Colombian Govt: FARC Won't Get Legislative Seats

With an eventual peace deal between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) looking more and more likely, negotiators are coming under pressure to provide details on how the guerrillas will abandon arms to participate in democratic politics. In response to criticism, the government has clarified that new legislative seats will be granted to conflict-ridden areas, but not directly to the rebels themselves.

In an interview published over the weekend, President Juan Manuel Santos told the Washington Post that he believed a peace deal would be reached with the rebels. “I think this time we will reach an agreement, and we will have peace,” Santos said. While the president has expressed optimism about the talks at various moments in the past year, this is the most certain he has sounded about their potential for success since they began.

The remark came days after the FARC and government negotiating teams announced they had signed an agreement designed to facilitate the guerrillas’ entry into democratic politics. Among the details of the accord included in their joint press release was the pledge to create new mechanisms to guarantee social movements and civil society groups a greater voice in the country’s political process. This would include granting “Special Temporary Peace Constituencies” to conflict-ridden areas, giving them additional elected representatives in the lower house of Congress to advocate their interests “during a transitional period.”

This raised a host of questions about the nature of these new positions, including who would designate which areas would be granted representatives. Critics of the peace process framed the announcement as a thinly-veiled method of granting the FARC direct seats in Congress. Of course, former president and leading government critic Alvaro Uribe was among the first to attack the proposal, calling it an “unacceptable” concession to “terrorists.” This is despite the fact that, as Caracol Radio points out, the ex-president himself suggested granting legislative seats to armed groups as part of a peace process in 2003.

In response to such criticism, the party leaders of the ruling National Unity coalition released a statement on Thursday backing the announcement, relayed to press by Senate President Juan Fernando Cristo. El Espectador reports that Cristo assured reporters that the Temporary Peace Constituencies would not be set aside for the FARC, as filling the positions would involve a process of “open competition,” presumably marked by a popular vote.

This was echoed by chief government negotiator Humberto de la Calle in an op-ed published in leading daily El Tiempo and other local outlets on Sunday.  According to De la Calle, the temporary legislative seats amount to an “innovative” attempt to incorporate largely overlooked regions in governmental decisions. He writes:

Indeed, it does not involve mechanisms to promote the representation of a movement arising from the FARC, but to temporarily increase the presence in the House of Representatives of those territories which have been marginalized from the representative system due to the conflict. This will be through electoral circles in provinces, so they may choose additional representatives. 

Some have said they are constituencies for the FARC. False. All residents can aspire to exercise such representation on behalf of social movements or organizations representing victims, farmers, women and social sectors, for example. Yes, these will be different from ordinary parties. This is a strategic concept aimed at integrating marginalized territories and compensating citizens who have been excluded as a result of the conflict.

News Briefs

• In other Colombian conflict news, El Espectador reports that FARC Secretariat member and negotiator Pablo Catatumbo expressed regrets to reporters about the rebels’ reliance on kidnappings to finance their activity. The guerrilla group officially announced it would cease kidnapping for ransom in February 2012, and Catatumbo claims it was a strategic mistake to have carried them out for so long. “Kidnapping, as you call it and what we call economic retention, has incurred a high political cost,” the FARC leader said in an interview.

• Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has obtained a medical clearance to return to work, a month after she underwent surgery to remove a blood clot on her brain. La Nacion reports that the president is awaiting the results of blood tests and cardiac exams in order to announce when and under what conditions she will officially resume office.

• In an illustration of her support for greater equality for same-sex couples, Telesur reports that leading Chilean presidential candidate Michelle Bachelet sent a representative to the Gay Pride Parade in Santiago on Saturday. Additionally, five of the nine candidates for president attended the march in person, a sign of changing attitudes towards marriage equality in the South American country.

• Meanwhile, a new IPSOS survey suggests, that while Bachelet continues to hold a commanding lead over her opponents ahead of the election next week, she will not receive enough support to avoid a runoff vote in December.

• Speaking at a fundraiser in Miami on Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama said that it was time for the country to consider a new approach to Cuba policy. While he did not propose specific changes, he called for the U.S. to be “creative” and “thoughtful” in updating its Cuba policy. “Keep in mind that when Castro came to power I was just born, so the notion that the same policies that we put in place in 1961 would somehow still be as effective as they are today in the age of the Internet, Google and world travel doesn't make sense,” he said.

• The Associated Press profiles optimism in Cuba that the ongoing overhaul of the Port of Mariel could eventually turn it into a hub of commercial activity and spur economic growth on the island, especially if the U.S. ever ends its 51-year-old embargo. But while officials and some analysts are hopeful that the port’s opening next year will draw in foreign businesses, critics say the local government’s strict employment regulations and reputation for bureaucracy will limit investment.

• As the Venezuelan government attempts to rein in inflation and extend price controls, in a late night address on Sunday President Nicolas Maduro announced increased inspection of stores selling shoes, clothing, cars and other goods in order to make sure they aren’t engaging in price gouging. On Friday he ordered troops to take control of a five-store chain of electronics stores after its prices were deemed to be too high, instructing them to sell their goods at reduced prices and liquidate their inventories, the New York Times reports.

• Miami Herald reporter Jim Wyss, head of the paper’s Andean Bureau, was detained in Venezuela for nearly 48 last week after he was arrested near the Colombian border on Thursday. Local military officials in the western state of Tachira, apprehended Wyss after he asked for an interview with army authorities. According to the Herald, they claimed he did not have permission to report in the country.

• InSight Crime has a translation of an excellent investigation piece by Jose Luis Pardo and Alejandra S. Inzunza on military collusion with drug trafficking in Venezuela, which initially ran in El Universal Domingo.  The two characterize Venezuela as the country where “the drug traffickers wear military uniforms,” noting that the politicization of the armed forces under Hugo Chavez made it easy for certain elements allied with the ruling PSUV to participate in the drug trade without consequences.

Paraguay Supports Lugo’s Bid for UNASUR Chair

Paraguay’s deposed ex-President Fernando Lugo has been proposed as the next Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), and has the support of one of his sharpest critics, current President Horacio Cartes. While this may seem surprising considering their rivalry, it could be a calculated move to isolate a political opponent.

Yesterday, Spanish news agency EFE reported that Lugo said he had received calls from “some foreign ministers of the region” asking him about his interest in the position.  UNASUR is overdue for a new secretary general, after the bloc was unable to come to a consensus in a September meeting in Suriname.

The former leader, who was elected to a senate seat in April, said he had received the endorsement of the governments Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina. He also claimed that President Cartes gave his blessing for the appointment.

This is remarkable considering that UNASUR was the first international organization to condemn Lugo’s removal in June 2012. As a result of the incident, Paraguay was suspended from the regional group, as well as from the Mercosur trading bloc. While Cartes has worked hard to normalize relations with other South American nations since taking office, he has spoken out against his country’s temporary isolation in international forums. He has been especially critical of Mercosur’s decision to take advantage of Paraguay’s absence to approve the admission of Venezuela. Backing Lugo’s bid to lead UNASUR seems like a surefire way to reopen these old wounds.

However, Cartes does not see it as such. In remarks to Paraguay’s ABC Digital, the president explained his support for Lugo’s bid for UNASUR chair. “He asked me if I have a problem (with his candidacy) and for me there is no issue if he is supported by consensus. For our part, I cannot deny it, because it is a position that was always intended to be occupied by ex-presidents,” said Cartes.

The president also assured the paper that his support for Lugo was not part of a political deal, and had more to do with the requirement of consensus than his personal wishes. Still, the arrangement has clear advantages for Cartes. As Lugo pointed out to EFE, “this is a position that gets you out of the country for two years.” It would require the ex-president to abandon his senate seat and adopt a much lower profile in domestic politics. When put that way, it’s easy to interpret Cartes’ support as an attempt to neutralize a political rival.

News Briefs

• According to Peru’s  El Comercio and La Republica,  lawmakers’ recent controversial decision to elect Congresswoman Martha Chavez as head of a legislative committee on human rights, which was opposed by civil society organizations because of her denial of past state abuses, has been invalidated. It seems the vote for her nomination was carried out without the necessary number quorum, and a new vote will be held next Tuesday.

• The Miami Herald reports on a so-called “Marcha Autoconvocada” (Self-Convened March) scheduled to take place across Venezuela tomorrow. Esteban Gerbas, who the Herald discloses has “been promoting the event through social networks,” describes the planned event as a non-partisan demonstration against both the opposition’s “lack of leadership” and President Nicolas Maduro’s economic policies. The paper also notes that the protests have been endorsed by opposition figures Congresswoman Maria Corina Machado and Leopoldo Lopez, whose Voluntad Popular party issued a statement encouraging Venezuelans to turn out tomorrow.

• President Maduro has provided further fodder for critics of militarization in Venezuela. In a public address yesterday in a poor neighborhood on the edge of Caracas, the president called for a system of anti-aircraft guns to be put up at key points in the mountains above the city. El Universal reports that Maduro said it would be necessary to prevent “a foreign, imperialist enemy military aviation force from entering the city.”  

• The Venezuelan economy has reached what the Wall Street Journal calls a “dubious milestone:” the annual inflation rate there has risen above 50 percent for the first time since Hugo Chavez took office in 1999. In a column for The Guardian, economist Mark Weisbrot argues that inflation is a manageable issue, and that its cause is not ramped-up public spending as Chavista critics suggest, but a reduction in the supply of dollars to the foreign exchange market.

• This week’s issue of The Economist features an overview of an Ecuadorean court’s attempt in September to block the release of “A Tragedy Hidden Away”, a book which details a massacre of a small Amazonian tribe by another, an incident that the authors claim is the result of government negligence and the state’s interest in exploiting oil fields in the area.

• Writing for the U.S. Institute of Peace’s Olive Branch blog, Colombia conflict expert Virginia Bouvier has an assessment of the recently-announced agreement between FARC and government negotiators over the rebels’ future political participation. Bouvier argues that the announcement is a major breakthrough, and that future negotiations will be far easier by comparison because it will involve “the symptoms and consequences of the conflict and the particulars of how the peace deal will unfold rather than the causes of the fighting.”

• The government of Chile has issued a public health warning for Valparaiso, the country’s third-largest city, where a three week strike by a local garbage collectors’ union has caused waste to pile up and overflow into the streets, El Mercurio reports.

• The Associated Press reports that a protest in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince turned violent yesterday, with clashes breaking out between anti-government demonstrators, police and supporters of President Michel Martinelly. The AP notes that  the United Nations issued a statement urging the government to hold elections, which have been due since November 2011.

• The government of the Dominican Republic is pushing back against human rights groups’ claims that the recent Supreme Court ruling denying citizenship to children of immigrants will affect some 200,000 individuals. According to Dominican officials, only 24,000 could lose their citizenship as a result of the decision, because they have been improperly registered. However, this figure does not include the thousands of people who have been denied access to the civil registry in the first place. Today’s Washington Post features an editorial blaming ruling on discrimination against Haitian migrants, which the paper’s editorial board compares to the difficulties faced by migrants in the U.S. “And much like the United States’ political class, Dominican authorities have balked at extending fair treatment and equal status to those migrants,” the Post notes, urging the U.S. to put pressure on the country to reverse the decision. 

• Reuters profiles a public opinion survey commissioned in Brazil by the transportation sector lobby CNT and conducted by pollster MDA, which showed that President Dilma Rousseff’s personal approval rating in November stood at 58.8, and her government’s approval rating at 39 percent. The poll suggests that if next year’s election were held this month, she would likely win without a runoff.

• International and domestic human rights groups have hailed a recent Mexican Supreme Court ruling which confirmed that evidence given under torture is inadmissible. The decision resulted in the court ordering the release of Israel Arzate Melendez, who had admitted to a role in the 2010 murder of several teenagers in Ciudad Juarez after allegedly being subjected to electric shocks and asphyxiated by police interrogators.  However, Animal Politico reports that the case against Arzate has not been dropped, and prosecutors in Chihuahua State say they will seek a Presunto Culpable, (Presumed Guilty), the widely acclaimed 2008 documentary about Mexico’s rickety justice system, is facing yet another legal challenge. Proceso reports that the film’s producers, Roberto Hernandez and Layda Negrete, face three different civil lawsuits for a total of over two billion dollars. The plaintiffs in each case are individuals who claim the movie unfairly portrays them as either false witnesses or corrupt officials. Later today, a judge in Morelia is expected to rule on whether it was lawful for a local theater to screen the film, which Hernandez says could pave the way to allow pre-publication censorship in the country.

Colombia Opens Door to FARC's Participation in Politics

After over five months of dialogue, the negotiating teams of the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have signed a preliminary agreement paving the way for the rebels' eventual political participation, the second item in the six-point agenda for talks.

In a joint press release, the parties described the agreement as “promoting pluralism and political inclusion.” While the communiqué did not list the specifics of the agreement, it outlined its content in three basic points, including:  1.) honoring rights and guarantees for the exercise of political opposition, including access to the media 2.) the establishment of new mechanisms of direct democratic participation and 3.) promoting greater participation in governance among the most vulnerable populations.

The Associated Press reports that President Juan Manuel Santos praised the agreement in a national address yesterday, saying “We have come farther than ever before.” Hector Riveros, who oversaw peace negotiations with the rebels under then-President Cesar Gaviria in the mid-1990s, told the news agency he believed the current peace process had made the most progress since talks in the 1980s.

The head of the government’s negotiating team, Humberto de la Calle, said that the agreement would pave the way for a new “opening for democracy,” in Colombia, La FM Radio reports.  De la Calle cautioned, however, that it would only apply if all six points of the peace agenda are fulfilled. While the negotiating teams have agreed on land reform and political participation, The BBC notes that the remaining issues include disarmament, drug trafficking, rights of the victims and implementing the peace deal.  

La Silla Vacia takes a critical look at the agreement, pointing out that despite the FARC’s stated intention to empower social movements with the agreement, it could also be interpreted as an attempt to boost their political profile in areas where they have a greater presence. According to the Colombian news site, this “could provide a powerful political platform for the FARC to drift into civilian life if they truly show that they have support bases that believe in their ideas and vote for them without the pressure of arms.”

This is a big if. Today’s El Tiempo reports that, according to the latest AmericasBarometer public opinion survey in the country,  just 17 percent of 1,505 respondents living in conflict areas said they wanted to see the FARC have a role in conventional politics. However, 59 percent said they supported the peace talks. This suggests that those most impacted by the armed conflict are simply tired of violence, and are not looking to the rebels as a post-war force for political change.

News Briefs

• In Lima on Tuesday, Peru21 reports that hundreds of protesters came out in a demonstration against Congress’ decision to appoint Congresswoman Martha Chavez as head of a legislative working group on human rights policy. As La Mula has reported, Chavez has repeatedly denied that the state committed crimes during the country’s armed conflict. She is also known for having said that a Truth and Reconciliation Report “should be thrown in the trash.” In remarks to El Pais, the National Coordinator of Human Rights Director Rocio Silva Santisteban said the appointment was tragic proof of lawmakers’ lack of attention to human rights issues. El Comercio reports that President Ollanta Humala’s Gana Peru party has condemned the appointment and called Chavez “unqualified” to head the commission, while the opposition Fuijmorista bloc has rallied behind her.

• Yesterday, Nicaraguan lawmakers began to study a proposal which would end a constitutional ban on consecutive presidential terms in the Central American country. National Assembly secretary Alba Palacios told the AP that she and six other legislators had formed a committee to assess the bill, and plan on consulting with civil society, academic, religious and opposition groups. The Guardian notes that the Supreme Court has already ruled against term limits, so it’s unclear if the law is necessary to formalize the decision.

• A new poll in El Salvador shows that FMLN candidate Salvador Sanchez Ceren has a slight lead over his closest rival, Norman Quijano of the conservative ARENA party, ahead of February’s presidential election. Sanchez Ceren has support of 29.4 percent of Salvadorans, followed by 27.6 percent for Quijano. Former President Tony Saca remains in third place, with 12 percent support. Some 31 percent remain undecided. El Nuevo Herald profiles claims by some in El Salvador who say Saca is splitting the conservative vote, with some even suggesting that he is purposefully attempting to aid the FMLN’s chances.

• While most English-language coverage of the Nicaraguan constitutional reform has focused on its language allowing reelection, it involves other important changes as well. Tim Rogers of Nicaragua Dispatch breaks these down, noting that it would also give the president new decree powers, authorizes the removal from Congress of legislators who defy party leadership, and allows active-duty members of the police and military to hold office.

• The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) has released a new report which looks at the impact of Honduras’ 2009 coup on economic inequality.  In “Honduras Since the Coup: Economic and Social Outcomes,” researchers Jake Johnston and Stephan Lefebvre argue that deposed President Manuel Zelaya made important gains against poverty before his ouster. In the years since his removal, economic equality, unemployment and underemployment have increased dramatically, and the CEPR report claims that most of this is due to decreases in social spending rather than the 2008–09 global recession.

• WOLA Senior Fellow Coletta Youngers has an excellent response to a particularly inflammatory op-ed recently written by Wall Street Journal columnist Mary Anastasia O’Grady. Youngers takes issue with OGrady’s characterization of Bolivia as a “repressive narco-state” which has “turned Bolivia into an international hub of organized crime and a safe haven for terrorists.” As the WOLA researcher points out, Bolivia is not identified by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist haven, and the European Union Ambassador to Bolivia, Tim Torlot, recently flat-out denied that Bolivia was anything near a “narco-state.”

• In the wake of the recent violent clash between coca eradicators and growers in the northern Apolo region last month, Bolivia’s ruling MAS party has motioned to postpone a revaluation of its laws regarding drugs and controlled substances (including coca cultivation quotas). Last year, the party had resolved to reform the bill in 2014, but El Deber reports that this will be postponed until after next year’s general election.

• In its continuing efforts to rein in currency speculation, the Venezuelan government has announced tighter controls over its foreign exchange system, including the creation of a new agency tasked with administering dollars. According to President Nicolas Maduro, the institute will ensure that dollars flow to imports and reduce the amount that wind up on the illegal black market.

• El Universal reports that in a 4-1 ruling, the Mexican Supreme Court has overturned a lower court decision which freed convicted drug trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero, accused of killing two DEA agents in 1985. Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department has announced a new bounty for Car Quintero, offering up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

• The L.A. Times examines the Mexican port city of Lazaro Cardenas, where federal police and military personnel have taken over local police duties in an attempt to crack down on cartel activity across the state of Michoacan. Security analysts say the move is a major blow to the finance structures of criminal groups in the state, but it remains to be seen if the presence of federal authorities will bring a long-term solution to endemic corruption and drug violence.

• Yesterday, Jamaican lawmakers approved a measure to make it the first Caribbean country to completely eliminate criminal defamation provisions from its law books, a move which was hailed by local and international press freedom advocates alike.

Rios Montt Trial Set to Resume in 2015

It seems the retrial of former Guatemalan de facto leader Efrain Rios Montt for genocide and crimes against humanity, initially set for next April, has been pushed back. Prensa Libre reports that the date of the trial has been slated for January 5, 2015, as the competent court has a full schedule until then.

Hector Reyes, a lawyer for the plaintiffs in the case with the Center for Human Rights and Legal Action (CALDH), criticized the new date to the AFP. While he claimed that mobilizing victims to testify in court again -- after the Constitutional Court effectively annulled their testimony by overturning a guilty ruling in June -- would not be a challenge, he argued that putting off the court date so long was a violation of their rights.

“As lawyers we believe that the victims’ access to justice is being greatly postponed…and we think that the case deserves to have a date scheduled sooner than 2015, because justice for victims of the armed conflict has been ignored,” Reyes said.

There are other reasons for concern about the postponement; after all, Rios Montt is getting on. The general is 87 years old, and has a number of health complications. His doctors say he has high blood pressure, spinal cord and prostate problems. In September, he underwent surgery for the latter issue. The shock alone of the initial guilty verdict in May allegedly took a toll on Rios Montt, causing him to faint on his way out the courthouse and be taken to a military hospital (though obviously this narrative is suspicious).

Ultimately, with every passing year the odds are steadily growing that the ex-dictator will die before his court date.

According to El Periodico, the prosecution is hopeful that the tribunal will be able to hear the case sooner than anticipated, as happened in February when judges moved the trial up from mid-August to March 19.

Before then, however, the courts will have to give a final decision on whether a 1986 general amnesty decree passed by the military regime can be applied to Rios Montt. Late last month the Constitutional Court ordered the First Chamber of Appeals to reevaluate and clarify the argument against the validity of the amnesty, and the lower court has not yet given a ruling on the matter.

News Briefs

• Just as the specter of amnesty resurfaced in Guatemala, on October 25 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued a statement urging the Central American country to prosecute civil war-era human rights abusers. While the commission did not identify Rios Montt by name, it advised the Guatemalan government that the amnesty decree “does not represent an obstacle to investigations into grave violations of human rights which occurred during the armed conflict, nor to the identification, trial and eventual sentencing of those responsible.” Meanwhile, CALDH Director Juan Francisco Soto has announced that victims of abuses committed by Guatemalan state security forces will file a petition to the IACHR today take up their case against the ex-dictator, EFE reports. It is unclear if the commission will accept the appeal, however, as petitioners must first demonstrate that they have exhausted all legal remedies in their countries.

• Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff announced yesterday she would request Congress to pass legislation which would set aside 20 percent of government jobs to black Brazilians, which she said was necessary to promote affirmative action in the government’s hiring process. Although the AP claims she has not sent the bill to lawmakers yet, Estadão reports that she did so yesterday.

• The Associated Press has an excellent investigation into Venezuela’s public health care system, which is facing shortages in medical equipment, drugs. Medical workers consulted by the AP also say the government has not provided resources necessary to replace broken machines, forcing hospitals to deny care to some patients. Caracas-based human rights group PROVEA took a critical look at the issue in September, accusing the government of failing to investigate misuse of funds meant to purchase prescription medicine, and of not funding necessary upkeep for medical equipment at cancer treatment centers.

• Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has officially declared December 8 a national holiday, in commemoration of Hugo Chavez’s final speech and public appearance before his death. The day falls on the same date as upcoming local elections, which has spurred criticism that the president is seeking to influence their outcome. According to El Nacional, the official decree calls on all Venezuelans to "honor with thought and action the heritage and universal legacy" of Chavez.

• It seems the decision by the Colombian government negotiating team and FARC rebels to extend the current recent round of negotiations in Havana  has paid off. El Tiempo reports that both parties are expected to sign a preliminary accord today regarding their future political participation, the second of five points on their agenda. This has not yet been confirmed by representatives of either party, however. On Monday the negotiating teams announced that they would change the format for talks, allotting more time in between recesses, and shorter breaks overall.

• Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has announced that his administration will send a formal complaint letter to Russia, alleging that two Russian bombers violated the country’s airspace in a flight between Venezuela and Nicaragua last week.

• In an illustration of the complicated relationship between community self-defense organizations and state security forces in Mexico, leaders of vigilante groups in the southwestern state of Michoacan have said they will pull back their activity in the area in response to the presence of federal troops, Excelsior and the AP report.

• The New York Times has a good overview of the recently-announced discovery of a dictatorship-era cache of documents which shed new light on the junta’s persecution of cultural figures as well as political activists. According to the NYT, among the find is a 19-page list of artists and intellectuals that the government believed to have subversive leanings, including novelist Julio Cortazar and folk singer Mercedes Sosa.

• Argentine media giant Clarin, which lost a major court battle last week when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of an anti-media monopoly law, has unveiled its plan to comply with the ruling. In a statement presented with the plan, Clarin said it was doing so “under the threat of confiscation,” and still planned to challenge the measure in international tribunals.

• The L.A. Times profiles a new report due to be released today by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) on income inequality in Honduras. According to the report’s authors: “In the two years after the coup, Honduras had the most rapid rise in inequality in Latin America and now stands as the country with the most unequal distribution of income in the region.”

El Salvador Sees Lingering Civil-Military Divide

In recent weeks, Salvadoran news site El Faro has had some interesting coverage of the tense relationship between President Mauricio Funes and the leadership of the country’s armed forces. More than twenty years after its end, the civil war continues to shape El Salvador’s political climate, with the country’s first leftist government unable to exert full control over the military.

In January 2012, President Funes ordered the army to cease honoring members of the armed forces who have been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. This move, he insisted, was necessary in order for the country to recognize the atrocities committed during its armed conflict. In a symbolic gesture Funes gave the speech at El Mozote, site of a brutal 1981 massacre that left some 1,000 people dead.

Rather than following the instructions of the president -- the commander-in-chief, according to the constitution -- the army created a special committee to “analyze and interpret” the order. Nearly two years later, it has not reached a conclusion, and the military continues to celebrate the legacies of controversial figures like Lieutenant Colonel Domingo Monterrosa and Major Jose Armando Azmitia Melara, who commanded the troops responsible for the El Mozote killings.

Just last month, the army had a ceremony in the town of Joateca, located just twenty minutes from El Mozote, bringing together some 200 troops to commemorate a battle in which Monterroza and Azmitia are remembered as heroes. One of the units involved, the Third Brigade of San Miguel, is even known as the “Domingo Monterrosa Brigade.”  

On top of their resistance to Funes’ order, the armed forces have put pressure on the administration to increase military spending, as El Faro noted in a recent editorial.

The irony of this is that Funes is one of the most military-friendly presidents in El Salvador’s post-war history. In addition to appointing military figures like General David Munguia Payes to top cabinet posts, he has approved budgets allotting record amounts to the army, and its ranks have grown by some 60 percent under his administration. If, in spite of this, the Salvadoran armed forces feel entitled to push back against the president’s orders, it may be worth asking whether they represent a threat to the health of democracy in the Central American country.  

News Briefs

• Lawmakers of Nicaragua’s ruling Sandinista party have submitted a reform package which could pave the way for President Daniel Ortega’s indefinite reelection. The AFP reports that the legislation would cement a Supreme Court decision which ruled that term limits violate an individual’s right to political participation, and allowed Ortega to run for reelection in 2011. According to Confidencial, a special legislative committee will begin assessing the bill today, and the ruling party is hoping to pass it before the end of the year.

• The Argentine government has announced the discovery of some 1,500 secret files kept by the 1976-1983 military junta. Telam reports that Defense Minister Agustin Rossi told reporters the files contained secret transcripts of junta meetings from March 24, 1976 to December 10, 1983, kept in chronological order and organized by subject, which would be released to the public soon.

• On Monday, Folha de São Paulo published a report alleging that Brazil’s intelligence agency spied on foreign diplomats in the country, tracking their movements and keeping tabs on their meetings with political and business figures in Brazil. The report implied some hypocrisy in Brazil’s indignant response to revelations that the U.S. National Security Agency spied on personal and official communications of government officials, but the New York Times’ Simon Romero points out that Brazil’s actions stand “in sharp contrast” to the NSA’s eavesdropping operations.

• The Colombian government and FARC rebels have decided to extend the latest round of talks by yet another day, the AFP reports. Expectations are mounting that the two will announce an agreement on the current agenda item, democratic political participation, soon.

• Semana has obtained some interesting details about the recent Colombian Constitutional Court ruling which overturned a law seeking to expand the military’s internal jurisdiction over crimes committed by its personnel. According to the magazine, the court’s debate over the decision was extremely heated, with justices accusing each other of having vested interests in the issue.

• A visit to Haiti by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan was disrupted yesterday by protesting students in the capital city of Port-au-Prince, who burned tires and clashed with police outside the presidential offices. The Washington Post’s Answer Sheet blog questions the merits of Duncan’s Haiti visit, arguing: “It’s hard to see how [the U.S. education reformer’s push for standardized testing] is going to do much good in Haiti — but, then again, it hasn’t been successful in the United States either.” 

• Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua, speaking to reporters in Mexico City on an official visit, confirmed that efforts to improve diplomatic relations with the United States have frozen, and will remain so as long as the U.S. continues “interventionist activities.” Meanwhile, in another development sure to complicate U.S.-Venezuela relations, officials in the South American country have seized oil equipment owned by U.S. contractors. According to Reuters, the company had refused to work after failing to receive payment from the Venezuelan government.

• Venezuelan Politics and Human Rights looks at President Nicolas Maduro’s combative stance against critical media coverage, which has resulted in an increased crackdown on some private outlets. While the opposition is attempting to fight this by promoting online media, it is unclear how successful this effort has been in reaching the broader public.

• As part of its ongoing efforts to rein in criminal activity in the troubled state of Michoacan, the Mexican government has announced that it has deployed armed forces to secure the key port of Lazaro Cardenas. El Universal reports that a combined force of federal police, military and navy personnel will take over police duties in the area, as the local police have been largely coopted by the Knights Templar drug gang. Security analyst James Bosworth notes that the fact that criminal group has shown itself willing to go after infrastructure targets is a potential threat, as an attack on the port could have a sizeable impact on Mexico’s economy. 

Honduras’ Top Cop Plays Up U.S. Support

Alberto Arce of the Associated Press has a revealing interview with Honduran General Juan Carlos Bonilla, the controversial National Police director accused of corruption and human rights abuses.  As Bonilla’s first interview with a reporter since 2011, it is well worth reading in full, and contains several interesting tidbits for Honduras-watchers.

Perhaps the most significant of these is Bonilla’s insistence that, despite the U.S. State Department’s attempts to distance him from security aid and cooperation programs, he has a close working relationship with American authorities. The police official described the U.S. government as his “best ally and support,” and stressed that his department regularly receives operational assistance from the U.S.:

Throughout the afternoon and evening, Bonilla returned frequently to the support he receives from the U.S. Embassy for police operations. In one case, he ordered a subordinate to track a police commander with possible ties to drug traffickers. “I want to know where he is now. Find their phones and tap them. I will ask the Embassy for help,” he said.

This allegedly close relationship contradicts the State Department’s claims that it does not provide assistance to police units under Bonilla’s command. In March, Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfield told reporters that the U.S. had no dealings with Bonilla or the roughly “20 officers or officials” who work directly under him. “We have no relations with him; we don’t give him so much as a dollar or even a cent,” Brownfield said. Under this logic, the U.S. has continued to provide police aid to Honduras despite accusations that Bonilla is linked to extrajudicial killing squads, and more recently, that he is overlooking forced disappearances and has used his position to intimidate government critics.

Another interesting element of the AP piece is Arce’s effort to highlight Bonilla’s personality. In spite of the widely held image of him as a hawkish, ruthless security type, the general comes off as a surprisingly cultured intellectual:

In private, many Hondurans say they are terrified of Bonilla. In the interview, however, he was unwaveringly gracious, smiling even when answering the most pointed questions. He showed off his library of hundreds of books on drug-trafficking, history and philosophy, underlined or marked with colored Post-it notes. The feared general liberally quotes French social theorist Michel Foucault and Austrian writer Stefan Zweig.

The interview apparently ended with Bonilla lamenting the allegations against him and quoting a Sun Tzu passage about false impressions. Who knew that a man known to enemies and allies alike as “El Tigre” could have such a sensitive side?

News Briefs

• After the negotiating teams of the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) declared that the latest round of peace talks -- set to end on Friday -- would be extended until today, El Tiempo reports that both parties are expected to announce that some progress has been made in the agenda. According to the paper, President Juan Manuel Santos has authorized government negotiators to adopt a changed schedule in the talks, which involves fewer breaks between dialogue rounds.  

• Newspaper El Pais stirred up controversy in Uruguay over the weekend after it claimed that the government of Brazil would be sending a delegation of officials, including Vitore Maximiano, the Rousseff administration’s drug czar, to meet with Uruguayan lawmakers to speak out against the smaller country’s marijuana legalization proposal. The Montevideo-based paper reported that the delegation would be led by Brazilian Congressman Osman Terra, and would meet with the Uruguayan Senate Health Committee, which is currently debating the bill. However, this proved to be inaccurate. Maximiano told Radio 180 that not only had he never been invited to speak to the committee, he would decline the invitation if it were offered. “Brazil respects the Uruguayan position and obviously will not interfere in the direction of its policy,” the drug czar said. Rio Grande do Sul Governor Tarso Genro, another official El Pais claimed would join the delegation, told Radio 180 that while he planned to travel to Montevideo and meet with Uruguayan President Jose Mujica this week, this had nothing to do with the marijuana bill. Ultimately it seems this “delegation” will only consist of Terra, whose opposition to the measure is unsurprising considering that he sponsored a controversial forced treatment bill in Brazil earlier this year.

• In an overview of classified agency documents obtained Edward Snowden, The New York Times finds that the National Security Agency was deeply involved in a Cold War-like struggle to rein in Venezuela’s foreign policy influence in recent years. The NYT reports that an NSA goal included “preventing Venezuela from achieving its regional leadership objectives and pursuing policies that negatively impact U.S. global interests.” This included monitoring the government and personal email accounts of the top ten officials involved in economic policy in the country.

• On Sunday, O Globo ran a report on the use of force by police in Brazil. Citing data from an unpublished report by the Brazilian Forum of Public Security, the paper found evidence of a disturbing trend: some 1,890 people died at the hands of police in 2012, an average of five people a day. Samira Bueno, the organization’s director, called the figure “unacceptable,” noting that less people are killed annually by police in Mexico, despite the drug-fueled conflict there.

• According to G1 Noticias, some 70 police officers assigned to a unit linked to the disappearance and death of Rio de Janeiro bricklayer Amarildo de Souza have been replaced for “psychological reasons.” Colonel Frederico Caldas, commander of the Police Pacification Units in the Rocinha favela, told reporters that the officers “felt harassed, many intimidated,” by the public response to de Souza’s death.

• For the first time, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has ruled in favor of a survivor of torture committed by state agents of Chile’s 1973-1975 Pinochet dictatorship. The court has ordered Chile to pay $32,000 in damages to Leopoldo Garcia Lucero, who fled to the UK in exile after being detained and tortured for over a year and a half, an experience which left him permanently handicapped. The BBC reports that lawyers say the decision sets a precedent for other survivors of abuse by the Pinochet regime.

• In the latest sign of improving ties between Mexico and Cuba, Mexican Finance Minister Luis Videgaray has announced that his country would forgive 70 percent of a debt held by Cuba for some $487 Million in development funds.

• The Cuban government has ordered the immediate closure of dozens of unregistered private movie theaters and video game salons, an increasingly popular business that has sprung up amid a push for economic reform on the island. On Saturday, an announcement by the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers ordered owners of the theaters, which had previously operated in a legal grey area, to “cease immediately in whatever kind of private business activity.’’

• The Economist has published a rundown of the latest regional poll by Chile’s Latinobarometro. Among its findings is that while support for democratic governance has remained steady over the past several years, it has seen a ten percent increase in popularity in Venezuela since the last poll in 2011, at 87 percent. In stable Costa Rica, meanwhile, the number of respondents who say democracy is preferable to any other form of government has fallen by twelve points, and now stands at 53 percent.

• As Colombia braces for the arrival of U.S. coffee giant Starbucks, which has announced it will open some 50 chain stores in the South American country in the coming years, its biggest local rival is fighting back. The Miami Herald reports that Colombia’s Juan Valdez plans to open up the same amount of coffee shops in South Florida.

Fujimori Denied House Arrest

A Peruvian court has denied imprisoned former President Alberto Fujmori’s petition to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest, ruling that the request was out of proportion to the seriousness of his crimes.

La Republica reports that on Tuesday, Judge Segundo Morales Parraguez rejected the request on the grounds that it was inapplicable in cases of crimes against humanity. While Morales did not question the veracity of Fujimori’s claims to be in poor health (his family and supporters maintain he suffers from everything from tongue cancer to depression and low blood pressure, though medical experts say he has no terminal illness), the judge said such requests for leniency could only be granted in cases involving “crimes of less seriousness or social harm.”

The decision was applauded by human rights advocates in the country, though some criticized the court for accepting the case in the first place. Gloria Cano of the Association for Human Rights in Peru (APRODEH), for instance, told reporters the request should have been thrown out. “This petition should have been declared inadmissible, because there is no legal basis for the request. Our legal code clearly states that the prison sentence must be carried out in a public jail,” Cano said.

William Castillo, the ex-president’s attorney, said he would challenge the law in Peru’s Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Fujimori is facing a new trial for paying off editors of tabloid newspapers -- the so-called “chica press” -- with state funds in order to publish defamatory claims about his political opponents.  The hearing has been postponed twice because of Fujimori’s health claims, and is set for November 7, RPP reports.

News Briefs

• In other Peru human rights news, civil society groups in the country have expressed outrage over Congress’ decision to appoint Congresswoman Martha Chavez as head of a legislative working group on human rights policy. The body is charged with monitoring Peru’s response to petitions brought against the state in international organizations, as well as following and evaluating the implementation of the recommendations of Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR). Peruvian news site La Mula reports that this is particularly controversial given Chavez’s repeated denials of state crimes in the country’s armed conflict. The news site points out that she is known for having said that the CVR’s final report “should be thrown in the trash,” after calling it a “a simplistic effort, riddled with errors.”

• Brazilian Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo met yesterday with top security officials from Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo states to address improving the state’s response to anti-government protests. O Globo reports that Cardozo announced the creation of a new federal police intelligence group which will target violent protests in both states, which have been hotbeds of mass demonstrations in recent months.

• El Espectador reports that the negotiating teams of the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) released a joint statement yesterday announcing that they would extend the latest round of talks in Havana by two days, until Monday. The communiqué said the time would be used to “advance in the discussion and construction of agreements” on the second item of the agenda, political participation.

• In a Reuters interview published yesterday, Colombian Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon said that it would be a “big mistake” for Colombia to cut its military budget or reduce the number of troops in the country. “It would be a big mistake, because even if the terrorist organization disappears, it doesn't mean many of its crimes disappear,” Pinzon told the news agency, adding “I personally think Colombia has a security budget that's very limited.”

• It appears that Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos’s approval rating is making a slight rebound after reaching a record low in the wake of mass rural protests in August. According to a newly-released survey by Gallup, approval for Santos has risen to 29 percent, up from 21 percent in September.

• In the latest development in its ongoing economic reform push, the Cuban government has legalized the practice of renting out public bathrooms, following the success of a pilot program that began in Havana in 2011. The Miami Herald has a copy of the official government announcement, which sets prices for five different kinds of restroom facilities.

• The Nicaraguan government is deploying hundreds of workers to spread insecticide in homes in the capital city of Managua, as well as health professionals tasked with identifying and isolating people with the disease. The AP reports that this is a record year for dengue in Central America, and the Pan-American Health Organization has warned of a new strain of the disease in the region.

• Yesterday, Mexico’s Congress approved a series of new sales taxes on sugary drinks and junk food, including a tax of one peso per liter of soda and an 8 percent sales tax on high-calorie foods like potato chips, sweets and cereal. According to the NYT, President Enrique Peña Nieto is expected to sign the bill into law in January. In remarks to the press yesterday, El Universal reports that the president stressed that the initiative was aimed at lowering childhood obesity, not at any particular company or industry. Bloomberg notes that Mexico has the highest adult obesity rate of any major country after Egypt, and that diabetes took the lives of almost three times the number of homicide victims there in 2011.

• The Guardian and New York Times report on the closure of a high-tech drug-smuggling tunnel leading under the U.S.-Mexico border and into a San Diego warehouse. Officials say the tunnel, which was allegedly operated by the Sinaloa Cartel, is the eighth discovered in the area since 2006.

• The AP has an overview of the case of Alberto Patishtan Gomez, the Mexican indigenous schoolteacher from Chiapas who received a presidential pardon this week after serving 13 years in prison in association with the murder of seven police officers. Human rights groups have long called for his release, citing irregularities in his trial. Animal Politico reports on a press conference he held following his release, in which he thanked his supporters. “They wanted to end my struggle and do away with it, but what they did was multiply it,” he told reporters.

• Over at Venezuelan Politics and Human Rights, Timothy Gil details the work of a special legislative commission created by the ruling United Socialist Party (PSUV) to investigate organizations which receive funding from international foundations, as well as the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)  and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). One of the primary targets of this investigation has been Súmate, a political rights group with links to the opposition. Officials have threatened to prosecute the group under a 2010 law banning organizations and individuals who advocate political participation from receiving foreign funding. Members of the commission have also warned that the government may decide to expel USAID, as Bolivia did earlier this year.

• The L.A. Times profiles opposition in the Caribbean to the Dominican Republic’s recent court decision which denies citizenship to thousands of individuals of Haitian descent in the country, claiming that the D.R.’s representative to the Caribbean Community bloc tried to cancel a meeting in which the 15-member bloc condemned the ruling.