Mongui, Colombia. Anna Vogt
Latin America: Beyond the stereotypes (video)
Drugs, corruption and violence often mar any news coming from Latin America. While no one can deny there is a huge problem with inequality and violence, the region is also home to a diverse mix of sophisticated cultures, progressive social change, hundreds of languages, and more than a dozen Nobel Laureates. In this week’s Reality Check, Mehdi Hasan highlights Latin America beyond the stereotypes.
World Bank urges Latin America not to leave young people behind
The 18 million young people out of school and work across Latin America could play a vital role in driving the region’s economic growth and reducing crime, inequality and migration, a new report claims. Despite Latin America’s strong economic performance over recent years and several successful anti-poverty initiatives, the World Bank study finds that the number of ninis – a contraction of the Spanish “ni estudia ni trabaja” (neither working nor studying) – has increased. One in five 15- to 24-year-olds in Latin America are ninis. Although two-thirds are women, the overall rise has been fuelled by a 46% increase in male ninis between 1992 and 2010…. Rogers warned that stigmatising ninis is socially and economically counterproductive as they have a key part to play at a time when the proportion of children and older people, relative to Latin America’s working-age population, is set to reach historical lows. “We’re missing a chance, potentially, for the region to grow very fast,” he said. “That’s going to be missed if a lot of these youths are not productively in the labour force – and there’s the scarring effect, which means even 15 or 20 years from now, these ninis will be less productive and less likely to be in the labour force.”
Report Critiques US Efforts to Halt Arms Trafficking to Mexico
Arms trafficking specialist Robert Muggah of the Igarapé Institutedescribed the report as “a wake-up call.” “It underlines that the US not only has a problem with enforcing the laws on the books, but that its gun regulation legislation is in serious need of improvement,” Muggah wrote in an email to InSight Crime. “The evidence is clear: legally purchased US firearms and ammunition are sustaining cartel, gang and everyday criminal violence in Mexico.” Indeed, there is significant evidence pointing to that conclusion. The GAO report notes that about 70 percent of the firearms seized by Mexican authorities and submitted for tracing came from the United States.were traced back to the United States. Most of these weapons were purchased legally in border states like Arizona, California, and Texas before being trafficked illegally to Mexico. Additionally, a recent data analysis by the research organization Mexico Evalúa indicates that more than half of murders in Mexico are now committed with firearms. A number of other academic studies have linked the upward trend in gun homicides in Mexico to the 2004 expiration of a US ban on assault weapons.
Honduras president announces international body to tackle corruption
Honduras’s president, Juan Orlando Hernández, has announced the launch of a new international anti-corruption body to tackle criminal networks within the country’s political and judicial systems, in an attempt to appease anger over impunity and graft. The Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (Maccih) will have powers to independently investigate politicians, judges and members of the security forces. Organised crime’s infiltration of weak and corrupt state institutions has helped make Honduras one of the poorest and most violent countries in the region. Maccih will be led by the former Peruvian prime minister Juan Jiménez and is backed by the Organisation of American States (OAS), with an initial mandate of four years.
Former comedian Morales sworn in as Guatemala president
Indigenous and Afro-Caribbeans say Nicaragua coercing them on canal
Leaders of Nicaragua’s indigenous and Afro-Caribbean communities say government officials are pressuring them to sign a document consenting to the proposed $50 billion Nicaragua Canal passing through their autonomous territory. Dr. María Luisa Acosta, an attorney for the Center for Legal Assistance to Indigenous Peoples (CALPI) who has represented indigenous communities in Nicaragua for the past two decades, said she received a call from Rama-Kriol leaders Rupert Allen Clair Duncan and Santiago Thomas on Saturday. “They said the government is pressuring them to sign papers and to give up the territory, and they don’t want to,” said Acosta. “But they feel a lot of pressure and they have told them in many ways, ‘We don’t want this. We need a lawyer. We need to know more and we cannot do this this way. We need somebody independent to oversee this process.’ And [the government representatives] just said, ‘Don’t worry — just sign.’” “It’s a lot of psychological pressure,” she added.
Haiti Senate calls for a halt to Sunday presidential runoff
While Moïse this week called for Haitians to head to the polls to consolidate democracy, Celestin is calling for a boycott. He calls the vote a “masquerade” and an “affront to democracy” and said he will not participate. Back-to-back demonstrations this week resulted in protesters torching vehicles, erecting burning barricades and damaging vehicles. At least three voting centers were also partially burned in the northern part of the country. “An election under these conditions will take us to misery and a spiral of violence,” said Sen. Pierre Ricard, a member of the Pitit Dessalines platform who represents the Southeast Department and introduced the resolution. “We don’t know where this violence inside the country will take the country.” But not everyone shares those views. Some diplomats say that Haitians want to head to the polls, and it’s time to close the electoral process, which began on Aug. 9 with the violence and fraud-marred legislative first round.
On earthquake anniversary, Haiti prepares for another potential disaster
In the past two years, the Haitian government drafted a new mining law with the support of the World Bank. As analyzed in a report published by Oxfam last year, the proposed new law falls short of adequately protecting the rights of affected communities and the environment. Moreover, there has been no public debate about the content of the law. The mining law should be redrafted with the participation of civil society and other relevant stakeholders and establish strong protections for the rights of affected communities, including their right to give or withhold their consent to mining operations. A new law should also be consistent with the Haitian constitution and establish requirements for the public disclosure of mining contracts, revenue payments, and environmental and social baseline and monitoring data. International donors, and the U.S. government in particular, have a key role to play in ensuring a favorable outcome from mining in Haiti. Responsible management of the mining sector should be made a priority issue for U.S. policy towards Haiti.
Peace Talks with FARC Leap Forward: UN/CELAC Invited to Assist
Yesterday, the peace delegations of the Government of Colombia and the FARC-EP, meeting in Havana for their 46th cycle of talks, took another major leap toward ending Colombia’s internal armed conflict. In a joint communiqué, the parties announced that they were asking the United Nations, with support from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), to support the creation of a mechanism to verify and implement a bilateral, definitive ceasefire and cessation of hostilities, and to oversee the setting aside of weapons. The UN brings to the task considerable global experience in such matters, and CELAC will provide engagement that will underscore regional political support for the process.
Disappearance Of Bolivia’s 2nd-Largest Lake Has Displaced Hundreds, If Not Thousands
Lake Poopo was officially declared evaporated last month. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have lost their livelihoods and gone. High on Bolivia’s semi-arid Andean plains at 3,700 meters (more than 12,000 feet) and long subject to climatic whims, the shallow saline lake has essentially dried up before only to rebound to twice the area of Los Angeles.But recovery may no longer be possible, scientists say. “This is a picture of the future of climate change,” says Dirk Hoffman, a German glaciologist who studies how rising temperatures from the burning of fossil fuels has accelerated glacial melting in Bolivia.
Anna, you made a major error in quoting the GAO report. You state: The GAO report notes that about 70 percent of the firearms seized by Mexican authorities were traced back to the United States. Thatâs not what it says. Look at this comment on page 2 of the report: Origin of Firearms Seized in Mexico and Traced by ATF, 2009-2014 Note: These figures reflect firearms seized by Mexican authorities and traced by ATF, not all firearms seized in Mexico. I tried to copy the graphic as well, but my computer skills arenât up to snuff. Check it out for yourself. Page 8 of the report: While the government of Mexico collects data on the number of firearms its law enforcement entities seize each year, our analysis and findings refer exclusively to the universe of firearms seized in Mexico that were submitted for tracing using eTrace. Again, no, the 70% ratio is NOT referring to the ratio of US guns found in Mexico. It is referring to the guns submitted to the ATF. I wonder if we can figure out what proportion of guns collected in Mexico does come from the US? Letâs look at page 8: According to data provided by the government of Mexico, Mexican authorities seized 158,560 firearms from 2009 to 2014. Hmmm. We also know from the second page and from page 8 that 73,684 firearms were determined to be of US origin. So, 73,684/158,560 = 46%. That wasnât hard to figure out, was it? Why did you claim that the report said 70%? Anna, did you read the GAO report? Or did you rely on quoting biased ânewsâ outlets without checking the facts? Perhaps you couldnât find the GAO report. Iâve attached it for you. There is irony here. The US has a better firearm tracking system than Mexico, or any of Mexicoâs neighbors, or any of Mexicoâs business partners. But instead of applauding our efforts, you try to twist this into an indictment of US gun laws. Being able to trace 70% of the samples provided is a POSITIVE, not a negative. For other more accurate assessments of US firearms in Mexico, see: (note that these reports are dealing with the 87% or 90% myth; the same issue that you have, but different figures due to a change in ATF reporting criteria.) https://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110209-mexicos-gun-supply-and-90-percent-myth http://www.nssf.org/factsheets/PDF/90PercentMyth.pdf http://www.factcheck.org/2009/04/counting-mexicos-guns/ (factcheckâs presentation isnât totally correct, but the sources they used provide more information) The âacademicâ sources you claimed to quote are also extremely questionable. Finding a statement on the internet doesnât make it a fact. You are not the first MCC staffer to misquote the ATF data. I understand that âthis is the position MCC has chosen to takeâ, regardless of facts. I implore you to take a stand for justice â justice to the truth. Please make a clear, public, and obvious correction to your article. I would also like to see the âclear evidenceâ you claimed in this comment: “The evidence is clear: legally purchased US firearms and ammunition are sustaining cartel, gang and everyday criminal violence in Mexico.” I suspect that a more accurate assessment of the evidence would find that the Mexican violence problems are sustained by #1) the US market for illicit drugs and #2) the corruption in the Mexican military and police and #3) the erosion of moral and ethical values. But Iâm still willing to review your clear evidence to the contrary. James Kauffman member, Virginia Mennonite Conference
Thanks for reading the round-up and commenting James- it’s great to have an engaged audience! I have yet not read the report, but it is on my to-read list and your comments highlights areas for all of us to be aware of as we read it. I would, however, like to point out that the Weekly Roundup is a feature of the blog where I gather a number of interesting news articles from a variety of different sources from around the web and then pull a quote from each one that seems to best sum up what the article is about. The quotes below each link are not mine, therefore, but come from the articles themselves. The articles are not representative of MCC policy or positions, but rather highlight conversations from around the web about Latin America with the goal of presenting varied perspectives on current events. We include the original link so that readers can be directed back to the source, read the quote in context, and make their own decisions about what they are reading, just as they would do if reading the newspaper. – Anna
Re: Report Critiques US Efforts to Halt Arms Trafficking to Mexico, your statement that “The GAO report notes that about 70 percent of the firearms seized by Mexican authorities were traced back to the United States.” is false. The GAO report shows that 73,684 firearms were traced to US sources, out of a total of 158,560 collected by Mexican authorities. (see the second page, and page 8 of the report) 46%. We should also get more detail on which path those guns took to Mexico. Certainly a few are purchased in the US on the secondary market, more through the use of straw purchasers, but what about guns stolen in the US? Eric Holder’s 2,000 gun contribution via Fast & Furious? US guns we sold to the military that were kept by soldiers, or stolen, or trafficked? US guns we sold to the police that were kept by policepersons, or stolen, or trafficked?
The 70% value is not a huge negative for the US; it is a positive that 70% of the time the Mexican police selected the right guns for a trace request.
Good article: https://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110209-mexicos-gun-supply-and-90-percent-myth
the GAO report, for those who care to read it rather than using Anna’s summary: http://www.gao.gov/assets/680/674570.pdf
Anna claims: “The quotes below each link are not mine, therefore, but come from the articles themselves.”
The article linked in the heading of this section states: “The GAO report notes that about 70 percent of the firearms seized by Mexican authorities AND SUBMITTED FOR TRACING came from the United States.”
Anna’s quote of the article: “The GAO report notes that about 70 percent of the firearms seized by Mexican authorities were traced back to the United States.”
’nuff said.
Thanks James- I’ve updated the post to reflect your comment-the Insight Crime site must have been similarly updated since I first quoted their article.
Anna, I looked at your ** academic studies have linked the upward trend in gun homicides in Mexico to the 2004 expiration of a US ban on assault weapons **. Your sourced academic study states on page 2 ** For example, as of 2006, over 90% of Mexican crime guns seized and traced were linked back to the United States (GAO, 2009) **. Guess what? That’s not what the GAO report of 2009 said. Page 3, GAO, 2009: While it is impossible to know how
many firearms are illegally trafficked into Mexico in a given year, around
87 percent of firearms seized by Mexican authorities AND TRACED over the
past 5 years originated in the United States, according to data from ATF.
Page 15, GAO 2009: in 2006, 1,950 guns found in Mexico came from the United States.
The 2009 GAO report quoted doesn’t tell us how many guns were seized by Mexican authorities in 2006. If Anna’s academic source was to be believed, 1,950 / 2,142 = 91%. HMMM… we don’t have the number for guns collected in 2006, but we can find that in 2007 17,352 were submitted to the US for tracing. 2008 – 32,111 were submitted for tracing.2009 – 21,555 were submitted for tracing. Do you believe Anna’s academic source calculating that there were only 2,142 Mexican guns traced in 2006?
If Anna’s academic source is this far off by page 2, can we trust anything else in their study? Not worth my time to even check it.
Anna is to be commended for showing us once again how incredibly bogus these news sources and academics can be. Small wonder that many of our own politicians and faith leaders are lead so far astray.