Uribe Launches Bid for Senate Seat

Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has officially announced that he will be stepping back into the ring, launching a bid to run for a senate seat in the upcoming March 2014 elections. In addition to its implications for the country’s political climate, it will also raise pressure on both parties to speed up the peace talks in Havana.

 Uribe made the announcement on Monday at his residence outside of Medellin, reading a long platform manifesto that Semana magazine notes “sounded more like a government plan.” The former president said he would run on a closed list with others of his Democratic Center Party (which he launched in January), meaning Colombians would vote not for individual candidates but for the party as a whole. While this is no doubt an attempt to allow the other relatively low-profile members of his party to benefit from his high approval ratings, it could be a disadvantage for the ex-president, as many Colombians will be unfamiliar with the Democratic Center Party’s logo on the ballot.

The news brought mixed reactions from the country’s political class. Congressman Ivan Cepeda, of the center-left Alternative Democratic Pole (PDA) party, told El Espectador that he welcomed the announcement, calling it an opportunity “to debate [Uribe’s] political career and the series of charges against him.”  

This is a reference to the allegations that Uribe had dealings with the United Self Defense Forces (AUC) while in office, and the various judicial and congressional investigations into the charges. El Tiempo notes that Uribe’s announcement has sparked debate among legal experts over the specifics of prosecuting him. Most agree that under Colombian law, alleged crimes he committed while president would still have to be investigated by the lower house, and ratified by the Senate. This process would be complicated if he and his political party win a significant number of seats in the upper house.

Uribe’s return to politics could also have an impact on the ongoing peace talks with FARC rebels in Havana. So far the government and the guerrillas have reached an agreement on only one of the five points of debate in the talks, and a major breakthrough does not seem imminent. But because Uribe is a vocal critic of President Juan Manuel Santos’ handling of the peace talks, if he and his political sector make a strong showing in the March elections, it will raise pressure on the rebels to speed up the talks in order to reach an agreement before they take office. La Silla Vacia reports that much of this will depend on the current Congress’ ability to pass legislation allowing for the guerrillas’ future political participation before its term ends in July of next year.

News Briefs

• The Wall Street Journal reports that a spokesperson for Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff told the press that she spoke with U.S. President Barack Obama yesterday to discuss her planned state visit to Washington next month.  The details of the conversation were not revealed, but the Rousseff administration has confirmed that the president will announce her final decision today on whether to cancel the visit in light of the recent NSA surveillance revelations.

• Meanwhile, in response to the leaks about the NSA’s activity, the government of Brazil has begun to prepare measures meant to protect its citizens’ privacy, including requiring internet companies in the country to store data locally instead of abroad. The AP reports that some analysts believe these measures restrict the open nature of the internet, placing it “on a course of Balkanization.”

• In the midst of this tense relationship, the new U.S. ambassador to Brazil arrived in Brasilia on Monday, O Globo reports.  Ayalde is a career diplomat, with over thirty years of experience, and previously served as ambassador to Paraguay. In a press conference, the ambassador did not comment on the NSA scandal, though she did express hope that the two countries could “expand and deepen” their relationship.

• Haiti is one step closer to reestablishing an army, which it abolished in 1995. In a ceremony yesterday, Haitian Defense Minister Jean-Rodolphe Joazile presented 41 recruits who recently returned from a training course in Ecuador, and who will be deployed alongside Ecuadorean military engineers in development and infrastructure projects around the country. While they are not armed at the moment, they may be able to purchase and carry handguns in the coming years, and are part of President Michel Martelly’s plan to reconstitute the country’s military.  

• Paraguayan paper ABC Color reported yesterday that Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes travelled to Chile yesterday for a two-day visit to the country, which MercoPress notes is meant to help the country deepen trade with Chile as well as pursue full membership in the Pacific Alliance trade bloc.

• On Friday, a Miami judge denied bail to Mario Ormachea Aliaga, who was a high ranking figure in Bolivia's police anti-corruption unit before his arrest on August 31 on charges of extorting a U.S. businessman. Although Ormachea was previously identified in the press as the head of Bolivia’s anti-corruption police, Reuters reports that the Bolivian government claims he was only a deputy director, and was dismissed three days before his arrest.

• David Smilde and Hugo Perez Hernaiz of Venezuelan Politics and Human Rights provide a helpful overview of the recent electricity blackout in Venezuela and the political toll it took on the Maduro administration. They note that polls show less than 5 percent of the public believe the government’s claim that the blackout was caused by “sabotage,” and suggest that a history of power issues under the PSUV likely causes the public to put blame the entirely on the government.

• Mexico’s first openly gay mayor, Benjamin Medrano, was sworn in yesterday in a ceremony in his city of Fresnillo. The BBC reports that Medrano is loath to support gay marriage, and very mindful of the conservative views of Fresnillo. In a previous interview with El Universal, Medrano rejected the notion that gays are a vulnerable group in society.

• InSight Crime profiles a recent report released by Mexico’s National Citizen Observatory (ONC), which shows that the number of reported kidnappings has reached its highest level in 16 years. The news site claims that the uptick is likely due to changes in the country’s political landscape, although Animal Politico notes that the government maintains it is due to a campaign encouraging citizens to report the crimes to authorities.

• In an in-depth report for Washington, DC public radio station WAMU, Martin Austermuhle looks at conservative Salvadoran presidential candidate Norman Quijano’s visit to the area in May. Quijano’s FMLN challenger, Salvador Sanchez Ceren, has also made similar trips to U.S. cities, as the 2014 election will be the first in which Salvadorans living in the U.S. will be able to vote from abroad. 

Rousseff Weighs Canceling U.S. State Visit

The administration of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has sent its clearest signals yet that the president is seriously considering canceling her state visit to Washington next month, with a final decision to come after a Tuesday meeting with her foreign minister.

Yesterday, Reuters reported that an anonymous official told the wire service that an increasing number of political figures who are close to the Rousseff government now favor canceling the trip. Among these are former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Franklin Martins, an ex-press secretary under Lula who remains influential in the current administration.

Despite this, Rousseff will reportedly wait to make a final decision on the matter until after a Tuesday meeting with Foreign Minister Luiz Alberto Figueiredo. The foreign minister traveled to Washington last week to meet with United States National Security Advisor Susan Rice, who told reporters that the U.S. is “committed to working with Brazil to address these concerns.”

But with the recent revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) monitored the personal communications of government officials, and may have spied on Brazilian state oil company Petrobras, it will likely be tough to waylay the president’s concerns.  Last week Rousseff released a statement saying that if the Petrobras story is confirmed, “it will be evident that the motive for the spying attempts is not security or the war on terrorism but strategic economic interests.”

Some have argued that the costs for canceling a state visit would be too high for the administration. As Folha de Sao Paulo notes, the trip (which was announced in May) is the only official visit by a foreign president scheduled this year, and would be the first state visit by a Brazilian leader in nearly two decades.

But there are strategic reasons why Rousseff might cancel the visit. For one, the surveillance revelations have received a lot of play in the domestic media, and the NSA has been roundly condemned by both the opposition and the president’s own party. Going through with the trip could leave her vulnerable to criticism ahead of elections next year.

Additionally, the NSA scandal has provided Rousseff with a welcome distraction from domestic protests. With her approval rating already recovering from the June demonstrations, she may be loath to put the issue behind her, especially if journalist Glenn Greenwald continues to publish details about the NSA’s activities in the country.  Greenwald is set to testify at a parliamentary committee hearing into the issue this week, providing an opportunity to reveal more specifics of U.S. surveillance programs.  

News Briefs

• Popular support for Peruvian President Ollanta Humala has continued to fall, with a new Ipsos poll showing his approval rating has fallen to 27 percent in September, down from 29 percent the month before. The Wall Street Journal notes that the poll also found that 67 percent say Humala hasn’t lived up to his campaign promises.

• On Friday, the White House released a report which included Venezuela and Bolivia in a list of countries which “failed demonstrably” to make significant efforts in curbing drug trafficking.  It was Venezuela’s fifth consecutive year on the list, and the government of President Nicolas Maduro lashed out at the classification. In a statement, Venezuela anti-drug official Alejandro Keleris accused the U.S. of selectively ignoring the government’s efforts to arrest top drug traffickers. El Deber reports that the Bolivian Interior Ministry also responded by accusing the U.S. mischaracterizing its approach to drug policy, as well as “copying and pasting” the accusations from reports published under President George W. Bush.  

• The Vatican announced on Thursday that Pope Francis had held a private audience in Rome with Gustavo Gutierrez, the founder of liberation theology.  La Republica notes that the meeting has interesting implications for the unsteady relationship between Latin American proponents of liberation theology and the Catholic Church.

• Writing for Al-Jazeera English, Belen Fernandez takes down the recent, problematic Washington Post article on Iran’s cultural diplomacy efforts in Latin America. As Fernandez notes, the sources in the article appear linked to a concerted effort by conservative groups to exaggerate Iranian influence in the region.

• Simon Romero of the NYT profiles Brazilian business tycoon Luciano Hang, who owns an expanding chain of department stores around the country which are known as tributes to U.S. consumerism. Each store features gaudy displays featuring replicas of the Statue of Liberty or other U.S. landmarks.

• Last week, Colombia signed an agreement to increase farm exports to Venezuela by some $600-million. Considering the recent protests by Colombian farmers looking for a more secure market, as well as the frequent food shortages across Venezuela, the L.A. Times characterizes the deal as a “bail-out” for both leaders.

• In a recent op-ed for the Washington Post, Heraldo Muñoz, United Nations Development Program director for Latin America and the Caribbean, takes on the claim that the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet is responsible for Chile’s economic success. Muñoz asserts that the groundwork for Chile’s prosperity -- high literacy rates, efficient agricultural redistribution and respected universities -- was actually laid before Pinochet came to power, concluding that dictatorships are not a “necessary evil” to stimulate economic progress.

• The AP highlights the efforts underway to revitalize the neighborhoods around Havana’s port and bring in more tourism revenue, now that the area’s industrial use will be replaced by the construction of a new $900 million port in Mariel.

• The L.A. Times reports that on Friday, the majority of the CNTE teachers’ union occupying Mexico City’s center square agreed to temporarily move to allow President Enrique Peña Nieto to hold a ceremony marking the anniversary of Mexico’s struggle for independence. Some stayed behind, however, and the New York Times notes that there were prolonged clashes with riot police. According to Animal Politico, the teachers’ union has vowed to retake the square on September 18, and continue its protests against Peña Nieto’s education reform plan.

• Over at Honduras Culture and Politics, Russell N. Sheptak puts the Honduran government’s concession of land grants to indigenous Miskito federations last week into political perspective, questioning whether it was related to the government’s attempts to authorize oil exploration in the area.

• On Saturday, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner gave her first televised interview since 2009, which was broadcast on public television. La Nacion has video of the interview, in which the president defended her government’s debt restructuring plan, and criticized the relationship between economic elites and the media in the country, which she accused of falsely “creating an image people believe in.”

Honduras Grants Land to Indigenous Group After 40-Year Struggle

On Thursday, the Honduran government announced that it would be granting titles to more than 1.6 million acres to the five Miskito indigenous communities that live on the Caribbean coast and the border with Nicaragua. The AP reports that the head of Honduras’ National Agrarian Institute, Reynaldo Vega, framed the move as part of the government’s effort to help the Miskito defend the area’s natural resources. “This will allow them to defend themselves against third parties who illegally make use of the area’s natural resources,” said Vega. “Foreign companies that operate in the area will have to talk first to the Miskito community.”

However, this narrative overlooks the Miskito people’s long history of struggle in Honduras. As the New York Times notes, the Miskito have organized over the past 40 years to get the government to recognize their claims to the area, while at the same time clashing with local economic elites in occasionally violent land battles. This struggle intensified in 2010, with indigenous leaders stepping up pressure on the new government of President Porfirio Lobo Sosa.

La Tribuna puts the government’s concession in better context (translated from Spanish):

"With the recognition of the rights of the Miskito to the lands of our ancestors, Honduras has taken a historic step that benefits indigenous peoples around the world," said Norvin Goff, president of the Mosquitia Asla Takanka (MASTA), a political group which represents the Miskito people. 

But this victory has come at a high cost in human lives, and has come at the expense of historical violence that continues today. According to media reports, three Honduran indigenous leaders have been killed in recent days while trying to stop the exploitation of natural resources in their territories. "Today we do not forget our history," said Goff. 

"We do not forget that many of our brothers have been killed defending our forests. We do not forget how hard we fought for decades against corrupt politicians, the big ranchers and drug traffickers, "he said. 

As an example of the violence faced by the Honduran Miskito, many point to the deadly May 2012 drug operation in the Mosquitia region, in which four people were killed. The revelation that Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officers were involved in the incident sparked mass demonstrations, with locals burning down government offices and calling on U.S. drug agents to leave the area.

Just as it has with the land grant story, U.S. press coverage of these protests did a poor job of conveying the political backdrop for these demands. As anthropologist Rosemary Joyce noted after the incident in the Berkeley Blog, much of the reporting about the operation was primarily focused on absolving the DEA of responsibility for the killings. The coverage, Joyce argued, did little to dispel the narrative that the Miskito were “simply drug traffickers responsible for the violence perpetrated against them by their crime of living in their traditional homeland.”

News Briefs

• On Thursday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro launched a state council aimed at preventing economic “sabotage,” which his administration claims is behind the recent electricity blackout in the country. El Universal reports that the “Superior Organ of the Economy” will begin monitoring private companies involved in producing food and basic goods. According to Reuters, the president also unveiled a new hotline which citizens can call to report acts of economic sabotage, appropriately christened “0-800-SABOTAGE.” 

• Police in Chile say they have arrested over 260 people in protests marking the anniversary of the September 11, 1973 coup which brought Augusto Pinochet to power, according to La Nacion. The BBC notes that President Sebastian Piñera has called upon judges and prosecutors to deal with them “with severity.” The Economist has an overview of lingering political division in the country, noting that a commemoration ceremony was marked by partisan statements from both the left and right.

• CIPER, an online journalism organization based in Santiago, Chile, has a harsh critique of popular newspaper El Mercurio’s role in supporting the Pinochet regime. CIPER rips into a recently-published editorial in which the paper applauded itself for contributing “decisively to a peaceful and democratic transition,” noting that El Mercurio has been shown to have contributed to destabilizing the Allende administration, and is accused of covering up atrocities of the dictatorship.

• Mexican Foreign Minister José Antonio Meade arrived in Havana, Cuba on Wednesday, the visit to the island by a Mexican minister under the Enrique Peña Nieto administration. According to a Foreign Ministry press release, the purpose of Meade’s visit is to discuss improving bilateral ties, as well as their participation in the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). In a statement to reporters on Thursday, Meade said the Peña Nieto hoped to bring “new vigtality” to Mexico-Cuba relations. Americas Quarterly notes that Peña Nieto’s PRI party had historically friendly relations with Havana during its 70-year rule, as Mexico was the only Latin American country to consistently maintain ties with Cuba throughout the Cold War.

• Salvadoran news site El Faro reports that prosecutors have arrested 18 individuals associated with the so-called “Texis Cartel,” believed to be the most influential criminal network in El Salvador. According to El Faro, if the charges are proven, it will be a clear sign of the extensive political influence that the organization has in the Central American country.

• The L.A. Times has an overview of Mexico’s teachers’ union protests, which have heated up in recent days after Peña Nieto signed a controversial education reform bill into law. A massive occupation of the main square in Mexico City could be a threat to the country’s traditional “Cry of the Independence” ceremony that is set for Sunday, although it looks as though the teachers’ union has agreed to vacate the square to allow for the event.

• In the wake of revelations that private communications in Brazil were targeted by U.S. National Security Agency surveillance programs, the country is taking steps to better protect its citizens’ data. Reuters reports that a lawmaker in President Dilma Rousseff’s Workers’ Party is preparing legislation that would force Internet companies operating in Brazil -- like Google, Microsoft and Facebook -- to maintain data centers in the country that would be protected by local privacy law. The news comes as Communications Minister Paulo Bernardo told reporters the government is considering requiring phone companies adopt technology that would complicate foreign espionage efforts.

• The Colombian government has turned down a petition by the relatives of deceased Colombian druglord Pablo Escobar to have his full name trademarked, El Espectador reports. On Thursday, the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce formally rejected the request, saying it would be immoral and a potential risk to public security to do so.

• In an interesting column reflecting on the repercussions of Venezuela’s withdrawal from the American Convention on Human Rights, Nelson Camilo Sanchez of the Bogota-based human rights research group Dejusticia argues that there is a chance could be “more of a long ‘see you later’ than a ‘goodbye.’”  Camilo Sanchez points out that this poses a diplomatic challenge for Venezuela for a number of reasons, including that ALBA nations have signed a statement supporting the “universality” of the Inter-American system, as well as the fact that it belongs to Mercosur, which requires recognition of the Convention for membership. He also claims that the governments of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay are uniquely poised to convince the country of the benefits of re-signing the Convention.

• Washington Post editorial writer Charles Lane takes a critical look at the recent cholera outbreak in Cuba, which he claims is proof that “the revolution’s achievements were never as great as its propagandists claimed and that economic and social conditions on the island trail those of many Latin American countries Cuba once surpassed.”

Peruvian Ex-President Toledo Accused of Corruption

Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo is under investigation for possible illegal enrichment, making him the third former head of state in Peru to be accused of corruption since 1990.

Peru’s attorney general has launched an investigation into Toledo over suspicious real estate purchases by him and his family members. One of these involves a $5 million house bought by Toledo’s mother-in-law, a transaction which was conducted through a Costa Rican firm known as Ecoteva Consulting Group. Local press claim Toledo created Ecoteva as a shell company to hide his income.

According to the Wall Street Journal, political analysts say the scandal has damaged his chances of running for re-election in 2016, and hurt the image of his Peru Posible party ahead of local elections in 2014.

Despite rumors spread by political opponents that Toledo plans to avoid the charges against him by leaving the country, he has denied this. Yesterday, La Republica reported that a Toledo spokesperson announced he would not “escape to another South American country or Japan.” This is a clear reference to ex-presidents Alan Garcia and Alberto Fujimori, who both sought to avoid accusations of corrupt dealings by fleeing Peru after leaving office (Garcia went to Colombia, Fujimori to Japan).

That this is news is perhaps a reflection of the widespread public distrust of the political class in Peru. In July, this sentiment boiled over, and Lima saw mass demonstrations in response to Congress’ appointment of several controversial figures to top positions. President Ollanta Humala has also fallen victim to this trend, with his approval rating plummeting to a record low since he took office in July 2011.

News Briefs

• Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has an op-ed for The Hill, in which he blasts the current administration’s negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Uribe accuses the FARC rebels of using the peace talks for political gain, claiming they are working towards “transforming Colombia into yet another member of the socialist, anti-American bloc known as the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA).”

• The Christian Science Monitor features an analysis of the political campaign of leading Honduran presidential candidate Xiomara Castro, written by the Honduras Culture and Politics blog’s Rosemary Joyce. The author notes that Castro has the growing support of the cultural elites in the country, and is bolstered by her claim to represent the progressive policies backed by her husband, former President Manuel Zelaya. This includes a promise to hold a Constitutional Assembly, a proposal which sparked the coup which ousted Zelaya in 2009.

• In response to Brazil’s outrage over revelations that the U.S. National Security Agency has routinely spied on private communications in the South American country, White House security adviser Susan Rice has recognized that there are “legitimate questions” about the NSA’s activities. Yesterday, Rice met with the newly-appointed Brazilian Foreign Minister Luiz Alberto Figueiredo, after which she told reporters that the U.S. is “committed to working with Brazil to address these concerns.” Meanwhile, Foreign Relations Committee of Brazil´s House of Representatives, which is investigating the NSA revelations, resolved yesterday to send a delegation to Russia to speak with former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

• On Wednesday, a Spanish prosecutor recommended dismissing a lawsuit against Cuban state security filed by the family of deceased dissident Oswaldo Paya, according to the Miami Herald. The lawyer argues that the Spanish government has already accepted Havana’s version of Paya’s death, which maintains that it was the result of a car accident caused by driver error.

• While a July poll showed that only one in three Mexicans are in favor of marijuana legalization despite growing support for it among politicians in the country, Animal Politico reports that a new survey indicates there is wider support for legalizing medicinal use of the drug. According to a poll by Parametria, over 60 percent of the country is in favor of legally permitting medical marijuana.

• OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza has issued a statement lamenting Venezuela’s withdrawal from the American Convention on Human Rights, saying it “weakened” the Inter-American human rights system.

• U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has canceled a planned meeting with Central American presidents that was slated to take place in Panama next week, citing the situation in Syria, according to Panamanian Foreign Minister Fernando Nuñez.

• One day after day after Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto signed a controversial education reform bill into law, thousands of teachers took to the streets of Mexico City to protest the measure. El Universal reports that leaders of the dissident CNTE teachers’ union were received in the presidential palace yesterday, but according to BBC they met with low-level aides, which they took as a snub.

• BBC Mundo takes a look at the rapidly expanding creation of small private businesses in Cuba under economic reforms backed by President Raul Castro. Since 2008, the island has seen the emergence of private investigators, psychologists, tourist agencies and other businesses, some of which are authorized and many which are not.   

• InSight Crime features an interesting analysis piece by Matt Ince, an Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute, who argues that the push for drug policy reform in the hemisphere could simply “displace the problem,” causing drug trafficking networks diversify their criminal portfolios.

Forced Treatment Bill Points to Mixed Progress on Drug Policy in Uruguay

Uruguay's President Jose Mujica and its ruling Frente Amplio (FA) coalition have been widely praised for backing a bill which aims to regulate the country’s marijuana market. But FA lawmakers are currently debating a separate bill on forced drug treatment, an issue which has earned criticism from many of the same human rights and drug policy advocates who applauded the marijuana initiative.

Uruguay’s marijuana bill, which passed the lower house on July 31, is currently on hold as the Senate Health Committee goes through other items on its legislative agenda. Among the bills the committee is slated to debate is one which would allow judges to order individuals showing “severely altered mental states produced by narcotic drugs” to undergo compulsory treatment.

The forced treatment bill, which was based on a proposal of President Mujica’s, has been significantly altered by legislators. As Radio 180 notes, Senator Ernesto Agazzi -- a member of Mujica’s Popular Participation Movement (MPP) party -- has amended its language to avoid any police involvement in the process. The current version of the bill would charge a panel of health professionals with authorizing forced treatment cases, and would be overseen by a judge. According to Agazzi, “Now the law has a health care outlook, and not a repressive one.”

Despite the stated intention of the law, however, forced treatment is a contentious issue from a human rights perspective. It is frequently used as a method of cleaning the streets of “undesirable” social elements, individuals from society’s most vulnerable sectors who have no say in the terms and extent of their confinement. Critics of compulsory treatment, like UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez, argue that it amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment, and in some cases torture. In March 2012, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime joined 11 other UN institutions in condemning forced treatment, calling for the closure of drug detention centers “without delay.”

On top of its controversial nature, forced treatment has been shown to lack effectiveness, with patients showing higher rates of recidivism than in voluntary clinical settings. As The Economist reported in April, experts say compulsory treatment initiatives in São Paulo, Brazil, are less successful than outpatient treatment centers.

In Uruguay, some of the biggest critics of the forced treatment measure are supporters of the marijuana regulation bill. These include the Institute for Legal and Social Studies (IELSUR) and the Peace and Justice Service (SERPAJ), both of which are vocal members of Regulacion Responsable, the civil society coalition backing the marijuana measure.  On Monday, the two human rights groups released a joint statement condemning the compulsory treatment bill as part of “an ongoing construction of more punitive and repressive policies” in Uruguay. In a previous interview with news magazine Brecha, IELSUR spokeswoman Gianella Bardazano accused the Frente Amplio coalition of politicizing drug policies in the country, asserting that the forced treatment bill was meant as a political counterweight to the marijuana bill (which remains largely unpopular).  “It seems [the FA] put a little of this, a little of that [in its security policies] in order to satisfy all sensitivities and not lose votes,” Bardazano told the paper.

Some in the ruling coalition appear to agree with this assessment. Last week FA Senator Constanza Moreira, who sits on the Health Committee, criticized the compulsory treatment bill as “repressive,” and told La Diaria that she was in favor of postponing it to take up debate on marijuana, an issue with wider support in the Frente Amplio. However, it seems this bid was unsuccessful. On Tuesday El Pais reported that the FA leadership has resolved that the marijuana regulation bill will not go to the Senate floor until mid-October.

News Briefs

• As Chile marks the 40th anniversary of the military coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power, the AP reports that protesters clashed with police in overnight marches in Santiago. La Tercera, however, notes that the Interior Ministry claims the protests were “much more calm” than previous commemorations of the coup. Chilean news site The Clinic marks the anniversary with a chilling report on the operations manual of the DINA, the secret police in the Pinochet regime, which explicitly authorized its agents to break the law, so long as they left no trace of their actions. CNN takes a look at lingering political division in Chile, and Democracy Now has an interview with Spanish attorney Juan Garces, an advisor of ousted President Salvador Allende who led the efforts to prosecute Pinochet.  

• The Associated Press features a firsthand account of the coup by Sergio Carrasco, a retired AP correspondent and former editor who was in Santiago during Pinochet’s takeover. For another firsthand take on the coup, Adam Isaacson of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) has a new podcast in which he interviews Joe Eldridge, WOLA co-founder and current chaplain of American University, who also witnessed the events of September 11, 1973.

• Today’s New York Times features an overview of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s penchant for invoking conspiracy theories, noting that despite several recent warnings of secret schemes to destabilize his government, few have been arrested and none have been convicted in association with these plots.

• UPI reports that the Colombian government is optimistic that its peace process with ELN rebels, which Vice President Angelino Garzon has said will start “in the coming days,” will be resolved quickly. Garzon told local media yesterday that “there is political will to sign a peace agreement this very year.”

• In response to Venezuela’s official break with the American Convention on Human Rights, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has released a statement saying that the move “could have a very negative impact on the human rights situation” in the country. El Universal reports that critics of the withdrawal claim that it also violates the Venezuelan constitution, which recognizes the rights of citizens to appeal to international human rights organs. For a more detailed round-up of the criticism that the move has received from NGOs in the country, see Venezuelan Politics and Human Rights.

• A new poll suggests that Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has largely recovered from the toll that the wave of June protests took on her image. According to a new survey by the MDA polling institute, her personal approval rate has risen to 58 percent, up from 49 percent in July. Her administration’s approval rate is lower, at 38 percent, but still seven points higher than it was in July.

• Noting that Latin America is “seeing its biggest wave of protests in years,” the Wall Street Journal has a broad take on the recent demonstrations in Brazil, Colombia and elsewhere, which the paper claims pose a major test for the region’s democratic development.

• The BBC reports that Rio de Janeiro-based journalist Glenn Greenwald has been invited to testify to a Brazilian congressional committee on espionage next week. Local media report that Greenwald’s partner, David Miranda, is also expected to give a statement, and the two are the first to testify before the committee. 

• Guatemala’s Plaza Publica has published an in-depth look at the controversy surrounding a foreign mining venture in the municipality of San Rafael Las Flores, where mass anti-mining protests led the government to declare a “state of siege” in May. The Plaza Publica investigation reveals a community divided over the potential effects of mining in the area, which is exacerbated by conflicting accounts of the associated royalties given by government officials.

Venezuela Withdraws from American Convention on Human Rights

Venezuela’s denunciation of the American Convention on Human Rights goes into effect today, a development which has been sharply criticized by local and international human rights groups.

Venezuela officially declared its withdrawal from the treaty in September 2012, but denouncements of the Convention do not go into effect until a year after the initial announcement is made. Now that this period is over, the country is no longer bound to the human rights obligations listed in the Convention, nor is it subject to the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Venezuela is now the second country to denounce the American Convention, after Trinidad and Tobago did so in 1998.  

Yesterday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro held a press conference to mark the occasion. The president called the withdrawal from the Convention, which was initiated by his predecessor Hugo Chavez, a “wise, fair decision.” Maduro also criticized the two bodies of the Inter-American human rights system, the Inter-American Court and Commission. “The Commission and the Court have unfortunately degenerated,” he told the press. “They believe they are a supranational power, they think themselves a power above the legitimate governments of the continent.”

As proof of this, Maduro pointed to the Court’s ruling in favor of Raul Diaz Peña, a Venezuelan man who was convicted of placing explosives in the Colombian and Spanish embassies in Caracas in 2003. Diaz Peña was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison, but fled to the U.S. in 2010. In its June 2012 ruling, the Court found that the Venezuelan government had subjected him to “inhuman and degrading treatment.” The case was widely criticized by Venezuelan officials, and The Ministry of Foreign Relations cited it as one of the country’s main justifications for leaving the Convention.

Venezuelan human rights advocates have been highly critical of the withdrawal, however. An online petition created by the Human Rights Center of the Andres Bello Catholic University (UCAB), which asserts that the move violates the principles of “irreversibility and inalienability of human rights,” has been signed by more than 11,000 individuals.

Rafael Uzcategui, of the Caracas-base organization PROVEA, argues that the government’s criticisms overlook the role the Court has had in facilitating the activism of indigenous rights groups. Uzcategui points out that the Court has helped indigenous communities throughout the hemisphere establish claims to the natural resources on their land, as well as the state’s obligation to consult them prior to launching extraction or development projects. He argues that without being able to take their cases to the Court, Venezuelan indigenous tribes will not be able to exercise their rights as effectively as other indigenous groups in the region.

In an interview with El Universal, Pedro Nikken, a former judge and President of the Inter-American Court, says that he views Venezuela’s denunciation as not only a moral mistake, but a strategic one as well. According to Nikken, “the government is damaging itself far more by denouncing the Convention -- creating an image of itself as a violator of human rights -- than receiving 10, 12 or even 20 [unfavorable] rulings.” Local rights group COFAVIC, which was created to press for investigations into police killings during the 1989 Caracazo riots, has also criticized the measure. Hilda Paez, one of COFAVIC’s founders, told El Nacional that she expects the withdrawal to have a negative impact on the most vulnerable members of society, “those who don’t have money to pay for a lawyer, and sometimes through illegal methods, obtain justice in the country’s courts.”

The withdrawal has also been criticized by international human rights organizations. On Monday, the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) issued a statement signed by 44 organizations around the Americas, which called the decision “a grave step back in the protection of human rights in the region.”

News Briefs

• It’s worth noting that, while Venezuela will no longer be bound by the Convention, it is still subject to the oversight of the Inter-American Commission pursuant to its obligations under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. As such, the Commission can still issue recommendations on human rights issues in the country, in the same way that it does for the U.S. and Canada. The Venezuelan opposition has taken advantage of this, and on Monday it petitioned the Commission to hear a case on the April election, which opposition leader Henrique Capriles maintains was marred by widespread fraud. While the BBC incorrectly claims that the request is to “declare the April election void,” legal experts consulted by El Nacional clarify that the opposition petition asserts that the rights of Venezuelan citizens to full participation and transparent elections were violated. The Commission has not yet announced whether it will accept the petition, although the opposition can make a strong case that it exhausted domestic remedies by taking the issue to the Supreme Court. Interestingly, as the American Society of International Law notes, the Inter-American Court will remain competent to hear cases arising out of facts which took place before today’s “effective date of denunciation.” Because the Commission can refer cases to the Court, this means that Venezuela could still find itself on the receiving end of an Inter-American Court ruling on the April elections.

• Uruguay’s marijuana regulation bill, which passed the lower house in a July 31 vote, is making slow progress in the Senate. El Pais reports today that the Health Committee, which will take up debate on the matter before sending it to the full floor, has resolved to send it to the Senate in mid-October.

• The Washington Post reports on the proliferation of self-defense groups in Mexico, especially in the troubled state of Michoacan, and on their apparent success. According to the paper, President Enrique Peña Nieto is now “facing the awkward fact that a group of scrappy locals appears to be chasing the gangsters away,” something which the federal police and military patrols there have been unable to achieve in the past decade.

• The AP looks at Peña Nieto’s recently-announced tax reform plan, and the state of his shaky alliance with opposition congressmen. While the package’s inclusion of a pension plan and omission of sales taxes is intended to appeal to the left in the country, the president has not successfully won the support of the PRD for the measure. Additionally, many in the party’s left wing are facing pressure from social movements to reject Peña Nieto’s education reforms and his proposal to end Mexico’s state monopoly over oil production, a factor which could make it difficult for these initiatives to pass.

• Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has come out strongly against the allegations that leaked documents suggest that the NSA targeted Brazil’s national oil company, Petrobras. In a statement, Rousseff said that “if the facts reported by the press are confirmed, it will be evident that the motive for the spying attempts is not security or the war on terrorism but strategic economic interests.” The president has also said that she demanded an explanation from U.S. President Barack Obama, who promised her a reply by Wedenesday. O Globo reports that Minister Luiz Alberto Figueiredo is scheduled to travel to Washington tomorrow to discuss the issue with national security adviser Susan Rice.

• One day before Chile marks the 40th anniversary of the coup which brought dictator Augusto Pinochet to power, El Mercurio reports that former president and current candidate Michelle Bachelet attended an event with current president Sebastian Piñera and political leaders of every major political party in the country. The BBC notes differences in the statements by Bachelet  and Piñera, with the former calling for continued investigation into abuses of the Pinochet regime, and the latter calling the coup a regrettable but "predictable outcome" after "repeated violations of the rule of law" under the administration of socialist President Salvador Allende.

• The Colombian government will begin talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN), the second largest rebel group in the country, “in the coming days,” according to Colombian Vice President Angelino Garzon. Garzon also said that talks with the ELN will take place “in a different place than Havana, Cuba.” One potential alternative is Montevideo, Uruguay, where President Jose Mujica has said he is willing to facilitate the peace process.

• On Monday, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos delivered a harsh response to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s to allow foreign companies to explore for oil in historically disputed waters that the International Court of Justice ruled in November belonged to Nicaragua. Reuters notes that Santos denounced Ortega’s “expansionist pretensions,” and promised to protect Colombia’s maritime border “until the ultimate consequences as president.” La Silla Vacia claims that the statement was a political move intended to boost his flagging public approval rating, and ensure that the Nicaragua issue does not become an electoral weak point ahead of his re-election campaign.

• In Guatemala on Monday, a bus accident in the rural province of Chimaltenango killed 43 passengers after the vehicle fell off of a cliff, Prensa Libre and Reuters report.

• Russell Sheptak of Honduras Culture and Politics takes a look at the latest poll numbers in the Central American country ahead of its November presidential election. The fifth survey of the Center of Studies for Democracy (CESPAD) gives a near eight-point lead to LIBRE party candidate Xiomara Castro over her closest rival, the National Party’s Juan Orlando Hernandez (28 percent compared to 20.7). However, the relatively low levels of support for either candidate shows that neither has a clear mandate, and Honduras’ no-runoff election system means that the winner may take office after receiving less than 50 percent of the vote. If this happens, it could pose a serious governing challenge for the country’s next president. 

Brazil Marks Independence Day with Fresh Protests

On Saturday, Brazil’s Independence Day, military parades and official ceremonies across the country were disrupted by a wave of protests. But while organizers sought to rekindle the energy seen in June’s mass mobilizations, it seems they were largely unsuccessful.

The largest demonstrations, according to Reuters, took place in Rio de Janeiro and the capital city of Brasilia. In the former, some 500 people attempted to disrupt a military parade, and the latter saw a march of roughly 1,000 demonstrators head to the Congress building. In both cases police dispersed the protesters with tear gas and pepper spray. Some 80 individuals were arrested in Rio, and around half as many were detained in protests in São Paulo.

O Estadão de São Paulo has some impressive photos of the protests, including some which appear to show police abuse. The paper also has a video showing military police in Brasilia apparently beating a detained protester, footage which is sure to fuel debate over police reform in the country, an issue backed by a number of Brazilian human rights and citizen security advocacy groups like Conectas and the Brazilian Public Security Forum.

The New York Times’ Simon Romero describes the protests as “some of the most vigorous expressions of anger with governing institutions” since the June protests, though he notes that the turnout was significantly lower this time around. This assessment was shared by the AFP, which claimed that organizing efforts “fizzled” in comparison to last June.

Regardless, the weekend protests should not be underestimated. As this interactive map/timeline by O Globo shows, turnout has gone down but the fact that protests were organized in over 50 towns and cities around the country shows there is still overwhelming support for cracking down on political corruption and improving public services, the main demands of the June protests.

With public outrage showing little signs of fading any time soon, organizers of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio are beginning to express concern about the potential for disruptive demonstrations. On Sunday, Brazil Olympic Committee President Carlos Arthur Nuzman told local press that he expected “the protests will continue until the beginning of the games.”

News Briefs

• Brazil’s Globo news network has released new revelations about NSA surveillance in the country which could test U.S.-Brazil relations at an already tense moment. On Globo’s Sunday night news program “Fantastico,” the network reported that the U.S. spy agency targeted the internal communications of Brazilian national oil company Petrobras, along with Google and international financial institutions. The NYT reports that the objectives behind NSA’s targeting of Petrobras are unclear, though the paper notes that American, European and Chinese oil companies are seeking to expand operations in the country. In a subsequent press release, U.S. National Intelligence Director James R. Clapper downplayed the news, saying “It is not a secret that the Intelligence Community collects information about economic and financial matters, and terrorist financing.” However, this appears to contrdict a statement given by an NSA spokesperson to the Washington Post last month, which read: “The department does not engage in economic espionage in any domain, including cyber.” Clapper clarified this in his statement yesterday, denying that the NSA or any intelligence agency attempts to “steal the trade secrets of foreign companies” on behalf of U.S. companies. This may not convince officials in Brazil, however. The Post’s Juan Forero writes that the leak is sure to clash with the “sensitivity Brazilians have about foreign meddling when it comes to the country’s natural resources.”

• InSight Crime looks at the highlights of a recent report published by Interpeace, which provided insight into gender roles in Central America’s “mara” street gangs. Interestingly, the report found that traditional notions of femininity are both discouraged and perpetuated in unique ways. Mara women are expected to take on masculine-associated dress and characteristics like a propensity towards violence, for instance, but they are also expected to cook and care for men, children and the sick.

• On Saturday, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos reached an agreement with campesino leaders behind the recent wave of rural protests in the country, agreeing to subsidize fertilizer prices and provide credit to farmers in the provinces of Cundinamarca, Cauca, Meta, Boyaca, Nariño, Putmayo and Huila. El Colombiano reports that the agreement resulted in campesino groups agreeing to end roadblocks in these provinces, although they are still negotiating other demands with the government.

• Today’s New York Times features a piece on the ways in which Chile is commemorating the 40^th anniversary of the coup which brought the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet to power in 1973. Civil society groups are memorializing the anniversary in different ways, and government actors across the political spectrum have expressed regret for their respective involvement in the violence that followed the coup. Still, the Times notes that the government of President Sebastian Piñera and the conservative coalition backing him remain reluctant to recognize the Pinochet regime as a dictatorship.

• In the wake of the news that Bolivia’s top anti-corruption police official was arrested in Miami and charged with attempting to demand a bribe from a businessman there, columnist Andres Oppenheimer argues that the low level  of press coverage around the issue suggests that incidents illustrating corruption in “authoritarian populist countries” like Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Argentina are seen as a normal part of politics there. 

• In an announcement on Sunday, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto presented a much-anticipated proposal for tax reform in the country. The proposed reforms include raising taxes on high income earners and closing loopholes for corporations, which were presented as a means of funding the country’s first nationwide pensions and unemployment insurance. Animal Politico and The Financial Times note that the PRI’s controversial plan to implement a sales tax on food and medicine, which was widely criticized by the Mexican left, was left out of the proposal.

• Despite the omission, on Sunday leftist leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador led a series of major demonstrations in Mexico City against the proposal as well as Peña Nieto’s plan to end the monopoly on oil production in the country. The AFP reports that some 40,000 people gathered in the capital city to protest the president’s announcement, and AMLO has already called for several more mass mobilizations this month, according to La Jornada.

• The Washington Post looks at Mexico’s recent captivation with a shadowy vigilante figure known as “Diana, huntress of bus drivers,” who in recent days has killed two bus drivers in Ciudad Juarez. A subsequent statement sent to local reporters claimed that the killings were revenge for sexual assault committed by bus drivers on women who work in Juarez’s maquiladoras. “Society may think that we are weak, but in reality we are brave and if we are not respected, we will make ourselves respected. Juarez women are strong,” read the statement.

• Guatemala’s Prensa Libre reports that on Saturday, group of unidentified gunmen shot 29 people in the small, largely indigenous town of San Jose Nacahuil. 11 were killed. The government told the paper that it suspects local gang members were behind the attack, but the Associated Press notes that locals are skeptical of this claim. Residents of the town say the massacre was committed by corrupt police officers attempting to extort local businesses.

• As Guatemala prepares to greet a new director of the UN-banked International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), news site Plaza Publica has published an editorial assessing the work of the Commission so far. While they note that the CICIG has committed “very serious errors” like needlessly getting involved in cases that were almost resolved by the Interior Ministry, Plaza Publica’s editorial board congratulate former CICIG commissioner Francisco Dall’anesse for condemning alleged “social cleansing” committed by police in the country.