Prison-Generated Crimes Lead Honduran Authorities to Block Cell-Phone Service in Jails

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Article from NotiCen, March 13

Crimes such as extortion, carried out from Honduran prisons, as well as hits and robberies planned in the country’s jails, led authorities last month, in an effort to counter such illegal activities, to block cell-phone services in the 24 penitentiaries nationwide. It was one of the first measures taken by the new administration, headed by President Juan Orlando Hernández, who, on Jan. 27, succeeded former President Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo (2010-2014)--both of the rightist, pro-military Partido Nacional (PN)--for the 2014-2018 period. The measure is aimed at preventing convicts from running criminal networks from within prisons walls and cells, and it covers a 1 km radius. In an immediate response, inmates’ ingenuity began aiming at more-sophisticated technology--satellite telephones--and their anger against the measure triggered mutiny attempts in at least two prisons. George Rodríguez Read More

First Electoral Setback For Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa

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Article from NotiSur, March 14

President Rafael Correa’s Alianza País (AP) stumbled in recent local elections, falling in a number of strategic provinces and municipalities to emergent conservative and social democratic forces. The losses included Quito, the capital, which could serve as the springboard for a new opposition bloc. The government also lost all but one of Ecuador’s Amazonian provinces and may be forced to change its tune regarding resource extraction, which the elected prefectures in those areas are likely to oppose. The Quito mayoral result was a particularly tough blow for the Correa administration, whose preferred candidate, incumbent Augusto Barrera, lost the Feb. 23 election to conservative challenger Mauricio Rodas. The loss was all the more galling considering Barrera’s relatively strong track record as mayor. Luis Ángel Saavedra Read More

Veracruz Government Again Accused of Covering Up Motive for Journalist’s Murder

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Article from SourceMex, March 12

Javier Duarte de Ochoa began his term as governor of Veracruz state on Dec. 1, 2010. Since that time, 10 journalists have been murdered, four others have disappeared, and 132 attacks have been launched against news organizations in the state. While Veracruz has always been one of the most dangerous states in Mexico for reporters, editors, photographers, and others employed in the news business, journalist rights organizations argue that the situation has worsened during the current administration. There are allegations that the governor has attempted to silence criticism from the press and has covered up two murders. Carlos Navarro Read More

Legal Challenges Filed Against Tax Reforms, Particularly Higher Value-Added Tax in Border Communities

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Article from SourceMex, March 12

A tax revolt of sorts is brewing in communities along the US-Mexico border, with residents in Tijuana filing a legal challenge against a tax reform promoted by President Enrique Peña Nieto and easily ratified by Congress in 2013. Among other things, the measure created a uniform value-added tax (impuesto al valor agregado, IVA) of 16% throughout the country, overriding the preferential rate of 11% applied to sales in border communities. In mid-February, the Consejo Coordinator Empresarial (CCE) presented a petition with more than 58,000 names to a Federal District Court. The petition contained enough valid signatures for District Judge Blanca Evelia Parra to agree to review the case. There are also efforts by Congress to reverse the higher IVA for border communities Several senators have brought the case to the Supreme Court, and a group of members of the Chamber of Deputies are planning a similar action. Carlos Navarro Read More

South America Gears Up for Busy Election Year, Tension Mounts in Colombia During Electoral Campaign, Mexico Legislators Introduce Initiatives to Ease Marijuana Restrictions

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Articles in SourceMex, NotiCen and NotiSur for March 5-7

Statements Abroad Allege US Military Base in Costa Rica, Question Nation’s Sovereignty, Comment on Elections

On its foreign policy front, Costa Rica has recently been the subject of statements from a Venezuelan-based television network and Bolivia's President Evo Morales that have ruffled local diplomatic feathers and led this Central American nation to react, denying the allegations and demanding apologies. The comments coming from the South American countries appear to be an effort to sway the Costan Rican presidential and congressional elections. The first round of voting occurred on Feb. 2, and the presidential vote will be finalized next month in a runoff. George Rodríguez Read More

Tension Mounts in Colombia During Electoral Campaign, Peace Talks
Colombians, including President Juan Manuel Santos, live in a climate of tension, moving from one shock to the next. Between Feb. 4 and Feb. 23, disturbing allegations have been revealed about political destabilization and various cases of violence that include spying, military corruption, threats to political and social leaders, and attacks against progressive candidates participating in both upcoming elections. This tense situation unfolds in the context of 15 months of conversations between the government and guerrillas aimed at putting an end to the internal war that has gripped the country for more than half a century. Andrés Gaudín Read More

Center-Left Legislators Introduce Initiatives in Mexico City Legislature, Congress to Further Ease Restrictions on Marijuana
The latest attempt to bring greater legal legitimacy to marijuana in Mexico appears to have run out of steam before full debate could take place. A faction from the center-left Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) introduced legislation in the Mexico City legislature (Asamblea Legislativa del Distrito Federal, ALDF) and in the federal Congress in mid-February to further liberalize Mexico’s marijuana laws. The initiative proposed to create marijuana dispensaries in Mexico City and increase the amount of the drug people across the country could carry for personal use. While the effort gained a lot of attention in the press, the measure appears to be going nowhere in the three legislative bodies. Carlos Navarro Read More

Constitutional Court Rules Guatemala’s Attorney General Must Step Down
Even though, under the leadership of Attorney General Claudia Paz y Paz, the Ministerio Público (MP) has achieved unprecedented results in tackling homicide, rape, and kidnapping in a country with high levels of impunity, Guatemala’s highest court, the Corte de Constitucionalidad (CC), ruled, on Feb. 5, that she must step down seven months before the end of her term in office. The ruling was based on a constitutional challenge put forward by wealthy businessman Ricardo Sagastume, who argued that, since Paz y Paz took office early to complete the term of her predecessor, Conrado Reyes, who was removed from office , her four-year term should end in May 2014. Local and international human rights organizations say Guatemala’s conservative establishment seeks to punish Paz y Paz for her efforts to bring human rights violators to trial. Louisa Reynolds Read More

South America Gears Up for Busy Election Year
Presidential elections are set to take place in four South American countries this year, starting with Colombia, where the right is expected to keep its hold on government. At the other end of the political spectrum are the governments of Bolivia, Brazil, and Uruguay, where progressives are also looking to retain power. All three face challenges from conservative forces, which are doing everything they can to push for leadership change. Convincing voters in those countries will not be easy, however, given the success the governments have had incorporating previously marginalized groups into the social, economic, and political fold. Andrés Gaudín Read More

Femicide: Alarming Problem Despite Vanguard Law
Despite a law approved by Congress in 2007 to confront femicide in Mexico, the killing of women and girls because of their gender--remains an alarming epidemic throughout the country. The 2007 law includes a unique mechanism to prevent femicide called the Declaración de Alerta de Violencia de Género, or gender-violence alert. Organizations have asked for gender-violence alert declarations eight times. But each time--from Oaxaca and Chiapas in the south to Nuevo León in the north and Hidalgo, Guanajuato, and México state in the center--the government commission charged with enacting the alerts has rejected the requests. The Observatorio Ciudadano Nacional de Feminicidio (OCNF) says an average of six femicides per day occur in Mexico. Lindajoy Fenley Read More

Femicide Rooted in Patriarchal Culture
The roots of femicide emerge from an extreme version of patriarchal culture, say Mexican activists. Despite the laws, ingrained cultural factors make it difficult to ensure women the freedom from violence. Yuriria Rodríguez, a lawyer with the Observatorio Ciudadano Nacional de Feminicidio, cites an example of the view she said arose in the wake of a gender-violence alert rejection. "An attorney general said, 'We’ve found the causes explaining why women are being killed. Women are being killed because they are transgressing the roles society assigns them. Every time you turn around there are more female workers, more female taxi drivers. Since they are transgressing cultural roles, men get mad and kill them.' Lindajoy Fenley Read More

Joaquín Chapo Guzmán Arrested in Mexico, Nicaragua’s Extreme Constitutional Makeover Takes Effect, Hague Resolves Peruvian-Chilean Maritime Dispute

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Articles in SourceMex, NotiCen and NotiSur for February 26-28

Sinaloa Cartel Expected to Survive Arrest of Joaquín Chapo Guzmán

The capture of Mexico’s most powerful drug trafficker Joaquín Guzmán Loera, also known as El Chapo, is almost certain to change the landscape for organized crime in Mexico. Guzmán Loera’s organization, the Sinaloa cartel, was clearly the best organized drug-trafficking organization in Mexico and overseas. The organization, also known as the Cartel del Pacífico, was structured like a global business, acquiring raw materials from Mexico, Asia, and South America and selling the finished product primarily in the US and Europe. Many experts believe that the organization, while weakened with the arrest of El Chapo, is powerful enough to survive the loss of its leader. One of Guzmán Loera’s lieutenants, Ismael Zambada, also known as El Mayo, has amassed enough power and responsibility to take over the mantle of leadership.Carlos Navarro Read More

Nicaragua’s Extreme Constitutional Makeover Takes Effect
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega put the finishing touches this month on a thunderous political power play that could extend his already lengthy stay in office until 2021--and beyond. Late last year, the Ortega administration presented a set of reforms that, among other things, called for an end to presidential term limits. At the time, Nicaraguan presidents were limited to two nonconsecutive terms, a rule Ortega ignored when he participated in--and then won--the 2011 election. Three weeks ago, the Asamblea Nacional, Nicaragua’s legislature, gave the sweeping amendments final approval. Ortega is now free to seek re-election as many times as we wants. A win in 2016, should he run again, would give the wily Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional leader his third consecutive presidential term and fourth overall. Benjamin Witte-Lebhar Read More

The Hague Resolves Peruvian-Chilean Maritime Dispute
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Jan. 27 resolved a six-year maritime border dispute between Peru and Chile. However, the decision sparked a new conflict regarding a triangle of land in the border area. The ICJ verdict last month, which is final and binding, states "that the maritime boundary between the Parties starts at the intersection of the parallel of latitude passing through Boundary Marker No. 1 with the low-water line, and extends for 80 nautical miles along that parallel of latitude to Point A. From this point, the maritime boundary runs along the equidistance line to Point B, and then along the 200-nautical-mile limit measured from the Chilean baselines to Point C." While Chile had argued that the limit began at Marker 1, Peru had countered that the beginning was at the Punto de la Concordia, 300 meters southeast of the coastal border. Elsa Chanduví Jaña Read More

Government Downplays "Silver" Anniversary Of Dictator Alfredo Stroessner’s Departure
Paraguay marked the 25th anniversary earlier this month of its return to democracy following three and one-half decades of bloody civic-military dictatorship under Gen. Alfredo Stroessner (1954–1989). Stroessner’s was the longest-running single-leader dictatorship in Latin American history. The Somoza dynasty in Nicaragua lasted longer (43 years) but involved three different heads of state (a father and two sons) and was interrupted at various times. And yet for all its significance, reactions to the anniversary, on Feb. 3, were markedly subdued, particularly by the government. There were a few academic events and a few television news items dedicated to the issue. Andrés Gaudín Read More

CELAC Summit in Cuba and Violence in Venezuela
The II Summit of the Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños (CELAC) took place Jan. 28-29 in Havana, Cuba. Thirty-three heads of state from the region took part; however, the US and Canadian heads of states were not invited. Cuban President Raúl Castro said one aim of the summit was to "rethink the relationship with transnational corporations and improve coordination between regional organizations." He also talked about the importance of establishing a new paradigm of integration, based, fundamentally, on greater cooperation between regional organizations such as the Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR), the Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América (ALBA), Petrocaribe, the Unión de Naciones Suramericanas (UNASUR), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and the Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana (SICA). Crosby Girón Read More

Meeting of Mexican, U.S., Canadian Leaders Described as Lackluster
On, Feb. 19, President Enrique Peña Nieto hosted his counterparts from the US and Canada for a summit in Toluca, the capital of his native México state. And, as expected, Peña Nieto’s meeting with US President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was an uneventful gathering that resulted in no new agreements, at least none that were made public. This has been the case each year since the annual summit was begun under ex-President George W. Bush in 2005 to promote greater economic partnerships and cross-border initiatives. The three North American leaders reportedly did not spend much time on issues that have been a source of friction, including the lack of immigration reform in the US and alleged US spying on Peña Nieto, and Canada’s insistence that visas be required for Mexicans visiting that country. Carlos Navarro Read More

Anti-corruption Team to Visit Haiti, Venezuelan President Uses Decree Power To Fight "Devastating Economic War,"

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Articles in SourceMex, NotiCen and NotiSur for February 19-21

Organization of American States Anti-corruption Team to Visit Haiti, Once Ranked Most Corrupt Country

The Organization of American States (OAS) is sending members of its anti-corruption team on a tour of Caribbean nations, and one of its stops is Haiti. In 2006, the massively impoverished French-speaking island country ranked as the most corrupt of the 163 nations included in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), a yearly study the Berlin-based nongovernmental organization Transparency International (TI) has put out since 1995--two years after it was founded. Meanwhile, the Haitian government is pressing Congress to complete passage of a bill for corruption prevention and suppression, which the Senate approved in May 2013 but has yet to be voted on by the lower house.George Rodríguez Read More

Self-Defense Groups Attempt to Protect Residents from Criminal Organizations in Guerrero State
While most of the front-page headlines in Mexico have centered on the ongoing violence in Michoacán state, a similar chaotic situation has developed in neighboring Guerrero state, where local communities have formed self-defense militias, known as autodefensas, to defend themselves against the drug cartels and criminal organizations that are extorting and terrorizing communities around the state. A study by the semi-independent Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos (CNDH) discovered that self-defense groups are present in more than half of Guerrero's 81 municipalities. The study, released in mid-December 2013, said the 46 municipalities where autodefensa groups are present account for almost two-thirds of the state's population of about 3.5 million. Carlos Navarro Read More

Venezuelan President Uses Decree To Fight "Devastating Economic War"
Locked in an exhausting standoff with Venezuela’s primary economic power brokers, the Venezuelan government, for the first time since the launch of the Bolivarian Revolution in 1999, is finding itself at odds with some of its own supporters. The country's chaotic economic situation is fueling discontent not just among the government’s opponents but also among some of its traditional supporters. To reverse the situation--and save the country from a "devastating economic war" launched by leading business and opposition groups--President Nicolás Maduro recently signed a pair of decrees. The first introduced a "band system" to regulate currency exchange. Government backers support the measures, even if they do not necessarily grasp their true meaning. The second limits companies to a maximum profit margin of 30%. Opposition leaders are up in arms, saying the decrees amount to "stealth devaluation." Andrés Gaudín Read More

Belize’s Booming Tourism Industry Strains Country’s Precarious Wastewater-Management Facilities
San Pedro, a town on the southern part of the island of Ambergris Caye, in the Belize District, used to be a sleepy fishing village until word of its natural beauty got around and it became one of the most popular tourist destinations of the Caribbean, widely recommended in most travel guides as an ideal location for scuba diving. This transformation has come hand in hand with a change in the population of the town, and today, according to official figures, San Pedro has a population of about 13,381, the second-largest town in the Belize District and the largest in the Belize Rural South constituency. However, this inevitably means that the dynamics of the island’s environment have also been altered as Ambergris Caye has increasingly suffered the effects of pollution from a number of sources: the oily trail left behind by boats and cruise ships, domestic sewage originating from toilets, sinks, and other domestic sources, solid waste, agrochemicals, and industrial effluents. Louisa Reynolds Read More

President-Elect Michelle Bachelet Announces Cabinet Choices
After routing the right in December’s runoff election, President-elect Michelle Bachelet now faces the considerable challenge of turning her broad campaign coalition--a loose affiliation of center-left and left parties known as the Nueva Mayoría--into a viable governing bloc. The incoming leader took her first major step toward that goal late last month, introducing a Cabinet chosen to appease her traditional power base while at the same time reach out to her more recently acquired allies, namely the far-left Partido Comunista de Chile (PCCh) and Izquierda Ciudadana (IC). Benjamin Witte-Lebhar Read More


Federal Government Reaches Truce with Yaqui in Aqueduct Dispute
President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration has reached a truce with Yaqui Indian communities in their dispute about water rights in the Río Yaqui. The dispute centers on the Acueducto Independencia, a waterway that captures 634 gallons of water per second from the Río Yaqui and diverts it through 130 km of pipeline between Presa El Novillo and the state capital of Hermosillo. After months of negotiation, the Peña Nieto administration and Yaqui representatives finally reached an agreement on Jan. 21, guaranteeing that the water extracted from the Río Yaqui would only be used for human consumption in Hermosillo and that the administration would respect court rulings spelling out the rights of the region’s Yaqui and campesino communities. Carlos Navarro Read More