A street in Haiti’s capital, Port au Prince. Anna Vogt
The News Roundup is a regular feature of the blog where we select a number of news articles from various sources around the web, with the goal of providing an overview of the weekly conversation about the countries where MCC works in the region. Quotes in italics are drawn directly from sources and do not necessarily reflect the position of MCC.
Report Accuses Mexico of Crimes Against Humanity in Drug War
In the years since the Mexican government began an intense military campaign against drug gangs, many stories like Mr. Parral’s have surfaced — accounts of people caught at the intersection of organized crime, security forces and a failing justice system. They are killed at military checkpoints, vanish inside navy facilities or are tortured by federal police officers. Seldom are their cases investigated. A trial and conviction are even more rare. But are these cases just regrettable accidents in the course of a decade-long government battle against drug violence? A new report by the Open Society Justice Initiative, which works on criminal justice reforms around the world, argues that they are not. Instead, the study says, they point to a pattern of indiscriminate force and impunity that is an integral part of the state’s policy.
Reflections from the Border: Refugee Crisis in Tijuana
At the end of the first night, we began to review the registrations of our new guests and had some startling revelations:
- Our first group of 25 refugee guests came from Haiti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Ghana, Mexico, and Honduras.
- The largest number was Haitians, and many spoke quite a bit of Portuguese because they had lived in Brazil.
- Those from Mexico were from Michoacán and Guerrero and were fleeing for their lives due to the increasing violence. One family of 11 had run for their lives.
- The majority had crossed between 10 and 13 countries to reach Tijuana.
- Several said Nicaragua was the most difficult stage of their journey because the smugglers charged $2,000 to cross.
- When asked about their mode of transportation, many said walking, bus, boat, or car.
- Some have been on the road for three to five years and see no reason for hope or cause to return home.
- When asked if there were more people coming, the most frequent response was “yes, thousands.”
CICIG: Guatemala Faces Challenge of ‘Structural Corruption’
Velásquez spoke about the charges brought last week against former Guatemalan president Otto Pérez Molina and former Vice President Roxana Baldetti, which accuse the pair of accepting illegal campaign contributions to help them win the 2011 election. Once in office, they allegedly returned the illicit favors by awarding public works contracts to donors. Pérez Molina and Baldetti are currently jailed on corruption charges related to a tax-evasion and bribery scheme known as “La Linea.” Pérez Molina is also accused of accepting bribes from a Spanish company in exchange for steering a major port development contract toward that firm. According to Velásquez, whose organization supported these investigations, the problem of corruption in Guatemala is not limited to Pérez Molina and Baldetti’s Patriot Party. Rather, he said, “it is a corruption that is much more rooted to the point that it could be, hypothetically, that these consolidated structures have remained in the country [and] in the government, and can even reach relationships and understandings with each government, for cyclical corruption.”
Transparency International strongly condemns threats against Honduran anti-corruption activists
Civil society representatives taking part in the police reform initiative, including Transparency International’s national chapter in Honduras the Asociación para una Sociedad más Justa, have been faced with numerous threats and attempts of intimidation since the commission was established less than two months ago. The commissioners were profiled; their families followed by pick-up trucks without license plates; their homes watched and investigated; and an anonymous threat was placed at the entrance of a house. “The government must take responsibility to ensure the protection of everyone involved in the police reform initiative and investigate who is behind the threats. We have seen too many brave activists murdered in Honduras in the past, including the high-profile case of Berta Cáceres three months ago. This must never happen again. Ensuring the safety of civil society activists is paramount,” said José Ugaz, Chair of Transparency International.
El Salvador’s new attorney general is the point man in the war against gangs
The government of President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, a former leftist guerrilla commander in the civil war, has doubled down on an aggressive strategy against the dominant street gangs. It will fall to Meléndez, who was 49 when he was sworn in in January, to decide whether to prosecute police and soldiers if they commit human rights abuses, as well as to pursue cases against public officials accused of corruption. Since starting the job, Meléndez has announced charges against off-duty police officers allegedly involved in extrajudicial killings, but he has also gone after civilians who he says broke the law in negotiating a 2012 gang truce, a move that critics have described as a political witch hunt. In a recent interview in his office, Meléndez stressed that no one is above the law, but he also warned that his office was underequipped and needed to be free of political interference. He said the office’s $43 million budget should be raised to at least $70 million, to hire more prosecutors, modernize equipment and add to a depleted fleet of vehicles. He also follows an attorney general, Luis Martínez, who facedcorruption allegations and calls from U.S. lawmakers for his removal.
Amidst all of this uncertainty the opposition factions have but one option – to forge ahead with their various campaigns, blind to the future in so many ways. Only one thing they can truly influence, and fortunately, on that subject they are absolutely united. When asked about what might make the difference in November, all point to the very same thing: turnout. Certainly, the formidable FSLN machine goes into hyper drive during election season. But that means their opponents can be certain that practically every single extra vote that they get out, to the disgruntled, the skeptics, will be a vote against Ortega. And one can only steal so many votes. “The idea is that Ortega needs legitimacy … more than ever,” explains Dr Pedro Belli. “All his buddies are gone. And through votes, not through bullets.”
The US Spent $33 Million on Haiti’s Scrapped Elections — Here is Where it Went
In total, funding to UNOPS, UNDP, OAS, IFES and NDI totaled $30.45 million. This is the vast majority of the $33 million the U.S. says it contributed to the electoral process. Additional funds were also awarded through the State Department for election-related security. So yes, the U.S. spent over $30 million on Haiti’s elections, but not all of that went directly to the elections or was even spent wisely in supporting them. It’s clear it would take far less for the U.S. to support a Haitian-led electoral process next October. And perhaps the best reason for the U.S. to continue to fund the election, if Haiti requests such support, is that it was the U.S. and other actors in the international community that pushed ahead and put millions of dollars into a fatally flawed electoral process that Haitians have now determined was irreparably marred by fraud. The problem is not that Haitian’s wasted U.S. taxpayer dollars by scrapping the election results; it’s that the U.S. was throwing good money after bad. That’s something that can be fixed.
Colombia government fails to establish talks with striking farmers and minorities
After more than 10 days of major social unrest in Colombia’s countryside, the government and protesters have yet to agree to formal talks as a possible escalation of violence looms. The ethnic minority and agrarian strike began on Monday last week. Protesters believe the Colombian government has failed to deliver on promises to alleviate rural poverty made following similar protests in 2013 that left dozens dead.
The Worst Boyfriend in Bolivia
On Tuesday, Mr. Morales announced a new referendum campaign, saying that the first one had been tainted by “lies” about the Zapata case. “During the second inning, we’ll see who is who,” he said. Spending millions of dollars on a new referendum is an abuse of power and an insult to Bolivians who stated clearly just months ago that the country needs new leadership. A new referendum campaign won’t stop the stream of damaging stories and embarrassing details, which can only further erode confidence in a man who has already been in power more than a decade. There’s no telling how this saga will end, but one thing has become abundantly clear: Mr. Morales and his allies are making the cover-up worse than the crime.