutor associated with a pro-government group in the judiciary, calls into question the independence of Argentina's courts. The Wall Street Journal notes that the evolution of the case through three courts reflects divisions in the judicial system. While a federal judge and three federal prosecutors argued that Nisman’s claims should be investigated, a lower court judge and two other federal appeals court judges argued that the accusations had no merit. The Argentine press is similarly divided. The conservative La Nacióncalled the decision "polemic," though it said the De Luca's case was "clear and didactic." Left-wing Página 12 emphasized that the position that Nisman's accusations lack legal merit has been backed by a wide arc of Argentina's judicial eminences, including former ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo and former Supreme Court Judge Raúl Zaffaroni. 

• The former executive director of an Argentine Jewish group, DAIA, accused the organization of colluding with Nisman and international financial interests against the 2012 Memorandum of Understanding between Argentina and Iran. The polemic column published this weekend byPágina 12 details alleged conversations between Nisman and DAIA representatives offering backing from Paul Singer, whose NML Capital Fund is behind a long-standing and acrimonious dispute with Argentina over the payment of defaulted bonds. The piece was tweeted in Englishand in Spanish by Kirchner, prompting denials of the allegations by DAIA officials yesterday.

• Kirchner is in Russia today, where she and President Vladimir Putin will sign a dozen commercial, energy and military agreements, reports La Nación.

• The Miami Herald examines Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's position and trajectory as he begins his third year as president and faces National Assembly elections before the end of this year. The preceding years have been marked by turbulence, including social unrest, tanking oil prices that have hammered the national economy, rampant crime and (according to government versions) several coup attempts. As of 2016 the opposition will be able to call for a referendum on Maduro's presidency.

• Berta Cáceres, a Honduran indigenous rights campaigner, has been declared the winner of this year’s Goldman prize – the world’s leading environmental award. It is recognition for the courage she has shown in a long battle to stop construction of the Agua Zarca cascade of four giant dams in the Gualcarque river basin, reports The Guardian. Cáceres received threats of rape and death, been followed, and several of her supporters have been killed, according to the piece. While the wrongdoers remain at large, Cáceres has been forced into hiding and courts have twice issued warrants for her arrest. 

• The prize coincides with a new report that identifies Honduras as the most dangerous country in the world for environmental and land activists, particularly those from indigenous groups. Between 2010 and 2014, 101 campaigners were killed in Honduras, a higher death toll relative to population than anywhere else, according to the study How Many More? by NGO Global Witness. Latin America is in general dangerous for environmental activists, according to the report: in 2014 there were 116 murders of environmentalists in 17 countries around the world, nearly 75 percent were in the region. Brazil had 29 deaths, Colombia 25, 12 in Honduras, 9 in Peru, 5 in Guatemala, 3 in Mexico, 3 in Paraguay and one each in Ecuador and Costa Rica, reports EFE.

• Mexico's government said on Monday it would investigate reports that federal police killed 16 unarmed people in two attacks in January, the latest allegations to raise the specter of abuses by Mexican security forces, reports Reuters. (See yesterday's post.) 

• A Washington Post piece examines the communities alongside the Carajás Railroad in the Brazilian Amazon. Residents try to stand up for their rights, amid severe environmental and health concerns. A project to expand the line, which carries iron ore, has provoked protests, blockades and court actions involving low-income communities along the route. It has acted as a lightning rod for the wider grievances of poorer Brazilians and sparked a new rural radicalism that employs direct action, creativity and the law to take on one of Brazil’s biggest companies, according to the piece.

• Brazil's vice president has dismissed the possibility that President Dilma Rousseff could soon be impeached for breaking fiscal responsibility laws. A ruling by Brazil's Federal Audit Court on April 15 said her government had postponed transfers to state banks last year to make Brazil's fiscal accounts look better. Opposition leaders said last week this was grounds for impeachment, but the vice president countered that the ruling is insufficient for an impeachment case against the president, which would, anyway, take years, according to Reuters.

• Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was reprimanded by protestors for the second time in two days. A crowd of about a hundred people booed the president at a public appearance, saying he is not doing enough to combat the FARC, reports EFE. Peace talks between the government and the FARC have been ongoing for two years, but were threatened last week after a FARC attack on a military camp left 11 dead.

• A BBC piece on Chinese foreign investment looks at funding of projects in Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil and Peru -- though the U.S. has been the main recipient of Chinese money in the past decade. Investments in Latin America aim at feeding Chinese energy needs, according to the piece, and include oil investments in Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela and copper mining in Peru.

• Peruvian President Ollanta Humala said that Peru is no longer the world's primary cocaine exporter nor coca producer, pointing to measures such as the revision of customs procedures, drug production seizure procedures and the reduction of coca cultivation, reports La República.

• Pope Francis' appointment of Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, having shielded Chile's most notorious pedophile priest, has been met with anger, reports the AP. The priest has had to sneak out of back exits, call on riot police to shepherd him from the city's cathedral and coordinate movements with bodyguards and police canine units. More than 1,300 church members, 30 diocesan priests and nearly half of Chile's Parliament have sent letters urging the pope to reconsider.

• But the game is far from over. Maduro's approval rating rose in March for the third consecutive month, reaching 28.2 percent according to local polling firm Datanálisis. American sanctions probably boosted his popularity, according to Reuters, which reports that Maduro's popularity hit rock bottom in December with only 22.8 percent.

• A Peruvian anti-mining activist detained last week was released yesterday. An Arequipa regional strike has been announced for next week in protest of a massive copper mining project in the area, reports EFE. (See yesterday's post for more background on the Tía María project.)

Top Latin America Stories, April 20, 2015

Massacre in Apatzingán

Mexican journalist Laura Castellanos released an investigation this weekend, alleging that the federal police killed 16 unarmed people in two attacks in January. Her account, based on interviews with 39 witnesses -- including survivors of the attacks, families of the victims, and medical staff -- was released in Proceso, Aristegui Noticias and Univisión. The harrowing testimony contradicts the official version of events, which claimed that the dead were victims of friendly fire in Apatzingán.

But none of the victims were armed, according to the investigation. They were members of Fuerza Rural, which chased Servando Gómez, La Tuta, leader of the Templar Knights throughout the Michoacán sierra for 8 months, according to the Proceso piece. The men, lemon harvesters, were protesting the dissolution of their force without pay and new incursions of Templars into their lands. 

The video presenting the investigation shows graphic photos of the victims, piled on the road in pools of blood. One eye-witness to the January 6 massacre describes a kneeling unarmed man being shot execution style. A short video taken by an eyewitness shows police opening fire on civilians attempting to aid wounded people transported by police forces. Other witnesses describe wounded dying on the road for hours without medical assistance. The investigation includes official documents demonstrating that some corpses were transported to morgues over three hours away from their place of death.

The AP reports that President Enrique Pena Nieto has faced heavy criticism over abuses by security forces since 22 suspected gang members died in an army confrontation last June in Tlatlaya, in the central state of Mexico. Authorities have charged three soldiers with murder and four with dereliction of duty in that case.

The news site Aristegui Noticias reported two cyber attacks which downed the site for a total of 12 hours the day before the report's release. Articulo 19, a press freedom NGO, called on authorities to guarantee the free flow of information, noting the particular case of digital media which has been a target of attacks in recent years. According to the organization there have been 29 cases of cyber attacks between 2010 and 2014, 12 of them in 2014.

News Briefs

• Mexican officials captured the leader of the Juárez Cartel, Jesús Salas Aguayo, and the Gulf Cartel, José Tiburcio Hernández Fuentes, on Friday, reports the New York Times. Hernádez's arrest set off hours of street fighting Friday, as about 60 of his gunmen seized buses and set fire to them to block roads and shot at government buildings in a failed effort to prevent his transfer to Mexico City. Both cartels have lost much of the influence they once exercised over drug trafficking along the Texas border, under the combined pressure of arrests and battles against rival gangs, according to the piece.

• Tamaulipas is a lawless state, according to a harsh State Department travel warning covered by El País. The warning advises would-be visitors to defer all non-essential travel to the state of Tamaulipas, and notes that "Violent conflicts between rival criminal elements and/or the Mexican military can occur in all parts of the region and at all times of the day."

• The U.N. International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala's (CICIG) future is uncertain, reports the AP. Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina says he will decide soon whether the country will continue cooperating with the commission or hand its responsibilities over to local law enforcement. The commission was set up in 2007 after Guatemala asked for help in investigating serious crimes, and its staff of police and prosecutors from 25 nations has helped bring 161 public officials to trial for corruption, according to the report. But Perez Molina told the AP its presence cannot be permanent: "Even if it remained for 10 more years, it is not the commission that will solve the justice situation," Perez Molina said. "It is us, the Guatemalans, who must see if we truly want to fix our institutions, strengthen them and move forward." Activists note the commission has already investigated one former president, and that Perez Molina's mandate will be up at the end of the year. The piece cites a WOLA study that traces traces the origin of criminal networks in Guatemala to the intelligence services, counterinsurgency movements and paramilitary groups that operated during the 1960-96 civil war and were never truly disbanded.

• The New York Times has a piece on efforts to eliminate land mines in Colombia, a country with one of the highest numbers of land mine victims in the world. The programs received a boost last month when the FARC and the government agreed to work together to find and destroy mines laid by guerilla's in the country's fifty year conflict. The agreement was celebrated as an important advance in peace talks that have been ongoing for two years with few tangible results. Though the continuation of cooperation was thrown into question last week after a FARC attack on government troops led to an escalation in tensions (see Thursday's post), the piece quotes sources that say the land mine program will continue unaltered.

• Peruvian president Ollanta Humala is pushing forward a stalled $1.4 billion copper mining project, reports the Wall Street Journal. The Tía María mine is opposed by farmers, anti-mining activists and local politicians who have marched and blocked roads in the Islay province for the past month, saying they want to protect their fields in a long river valley near where Southern Copper plans to dig out 120,000 metric tons of copper a year. Peru is one of the world’s largest producers of gold, copper, silver, zinc and other minerals, but mining is polemic because of its use of scarce water sources according to the piece. (See Friday's post on how a World Bank funded gold mine has affected local communities.)

• São Paulo authorities will be sending out army troops to educate citizens on mosquito control, in an attempt to combat a deadly outbreak of dengue fever that has killed over 130 people and infected thousands in just the first three months of the year. The Wall Street Journal reports that the severe drought the region is going through has spurred residents to hoard water, often in makeshift containers that provide breeding grounds for mosquitos that spread the disease.

• March was the deadliest month in over a decade for El Salvador, reports the Los Angeles Times. The piece examines the failure of a 2012 gang truce, and the violence plaguing El Salvador. "Rival gangs — descendants of the Mara Salvatrucha and others deported from the United States in the 1990s — control entire neighborhoods, able to exact protection money, hold ad hoc tribunals and decide where residents can live and businesses can operate. They act essentially, analysts say, as a parallel government. And the killings continue to mount, as they battle for pieces of a drug-trafficking business that has expanded with the arrival of Mexican cartels."

• Mary Anastasia O'Grady interviewed former Brazilian presidential candidate Aécio Neves, who lost to Dilma Rousseff last year. He says he lost as a result of "organized crime," in reference to the alleged skimming operation at the government-owned oil company Petrobras. Funds redirected towards the governing Workers' Party allowed for lavish campaign spending that contributed to Neves' defeat, says O'Grady. "Law enforcement must hold individuals accountable, but the state’s oversize role in the economy is what led to this mess. Replacing the players with individuals who seem more honest will not eliminate the cause of corruption," she says.

• The CAF-Development Bank of Latin America is exploring the possibility of incorporating Cuba as a member of the only multilateral bank owned by emerging nations. The Caracas based bank, whose members include 17 Latin American and Caribbean countries, Spain and Portugal and 14 private banks in the region, is planning a conference with the University of Havana to explore economic development in Latin America and Cuba, reports the Miami Herald.

• Two dissident candidates in local Cuban elections conceded defeat on Sunday. Had either of them won, they would have been the first non-Communist Party elected officials in over 40 years. Yet the fact that they were nominated at all is politically significant, reports the AP. 

• U.S. lawmakers have introduced a proposal to create a commission to study American drug policies in Latin America and the Caribbean. Reps. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) argue that a review of policies will help identify which work and which don't. South American countries like Colombia and Mexico remain the top originating countries of drugs such as cocaine and heroin consumed in the U.S., reports The Hill.

• Vice News reports on the Peruvian government's attempts to contain the nation's booming cocaine industry. "But the government's campaign of crop eradication and efforts to destroy narco runways risk further igniting a larger social conflict, alienating the coca farmers whose livelihoods depend on growing the illicit crop.

• Ecuador, on the other hand, is on the brink of decriminalizing the use of all drugs. The watershed legislation focuses on prevention rather than criminalization, and would include providing treatment and rehabilitation, and replacing jail with small fines, for drug users. It's part of a move away from the Washington led War on Drugs, reports the Global Post, and is more in line with regional initiatives such as Uruguay's legalization of marijuana. 

• A Port-au-Prince restaurateur and accused kidnapper with close ties to the presidential family has been freed from a Haitian prison a month after he and 13 others were indicted on various crimes -- including murder, drug trafficking, money laundering and running a kidnapping ring, reports the Miami Herald. The trial lasted about two hours, according to a Haitian human rights leader. Lamarre Bélizaire, a controversial investigative judge who has been accused in the past of doing the government's bidding, threw out the indictment and freed Ethéart and Renel Nelfort.

• Ford will spend $2.5 billion to expand its manufacturing operations at two sites in Mexico, the latest in a wave of auto investments flowing to the country, reports the Wall Street Journal.

• Armed men killed eight people yesterday in a raid on a São Paulo soccer fan club that has close links to a notorious prison, reports the AP. 

• Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, is winning intention to vote polls in Peru, according to Reuters. Fujimori lost the last presidential election to current president Ollanta Humala in 2011.

• Rio de Janeiro's state government failed to pay phone and Internet bills, leading phone company Oi to cut off its lines. The state owes up to $55.7 million in unpaid bills, according to the company, reports Reuters. The cuts to the lines do not affect vital services like fire protection, schools or hospitals

Top Latin America Stories, April 17, 2015

Development's displaced: over 26,000 South Americans have been displaced by World Bank projects over the past decade

Over the past decade, the World Bank has regularly failed to enforce rules intended to protect vulnerable populations in countries it lends in, with devastating consequences according an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, The Huffington Post and other media partners released yesterday.

Though the bank claims a commitment to "do no harm" to people or the environment, the investigation found that between 2004 and 2013 the bank’s projects physically or economically displaced an estimated 3.4 million people, forcing them from their homes, taking their land or damaging their livelihoods. 

In South America 26,262 people were displaced in 31 resettlement projects, including over 10,000 people in Brazil and Colombia each and nearly 4,000 in Bolivia, according to the investigation.

"Studies show that forced relocations can rip apart kinship networks and increase risks of illness and disease. Resettled populations are more likely to suffer unemployment and hunger, and mortality rates are higher."

A team of more than 50 journalists from 21 countries spent nearly a year documenting the bank’s failure to protect people moved aside in the name of progress. 

The World Bank is revising its social and environmental safeguards -- but experts warn the rewrite will provide local governments with more wiggle room to sidestep protection standards. In February nearly 200 Latin America NGOs and movements signed a letter voicing concern with the World Bank's revision process.

In Peru the report examines the extensive damage wrought by the Yanacocha gold mine, financed by World Bank loans. The mine, which is one of the most productive in the world, has contributed $2.75 billion in tax revenue and royalties for the Peruvian government since operations began in 1993. However, around the mine, contaminated water has sickened communities and has farmers worried about the health risks they face.

"... In villages and hamlets near the mine, the prevailing opinion is that foreign companies and banks, and the far-off government in Lima, are profiting from the mine, while local people are left to deal with the environmental and social wreckage.

"Fifty-three percent of the population in the province of Cajamarca, where Yanacocha is based, live under the national poverty line of about $100 a month, according to the most recent government figures. Despite immense mineral reserves, it is the poorest province in Peru."

Country specific reports, including one on Honduras, are slated to be released "soon."

News Briefs

• The DEA accepted guns from Colombian paramilitary groups and participated in numerous sex parties funded by drug cartels, according to an internal report discussed by the US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform earlier this week. InSight Crime reports that the gravity of these infractions stands in stark contrast to the weak sanctions offending DEA agents received: "Repeated infractions that were essentially dismissed by higher-ups don't just reveal that DEA agents are fallible; they stain the reputation of the entire anti-drug agency. This could have important implications for the DEA, which relies on cooperation with Latin American governments to conduct counter-narcotic operations throughout the region."

• Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has promised to protect a small porpoise on the brink of extinction -- an effort that will require cracking down on crime groups smuggling illegal fish.The Mexican Navy has now been charged with stopping the illegal totoaba fishing which has further endangered the already decimated vaquita population, reports the New York Times. 

• Mexico's Congress approved legislation that will allow public access to data from almost any entity that receives government funding, including unions, political parties and government-supported councils and commissions, according to the AP. Though President Enrique Pena Nieto tweeted that the law "will strengthen the accountability of the Mexican government and combat corruption," Animal Politico reports doubts regarding the new transparency laws' details. Civil society groups have criticized that the body charged with access to information and protection of data has little clarity regarding what information can be released related to cases of grave human rights violations.

• UNASUR could extend electoral technical to Africa, according to the organization's secretary general, former Colombian president Ernesto Samper. The organization is also working on a South American Election Observatory, which will analyze citizen access and participation in electoral processes in the region. According to Samper, the region's inequality is reflected in electoral processes, and the organization seeks to "eliminate the gaps that characterize the profound asymmetry existing in South America," reports EFE. 

• UNICEF held a biannual meeting with regional representatives in San Pedro Sula in Honduras, as a symbol of solidarity with the city, considered the most violent in the world according to the UN. The meeting focused on violence against women and children in the region. EFEreports that homicides have become the primary cause of death among teens in seven countries in the region (Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panamá, Venezuela and Trinidad y Tobago), according to UNICEF statistics.

• Nineteen human rights defenders were killed in Colombia during the first trimester of this year, and nearly 250 were threatened, according to a local NGO. The killers are still unknown in most of the cases, three are linked to criminal bands stemming from paramilitary demobilization and two of the deaths were at the hands of army troops, according to EFE. 

• The U.S. imposed sanctions on three leaders of the Salvadoran Mara Salvatrucha gang, which runs human trafficking and drug operations into the United States, reports the New York Times. Sanctions permit government seizure of any U.S. assets and prohibit American companies and citizens from doing business with them. Though the three men are imprisoned in El Salvador, officials say they continue to direct criminal activity. The money generated by the group in the U.S. supposedly finances and strengthens the gang in El Salvador. Mara Salvatrucha, which in 2012 became the first street gang to be classified as a transnational criminal organization by the Department of the Treasury, has some 30,000 members in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, as well as some 8,000 members in 40 states of the U.S., reports EFE.

• Pope Francis might tack a Cuba stop onto his U.S. visit in September. The move would be characteristic of his willingness to step into charged international diplomacy, says the Wall Street Journal. The Pope already played a major role in the December agreement between the two countries to normalize relations after more than 50 years. The pontiff will be visitingEcuador, Bolivia and Paraguay in July.

• Joao Vaccari Neto, who was forced to resign as Workers' Party treasurer after his Wednesday arrest on corruption charges, denies his involvement in the Petrobras kickback scheme under investigation in Brazil. He was charged with receiving “irregular donations” for the ruling political party from some of the oil company’s suppliers. Though prosecutors said testimony from five witnesses implicated Vaccari in the alleged scheme, his lawyers say the arrest was unjustified because it was based primarily on "informers," reports the Wall Street Journal.

• Peru has the highest incidence of rape in South America and most victims are minors. Yet Peru's congress is dragging its feet on a proposal that would decriminalize abortion for rape victims, reports La Mula. The message is clear, according to the piece: "keep criminalizing the woman, youth or teen who is raped, gets pregnant and decides to terminate the pregnancy. That is to say, blame the victim."

• A women's health NGO in Uruguay warns that certain areas of the country face a potential collapse in abortion services due to a high level of conscientious objectors among doctors. In one department 87 percent of doctors refuse to carry out the procedure, while in another nearly half the gynecologists object, reports EFE.

• Zury Ríos, the daughter of former Guatemalan dictator José Efraín Ríos Montt, announced her candidacy for Guatemala's presidency. Ríos Montt is being prosecuted for acts of genocide. His daughter, who served in Congress three times, declined to comment on the impact of her father's criminal trial on her campaign, according to the AP.

• A 79-day U.S. and Canadian naval operation seized over 14 tons of cocaine off the coast of Central and South America, reports Reuters.

• Though the story has fallen off the international press' radar, the Caracas Chronicles has a couple of pieces that show the ongoing Venezuelan concern over shortages. One shows a piece of performance art while the other analyses meat prices and supply.

Top Latin America Stories, April 16, 2015

Peace derailed?

Two years of peace talks between the Colombian government and the leftist guerrilla movement, FARC, have been jeopardized by the death of 11 soldiers late Tuesday night. President Juan Manuel Santos' government says the FARC violated a unilateral cease-fire and has lifted a ban on aerial attacks of guerrilla encampments, reports the AP.

The FARC claims the guerrillas reacted to ongoing offensive counter-insurgency operations on the part of the military, according to a statement from Havana. The guerrilla movement had been complying with a unilateral cease-fire since December, but said yesterday that a bilateral cease-fire is necessary and urged the government to continue the ongoing peace negotiations.

Santos insisted that he will not allow himself to be pressured into a bilateral cease-fire. 

The setback is the result of ambiguity in the negotiations, according to Silla Vacia's Juanita León. The FARC conditioned its cease-fire on not-being attacked by official forces, but offensive action was not defined. The FARC seems to have interpreted territorial control of one of their strong-holds as an offensive action, she says.

 “The FARC’s unilateral cease-fire and the government’s cessation of bombing raids were confidence-building, allowing people to give the talks some focus, some space to breathe,” Cynthia Arnson, a director at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, told the Wall Street Journal. “The return to war is a bad sign for the peace talks overall.”

Yesterday's events have been polarizing FARC supporters blame the army, while opponents of the peace process say the attack was intentional, reports the AP.

El Tiempo refers to a "risky" interruption in scaling back the war's intensity and laments the set-back to the unilateral cease-fire and suspension of aerial attacks, but lays the responsibility for the situation at the FARCs feet.

The Wall Street Journal notes that Santos has staked is reputation on ending the conflict, but has come under pressure to do so militarily. Yesterday's events have strengthened opponents of the peace process.

The New York Times reports that talks had been progressing well -- "the finish line seemed to be getting closer." Though rounds of peace talks have failed over the past two years, in recent months several positive steps led experts to announce an end-point in sight. In December the FARC declared a unilateral cease-fire, and in February promised to stope recruiting fighters younger than 17. In March both sides said they would work together to remove land mines, and Santos ordered a one-month halt to aerial bombings of FARC encampments. The respite had been extended for a second month just last week.

La Silla Vacía launched a new website -- La Silla Blanca -- a one-stop-shop for information on the peace negotiations. The site include the text of the agreements, a time-line of the process, and a virtual museum dedicated to the 50 year conflict. Fun features include a translator for the different factions' interpretations of words. The site encourages participation, allowing victims a space to send a message to FARC leader "Timochenko" and respond to polls on their vision of the peace process.

News Briefs

• Mexico's election watchdog said opposition political party's ads accusing President Enrique Peña Nieto of misspending taxpayers' money is slanderous, and ordered them pulled off the air. The move raises concerns about the ability of political parties to criticize the government, says theWall Street Journal.

• The Mexican "Migrant Via Crucis" -- demanding migrant human rights -- continued its journey towards the capital, despite immigration authority's threat to detain illegal migrants. The priest Alejandro Solalinde accompanying the movement said human rights activists surrounded the undocumented Central American migrants, creating protective barrier against the hundreds of police officials they encountered yesterday, reports AFP. Authorities said yesterday they sought to avoid confrontation. The caravan will continue towards México DF tomorrow by bus. 

• Seven out of ten parents in Central American don't permit their children to play on the street for fear of violence, according to Juan Martín Pérez, executive secretary of the Red Latinoamericana y Caribeña de la Defensa de los Niños y Adolescentes. Central America is the most violent region in the world, reports the AFP. The violence directly impacts children's activities, they are more sedentary and have less contact with the community, according to Pérez

• Argentina's congress passed a law yesterday nationalizing the country's railroad system. The move continues a policy of reversal of the questioned neoliberal privatization policies of the 1990s, and will allow the government to continue reinvigorating the country's moribund rail system. Though private operators will still be able to function, reports Página 12, the state will have more control over the terms of the contracts and will determine the management of rail-lines as well as investment.

• Federal police detained the treasurer of Brazil's governing Workers' Party yesterday as he headed out for his morning jog in Sao Paulo, reports the AP. He is accused of involvement in a wide-ranging investigation into corruption at state-run oil giant Petrobras. An arrest warrant was also issued for his sister-in-law and his wife was questioned regarding a series of unidentified deposits in her bank account investigators suspect of being related to the kickback scheme. The Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal also report on the issue.

• Two members of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe's cabinet were sentenced yesterday to more than six years in prison for bribing legislators to support the right-wing leader's reelection.

• The U.S. and Cuba will resume negotiations regarding two U.S. fugitives as part of an ongoing dialogue regarding judicial cooperation, made possible by the White House's decision to remove Cuba from the four-country list of nations that support terrorist activities (see yesterday's post). 

• Spain and Colombia vouched for Cuba's rejection of terrorist activity, according to a State Department spokesperson quoted in AFP. Cuba has been on the state-sponsors of terrorism list since 1982, in part for its support of FARC guerrillas in Colombia and Basque ETA separatists in Spain -- though it's worth noting that the U.S. only officially recognized those organizations as terrorist in 1997. Havana has hosted ongoing peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC since 2012.

• Removal from the list will eliminate a barrier for investment that has complicated Cuba. The country will now be eligible for multi-lateral loans and will have access to financial institutions, reports the New York Times. However, while non-American companies will now have an easier time working with the island, American companies will still have difficulties. Experts note that Americans still can't invest in Cuba and the areas in which they can trade are still limited. They also note that Cuba also has restrictions regarding foreign businesses.

• A House bill introduced yesterday would tie removal of more sanctions against Cuba to an improvement in the country's human rights record, reports the Miami Herald. The Cuban Human Rights Act of 2015 calls for the United States to vigorously oppose human rights violations in Cuba and to maintain the status quo on sanctions, the embargo and federal law regarding Cuba as long as human rights violations continue.

• Mexico deported 37,510 Central American citizens between January and March of this year, reports AFP, citing a Guatemalan government official. This is a 76 percent increase over the same period last year. This is part of an ongoing trend: in 2014 Mexico deported 114,009 Central Americans, more than the 72,692 expelled in 2013. According to Mexican statistics, over 200,000 undocumented foreigners, mostly from Central America, cross into the country each year on the way to the U.S.

• The UN's High Commission for Human Rights will install an mission in Tegucigalpa according to Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández. The office will work closely with the nation's human rights officials, he announced yesterday, according to Reuters. Honduras has one of the highest murder rates in the world, due to drug and gang related violence, surpassed only by neighboring El Salvador. In 2014 there were 68 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, and most go unpunished, according to human rights organizations. 

• The U.S. is applying a "carrot for Cuba and a stick for Venezuela," possibly with the intention of dividing the ALBA governments, according to Bolivian president Evo Morales. Nonetheless, Bolivia and the U.S. are taking steps to reestablish normal diplomatic relations, reports AFP, seven years after Bolivia expelled the U.S. ambassador accusing him of supporting a right-wing plot against the government.

• South Korea's president, Park Geun-hye started a 12 day Latin America tour in which she will visit Colombia, Perú, Chile and Brazil. It is her first official trip to the region. 

Top Latin America Stories, April 15, 2015

Cuba's off the list

Obama has called for Cuba to be removed from the State Department's list of countries that sponsor terrorism. Cuba has been on the list -- which only has four countries -- since 1982, due to its support of FARC guerrillas in Colombia and Basque separatists in Spain, among others, reports the AP. Cuba's removal from the list has been a major sticking point in the diplomatic negotiations to reestablish relations between the two countries.
“The world has changed, and the world has changed particularly in Latin America,” said a senior official quoted in the New York Times. The official was alluding to an absence of the kind of insurgencies that Cuba once supported, activity that led to its placement on the list in 1982. The piece also notes that analysts have said the designation has more to do with politics than terrorism.
There will now be a 45 day period of review by Congress, after which the designation will become official. Though lawmakers can vote to block the White House initiative, Obama could in turn veto their stance.

The designation carries sanctions, including bans on U.S. foreign assistance, defense exports and sales, as well as controls on the exports of some goods and financial restrictions, reports the Los Angeles Times. 
The Miami Herald reports the move will receive heavy opposition in Congress. Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said it was a “terrible” decision because Cuba remains a state sponsor of terrorism. And Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, said the administration jeopardized U.S. national security with its action to absolve Cuba of its “anti-American terrorist activities” across the globe. “Once again President Obama has demonstrated his eagerness to capitulate to dictators has no bounds,” he said.

News Briefs

• The Miami Herald has a piece on the confrontations between Cuban and Venezuelan government supporters and opponents at the Panama Summit of the Americas. There are videos of the encounters, in which civil activists were repudiated with shouts of "mercenaries" and "murderers."
  
  
• Salvadoran women are persecuted for miscarriages and stillbirths, under a draconian abortion law that has no exceptions for rape, incest, malformed fetuses or danger to women's health. Officials accuse women of causing the death of their babies, and women face up to 50 years of jail, according to an feature in the Los Angeles Times. Activists in El Salvador are lobbying Congress to pardon the women who are jailed for miscarriages or stillbirths officials blame on them. Activist Sara Garcia said Salvadoran laws disproportionately harm women who are poor and uneducated, but also reflect a general "hatred of women." 

• Over 500 gangs -- predominantly composed of youths -- are terrorizing cities across Colombia according to a piece from last week en El Tiempo. Many respond to larger criminal organizations which make use of the laxer punishment for minors, according to the piece. This week El Tiempo has an editorial saying youth are behind nearly 10 percent of crimes in Colombia. The piece says the situation is a ticking time bomb, and suggests lowering the age in which minors can be tried as adults as a possible strategy. Though there is little evidence that such a move impacts crime rates, its a perennial debate around the region. Uruguay's citizens rejected such a proposal last year, for example.

• President Dilma Rousseff nominated, Luiz Edson Fachin, a law professor close to leftist social groups to sit on Brazil's Supreme Court as it begins to investigate dozens of ruling coalition politicians for corruption. Rousseff has been criticized for taking more than eight months to fill the 11th seat on the top court that will play a key role in a widening probe into a bigger scandal involving graft and political kickbacks at state-run oil company Petrobras, reports Reuters.

• An operation to oust squatters from a Rio de Janeiro building ended in pandemonium and fires. An oil and mining magnate, Eike Batista, had intended to turn the apartment building into a luxury hotel before his businesses crumbled, according to the AP.

• The Colombian government backtracked on proposed legislation that might have permitted "false positive" cases to be tried in military courts, which have been historically lax with human rights cases. The false positives cases (see yesterday's post) refer to military executions of civilians who were then passed off as guerrilla combatants to increase body counts. Critics of the legislation modified yesterday say the proposed wording would have denied victims justice, says the AP.

• Migrant activists in Mexico hope to carry out the "Viacrucis" march demanding human rights that was cancelled last week due to intimidation from immigration authorities. AP reports that the protesters are calling for an end to immigration raids that have largely prevented them from the riding a freight train north toward the U.S. border. However, authorities are threatening to detain the owners of buses that will transport them, according to Animal Político.

• A court ruling in Mexico could force a broadcaster to reinstate journalist Carmen Aristegui, who was fired last month after helping to uncover a scandal involving the president's family. MVS Radio says she was dismissed for offering, without prior authorization, the broadcaster's name and funding for a new platform for investigative journalism called Mexicoleaks, but Aristegui says her dismissal was politically motivated. The judge ordered a hearing for April 27, according to Reuters. Aristegui is arguing that the broadcaster is infringing on freedom of expression in changed editorial guidelines presented in March, according to Proceso.

• The U.N. is calling for a swift investigation into the death of a Chilean peacekeeper in Haiti. He received a gunshot wound while on his way to administrative duty, as a second sergeant serving in the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti known by its French acronym, MINUSTAH, reports the Miami Herald. It was apparently related to a violent demonstration over a lack of electricity, which comes as Haiti enters the electoral period.

• Some social movements in Haiti feel it's time for foreigners to leave, according to an Haite Liberte piece, republished by Agência Pública. "Social movements in Haiti now often use the term "s elections," indicating that the election results are decided behind the scenes of foreign powers, especially Washington, and local elites through artifice at the polls and vote count. That is, in the view of many Haitians, applicants are selected, not elected."

• Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa says a telephoned death threat forced the abrupt cancellation of a presidential lunch with citizens in a town near Quito, according to the AP.

• In an interview on Yahoo News, Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez talks about the effects of technology for Cuban entrepreneurship, Cuba's USB information transfer network, and the challenges of being a woman in the region. She is optimistic about the political and economic changes the island is undergoing.