The Americas Post » POLITICS

From Mexico to South America: Gral. Petraeus (CIA) visited the Colombian jungle.

Carbonero — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:53:57 +0000

The CIA Director visited La Macarena in the state of Meta, center of Colombia. He met with the Defense Minister and Military Commanders of the Colombian Armed Forces.

Colombia’s government today praised U.S. support for strengthening systems of technical (Sigint) and human intelligence (Humint) in the fight against illegal organizations like FARC operating in this South American country.

“With the support of the U.S. government we are strengthening our systems of technical and human intelligence,” said Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón, through a statement.

He added that “there must be no place in Colombia where terrorists and criminals can hide undetected.”

Minister Pinzon and Director of the Central Investigation Agency (CIA) United States, Gral. David Petraeus, visited La Macarena last Friday in the southern province of Meta, one of the areas where the illegal groups and drug traffickers operate.

With these meetings Colombia “will continue to strengthen cooperation ties between the two countries and strengthen the commitment to continue fighting terrorism, drug trafficking and transnational crime,” said the Defense Ministry statement.

2000-2010: Another lost decade for South America´s economic competitiveness and social welfare.

Carbonero — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:26:38 +0000

Credit Inphographics IMFdirect

“There’s no doubt that with the growth of China, we’ve seen a re-commoditization of Latin America,” said Colombia’s Mining Minister Mauricio Cárdenas, an economist and former Director of the Latin America program at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC.

In terms of economic development, Latin America did not take any advantage of the rising prices of commodities -raw-materials- , which prices nearly tripled from 2000 to 2010.

In that sense, Latin America’s share of global merchandise trade remained the same (5.7 %), and service exports fell to 3.4 percent from 3.9 percent.

It is difficult to do business in Latin America. The World Bank´s 2012 competitiveness ranked Brazil -the region’s biggest economy- as No. 126 out of 183 countries.

READ MORE HERE.

In short, the continent’s decade-long boom may be ending. According to the U.N.’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Latin American growth, which topped 6% last year, will slow to 4.3% this year and 3.7% in 2012. Brazil’s economy, the region’s largest, actually flat-lined in the third quarter; Argentina’s scorching growth of 9% this year will be halved to 4.8% next year, and capital flight is expected to be robust. Mexico’s growth, meanwhile, will drop from 4% to 3.3%.

That’s hardly doomsday news, but it’s one reason the Montevideo summit’s main action was to raise protective import tariffs…READ MORE HERE

The IMF’s latest Regional Economic Outlook: Western Hemisphere sheds light on Latin America’s reliance on commodities from a historical perspective. A study conducted by Gustavo Adler y Sebastián Sosa also looks at the effect of a sharp decline in commodity prices on emerging market economies and on the policies that could shield countries from that shock. READ MORE HERE

U.S. rejects Chavez cancer accusation

tlc — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 05:38:59 +0000

The Americas Post - Hugo Chavez seems to consider the US carcinogenic. Photo Credit: Reuters

The Obama administration has denounced Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for implying that the U.S. could be responsible for a rash of cancer cases among Latin American leaders.

The State Department on Thursday said Chavez’s comments were “horrific and reprehensible.” Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said they were not worthy of further response.

Chavez has long accused the U.S. government of plotting to overthrow him. But earlier this week he went far beyond that, saying it was very strange that he and the leaders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay have struggled with cancer.

Recent years have seen a series of leftwing Latin America leaders diagnosed with cancer including Brazil‘s current president, Dilma Rousseff, Paraguay‘s Fernando Lugo, Argentine president Cristina Fernandez and the former Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

In late June Chavez admitted being treated for cancer, telling Venezuelans that doctors had removed “cancerous cells” from his body. He received treatment in Cuba.

He now says he wasn’t accusing the U.S. and doesn’t have any proof. But he asked, in his words, “Would it be strange if they had developed a technology to induce cancer and no one knew it?”

“I repeat: I am not accusing anyone. I am simply taking advantage of my freedom to reflect and air my opinions faced with some very strange and hard to explain goings-on,” he said on state television.

Illinois governor gets 14 years for corruption

tlc — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 01:30:53 +0000

The Americas Post - Blagojevich keeps up with Illinois governor tradition by going to jail.

Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted of attempting to barter President Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat for campaign cash or personal favors, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Blagojevich led the fifth-most populous American state from January 2003 to January 2009, one month after his arrest for what Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald called “a political corruption crime spree.”

Blagojevich, 54, was found guilty of 17 charges in June. Prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge James Zagel for a sentence of 15 to 20 years in prison, arguing it would set an example in a state where four of the nine most recent governors have been convicted for crimes committed before, during or after they held office.

The twice-elected Democrat received the longest sentence among the four Illinois governors sent to prison in the last four decades. He is the second in a row to go to jail; his Republican predecessor, George Ryan, is now serving 6 1/2 years. The other two did three years or less.

Blagojevich made a last plea for mercy, telling the judge he’d made “terrible mistakes” and admitted for the first time that he broke the law.

“I caused it all, I’m not blaming anybody,” Blagojevich said. “I was the governor and I should have known better and I am just so incredibly sorry.”

It didn’t help.

“Whatever good things you did for people as governor, and you did some, I am more concerned with the occasions when you wanted to use your powers … to do things that were only good for yourself,” Zagel said.

“The governor was not marched along this criminal path by his staff,” the judge concluded. “He marched them.”

CELAC criticizes United States and Britain

tlc — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 04:02:49 +0000

The Americas Post - The new club is open but the US and Canada are not invited.

A newly formed Latin American and Caribbean organization has issued statements in support of Argentina’s claim to sovereignty over the British-ruled Falkland Islands and against U.S. sanctions on Cuba at the end of its first two-day summit.

However, the 33-member Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, or CELAC, declined to engage in stronger anti-Western rhetoric as some had feared at a meeting hosted by Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. Instead, its 22 final declarations spoke in general terms of the need to combat global ills like price speculation, drugs, terrorism, nuclear arms and cruelty to migrants.

“I don’t think we’re exaggerating if we call it a historic day,” said Chavez, 57. ”United in our differences, we must demand respect,” he told the assembly. “No more interference; we’ve had enough.”

For Chavez the summit achieved two goals: setting up a regional body without the United States, and allowing him to showcase his recovery from cancer treatment. He and other left-wing leaders like Raul Castro of Cuba, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Rafael Correa of Ecuador say the hemisphere-wide Organization of American States (OAS) is a tool of Washington.

Conservative-led nations like Colombia, Chile and Mexico were able to keep CELAC from appearing overly radical however, with relatively mild final declarations and next year’s meeting set for Santiago, Chile. And the communiques over the Falklands – or Malvinas islands as they are known in Argentina – and the U.S. embargo on Cuba were already standard positions within the region.

The final declaration backed Argentina’s “legitimate rights” and urged Britain to resume negotiations.

“The Argentine government has shown a permanently constructive attitude and willingness to reach, via negotiations, a peaceful and definitive solution to this anachronistic, colonial situation on American soil”, it stated.

On Cuba, CELAC, whose countries total almost 600 million in population and about $6 trillion in GDP, urged Washington to respect U.N. votes and lift trade sanctions in place for decades against the communist government.

Chavez, who survived cancer surgery in June, presided over lengthy sessions and speeches, frequently intervening to add his own anecdotes and opinions.

He plans to run for re-election in 2012, and his opponents used the summit to mount some protests in an attempt to embarrass him in front of his Latin American counterparts. Activists beat pots and pans around the city on Saturday night in a traditional “cacerolazo” demonstration. Some banners were also briefly unfurled over roads saying “Welcome to Crime City” – before police removed them.

Mexican democracy threatened by drug cartels

tlc — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 03:53:02 +0000

The Americas Post - Drug cartels give Mexican President Calderon a headache. Photo Credit: AP

Mexican President Felipe Calderon admitted on Sunday that in spite of combating drug cartels for five years, criminals today pose “an open threat” to Mexico’s democratic society.

In a speech marking the start of his sixth and last year in the presidency, Calderon said that interference in elections by drug gangs “is a new fact, a worrisome fact.”

“It is a threat to everyone,” he said.

Calderon was apparently referring to last month’s local elections in Michoacan, his home state, where traffickers and their foot soldiers intimidated voters and told people whom to vote for. Those events have led to fears of further interference in July’s presidential vote.

Calderon justified his decision to deploy the military to fight the cartels and scolded “political forces” that don’t have the “vision” to support the struggle.

“This is a problem, friends, that has been developing for decades and that is showing us its true face, a face of violence, a face of evil,” Calderon said. Violence and insecurity, he added, “are one of the greatest challenges Mexico has faced in modern history.”

Since he assumed the presidency in 2006, over 40,000 people have been killed in fighting with and among drug gangs, while thousands of other Mexicans have disappeared or fled.

Mexican PRI party leader quits before election

tlc — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 21:01:28 +0000

The Americas Post - Herman Cain isn't the only guy dropping out of an election. Photo Credit: Notimex

Caught up in a corruption scandal, the leader of Mexico’s leading opposition party resigned on Friday, just seven months before national elections in which his candidate is favored by a wide margin.

Humberto Moreira, who became president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) president in March of this year, was under pressure to resign for contracting irregularities during his administration as governor in the northern state of Coahuila. He is accused of falsifying documents relating to that state’s public debt, which shot up 344% during his watch.

“Today I’m here to tell you that I resign as president of the party’s National Executive Committee”, Moreira announced to a group of PRI officials. ”I will not permit a media war to damage my party”… ”I also do so because I have confidence in one man who is the hope of Mexico: Enrique Peña Nieto”, he said.

Before the scandal erupted, Moreira, 45, was a key figure in the push to restore the PRI to the power it held for 71 years, until 2000. The next election is scheduled for July 1, 2012. PRI candidate Enrique Peña Nieto is currently polling in the lead with a 25% lead over the second contender.

Moreira will be temporarily replaced by PRI general secretary Cristina Diaz, but Senator Pedro Coldwell is expected to be his successor according to party officials.

Venezuela deploys National Guard against crime

tlc — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 18:17:05 +0000

The Americas Post - Venezuelan shoplifters beware. Photo Credit: AFP

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sent thousands of National Guard soldiers into the streets of Caracas and surrounding states on Thursday, to reinforce police overwhelmed by widespread violent crime.

“We’ve been fighting and reducing overall crime rates, but we’ve fallen short when it comes to the number of homicides,” Chavez said to troops at a downtown plaza.

More than 3,200 soldiers were ordered to the streets of Caracas and the surrounding states of Miranda and Vargas, according to Gen. Miguel Vivas Landino.

Venezuela suffers one of the highest murder rates in Latin America. The government has not reported official statistics for several years, but numbers released by human rights groups and academic researchers indicate it as one of the most dangerous countries the hemisphere.

According to the Venezuelan Violence Observatory, a Caracas-based academic organization that tracks crime trends, from 1998 through 2010 the annual homicide rate tripled from 19 to 57 for every 100,000 residents. Other violent crimes such as kidnapping and armed robbery have also increased in recent years in Venezuela. Reports of kidnappings increased from 52 in 1998 to 618 in 2009.

As kidnapping has increased, the government in 2009 stiffened prison sentences for kidnapping and allowed authorities to freeze bank accounts of victims’ families to block them from paying ransoms. Last week, Major League baseball player Wilson Ramos was taken at gunpoint from his home in the city of Valencia. The Washington Nationals catcher was rescued by police from a remote mountain hideout two days later.

Rising crime and other problems have hurt Chavez’s standing in the polls, although he remains Venezuela’s most popular politician heading into next year’s presidential election.

During Thursday’s speech, Chavez warned soldiers that his opponents are preparing to cause chaos and upheaval ahead of the election. He claimed his enemies know they cannot win at the polls, so they are planning disruption and accusations of voter fraud to smear his election triumph.

Chavez has made similar charges in the past without any proof, and offered no evidence this time either. Opposition leaders have stated repeatedly that they plan to unseat him via the ballot box, without resorting to violence or unconstitutional methods.

Drug cartel meddled in Mexican election

tlc — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 17:37:54 +0000

The Americas Post - Not even government "Wanted" billboards are safe from the Knights Templar

Another Mexican official on Friday accused drug traffickers of attempting to influence elections in the western state of Michoacan, a charge previously leveled by some candidates and party leaders.

Outgoing acting interior secretary Juan Marcos Gutierrez claimed a drug cartel conducted “boldfaced interference” in last Sunday’s state elections. Although he declined to name the group, a single cartel called The Knights Templar now dominates most of Michoacan after breaking off from competing gang “La Familia”.

“We cannot allow such organized crime to even begin trying to influence the results,” he said. “We have the obligation to bulletproof ourselves against this kind of bold-faced interference.”

Gutierrez said traffickers attempted to intimidate voters to cast ballots a certain way. He also said that a local newspaper, in a city whose mayor was shot to death before the election, was forced to run an ad that threatened to kill anyone who voted for the mayor’s party.

Like President Felipe Calderon, that mayor was a member of the conservative National Action Party. Calderon’s sister ran for governor in the Michoacan elections, but lost to a candidate from the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Gutierrez called the threats from traffickers “extremely worrisome.”

Gutierrez served just a single week as interim interior secretary before passing the torch to Alejandro Poire on Thursday. In Mexico, the interior department is responsible for domestic security and helps organize elections.

In his first speech upon taking office, Poire said “We will not permit criminals of any kind to interfere with our right to freely elect our representatives.”

Also Friday, the Mexican army announced seizure of a $350,000 radio communications network, operated by the Zetas drug cartel in the northern state of Coahuila. The Defense Department said the hardware consisted of 122 radio sets, mostly hand-held, used by the Zetas for internal communications and monitor law enforcement agencies.

The Mexican navy also reported detention of 14 alleged Zetas members in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, where drug gang violence has raged in recent months. The Veracruz state government reported that four people were killed in a shootout with authorities near the state capital, as well.

Brazil forming Truth Commission on human rights

tlc — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:40:17 +0000

The Americas Post - Dilma Rousseff wants the whole world to see Brazil's dirty laundry.

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff on Friday approved the formation of a Truth Commission to investigate human rights abuses committed during and prior to that nation’s military dictatorship, which ran from 1964 to 1985.

The creation of the seven member commission is the strongest step yet taken by the Brazilian government to resolve the many incidents of violence and torture during their dictatorship, in spite of not having authority to prosecute those responsible.

That catch is frustrating for human rights activists, who want to see Brazilian soldiers on trial like their counterparts in Chile and Argentina.

“Today we honor the generations of Brazilians who died, not by a process of vengeance, but by a process of reconstructing the truth and memory”, said Rousseff. The former left wing activist, who was tortured by the military herself, spoke at a ceremony in the presidential palace.

“The truth about our past is fundamental to ensure that these deeds staining our history can never be repeated”, she added.

With a two-year mandate, the commission will be able subpoena witnesses to investigate abuses committed by the government as well as by the opposition. That process is limited, however, by the 1979 amnesty law, approved by the dictatorship, that protects alleged torturers from trial.

Unlike its neighbors in the region, until now Brazil has avoided a formal discussion of crimes and human rights abuses perpetrated during its military dictatorship, and has never jailed a member of the military for those.

“This development shows Brazil’s commitment to deal with human rights in their country, just like the rest of the world”, said UN Human Rights commissioner Navi Pilley in a statement for the press.

Around 500 Brazilians were killed or disappeared during their military dictatorship, while many others were tortured. Most victims were left-wing activists.

Rousseff also signed a Freedom of Information law guaranteeing the public free access to government documents. That law allows sensitive information to be kept secret for 25 years, renewable to 50 years, but prohibits the concealment of any document related to human rights.