Tracy Wilkinson | Mexico City | Nov 1

LA Times - A flamboyant farmworker organizer who called himself a modern-day Emiliano Zapata has been slain in a brazen ambush that also killed 14 members of his family and staff, officials said Saturday.

Prosecutors in the border state of Sonora, where the slayings occurred, said they were investigating a number of possible motives. Sonora, like much of Mexico, has been hit by a wave of killings tied to drug-trafficking gangs.

The union leader, Margarito Montes Parra, was killed in the southern part of Sonora bordering the state of Sinaloa, a major center for the production and transport of marijuana and heroin.

The farmers whom Montes represented often find themselves trapped in the drug war, with traffickers forcing them to work illicit crops. But Montes also had chalked up numerous enemies in tumultuous land disputes over more than two decades.

Montes, his wife and two children were traveling in a small convoy with at least 11 other relatives and staff members to a rural hacienda Friday afternoon when they were ambushed by several assailants armed with large-caliber weapons, investigators said. All 15 were shot to death, they said.

Red Cross workers arrived at the scene to find bullet-riddled bodies on the side of the road. There were reports that three people in the group had survived.

Oct 31

The Independent - You want the Amazon to survive? Then pay us not to pump the oil, says Ecuador. Huw Hennessy in Quito reports on a bold initiative

The tropical rainforest in the eastern lowlands of Ecuador assaults the senses: the sunlight dazzles the eyes, the heat is so fierce that within seconds one's clothes are soaked in sweat. Then there are the sounds: a hypnotic symphony of frogs, crickets and other insects and birds which continues unabated day and night. There are sudden glimpses of the jungle's abundant wildlife: a spectacular flash of a blue morpho butterfly at the river's edge, a flock of green parakeets screeching.

This stunning region, which covers more than a third of Ecuador's area, almost the size of England, and which is one of the world's richest biospheres, with a huge diversity of animals and plants, some found nowhere else on Earth, faces a double threat: from the logging industry, which would strip it bare, and from the oil industry, which for nearly 40 years has been exploiting the huge resources of crude beneath the soil. Now, however, Ecuador is betting it can keep what is left of the oil in the ground and hang onto its biosphere into the bargain.

The South American country has learned the hard way that oil brings human misery and environmental devastation along with billions in export earnings. Every new oil field is an invasion that brings tens of thousands of outsiders into the forest's heart, polluting the air, soil and water, destroying wildlife, and assaulting the support systems of indigenous tribes, which can lead to their extermination. And the damage is not confined to the immediate vicinity of the wells.

The Via Auca is the main highway cutting through the Ecuadorean Amazonia region, and it has been a lifeline of the oil industry for nearly 40 years, slicing through the countryside like a badly healed wound, the roadside lined with hellish flares, murky waste pits and corroded pipelines. Accidents involving the pipelines are frequent, and their consequences harrowing. On the far side of the town of Dayuma, which sprang up as an oil workers' shantytown and is still riddled with crime and prostitution, one of the ageing pipelines has ruptured, sending a jet of oil shooting 30 metres into the air, staining the vegetation black all around.

There may be a deal to bring the coup in Honduras to an end. From the Latin American Herald Tribune:

Negotiators for ousted Honduras President Manuel Zelaya and current Honduras President Roberto Micheletti have reached an agreement to bring an end to a months-long political standoff triggered by the June 28 events that led to the departure of Zelaya.

The deal, set to be signed on Friday, leaves it up to Congress to decide on Zelaya's reinstatement -- with a recommendation from the Supreme Court -- and also includes several points contained in a proposal made by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias in his role as mediator in the crisis.

The deal could allow the ousted president to serve out the remaining three months of his term. If Congress agrees, control of the army would shift to the electoral court, and the presidential election set for Nov. 29 would be recognized by both sides.

Al Giordano is less sanguine about the deal:

US officials and commercial media organizations are popping champagne corks prematurely over a reported US-brokered “deal” to return Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to (limited) power, but the two sides that reportedly signed the agreement already disagree over what exactly it says.
...

Micheletti’s claim that a Congressional vote to restore Zelaya would require Supreme Court authorization is a flat out lie, according to a source with Zelaya inside his Brazilian Embassy refuge in Tegucigalpa: “That is what the golpistas have put out, but that is NOT the accord… The Supreme Court gives its non-binding opinion to the Congress, but the key is that all of this takes time, time that the golpistas want to keep taking.”
...

The real problem could be the authoritarian Supreme Court. Micheletti’s invention of a non-existent clause in the agreement, one that requires the court’s approval of it, points to where the stalling tactic will come from. This is the same Supreme Court that carried out the coup d’etat on June 28 and has micro-managed the regime’s affairs all summer and fall on a level that would not be appropriate or legal in most countries. Because Honduras’ 1982 Constitution is such a self-conflicted document with many articles that contradict each other, the court has been cherry-picking which laws to discard and which to interpret, often badly.

Washington | Oct 27/Updated

DPA - Colombia and the United States are planning to sign 'at the end of the week' a controversial military deal, Colombian Defence Minister Gabriel Silva said Tuesday in Washington.

The deal whereby Colombia is set to allow the United States use of seven military bases on Colombian soil was announced this summer, although it has yet to be signed by Washington and Bogota.

The US-Colombian plan has drawn sharp criticism from Latin American leaders who worry that the US presence could threaten the sovereignty of neighbouring countries and promote meddling in internal affairs.

Bogota and Washington have insisted that the bases will be used only to combat drug-trafficking and terrorism within Colombia's borders

** Colombia counters critics over U.S. bases row ~ UPI
** A Summer Fling in South America: US Bases and a Weapons Race?(PDF) ~ISN
** Colombian Government Irked Judicial Opinion on Base Deal Was Leaked ~ Latin American herald Tribune
** Colombia: Trusted American Ally? ~ DCProgressive
** U.S. Aid Must Leverage Reforms, Rights Groups Urge ~ IPS

UPDATE OCT 30: Colombia, U.S. sign military base deal: U.S. official

Sara Miller Llana | Mexico City | Oct 30

CSM - Late Thursday, interim Honduras leader Roberto Micheletti announced he would accept a deal that would restore ousted President Zelaya and respect Nov. 29 election date.

After four months of failed talks and false hopes, is the Honduran crisis finally coming to an end?

Late Thursday, after a group of US diplomats rushed to Honduras this week to restart negotiations that had broken down – yet again – interim President Roberto Micheletti announced that his negotiators will sign a deal as early as Friday that could include the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya to the presidency.

After months of accusations by the international community that the Micheletti administration – which assumed office just hours after Mr. Zelaya was deposed June 28 – was stalling on negotiations, Mr. Micheletti said his willingness to reach a deal is a "significant concession" on his part.

"I have authorized my negotiating team to sign a deal that marks the beginning of the end of the country's political situation," he said in a statement.

Trey Treviño | Oct 29 | smudailycampus.com

I was browsing through Google News when I came across an article about how the United States is sending three officials to Honduras to facilitate negotiations with the recently ousted president, Manuel Zelaya-who still has a significant portion of public support-and the new leader, Roberto Micheletti.

Apparently, tensions are reaching a fever pitch, and Honduras has been temporarily suspended from the Organization of American States until the crisis is under control.

The first thing that popped into my head when I read this story was: Why the hell are we wasting manpower on Honduras of all places?

Unlike the Middle East, Honduras has no oil, so why should our government actually care what's going on over there? A genuine desire to help impoverished nations, you say? To which I respond: There have been many impoverished nations and many countries which have suffered greater problems than Honduras (Rwanda, Uganda, Europe before Pearl Harbor). We didn't so much as lift a finger for them for the simple reason that they had absolutely nothing of value to offer us.

I'm not necessarily saying that we are an incredibly selfish and self-centered country. We are, however, certainly a pragmatic one. We, as a country, have established a long and cultured tradition of never rendering assistance unless it benefits us in some way.

There are countless dictators all over the world towards whom we turn a blind eye. Do we really care about making the world a better place? Well, what would the point of that be if there was no monetary gain? Perhaps we want other countries to like us? Nah; we have Israel on our side, so we're good.

So there I was, reading the news, wondering what the gain of intervention could possibly be, when I stumbled upon a little factoid: Honduras is the second largest producer of coffee in all of Central America.

Suddenly, it was clear: We did have something to gain, for until this "crisis" is resolved, we lose easy access to a ready supply of coffee, that special concoction that a majority of the population depends upon to function. And that's why we're sending help.

But coffee still isn't as important as oil, so we're only sending three officials, and not the entire god damn army.

Jamie Doward | Oct 25

The Observer -

A global campaign will make young people aware of the danger the illicit drug trade represents to hundreds of species in Colombia's rainforests

Until recently, the Gorgeted Puffleg was rather obscure – in fact, until four years ago it did not officially exist.

But although the tiny hummingbird was discovered only in 2005, in a small and remote region of rainforest in south-western Colombia, it is about to take centre stage in the war on drugs as governments around the globe alert the younger generation to the dangers of cocaine.

Experts fear the bird is one of several hundred species that will become extinct within decades if Colombia's rainforests continue to be razed for the purposes of coca cultivation. Other animals under threat – and that appear in information packs distributed to European schoolchildren – include the harpy eagle, titi monkey, golden poison frog, tapir, spectacled bear and gorgona blue lizard.

Colombia, one of the largest environmental hubs in the planet, with a territory of more than 1 million square kilometres, has been warning about the dangers of "ecocide" caused by the country's drug cartels for several years. As one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, it is home to 50,000 plant species and 18% of the world's bird species. But now it is attempting to make children aware that the threats facing its rainforests are a global issue that will have an impact on climatic stability.

Hugh Bronstein | Medellin | Oct 20

Reuters - * Extradition of Medellin crime boss sparks turf battles
* City murder rate doubles, violence focused in poor areas
* Faults seen in government's popular security policies

After a sharp fall in crime that raised hopes of peace in a city once infamous as home to the world's biggest cocaine cartel, the poor neighborhoods of Medellin are once again at war.

The city's murder rate has more than doubled since the 2008 extradition of its main crime boss, known as Don Berna, which left a power vacuum in the local drug and extortion rackets.

"When the boss was here, we had support," a mid-level gangster told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "The difference now is there is no support, so we have to look for it ourselves, and every change (in alliances) causes deaths."

The fight to control the narrow, winding streets of the city's hilltop neighborhoods has descended into a free-for-all involving scores of new gangs run by former right-wing militia members who "demobilized" under a government peace plan.

Blake Schmidt | Oct 20

Bloomberg - Talks to end Honduras’s political stalemate are on hold again after ousted president Manuel Zelaya rejected the acting government’s latest proposal as “insulting,” negotiator Victor Meza said late yesterday.

“We won’t return to meet until we receive a proposal we consider serious and constructive,” Meza, a top aide to Zelaya, told reporters in Tegucigalpa.

Zelaya supporters plan to hold protests today at the National Autonomous University in the capital after the acting government eased restrictions on protests and media yesterday, protest organizer Eddy Castro said.

Meza called on the Organization of American States to step in after talks “stagnated” due to “delay tactics” by Roberto Micheletti, the acting president. Negotiations remain deadlocked over what government branch should decide whether to restore Zelaya to power.

Micheletti yesterday proposed giving negotiating teams the final say on Zelaya’s return. Zelaya had rejected a proposal on Oct. 16 by the acting government to give the Supreme Court ultimate jurisdiction over his return. The ousted leader demanded that legislators resolve the matter.

Under Micheletti’s proposal yesterday, the three-member negotiating teams would consider opinions of both the Supreme Court and Congress before ultimately deciding whether Zelaya can return to power, Micheletti representative Arturo Corrales said.

** Honduras De Facto Government Scolds Zelaya
** Rights curbs lifted as regime eyes Honduras polls
** Ousted Honduran president's supporters losing steam

Managua | Oct 20

DPA - Nicaragua's Supreme Court has authorized the re-election bid of President Daniel Ortega, ordering the election tribunal to register his candidacy for the 2011 election.

The surprising court verdict changes the 1987 constitution, which prohibited consecutive presidential terms. Ortega had tried without success to get the National Assembly to amend the charter.

The court decision also benefits 109 mayors and vice mayors of Ortega's ruling Sandinista Front, allowing them to run for re-election in 2012.

Three court judges, including former senior Sandinista official Rafael Solis, read the verdict at a press conference Monday night.

Attorney Eduardo Mejia brought the case on behalf of Ortega and the elected municipal officials. The court agreed that the claimants could stand for re-election, overturning the constitution, because they were 'citizens with political, constitutional and electoral rights.'

This is the first consequence I've yet seen in over a year of the American taxpayers putting enough money into the banks to buy a majority stake:

Citi's latest reason to be free of U.S. government ownership is that it could be forced to sell off one of its most profitable businesses.

In Mexico the pressure is on, where it's illegal for a foreign government to own a domestic bank. Citi's stake in Mexico's Banamex has fallen afoul of this law.

Citi now has to prove that its U.S. government ownership isn't long-term or overly influential, else it could be forced to discard a Mexican business that generates 15% of the company's worldwide profit.

It won't stop at Citi either:

Uncle Sam has dominant interests in companies like American International Group, Bank of New York Mellon and Bank of America, all of which also have major investments in Mexican banks.

Mexico City | Oct 17

Reuters -

Hurricane Rick strengthened to an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm off Mexico's Pacific coast on Saturday and could hit resorts on the Baja California peninsula next week, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Rick, the seventh hurricane of the eastern north Pacific season, was located about 255 miles (410 km) southwest of the resort city of Acapulco with maximum sustained winds near 135 mph (215 kph) with higher gusts.

Additional strengthening is forecast during the next 36 hours and Rick could be near a Category 5 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale by Saturday night, the center said.

Outer rain bands of the storm have been hitting Mexico's southern coast and that will continue on Saturday, it said.

Tracy Wilkinson | Mexico City | Oct 15

LA Times - Backers of the coup against Manuel Zelaya made progress Wednesday in negotiations with representatives of the ousted Honduran president, but the key point, Zelaya's reinstatement, remained unresolved.

Victor Meza, negotiating on Zelaya's behalf, said delegations representing the two factions had agreed on wording regarding that sticking point. But later, the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti, who replaced Zelaya, said no agreement had been reached.

"The dialogue on this point has been cordial and both sides have made important advances," said a statement from the delegation representing Micheletti, according to news reports. "However, at this moment, there is no final agreement on this point."

Meza told The Times that negotiations would resume today.

With the backing of the international community, Zelaya has insisted that he be returned to power to finish his term, ending in January. Micheletti has refused.

The agreed points included formation of a "national unity" government and establishment of a truth commission. The two sides agreed to reject an amnesty for all involved, and to scrap Zelaya's quest to hold a constituent assembly aimed at revising the constitution.

Not sure how this one will turn out, but Mexican President Calderon has used military and federal police to shut down the power company Luz y Fuerza that serves Mexico City. 44,000 workers were fired.

Business Week makes the case for the shutdown:

It sold 730 megawatt-hours of energy per employee, compared with 2,500MWh per employee at the Federal Electricity Commission. LyFC had one worker for every 291 electricity clients, compared with one worker for every 627 clients of the CFE. And, the union demanded—and got—generous workplace benefits and pension perks that were unsustainable, Gómez Mont said: Retirees currently earn pensions that are 3.3 times the amount taken home by active employees.

Narco News sees it differently:

Calderon's Saturday night invasion of Luz y Fuerza's facilities in the capital and four states is reminiscent of other recent joint police-military operations against drug cartels. Since Calderon deployed 40,000 soldiers and thousands of militarized Federal Police, one of the campaign's hallmark operations has been the sudden takeover of police stations in towns and cities where drug trafficking organizations are believed to have corrupted entire police forces. In these operations, soldiers and federal police surround a police station, relieve the local police officers of their duties, and occupy the building. When 6,000 soldiers and federal police suddenly invaded Luz y Fuerza's buildings and then occupied them to prevent the workers from retaking the facilities, one would have thought that Luz y Fuerza was a drug cartel's base of operations. But it wasn't.

Mexico is becoming increasingly militarized under the pretext provided by the war on drugs. Mexican citizens are becoming correspondingly desensitized to such blatant displays of state military power in the civilian realm. Mexico's Constitution expressly prohibits the military's use in times of peace; however, this was not Mexicans' principle criticism of the operation against Luz y Fuerza. Mexicans consulted by this reporter complained that the operation was a blow to the country's democratic unions, as well as a step towards privatization of the energy sector. When this reporter commented on the barbarity of deploying the military and riot police against a civilian union--one that wasn't even on strike, as if that were to justify such represion--the response was, "Tienes razon. You're right. I hadn't even considered that."

It's not just Mexico where they're getting used to a dramatically expanded definition of the normal role of the military in society. Andrew Bacevich points out what our military adventures are doing to our national psyche:

As the fighting drags on from one year to the next, the engagement of US forces in armed nation-building projects in distant lands will become the new normalcy. Americans of all ages will come to accept war as a perpetual condition, as young Americans already do. That “keeping Americans safe’’ obliges the United States to seek, maintain, and exploit unambiguous military supremacy will become utterly uncontroversial.

Doesn't it seem like we have always been at war with Eastasia?

I was involved in two pretty interesting conversations with Ruy and Plutarco while in Nicaragua. They spanned about three days, but below you will find the gist of them both. I traveled with a friend who wrote up the conversations in dialogue form, as my Spanish leaves lots to be desired.

Ruy:

On Evangelicos

Ruy: “There are a lot of evangelicos here. You know, the people here have a lot of illiteracy and no education. When the evangelicos come, the people don’t know any better. They take, and take and take and the people just flock to the church and give what little they have to these thieves; puto evangelicos estupidos.

More after the jump.

Ramita Navai | Washintsa, Peru | October 9

The Times - They emerged from the thick, green jungle clenching their spears: a long file of barefoot chiefs and elders, their faces painted with their tribal markings and crowns of red, blue and yellow parrot feathers.

They had been summoned by the chief of Washintsa village for a meeting to discuss an oil company’s efforts to buy the rights to their land. Most had travelled for hours, padding silently through the dark undergrowth.

I fly home tomorrow, so this is the last batch of photos from Nicaragua. Enjoy!

For a long time Nicaragua has had the lowest crime rates of any Latin American country. I don't know if that was a function of a semi-socialist/communist history or the simple fact that there just isn't much left to steal in a country when a former president pilfered the state coffers of $100 million. (Yes, that is chump change back home, but here?)

Sadly, crime is on the rise and Conservatives back home, while they love to berate Daniel Ortega, they'd love the privatization of the police function here. From a Nica Times article, October 2-9 issue:

The communications officer for the National Police of Granada, Luis Carrillo, says citizen security is not just the police's responsibility. He says that everyone has to work together to ensure 'citizen security.'

Might I suggest to Officer Carrillo that he import some gun-toting white southerners for his vigilante justice project?

Have I mentioned how uninspired I am when it comes to writing? I think it's the heat. It's downright devastating. Singapore was hot and so was much of the area around the Straits, but this heat? Good grief. I had a hard time finishing my pancakes this morning it was so hot.

I've never been a big fan of the rum. At least until I tried Flor de Cana, the local Nicaraguan brand of rum. It's nice and goes down smooth. I should know, some surfers and I polished off a full bottle a few nights back on the beach at El Popoyo.

I might be a convert. The only problem is I seem to fall in love with local blends, like Yeni Raki, that are well nigh impossible to get at home.

Life is rough.

On a side note, yesterday, for the first time in my life I was corrected by a local for calling myself 'an American.'

"I know you are an American," Walter told me. "So am I!"

Soy Tejano, then," I said.

He looked at me with his head cocked to one side. "Huh?"

"Texas," I said.

"Oh, you are a Norteno," he said.

"Sure thing."

He does have a point. Of course, I've heard 'yanquis' and 'gringo' here in Nicaragua more than anywhere else in my life as well.

James Sturcke | Oct 7

The Guardian - Telling somewhat less than tasteful jokes about weapons of mass destruction has been an occasional pastime of a number of senior US Republican politicians.

George W Bush, at a 2004 press dinner, showed a series of photos of him searching the Oval Office while telling guests: "No they're not here".

Ronald Reagan, during a sound check for a regular radio broadcast, joked he had signed legislation to outlaw Russia and that the "bombing will begin in five minutes".

And John McCain, at a 2007 rally, sang "Bomb, bomb, Iran" to the tune of a Beach Boys song.

It's not yet clear whether the prospect of joining this exclusive club was the motivation for the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, to have a quip about nuclear weapons yesterday.

But that is where he finds himself after asking his mining minister during a televised cabinet meeting: "How's the uranium for Iran? For the atomic bomb?"

Had someone told me twenty years ago when I was majoring in Russian, ready to fight the Cold War and all that, that twenty years to the day I would be spending my 39th birthday in a Nicaragua where Daniel Ortega was president and enjoying myself immensely, I would have laughed in their face.

Alas, here I am. 'Tis a strange life and a stranger world. Lots of new photos from the Lago De Nicaragua here.

More photos from Granada, here.

The vile shit we do in the name of national security is beyond me, sometimes. I’ve visited a lot of countries in which our national security obsessions have led to all sorts of misery, but here in Nicaragua it seems the most futile. What harm did this desperately poor country ever pose to us? A little Cuban influence? Or Russian mercs running around in the hills? As Ruy told me yesterday, “Soy no Sandinista, pero if I have no job, I vote for Ortega.”

That says a lot for a guy who was pressed into the Nicaraguan army to fight the Contras. “Three years I spent in the mountains, fighting that puto Ronald Reagan. Pablito,” he tells me,” I love you Americanos, but Reagan was el grande puto.”

Ruy likes that word, he uses it with a large smile, his little Ortega inspired mustache hanging from his upper lip. He’s got an infectious hand-shake and at close to 50 years old has the energy of a 20 year old.

We drive for an hour and a half from the beach here at Popoyo to Rivas, the only place within a hundred kilometers with an ATM. “Yeah,” I think, “capitalism has come to even Nicaragua.”

More after the jump.

Tyler Bridges | Santa Cruz, Brazil | Oct 3

McClatchy Newspapers - Denise de Oliveira lost her job as a janitor in June when she had to stay home to care for her 13-year-old son, who had pneumonia. The 45-year-old single mother of four has kept food on the table, however, thanks to a government program that pays her family $70 per month.

"It doesn't give you enough to buy everything you want, but it sure helps," said de Oliveira, who lives on a dirt street in this impoverished town on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.

Unlike traditional government handouts, however, this popular anti-poverty program, which has spread throughout Latin America and even to New York City, requires that de Oliveira's children stay in school. The children also must have twice-a-year health exams and be vaccinated against diseases.

The program goes by different names — Bolsa Familia (Family Fund) in Brazil and Oportunidades (Opportunities) in Mexico, the most populous countries it's in — and has slightly different rules depending on the country. Analysts say it's become the most successful anti-poverty program in years because it requires the poor to do something meaningful and measurable in exchange for government charity.