Haiti Rocked by Anti-Martelly Protests

Haitian President Michel Martelly faced some of the largest opposition protests of his administration on Monday, with major marches being held in Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien, the country’s two largest cities. Perceived corruption, rampant poverty and delayed elections were among the demonstrators’ main grievances.

The BBC describes yesterday’s protests as among the largest since Martelly took office two years ago, while Reuters claims that they “surpassed scenes in May this year when deposed former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide made a rare court appearance.” Thousands turned out at demonstrations in both cities, calling for Martelly’s immediate resignation.  In Port-au-Prince supporters of the president organized counter-protests, leading to violent conflicts which were broken up by police and UN peacekeeping forces. The AP reports that at least one person was shot in the resulting clashes.

In response to the protests, the president called for national unity. “If we didn't have our heads together, we wouldn't have a Haitian state,” Martelly told a gathering at the historic site of a decisive battle in the country’s war of independence on Monday.

But the demonstrators are not alone in their dissatisfaction with the current government. Several members of the international community have also made it known that their patience for the delayed vote is wearing thin. Legislative and local elections were supposed to have been held before the end of the year, but the president and lawmakers are still hashing out the details of an electoral reform bill. Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers have threatened to push for aid cuts to the country because of the delay, and Vice President Joe Biden called for elections to be scheduled last month. Uruguayan President Jose Mujica has also tried to put pressure on the government to set a date for elections, announcing that he would withdraw his country's UN peacekeepers from Haiti due to the lack of progress on overdue elections.

News Briefs

• While Venezuelan lawmakers are still debating a bill to grant President Nicolas Maduro decree powers for the next 12 months, Noticias24 and El Nacional report that the president has called on his supporters to hold a demonstration outside the presidential palace today in support of the measure. The legislature is expected to approve the bill in a second round of debate later today.

• It turns out that socialist Brazilian presidential candidate Eduardo Campos is less of a threat to President Dilma Rousseff’s reelection than originally thought. The announcement of his alliance with Marina Silva last month caused many analysts to identify him as Rousseff’s main challenger, with most predicting that his poll numbers would rise as he gained a national profile. However, now that he is more well-known nationwide, polls show Brazilians like him even less. A new survey by Ibope gives Dilma 43 percent support, 14 percent support for conservative candidate Aecio Neves, and just 7 percent for Campos, meaning the president could win the vote next year in a single round.

• Lucia Nader of Brazilian human rights NGO Conectas has an interesting post for openDemocracy on a lesser-known side effect of Brazil’s economic boom in recent years: a reduction in available funding for human rights advocacy organizations in the country.  According to Nader, Brazil’s development has been accompanied by a drop in international donations to human rights nonprofits, which worsened after the 2008 financial crisis. She claims that this would not be so bad if Brazilian philanthropists had made up the gap, but this has not been the case. While the state makes some funds available for human rights groups, many fear this money will come with reduced autonomy and credibility. The solution for human rights groups in emerging economies, Nader writes, is to “develop a greater philanthropic tradition,” in which local human rights groups restructure and learn to raise more funds locally.

• Following last week’s announcement by Colombian Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon that armed forced had uncovered a FARC plot to assassinate ex-President Alvaro Uribe, current President Juan Manuel Santos has sought to downplay the allegations. El Tiempo reports that Santos told reporters they were “old news,” and that he heard similar reports during his time as Uribe’s defense minister. News site La Silla Vacia notes that investigative journalists have endorsed the veracity of the assassination plot, raising questions about whether Santos is simply trying to get rid of a negative distraction from the peace process.

• Reuters looks at the difficulties faced by FARC deserters in Colombia, and on the country’s efforts to facilitate their reintegration to society. Defense Minister Pinzon recently told the news agency that the guerrillas are seeing a wave of desertions now that peace talks have begun, which rebel leaders say is patently false.

• Peruvian Interior Minister Wilfredo Pedraza has resigned after he was linked to the latest corruption scandal to hit the government of President Ollanta Humala. Pedraza stepped down following local press reports tying him to Oscar Lopez Meneses, a businessman and firm ally of imprisoned ex-intelligence director Vladimir Montesinos. Last week it was revealed that Lopez enjoyed a permanent police escort outside his home, information which Pedraza claimed had been hidden from him. According to Diario Gestion, he will be replaced by Walter Alban Peralta, former ombudsman and, until now, the country’s OAS ambassador.

• Argentine President Cristina Fernandez returned to work as planned yesterday. La Nacion reports that the president announced a cabinet shakeup yesterday, naming youthful economic policy advisor Axel Kicillof as her new economy minister.  Additionally, she picked Chaco province governor Jorge Capitanich to be her new cabinet chief. BBC reports that she also released a video message thanking devotees for their support.

• U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Panama last night for a series of meetings today with President Ricardo Martinelli. The AP reports that the purpose of his visit is to highlight the ongoing Panama Canal expansion, as well as to talk bilateral trade and security issues with Martinelli.

• Secretary of State John Kerry delivered a speech at the Organization of American States (OAS) headquarters in DC yesterday in which he defended the Obama administration’s Cuba policy, touting loosened restrictions on travel as key to promoting democracy on the island. The Miami Herald reports that he also touched on climate change, endorsing the use of renewable energy sources throughout the hemisphere.  The Wall Street Journal notes that the speech is also notable for Kerry’s characterization of U.S. relations with Latin America. According to the secretary of state: “The era of the Monroe Doctrine is over… That’s worth applauding. That’s not a bad thing.”

• The New York Times is the latest news outlet to report on Mexico’s growing “middle class,” particularly in the central state of Guanajuato. Unlike other media, however, the NYT at least acknowledges that this narrative is complicated by the country’s economic statistics, which show that 45 percent of the country still lives below the poverty line. 

Chile Election Goes to 2nd Round

As expected, Michelle Bachelet came out far ahead of her opponents in yesterday’s presidential election in Chile. Yet because she received roughly 47 percent of the vote -- compared to 25 percent for conservative candidate Evelyn Matthei -- instead of the 51 percent needed to win outright, a second round will be held next month.  

The fact that Bachelet fell just short of the cutoff can be attributed to several factors, including low turnout (44 percent of eligible voters stayed at home) and the wide playing field (there were a total of nine candidates across the political spectrum, and socialist Marco Enriquez-Ominami likely siphoned support from Bachelet with his 10 percent backing).

With Bachelet’s second round victory virtually guaranteed, the biggest story today is the electoral showing of her New Majority coalition in legislative races. As this helpful graphic by La Tercera shows, the center-left electoral alliance picked up solid majorities in both houses of Chile’s Congress. When she begins her next term, Bachelet’s political force will control 21 of 38 seats in the Senate, and 67 of 120 seats in the House of Representatives.

Unfortunately for her, this falls short of the two-thirds majority required to approve constitutional changes. Several outlets (see the New York Times and Reuters) have pointed out that this will likely make it difficult for her to live up to her ambitious campaign promises.  

Another notable development in the elections is the fact that four former student union leaders  -- including Camila Vallejo and Giorgio Jackson -- have won lower house races, as El Mostrador reports. This means that the country’s well-organized and vocal student movement will have at least four allies in Congress, and is sure to put pressure on the government to implement the education reforms it has demanded in recent years.

News Briefs

• Following the Brazilian Supreme Court’s decision to uphold their prison sentences for participating in the mensalão scandal, O Globo reports that 11 of the most high-profile culprits in the vote-buying scheme turned themselves into federal police late last week. These include former chief of staff Jose Dirceu and former Workers’ Party (PT) head Jose Genoino Guimarães Neto, among others. One notable exception is an ex-director of state-run bank Banco do Brasil, Henrique Pizzolato. The BBC notes that Pizzolato fled to Italy, where his lawyers say he hopes to get a fairer trial.  

• On Thursday, lawmakers in Venezuela approved a preliminary measure which would grant President Nicolas Maduro the authority to rule by decree for the next 12 months. El Universal reports that, according to National Assembly head Diosdado Cabello, a second vote will be held tomorrow to finalize the move.

• In the latest display of force by organizations associated with Mexico’s community self-defense movement in the state of Michoacan, on Saturday an armed vigilante group took over a small town in the municipality of Tancitaro. The group clashed with members of the Knights Templar drug gang, and El Universal reports that at least two were killed in the skirmish. Authorities say federal police are patrolling the area. The Wall Street Journal has an overview of the developing conflict between local vigilantes and the Knights Templar in Michoacan, noting that critics of the community groups claim they have links to the Templars’ rivals, the Jalisco New Generation cartel.

• Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has resumed her presidential duties as planned today, over a month after undergoing head surgery to remove a blood clot from her skull. However, La Nacion reports that her official agenda has not been released, raising questions about how much she has actually recovered from the procedure.

• A new poll by Ipsos Peru, published yesterday by El Comercio, shows that Peruvian President Ollanta Humala remains largely unpopular, with polls giving him a 27 percent approval rating. Interestingly, La Republica notes that the survey also demonstrated that Keiko Fujimori has seen a 9-point drop in polls, with 71 percent of those surveyed supporting an investigation into the opposition figure.

• In the wake of U.S. President Barack Obama’s calls for an updated Cuba policy, Reuters has an analysis of the various ways in which U.S./Cuba relations are already changing under the radar. The beginnings of a new, more practical relationship can be seen in several recent incidents, including both nations’ handling of the Snowden affair and the interception of North Korea-bound Cuban weapons in the Panama Canal.

• The New York Times’ The Stone blog features a column by Harvard University Cuba expert Alejandro de la Fuente, who claims that Cuba’s attempt to address racial inequality can provide valuable lessons to the United States.  De la Fuente notes that official statistics show that, by the 1980s, Cuba’s economic policies succeeded in making life expectancy nearly identical for all racial groups, whereas significant gaps remained between whites and nonwhites in the United States and Brazil at the time (6.3 and 6.7 years, respectively). Despite this and other social gains, he writes, blackness continued to be associated with “with negative social and cultural features,” and young black men were still more likely to be seen as potential criminals. Ultimately, he concludes that while addressing economic inequality is a necessary first step to ending structural racism in the U.S., the Cuban experience shows that cultural and educational shifts are needed as well.

• While the peace process in Colombia has seen unprecedented progress with the announcement of an initial accord on the rebels’ future political participation, a lasting end to its armed conflict is a long way off.  The Colombia Peace blog of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) has an in-depth analysis of the current stage of the peace talks, noting the controversy caused by the participation accord’s guarantees of special representatives to conflict zones, which critics say will boost the FARC’s influence in certain regions. One of the loudest critics, unsurprisingly, has been former President Alvaro Uribe. Miami Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer interviewed Uribe last week, and in his Sunday column he writes that it could “put new pressure on the Colombian government to cancel the talks.” Additionally, Oppenheimer notes that when confronted about his own past support for granting political representation to the FARC, Uribe was careful to distance himself from President Juan Manuel Santos’ plan. “I never offered impunity…this government has offered impunity, and has offered political legitimacy to people who committed atrocities. That’s a big difference,” Uribe said

• The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti has released a statement saying it is “deeply concerned” by recent violence there. The AP notes that there have been several anti-government protests held in cities around the country in recent weeks, with reports of several people shot and injured. Another opposition protest is planned for today in Port-au-Prince.

• Last week, the U.S. and European Union blocked a proposal on climate change which would place more responsibility to rein in greenhouse gas and carbon emissions on developed countries. The measure was sponsored by Brazil and backed by most of Latin America as well as China. Brazilian UN Ambassador Jose Antonio Marcondes de Carvalho told Bloomberg that the plan was “meant to make available for countries a metric of their historical responsibility in terms of temperature rise.” With the plan scrapped, the odds that a UN conference this week will give rise to a meaningful agreement to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol are slim, as the NYT notes.

• The Washington Post has a feature piece on Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro’s attempts to regulate the work of urban recyclers, attempting to coax them into trading their ubiquitous horse carts for city-leased trucks.

• On Friday, the Pew Research Center released a 13-year survey of remittance trends to Latin America. Researchers found that remittances from U.S. immigrants fell drastically during the recent recession, but have recovered overall. The exception, as the L.A. Times reports, were remittances to Mexico, which have fallen 29 percent from a 2006 peak. This is attributed to declining Mexican migration to the U.S. in recent years. 

Market Study to Reshape Bolivian Coca Production

The Bolivian government has published the results of a long-awaited study (.pdf) on the size of its legal coca market. While the release has been widely reported, many outlets have overlooked the main story: this report has been pending for nine years, and will likely have major implications for the future of legal coca production in the country.

The report has been in the works since a 2004 agreement between the government and coca cultivators to adjust coca limits based on an accurate survey of the licit market. Its impending release was mentioned in the 2005 UNODC Coca Monitoring Survey, and in every subsequent UN annual report after that. In 2007 the European Union put up over a million dollars to support the survey, and it was allegedly completed in 2010. Over the next three years the government continued to delay its publication, however, claiming that it was conducting unspecified “complementary studies.”

But there were political factors behind the delay as well. Cocalero unions are a significant source of political support for President Evo Morales’ Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party, and results suggesting a major reduction in coca would doubtlessly face opposition. In fact, months after the study was commissioned the government authorized a temporary increase in coca cultivation (of 3,200 hectares) beyond the constitutionally-allowed maximum of 12,000 hectares. MAS lawmakers have since proposed several bills which would increase this limit, the most high-profile of which would raise it to 20,000 hectares.

The results of the study do not support this move, however. The legal market of coca for traditional and medicinal uses requires a maximum of only 14,705 hectares. InSight Crime points out that this figure is still far larger than estimates by government critics, including Juan del Granado of the opposition Movement Without Fear (MSM) party, who recently claimed he saw an earlier version of the report which put the market size at around 6,000 hectares.

Interestingly, La Razon notes that the report found that the licit coca market grew by 15 percent from 2006 to 2012. This is likely a result of Morales’ attempts to boost demand for coca both domestically and abroad. But even if this trend continued apace, legal demand would only stand at 16,910 hectares by 2018, still just two-thirds of the 25,300 hectares currently produced  in Bolivia. Clearly, raising demand alone will not dry up the black market for coca.

Now that the legal market estimate has been published, the Morales administration faces some tough choices.  There is no justifiable reason to boost the legal coca quota to 20,000 hectares, as the president’s supporters advocate. Like it or not, coca growers’ unions will have to scale back cultivation, and the government now has a benchmark figure to use as a guide.

Most of the reduction will likely have to occur in the Yungas region of La Paz Department, which alone accounted for 67 percent of total coca cultivation nationwide in 2012, according to UN statistics. The area has long been the epicenter of traditional coca cultivation in Bolivia, and is considered a MAS stronghold. Readjusting coca cultivation here will require delicate negotiation, as it could pit the ruling party against its base.

Likely because of this, earlier this month the MAS announced that it would postpone a debate over Law 1008 (the 1988 “Law on the Regime Applicable to Coca and Controlled Substances,” which sets the 12,000 hectare limit) until after the October 2014 general elections.

News Briefs

• El Comerio and RPP report on an emerging scandal in Peru after it was revealed that a businessman with ties to ex-intelligence director Vladimir Montesinos, who is imprisoned on drug trafficking charges, had a protective police escort stationed outside his home in Lima. The businessman, Oscar Lopez Meneses, was a longtime facilitator for Montesinos , and has been convicted of embezzlement, illegal wiretapping and illegal weapons possession.  President Ollanta Humala has ordered an investigation into the order, and denied any links to Lopez or “Montesinismo” in his administration.

• After an armed conflict between security forces and miners in a remote Amazonian region in Ecuador left one civilian dead and several soldiers wounded, Ecuadorean Vice President Jorge Glas has called for a crackdown on illegal mining in the Andean country, the Los Angeles Times reports.

• Considering all of the reform promises that Chilean candidate Michelle Bachelet has made in the lead up to Sunday’s first round of presidential elections, many analysts have questioned whether she will be able to live up to expectations. The AP notes that the leading candidate has already begun to dial down expectations somewhat, recently remarking: “People understand that governments can't immediately deliver dramatic results on day two.” Analysts consulted by the news agency agree that Bachelet appears to have reined in her promises significantly since her campaign first began early this year. In an op-ed column for El Mostrador, Chilean political scientist Santiago Escobar agrees that Bachelet has played the field in her campaign by making her commitments vaguer with time, but asserts that some kind of constitutional reform will inevitably move forward in the next administration, which will in turn give rise to new social and economic rights.

• Spain’s El Pais has an update on the regional backlash to the Dominican Republic’s recent court ruling stripping thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent of their citizenship. As a consequence of the ruling, several members of the Caribbean community regional trade bloc (Caricom) are demanding the Dominican government’s suspension from Cariforum, Caricom’s international group that promotes engagement with African, European and Pacific countries.

• In the latest sign of opposition to the Supreme Court of El Salvador’s decision to consider the repeal of the country's 1993 amnesty law (following the closure of Tutela Legal), a leading human rights organization had its San Salvador offices looted yesterday morning. The L.A. Times and El Faro report that around 4:30am local time, unknown attackers disarmed and tied up the security guard outside the Asociacion Pro-Busqueda, and proceeded to destroy several files related to a case currently being assessed in the Constitutional Court. It is the first attack on a human rights group since the immediate post-war years, and Human Rights Ombudsman David Morales characterized the incident as an attempt to “bully, intimidate and instill fear within the fight against impunity.” Fortunately, the group says it has backed up the files which were destroyed.

• The New York Times points out that despite the Brazilian Supreme Court ruling this week which upheld prison sentences for some of the main figures in the mensalão scandal, it remains unclear who exactly will go to prison and when they will do so. According to O Globo, Chief Justice Joaquim Barbosa is expected to issue imprisonment orders in the coming days. Meanwhile, Jose Dirceu’s legal representative told reporters yesterday that his client had returned from vacation to his home in São Paulo and was ready to present himself to authorities.

• While the rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has declined over the previous four years, the past 12 months saw deforestation rise by 28 percent. Environmental activists say this is due to a relaxation of legislation meant to protect the rainforest.

• At Venezuelan Politics and Human Rights, David Smilde has a helpful Q&A dealing with the most commonly asked questions about President Nicolas Maduro’s “economic war.” Smilde agrees with most analysts’ assertions that the recent anti-speculation measures announced by the president are a bid to boost his PSUV party’s chances ahead of the December municipal elections, which will be seen as a preliminary referendum on his government. He also suggests that Maduro’s move may be fairly effective in this, because in Venezuela “market discourse has not been naturalized as it is in countries with longer and more robust capitalist traditions.” But instead of chalking an embrace of price controls up to a “culture of underdevelopment,” Smilde argues that this is in fact understandable given the local economic context, where private profit margins are far higher than in developed nations. This has not stopped international press from comparing the government’s forced price-slashing and liquidations to a “fire sale” (the NYT) or “cannibalizing an already damaged economy” (from the AP).

• Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos told reporters yesterday that he has “practically” made up his mind about whether to run for re-election in next year’s presidential race, El Tiempo reports. However, it looks like he will continue to play it coy. The president said he would not reveal his decision until November 25, the legal deadline for him to announce his candidacy.

• The Economist offers an assessment of the Colombian peace process. While the magazine praises Santos for calling the FARC’s ”bluff ” and ignoring their demands for a constituent assembly, it also notes that the recently-discovered plot to assassinate former President Alvaro Uribe gives ammunition to critics of the peace process, which will raise pressure on the talks in the coming months.

• The Wall Street Journal profiles the exhumation of the remains of Brazilian ex-President João Goulart yesterday, noting that it is part of a wider movement on the part of South American governments to investigate Operation Condor. The exhumation is being carried out under the auspices of Brazil’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which has not released a timeframe for the results of its analysis. 

Brazil Supreme Court Upholds Mensalão Sentences

The Brazilian Supreme Court has upheld jail terms against over half of those convicted of taking part in the “mensalão” vote-buying scandal, ordering party officials, businessmen and bankers to start serving their sentences immediately.

Yesterday’s ruling did not specify how many of the 25 accused will end up behind bars, but Folha de São Paulo reports that it will apply to 16 of the main figures in the case. These include former chief of staff Jose Dirceu, former Worker´s Party (PT) president Jose Genoino, and businessman Marcos Valerio de Souza. The exact terms of their sentences will be decided in the coming days, beginning with a court session today.

According to O Globo, at least 11 of the 16 will likely face prison time, albeit with the possibility of semi-open detention allowing day release. Two others will probably be sent to an open jail facility, and three more are eligible for alternative sentences, the paper claims.

The ruling is likely to boost public confidence in Brazil’s court system, which has been shaken by the fact that none of those convicted in the landmark case have so far served time. In September, the Supreme Court agreed to appeal the sentences of 12 of the 25 defendants, including Direceu, who played a crucial role in the corruption scheme during his tenure as former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s first chief of staff.

Yesterday’s ruling confirms Dirceu’s seven years and 11 months sentence. The AFP notes that the former Lula advisor is due to face further charges in a new trial next year, and will automatically be forced to serve time under a closed regime if his combined sentence tops eight years.

News Briefs

• The Bolivian government has released a long-awaited report on the country’s internal coca market, which found that the legal demand for the leaf can be satisfied by nearly 15,000 hectares. This is roughly 58 percent of the current coca crop, which according to the AP means that the rest is used to process cocaine. InSight Crime’s Marguerite Cawley has an analysis of the report, noting that the estimate is lower than the government’s previous assessments of the legal market size, but significantly higher than opposition estimates. 

• The Economist has an interview with Eduardo Campos, the leader of the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) and President Dilma Rousseff’s main challenger in next year’s election. In the interview, Campos framed his recently-announced alliance with environmentalist Marina Silva as a “natural” association, downplaying any conflict between their political ambitions.

• In addition to an alleged plot to assassinate former President Alvaro Uribe, Colombian military sources have told Caracol Radio that FARC guerrillas had a plan to hold certain congressmen hostage.  In response, El Espectador reports that the government’s negotiating team has cited the revelations as a potential threat to the peace talks moving forward.

• The New York Times’ Simon Romero writes an interesting profile of Paraguay’s shadowy guerrilla group, the Paraguayan People’s Army (EPP), which has stepped up its activity in recent years. Romero notes that the EPP is something of an anachronism in a region where “military dictatorships gave way to democracies and dissent began emerging in different forms,” but suggests that this is explained by Paraguay’s status as one of the region’s poorest and unequal nations.

• A former Argentine army officer jailed for crimes against humanity under the country’s military regime escaped from a police van on Tuesday, La Nacion reports. Colonel Alejandro Lawless allegedly took advantage of his guards’ momentary distraction as he was being transported to a court in Buenos Aires. The BBC points out that Lawless is the third former Argentine military officer to escape this year, after two others broke free of an army hospital in July.

• The Wall Street Journal has a profile of the leading candidates in next Sunday’s presidential race in Chile, stressing the deep political divide that has been exposed in the country as a result of the campaign. Still the paper notes that voters, especially Chile’s youth, will choose the next president largely out of concern for the future, not the past.

• El Faro takes a critical look at the human rights position of Norman Quijano, the main conservative candidate in El Salvador’s February 2 presidential elections. While Quijano’s campaign platform includes a vow to adhere to all of the Central American country’s international human rights obligations, the candidate has said he would not support a repeal of the 1993 Amnesty Law. This despite the fact that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has called for its destitution, and El Salvador is technically bound to this decision as a signatory of the American Convention.

• Despite left-wing Honduran presidential candidate Xiomara Castro’s reputation as the “anti-golpista” candidate, she has the backing of some of the same business elites who backed the coup which deposed her husband, former president Manuel Zelaya. In an interview with the AFP, Adolfo Facusse -- president of the influential National Association of Industrialists (ANDI) -- told the news agency he supported Castro despite his past approval of the 2009 coup. What’s more, Facusse accused Castro’s rival, Juan Orlando Hernandez, of having “autocratic tendencies.”

• In other Honduras election news, a video advertisement for the Castro campaign which features former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has caused a stir in the country. The chief justice of the Honduran Supreme Court David Matamoros told La Tribuna that he voiced concern about the video to the Brazilian embassy, claiming it amounted to “foreign interference” in the elections. According to Matamoros, Brazilian officials responded that Lula did not represent the South American country in any official capacity, and only appeared in the ad as a private citizen.  

• Brazilian authorities have exhumed the remains of former Joao Goulart to test claims that he was poisoned. While the cause of his 1976 death was initially ruled to be a heart attack, a former Uruguayan intelligence officer has said Goulart was poisoned by agents of Brazil’s military regime as part of Operation Condor. 

Ecuador Cracks Down on Inhumane Drug Treatment

While troubling approaches to drug treatment remain the norm in many Latin American countries, the government of Ecuador has made important progress against unregulated rehabilitation clinics. So far in 2013, Ecuadorean officials have freed some 500 people from unlicensed facilities in the country, accusing their owners of sponsoring abuse and torture.

With public treatment facilities limited throughout the hemisphere, most individuals seeking drug rehabilitation in the region must turn to private clinics. Due to a lack of regulation and the deep stigma commonly associated with drug abuse, these centers frequently submit patients to deplorable conditions and questionable -- even inhumane -- treatment regimens.

In Mexico, for instance, largely unregulated treatment centers called “anexos” are known to beat and psychologically abuse their patients. In an illustration of the lack of state control over the practice, a number of anexos along the northern border have even been used as recruitment facilities by drug trafficking organizations.

In Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, the problem of inhumane drug treatment is exacerbated by the fact that many inpatients are held involuntarily, as part of a court order. They are frequently given no say in the terms and extent of their detention. This is the case in Brazil, where the governments of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states have approved the forced treatment of crack cocaine addicts. Critics argue that these measures are thinly-veiled attempts to clear the streets of “undesirable” social elements, and ultimately subject individuals to cruel and degrading treatment. Although neighboring Uruguay has earned praise for its marijuana regulation initiative, lawmakers there are poised to pass a similarly controversial forced treatment bill.  

Ecuador, by contrast, is bucking the trend. El Universo reports that on Friday, the government announced that roughly 20 uncertified treatment facilities have been broken up this year, with authorities rescuing some 500 people. The centers’ operators have been charged with torture, kidnapping and human trafficking, among other crimes, according to Attorney General Galo Chiriboga. The announcement was made a day after police broke up an uncertified rehabilitation clinic in Quito, which made patients undergo a crude kind of electric shock therapy involving a wet floor and an electrical charge.  “These people were being held against their will, overcrowded, in degrading, unhealthy conditions. They were sleeping on the floor. They had no sewer system,” a justice official told the AFP.

While it may not seem like much, these operations are a major positive development. They are among the most active state interventions against inhumane drug treatment in the region, and further boost Ecuador’s reputation for adopting a relatively progressive approach towards drug policy. The country decriminalized the possession of small amounts of drugs earlier this year, and President Rafael Correa has said that he supports “partial” legalization of marijuana. Last month Ecuadorean drug officials signed an agreement with their Uruguayan counterparts to “deepen the debate” on drugs in the hemisphere, suggesting the Andean country may be next in line to challenge the dominant global drug paradigm.

News Briefs

• The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has released a new report on citizen security in Latin America. The publication claims that insecurity is on the rise in the region, with one in every three Latin Americans reporting being a victim of a violent crime in 2012. The UNDP also found that crime is holding the region back economically, asserting that the region’s GDP would have been 0.5 percent higher last year were it not for its high homicide rate (See the Miami Herald). The UNDP authors also called for security policies to go beyond crime control and include social development, which for Spanish news agency EFE is an argument that “mano dura” policies have failed.

• Following popular backlash, Cuban authorities have announced they will back away from plans to close private movie theaters and video game salons. In addition to a demonstration of political savvy on the government’s part, the AP notes that analysts see this as evidence of growing influence of private entrepreneurs on the island.

• The Colombian government claims that it has uncovered a plot by FARC rebels to assassinate former President Alvaro Uribe. Yesterday, Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon told reporters that the alleged plot was to be carried out by the FARC's Teofilo Forero column, which operates in central Colombia. The Associated Press reports that it is unclear if the FARC leadership was aware of the plot. Semana magazine suggests that, if true, it would imply that the guerrilla group’s leaders are unable to control rank and file members.

• Yesterday Ecuador’s National Court of Justice affirmed a lower court ruling which found that oil giant Chevron was liable for decades of environmental damage in the Lago Agrio region, although El Pais and the Wall Street Journal note the judges cut a $19 billion fine in half, tossing out punitive damages that were imposed in 2011.

• After months of negotiations, Mexico’s main parties are nearing an agreement on political reforms aimed at increasing the power of Congress relative to the presidency, allowing them to serve consecutive terms. Jose Gonzalez Morfin told El Universal that the PAN, PRD and PRI are approaching a consensus on the issue, and could present a proposal later this week. Reuters notes that the political reforms are a “bargaining chip” for President Enrique Peña Nieto, who is hoping to receive support for his oil reform plan in exchange.

• The L.A. Times reports on the plight of tomato farm workers in northern Mexico, many of whom are indigenous migrants from poorer southern states. Laborers are paid some $10 for a day’s work, and made to live in appalling conditions on fenced compounds owned by landholders.

• Dino Bouterse, son of Surinamese President Desi Bouterse, has been charged by U.S. officials of accepting money to facilitate Hezbollah militants seeking weapons and a base of operations in South America. The BBC reports that U.S. officials say Bouterse met with undercover agents posing as Hezbollah fighters, meaning that the extent to which the Islamic militant group was actually involved in the plot is suspect.

• As noted in yesterday’s post, Venezuela’s National Assembly appears poised to grant President Nicolas Maduro temporary decree powers. Yesterday the legislative branch voted to strip an opposition lawmaker of immunity and allow her to be prosecuted on embezzlement charges. She will likely be replaced by a congressman more in line with ruling PSUV, giving the party the 99 votes it needs to approve the measure expanding Maduro’s powers.

Venezuela’s ‘Economic War’ Heats Up

With the National Assembly poised to grant Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro decree powers this week, the president’s “economic war” may deepen in the coming months.

The Venezuelan economy is in trouble. While, as Mark Weisbrot points out, it is nowhere close to becoming the “Greece of Latin America,” mounting inflation poses a serious problem in the South American country. The annual inflation rate has risen to 54.3 percent, a 16-year high, causing prices to skyrocket and contributing to shortages of consumer goods.

Instead of cutting inflation through conventional methods of reducing the money supply, Maduro has opted for a more combative approach to price gouging and speculation. The president has announced increased inspection of stores to make sure they aren’t overcharging consumers, and is cracking down on those that are. On Friday, Maduro ordered troops to take control of a five-store chain of electronics stores after its prices were deemed unreasonably high, instructing owners to sell their goods at reduced prices and liquidate their inventories.  The move led to looting and brawls, and on Sunday authorities announced the arrest of looters and store managers alike as part of what Maduro called an “economic war” against price speculating businesses.

The president appears to be doubling down on this approach. El Nacional reports that in an official “cadena” broadcast last night, Maduro ordered the country’s militia corps to assist the national guard in enforcing price controls. He also announced that Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz and Supreme Court President Gladys Gutierrez had authorized the creation of special tribunals to expedite prosecution of price speculation cases. The AP notes that the president ended his address with a plea for Venezuelans to remain calm. “There's no need to sleep outside store doors,” said Maduro. “Nobody should despair. Nobody should get anxious.”

The opposition has accused the government of using this as a populist ploy ahead of the December 8 municipal elections. Marino Alvarado, general coordinator of human rights group PROVEA, told local press that he saw the announcement as clearly linked to the election. “Lines at [electronics stores over the weekend] united Chavistas and the opposition alike. There were radical members of the opposition supporting the initiative, which leads me to believe that there is an electoral logic behind all this, looking for votes on December 8,” Alvarado said.

By contrast, Venezuela political analyst David Smilde claims that President Nicolas Maduro sincerely believes in his own rhetoric of “economic warfare.”  Smilde suggests that Maduro has systematically ejected policy advisors from his inner circle who, like Finance Minister Nelson Merentes, advocated more pragmatic approaches to inflation. As a result, the president is now unaware of the wisdom of backing away from his “quixotic” war on speculation and hoarding, or perhaps even unable to do so. According to Smilde, this has the potential to “seriously undercut Chavismo’s viability as a democratically supported political project.”

Interestingly, Maduro’s economic war could be just beginning. National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello announced that he expects the legislature to finally approve the president’s long-awaited request to be granted decree powers for 12 months. Telesur reports that Maduro has confirmed this, and hopes to use the authorization to support his economic agenda. In his address yesterday, the president promised to “immediately put in place a law to set the base rates of earnings of all economic activities of the republic to structurally establish the mechanisms of the economy.”

News Briefs

• The Mexican government has demanded answers about a Mexican light aircraft that was shot down in Venezuela last week in the western state of Apure.  Animal Politico reports that Mexican Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Meade met with the Venezuelan ambassador to the country on Monday, who informed him that authorities believed the plane was carrying a shipment of illicit drugs.

• Despite the fact that Peruvian lawmakers’ recent decision to elect Congresswoman Martha Chavez as head of a legislative committee on human rights was opposed by leading human rights groups in the country, it appears she is there to stay. Peru21 reports that Chavez, who is controversial because of her denial of past state abuses, was re-appointed as head of the commission after a second vote on the matter was held yesterday. The National Coordinator of Human Rights has called on the entire committee to be dissolved, and some in Congress have asked the legislative committee on ethics to assess the legitimacy of Chavez’s appointment, according to El Comercio.

• Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has been given the final go-ahead from doctors to resume her presidential duties next week. Telam reports that Fernandez will take office on Monday, though she will be unable to travel by plane or attend large public events for the next month.

• Miami Herald reporter Jim Wyss, who was detained by Venezuelan military officials for nearly 48 hours last week after conducting interviews for a story on the contraband trade along the border with Colombia, has written about the experience. Wyss provides an interesting look at the work of intelligence agents in Venezuela, and of their hostile view towards the Miami press.

• Colombia’s second-largest guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), has released a statement expressing wary support for the recently-announced accord on political participation reached between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Colombian government.  The government has not yet publicly engaged in talks with the smaller rebel group, though both sides have expressed a willingness to do so.

• After a six-month investigation, on Friday a team of forensic experts in Chile has found no traces of poison in the remains of deceased poet Pablo Neruda, La Tercera reports. While for many the announcement puts end to years of speculation that Neruda -- who died just 12 days after Augusto Pinochet took power -- was killed by state security forces, others remain unconvinced. The L.A. Times notes that members of the Chilean Communist Party and relatives of Neruda say they will request more samples to be taken.

• It seems Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos’s public approval has recovered somewhat after the hit it took following mass protests in August. A new nationwide Gallup poll reveals that 27 percent of Colombians said they would vote for Santos in May’s presidential election, 12 points ahead of Uribista candidate Oscar Ivan Zuluaga, his closest rival. However, as El Pais reports, the leading candidate is “none of the above,” with 30.6 percent of respondents saying they would cast blank ballots. While he is expected to run, Santos has not yet officially announced a reelection bid, and has until November 25 to do so.

• BBC Mundo has an excellent profile of four former leaders in Chile’s student movement who are running for legislative seats in Sunday’s elections. While some of these candidates, like 26 year-old Giorgio Jackson, have opted to run on their own independent tickets, others have joined traditional leftist parties in the country. Of these, perhaps the most notable is Camila Vallejo, who is the Communist Party candidate for a representative of the working class Santiago neighborhood of La Florida.

• In July, the Foundation for New Ibero-American Journalism (FNPI) and the Colombian city of Medellin launched a new prize to honor quality journalism in the Americas and the Iberian Peninsula: the Gabriel Garcia Marquez International Journalism Award. This week, the FNBI announced the top ten finalists and those nominated for official selection. In what will come as no surprise to Latin America watchers, among the finalists were articles published this year in some of the most popular investigative journalism news sites in the hemisphere, including El Faro’s coverage of the MS-13-Barrio 18 gang truce,  La Silla Vacia’s coverage of garbage collection in Bogota and Agência Pública’s reporting on the ouster  of ex-Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo.

• Guatemalan news site Plaza Publica has a critical editorial on the failure to tackle corruption within the armed forces of the Central American country. While President Otto Perez Molina has praised the military as the only institution capable of “self-purging” itself of corrupt elements, the news site’s editorial board claims “the army remains a shadowy ministry, infiltrated and yet relied upon to clean up other institutions.”

Colombian Govt: FARC Won't Get Legislative Seats

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

News Briefs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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