House Foreign Affairs Committee Votes to Defund the OAS

Please excuse the technical difficulties this morning. This post was sent out earlier this morning via the Google Group, but apparently not posted to the blog.

In a markup hearing of the State Department authorization bill yesterday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 20-22 along party lines to support an amendment that would completely end U.S. funding for the Organization of American States (OAS).  According to Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin, the author of this amendment is Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL), who has characterized the OAS as being too supportive of anti-American governments, and in the meeting yesterday labeled it “an organization that’s bent on destroying democracy in Latin America…that is destroying the dreams of the people of Latin America.” As the head of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Mack has made a name for himself as a crusader against leftist regimes in the hemisphere, most recently by calling on Colombia to extradite Venezuelan drug lord Walid Makled to the U.S. rather than Venezuela.

The debate over the measure lasted over an hour, during which House Democrats repeatedly accused their Republican counterparts of withdrawing from multilateral engagement in favor of isolationism.  Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) sarcastically said he was considering "offer[ing] an amendment to pull out of the world, to build a moat around the United States and put a dome over the thing," adding "this is getting ridiculous."

                   

Just the Facts has a collection of the most colorful remarks made in the hearing, perhaps the most absurd of which was Rep. David Rivera’s (R-FL) Animal  House reference:

“It kind of reminds me of that scene in Animal House where the college pledges, pledging the fraternity, as part of the ceremony to become a member of the fraternity you have to get paddled, and every time he gets paddled he says, ‘Please, sir, may I have another.’ How much longer are we going to say to the OAS, ‘Please, sir, may I have another?’”

A central point of debate was OAS secretary general José Miguel Insulza, who Republicans claim has failed to condemn Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for violating the organization’s “democracy clause,” which seeks to normalize democratic regimes in the hemisphere. As the Americas Quarterly Blog’s Anthony Palma  points out, Insulza’s moderate socialist ties have been something of a lightning rod for criticism in recent years, with members of both parties attacking him for being too “soft” on leftist governments.

The amendment would withhold $48.5 million in U.S. funding in 2012, a figure that amounts to nearly 30% of the OAS’s current $169.9 million budget for 2011.  While the move is not likely to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate, the debate highlighted a worrisome lack of knowledge about the OAS’s function and performance.  At one point, Republicans contended that Cuba was a member of the OAS, which it is not, although a motion was passed in 2009 which allows the island to re-apply for membership.

As Grobin notes for Foreign Policy, this is “only the beginning of what looks to be a long and contentious debate over the fiscal 2012 State Department and foreign operations authorization bill,” which was written by the vehemently anti-Castro chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL).

News Briefs:

·         The Economist reports on the difficulties of establishing a comprehensive poverty index in Latin America, where income and purchasing power are not always the best indicators of development.  The article profiles a recent report published by Fundación Ethos, a Mexico-based think tank that takes both economic and environmental factors into account in order to rank relative developmental progress in the region’s eight largest countries (excluding Argentina, where reliable economic statistics are difficult to obtain).  Although the Fundacion’s index offers valuable insight into the different forms of poverty in the region, the Economist questions whether bundling these factors together is too ambitious of an attempt, essentially complicating the issue of poverty more than is necessary. 

·         Voices from El Salvador offers an update on El Salvador’s “constitutional crisis” caused by the controversial Decree 743, which requires the country’s Constitutional Court to make decisions unanimously rather than by majority.  Although the court has found the decree to be constitutional, their ruling was not published in the government’s Official Diary, because the decision was not unanimous.  Meanwhile, the different parties in the country have further staked out their political positions on the matter.  Although ARENA initially announced its support of the decree, it has since backed away from it, leaving the FMLN and President Funes to defend it on their own.

·         In a move that is sure to frustrate former Green Party presidential candidate Antanas Mockus, Colombia’s Green Party has endorsed President Juan Manuel Santos in the new congressional term, joining his Coalition of National Unity (Mesa de Unidad Nacional), according to Colombia Reports and El Colombiano.  As reported in a previous brief, Mockus left his party in mid June, after Bogota mayoral candidate Enrique Peñalosa accepted a controversial campaign endorsement from ex-president Alvaro Uribe.  With the Greens’ support, Infobae reports that Santos’ coalition now includes 95 percent of Colombia’s congress, giving him more political capital to attempt reforms to the country’s tax and education systems.

·         An Ecuadorean judge has sentenced three directors and a former columnist of Ecuador’s El Universo newspaper to three years in prison for publishing an opinion column  which called President Rafael Correa a "dictator" and accused him of having ordered an attack on a police hospital during last fall’s failed coup attempt, led by elements of the national police.  AFP says the judge also sentenced the four to pay $30 million in damages and charged the publication with $10 million in libel fines.  Emilio Palacio, the author of the offensive column, has called the ruling a “barbarity” and vowed to appeal it.  According to AP, this is the second major lawsuit filed against Ecuadorean journalists by President Correa, the first being a February case against two journalists who wrote a book which charged the president of abusing his position to benefit relatives.

·         Peruvian President-elect Humala announced several cabinet appointments late last night via Twitter, La Republica reports. Among these, it seems Humala’s campaign manager Salomon Lerner has been tapped as prime minister, and economist Luis Miguel Castilla has been chosen as finance minister.  According to Reuters, the appointments “burnish the pragmatic image Humala sought to project during the campaign.”

·         AP says that Haitian President Michel Martelly will formally request the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, co-chaired by co-chaired by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and outgoing Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, to extend its mandate by a year.

·         AFP reports that eight Chilean high school students have begun a hunger strike meant to pressure the government into adopting reforms to the country’s education system, including increased scholarships for low income students and transportation waivers which would make it easier for students in rural areas to attend school.

·         Despite the release of a report on Tuesday that identified the cause of President Salvador Allende’s death as a suicide, Chilean judge Mario Carrazo claimed the forensic exam was only one source of evidence, and said he plans to continue overseeing an investigation into the incident; Infobae and AFP have more on this.

·         According to AP, Brazilian police have issued arrest warrants for three suspects involved in the recent killings of two activists in the country’s Amazon region.

·         El Universal cites a 2010 United States Customs and Border Patrol report – apparently not available online – which found that the so-called “kingpin strategy” of capturing and killing leaders of Mexico’s drug trafficking organizations has had no effect on the flow of drugs into the U.S.  The report allegedly found that the only factor which had any effect on drug trafficking was Mexico’s seasonal agricultural cycles.

Autopsy Report: Allende Committed Suicide

The results of the autopsy that was requested two months ago by President Salvador Allende’s relatives are in.  As it turns out, the forensics team has determined that Allende did indeed kill himself with an assault rifle as Pinochet’s troops stormed the presidential palace in 1973. According to the AP, the investigation found that "Allende died of two shots fired from an assault rifle that was held between his legs and under his chin and was set to fire automatically." The analysis did not find any evidence that others were involved in Mr. Allende’s death, and concluded that the head wounds he sustained were in fact consistent with bullets fired from an automatic AK-47 assault rifle, the New York Times reports. 

As the BBC and EFE note, some in the family find the results reassuring. The president’s daughter, Senator Isabel Allende, said the news had been received well, and had provided a certain amount of closure. "The report’s conclusions are consistent with what we already believed. When faced with extreme circumstances, he made the decision of taking his own life, instead of being humiliated," Ms Allende said.

The forensics team, which was comprised of a mixture of Chilean and international medical professionals, apparently agreed to the conclusion unanimously.  When asked if there were any possibility of error, Spanish expert Francisco Etxeberria said there was “absolutely no doubt" that Allende had committed suicide.

The AP has a particularly colorful account of Allende’s last moments, as witnessed by Dr. Patricio Guijon, a personal doctor of the leader:

“With the palace in flames, Allende told the 30 to 40 people who had stayed with him that they would surrender together, and that he would take up the rear as they filed out.

Instead, the president slipped off alone to the palace's Independence Hall. Guijon, meanwhile, realized he had left his gas mask behind and went to retrieve it. It was then that he saw Allende through an open door, he said, just as the president's body jerked upwards with the force of the blast.”

News Briefs:

·         The Wall Street Journal reports on the dangers that Central American migrants face in passing through Mexico, highlighting the recent kidnapping of several migrants in Veracruz in late June.  Although witnesses say that between 60 and 80 were taken off of a freight train in the incident, authorities can only confirm the disappearance of five victims.  As the article notes, the increased danger in the trek northward may explain the fact that undocumented immigration has declined in recent years, despite claims by The Pew Research Center that the trend has to do with increased economic opportunity in Mexico.

·         The Associated Press reports that the Knights Templar, a splinter group of the Familia Michoacana, is distributing booklets in Michoacan which portray the group as fighting a war against poverty and injustice.  The publication is allegedly fully illustrated, and says the Knights Templar "will begin a challenging ideological battle to defend the values of a society based on ethics."  Excerpts from the booklet, in English, are available here.

·         Venezuela's is now the world’s largest oil-reserves holder, with proven crude-oil reserves which surpassed that of Saudi Arabia in 2010, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its newly-released annual statistics bulletin.  Venezuela's proven crude reserves reached 296.5 billion barrels in 2010, a whopping 40 percent increase from the previous year and higher than Saudi Arabia's 264.5 billion barrels.  The Wall Street Journal has more on the development, which it says may “empower members of OPEC that favor defending higher prices.”

·         A Venezuelan court has dropped the corruption charges against Hugo Chavez’s main opposition, Henrique Capriles, after it determined that the charges had not been filed in the proper manner, according to El Universal.

·         The New York Times takes a look at Venezuela’s long history of standing in lines.  As the article notes, although some have blamed an increase in the length of lines for public goods on Hugo Chavez’s administration, long lines have been a historic trademark in the oil rich country.

·         Americas Quarterly’s Javier El-Hage presents a tidy critique of Honduras’ Truth and Reconciliation Report, which calls for the passage of new constitutional reforms to make it easier to remove a sitting president from power.  However, the constitution already allows for impeachment via a Supreme Court hearing, a fact which was largely ignored in the report’s findings.  Rather than reforming the constitution, El-Hage argues, Honduran politicians simply need to follow its articles instead of violating or changing them every time it does not serve their interests.

·         Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has proposed a referendum to determine whether the United States pay $17 billion in damages for its involvement in the civil war, in compliance with a 1986 ruling by the International Court of Justice, El Nacional reports.

·         InSight Crime profiles Sonsonate, El Salvador’s most violent region, which has the highest murder rates in the country. While the violence is mostly caused by rivalries between local street gangs, the article speculates that Mexican cartels like the Zetas could be spreading their influence in the country.

·         Alcides Oviedo, the leader of a tiny but determined Paraguayan rebel group known as the Army of the Paraguayan People (EPP) has published a political platform for the group from prison, where he is serving 18 years for kidnapping. The document argues that the country’s profound inequality justifies violent revolution, AP and EFE report.

·         Peruvian President-elect Ollanta Humala met with both Fidel and Raul Castro during his 16-hour long stay in Havana, which came to an end yesterday.  AFP claims that he also spoke by phone with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is seeking cancer treatment on the island.  Among the topics discussed were furthering Cuban-Peruvian relations, with an emphasis on education and development  After returning to Lima yesterday, Humala is expected to announce his cabinet picks today, and to shed further light on his agenda.

Chavez Seeks Cancer Treatment in Cuba, Again

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has returned to Cuba for a second round of chemotherapy.  In a special session on Saturday, the National Assembly unanimously voted to allow the president to take a temporary leave of absence from the country, despite calls by some sectors of the opposition that Vice President Elias Haua temporarily take office in his stead.  According to El Universal, the opposition supported the measure only on the condition that Chavez did not govern from the island. As Jon Lee Anderson pointed out in The New Yorker’s News Desk yesterday, this is not entirely a baseless concern, as the Venezuelan leader has spoken on more than one occasion about the eventual merger of the two countries into one “Venecuba.”

Still, the president has transferred some of his duties to Jaua and Finance Minister Jorge Giordani in his absence, which is the first time in Chavez has ever done so.  In an announcement yesterday, Jaua sought to downplay this delegation of power, saying that he had only been granted “a set of administrative authorizations that are mostly ministerial responsibilities.” The AP reports that this remark was accompanied by similar claims from Giordani, who said there is no doubt that Chavez will run in the 2012 elections.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Chavez’s main opposition in the upcoming elections, Henrique Capriles Radonski, is facing charges that he abused his position as Governor of Miranda state to award contracts to companies owned by his relatives.  On Friday the Supreme Court ordered the attorney general's office to investigate the allegations, which were first made by a pro-government politician two years ago.

Ironically, Venezuelan press reported yesterday that a new investigation into the death of Chavez’s idol, Latin American independence leader Simon Bolivar, reveals he may have died as a result of a colon infection, and not tuberculosis as originally believed.  Although Chavez has still not released details of his cancer diagnosis, it is thought that he suffers from colon cancer, which caused the infection that led to his first operation.

News Briefs

 

·         The Global Post takes a look at the progress that Chavez’s administration has made on reducing poverty and inequality in Venezuela.  Over the past 12 years, Chavez has cut unemployment and poverty in half, and reduced the rate of extreme poverty to two-thirds.  Meanwhile, investment in community health clinics and social services has significantly lowered the infant mortality rate.  Still, the article notes that insecurity and rising inflation threaten to offset these gains.

·         Chilean President Sebastian Piñera, after facing snowballing opposition from student protestors and the national miners’ union in recent weeks, has announced eight changes to his cabinet, including at the economy, energy and justice ministries, FT reports. Mercopress says that one of the most notable changes is the appointment of the popular Justice Minister Felipe Bulnes to the embattled Education Ministry.  According to the news agency, Bulnes is under heavy pressure to  resolve grievances by students concerning equal access to education in Chile.

·         The BBC reports that the Colombian armed forces have raided a “FARC rebel arms factory” in Cauca province, capturing mines, 300 mortars and more than a ton of explosives materials were also recovered, he said.

·         University of Hawaii professor Suzanna Reiss profiles Bolivia’s international campaign to normalize traditional use of coca leaf for NACLA. The country withdrew from the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotics late last month, after attempts to alter the treaty were opposed by the United States and 16 other countries, who said that any amendment would threaten the “integrity of the convention.”

·         The Miami Herald reports on Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s re-election campaign, which makes use of significant amounts of religious imagery. As a result, the Nicaraguan church has pressed for more separation of church and state in the country.  The auxiliary bishop of Managua, Silvio Báez, called the Ortega government’s slogan -- “Nicaragua: Christian, Socialist and in Solidarity” -- “a bit abusive.” 

·         Nicaraguan Admiral Róger González, leader of the country’s navy, has told El Nuevo Diario that drug trafficking organizations are actively seeking to permeate the armed forces.

·         On the seventeenth anniversary of the1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires yesterday, survivors and relatives of the victims expressed criticism of both Iran and Argentina for failing to solve the case.  The Guardian and AFP report that on Monday, Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman praised Iran for preparing an investigation into the attack as "an unprecedented and very positive step."

·         Honduran President Porfirio Lobo has claimed that he has received death threats from business elites in the country, according to El Heraldo.  Although he has not provided specifics, apparently the threats came in response to his proposed  plan to raise taxes in order to fund increased security measures. The AP reports that In June, the Honduran congress approved a five percent tax on bank accounts containing more than $5,000, as well as a series of tax hikes on cellphone sales, mining exports and casinos. Over the next five years, the taxes are expected to raise $400 million, which will be used to provide further resources to fight organized crime in the county.

·         Mexico’s El Universal claims that some 7.5 million Mexicans between the ages of 12 and 29 neither study nor work, only 5 states have programs for these “ni-nis.” Chiapas and Michoacan, where youth unemployment is higher than 25 percent, are not among them.

Support for Humala Slips in Wake of Corruption Scandal

Just ten days before he will take office, Peruvian President-elect Ollanta Humala is facing mounting criticism over his brother Alexis Humala’s visit to Russia earlier this month.  According to El Comercio, a new Ipsos Apoyo poll puts Humala’s voter approval rating at 40 percent, down from 70 percent in June. The poll also found that 77 percent of those surveyed felt that Alexis wanted to use his ties to the president-elect to seek personal benefit from a series of meetings with Russian investors, and that 60 percent of Peruvians suspect that the incoming president knew of this trip.

During Alexis’ visit, Reuters reported that he met with representatives of Gazprom, the state-owned Russian oil company, and claimed to be in the country as a “special representative of the President-elect of the Republic of Peru.” He also met with other major Russian companies, in an apparent effort to secure investment in energy, fishing and tourism.

President-elect Humala, for his part, called his brother’s visit a “big mistake,” and said he alone will have to assume responsibility for his actions in Russia. As La Republica reports, he has denied having any knowledge of the trip, and claims that he explicitly warned his family not to expect preferential treatment. "I have told my family that the best way to help a president is by letting him work and not to take advantage, much less to believe that being related will give them privilege over other citizens,” he said.

Although it is hardly encouraging that his first major corruption scandal has occurred before even taking office, Humala has made some political choices recently that seem designed to rein in criticism. Most notably, he announced yesterday that current Central Bank President Julio Velarde will remain in his post for another five-year, a move which will further investor confidence in the new administration.  Additionally, Humala’s visit to Washington earlier this month resulted in the U.S. expressing a reaffirmed commitment to aiding Peru’s fight against drug trafficking, effectively invalidating speculation that the president-elect would be “soft on drugs” due to connections between his party and legal coca growers’ unions in the country.

After heading to Venezuela on Friday for a brief meeting “as a friend” with Hugo Chavez, Humala is in Mexico today and has declared his intentions to meet with Raul Castro in Cuba on Tuesday, El Comercio reports. He will return to Peru on July 20, and is expected to announce the rest of his cabinet appointments then.

News Briefs

·         AP has a long report on the ongoing war between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas in the industrial city of Monterrey, which the wire agency says is “is fast becoming a new Ciudad Juarez.” Monterrey is on track to experience twice as many drug-related homicides as last year, and three times as many as the year before that. 

·         El Universal reports that authorities have arrested 20 suspects in the March murder of poet and anti-violence activist Javier Sicilia’s son in Mexico. Sicilia has expressed gratitude for the investigation, but has also used the occasion to denounce the fact that only two percent of reported crimes are ever solved in the country.

·         El Salvador’s Diario de Hoy reports that some elements of the FMLN are considering pursuing constitutional reform in the country, including some of its provisions which are considered –like the ban on re-election—to be “untouchable.”

·         Francisco Mauricio Martinez of Prensa Libre asks why no URNG guerrillas have been prosecuted for human rights violations in Guatemala.  While there have been documented instances of the guerrillas committing abuses (including massacres and kidnappings) during the country’s civil war, trials against former guerrillas have been few and far between.  As Michael Allison points out at Central American Politics, however, this is most likely due to the fact that the guerrillas committed fewer (3% of the total) and far less egregious violations.

·         The Economist argues that Panama must tackle the entrenched level of corruption in the country if it hopes to sustain its rapid economic growth. From 2005 to 2010 the country enjoyed the fastest growth rate in the hemisphere, but the article claims that if the rule of law is not strengthened in Panama, it runs the risk of “becoming the next Mexico rather than the next Singapore.”

·         Honduran President Porfirio Lobo met with his Dominican counterpart Leonel Fernández in the latter country to discuss security on Friday. EFE reports that Fernández expressed criticism of the level of security funding from the U.S., saying “it would be better if they gave us nothing instead of giving us too little.”

·         Time Magazine highlights the security situation in Colombia, where the conflict is becoming increasingly altered by the FARC’s use of sniping, bombing and sabotage attacks.  The article cites InSight Crime’s Jerry McDermott, who claims that the rebels are becoming increasingly reliant on the 30,000 or so members of urban militia support groups.

·         Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has returned to Cuba to receive chemotherapy, despite rumors that he would seek treatment in Brazil, AP reports. The Christian Science Monitor and MercoPress note that the leader has transferred some (but not all) of his duties to his vice-president and finance minister in his absence, leading to further speculation about Vice President Jaua’s capacity to lead the country.

·          BBC and AFP report that Ecuador has temporarily banned the sale of alcoholic beverages after 23 people died as a result of drinking bootleg liquor in Los Rios province.

·         In the wake of President Garcia’s construction of a giant, Rio-esque statue of Christ overlooking Lima, AP says that a number of Peruvians are viewing it as a sign of growing Brazilian clout. In addition to Brazil’s historic investment of $1 billion in Peru last year, the article cites a laundry list of Brazilian influences in Peruvian politics, all in all making a convincing case.

·         Meanwhile, the L.A. Times reports that while Chinese demand for Brazilian goods has helped fuel Brazil’s economy, its reliance on commodities is causing some experts to express pessimism about the sustainability of the South American nation’s growth.

·         The Associated Press highlights the budding demand for crack cocaine in Brazil, which is becoming a major problem in the country’s urban slums.  In Sao Paolo, police seizures of crack went from 595 kilos in 2006 to 1,636 kilos in 2009, a nearly 275 percent increase.

·         Argentine economists who express doubt over official inflation figures are facing lawsuits by the government, which says that their speculation is damaging the country, Al Jazeera reports. 

Assistant Secretary of State Valenzuela Steps Down

As Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela’s tenure comes to a close this week, several analysts have attempted to sum up his performance. When Valenzuela first announced his intention to step down in May, the Inter-American Dialogue’s Latin America Advisor interviewed four of his predecessors to comment on his accomplishments. In general, there was broad consent that Valenzuela proved himself to be a deft strategist, demonstrating a strong emphasis on human rights performance as well as a serious talent for diplomatic mediation.

According to Otto Reich, former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs under President George W. Bush, Western Hemisphere Affairs is considered one of the “most 'political' of all bureaus.” But it seems Valenzuela managed it quite well, using contacts he gained from years of experience in government and academia to his advantage in the face of numerous political crises that have occurred in the region over the past two years.

As Liz Harper of the U.S. Institute of Peace points out in the Americas Quarterly blog, one of Valenzuela’s central achievements has been to push the use of social media in the State Department. In addition to managing active Twitter and Facebook accounts, Valenzuela hosted a digital town hall last November, responding to questions submitted online as well as from a live audience about policy issues, youth programs, and career opportunities at the Department of State.

The Atlantic’s Steve Clemons presents a glowing review of Valenzuela’s work, particularly stressing his handling of the Honduran coup, his management of the fallout from WikiLeaks’ Cablegate and his efforts at patching up Brazil-U.S. relations. He also expresses a degree of pessimism regarding Valenzuela’s predecessor (who has not yet been announced), predicting a potential “loss of ground” for those who seek to move U.S.-Latin America relations beyond their paternalistic legacy.

Meanwhile, Intercambio Climactico’s Guy Edwards and Kelly Rogers make a convincing case for why the next Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs should have experience promoting environmentally sustainable policies, in order for the U.S. to keep up with the increasing support for “green growth” among Latin American countries.

The State Department’s Dip Notes blog hosted a live online video discussion yesterday between Assistant Secretary Valenzuela and Dr. Cynthia Arnson, Director of the Wilson Center’s Latin American Program, asking the two a number of questions which were submitted online. Although no particularly tricky questions were chosen by the moderator, the discussion presents an interesting snapshot of the main challenges that the region faces in consolidating democratic rule.

News Briefs

·         Mexican officials announced yesterday that they have discovered a massive clandestine marijuana field outside if Rosario, Baja California. According to the Associated Press, the plantation covers around 120 hectares (slightly less than 300 acres) and was operated by 50 employees, all of whom somehow managed to evade capture. The news agency called the find “the largest marijuana plantation ever detected in Mexico,” and Mexican authorities have said that it would have produced nearly 120 tons of the drug. El Universal has video footage of the plantation, which was hidden from aerial view by a black screen-cloth, often used by farmers to protect their crop from sun damage.

·         According to a report released on Thursday by the Pew Hispanic Center, Mexican American birthrates have outpaced immigration from Mexico.  As the New York Times points out, this has the potential to significantly alter the domestic immigration debate in the coming years.

·         The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights announced on Wednesday that it will send the Office of the Rapporteur on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Their Families to Mexico in order to conduct a two-week long investigation on the state of migrant rights in the country. This is the second time that the office has visited the country; the first time was in 2002.

·         Colombia Reports says the FARC has demanded three million dollars in ransom for the four Chinese employees of Emerald Energy who were kidnapped last month. Because Colombian President Santos has threatened to dismiss any foreign businesses which pay ransom to the country’s illegal armed groups, it is unlikely that the company will make the payment.

·         Argentina has sentenced two former military officials to life in prison on charges of murder, kidnapping and torture at “El Vesubio,” one of the most infamous prisons run by the country’s former dictatorship, Clarin and AP report. Five others were convicted of torture, and were sentenced to 18-22 years in prison.

·         Barbara Mertz of the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti has announced the start of "Operation Phoenix,"  which will send peacekeeping troops, along with Haitian police, to the Port-au-Prince slums of Cite Soleil, Bel-Air and Martissant, all three of which are major hubs of gang activity. AP says that the operation is expected to last for several days, and will be followed by a community development initiative which will repair roads and set up health care clinics.

·         The opposition-controlled Paraguayan legislature has rejected President Lugo’s bid to run for reelection, Reuters reports. Although the Constitution forbids presidents from serving more than one five-year term, last month Lugo’s supporters presented a petition with 90,000 signatures supporting the move.

·         One day after announcing that he will likely undergo radiation treatment and chemotherapy in order to fight his cancer, rumors have emerged that Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez will travel to Brazil for treatment. According to Folha de São Paulo and Reuters, the rumors are still unconfirmed. But if he does go to Brazil, it is likely that he will come to Sirio Libanés Hospital, which is known for its world renowned cancer treatment center. Both Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (who underwent treatment for lymphatic cancer last year) and Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota have previously offered to host the Venezuelan leader.

·         In the latest indicator of Brazil’s development, The Economist predicts that only five countries in the world will have more than a million centenarians each by 2100, and Brazil is one of them.

·         The Los Angeles Times highlights the work of El Salvador’s Pro Búsqueda, an organization that has located almost half of those disappeared in the country’s civil war.

·         Nery Jeremias Orellana, a pro-Zelaya journalist and member of Honduras’s National Popular Resistance Front, was shot and killed yesterday by unknown gunmen in the province of Lempira. AP cites human rights groups which claim that at least 22 journalists have been killed in the country since 2007.

·         Despite President Lobo’s plan to hold a series of dialogues with various social and political organizations across Honduras, a minister of his cabinet has announced that the administration will not seek to organize a constitutional referendum. El Diario reports that the purpose of the meetings is to hear the proposals of all sectors of society for change and then “promote them through the Constitution’s existing instruments.”

·         Finally, good news on the Cuban relations front: the Obama administration has sent out a Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) which threatens to veto a house appropriations bill that includes provisions seeking to reverse current policies on Cuba. As The Havana Note points out, this is “the closest this administration has gotten to appearing to have a policy on Cuba and sticking to it.”