Randinho's Latin America Briefing: 2004-02-25

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

• Haiti: The situation gets even more precarious as the rebels take Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second largest city, the US sends in Marines to guard the US Embassy, the power-sharing peace plan collapses and the potential for more violence and chaos increases. President Aristide agreed to the peace plan developed by a diplomatic team from Canada, France, the United States and Caricom (the Caribbean Community nations), but the non-violent wing of the opposition has rejected it as it does not call for Aristide's resignation.

Other Topics Include: Has the bloom come off the PT rose in Brazil?; A blow against impunity in Mexico; Guatemala's ex-President Portillo decides to visit Mexico once his immunity is gone; Nat Hentoff's eloquent defense of Cuba's independent librarians; Colombia's government acknowledges that the AUC's ceasefire has been a sham; Documentaries airing on Cinemax on Latin American subjects.

HAITI

• Meanwhile, Cap-Haiten, the nation's second largest city has fallen to the rebels A motley group led by Guy Phillipe, once a member of Haiti's now dissolved army, Butteur Métayer, a formerly pro-Aristide leader of an Aristide gang known as the Cannibal Army and Louis Jodel Chamblain, onetime leader of the FRAPH, a terrorist anti-Aristide paramilitary group accused of numerous murders are eyeing Port-au-Prince.

• I cannot see any winners here, especially if the fighting spreads to the capital. I fear that Aristide's gangs known as chimeres will be much more of a factor in Port-au-Prince. Aristide clearly seems more concerned about retaining power and in some ways he has a point. He was elected, albeit in an election with numerous questions about its legitimacy and in a nation that has lurched from coup to coup, with morally bankrupt leadership, another coup is not what Haiti needs. A coup also runs the risk of violating the Inter-American Democratic Charter of the Organization of American States, which can call for sanctions and political isolation from Haiti's nearest neighbors. This nation needs to be actively engaged with the rest of the hemisphere, and despite Aristide's many, many shortcomings and betrayals, a violent coup d'etat followed possibly by a violent, factional power struggle will only bring more misery to Haiti.

• To keep up with events in Haiti, I urge you to read HaitiPundit, a blog by a Haitian born and raised US citizen and the blog of John Engle a US citizen living in Haiti. Another good source for breaking news is the Haiti page of the Miami Herald

BRAZIL

• A few years ago I read in Latin Trade magazine that many businessmen in Brazil actually preferred working with governors and mayors who were members of the Workers' Party (or PT, the acronym in Portuguese), despite its leftist positions as they claimed that there was much less likelihood of corruption. In a nation where Adhemar de Barros, a São Paulo politician in the 1950's proudly wore the slogan "He steals, but he gets things done," this was no small distinction.

• Recently some of the bloom has come off the PT's rose, however. Part of it started with allegations of a slush fund being one of the reasons behind the murder of the PT mayor of Santo André, an industrial city in São Paulo state. The controversy has grown with allegations of illegal campaign contributions being made by Carlos Ramos (aka Carlinhos Cachoeira - Charlie Waterfall), a major figure in an illegal, but very popular numbers game known as jogo do bicho (game of the animal) that were solicited by a former aide to José Dirceu, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's Chief of Staff before Lula was elected president.

• To his credit, Lula has fired the aide and is forming a commission to investigate the allegations thoroughly. For a man with not much formal education, Lula seems to be aware that the cover-up often does more damage than the illegal act itself (e.g. Watergate), so he seems to be moving in the right direction. This has had some impact on financial markets and the Brazilian currency, the real, closed slightly over three to the dollar for the first time in some time. This is one scandal that deserves watching and it will be a true test of Lula's leadership if he comes through this unscathed.

MEXICO

• As part of an ongoing effort to bring transparency, human rights and justice to Mexico, President Fox appointed a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by prior governments. His efforts have finally borne some fruit with the arrest of Miguel Nazar Haro last week in Mexico City. Nazar Haro is one of three suspects in wanted in the disappearance of Jesús Piedra Ibarra, a leftist guerrilla who disappeared in 1975. Impunity is clearly one of Latin America's greatest threats to freedom and justice. Any effort to break it is good news.

GUATEMALA

• Meanwhile, Guatemala's most recent ex-president, Alfonso Portillo decided to visit Mexico. What is unusual about his visit was that it came one day after Guatemala's Constitutional Court stripped him of his immunity as a member of the Central American Parliament. Although the country's attorney general said Portillo is not a fugitive, he has also said that Portillo will not be allowed to leave the country again upon his return pending the end of the investigation of money laundering and other charges against him. Here's hoping that President Fox sends Portillo home to the Country of Eternal Spring as Guatemalans call their nation, if he's formally charged.

CUBA

• Nat Hentoff has been mounting an eloquent defense in The Village Voice of Cuba's independent librarians and a strong condemnation of the American Library Association's (ALA) vacillating and equivocating on the jailing of the Cuban dissidents last Spring.
  The links to his articles are as follows: December 12, December 19, January 5, January 8, January 29 and February 6. As Hentoff acknowledges, there are some librarians who are in strong disagreement with the ALA and have attempted to right the ship on this issue. Nevertheless, there are those among the ALA leadership who seem unwilling to afford Cubans the same freedoms that they rightfully demand for themselves in the USA.

COLOMBIA

• In December 2002, the AUC, Colombia's right-wing terrorist group declared a cease fire in preparation for the start of peace talks. In the months since then, according to Colombia's government, they have killed more than 250 people and committed more than a dozen massacres. These groups were supposed to move to "areas of concentration" to be demobilized, but the government has yet to even define where these areas will be.

• Part of the problem lies squarely with the government making any type of distinction between the left-wing terrorists known as the FARC and the AUC. The FARC kidnap people, kill people and finance their efforts with kidnapping revenue and "taxes" on drug traffickers. The AUC, kill people, steal land from innocent landholders under implied threat of death and finance their efforts through drug trafficking. I doubt if the leadership of either is truly interested in ending their reigns of terror.

LATIN AMERICAN DOCUMENTARIES ON CINEMAX

• Despite having a reasonably well-deserved reputation for soft-core porn, Cinemax does have a most worthwhile documentary series called Reel Life. Over the next six or so weeks they will be showing three films that deal with issues in Latin America. I saw the first one, The Kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt and found it profoundly moving. Ms. Betancourt was a presidential candidate, tirelessly dedicated to making Colombia a better place and was kidnapped two years ago. Next is Balseros, an Academy Award nominated film about a different type of bravery: fleeing your oppresive homeland on a raft for freedom. Finally, the violence of everyday life in Brazil comes to the surface in Bus 174, a horribly tragic story about violence begetting even more violence. You can access all showtimes here.

The next installment of Randinho's Latin America Briefing will be March 24. Meanwhile, regular updates concerning Latin American events can be found at Beautiful Horizons.