Policy Heavyweights Urge Change on Cuba

Yet another mass letter has been sent to President Barack Obama calling for a shift on U.S. policy towards Cuba. What makes this one stand out, however, is the high profile of those who have signed on to it.

The list includes big names like John Negroponte, the Director of National Intelligence under President George W. Bush, retired Admiral James Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, and former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela. As the Miami Herald reports, it also includes prominent Cuban-American businessmen like Andres Fanjul, Paul Cejas and Carlos Saladrigas.

In all, 44 high-ranking diplomats, civil servants, military officers and business figures signed the letter. While they stopped short of calling for an end to the embargo, they put forth four main proposals, urging Obama to: 1.) Loosen restrictions on travel to Cuba; 2.) increase support for Cuban civil society; 3.) engage with Cuba on humanitarian and security issues of mutual interest and 4.) allow financial institutions to carry out any necessary transactions associated with licensed activities.

Points one and two are each broken down further, with specific  recommendations like ending limits on remittances, allowing Cuban entrepreneurs to pursue internships in the U.S., and allowing American travelers easier access to money in Cuba.

The broad range of Beltway insiders -- and especially the inclusion of conservative figures like Negroponte -- is sure to build momentum in Washington for further changes in Cuba policy. It comes amid similar calls for Obama to use his executive authority to shift the U.S. approach to the island, as well as polling data suggesting that a majority of the U.S. (56 percent, according to a February Atlantic Council survey) supports engaging more directly with Cuba.

News Briefs

• Bloomberg reports that just hours after the publication of the letter, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced that its president and CEO, Thomas J. Donohue, will lead an executive delegation to the island next week to assess the impact of economic reforms there. In a statement, Donohue said the trip would provide “first-hand look at changes in Cuba’s economic policies and whether or not they are affecting the ability to do business there.”

• Last week marked two years since Brazil’s highly-praised freedom of information law went into effect, the result of years of advocacy and lobbying by NGOs. The pro-transparency group Artigo 19, which was instrumental in pushing for the law’s passage, has since submitted hundreds of information requests -- with varying degrees of success. The group has cataloged the 474 information requests sent to some 51 federal entities since the law came into effect on its online observatory, which provides a statistical breakdown of the responses. While most of the requests received some answer, Artigo 19 found a significant percentage to be incomplete or unsatisfactory, a fact which was picked up in an editorial published in today’s Folha de S. Paulo.

• Efforts by the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) delegation to restart the government-opposition dialogue in Venezuela appear to be meeting resistance. While Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño announced yesterday that they had succeeded in “opening up bridges of communication again” between both sides, El Nacional reports that MUD spokesman Ramon Guillermo Aveledo told reporters yesterday that the opposition’s conditions for talks to continue had not been met.

• The Miami Herald has an investigation into the U.S. assets of the new owners of Venezuelan news channel Globovision, Raul Gorrin and Gustavo Perdomo. They are seen as relatively close to the government of President Nicolas Maduro, and the fact that they own property in Miami has been used by Republican lawmakers as evidence of the need for targeted sanctions in Venezuela.  However, in a Washington Post op-ed, David Smilde argues that these would be counterproductive and only reinforce Maduro’s claims that his government is under attack by foreign, imperialist interests.

• Ahead of the June 1 inauguration of Salvadoran President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, Spanish judge and human rights advocate Baltasar Garzon has an op-ed in today’s El Pais in which he expresses hope that the new administration will take steps to facilitate investigations into human rights abuses.

• Chilean President Michelle Bachelet is following up on her promise to reform her country’s education system.  The president submitted the first bill of her reform package, which would end state subsidies for for-profit schools, to lawmakers yesterday. It is expected to be followed up by another bill later this year which would guarantee free university education. While Bachelet framed the measure as “following through with what our students repeatedly said: education is a right, not a privilege,” some student leaders have been found fault with the bill. As La Tercera and Wall Street Journal report, University of Chile Student Union (Fech) President Melissa Sepulveda criticized the reforms as not going far enough.

• Mexican authorities have announced the discovery of 16 bodies in the northern state of Tamaulipas, and Animal Politico reports that state officials said they were victims of an apparent clash between rival gangs in the area. The Associated Press notes that the announcement comes a week after major protests in Tamaulipas, in which thousands participated in a march against violence.

• Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is taking full advantage of the scandal involving his main rival ahead of Sunday’s elections, Oscar Ivan Zuluaga. Referring to the recently-leaked video showing Zuluaga meeting with a hacker accused of attempting to turn up dirt on the negotiators in Havana, Santos accused his opponent of running a “criminal campaign.” Meanwhile, La Silla Vacia has an extremely useful breakdown of the major revelations that have come out since the scandal broke, as well as some of the questions that haven’t yet been answered about the motives behind the video’s release. 

Three Down, Two to Go: Colombia, FARC Reach Agreement on Drugs

Friday was an exciting day for Colombia's peace process. First, the country's two largest guerrilla groups -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN) -- announced that they would both adhere to a unilateral week-long ceasefire ahead of the upcoming May 25 presidential election, to take effect tomorrow.

Following this announcement, government and FARC negotiators in Havana revealed that after five months of dialogue they had finally reached a preliminary deal on the third item on their five-point agenda, drugs and drug trafficking.

For some reason the New York Times reported that Friday's announcement offered little more than "generalities about how it would help farmers who grow plants like marijuana or coca," but there is much more to it than that. The Wall Street Journal, Economist and Reuters each offered more in-depth English coverage of the particulars of the agreement. 

The lengthy joint press communique released on Friday, available here, reveals that the government made three main pledges in the preliminary accord: to create a new system of crop substitution for those who grow illicit substances; launch a new comprehensive program to prevent drug use from a "public health" perspective; and to devise a new strategy to target drug trafficking, money laundering and corruption associated with organized crime. The Colombian state also promised to host an international conference under the auspices of the United Nations to carry out an "objective assessment" of global drug policy, taking into account related "international developments" as well as the Colombian experience. 

From a domestic drug policy perspective, perhaps the most significant component of the accord is the government's promise to prioritize manual eradication over its controversial practice of aerial fumigation. The latter would be avoided "whenever possible," taking into account the local community, human rights principles and environmental concerns.

The guerrillas, for their part, agreed to "resolve the problem of illicit drugs...to put an end to any relationship, which as a function of rebellion, may have developed with this phenomenon." That is probably the closest the FARC -- which has long insisted that its only proceeds from drugs come from "taxing" those who oversee coca cultivation, processing and shipment -- will get to an admission of drug ties.

El Espectador reports that President Juan Manuel Santos cast the agreement in a dramatic light, even though the provisions won't apply until a final peace treaty is reached. Implementing them, he said, would mean that a "Colombia without coca" would be in reach. This may be a bit overstated, but the agreement still has major consequences for the country. As UN representative in Colombia Fabrizio Hochschild reminded reporters, 70 percent of coca cultivation occurs in areas where the FARC-government conflict is still raging, and a lasting peace would greatly facilitate anti-drug operations.

News Briefs

• The announcement on Friday was accompanied by yet another bombshell in Colombia’s residential race, which has been marked by scandals involving both the campaigns of President Santos and his main challenger, the Uribe-backed Oscar Zuluaga. While the latter has so far defended himself against the revelation that a hacker associated with his campaign tried to sabotage the peace talks by downplaying his relationship to him, this has become much more difficult. On Saturday, Semana magazine published a video it obtained of Zuluaga meeting with the hacker, who provided him classified information involving FARC leaders in response to his request to “hit” Santos ahead of the election.  Particularly interesting is the hacker’s claim to have “access” to the U.S. Southern Command and intelligence obtained from its radar aircrafts in the country. Caracol reports that following the revelation, Zuluaga accused the Santos campaign of setting him up.

• Meanwhile, the official window for public polling in Colombia has closed ahead of the May 25 vote, and the last published surveys show a head heat between President Santos and Zuluaga (both with around 28-9 percent of the vote). It is too late to tell whether the publication of the Zuluaga-hacker video will take a toll on his popularity, but even still it is overwhelmingly likely that the race will go to a second-round vote between the two, which analysts have been predicting for some time.

• The Caracas visit of the UNASUR delegation facilitating talks in Venezuela, which was suspended on Friday, was pushed back to Sunday. El Universal reports that the UNASUR foreign ministers met with members of the opposition in the Vatican Embassy yesterday, where the delegates were presented with a list of demands for the government to meet in order for talks to be resumed. These included the creation of an independent, non-governmental truth commission as well as a revision of charges against alleged political prisoners in the country. According to El Nacional, the delegation is expected to present these demands to the government in a separate meeting today.

• Cesar Alvarez, the governor of Peru’s Ancash state whose corrupt dealings were recently described by the AP as a “mini-dictatorship” within Peru  was arrested on Friday. According to El Comercio, a legislative committee is investigating the allegations against him and is expected to submit its reports by the end of the month.

•  La Razon reports that in a unique marketing ploy, a Bolivian first division soccer team has announced it intended to sign President Evo Morales as the latest member of the club. The AP points out, however, that while Morales is a noted soccer fan he has not commented on the offer.

• Newly-elected Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis marked May 17th’s International Day Against Homophobia by hoisting a rainbow flag at his official residence, a move that La Nacion reports was criticized by religious groups in the country. A spokesperson for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, which praised the gesture, told BBC Mundo that it marked the first time the flag had been raised at such a high-level official building.

• The Associated Press profiled a protest organized in Guatemala City on Friday against lawmakers’ recent vote to deny that a genocide took place during the country’s armed conflict. According to the news agency, the “dozens” of participants included some who had lost relatives who had been killed or gone missing during the 36-year civil war.

• Mexico’s largest opposition party, the conservative National Action Party (PAN) has re-elected its current leader, Gustavo Madero, to serve for a second term. Because Madero has worked with Enrique Peña Nieto to pass a number of reforms in recent years, his election is seen as a victory for the president’s agenda. News site Animal Politico notes that the vote was the first opportunity for PAN supporters to directly choose the party’s leader.

• A federal judge in Rio de Janeiro has sparked criticism from religious freedom advocates in the country over a recent decision which effectively found that Afro-Brazilian faiths like Candombla and Umbanda do not constitute religions and are thus not protected from criticism under anti-discrimination laws. As O Dia reports, the judge ruled that they did not meet certain qualifications, citing a lack of a hierarchical structure and a single deity. According to O Globo, public prosecutors will appeal the decision.

• The New York Times profiles the waters of Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay, where the windsurfing and sailing events will take place during the 2016 Summer Olympics and which is known for its notoriously foul stench of sewage. For critics of Brazil’s Olympic preparations, the slow clean-up efforts are yet another addition in a growing list of perceived shortcomings.

• The L.A. Times also looks at Brazil’s World Cup preparations, noting a recent wave of strikes by trade associations and unions across the country, with more planned in the coming days.  

UNASUR Cancels Venezuela Visit Amid Stalled Talks

With dialogue in Venezuela still frozen following the opposition's decision to suspend its participation in the talks, the UNASUR coalition facilitating them has postponed its visit to the country. 

Yesterday, the Brazilian, Ecuadorean and Colombian foreign ministers who make up the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) delegation mediating the dialogue announced that they would not be traveling to Venezuela as planned. The official reason given by Brazilian Foreign Minister Luiz Alberto Figueiredo was that he had been called away to Brasilia unexpectedly, but the timing of the announcement is no coincidence. 

The future of the talks looks uncertain, and in all likelihood the UNASUR ministers determined that their presence could pose more of a risk than a boon to dialogue. After all, the opposition MUD coalition had been planning on using their presence to "explain to them" their grievances regarding the government's alleged failure to deliver concrete results.

If the talks ultimately break down, it will have repercussions for the regional bloc as well as for Venezuela. As Javier Ciurlizza of the International Crisis Group told EFE, the UNASUR ministers likely wanted to avoid being "affected by a failure which occurred in their presence," which would be especially damaging to UNASUR considering that it was specifically asked to mediate the dialogue "over other organizations like the Organization of American States (OAS)."

While no new date has been announced for the UNASUR visit, MUD figures say it is "probable" that it will be rescheduled for Sunday.

News Briefs

• Dominican paper Listin Diario reports that the president of the Dominican Republic, Danilo Medina, has finally presented lawmakers with a bill that would create a path to citizenship for thousands of individuals of Haitian descent in the country, after promising to do so since February. The AP notes that the bill would only provide citizenship rights to those who have official identification documents, a requirement which critics say will ultimately force many to register as foreigners in the very country in which they were born.

• Newly-inaugurated Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis is pressing the United States for clarification of reports that the USAID’s failed “Cuban Twitter” partially operated out of the Central American country. Solis told the AP that he is seeking information on what the U.S. is doing “to prevent this from happening again without authorization from the Costa Rican government.”

• BBC Mundo has an analysis of Guatemalan lawmakers’ recent vote to deny that a genocide took place during the country’s civil war despite a UN-backed truth commission’s finding that state agents committed “acts of genocide” during the conflict. Fortunately, the resolution is non-binding, and will have no legal impact on the pending case against former dictator Efrain Rios Montt.  

• The New York Times looks at Colombia’s presidential race, with the campaigns of President Juan Manuel Santos and challenger Oscar Ivan Zuluaga both adopting significantly dirtier tactics in recent days as the first round vote approaches on May 25.

• Colombia’s two main guerrilla armies, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN) have announced a unilateral ceasefire ahead of the upcoming elections, to take effect betweenMay 20-28, Semana reports.

• In spite of rampant speculation in Latin America that Pope Francis is advancing murdered Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero’s application for sainthood, a senior Vatican spokesman has denied that any such effort is underway.

• A judge has ordered the arrest of Cesar Alvarez, the governor of Peru’s Ancash state which was recently profiled by the AP as a “mini-dictatorship,” in connection with the assassination of state lawmaker Ezequiel Nolasco, who had been one of Alvarez’s fiercest critics. According to El Comercio, Alvarez’s lawyers have challenged the arrest order on the basis that he has already been acquitted of similar charges.

• Major Brazilian cities saw anti-World Cup protests yesterday, which fueled riots in the northeastern city of Recife as well as violent clashes with police in São Paulo. However, O Globo points out that the number of protesters in yesterday’s demonstrations was less than those participating in various ongoing labor union strikes, and is far below the numbers seen during last year’s wave of demonstrations.

• The Washington Post reports on Uruguayan President Jose Mujica’s offer to host six freed detainees of the Guantanamo Bay prison in his country. While Mujica remains on board the idea, he told reporters that the U.S. must take up his offer quickly, as elections are in October and he is only in office until March.

• Today’s L.A. Times profiles the recent report by the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO), which evidence of widespread fraud in the country’s public education system.

Anti-Terrorism Legislation Under Scrutiny in Argentina, Brazil

For the first time since its passage in 2011, a federal prosecutor in Argentina has invoked a controversial anti-terrorism law against a media professional. The case, which involves a journalist accused of inciting violence by filming an act of protest, has civil society groups sounding alarm bells.

La Nacion reports that Juan Pablo Suarez, director of news site Ultima Hora, has been charged by federal prosecutor in the northern province of Santiago del Estero with "sedition" and "incitement of collective violence against institutions," under the provisions of the law. If convicted, he could face up to 12 years in prison. The allegations stem from Suarez’s decision to record and publish footage of the arrest of a protesting police officer during the wave of police strikes that swept the country in December. 

The case has been widely criticized this week by both international (see Reporters Without Borders, the Inter-American Press Society) and domestic (the Center for Legal and Social Studies and Argentine Press Forum) press freedom advocates.

Coincidentally, human rights groups in Brazil are also challenging similar anti-terrorism legislation, which lawmakers have been debating since a series of violent demonstrations last year. Last week Conectas, Article 19 and the Institute for Development and Human Rights and other groups presented senators with a joint report challenging the bill’s potential to criminalize legitimate protest. The report was cited by lawmakers in a Senate Justice Committee meeting yesterday, contributing to a lack of consensus that ultimately postponed a committee vote on the bill by one week.

Despite the worrying status of repressive anti-terrorism legislation in these two countries, there is some positive news on that front elsewhere in the region. It's worth pointing out that Chile, which has long relied on a Pinochet-era anti-terrorism law to prosecute Mapuche activists despite condemnation from UN human rights officials, appears to have turned a corner.

During her campaign for a second term, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet admitted that applying the law in the Mapuche conflict during her first presidency was a mistake. And after she took office in March, Interior Minister Rodrigo Peñailillo announced that the administration would not use the law to prosecute offenders, and expressed optimism for "a new spirit of dialogue" with the Mapuche. When a protestor in Santiago was charged of violating the law last month, the administration swiftly condemned this and dismissed the prosecutor responsible.

News Briefs

• In Venezuela, uncertainty over the continued participation of the opposition MUD coalition in talks with government officials continues. El Nacional reports that in a meeting with the UNASUR delegation today, the opposition is expected to insist that its presence at the negotiating table will depend on whether the government honors alleged agreements regarding freeing political prisoners. Foremost among these is police commissioner Ivan Simonovis, who was jailed over the death of protesters in the April 2002 coup against Hugo Chavez. The Vatican observer to the talks, Aldo Giordano, has expressed his “concern” over their suspension, according to El Universal.

• Meanwhile, opposition protests have heated up, with hundreds of Venezuelan students holding a rally in Caracas yesterday to call for the release of opposition activists who have been arrested in recent demonstrations. According to the BBC, police detained at least 80 demonstrators yesterday.

• Ecuador’s Yasunidos coalition, which organized the signature drive behind the failed bid to trigger a referendum on oil drilling in the Yasuni Amazon reserve, is fighting electoral authorities’ decision to reject the signatures presented last week. According to El Universo, the group has submitted an appeal of the decision to the National Electoral Council (CNE), calling for a recount. Members of the coalition also told the Wall Street Journal that they intended to petition the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of their request is denied.

• The Guardian’s David Hill looks at a new report documenting the increasing influence of Canadian mining companies in Latin America, which was submitted to IACHR by the Due Process of Law Foundation. Hill cites extensively from the report, which finds that Canadian firms are taking advantage of weak legal systems in the region at the expense of local communities, violating indigenous rights and environmental standards in the process.

• Members of the LIBRE political party of former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya were forcibly expelled from the country’s congress building yesterday. The AP claims that the LIBRE activists were protesting recent supreme court nominations, as well as the recent shooting of one of its members, but El Heraldo reports that the protests were caused by a change in security measures at the congressional building.   

• A trial of some of the country’s foremost indigenous leaders has begun in Peru, over a 2009 anti-extraction protest turned into a bloody conflict that left 22 police officers and 10 civilians dead. La Republica notes that a motion to compel then-President Alan Garcia to testify regarding an alleged government order for police to open fire on demonstrators was denied.

• The Miami Herald reports on dissatisfaction with the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement in the South American country, noting that while U.S. exports to Colombia are up, the flow of Colombian goods north fell 12 percent last year. And while the government claims it is still too early to judge the benefits of the trade deal, the perception among many in Colombia is that they have been largely one-sided.

• Today’s New York Times features an op-ed by Anita Isaacs, who offers a dim forecast of the potential for democratic governance in Guatemala. Pointing to the recent nomination of a new attorney general with ties to the party founded by former dictator General Efrain Rios Montt,  she writes: “Abandoned and isolated, Guatemala’s poor have been left to fend for themselves against the people who see any steps toward a fairer, more functional system as a threat to their fortunes and their legacies. Without a watchful eye from abroad, they have been able to revert to their old behavior, making sure the unjust structures that serve their needs stay in place, even at the expense of rising unrest, polarization and violence.”

• The AP has an interesting report on the role of foreign campaign strategists in the recent presidential elections in Panama. While his main opponents relied on two of the most well-known campaign consultants in the region -- Brazil’s Joao Santana and Venezuela’s J.J. Rendon -- President-elect President Juan Carlos Varela hired American Christian Ferry, a former deputy campaign manager for John McCain.

• A new report by the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO) has raised questions about the impact of the public education overhaul launched by President Enrique Peña Nieto last year. As Animal Politico reports, the IMCO found that despite efforts to bring accountability and transparency to the public teacher salary system, it still shows evidence of widespread fraud. For instance, some 70 teachers receive salaries higher than Peña Nieto’s own monthly income of roughly USD $20,000, an exorbitant figure. McClatchy has more of the IMCO report’s findings, noting that hundreds of “ghost schools” receive public funds despite only existing on paper. 

Opposition 'Suspends' Venezuela Talks

The dialogue between the Venezuelan government and opposition has hit a stumbling block, and it may be up to the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) delegation facilitating the talks to keep them alive.

As mentioned in yesterday's post, on Monday evening members of the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) coalition announced that they would be suspending their participation in thematic working group discussions with government officials. The reason, according to opposition figures, was the continued “unjustified repression of students and protesters.”

MUD Secretary General Ramon Guillermo Aveledo confirmed the news in a statement yesterday, in which he blamed a lack of progress on the government. As El Nacional reports, Aveledo accused officials of ignoring initial agreements over the approval of an amnesty law as well as the possibility of freeing imprisoned police commissioner Ivan Simonovis, one of the longest-held alleged political prisoners in the country. The MUD leader also rejected a government proposal for a congressional truth commission to investigate recent violence, saying that the involvement of any political actors -- belonging to either the government or opposition -- would jeopardize the commission’s independence.

President Nicolas Maduro, for his part, has said that the government will stay at the negotiating table, and called on the opposition to resist pressures to withdraw, according to Ultimas Noticias.

Despite the MUD’s suspension of dialogue, the opposition is still expected to send representatives to a UNASUR-facilitated meeting with officials tomorrow, which will be attended by the foreign ministers of Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia. In statements to local press, Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin has appeared to recognize the need for talks to bear fruit soon in order for them to be credible. “We have repeatedly told the Venezuelan government that we should try to move forward in order for people to believe in dialogue in Venezuela, where I think there is no other solution between the parties,” Holguin said.

Indeed, tomorrow’s meeting may be crucial for the future of dialogue between the opposition and government. Writing for El Pais, Caracas-based journalist Ewald Scharfenberg points out that MUD leaders have come under fire from their own base for taking part in the talks, and need to deliver results in order to continue to justify their own participation.

If no meaningful progress is obtained soon, the suspension has set up the MUD for a relatively dignified retreat. Withdrawing now allows its leaders to deny allegations of uselessly collaborating with and legitimizing the government while still claiming that they tried to resolve policy differences in a peaceful forum.

News Briefs

• In a controversial vote yesterday, Guatemala’s unicameral Congress approved a bill that effectively denies that genocide took place during the country’s armed conflict. As Prensa Libre reports, the bill states that its objective is to avoid the “development of conditions contrary to peace which prevent a lasting reconciliation.”

• The government of Mexico has unveiled a new security strategy to address violence in the troubled northern border state of Tamaulipas, where state intelligence chief Salvador de Haro Muñoz was recently shot and killed by alleged cartel gunmen. As Animal Politico reports, the new strategy announced by Interior Minister Miguel Osorio Chong will divide the state into four areas, each of which will have its own team of federal prosecutors. The AP notes that the plan is particularly military-heavy, with an army or navy officer charged with overseeing federal security operations in each of the four areas.

• The debate over the dominant approach to drug policy, which has been ongoing in the OAS system since the 2012 Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, is spreading to other multi-lateral organizations in the hemisphere. Yesterday, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) kicked off its first-ever security ministers’ conference on drug policy in Antigua, Guatemala. El Periodico, noting that the goal is to adopt a combined stance on the issue to present during the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs, has a round-up of statements made by representatives of Chile, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Peru and Ecuador.

• Colombia's highest administrative tribunal, the Colombian Council of State has ruled in favor of a lower court’s decision to honor the precautionary measures requested by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in the case of ousted Mayor Gustavo Petro.  As Semana reports, the ruling provides significant reassurance to Petro that he will be able to remain in office for the duration of his term, and is a major blow to the authority of Inspector General Alejandro Ordoñez, who first ordered Petro’s dismissal.

• Just 11 days before Colombia’s presidential elections, the race appears to be tightening. According to a new poll released by the Centro Nacional de Consultoria, President Juan Manuel Santos is in a dead heat with his closest rival Oscar Ivan Zuluaga, with the survey even showing the Uribista candidate narrowly beating Santos in both the first and second rounds.  

• The AP profiles the release of a new YouTube music video by Colombia’s largest guerrilla army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), produced by the FARC negotiators in Havana along with Cuban rappers Cuentas Claras. The news agency claims that the video, entitled “Colombian People to the Negotiating Table,” demonstrates that the guerrillas “aren't in any rush” to back down on demands for a constitutional assembly and bilateral ceasefire.

• While there have been several reports in the U.S. press on the chronic delays in Brazil’s World Cup preparations, for many Brazilians the projects that have been completed are just as scandalous. For example, the Wall Street Journal reports on Brasilia’s Mane Garrincha National Stadium, which cost about 2 billion reais, or roughly $900 million. The price tag is triple the initial projected cost and makes it the most expensive stadium ever built in the country, a record which auditors claim was due in part to falsely inflated costs.

• The Guardian looks at the mass occupation of an abandoned factory in Rio de Janeiro by thousands of people who claim they have been priced out of their homes in the pacified favela of Alemão. As the paper notes, the gentrification associated with Rio’s favela “boom” is one of the most commonly cited reasons for homelessness in the city.

• Over at Honduras Culture and Politics, Russell Sheptak offers a suspicious look at a new system of municipal violence observatories in Honduras, which will compete with the respected National Autonomous University’s (UNAH) Observatory of Violence. The author notes that Security Minister Arturo Corrales has long been critical of the UNAH’s figures, and suggests that the creation of a new system may be an attempt to cushion the government from blame over the country’s alarming national crime statistics.

Uruguay's Marijuana Law Comes Under Tax Pressures

In a July article for InSight Crime, I wrote the following about political pressures on Uruguay's marijuana initiative, and the risk these could pose to the law's goal of undercutting demand for imported Paraguayan cannabis (which provides an estimated 80 percent of Uruguay's market):

The future may also bring political pressure for the state to raise taxes on the drug to generate more revenue, which would obviously increase the price and make it less competitive with Paraguayan marijuana. While the bill does not mention any specific taxes on the growth or sale of cannabis, this could change considering the unpopularity of the measure....

Another argument for leveling taxes on the drug may come from Tabare Vazquez, the former president who is widely expected to win the presidential race in October 2014. Excise taxes on cigarettes were a hallmark of a strict, highly successful tobacco regulation law that Vazquez sponsored during his 2005-2010 presidency, and he may be more open to leveling taxes on marijuana to discourage its use.

It looks as though these pressures are beginning to materialize, though not from Vazquez (who surprised many observers by embracing the measure following its passage in the lower house).

On Friday, syndicated columnist Andres Oppenheimer criticized the newly-released complementary regulations of Uruguay's marijuana law. In his twice-weekly column, he cited remarks by opposition politicians like National Party Senator and Senate Health Committee Chairman Carlos Moreira, who compared the government's anticipated price for legal marijuana of $1 per gram with the high taxes on cigarettes. Oppenheimer writes:

While Uruguayan consumers pay about 22 percent in non-essential goods taxes for a bottle of water, 27 percent for a bottle of beer and about 68 percent for a regular cigarette, marijuana sales will not pay any such taxes, at least for now, according to opposition leaders and government officials who have read the marijuana regulation decree’s fine print.

It's true that the regulations state that transactions related to cannabis sales will be exempt from standard taxes on non-essential goods. But the law will still bring in state revenue.

As Presidential Under-Secretary Diego Canepa stated during the press conference announcing their release, commercial growers will be subject to a "variable fee," which would ultimately be used to vary the price of the drug in pharmacies. The proceeds from this will go towards funding the Institute for Regulation and Control of Cannabis (IRCCA), the law’s regulatory body, as well as a campaign to educate the public about the consequences of marijuana use. And as Canepa himself told Oppenheimer, additional taxes may be added later once the full extent of participation in the IRCCA's registry becomes clearer.

Ultimately, the lack of built-in tax on marijuana sales -- at least initially -- is one of the strengths of the law. This provides important flexibility, allowing officials to accurately set the price to keep the drug competitive with the black market without worrying about additional taxes making it prohibitively expensive for users. It's also worth noting that this gives the Uruguayan government an advantage over authorities in Washington and Colorado (where the drug's price will be set by state and local taxes as well as supply and demand).

News Briefs

• For the first time in what seems like a considerable while, Uruguay is in the headlines today for reasons other than its marijuana law. Uruguayan President Jose Mujica met with U.S. President Barack Obama in the Oval Office yesterday, and drug policy was not on the agenda. Instead, as the BBC notes, the two discussed Uruguay’s interest in education exchanges and expanding its agricultural exports to the United States. Mujica also sought Obama’s support ahead of tobacco giant Phillip Morris’ pending lawsuit against his country’s aggressive anti-smoking laws. According to El Observador, Mujica lamented being a continued “social” smoker, and the U.S. president shared his experience with quitting cigarettes.

• Much of the U.S. coverage, by contrast, focused on Mujica’s colorful remarks (see the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and McClatchy) during the subsequent press conference. These included a prediction that the U.S. would  “have to become a bilingual country…because the strength of Latina women is admirable and they will fill this country with people who speak Spanish and Portuguese.” Mujica also waxed poetic about his visit, saying: “I would like to be a little bit younger, to see Mississippi, know the ranches -- in Los Angeles, the milk farms, other things.”

• The talks between Venezuela’s government and the MUD opposition coalition appear to have hit a slight bump. According to El Universal, the opposition has temporarily suspended working group discussions on the sidelines with officials on the issues of amnesty, creating a truth commission and on the independence of government institutions. MUD official Ramon Jose Medina said that this was a response to “unjustified repression of students and protesters.” However, the main talks will resume again on Thursday, in the presence of UNASUR delegates.

• The Associated Press has an analysis of the suspicious links between construction firms and politicians in Brazil, which have further fueled criticism that its World Cup preparations have been marred by corruption.  According to data from Brazil's highest electoral tribunal, campaign contributions by companies that won contracts for the most World Cup projects skyrocketed in the most recent election.

• BBC Mundo reports on the conflict between state oil company Petroamazonas and Ecuador’s indigenous Kichwa people, who oppose oil extraction in the central Ecuadorian Amazon.

• Emily Achtenberg of NACLA offers an overview of a new mining law proposed by Bolivia’s President Evo Morales, which illustrates his efforts to balance tensions in the country’s mining sector ahead of October elections.

• Despite being called to testify to judicial authorities by Colombia’s attorney general regarding his accusations that President Juan Manuel Santos received illicit campaign funds, former president Alvaro Uribe did not appear in court yesterday.  El Espectador reports that Uribe has been summoned once again by Attorney General Eduardo Montealegre to provide evidence of his claims that Santos received $2 million in campaign donations from an intermediary and campaign advisor who allegedly accepted money from drug traffickers. According to EFE, Uribe is expected to attend this time around.

• In a column for Al Jazeera America, U.S. Congressman Hank Johnson criticizes the silence of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in response to calls from U.S. lawmakers and Honduran investigators to answer questions about the role of DEA agents in a deadly May 2012 operation that killed four residents in Honduras’ isolated Mosquito Coast region.

• The right-wing political party that brought Alberto Fujimori to power in 1990, Cambio 90, is cutting ties with the imprisoned former president. According to Peru’s La Republica, party director Renzo Reggiardo announced that the group had changed its name to avoid “associations with Fujimorismo.” Going forward, the party will be known as Peru Patria Segura.

• The L.A. Times is the latest U.S. outlet to report on Mexico’s struggle to disarm the “self-defense” militias and incorporate them into legally-recognized entities, profiling the suspicions that many local residents harbor against the militia groups. Meanwhile Animal Politico explains the difference between the two legal forces the militias will be allowed to join. The first, the Rural Defense Corps, will be paid and under the command of the Defense Ministry, while the all-volunteer Rural forces will be under the umbrella of the Interior Ministry. According to the news site, most of the autodefensas will be integrated into the former.

New Attorney General Appointed in Guatemala

On Friday, President Otto Perez named Guatemala’s new Attorney General. Starting on May 17, former Supreme Court President Thelma Aldana will replace Claudia Paz y Paz as the country’s next top prosecutor. But whether she will be as reform-minded as her highly lauded predecessor remains to be seen.

When asked about the concerns raised by the international community regarding the nomination process in Friday’s press conference, Perez dismissed them offhandedly. “For anyone who wants to come to say things to our country, I wish they would say these to other countries as well,” he told journalists. The day before, representatives of a dozen foreign embassies and the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) issued a joint statement in which they recommended changes to the system, including a revision of the nomination committee’s procedures and measures to prevent its members from voting based on partiality.

The president also denied that Aldana had any links to his Patriotic Party, stressing that she had been chosen for her more than 25 years of courtroom experience. He said the decision had ultimately been “difficult, because all six candidates meet the qualifications to serve as attorney general.”

But this contradicts previous reports that identified Aldana as the government’s favorite candidate from the start of the nominating process. Her candidacy had allegedly been supported by Gustavo Herrerra, a political operator linked to Perez and Vice President Roxana Baldetti. As a recent InSight Crime investigation revealed, Herrera is believed to have lobbied extensively on behalf of Baldetti behind the scenes of the nominating process, making backroom deals with the members of the commission tasked with naming Paz y Paz’s successor.

Plaza Publica even referred to Aldana as “the vice president's candidate.”  And while she may not be a member of Perez’s party, the news site found evidence that Aldana has ties to the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG), the party founded by former dictator Efrain Rios Montt. These ties will likely be questioned when the genocide case against Rios Montt resumes in January 2015.

On top of the Rios Montt trial, Aldana will have plenty of other opportunities to prove her dedication to fighting impunity and improving the country’s rickety justice system. El Periodico has a helpful list of the cases the new attorney general will oversee when she takes office, which includes investigations into repression of anti-mining protests, powerful criminal networks and corruption allegations against a number of local and federal officials.

News Briefs

• Coincidentally, Friday was also the one-year anniversary of Rios Montt’s conviction on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, a ruling that was subsequently overturned by the Constitutional Court. Plaza Publica marked the anniversary with an interview with Yasmin Barrios, the judge who issued the general’s guilty sentence and was recently suspended in what some see as retaliation.

• After U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs Roberta Jacobson told Senators last week that some members of the Venezuelan opposition had asked the Obama administration not to pursue sanctions against government officials, her remarks set off a scandal among anti-Chavista groups.  Already facing criticism from its base for entering into dialogue with the government, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) opposition coalition released a statement on Thursday categorically denying that it had ever made such a request. The State Department would later confirm this. But as David Smilde and Hugo Perez Hernaiz of Venezuelan Politics and Human Rights note, there are in fact opposition figures who are skeptical of sanctions, and plenty of reason to suggest that applying them would only strengthen the government of President Nicolas Maduro. Meanwhile, a House of Representatives bill that would trigger sanctions against any Venezuelan official accused of links to human rights abuses cleared its first hurdle on Friday, passing the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

• Venezuelan authorities have freed all but 11 demonstrators arrested in massive police raids on protest camps in Caracas last week. Prosecutors in the country have announced that these 11 will be charged with crimes ranging from weapons possession to obstruction of public roads.

• The L.A. Times profiles an ongoing mass occupation of an empty lot next to the stadium set to host the opening game of the World Cup in Brazil, organized by activists demanding that the government construct more affordable housing.

• Uruguayan President Jose Mujica is in Washington today, where he is set to meet with President Barack Obama later this morning. El Pais reports that among the topics the two will discuss is trade relations and visa requirements for Uruguayan citizens. However, the Uruguayan leader said he did not intend to bring up his country’s offer to accept freed Guantanamo detainees, according to the Wall Street Journal.

• The deadline for the vigilante militias of Mexico’s Michoacan state to disarm and register with authorities as a newly-created rural defense force has passed, but the disarmament has not gone as planned. Animal Politico reports that so-called “autodefensas” have been spotted carrying weapons in at least eight municipalities in the state.  The Washington Post reports that the government of Enrique Peña Nieto has adapted a “patient” approach in an effort to avoid confrontation, though authorities have warned that militiamen risk arrest if they continue to carry weapons openly.

• Following the arrest of four Florida residents accused of organizing attacks on military installations in Cuba, U.S. officials on the island confirmed on Saturday that Cuban authorities had briefed them on the arrests, the AP reports. The Miami Herald meanwhile looks at the fate of other exiles who have been arrested in Cuba on similar charges, many of whom have served their sentences and been denied return visas to the U.S. because of their use of political violence.

• Reuters has a very useful overview of the various campaign scandal stories that broke in Colombia last week, which left both the reputations of President Juan Manuel Santos and his closest rival Oscar Ivan Zuluaga tarnished. Meanwhile, the latest chapter in the flurry of scandals came after former President Alvaro Uribe called on prosecutors to investigate Santos for allegedly receiving campaign donations from drug traffickers, funneled through Venezuelan political strategist Juan Jose Rendon. As El Espectador reports, on Sunday the Attorney General’s office has called on Uribe to present evidence of his claims this morning.

• All of this mudslinging in Colombia is occurring just two weeks ahead of the first round of presidential elections on May 25. Interestingly, La Silla Vacia points out that the allegations that the Zuluaga campaign tried to sabotage the Havana peace process appears to have gotten far more play than the charges that Santos faces. The news site notes that while the major news media outlets in the country have long demonstrated a pro-government bias, it is more amplified in this case because of Santos’ personal and family ties with media heads.

• Salvadoran news site El Faro has an interview with journalist Hector Silva Avalos, who discusses the entrenched level of police corruption in the country and the failures of outgoing President Mauricio Funes to commit to properly vetting it.