Washington Watch - 25 March 2010
Haiti: On March 22 the former US Presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush visited Haiti. Following the devastating 12 January earthquake on the island (with 222,500 fatalities), Clinton and Bush established 'The Fund for Haiti' at the request of President Barack Obama. The pair met President René Préval to discuss the management of emergency funds and the potential for future investment. Clinton, the UN special envoy for Haiti, said that the talks centred on Haiti's long term aid and development requirements. The Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement (HOPE) act was created in 2006 and implemented on 19 March 2007. HOPE I and II gave Haiti favourable tariffs and trading terms. Its aims were to assist progress toward a market-based economy, increasing employment, enhancing rule of law and protection of human rights. It also provided duty-free entry to the US for garments manufactured in Haiti. Clinton stated that alternations to the existing HOPE legislation could lead to Brazilian and Korean investment in the textile sector. He said he intended to quickly mobilise bipartisan support to get these changes approved by congress, in an effort to create “more than 100,000 jobs in Haiti in short order".
Panama: On 22 March the US supreme court said it would not reconsider former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega's request to prevent his extradition to France on money laundering charges. The high court turned down Noriega's petition for a hearing without comment. Noriega has already been convicted in absentia in France with violating anti-money laundering laws by allegedly using drug money (US$3.1m) to purchase an apartment in Paris, but the French government has offered him a fresh trial once in France. Noriega ended a 10-year US jail sentence in September 2007 but he remains in a Miami prison. In 1992, shortly after his arrest (during the US invasion of Panama) a US federal judge declared him a Prisoner of War (POW) after he was convicted of US drug trafficking charges. Because of his POW status, Noriega's lawyers contended that under the Geneva Conventions he should have been repatriated to Panama in 2007. However, this overlooks the fact that the federal judge had ruled in 1992 that his POW status did not preclude his extradition. Lower courts rejected his argument and the US supreme court refused to hear his case. Noriega was originally sentenced to 40 years for cocaine trafficking, money laundering and racketeering, reduced for good behaviour. For security reasons, the US has not said when he might be extradited.
Ecuador: On 22 March Ecuador's attorney general said it would appeal against the ruling of a New York Court (11 March) in favour of the US firm Chevron's right to pursue international arbitration against the Republic of Ecuador. A US federal judge ruled that Chevron would be able to pursue arbitration under the bilateral investment treaty between the US and Ecuador on the basis that Chevron claims it was not fairly treated by the Ecuadorean courts and arbitration would ensure a “fair and impartial court proceeding". The international arbitration will mean that if Chevron is found liable under a separate action, in the Ecuadorean courts, led by indigenous groups claiming that Chevron's subsidiary, Texaco, failed to clean up after its operations as it promised, any penalty will not be paid until the arbitration case is concluded. Chevron has stated that if the arbitration decision is in its favour, the firm will transfer the costs to Ecuador, and oblige the state energy firm Petroecuador to pay for the environmental damage Chevron claims has take place since Texaco left Ecuador in 1992.