The World's Best Cross-Border Investigative Team

"Globalization and development have placed extraordinary pressures on human societies, posing unprecedented threats from polluting industries, transnational crime networks, rogue states, and the actions of powerful figures in business and government. The news media, hobbled by short attention spans and lack of resources, are even less of a match for those who would harm the public interest. Broadcast networks and major newspapers have closed foreign bureaus, cut travel budgets, and disbanded investigative teams. We are losing our eyes and ears around the world precisely when we need them most. Our aim is to bring journalists from different countries together in teams - eliminating rivalry and promoting collaboration. Together, we aim to be the world’s best cross-border investigative team. 

By Sabrina Hernández
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is a global network of more than 190 investigative journalists in more than 65 countries who collaborate on in-depth investigative stories. More than three dozen of those journalists work in Latin American countries, shedding light on matters of public interest that political and business leaders would rather not come to light. 

Founded in 1997 by the respected US journalist Chuck Lewis, ICIJ was launched as a project of the Center for Public Integrity , focusing on issues that do not stop at national frontiers: cross-border crime, corruption, and the accountability of power.  Supported by the center its computer-assisted reporting specialists, public records experts, fact-checkers and lawyers, ICIJ reporters and editors provide real-time resources and state-of-the-art tools and techniques to journalists around the world.”

ICIJ Image for Bahamas Secrets Coverage

The LADB News Service covered two recent investigations by the ICIJ involving the release of previously hidden documents suggesting that powerful individuals might have used tax havens in Panama and the Bahamas to avoid paying taxes to their own governments. We covered the Panama Papers case in SourceMex and NotiSur in April and May, and the Bahamas Leak case in SourceMex in September.  In both cases, the documents were released via the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung,

The ICIJ functions as a collective set of eyes around the world in a time when media, “hobbled by short attention spans and lack of resources,” is inadequately positioned to take on those cross-national industries, networks, and powerful figures who harm public well-being. Since our coverage is focused on Latin America, we take this opportunity to recognize the journalists from the region who are participating in the ICIJ as part of the "cross-border investigative team."

Hugo Alconada Mon, Argentina, editor of newspaper La Nación
Daniel Santoro, Argentina, political editor at Argentina’s largest newspaper, Clarín
Ernesto Tenembaum, Argentina, managing editor of political magazine VEINTIUNO
Horacio Verbitsky, Argentina, political columnist/editorial writer at Página 12
Rosental Calmon Alves, Brazil, journalism professor at University of Texas at Austin
Angelina Nunes, Brazil, assistant editor at O Globo newspaper
Fernando Rodrigues, Brazil, news portal UOL
Marcelo Soares, Brazil, digital reporter at Folha de S.Paulo
Claudio Tognolli, Brazil, investigative reporter for Yahoo! Brazil
Monica Gonzalez, Chile, founder and executive director of Chile’s Centro de Investigacion Periodistica (CIPER)
Francisca Skoknic, Chile, editor CIPER 
Maria Cristina Caballero, Colombia, journalist known for her coverage of organized crime, corruption, and paramilitary forces

Map: Wikimedia Commons

Ignacio Gomez, Colombia, subdirector of Noticias Uno
Carlos Eduardo Huertas, Colombia, investigations editor at Semana magazine and founder of Consejo de Radaccion
Ginna Morelo, Colombia, investigative journalist, editor for El Tiempo’s Data Unit, and a professor of journalism and general coordinator for the Consejo de Redacción
Gerardo Reyes, United States/Colombia, investigations editor for Univisión
Maria Teresa Ronderos, Colombia, founder and editor-in-chief of VerdadAbierta.com
Ernesto Rivera, Costa Rica, staff writer for investigative unit at La Nación
Giannina Segnini, Costa Rica and United States, Director of the Master of Science Data Concentration Program at the Journalism School at Columbia University
Arturo Torres Ramirez, Ecuador, research editor at El Comercio
Carlos Dada, El Salvador, founder and director of the news website El Faro
Julio Godoy, France/Guatemala, lives in Paris and does daily reporting mostly for German radio stations after being forced to flee Guatemala because of government pressure to silence his investigative reporting
Paola Hurtado, Guatemala, chief of the investigative reporting team at ElPeriodico
Pedro Enrique Armendares, Mexico, executive director of Centro de Periodistas de Investigación
Alfredo Corchado, Mexico, is the Mexico Bureau Chief for The Dallas Morning News
Carlos Marín, Mexico, editorial director of Milenio
Alfredo Quijano Hernández, Mexico, was the chief of the special investigations unit and news editor of the newspaper El Norte de Ciudad Juarez until his unexpected death in December, 2013
Leonarda Reyes, Mexico, Executive Director of the Center for journalism and Public Ethics
Marcela Turati Muñoz, Mexico, reporter for the magazine Proceso
Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab Wilhelm, Mexico, freelance journalist
Carlos Fernando Chamorro, Nicaragua, founder and editor of Confidencial
Mabel Rehnfeldt, Paraguay, investigative reporter and editor of ABC Digital-ABC Color
Gustavo Gorriti, Peru, leads the investigative center at the IDL-Reporteros
Angel Paez, Peru, founder of Peru’s first investigative reporting team and has been working as director at La Repúbllica
Milagros Salazar, Peru, reporter with IDL-Reporteros
Emilia Diaz-Struck, Venezuela, lead researcher for ICIJ’s cross-border investigations
Joseph Poliszuk, Venezuela, editor of the site Armando.info
Carlos Subero, Venezuela, currently chief of the Editorial Committee of Telecaribe-Notiminuto

Denouncing Official Corruption Through #Mexicoleaks

The firing of popular news host Carmen Aristegui created a huge firestorm in Mexico, a topic that we covered in the March 25 issue of SourceMex. The conflict began when the management of MVS Noticias fired investigative reporters Daniel Lizárraga and Irving Huerta, who were part of Aristegui's investigative team. The reason: the MVS investigative team joined the Wikileaks site, using the MVS name, without permission.  Aristegui was not initially dismissed, but management knew she would not stand for the firing her talented reporters without adequate reason.  So she demanded that the station rescind the firings. Instead, she was shown the door.

So what is it about Mexicoleaks that was so objectionable to MVS Noticias? The site, created by six news organizations, offers a platform for ordinary citizens to help expose official corruption to the media. The tipsters can remain anonymous, which allows citizens to provide information freely.  This is how the process works. Here is an introductory video that the organization posted on its Web site.


Mexicoleaks has opened a Twitter account to make the site known to media savvy Mexicans.
Here are a couple of introductory Teeets.

Usamos seguridad @GlobaLeaks un programa de código abierto para enviar y recibir información de forma segura pic.twitter.com/gosn1IiIgp
— Méxicoleaks (@Mexleaks) March 26, 2015

¿Tienes acceso a información q demuestra corrupción? Fíltrala con la seguridad de que será completamente anónimo. pic.twitter.com/baGErgzp9z
— Méxicoleaks (@Mexleaks) March 25, 2015

There is no doubt that Mexican citizens are better off by having the Mexicoleaks option. Elected and appointed officials are now going to have to think twice before taking that bribe or doing that favor for a donor.

-Carlos Navarro

Also in LADB on March 25-27

• Government Announces Plan to Save Endangered Porpoise in Gulf of Baja California
• Nicaragua Looks to Russia in Bid to Add Military Muscle
• Farmers and Entrepreneurs Bet on Huge Profits in New Era of U.S. and Cuban Relations
• Peruvian Demonstrators Take On Trash Television
• President Barack Obama Confronts Venezuela on Eve of Latin American Meeting

Follow us on Twitter @LADBatUNM

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President Santos Four-Man ‘Peace Squad’ in Havana

As President Juan Manuel Santos and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) continue peace negotiations, the Colombian chief executive has had to deal with constant criticisms from the far-right and at the same time face the reality that the guerrillas have gained a political advantage have gained by declaring an indefinite cease-fire and then sticking to it. (Read more in this week's edition of NotiSur). This has prompted Santos to seek outside help from a select group of foreign advisors with expertise in peace negotiations.



In early January, the president’s Havana negotiators sat down for a closed-door meeting with four special guests: William Uri, a US mediation expert from Harvard University; Joaquín Villalobos, a former Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) guerrilla who helped negotiate El Salvador’s 1992 peace accords and has since become an outspoken critic of all leftist groups in Latin America; Jonathan Powell, a former British Cabinet chief who helped broker the peace deal with the Irish Republican Army (IRA); and Shlomo Ben Ami of Israel, an ex–foreign minister who played a leading role in the 1978 Camp David peace agreements with Egypt.

Santos seems to have covered all of the political bases with his four-man team of advisors. The four VIPs come from a very diverse background: a Salvadoran ex-guerilla turned British Foreign Service-sponsored peace negotiator and critic of the left in Latin America; a former Israeli Foreign Minister who negotiated for peace at the Camp David Accords; a former British banker and advisor to the Prime Minister who negotiated with the IRA; and a US author and social anthropologist who’s bestselling books have put him in the boardrooms of various peace talks and negotiations.

We thought it would be interesting to provide a bit more information regarding their biographies and their lifelong journey to the Havana Peace talks.

Photo: Fabrizio León in Observador Juvenil

Joaquín Villalobos: Perhaps the most enigmatic of all four, Villalobos began his career as a commander in the People’s Revolution Army, a left-wing Marxist guerilla army that emerged in El Salvador in the 1970s, eventually merging with other groups to form the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). During the bloody civil war that ensued, Villalobos fought against a US-Israel supported regime and paramilitary death squads. Conversely, he was also accused of participating in the murder of leftist poet Roque Dalton.Villalobos. His entire track record confronts this tension between fighting both for and against the revolutionary left.  Following the 1992 peace agreement in El Salvador, he was sent by British Foreign Service to study in England, and has acted as a major critic of leftist politics in Latin America since then. His main attributes seem to be straddling the line between the feared and ruthless left-wing guerilla commander of the 80s, and the right-of-center peace negotiator of today. Read his article,"La paz: cerca de La Habana, lejos de Bogotá"in El País  

Wikimedia Commons

 
Shlomo ben Ami:While the Israeli-supported Salvadoran government forces waged war against the guerillas in the 80s, Ben Ami was acting as the Israeli ambassador to Spain. A fluent Spanish speaker who was born and raised in a Mizrahi Jewish family in Morocco, Ben Ami began his career as a historian at Tel-Aviv University, concerning himself principally with studying the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. As Israel’s Minister of Foreign Relations, Ben Ami participated in the 2000 Camp David Summit. Since then, he has publicly supported the Palestinians’ decision to not accept the terms dictated by Israel. He now serves as vice president for the Toledo International Centre for Peace. .

 

Photo from Uri's Web site

 William Ury: A bestselling author of books on mediation and conflict management that deal with a wide range of topics. See his  official  Web site. “Bill Ury has the remarkable ability to get to the heart of a dispute,” former US President Jimmy Carter recently said. Trained initially as a social anthropologist in Yale and then Harvard, Ury founded and directs Harvard’s Program on Negotiation. He has participated in a wide array of peace talks ranging from family disputes to mediation for the Bushmen of Kalahari and the clan warriors of New Guinea.

from The Guardian

Jonathan Powell: An adviser to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (1995-2007) and chief British negotiator on Northern Ireland. One of Powell's chief accomplishments was helping the Northern Ireland peace talks to move forward, resulting in the Good Friday Agreement. Powell also had a close working relationship with former US President Bill Clinton, and participated in a US-UK-Israel project that brought Latin American figures such as Joaquín Villalobos to study in England. The diplomat has also had his share of controversies, including an accusation that he might have divulged too much information Russian officials about the activities of the British spy agency M16 in that country. After retiring from government service, Powell became a senior investment banker with Morgan Stanley in 2007. He left the banking sector to create Inter Mediate, an organization that participates in armed conflict negotiations around the world.

-Jake Sandler

Also in LADB on Feb. 18-20

• Brazil Prepares for Austerity Under New Finance Minister
• UN Report Highly Critical of Mexico for Failing to Address Enforced Disappearances
• U.S. Seeks Request for Extradition of Drug Kingpin Joaquín Chapo Guzmán
• Former President Ricardo Martinelli Faces Corruption Inquiry
• El Salvador Pardons Woman Sentenced To 30 Years For Abortion-Related Offense

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A Virtual Museum About Corruption in Paraguay

Their names are Ana Calvo, Dave Mac Cruz, Manuel Rolón, Sara Torres, Edgar Brando Almada,Pau Benabarre. Their task is to use illustrated satire to fight corruption in Paraguay. A more accurate description of what they do is to record instances of corruption in the South American country through their illustrations, which are housed at the non-profit Museo de la Corrupción. 

Given Paraguay's colorful (for lack of a better word) history of corruption, it seems natural that such an innovative and creative method of retaining collective memory of public corruption cases would emerge from alumni of the Guapa School of Creativity in Asunción. (Read more about reent cases of corruption in Paraguay in this week's edition of NotiSur). Founded in 2013, the school draws artists and students from various sectors of the community, including students at the Bellas Artes de Asunción, urban graffiti artists as well as professionals in graphic design firms.

For their own reasons, the six current artists that comprise the work of el Museo de la Corrupción came to create work for this not-for-profit collective because it offered them the capacity to work toward social and political change in a collaborative atmosphere, where artists from all walks of life come together to create a project with a singular theme. When you look at their body of work, what you see is as much about the actual history of corruption in their country as it is about themselves: born in the 80s and early 90s, tired of hearing the same old stories without seeing any change, and willing to bring their unique, contemporary styles to the table to pursue their collective dreams of seeing a corruption-free Paraguay.

After a turbulent first half of the 20th century in which Paraguay often found itself on the losing end of conflicts, with Bolivia and amongst its own parties, the struggling nation fell into the hands of a dictator, Alfredo Stroessner, who ruled from 1954 to 1989. Although the 70s and 80s were decades of expansion, just like in Chile, Argentina and Brazil, it was also a time of brutal dictatorial violence in which human rights were routinely and grossly violated in the same of national security and suppression of subversives. This environment of post-dictatorial corruption amongst political leaders projecting a supposedly renovated, civilian elected state, which was in plain reality marred by constant episodes of electoral fraud and corruption at the highest levels.

In the first seven hours of existence, the digital museum was visited 38,000 times as online media platforms began spreading the word. El Museo de la Corrupcion was launched in conjunction with the 2013 International Anti-Corruption Day observed each 9th of December.

The site is conceived and designed in line with the movement of social and political movements on social media. The interface is clean, minimalist and very easy to navigate, while the opening images are strikingly colorful, complete with captions that are concise and poignant.

The end effect is a feeling very similar to being in an actual museum, spacious, with the white walls and the room silent contemplation. They expect to have a physical site for the museum up soon, and have launched an app to access the museum and its exhibitions on mobile devices.

David Mac Cruz, one of the Museum’s illustrators, told El Mundo in October of last year that “although some of the crimes brought to life in these works can seem surreal or ironic, the intention of the Museum is not to create humor, as corruption is serious,” but rather to expose how the reality of these crimes are such that an informative portrayal of what has happened can seem exaggerated and abstract.

-Jake Sandler

Also in LADB on Feb. 11-13

• Guatemalan Court Sentences Former Police Chief for Assault on Spanish Embassy
• Reform Bills, "Pentagate" Scandal Spell Double Trouble For Chile’s Reeling Right
• Gubernatorial Elections in June include Troubled States of Guerrero and Michoacán
• Monarch Butterfly Populations Recover Modestly from 2014
• Coffee Between Costa Rica's Attorney General and a Vice Minister Turns into Political Storm

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Zones for Economic Development and Honduras’ Sovereignty for Sale

The Zones for Economic Development (ZEDEs), commonly promoted by the Honduran government as "model cities," are set to become a reality in the near future, as domestic and international investors and developers plan to break ground in coming months. The project is supported by a two-year feasibility study, which South Korean investors completed in November of last year on the first planned ZEDE. That "model city" would be located on the Pacific coast near the border of Honduras with El Salvador and Nicaragua, in a community called Zacate Grande – an island connected to the mainland by a highway. For more on the South Korean study, as well as the threats of human rights violations due to government land seizures and other aspects of ZEDE law, see  last week’s edition of NotiCen.



Even though residents of Zacate Grande have fended off attempts by domestic and international investors and their own national government to seize their land in the interest of future development, the threats posed by ZEDEs are unlike any in the past. As international human rights expert Erika Piquero writes in the Latin Correspondent, ZEDE law presents investors and corporations with the unique ability to work within a separate legislative system, with its own laws, courts, infrastructure, tax law and equipped with an ability to evict inhabitants of land slated for development.

Opponents, proponents offer their views
The opposition points out that the creation of ZEDEs is akin to selling off the country’s sovereignty bit by bit, and terribly violating the human rights of the nation’s most oppressed and marginalized peoples.

The government and the project’s neoliberal supporters stand by the project’s main objective: ZEDEs will spur an unprecedented amount of development and economic growth, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and lifting the nation out of its perpetual state of poverty and underdevelopment.

Opposition leaders, critics, human rights activists and community counter tha this this “development” will only benefit the already wealthy investors; in much the same way as similar schemes have in the past.

A predominantly indigenous, Afro-indigenous community

Photo: Rick Wunderman, Wikimedia Commons

To put the dispute in perspective, it is useful to review the history of the area. Zacate Grande, a predominantly indigenous and Afro-indigenous community, was uninhabited until the 1920s when its current inhabitants were displaced from the mainland. A highway was constructed in the 1970s with plans to develop the beautiful coastline in sight. Some of the nation’s most wealthy individuals have had their hand on local land titles for decades, and now the opening of the ZEDEs is presenting an unprecedented opportunity.

Even though Honduras has signed most major international accords on human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples, the ZEDEs would suspend basic rights like habeas corpus and other internationally recognized rights. Mixed with Honduras’ checkered past in respecting human rights law, many critics are hoping this plan more model cities and economic development does not plunge the communities within these zones into a state of lawlessness, where the whims of investors and corporations literally run the courthouse.

With many human rights activists and academics linking the creation of ZEDEs more to patterns of Honduran militarization than to actual neoliberal plans for development, we may begin to see a situation where military and security forces are literally and legally acting as a strong arm force for the interests of investment, maintaining ‘order’ in these fantastical economic zones, and perhaps physically removing people from their land.

-Jake Sandler

Also in LADB on Jan. 14-16 

• Veracruz Continues to Live Up to Reputation as Dangerous State for Journalists
• Insecurity Takes Back Seat to Immigration at Recent Summit Between Presidents Enrique Peña Nieto and Barack Obama
• Transparency Concerns Regarding Election of  Guatemala's Comptroller General
• Peru’s New Youth Employment Law Sparks Protests, Calls For Repeal
• Venezuelans United Against U.S. Sanctions

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PEMEX and Shari’ah Law

Photo: Magister Mathematica, Wikimedia Commons

Mexico’s state-run oil company PEMEX, hurting from the global decline in oil prices, is looking for new ways to raise capital. In an attempt to spur new international investment in 2015, the Mexican government is considering the possibility of issuing Sukuk Bonds, a type of bond compliant with Shari’ah law (Islamic moral code). Because Shari’ah law forbids the charging or paying of interest, certain Islamic governments and financial institutions that seek to invest in global markets will only do so if Sukuk bonds are issued in the place of conventional bonds. Responding to the rapid growth of wealth and investment among the Islamic monarch member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Sukuk bonds have grown tremendously over the last 10 years.

According to Scotiabank’s Sukuk division, total outstanding Sukuk rose from US$8 billion in 2003 to well over US$243 billion in 2012. Together, the GCC and Malaysia account for over 90% of all issued Sukuk bonds. By issuing Sukuk bonds to lure Muslim investors, the Mexican government would be joining the UK, the US, Canada, Thailand, Singapore and Sri Lanka in a rising global trend of government-issued Sukuk bonds. Mexico would be the first Latin American country to issue Sukuk bonds. For more on PEMEX’s plans to boost investment, see the Nov. 19 issue of SourceMex.

The difference between sukuk and conventional bonds
Conventional bonds are paid back with interest, while sukuk bonds are paid back with a share of assets. Because the payment of interest is prohibited in shari’ah law, Sukuk bonds skirt around that prohibition by replacing interest payments with a promise to share profits. Essentially, purchasing a Sukuk bond is much more like purchasing shares in a company, while a conventional bond represents the purchase of debt to be repaid with matured interest.

Photo: Akif Sahin. Flickr

 Why does shari’ah law forbid interest?
The prohibition of interest, or Riba as it is called under sharia law, is rooted in the writing of the Quran. Saleh Majid, a lawyer representing Islamic Banking laws in Germany and the UK, explains that the prohibition of Riba came gradually, and is based on an interpretation of Verse 2:275, which states that “Allah permitted the sale and forbade Riba,” and that “Every loan which attracts benefit is Riba.”

The principle underlying this prohibition is the need to prevent usury, or the accumulation of unearned accretion of capital… essentially what we call loansharking. Due to varying interpretations of the Quranic verse, and varying methods of implementing it in modern law, each Islamic government has its own particularities. Even Jewish and Christian scripture discourages the use of interest on loans. In fact European banking laws have much to do with the rise of Islam and its medieval conquests. As it turns out, Sukuk is the plural of the Arabic sakk, translated to the medieval French, “cheque”, or our modern word “check”.

-Jake Sandler

Also in LADB on Nov. 19-21....

• Mexican Senate Appoints New Human Rights Ombud in Wake of Guerrero Crisis
• Nicaragua Pushes Ahead with Eco-Friendly Overhaul of Electricity Sector
• Killing of Two Paraguayan Journalists Highlights Narco-Corruption Issue
• Peruvian Business Associations Hoping to Hack Away at Workers’ Rights
• Planned Container Terminal in Costa Rican Port Brings Second Strike in Two Years

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Tejas Verdes

Memorial to Victims of the Dirty War in Chile  (Museum of Memory and Human Rights)

Tejas Verdes served as a hotel resort for wealthy residents of Santiago until 1973, when dictator Chilean dictators Augusto Pinochet took over the site to use for torture and murder of opponents of his regime. Tejas Verdes, which means "green roofs," is located near the coastal towns of Santo Domingo and San Antonio (about an 1 1/2 hours drive from Santiago).  When the Pinochet regime took over the site, authorities converted music rooms and lounges into torture chambers. Thus, Tejas Verdes became one of more than 1,000 sites used by the dictatorship to torture and murder opponents of the regime. The use of Tejas Verdes  for torture and murder continued until mid-1974.

The Pinochet regime appointed Manuel Contreras to oversee the torture and murder operations at Tejas Verdes. Contreras, who would later rise to become head of the infamous Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), hired several collaborators, including Army Col. Cristian  Labbé, who went on to become mayor of the Santiago suburb of of Providencia.  Labbé's role in Tejas Verdes came to the forefront again this month, when  an appeals court judge indicted him for his alleged involvement in a string of concentration-camp killings, including those at Tejas Verdes. (Read More in the Nov. 14 issue of NotiSur)  The indictment comes just a few months after authorities  discovered of human remains at Tejas Verdes.

Book describes Tejas Verdes
There is plenty of material to document what occurred at Tejas Verdes. The camp was the subject of survivor Hernan Valdes’ 1974 book, Tejas Verdes: Diario de un campo de concentracion en Chile, which was published in Spain and drew much international attention to the Pinochet regime. Much of the pretext of the detention, torture and mass murder was that the detainees, suspected of being communists or otherwise subversive, represented a threat to the state.

The memories of those times are in many ways still fresh for much of Chile, and still very much a part of national politics. Among those affected by the brutality of the concentration camps are Chilean President Michel Bachelet and her mother, Angela Jeria, who were themselves arrested and taken to another camp, called Villa Grimaldi. Bachelet’s father, Alberto Bachelet, was a general who was held captive and tortured to death for opposing the coup that toppled Allende. 

-Jake Sandler


Also in LADB on Nov. 12-14....

• Ebola Sets Off Alarm in Central America but Experts Say Region Prepared to Avert Arrival of Virus
• California Judge Throws Out Panamanian Ex-Dictator Manuel Noriega’s Lawsuit Against Game Creator
• Pollsters Face Scrutiny In Wake Of Uruguay’s FA-Dominated General Elections
• President Enrique Peña Nieto Cancels Concession for Mexico City-Querétaro High-Speed Rail Line
• Guerrero Tragedy Reopens Debate on Legalizing Drug Production

 Follow us on Twitter @LADBatUNM

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The European Union, Belize and the Fight Against Illegal Fishing

Fishing in Belize, Flickr user anoldent, North Carolina, USA

As the world's  largest fish importer, the 28-member European Union (EU) carries a lot of weight when it comes to maritime and fishing laws. Those laws,  controlled and enforced by the Commission for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, allow the EU to enforce bans and sanctions when it comes to imports of fish and seafood. 

These laws and regulations, formally established in 2008 by the EC under Council Regulation No. 1005, are implemented in order to “establish a community system to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing.”

Over a half a year since the EU officially banned fish imports from Belize (read more from Louisa Reynolds in NotiCen, Oct. 30, 2014), the European Commission (EC) has rescinded the ban in recognition of Belize’s progress in bringing the Central American nation’s fisheries to compliance with EC law. According to an official press release by the EC, the decision to lift the ban on Belize was because the Central American country had demonstrated “its commitment to reforming its legal framework and adopting a new set of rules for inspection, control and monitoring of vessel.”

This press release also included news that proposed bans on Panama, Togo, Fiji and Vanuatu were also lifted because those nations had made progress in combating piracy and illegal fishing.

These laws and regulations, formally established in 2008 by the EC under Council Regulation No. 1005, are implemented in order to “establish a community system to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing.”

The sanctions imposed over the last five years, largely under the leadership of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki, have vastly broadened the jurisdiction of these EC regulations by enforcing import bans for violations that do not occur in the EU territory. Internationalizing the scope of enforcement of the issues represented under the EC regulations has been a central goal of Commissioner Damanaki.

Banderas Europeas en el Berlaymont Bruselas  Amio Cajander.

Russian, Chinese Connection?
Although EC sanctions seem to disproportionately affect nations with struggling economies, an investigation launched in the last week is looking into the possibility of one of the largest “pirate” fishing boats in the world as being Chinese and Russian controlled. This case includes details and examples of how a fishing vessel can become pirate, such as switching between various, false national flags while traveling between China and South America.

The European Union itself was formed in order to protect economic interest of member nations, such as the European Coal and Steel Community, regarded as the predecessor of the modern EU. The recent action by the EC’s Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Commission is an important development along this almost 70-year history of attempts to create international communities for the enforcement of transnational agreements and accords, be them economic, political or human rights-based.

In this light, the EU is not only a global rarity of a political-economic union between nations, but also represents one of the few transnational organizations (like OPEC) with the power to enforce by wielding heavy sanctions. The main difference between EU and OPEC, however, is that OPEC rarely if ever utilizes its power to enforce sanctions in the name of environmental sustainability and human rights.

In the case of the EU’s Commission on Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, the bans and sanctions are in place not in order to protect the markets of member states necessarily, but to enforce international agreements against over-fishing, piracy and other illegal practices. Despite much criticism leveled against the harsh enforcement of regulations under Damanaki’s leadership, criticism that rightfully draws to attention the unfair impact these sanctions will have on the poorest sectors of the economy, Damanaki and the EC are standing behind their position that these regulations are meant to enforce and promote maritime sustainably, and are in no way aimed at reinforcing EU’s control of international markets. -Jake Sandler


Also in LADB on Oct. 29-31

Ecuadoran Authorities Attack Nascent Student Movement

Chile Grapples With Unsettling And Unexplained Bomb Attacks

Expansion in Private Restaurant Sector Provides Relief for Cuban Entrepreneurs

New Details Emerge of Political-Criminal Links in Guerrero

Foreign Direct Investment in Mexico Down Sharply in First Half of 2014

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Is the Proposed Nicaragua Canal Scientifcally Sound?

You've heard the expression "the devil is in the details." Details about President Daniel Ortega's ambitious cross-country canal have been scarce, even though Nicaragua's Asamblea Nacional approved the project two years ago and HKND (Hong Kong Nicaraguan Canal Development Investment Company) was chosen as the developer in mid-2013.  

While there was skepticism, opponents--and supporters--did not know how to react to the waterway--known as the Gran Canal Interoceánico de Nicaragua (GCIN)--except in the vaguest of terms. The Ortega administration did offer some information about the project nearly a year before the actual route was released by HKND. But hen the government was confronted with the question of why officials failed on such a high level to consult with any of the communities involved, they explained that because the route was yet unknown, they could not consult with any communities in particular.

This fall,  HKND  released details of the project,including the exact route is for the waterway that will connect the Caribbean to the Pacific Oceans. This information has allowed  scientists and environmental researchersto publish their first informed assessments of the project. Both the Academia de Ciencas de Nicaragua  (ACN) and Centro Humboldt, a leading non-government environmental research center based in Managua, have highlighted the immense environmental, and socioeconomic repercussions that will inevitably result from the construction of the Gran Canal Interoceánico de Nicaragua (GCIN).

The ACN report argues that the project will cause incredible damage to biodiversity and natural and  aquifers as well infringe as the collective rights and well-being of many communities, including some that reside within protected, semi-autonomous regions. There is a “Message to the Nation” in the final section, which explains that the ACN “applauds all efforts for national economic development,” but also also urgently recommends “that such national projects should always pay close attention to all possible unintended consequences… and to follow the suggestions of relevant environmental, social and economic studies of impact.”

Without explicitly opposing the concept of the canal, the ACN report directs its criticisms at the specific plan proposed by HKND and brings the Chinese firm and the Nicaraguan government to task for failing to heed suggestions from environmental experts and community leaders.

A separate  report published by Víctor Campos, sub-director of Centro Humboldt, provides further information about the obvious and prolonged impacts that the canal will inevitably have on the fresh water supply in Lago de Nicaragua as well as the fragile biodiversity in the Cerro Silva Natural Reserve, an area that is also home to indigenous communities. These communities were not consulted despite the plan’s stipulations for the right to acquire whatever land HKND finds necessary.

At the end of Campos’ response, he too makes no explicit opposition to the idea of a canal in general, but leaves the nation with a list of suggestions and conclusions that include,”1. The best route will not pass through the Lago de Nicaragua; 2. That there has been a decision made at the National level to systemically ignore the voices of qualified scientists and experts; and 3. Eventually, Nicaraguans will be able to influence the decisions of the nation, but as of now, they will not be able to influence the decisions of this company and their enterprise.”

Both reports, which come from science-based entities, made the point that, aside from the proven and inevitable environmental and socioeconomic repercussions of the construction, much of the current problem lies outside the realm of science and environmental research itself. Both reports suggest the problem lies in the lack of transparency in the process. The national government and HKND failed to  make crucial information available to the public, failed to consult with the communities that will be directly displaced and affected, and ignored loud opposition from experts in scientific research.

-Jake Sandler


Also in LADB This Week...
Contrasting Elections in Bolivia and Peru 
While Evo Morales breezed through re-election as president of Bolivia, the trends in the Peruvian municipal and regional elections were less uniform. In the Peruvian results, Lima Mayor Susana Villarán came in a distant third, losing the race to former mayor Luis Castañeda Lossio.

A Social-Media Activist Loses Her Life in Mexico
The campaign by social-media activists to shine the spotlight on the activities of organized crime and on police and official corruption in Tamaulipas took a tragic turn when María del Rosario Fuentes Rubio one of the leaders of the Twitter-based community Valor por Tamaulipas was kidnapped and murdered.

More Trouble for Mexico's Largest Bank
Mexico’s largest lender, Grupo Banamex, is in deep financial and legal trouble with the Mexican and US governments for its handling of fraudulent loans to Oceanografía, a contractor that provided services to the state-run oil company PEMEX

A True Reform or a Charade for Police in Honduras?
The Dirección de Evaluación e Investigación de la Carrera Policial (DIECP) has provided the Ministerio Público (MP) with some 100 files on approximately 200 investigated members of the Honduran Policía Nacional (PN) as part of a slowly ongoing process officially aimed at cleansing the deeply corrupt force. But Honduran human rights activist Bertha Oliva counters, saying the results of the police-cleansing process launched in May 2012, during former President Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo’s administration (2010-2014), adds up to zero.  See more in this week's issue of NotiCen


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Church and Military Lose Their Luster in Paraguay

  Asuncion'Cathedral  (Axou28th, Wikimedia Common)

“The head of the Area of War Materials sold projectiles and explosives to anyone who asked for them.” -NotiSur, September 26, 2014

The above quote sounds like a description of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, or even a line from some Orwellesque sci-fi dystopian novel. It’s neither.

This is Paraguay in 2014, and this is just one of many listed items on an internal report of corruption within the Paraguayan armed forces conducted earlier this year. As Andrés Gaudín points out in this week’s issue of NotiSur, Paraguayan citizens are well-aware of the rampant corruption within the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. But, now, after internal reports have been released by the military as well as the Vatican, the armed forces and the Catholic Church have joined the ranks of Paraguay’s most blatantly corrupt institutions.

Paraguay's previous perception of the military and the church as institutions that were free of corruption coincides with a recent survey of 107 countries. In that survey, conducted by Transparency International, none of the countries ranked the military among the institutions affected by corruption. Only three of the 107 countries viewed religious bodies (which includes the Catholic Church) as one of the most corrupt institutions.

In his first year heading Paraguay’s government, President Horacio Cartes has made some gains in promoting transparency. Just this month, Paraguay became the 100th country to approve a freedom of information law.  The Paraguayan government still has problems shaking off the perception of corrption, however. 

There have been other efforts to fight corruption, including a legislative initiative approved by the Congress to address the widespread problem of nepotisim. A new law bans legislators from hiring or appointing to any public post "spouses, domestic partners, or relatives to the fourth degree of consanguinity and second degree of affinity." Nepotism has long been a concern for the Paraguay public. Last November, some businesses --restaurants, bars, and movie theaters--banned those officials publicly reported guilty of nepotism from entering those establishments  Read More in the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.

While corrupt activities by institutions like the military and the church had been widely accepted in Paraguay for years, change might be coming. The transformation of the military might not be swift--as evidenced by the lack of action on the part of Cartes government against military officials renting out equipment to private enterprises and collecting informal "tolls." The fact that the practice has been exposed in an internal report is a very important first step. The corrupt activities by the Catholic Church cannot be overlooked, however, now that the Vatican has intervened. According to a recent report in The New York Times, Pope Francis sent investigators to the Diocese of Ciudad del Este. The investigators found sufficient evidence of corrupt activities and cover-ups to warrant the removal of Bishop Ricardo Livieres Plano.

-Jake Sandler

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Chile-Peru Border Row: A border dispute that was supposed to have been resolved by a landmark ruling issued eight months ago by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague is once again causing tempers to flare between Chile and Peru, this time regarding a miniscule patch of coastal desert.

Another Honduran Journalist Murdered:  The killing of Honduran newsman Nery Soto on Aug. 14 in the town of Olanchito in the northern department of Yoro, some 390 km northeast of Tegucigalpa, the country’s capital, prompted the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to call on Honduran authorities to investigate this and tens of similar crimes committed mostly since 2009—the year of the bloody coup that toppled then President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya

Currency "unification" coming in Cuba: Cubans await the arrival of "Day Zero" with uncertainty about the fate of their savings and their future purchasing power. The still-to-be-established date will end the simultaneous circulation of two currencies (the Cuban peso and the convertible peso) and is a measure that, according to the communist government, has been considered necessary for two decades to make the economy more efficient.

Mexican Court Agrees that Televisa is a Dominant Company: In March of this year, the Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT) ruled that Televisa was a dominant company, meaning that authorities had the right to enforce certain anti-monopoly provisions. The giant broadcaster and 18 affiliates appealed the ruling to a specialized court. However, the court ruled in September of this year that the IFT's designation was correct.

Toxic Spill Remains a Problem in Sonora State. The giant mining company Grupo México and its chief executive officer (CEO) Germán Larrea are again the center of controversy for violations of environmental policy in Sonora. In early August, state and federal environmental authorities cited Grupo México subsidiary Mina Buenavista del Cobre for spilling more than 1.4 cubic feet of sulfuric acid (about 40 million liters) into the Bacanuchi and Sonora rivers

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The Debate over Tax Reform in El Salvador

Street vendor in El Salvador (Wikimedia Commons)O

Economists, opposition lawmakers and San Salvador's conservative conservative daily El Diario de Hoy have expressed strong objections to the new tax reform approved in El Salvador this summer.

A central goal of the the reform promoted by Salvadoran President Salvador Sánchez Cerén is to increase taxes on the wealthier contributors to provide the government with new revenues to boost expenditures on social services, education and community facilities. Th reform is is projected to raise the government an additional US$160 million annually. Read more from Benjamin Witte-Lebhar in this week's issue of NotiCen. (This move to boost taxes on wealthier contributors to allow the government to boost spending on social programs is strikingly similar to the argument that Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto made when pushing his tax-reform plan in Mexico at the end of 2013).

Critics contend the tax hike will not only affect the wealthier taxpayers and the larger businesses, but small and medium-sized ones as well, and will effectually diminish their ability to grow and hire more workers. This, in turn, would create a negative ‘trickle-down’ effect that will hit even the poorest sectors of the economy. El Diario de Hoy, for example, argues in an editorial that that the pupuseras who sell stuffed tortillas on street corners and the minuteros (who peddle cell phone minutes) on the streets as well as the small store owners would be the ones paying for the nation’s new tax plan. The bottom line, says the editorial, is that  that, despite the popular belief that this tax reform was created so “those who earn the most will pay the most," the new system will have an effect on everyone, not just the wealthy elite.

Palacio Nacional, San Salvador

This argument is a classic and well-worn debate over the benefits of supply-side economics, and has served as a fundamental roadblock to socialist reform throughout Latin America, and elsewhere, for decades. President Sánchez Cerén, in contrast, refers to these opposing opinions as untruthful tactics to rally the public against the reform. 

There is also a debate about managing the economy in Panama, where conservative president Juan Carlos Varela is facing criticism from other conservative politicians for pushing through a measure to control food prices. Despite an inflation crisis that has driven the price of basic foodstuffs up more than 30%, members of the Cambio Democrático (former President Ricardo Martinelli's party) have hesitated to support the measure, citing possible side effects that include food shortages, black markets and even rioting and destruction of property. Read more from Louisa Reynolds in this week's edition of NotiCen.

  -Jake Sandler 

Also in LADB this week....
A New Airport for Mexico City :President Enrique Peña Nieto has resurrected a proposal to build a new airport for Mexico City, offering a much larger project than the plan that ex-President Vicente Fox proposed in 2001. In announcing plans for the new airport, Peña Nieto said the existing facility had reached its operating capacity, resulting in bottlenecks in Mexico’s air traffic. The AICM, the second-busiest airport in Latin America, recorded more than 389,000 takeoffs and landings in 2013, surpassing its stated capacity of 340,000.  Read more from Carlos Navarro in this week's issue of SourceMex.

Changes to Ecuador's Constitution: The administration of President Rafael Correa is calling for a series of constitutional reforms based on the argument that the Ecuadoran Constitution—which has been hailed by many for its strong emphasis on human rights and was developed in a constituent assembly and approved by a large majority in a national referendum—is preventing the government from ruling and thus jeopardizes the welfare of the people. Part of the problem, according to the administration, is that constitutional guarantees designed to protect citizens' rights are being used abusively to boycott government plans.  Luis Ángel Saavedra tells us more in this week's edition of NotiSur

A Third Term for President Evo Morales in Bolivia?: For the first time in more than a century, Bolivians are expected to elect a president for the third-consecutive time; indications are that Evo Morales will be re-elected for a term that would keep him in office until 2019 Morales takes credit for important achievements during his eight years as the country’s leader, and his achievements have been recognized by international organizations and even some of his domestic enemies. Meanwhile, his opposition—mainly right-wing and ultraright groups—has failed to build either strong leaders or a united program.  Read more from Andrés Gaudín in this week's edition of NotiSur.

Mexican Union Leader Wins Court Victory:Less than a month after Interpol issued an order for his arrest, exiled Mexican labor leader Napoleón Gómez Urrutia won a victory in the Mexican courts that effectively negates the directive of the international law-enforcement agency .This week's edition of SourceMex expands on this development.

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Should a 10-Year-Old Child Be Allowed to Work?

There are 13 million (8.8%) of children in child labour in Latin America and the Caribbean -International Labour Organzation's latest report on Child Labor

Child labor already exists, and it is difficult to fight against it. Rather than crack down on it, we want to guarantee children’s labor security so that, step by step, we can eradicate [child labor] in the next five years. For that reason the law includes necessary safeguards in labor, health, and education rights. -Bolivian Sen. Adolfo Mendoza.

Image for ILO's Football Resource Kit

On July 17, 2014, the Bolivian Congress approved the Código Niño, Niña Adolescente, which lowers the minimum age at which children can work—to 10. The governing Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) defended the decision by saying it reflects what for "innumerable" families is simply a fact of life.

Is this a pragmatic decision or does it further entrench a practice that the global community believes is unacceptable?


The Bolivian Congress believes that children are having to work by necessity, and that any prohibition against having children as young 10 years old participate in the workplace would be counterproductive, particularly when this practice has taken place for generations. The legislation recognizes that low-income Bolivian children will and must work. And if this is going to happen, they have to have protections.

While the arguments of Bolivian legislators and President Evo Morales might merit strong consideration, the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) believe that the standards were set for a reason: to provide a framework to eradicate the practice of child labor. "One of the most effective methods of ensuring that children do not start working too young is to set the age at which children can legally be employed or otherwise work," the ILO says in a report on conventions and recommendations on child labor. Read more about this issue from Andrés Gaudín in this week's edition of NotiSur,

Here is the ILO's latest report on recent child labor trends.  Here is the ILO's Football Resource Kit on using football (soccer)  in child labor elimination and prevention projects.  And here is what UNICEF says about child labor.

Also in LADB this week...
Other Issues involving Youth and Children
If you have been following the ongoing coverage of the surge in the number of unaccompanied minors fleeing from Central America to the US, Ben Witte-Lebhar offers us the perspective from El Salvador in  this week's edition of NotiCen.

In NotiSur, we look at youth from a totally different perspective. Greg Scruggs tells us why Brazil's newest potential voters, those aged 16 and 17, have chosen not to register to vote in record numbers.

Health-Related Matters
We also covered children from a broader-health related perspective in this week's newsletters.  In NotiCen, Louisa Reynolds examined how Latin American countries are dealing with the problem of obesity in a region where (according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO)  23% of the adult population and 7% of preschoolers are overweight or obese.

In SourceMex, we wrote how a chemical spill into the Sonora River forced environmental and health authorities to declare an environmental emergency in seven cities. 

International Hero or Corrupt Fugitive?
Our other article in SourceMex reported on the latest effort to bring fugitive miners' union leader Napoleón Gómez Urrutia back to Mexico. There are two sides to Gómez Urrutia.  Even though he has been accused of embezzling US$55 million from the union, he has been reelected as secretary general on numerous times. And international labor organizations have given him awards for his efforts to shine the light on corporate greed and inadequate safety standards for miners in Mexico.

-Carlos Navarro

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