Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays too. This Regional Briefing focuses on Latin America, courtesy of Randy Paul.
TOP TOPIC
- Colombia's peace efforts: Is there a double standard in President Uribe's dealings with the different rebel/paramilitary/terrorist factions or at least a different public and private face? The US is doubling its troop commitment to Colombia; what will that mean?
Other Topics Include: A Costa Rican Secretary General of the Organization of American States resigns amidst a corruption scandal; Less then a year after Nicaragua jails a corrupt ex-president is the current president in trouble?; Is Peru's President Alejandro Toledo losing it?; Brazil's Municipal Elections are good news for Lula - with one potential catch; A possible side benefit of Augusto Pinochet's legal troubles.
- Late last month, Luis Camilo Restrepo, the Peace Commissioner for President Álvaro Uribe's government delivered an ultimatum to the leadership of the right-wing terrorist group, the AUC: "If they [the AUC] don't start to demobilize immediately, then the peace process is not viable."
- Unfortunately for Restrepo, tapes of the meeting between representatives of Uribe's government including Restrepo and members of the AUC leadership obtained by the magazine Semana disclosed Restrepo assuring AUC leaders - many of whom are under indictment by the US for narcotrafficking - that the Colombian government would shield them from extradition as well as prosecution for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. The US Ambassador to Colombia, William Wood has described the AUC as "criminals, pushers, assassins and thieves."
- Meanwhile, in an unusual Saturday session, the US Congress agreed to double the number of troops assigned to Colombia in an advisory capacity to 800. Human rights organizations and some military policy analysts are legitimately concerned about what may be an escalation of US involvement with Colombia's military, which has often allied itself with the AUC. An additional rather glaring question to me is how reliable a partner in this matter is Uribe's administration when they talk out of both sides of their mouth when dealing with
"criminals, pushers, assassins and thieves"the AUC.
- JK: 5 members of a Colombian family were killed and another one injured in a deep night attack, which police said on Saturday was conducted by the country's largest rebel group, the Marxist narco-terrorists of FARC.
- JK: AP Wire Service describes a recent raid on a FARC cocaine processing base, via embedded reporters.
THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES
- Facing allegations of bribery, OAS Secretary General, Miguel Angel Rodriguez, a Costa Rican, has resigned less than half a month after taking office.
- This has been a bit of an eye-opening shock to Costa Rica, a country which certainly enjoys the best reputation for its transparency in Central America. As Andrés Oppenheimer notes here, despite current president Abel Pacheco's sense of outrage in the article referenced above, he has some explaining to do as well, having received a $100,000 contribution from Alcatel, the same firm that Rodriguez is accused of accepting a bribe from which he explained thusly: "I told them they didn't need to give a campaign donation to be treated fairly, but they said they wanted to contribute to democracy anyway." How gracious of him to accept . . .
- As Oppenheimer notes in the same article, the problem is not just the officials accepting bribes, but the businesses offering them. I couldn't agree more. As Marcela Sánchez notes it's important that Costa Rica is taking care of this matter itself.
- Meanwhile, the OAS will still need a Secretary General. Central American blogger, David Holiday writes that the Central American nations are clamoring for another Central American to replace Rodriguez. Why not a recent Costa Rican Nobel Laureate?
NICARAGUA
- Staying in Central America, less than a year after former Nicaraguan president, Arnoldo Alemán was packed off to jail for embezzlement, current president, Enrique Bolaños is facing questions regarding the acquisition of funds that he used for his election.
- Bolaños is claiming that the entire matter is politically motivated, which may be true. Nevertheless, here's some unsolicited advice: if you want to maintain a reputation centered on honesty, one would be wise to avoid having checks endorsed to you deposited in a bank account in the Cayman Islands.
PERU
- As I've mentioned before, Peru's President Alejandro Toledo is the least popular leader in South America. Earlier this month he didn't help his reputation by interjecting a television station running a program that alleged that he used forged signatures to get on the presidential ballot.
- It wasn't just that he called the station, but he angrily berated the station and the producers, showing a side that some described as "intolerant" and not having control of his emotions. Considering the recent efforts to dismantle a corruption inquiry that was turning its gaze towards his administration, this outburst will not enhance his image.
BRAZIL
- President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva's Worker's Party (PT in Portuguese) has strengthened itself in large part as a result of the municipal elections earlier this month in Brazil, increasing its number of mayors by 60% and increasing its overall vote total by 25% and showing that its ability to win elections is now nationwide.
- The one catch, however, is that Marta Suplicy, the mayor of São Paulo, finished second in her bd for reelection. In the runoff she will face José Serra, who lost the presidency to Lula, but who beat her by 8 percentage points in the first round. This may be a reflection of the public's ambivalence towards Suplicy (a former sexologist who captured 30% of the evangelical vote!). It will also not help Suplicy that Lula was fined $18,000 for promoting Suplicy's candidacy at a ceremony that accompanied a highway extension.
CHILE
- I know I have been flogging Augusto Pinochet's corruption problems recently, but the best news of all is not that Pinochet has been charged with tax fraud, but that all of the political parties with congressional representation in Chile have agreed to amend the Pinochet-era Constitution.
- This constitution saddled the civilian presidents who succeeded Pinochet with several limitations among which prevented the president from dismissing the head of the army, navy, federal police (carabineros) or air force and called for nine appointed senators, four of whom have been ex-military generals and for making ex-presidents who served for six years senator-for-life (Pinochet was the first who qualified). In any genuine democracy the military must be subordinate to civilian authority. Once these changes are effected Chile's military will also be unde the full control of the civilian government.
Randinho's Latin America Briefing will be back next month. Meanwhile, regular updates concerning Latin American events can be found at Beautiful Horizons.
Randy, you ask:
An additional rather glaring question to me is how reliable a partner in this matter is Uribe's administration when they talk out of both sides of their mouth when dealing with "criminals, pushers, assassins and thieves" the AUC.
Short answer: more reliable than the Marxist narcoterrorists of FARC - "criminals, pushers, assassins and thieves" all with more members, more resources, and connections to international terror (IRA) and vital states (Venezuela). That makes them more dangerous than the AUC.
And in terms of governance, it's FARC or Uribe (who won a legit election). Since that is the only alternative at this point, the USA would rather support the best alternative against FARC. Makes sense to me.
As FARC weakens (if FARC weakens), I expect that more government resources will be available to take on AUC. Meanwhile, what we're seeing might just be a simple case of prioritization and one enemy at a time.
In the long term, I doubt we can "fix" Colombia without big changes to internal U.S. drug policies. There's just too much illicit money washing around that country otherwise for it to ever to be stable (shades of Kerry! If you want to find "the bribed, the coerced, the bought", just look south to Colombia and it describes most of the country).
But that's a whole other post, I think.
Joe,
That was a line quoted directly fron the US Ambassador, who, to his credit has been very tough on Uribe and his cozying up to the AUC. Consider what he said about the leader of the AUC speaking before Congress:
U.S. Ambassador William Wood on Thursday lashed out at a speech made to Congress by the head of Colombia's right-wing militias, calling the warlord's comments "scandalous."
Wood said Salvatore Mancuso, supreme commander of the outlawed United Self-Defense Forces, or AUC, should never have been allowed to speak before the national legislature. "It's a bit strange that in Congress, where they write the laws, approve the laws and defend the laws you would also find those who break the laws," he said.
The reason why Carlos Castaño has "disappeared" is because he was willing to consider the possibility of serving some jail time for his actions. The other AUC leaders want complete amnesty for their crimes, which include attacking civilians with chainsaws and using them as human shields in Saddamesque fashion when the Air Force was planning to bomb their encampment. Carlos Mauricio Garcia, was assassinated for breaking away from the AUC and criticizing them for becoming a drug cartel.
As one Western diplomat put it, "They are essentially negotiating with much more organized, much more dangerous Pablo Escobars" and we know how effective that was.
Someone in Washington at least needs to demand that Restrepo and Uribe explain what the hell they were saying to the AUC leaders in the Semana tapes. Reporters Without Borders, by the way, is reporting on threats made against Semana.
The FARC is dedicated to making Colombia completely ungovernable and are also dangerous, without question. The AUC is also having that same effect.
It shouldn't be a zero-sum game, Joe. I have nothing but contempt for the FARC
"It's a bit strange that in Congress, where they write the laws, approve the laws and defend the laws you would also find those who break the laws,"
That's got to be the funniest thing I've heard all week.