A Primer on Plan Mexico
By LAURA CARLSEN
Counterpunch
May 8, 2008

On Oct. 22, 2007 President Bush announced the $1.4 billion dollar "Merida Initiative," security aid package to Mexico and Central America. The initiative has fatal flaws in its strategy; instead of leading to a stable binational relationship and peaceful border communities, its military approach will escalate drug-related violence and human rights abuses.

Mexico and the United States face a joint challenge in decreasing transnational organized crime and they must cooperate to strengthen the rule of law and stop illegal drug and arms trafficking over the border. This misguided policy will result in an inability to achieve its own goals and will waste taxpayers' money. It will also seriously undermine the U.S.-Mexico relationship and Mexican stability.

Raymond Colitt | Brasilia | May 7

Reuters - A jury in Brazil on Tuesday convicted in a retrial a man accused of murdering a U.S.-born nun but acquitted a previously convicted rancher accused of ordering the killing in a land dispute in the Amazon rain forest in February 2005, a court said.

Dorothy Stang's death became a symbol of the often violent conflict for natural resources in the vast Amazon region. For more than 20 years she helped peasants threatened by loggers and ranchers and opposed the destruction of the rain forest.

In a surprise verdict, the jury absolved cattle rancher Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura of charges of having ordered a gunman to kill Stang, a court in the Para state capital Belem said in a statement.

The same jury sentenced Rayfran das Neves, who confessed to killing Stang, to 28 years in prison. In a previous trial he had been given a 27-year sentence. Neves tried to convince the jury that he had not been hired to shoot Stang(74 yrs old) and did so because he felt threatened by her.

Stang was shot six times and left lying in the mud in the town of Anapu in the frontier state of Para.

Santiago | May 7

NYT - The Chaitén volcano in southern Chile blasted ash and what appeared to be lava a dozen miles into the air on Tuesday, leading the government to order the immediate and complete evacuation of everyone living within a 30-mile radius of it.

Until now considered to be inactive, Chile’s Chaitén volcano erupted Friday and led to the evacuation of everyone living within a 30-mile radius of it.

Preceded by dozens of tremors, the volcano — until now considered inactive — began erupting last Friday. It covered about 60 square miles with more than 15 inches of ash, rendering the air unbreathable, contaminating water sources, killing livestock and destroying all small- and medium-scale agriculture in this rural and mostly impoverished area 800 miles south of the capital, Santiago.

Mario Osava | Rio De Janiero | April 27

Tierramérica/IPS - The success of pioneering efforts to reduce inequality and poverty using relatively few resources has led to an expansion in Latin America of direct aid, targeting the most vulnerable families, especially in rural areas.

Known as "conditional cash transfer", it encompasses many different strategies in more than a dozen Latin American countries. Brazil and Mexico have truly massive programmes, reaching 11.1 million and five million impoverished families, respectively, while Colombia's programme involves just 1,500 families.

The "Chile Solidario" initiative, often included in the same category, "is not comparable to other programmes in terms of amounts or objectives," like Brazil's "Family-Grant" and Mexico's "Opportunities" programmes, said Verónica Silva, executive secretary of Chile's Social Protection System.

The Chilean programme, created in 2002, now covers 290,000 families, about 40 percent of whom live in rural areas. "The proportion of participants is much higher in rural zones (the Chilean population is around 88 percent urban), because if you want to find the poorest of the poor in Chile, you have to look for an indigenous mother who is the head of a household in a rural area," Silva told Tierramérica.

The World Bank estimates that Chile Solidario is responsible for 18 percent of the reduction of indigence and 35 percent of the decline in poverty.

Mario Osava | Rio de Janiero | April 26

IPS - The success of pioneering efforts to reduce inequality and poverty using relatively few resources has led to an expansion in Latin America of direct aid, targeting the most vulnerable families, especially in rural areas. "Conditional cash transfer" encompasses many different strategies in more than a dozen Latin American countries. Brazil and Mexico have truly massive programmes, reaching 11.1 million and five million impoverished families, respectively, while Colombia's programme involves just 1,500 families.

The "Chile Solidario" initiative, often included in the same category, "is not comparable to other programmes in terms of amounts or objectives," like Brazil's "Family-Grant" and Mexico's "Opportunities" programmes, said Verónica Silva, executive secretary of Chile's Social Protection System. The Chilean programme, created in 2002, now covers 290,000 families, about 40 percent of whom live in rural areas. "The proportion of participants is much higher in rural zones, because if you want to find the poorest of the poor in Chile, you have to look for an indigenous mother who is the head of a household in a rural area," Silva told Tierramérica.

The focus is on extreme poverty, which affected 5.6 percent of the Chilean population in 2000, a sector so marginalised that it falls outside the social welfare networks. The aim is to bring these families into the fold with psycho-social support and a monthly stipend, which gradually declines from 28 to eight dollars over two years.

Franco Ordonez | Mexico City | April 23

McClatchy - The price of oil is reaching record levels worldwide, but Mexico, long considered an oil power, is failing to reap the rewards because its state-owned oil company hasn't developed many of the areas known to be rich in petroleum.

President Felipe Calderon this month proposed allowing the ailing state oil company to contract with international companies to help drill deeper in those areas. But leftist lawmakers have blocked the legislation to allow that, claiming that Calderon's proposal amounts to privatizing a national treasure.

Since I was having Marvin L. Zimmerman, the author of The Ovum Factor, on my radio show (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/liberalpro you can hear the podcast of the interview there), it meant that I was obliged to peruse the novel that was sent to me by his publicist. The Ovum Factor arrived at my home, and before I got a chance to look through it, my wife picked it up first and wouldn’t let go of it for three days. During that time my dinner was late, I had to do the vacuuming (the dogs are shedding), and I had no real conversation with her as her head was behind the novel. When she finished it, she just looked at me and said “Wow”. That meant only one thing… I had to read it.

José Can You See? Bush’s Trojan Taco
By Greg Palast
Monday, April 21, 2008
(For TomPaine.com)
(Listen to the Podcast here)

Psst! George Bush has a secret

While you Democrats are pounding each other to a pulp in Pennsylvania, the President has snuck back down to New Orleans for a meeting of the NAFTA Three: the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of Mexico.

You’re not supposed to know that – for two reasons:
First, the summit planned for the N.O. two years back was meant to showcase the rebuilt Big Easy, a monument to can-do Bush-o-nomics. Well, it is a monument to Bush’s leadership: The city still looks like Dresden 1946, with over half the original residents living in toxic trailers or wandering lost and broke in America.

Hilary Burke | Asuncion, Paraguay | April 20

Reuters - A mild-mannered former Roman Catholic bishop won Paraguay's presidential election on Sunday to end more than 60 years of one-party rule.

Fernando Lugo had nearly 41 percent support, a lead of 10 percentage points over ruling party candidate Blanca Ovelar, with results in from 88 percent of polling stations, the electoral court said. Ovelar, the first woman to run for president in Paraguay, conceded defeat on Sunday night as tens of thousands of Lugo's supporters rallied in a central square in the capital Asuncion.

A smiley, gray-bearded man who often wears sandals, Lugo inspired Paraguayans fed up with conditions in the poor South American country known for corruption and contraband. "Today we've written a new chapter in our nation's political history," the 56-year-old Lugo told reporters.

Lugo left his post as bishop three years ago, saying he felt powerless to help Paraguay's poor. He launched his political career the following year and led a center-left coalition at the presidential election, vowing to stamp out corruption and ease inequalities.

_{(Photo-Reuters) - Fernando Lugo walks with Hebe Bonafini, leader of Argentine human rights group Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, as she arrived to support him in the election}

Background at Tina's earlier post here

Pablo Bachelet | Washington | April 19

McClatchy - An empowered Democratic Party has taken command of U.S. policy toward Latin America, stalling a free-trade agreement and taking aim at military aid programs for Colombia and Mexico.

This assertiveness began after Democrats took control of Congress in early 2007, but it took a dramatic turn in recent weeks, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi derailing an effort by President Bush to force a vote on a free-trade agreement with Colombia.

Beyond taking aim at military aid, Democrats say they want a new approach toward Latin America.

Dodd proposed a new ''strategic partnership'' based on broader public security and rule of law, poverty and inequality and energy integration.

He said changing the long-standing U.S. embargo against Cuba would help Washington reengage with Latin America.

Miguel Garcia Tinoco | Uruapan, Mexico | April 18

Reuters - A Mexican army helicopter crashed during anti-narcotics operations in western Mexico on Friday, killing 11 soldiers, local authorities said.

The helicopter went down at around midday in a rural area in Michoacan state, a major front in the government's army-led war against drug cartels, Michoacan's state attorney general's office said, without giving the cause of the crash.

"There are 11 men dead, including a colonel, and one soldier was injured. We do not yet know the cause," a spokesman said.

The helicopter wreckage lay on the ground in several chunks, surrounded by dozens of police. A child at the scene told Reuters he saw it plummet out of the sky and hit a tree.

Oliver Balch/ Asuncion & Rory Carroll/ Caracas | April 18

The Guardian - A former Catholic bishop popular with the poor is favoured to win Paraguay's presidential election on Sunday and sweep away six decades of one-party rule.

Opinion polls give Fernando Lugo a narrow lead, which could be enough to usher him in as the newest member of Latin America's "pink tide" of leftist governments.

The bearded 57-year-old heads the Patriotic Alliance for Change, a coalition of centre and centre-left opposition parties, grassroots political movements, farmers groups and other social organisations.

The Colorado party, the world's longest-ruling party still in power, has responded to the mood for change by fielding a female candidate, Blanca Ovelar.

The first woman to run for the top job, she has closed the gap and could snatch victory to join Chile's Michelle Bachelet and Argentina's Cristina Kirchener as another South American female head of state.

Damian Wroclavsky | Playa Punta Norte, Argentina | April 17

Reuters - The park ranger gestured forcefully, ordering me to throw myself down on the sand and stay quiet.

Some sea lion pups paddled tentatively in the shallow surf, learning to swim at Punta Norte beach in eastern Patagonia, and we were staring at the sea, watching for a huge black fin.

It was my first visit to see orcas hunting baby sea lions on the Valdes peninsula, a natural phenomenon unique to the killer whale group in this region.

I tried to stick carefully to the instructions the park ranger gave us before leading us to a thin stretch of sand near the ocean where Mel, a giant orca, was preparing to hunt.

Six of us -- a Reuters cameraman, the park ranger, three nature photographers, and I -- were waiting to see one of the animal world's most spectacular attacks on this beach, where killer whales swim up a channel of deep water to get right onto the sand. They risk death if they become stranded.

Stretched out like sharp-shooters 30 yards from water's edge, we watched, transfixed, as an enormous black fin approached one wobbly pup in the shallow water.

April 17

BBC - A sit-in protest by leftist politicians over energy reform plans has forced Mexico's Congress to relocate for the first time in almost 20 years.

Lawmakers had to cram into conference rooms to press ahead with routine business on Tuesday.

Leftist MPs seized the podiums of both houses last week in protest at plans to ease limits on private involvement in the state oil giant, Pemex.

The government says Pemex needs outside investment to boost falling production.

Congress has only been forced out of its chamber a handful of times in Mexican history - the last time was in 1989 when the lower house had to evacuate because of a fire.

Mexico City | April 11

UPI - Mexican lawmakers rushed the speakers' podiums of both houses of Congress in opposition to a proposed energy reform bill, said Mexican officials.

The opposition leaders from both the House and Senate were denouncing President Felipe Calderon's energy reform proposal, which would allow outside energy firms to invest in Mexico's state-owned energy company PEMEX, El Universal reported Thursday.

Critics of the bill contend the reform would dilute profits from PEMEX, which is the major source of federal revenue for Mexico's budget.

Personally, I think another free trade deal at the current time is a bad idea. And as I wrote last night I think Pelosi was making the right moves demanding something of Bush before a vote and not accepting promises after. We all know how well Bush keeps his promises. So, Pelosi did it today. She hosed the president. And I disagree with Nelson: I think she did a good thing. But I'll let you read Nelson and decide for yourself:

Today's other "bomb" was exploded by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. As promised, the Democrats un-did Fast Track by a 224-195 vote, in order to avoid being forced to start the 90-day clock on the Colombia FTA.

April 9

BBC - Ecuador's top four military commanders have resigned after the president accused the military of aiding the US in operations against Farc rebels.

General Guillermo Vasconez, the head of the army, said all four had resigned because President Rafael Correa had questioned the military's behaviour.

The resignations came hours after Defence Minister Wellington Sandoval stepped down without explanation.

Mr Correa claimed last week the CIA had been manipulating his spy agencies.

The commanders of the army, navy and air force, as well as the chief of staff, had all stood down, Gen Vasconez said.

10 Reasons to Look Critically at Dissolving Mexico-U.S.-Canada Borders
By Manuel Pérez Rocha and Sarah Anderson,
AlterNet. Posted April 9, 2008

Hint: Xenophobic right-wing conspiracy theories about a mythical North American Union are not among them.

This month, President Bush will host the leaders of Canada and Mexico to advance the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), a project Lou Dobbs has predicted will "end the United States as we know it."

Lou sounds downright blasé, though, compared to all the online ranting and raving on this subject. And while there are plenty of reasons for progressives to be up in arms over this effort to expand the North American Free Trade Agreement, the xenophobes have clearly cornered the market.

In their paranoid fantasies, the three North American executive powers are secretly plotting to surrender everything they hold dear about the good ol' USA. The U.S. borders, the flag, and even the almighty American dollar would disappear as the country is submerged into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada.

Caracas | April 9

AFP - Venezuela and India on Tuesday signed a five-year, 400-million-dollar joint venture to drill for oil and gas in Venezuela's oil-rich southeastern Orinoco region, Oil and Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said.

"It's the first association agreement between the two countries," Ramirez said after signing the agreement with his Indian counterpart Murli Deora, the first energy minister from India to visit Venezuela.

Can someone explain to me why a Columbia Free Trade Agreement is essential to our national interests? Really, I'm not being ironic here. Explain me?

Bernarda Claure | La Paz | March 24

IPS -

"They will have to kill us to make us stop planting coca," Bolivian coca grower Luis Mamani told IPS in response to a call from the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) to prohibit traditional uses of the plant like coca leaf chewing.

The Mamani family, who live in the village of Arapata, 120 km from La Paz, have a theory regarding the INCB recommendation and the renewed controversy around the cultivation of coca (the raw material used to make cocaine) -- one that is shared by thousands of other Bolivians

Plucking leaves from a small plastic bag he holds in one hand, then popping them in his mouth and chewing them, Mamani declares that this is an act of "revenge" against President Evo Morales, who began his political career as a leader of the cocaleros (coca farmers) in the central Bolivian region of Chapare.

"The gringos don’t respect him because he used to be a cocalero, and now they want to make us pay," comments Mamani’s wife, Alicia. She and Luis, along with their four children, aged nine to 16, work together in the cultivation of coca bushes in the Yungas region of the province of La Paz, a mountainous subtropical area where coca has been grown since pre-Columbian times.

From the Nelson Report:

after months of talking to no effect, the Administration has forced the issue on the Colombia FTA, formally notifying Congress that implementing legislation will be delivered tomorrow, Tuesday, to start the 90-day clock for completing action.

Assuming the entire 90-days run (60 for the House) that would see a final vote coming at the end of September...in the very heart of the Congressional and presidential election races.

At one level, this is about George Bush keeping his promise to President Uribe, damn the consequences of losing. At another level, this is about Democratic party politics and the adjustment to globalization, a debate begun by Bill Clinton, back in Seattle.

By Franco Ordonez | Ciudad Juarez | April 6

McClatchy - The gunmen caught their target on his way home.

Police Cmdr. Juan Manuel Flores had just finished his shift on Easter and was pulling onto a dirt road in his quiet neighborhood of run-down adobe homes. Out of nowhere, two SUVs darted out and cut him off, forcing him to drive his car into a palm tree on the sidewalk.

Neighbors scattered for cover as masked men stepped out of the vehicles and for six minutes fired a barrage of AK-47 fire into the officer's blue 1998 Dodge Neon, police and witnesses said. One of the masked men then walked to Flores' battered car and fired a final shot to ensure that the officer was dead.

"He never had a chance to reach for his pistol," said Jaime Torres, a spokesman for the police department.

The killing March 23 was the eighth assassination of a police officer this year in this border town across from El Paso, Texas. Several days later, the Mexican government sent in the army.

April 4

BBC - President Hugo Chavez has announced the immediate nationalisation of Venezuela's entire cement industry.

In a TV address, he said his government could not allow private companies to export cement that was needed to tackle a severe housing shortage.

Mr Chavez promised they would be paid fair compensation for the forthcoming state takeover of what he described as a strategic industry.

Three of Venezuela's largest cement companies are foreign-owned.

Mexico's Cemex has almost half the market, with most of the remainder controlled by Lafarge of France and Switzerland's Holcim.

Bogota | April 4

M&C - A leftist Colombian rebel deserted and released two people who were being held hostage in a jungle area of southern Colombia, the government said Friday.

Colombia's Ombudsman Volmar Perez said said a member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) turned himself over to the authorities Thursday in the outskirts of the city of Pasto, in the south-western province of Narino.

The deserter, who had previously made contact with the Ombudsman's Office, took with him two people identified as John Perez and Juan Carlos Bernal, who had been kidnapped in mid-2006 in the provinces of Guaviare and Valle del Cauca. FARC was demanding ransom from the families of the two men.

Perez and Bernal are not part of the group of some 40 hostages that FARC is hoping to exchange for imprisoned rebels. The rebel group holds former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and an estimated 740 other hostages