Washington Watch

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  • Washington Watch

    05 June 2008 Hits: 304

    Central America: US Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte began a four day visit to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala on 3 June to meet senior government officials and members of the private sector and civil society to discuss a range of bilateral and regional issues. These include the pending Merida Initiative, commercial relations and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), security concerns, and development cooperation.

    Mexico: On 3 June Mexico's foreign minister, Patricia Espinosa, announced that she had told the US State Department that the Iniciativa Mérida was unacceptable to Mexico in its current form. The US had virtually ignored comments from the interior minister, Juan Camilo Mouriño, - first last week and then again this week - that the Mexican government was unhappy about the conditions the US Congress is attaching to the proposed package of military aid, which is worth anything from US$350m to US$500m a year (depending on which version of the package is finally agreed by the US Congress and administration). In particular, the Mexican government does not like the idea that the US congress will evaluate Mexico's progress on issues such as human rights, the rule of law and the effectiveness of the police. Mexico does not buy the arguments, made by the US ambassador to Mexico, Tony Garza, and several US senators, that Congress is simply asserting itself against the executive and that this is what its constitutional function is: to ensure that the US taxpayers' money is spent properly. Espinosa said that the Iniciativa Mérida package did not represent “genuine cooperation and co-responsibility" and that the package “assumed that Mexico, on its own, could not sort out the problem". Espinosa went on: “There is a whole context of unilateralism in the monitoring measures the US government has called for which make it truly difficult for Mexico to accept." Mouriño repeated this point on 3 June when he said that the monitoring, which the US ambassador, Tony Garza, said was nothing like “certification" was unacceptable. Certification was an annual evaluation by the state department of various countries' efforts in the war on drugs.

    Peru: On 3 June the Peruvian government authorized the entry of US unarmed military officials for meetings regarding issues such as humanitarian activities. This takes place amidst polemic caused by a recent decision by congress to allow US troops to operate in Ayacucho, where remnants of the Maoist guerrilla movement, the Sendero Luminoso, now work for drug gangs. Peru will allow 111 US troops to be deployed in rotations of 15-20 in the area. The US troops will build clinics, dig wells and focus on providing services to low income groups. The projects are all part of the Nuevos Horizontes 2008 initiative. Peru's government has long been interested in persuading the US to establish a military base in the country. Various sectors based in Ayachucho announced a regional strike for 8 July to protest the presence of the US military.

    Venezuela: On 3 June Venezuela's foreign minister, Nicolas Maduro accused the US of harbouring terrorists by refusing to hand over Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban, who blew up a Cuban airliner in 1976 killing 73 people. Maduro's comments followed accusations by John Negroponte, US deputy Secretary of State, and the US ambassador to the Organization of American States, Héctor Morales, that Venezuela was harbouring terrorists from the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc). Posada Carriles escaped from jail in Caracas before his trial over his involvement in the explosion concluded and Maduro's criticism is timely because an US appeal court in New Orleans is hearing arguments from both sides of the case against Posada Carriles, who was charged with making false statements as part of his bid to become a naturalized US citizen. Separately, Venezuela has been dropped from the US State Department's black list of human trafficking countries, released on 4 June. Cuba however, remains.

  • Washington Watch

    12 June 2008 Hits: 311

    Bolivia: Several thousand protestors surrounded the US embassy in La Paz on 9 June, demanding that the US extradite former President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and his defence minister, Carlos Sánchez Berzaí­n. The protest, one of the biggest in recent months, signals further tensions in US-Bolivia relations and follow comments made by Sánchez Berzaí­n last week who told a local radio station that a US court had granted him political asylum over a year ago. The protesters blame the former defence minister and ex president, who also lives in the US, for ordering an army clampdown on anti-government protests in 2003 which resulted in 65 dead and more than 400 injured. The US has yet to officially confirm whether Sánchez Berzaí­n has been granted political asylum. The US envoy to Bolivia Philip Goldberg declared that it was a “judicial" rather than a political matter". Following Sánchez Berzaí­n's comments, foreign minister David Choquehuanca announced on 6 June that he would be presenting a formal complaint before the US government which he accused of protecting human rights violators.

    Colombia: A leading Colombian magazine, Cambio, claimed that the US is about to establish a permanent base in the centre of Colombia. This is not the first time that this story has emerged. In May 2008 Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez , responded furiously to speculation that the US was about to establish a base in the northeastern department of La Guajira which borders Venezuela. At the time, Colombia's defence minister, Juan Manuel Santos, denied point blank that the US would establish a base in Colombia, but weekly magazine 'Cambio' believes that a deal is almost done. According to 'Cambio', the US wants to shift the base it currently runs in Manta (in Ecuador) to the air base at Palanquero, in the central Colombian department of Cundinamarca. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa has refused to renew the US's presence at Manta when the current operating contract expires in 2009.

    Ecuador: Ecuador's foreign ministry announced on 9 June that it had begun talks with the US over the possibility of establishing a “constructive bilateral agenda". The announcement follows a recent visit to Quito by US State Department representative, Andrew Bowen. Relations between the two countries have been strained in recent years, after negotiations over a Free Trade Agreement halted in 2006. President Rafael Correa, who took office at the beginning of 2007, said during his campaign for presidency in 2006, that he would not to sign an FTA with the US if he considered it harmful to the country. Correa has also said that he will not renew the agreement with the US to lease Manta air base, in the west of Ecuador. Last month Correa accused the CIA of infiltrating the Ecuadorian armed forces.

    Mexico: On 10 June the House of Representatives voted by 311 to 106 to adopt H.R. 6028, legislation which authorises further funding of the Iniciativa Mérida from 2009 to 2011. This is an advance on what the House agreed in May. Then both chambers of the US Congress approved initial funding of the initiative in their separate versions of a pending budget supplemental. President George W  Bush recommended US$500m in aid in the first year of the three year scheme, but the Senate approved US$400m and the House US$350m. Both houses have to reconcile their legislation before final passage into law. Besides offering less money than President Bush wanted, both houses also set conditions. In the Senate's version of the aid proposal, the US is to demand changes in Mexican human rights legislation. A meeting of congressmen from both Mexico and the US in Monterrey on 7 and 8 June led some US senators and congressmen to say that they would review the conditions attached to the military aid that is being offered under the Iniciativa Mérida. Senator Patrick Leahy, (D Vermont), however, said that he wants to keep the human rights conditions. Leahy chairs the Senate Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations.

  • 19 June 2008

    27 June 2008 Hits: 189

    BOLIVIA: On 16 June the US government announced that its ambassador to Bolivia, Philip Goldberg, would return to Washington to discuss security. The announcement follows the violent protests which occurred outside the US embassy in La Paz on 9 June, caused by revelations that former Bolivian defence minister Carlos Sánchez Berzaí­n had been granted political asylum by the US over a year ago. The protesters blame the former defence minister together with Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, a former president who also lives in the US, for ordering an army clampdown on anti-government protests in 2003 which resulted in 65 deaths and more than 400 people injured. US State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said that “we appreciate the efforts of the Bolivian National Police to protect our Embassy and our personnel. At the same time, we are concerned by the recent statements of some Bolivian government officials that cast doubt on Bolivia's commitment to fulfill its Vienna Convention obligations to protect diplomatic staff and facilities in the future".

    COLOMBIA: On 17 June Diego Fernando Murillo (alias Don Berna), a former top Colombian paramilitary commander, pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle cocaine worth millions of dollars into the US after Colombia's surprise decision to extradite him along with 13 other paramilitary leaders last month. Prosecutors with the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan say Murillo was a leader of the paramilitary Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC). He faces up to 33 years in prison when he is sentenced on 12 December.

    PERU: On 16 June commandant general of the Peruvian army, Edwin Donayre, told the media that the US army was in negotiations about building an airbase at Ayacucho, in the south of Peru. The US lease on its current base at Manta, Ecuador, runs out in 2009 and Peru and Colombia are competing for a new facility. Although President Rafael Correa of Ecuador has consistently said that he will not extend the Manta lease, the US still, reportedly, nurses hopes that a deal might be done at Manta. Donayre was vague about the size of the base that might be built at Ayacucho. He made it clear to 'Perú.21', which reported his comments, that the Ayacucho base has nothing to do with the deployment at the start of this month of small detachments of US troops on humanitarian missions in and around Ayacucho. These humanitarian missions have got off to a difficult start because of widespread suspicion among Ayacuchanos of the US soldiers who are offering medical services. Ayacucho was one of the main centres of the Sendero Luminoso (SL), a Maoist guerrilla organisation that came close to toppling the government in the 1980s.

    MEXICO: On 16 June Manlio Fabio Beltrones, the leader of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional in the senate, accused some US congressmen and senators of not understanding Mexico's problems with crime. Beltrones supported the line, pushed by President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and the Mexican government, that the problems posed by organised crime in Mexico were a joint US-Mexican problem. The Mexican government and the Mexican congress reject the conditions some US senators want to attach to the Iniciativa Mérida package of aid. The Mexicans argue that such conditions (on human rights and anti-corruption policy) infringe Mexican sovereignty. Beltrones said that it was a shame that Mexico and the US could not have agreed on a joint plan. The US congress is due to reconcile the different plans approved by the Senate and the House of Representatives for the Iniciativa Mérida over the next two weeks and vote on a single proposal which will then go to President George W Bush for final approval.

  • 26 June 2008

    27 June 2008 Hits: 204

    Washington Watch


    Bolivia: Coca producers from Chapare, a province in Cochabamba announced on 25 June that they were expelling the US Agency for International Development (USAID) from the area. The municipal authorities said that while those projects underway would be completed, as of 26 June, no new agreements would be signed. Coca growers accuse USAID on various occasions of conspiring against President Evo Morales and supporting rightwing groups such as the Unión Juvenil Cruceñista (UJC).

    Brazil: On 20 June Brazil said it would seek as much as US$4bn in penalties on US imports after the World Trade Organization (WTO) adopted a final ruling in a long-running dispute over Washington's cotton subsidies. Brazil's chief trade negotiator, Roberto Avezedo said his country would restart arbitration within months or even weeks to allow it to impose retaliatory measures on US goods. There is no deadline for Brazil to request the resumption of arbitration. Once it has restarted, the WTO arbitrator would have 60 days to rule on how much Brazil can seek in compensation, and in what form. Brazil has previously made clear it would not impose sanctions on US agricultural goods but would instead seek to "cross-retaliate" in other sectors, for instance by lifting copyright protections on US films or computer games.

    Central America & Mexico: US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt is visiting Mexico and Central America this week to strengthen efforts to improve the safety of products and to advance joint programs to improve health care in the region. The week-long trip to Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Panama includes meetings with senior government officials and business leaders.

    Cuba: On 20 June the US downplayed the European Union's decision on 19 June to lift its sanctions on Cuba. US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack refused to describe the US reaction as disappointment, saying: "This is a tactical difference_. From our consultations ... we understand that the European Union will set human rights benchmarks for its dialogue with the Cuban government," including the release of political prisoners, respect for civil and political rights and freedom of information for all Cubans.

    Mexico: On 19 June the US House of Representatives removed two of the six conditions on the Iniciativa Mérida aid package. In the new proposal, approved by the House, Mexico will get US$340m in unconditional aid for its war against crime, and have to meet four conditions for a further US$60m. The two conditions the House dropped were the requirement that Mexico use the criminal (rather than military) courts to prosecute soldiers for human rights abuses and that Mexico beef up the Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos. The House also softened the terms of the other four conditions, conceding that existing Mexican laws were sufficient to monitor compliance. The House noted that Mexico already has anti-torture laws; mechanisms to process complaints against policemen and mechanisms to handle human rights abuse allegations. These were the three areas the US Congress had wanted to set conditions. The House proposal does, however, call for Mexico to set up a new mechanism to help the government and Mexican civil society discuss the implementation of the Iniciativa Mérida package. The House proposal now goes to the Senate.

    Mexico: On 24 June the government approved the extradition to the US of Benjamí­n Arellano Félix, one of the heads of the Tijuana gang. The government argues that Arellano Félix faces charges in the US which he does not face in Mexico and so can be extradited. A lower court in Mexico had ruled that Arellano Felix should not be extradited to the US to face charges which he already faced in Mexico, because this would violate the longstanding judicial principle that the accused should not be prosecuted twice for the same offence. The Procuradurí­a General de la República and the foreign ministry both said that that the five warrants against Arellano Félix, issued by the Court of the Southern District of California do not cover charges made against him in Mexico. The main Californian accusation against Arellano Félix is money laundering, though he also faces charges of supplying drugs and criminal association. The Tijuana gang also known as the Federation, which is run by the Arellano Félix family, is one of Mexico's big three drug gangs. It started supplying cocaine to the western US but in recent years has moved into supplying methamphetamines.

  • Washington Watch

    03 July 2008 Hits: 229

    BOLIVIA: On 30 June the Bolivian government announced that the US had frozen US$657m in aid from the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) to Bolivia. Bolivia's planning minister Graciela Toro told the local media that the decision to freeze the funds from the MCA - a US cooperation initiative launched in 2002 “devoted to projects in nations that govern justly, invest in their people and encourage economic freedom" - had already been taken in December 2007. She said that the decision not to renew access to the funds was based on three reasons; the “treatment" of US ambassador to Bolivia, Philip Goldberg; the situation of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in the country and ongoing uncertainty over the new constitution. Goldberg who returned to Bolivia on 2 July - had been recalled to the US on 16 June after violent protests outside the US embassy in La Paz, caused by revelations that former Bolivian defence minister Carlos Sánchez Berzaí­n had been granted political asylum by the US over a year ago. Meanwhile USAID was expelled from Chapare after local coca growers accused the agency of backing opponents of President Evo Morales - who subsequently praised the coca growers for their decision.
     
    COLOMBIA/MEXICO: US Republic presidential candidate John McCain recently visited Colombia where he met Colombian President Álvaro Uribe and various members of the cabinet including defence minister Juan Manuel Santos and foreign minister Fernando Araújo. Issues discussed include free trade; progress made against the leftwing guerrilla group, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc); human rights and drug-trafficking. McCain then went to Mexico on 2 July for a two day visit, where he met Mexican President Felipe Calderón; businessmen and security officials and discussed issues such as trade, immigration and efforts to combat drug-trafficking.

    MEXICO/CENTRAL AMERICA: On 30 June US President George W Bush signed into law the final Plan Mérida package of US$465m of military aid to Mexico and Central America (of which Mexico will receive US$400m). The signing of the law follows US senate approval of the initiative four days earlier, which in turn takes into account Mexican objections to the original package. Like the House of Representatives, the Senate has removed two of the conditions (and softened four more) it had imposed for the aid. This retreat by US policymakers gives President Felipe Calderón a major diplomatic triumph. The money will be available from the start of the 2009 financial year on 1 October 2008 and provide surveillance and transport aircraft, IT equipment, telecommunications systems and trained sniffer dogs.

    NICARAGUA: In a recent ceremony marking the inauguration of centre for workers' rights in the municipality of León, US ambassador to Nicaragua Paul Trivelli heralded the benefits of Cafta-DR (the free trade agreement between Central America, the Dominican Republic and the US) for Nicaragua. Trivelli - who apparently had overcome a recent snub by President Daniel Ortega, who had refused to grant him the José de Marcoleta medal, upon completing his four year diplomatic mission to the country - said that Nicaragua's exports to the US had increased 18% during the first quarter of the year in relation to the same period the previous year as a result of the trade agreement. However he neglected to provide figures regarding Nicaraguan imports from the US during the same period. Trivelli also said that since the treaty took effect, on 1 April 2006, Nicaragua had “benefited more than any other country", with Nicaraguan exports increasing 36%.

    VENEZUELA: US imports of Venezuelan crude oil fell 11.7% annually in the first four months of 2008, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).  The drop in sales figures is the biggest since the Venezuelan oil strike during late 2002 and early 2003. According to the EIA, imports of Venezuelan crude dropped to 1.1m barrels in the first four months 2008, down from an average 1.3m barrels in the same period of 2007. Even though Venezuela's state oil company Pdvsa claims to be producing 3.2m barrels/day, OPEC estimates for May 2008 suggest was it was producing around 2.34m barrels/day. Pdvsa does not publish output figures and although the OPEC estimates are based on secondary sources, they echo similar estimates by private sector oil analysts. Energy analysts suggest these large discrepancies in output figures could possibly account for the recent fall in Venezuelan oil exports to the US. The drop in sales might also be attributable to President Hugo Chávez 's efforts at diversifying oil exports towards new partners, in particular to countries considered to be on more “amicable terms" with Venezuela, such as China. Nonetheless, 60% of Pdvsa's output still goes straight to the US, which has remained Venezuela's primary market despite strong political differences during Chavez's nine-year rule.

  • Washington Watch

    10 July 2008 Hits: 313

    Venezuela: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has expressed his desire to “patch things up" with the United States. Chávez vocalized his intentions to make peace and re-establish dialogue with the U.S. during a conversation held on Saturday 6 July with the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela Patrick Duddy. “We do not want war. These are weapons of peace," said Chávez referring to the Armed Forces parade that took place as part of the celebrations to commemorate the 197th anniversary of the country's independence. The Venezuelan president jokingly referred to the U.S. elections and stated that his vote would go towards Republican John McCain, before retracting and saying: “I'm joking, if I were American I would have to vote, but I wouldn't vote for any of those two candidates. Whoever wins, wins; but we must make sure that we can sit down together and talk. I used to with [Bill] Clinton, we used to sit down and talk." Alongside Chávez at the meeting was his Bolivian counterpart, Evo Morales, for whom the Venezuelan leader expressed his complete support to Duddy. “Let's support Bolivia. If Bolivia collapses it will be detrimental to all of Latin America," affirmed Chavez.

    Argentina: The U.S. adjoining secretary of state for the western hemisphere, Thomas Shannon, will arrive in Buenos Aires this Thursday to discuss various cooperation issues between the U.S and Argentina in matters such as science and technology, cultural and educational exchanges, human rights, the fight against crime and the global economy. The meeting is framed by Shannon's earlier visit last April; the first in these high profile bilateral meetings between the two governments. Shannon will be travelling with the sub secretary of the Western Hemisphere treasury Brian O'Neil and other representatives from the U.S. state department, justice department and defence department.

    Colombia: The U.S. ambassador in Colombia, William Brownfield, has not rejected the idea of the extradition of the two FARC rebels captured last Wednesday during the rescue operation of 15 hostages, amongst which were three U.S. citizens. “We still have not made a final decision but we reserve the right to ask for the extradition," said the diplomat to the press. Gerardo Antonio Aguilar and Alexander Farfán were the two FARC members captured during the operation. Among the hostages was Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who had been in captivity since 2002, the three U.S. citizens, Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell, and 11 other hostages. The American hostages have already spoken out against the FARC and have referred to them as “terrorists".

    Panama: Panama's minister of government and justice Daniel Delgado Diamante will be meeting with U.S. secretary of defence Robert Gates today in Washington in order to ask for help in the war against drug trafficking. Delgado Diamante will present the Panamanian government's “vision" of the regional security situation, particularly as regards the illegal drug trade, and will ask for resources to help face the problem. During the minister's five day tour of the U.S. he will also be meeting with various congressmen and members of the state department. According to Delgado Diamante, Panama would greatly appreciate any donations of US aircraft equipment to aid in coastal surveillance. “I don't have a quantifiable figure as far as resources_but to start off with, we'd need around US$40 or 50 million," he said.

    Mexico: On 8 July the US told Mexican agriculture minister, Alberto Cárdenas, that the US Food and Drug Adminstration had concluded that Mexican tomatoes were not responsible for an outbreak of salmonella in various states in the US. The salmonella affected hundreds of people in the US and the FDA believed that tomatoes from either Mexico or Florda were to blame. While the FDA investigation was going on the US suspended imports of tomates from three Mexican states: Jalisco, Coahuila and Sinaloa. Mexico accounts for 84% of the tomatoes imported into the US.

    Bolivia: The U.S. ambassador to La Paz, Philip Goldberg, held a meeting on Monday 7 july with Bolivian president Evo Morales in which he announced that both factions are working towards “ameliorating relations" between the two countries. “We are going to work with the ministry to attempt to set up a program to improve relations or at least speak frankly" said Goldberg after his interview with Morales. The diplomat admitted that there exist “serious problems" in the bilateral relationship, but said that the meeting was “frank and open." Goldberg went on to say that “to reconstruct relationships we must first reconstruct trust […] Trust is not paired with unfounded accusations and attacks," he affirmed. This is the first time the ambassador has met with Morales since his return to Bolivia after being called back to Washington following violent recent protests outside the U.S. embassy.

  • Washington Watch

    07 August 2008 Hits: 299

    Colombia: On 2 August Colombia's interior minister, Fabio Valencia Cossio, announced that Colombia would seek to establish a 'minimum sentence' in its extradition treaty with the US. This followed concerns expressed the previous day by Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe to a regional anti-drugs summit that drug-traffickers might serve “a short sentence then be released to live like a king". It is not the ordinary drug-traffickers Uribe is most worried about, however: in May he extradited more than a dozen of the most senior paramilitary leaders to face drug-trafficking charges in the US. Uribe is concerned that these paramilitaries, who have been accused of numerous massacres and other crimes against humanity, might walk free far earlier than the Colombian public will tolerate.

    Colombia: Colombia's defence minister Juan Manuel Santos confirmed on 4 August that Colombia will not allow the US to establish a base in Colombia to replace the US airbase at Manta, in Ecuador. This is not the first time that Santos has denied that Colombia will host a US base. However, it is the first time he has commented publicly on the matter since Ecuador confirmed on 29 July that it will not be renewing the US military's lease on Manta when it expires next November.

    Panama: On 4 August the new US ambassador to Panama, Barbara Stephenson, arrived in Panama City, where more than 20 years ago she began her career in the US Foreign Service. Stephenson replaces William Eaton, who held the post for almost three years. One of the main challenges facing Stephenson is the current stalemate over the proposed free trade agreement between Panama and the US, stalled in part because of US objections to Panama's congress leader Pedro Miguel González for his alleged part in the murder of a US sergeant, Zak Hernández, in 1992.

    Nicaragua: On 5 August the US government donated US$1.4m worth of military equipment to Nicaragua's naval force. US deputy ambassador to Nicaragua Richard Sanders said that his country will continue to increase military assistance to Nicaragua in order to work together in addressing new threats and challenges to peace in the region. Meanwhile, the revival of expectations last week regarding the possible exchange of healthcare aid for the destruction of 651 Sam-7 missiles proposed by outgoing US ambassador to Nicaragua, Paul Trivelli, once again came to nothing after President Daniel Ortega said that his government would not be “pushed" into signing an agreement with the US.

    US-Mexico: On 5 August the State of Texas executed José Ernesto Medellí­n, a Mexican who had been convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering two girls in 1993. The Medellí­n case is important internationally and legally because the US refused to enforce a clear ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague. Medellí­n had been denied access to consular support from Mexico before his trial. This omission prompted the ICJ, after legal action by Mexico, to rule that the US was in breach of the Vienna Convention which guarantees such consular access. As a result of the ICJ ruling, the US government ordered Texas to halt Medellí­n's execution in 2004. Texas obeyed but then revived the machinery to execute him when the US Supreme Court ruled in March 2008 that the federal government had no right to give instructions to Texas on such issues. Medellí­n was executed by lethal injection after the US Supreme Court refused to order a stay.

  • Washington Watch

    14 August 2008 Hits: 236

    Bolivia: On 12 August a senior US State Department official conceded that Bolivia was meeting US targets for coca eradication.  David Johnson, Assistant Secretary of State heading the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, was broadly complimentary about Bolivia's anti-drug policy after a meeting with President Evo Morales in La Paz. Johnson said that the government was “searching for creative and agreed ways" for coca producers to reduce supplies to drug traffickers. In June coca growers from Morales's base of Chapare, a major coca growing zone, forced USAID to cease operations in Chapare.  Johnson confirmed that Bolivia had met the US targets for coca-eradication, but added that coca acreage was continuing to grow. Interestingly, Johnson used UN Office on Drugs and Crime figures for coca acreage which show Bolivia's coca acreage up by 5% to 28,900 hectares in 2007. Colombia's was up by 27%, according to the same source.

    Honduras: On 12 August Honduran officials expressed hopes that the US would extend the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) agreement, which currently benefits some 76,000 Hondurans, for a further 18 months after the current arrangement expires on 5 January 2009. TPS is granted to countries that have suffered natural disasters or civil wars and, if approved, it would be the eighth extension for Honduras since authorised in 1999 after damage wreaked by Hurricane Mitch.

    Mexico: On 11 August acting director of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Michael Sullivan admitted that  nearly all illegal guns seized in Mexico come from the US. Speaking at the fifth annual Border Security Conference at the University of Texas at El Paso, Sullivan said investigators have traced between 90% and 95% of the weapons found in Mexico to the US, with the weapons being traced as part of an effort by the US and Mexico to stop the illegal flow of guns south. According to Sullivan, many of the weapons found in Mexico have been traced to smuggling points in Southern California, Arizona, Texas and New Mexico, although he added that weapons are being traced to sellers in "virtually every state, as far north as Washington state." Sullivan said recent successes in tracking guns thought to be fuelling an increasingly violent drug cartel war are attributed to an "e-trace" system that allows officials on both sides of the border to quickly track weapons.

    Region: On 12 August the US department of trade announced that Latin America's trade surplus with US in June was US$8.4bn, down 4.02% on June 2007. The surplus in the first six months of the year stood at US$48.8bn compared to US$48bn in the same period the previous year. The surplus from Mexico which, accounts for 67% of the total, dropped from US$6.57bn in May to US$5.69bn in June, though the surplus for the first six months was US$35.7bn up from US$34.3bn in the same period of 2007. 

  • Washington Watch

    21 August 2008 Hits: 186

    Cuba: Recent figures by Cuba's National Statistics Office show that in 2007 the US has become the island's fifth-largest trading partner. Imports from the US have risen to US$582m, up from US$484m in 2006. Imports consist solely of agricultural products due to a 2002 amendment to the decades-long trade embargo that allows the export of US agricultural produce to Cuba. High global food prices account for much of the US$100m jump in imports. With the price of corn, wheat, soya and chicken still at record levels, US food trade to Cuba is set to increase even further in 2008. US census bureau statistics indicate that US exports to Cuba for the first six months of 2008 stood at US$359m, a 150% increase on the figure recorded for the same period in 2008.

    El Salvador: The US ambassador to El Salvador, Charles Glazer, recently urged El Salvador's legislative assembly to approve a number of reforms to help the fight against organised crime. Proposals to ease wiretapping restrictions and approve an extradition treaty between the US and El Salvador are currently shelved in congress, blocked by the opposition parties, Frente Farabundo Martí­ para la Liberación Nacional and Cambio Democrático. Local security forces have echoed Glazer's recommendations.

    Guatemala: Guatemala's President Alvaro Colom said that he would be seeking to work more closely with local authorities in the US to improve the human rights of illegal immigrants. He held a private meeting with leaders of organizations representing Guatemalan immigrants in the US states of North and South Carolina, as well as Georgia.

    Mexico: Spokesman for US Customs and Border Protection, Mike Friel, said on 19 August that construction on "virtual fence" projects scheduled along Arizona's border with Mexico is on hold indefinitely because the Interior Department hasn't signed off on use of its lands. According to Friel, interior officials have not accepted a proposed finding in an environmental assessment produced for the US Border Patrol that putting towers with radar, cameras and communications equipment on Interior Department lands would have no significant impact. He explained that authority to waive environmental laws for border security projects was granted to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff under a 2005 congressional act, but the law does not extend to virtual fence projects. Boeing Co, the prime contractor on the projects for the Department of Homeland Security, has suspended work with no resumption date set. Virtual fences are part of the department's plan to secure the US Mexico border by detecting illegal immigrants and drug smugglers entering Arizona. The state has been the focal point for several years for smugglers bringing illegal immigrants across the border.

    Nicaragua: As US ambassador to Nicaragua Paul Trivelli's tenure comes to an end, Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega has outlined his wish to construct a “respectful relationship" with the US and Robert Callahan, Trivelli's replacement. However, relations between Ortega and Callahan could well be prickly given Callahan's role in the 1980s as former assistant to John Negroponte, who was instrumental in coordinating the Contras during Nicaragua's civil war. One of the issues up for discussion will be the ongoing proposal that Nicaragua destroys its 1015 surface-to-air missiles (SAM-7 missiles) in exchange for medical assistance. On 19 August Ortega reiterated his openness to such a plan but added that the US would have to increase their aid package from US$5m to US$32m. He also said that Nicaragua would seek to retain 400 missiles as long as the maritime dispute with Colombia remains unresolved.

  • Washington Watch

    28 August 2008 Hits: 230

    USA-Region: In response to John McCain's Latin America trip in July, speculation continues over whether Democrat presidential candidate, Barack Obama, will embark upon his own visit to Latin America. According to New Mexico governor and strong Obama supporter, Bill Richardson, discussions regarding the possibility of such a trip are being held. Talks held between Obama's chief Latin American advisor, Dan Restrepo and Chilean ambassador to the US, Mariano Fernández fuelled speculation in the Chilean press of the likelihood of a visit by the presidential hopeful. Reports suggest that Brazil, Mexico and Chile would be the most likely destinations for an Obama trip. Whereas John McCain made great pains to visit Colombia, Washington's staunchest ally in the region, Restrepo indicated that if such a trip were to take place, Obama would unlikely “follow McCain's lead and walk into the political minefield of a visit to Colombia."
     
    Brazil: Brazil's representative at the World Trade Organisation requested on 25 August the right to impose sanctions against the US, the value of which may be as much as US$4 bn annually. Justifying the magnitude of the sanction, Brazil's foreign minister, Ceslo Amorim, said “it's _ very high because the harm that these subsidies cause is very big." The action by Brazil at the WTO comes in light of the US failure to overturn a WTO ruling against US cotton subsidies last year. Brazil, along with several West African cotton-producers argue that US subsidies to cotton farmers, which totalled US$12.5 bn between 1999 and 2003, means that their local farmers are severely disadvantaged. Washington maintains that its subsidies do not lead to American producers undercutting foreign competitors. Sean Spicer, spokesperson for the US trade representative's office said the US would “vigorously" defend American interests.

    Brazil/Colombia: One of the world's major drug traffickers, Colombia's Carlos Ramí­rez Abadí­a, was extradited from Brazil to the US on 22 August, where he faces murder, trafficking and money laundering charges. During the 1990s Abadí­a led one of Colombia's most powerful drug cartels, Norte del Valle, responsible for exporting US$10bn worth of cocaine from Colombia to the US between 1990 and 2004. Acting Drug Enforcement Administrator Michele M. Leonhart described Abadia as “one of the most violent and prolific narcotics traffickers in the hemisphere." US drug enforcement investigators say that Abadí­a will help the authorities by unveiling new drug trafficking routes in exchange for a reduced prison sentence.  However, Abadí­a insists that despite his arrest and those of other drug lords, the trafficking business will continue to thrive. "I'm in prison, but there are people replacing me, then there will be others. It will never end," he said.

    USA: US immigration officers have arrested 595 illegal immigrants, most of which came from Latin America in a swoop on a Mississippi factory.  Citizens from Peru, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Brazil were amongst those arrested in what was the largest workplace enforcement raid in the United States to date. 475 of those arrested have been sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centre and will now face deportations. Immigration activists and Latino communities have voiced concerns about the increasingly hard line taken against illegal immigrants.

  • Washington Watch

    04 September 2008 Hits: 192

    Argentina: US deputy secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, Thomas Shannon, met Argentina's President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner on 27 August. This is Shannon's second visit to Argentina in two months, suggesting that the US is making an effort to improve relations with Fernández. Ties with her government got off to an awkward start following allegations by US prosecutors that Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez , had provided money for her election campaign in 2007. Shannon, who also visited Buenos Aires in April, spent 50 minutes with Fernández. The meeting took place behind closed doors, but an official statement released afterwards indicated that they had discussed plans for the Argentine president to visit the US in September and again in November.

    Honduras: On 31 August Honduran officials announced that the US had lifted a more than five-month ban on cantaloupe imports from one of the country's biggest melon farmers. Honduras' agriculture minister, Héctor Hernández, said that the Montelibano melon company was given the "green light" to resume melon exports to the US following a salmonella scare. The US Food and Drug Administration investigated Montelibano's crops and facilities, but found no evidence of contamination.

    Mexico: The Banco de México reported on 1 September that the inflow of remittances fell by 6.9%, year-on-year, in July. This is the biggest year-on-year fall since the Banco de México began charting remittances in 1995. Remittances still came to US$2.015bn in July, however. The fall suggests that the US economic downturn is not bottoming out and is substantially worse than the mild recession the country encountered at the beginning of this decade. Optimists, however, point out that for the first seven months of 2008 remittances are down by only 2.9%, year-on-year, at US$13.62bn. In 2007 remittance revenues were down by 1% on 2006 at US$23.98bn. They further point out that the growth in remittances tracks construction employment in the US. This indicator had been falling since the beginning of 2006 until it started rising again, from a much lower base, at the beginning of this year. The Banco de México has said that the flow of remittances is being affected as much by tighter border controls on the US side as by economic conditions in the US.

    Mexico: On 2 September in a radio interview regarding the US presidential elections, Mexico's President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa said that John McCain, the Republican candidate, understood Mexico “better". The clear implication is that Barrack Obama, the Democratic candidate - who has yet to visit Latin America - does not understand the US's biggest neighbour. McCain is a senator for the border state of Arizona, while Obama represents Illinois. Calderón balanced his judgment with the opinion that Obama has a lot of support both among Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, and that the Democrat policy on immigration is less conservative than the Republican policy. This is slightly sophistic, because McCain himself backed a bilateral and liberal immigration reform which failed to get through the US congress last year because of Republican opposition. Calderón's other observation was that protectionist pressures are rising in the US. Increased protectionism could be disruptive for Mexico, which sends over 80% of its exports north. Calderón said that there had been a lot of superficial talk in the election campaign about cancelling or modifying Nafta, Mexico's free trade treaty with the US and Canada which eases the access of Mexican goods to the US. Most of this anti-Nafta talk has come from Obama. McCain has consistently defended Nafta.

    Paraguay: On 28 August US deputy secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, Thomas Shannon, met President Fernando Lugo, who took office on 15 August. He is the most senior official from the US government to have visited Paraguay since Lugo took over: US commerce secretary, Carlos Gutierrez, attended the inauguration. Lugo announced on 27 August that US President George W Bush had invited him for talks at the White House in October, but admitted that he had not yet decided whether to accept the invitation due to the proximity of the US presidential election in November. Lugo suggested that it might be worthwhile to wait for a new president to take office before travelling to Washington. Sources suggest the two leaders might meet next month instead, when Lugo is in the US for the annual gathering of the UN General Assembly (20-22 September).

    Venezuela: On 1 September the government of President Hugo Chávez strongly rejected allegations by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the US ambassador in Caracas of a sharp increase in drug trafficking across Venezuelan territory.  A fresh war of words has broken out between President Chávez and the US ambassador, Patrick Duddy, only a couple of months after the two had suggested that both countries were seeking to renew cooperation on the drugs front. President Chávez expelled the DEA in 2005, accusing its agents of spying. 

    According to the US, the amount of cocaine being trafficked through Venezuela has jumped sharply in the past few years, with a 16-fold increase in the quantity of cocaine being shipped through Venezuelan airspace since 2002. The US estimates that the total amount of Colombian cocaine flowing through Venezuela reached 256 metric tonnes in 2007, four times more than in 2004. The White House anti-drugs czar, John Walters, said recently there had been a 'spectacular increase' in the flow of drugs across northern Venezuela en route to the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Ambassador Duddy said on 29 August that drug traffickers were “taking advantage of the gap" between Venezuela and the US, reiterating the US estimate of a quadrupling in cocaine flows. 

    On 30 August Chávez declared that Venezuela “did not need US assistance" to tackle drug trafficking and suggested that Duddy should leave his post before he was expelled. The UN is also clear that Venezuela has become a more important route for drug trafficking, following crackdowns in Colombia and also in Brazil, another key exit route for Colombian cocaine. However, the Venezuelan government has always maintained that it is vigorous in its fight against drug groups. Vice president Ramón Carrizález pointed out on 1 September that according to the latest 2008 UN statistics, Venezuela intercepted 47t of cocaine in 2007 (and 40t to date in 2008), a marked increase on previous years.

    Carrizález also slammed the DEA for prohibiting the Venezuelan government from acquiring a key reactive substance (manufactured in the US) that is used to detect drugs. Carrizález said Venezuela was working to develop its own version of the chemical. Carrizález added that Venezuela is a “victim" of the drugs trade which, he said, is almost entirely stimulated by demand in the US market.

    Venezuela: On 2 September at the US Republican party convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, presidential candidate John Mcain's policy advisor on Latin American affairs, Otto Reich, said McCain would work to eliminate US dependence on Venezuelan oil supplies. Reducing US oil dependence has been a major theme in the 2008 US presidential campaign. The reality is that, even in the event of major oil discoveries in Alaska, it would still take years to wean the US off its heavy reliance on oil imports.

    Venezuela is the fourth most important petroleum supplier to the US (after Canada and Saudi Arabia and Mexico). According to latest data from the Energy Information Administration, Venezuela has provided 1.012mn barrels per day of crude oil to the US in the year to date.

    Reich also referred to Chávez 's widespread petrodiplomacy across the region and said that the Republican candidate's strategy to reduce US dependence on foreign oil was also directly related to the aim of reducing Chávez 's influence in the region. “We know that many countries in the region are allied with the Venezuela treasury, but not, I believe, with Venezuelan ideology". “The McCain strategy would help to take away Chávez 's most important weapon, one that he uses to suppress the rights of his citizens and threaten his neighbours".

    Reich, a rightwing conservative Cuban American who has worked under the Reagan and Bush administrations, was assistant secretary of state at the time of the 2002 attempted coup and his views on Chávez are well known. His latest comments likely reflect McCain's need to appeal to the conservative elements of the Republican party at this week's convention.

  • Washington Watch

    11 September 2008 Hits: 193

    Argentina/Brazil: Brazil and Argentina announced on Monday that the two countries intended to stop using the dollar to settle payments for bilateral trade. Instead they will use the Real and the Argentine peso. Brazil's President Lula da Silva and his Argentine counterpart Cristina Fernández de Kirchner signed the agreement in Brazil's capital city Brasilia. According to Brazil's finance minister Guido Mantega, the new system will reduce the costs of intermediation, making trade easier for smaller companies of the two countries. Mantega said the agreement represents the first step toward a common currency for the regional trade group, Mercosur, which comprises Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

    Argentina/Venezuela: On 9 September, the Miami federal trial opened against Franklin Durán, a wealthy Venezuelan accused of acting as an illegal foreign agent. Prosecution witness, Moisés Maionica, told jurors that Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez had ordered his intelligence czar to oversee the handling of the international cash scandal known as the “suitcasegate" affair. The case revolved around the arrest of a Venezuelan, Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson, in August 2007 after he tried to smuggle US$790,000 into Argentina. Prosecutors allege the money was provided by Venezuela's state energy company, Pdvsa, and was intended as a campaign contribution for Argentina's president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Both Chávez and Fernández deny the allegations. Maionica - who has admitted to acting as an unregistered foreign government agent in the US and is cooperating with prosecutors - told the court that days after the scandal broke, he flew to Miami to discuss the case with Durán. He added that upon his return to Venezuela, he met intelligence director Gen. Henry Rangel Silva. He told the court that Rangel had told him that Pdvsa had been handling the crisis initially but then Rangel was “designated by the president himself to take over all issues."

    Mexico: On 9 September the US Congress cancelled a pilot programme that allowed some Mexican trucks onto US roads. The House of Representatives took the action even though President George W Bush said that he would veto the change. The House move illustrates the strength of protectionist sentiment in the US. President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa has warned on several occasions in the past few weeks that Mexico is vulnerable to rising US protectionism. The House voted to shut down the pilot programme by a vote of 395 to 18. The vote overturns a decision by the US Department of Transportation to continue with the year-old programme that allows Mexican trucks to travel on roads beyond a narrow belt close to the border. The White House said that President Bush had to veto the House vote in order to comply with the US's commitments under the North American Free Trade Agreement. The White House also pointed out that the data gathered from the pilot programme had shown that there were fewer problems with Mexican trucks than with US ones. Mexico has yet to comment officially on the House vote.

    Nicaragua: On 9 September the new US ambassador to Nicaragua, Robert J Callahan, criticized the government of Daniel Ortega for aligning itself with Russia in relation to the recent Russia-Georgia conflict. Specifically, he condemned a recent decree by Ortega which declared that: "the government of Nicaragua recognizes the independence of the republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and we are completely with the Russian government's position". Callahan's criticism, which is likely to antagonise Ortega, is the first challenge to the government since he took over from Paul Trivelli on 24 July and suggests that US-Nicaragua relations are unlikely to improve in the short-term. Callahan's appointment as US ambassador to Nicaragua was considered provocative locally, given his former position as aide to John Negroponte at the height of the Contra war against Nicaragua.

    Venezuela: On 4 September Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez said that he hoped to have good relations with the next US president, admitting that relations with the current Bush administration were “impossible". This followed a week spent trading insults with the local US ambassador and the US State Department over the extent of drug trafficking through Venezuela. “We only ask for respect, and we also want good relations with the US" said Chávez , “but with this government it's impossible_ We will wait for the next president; we hope that we can at least talk to him, whoever he is." The irony is that neither of the US presidential candidates is likely to seek an immediate rapprochement with Venezuela. The Republican candidate John McCain has already indicated that he will take a tough line with Chávez , and aims to reduce US dependence on Venezuelan oil imports in an effort to cut Chávez 's “petro-diplomacy" funds. Democratic candidate Barack Obama favours more open dialogue with the likes of Venezuela and Cuba, in contrast to the current hands-off approach of the Bush administration, but he may well be more interested in building up stronger ties with regional heavyweights such as Brazil and Mexico in an effort to re-engage with the region.

  • Washington Watch

    18 September 2008 Hits: 174

    ARGENTINA: Argentina's foreign ministry issued a statement on 11 September accusing the US of politicising a trial of alleged Venezuelan spies in Miami. Argentina is furious after US prosecutors produced tapes at the trial which show, apparently, that Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez , tried to donate US$800,000 to the election campaign of Argentina's president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. The foreign ministry said that this kind of political manoeuvring would adversely affect relations with the US. The US embassy in Buenos Aires released a statement on 11 September assuring the Argentine government that the US government had no control over what was happening in the Miami courtroom.

    BOLIVIA: On 11 September the US announced that it had declared Gustavo Guzmán, the Bolivian ambassador in Washington, persona non grata. This was in response to Bolivia's expulsion of the US ambassador to La Paz, Philip Goldberg, the previous day, following accusations that Goldberg had been “conspiring against democracy" and “promoting divisions within the country", by supporting violent groups in the opposition Media Luna region. However, it is worth noting that although both the US and Bolivia have expelled the other's ambassador they have not broken off diplomatic relations. The US State Department issued a statement declaring that the Bolivian allegations were “baseless" and warned that “President Morales' action is a grave error that has seriously damaged the bilateral relationship." Then on 16 September, the US placed Bolivia on its drugs blacklist, for the first time, ranking it with Burma and Venezuela as a major drug-producing country which is failing to meet obligations under international counter-narcotics agreements. President George W Bush said that although Bolivia was classed alongside Burma and Venezuela, the US would not suspend its aid projects in Bolivia. Bolivia's vice-president, Alvaro Garcí­a Linera, said that the US decision was “unfair, arbitrary, technically unsustainable and politically doctored".

    CUBA: On 15 September President Raúl Castro refused US$5m in aid from the US to help deal with the damage caused by hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Cuba insisted that it cannot accept aid “from a government which blockades us" and has taken the opportunity again - as it did in 2001 after the passage of hurricane Michelle - to call on the US administration to lift its trade embargo on the country “at least_ for the next six months" and to extend normal credit facilities so that Cuba can buy goods from US companies. Internationally, the US government was criticised last week because its first two offers of help to Cuba in the wake of hurricanes Gustav and Ike were of only US$100,000, and were also conditional on the Castro government accepting that a special US team travel to Cuba to assess the damage. In recent days, the US government has authorised sales of agricultural products to the island of US$250m since the passage of hurricane Gustav, which destroyed much of Cuba's agricultural sector, particularly in the western provinces. Cuba can buy agricultural products from the US, but only in cash, not with credit, under an amendment to the trade embargo.

    HONDURAS: On 12 September, Honduras delayed the accreditation of the new US ambassador, Hugo Llorens. President Manuel Zelaya said that Honduras was expressing solidarity with Bolivia's expulsion of the US ambassador to La Paz. President Zelaya said Honduras wasn't breaking relations with the US but is supporting Venezuela and Bolivia. Zelaya defended his decision, saying small nations need to stick together." The world powers must treat us fairly and with respect," he said. On 16 September, Llorens delivered his credentials to the Honduran foreign ministry and said that he expected an audience with Zelaya on 19 September.

    VENEZUELA: On 11 September President Hugo Chávez expelled the US ambassador to Venezuela, Patrick Duddy, and recalled Venezuela's ambassador to Washington, Bernardo Álvarez. In a fiery televised address, President Chávez said his move was a gesture of solidarity towards Bolivia's President Evo Morales, who expelled the US ambassador to La Paz on 10 September. Chávez was emphatic in his denouncements of the US government, accusing the Bush administration not only of fomenting political dissent in Bolivia but also of supporting an alleged military coup against him (into which he said he had ordered an investigation). He said he would not be sending a new representative to Washington until after the November presidential elections.

  • Washington Watch

    25 September 2008 Hits: 454

    REGION: US considers that relations with Latin America have improved since the current administration of George W. Bush took office in 2001, said the spokesman of the US Secretary of State, Sean McCormack, on 18 September. The official said that the US government believes it now has better relations and contact with more leaders from Latin America than it had eight years ago, and underlined that “the depth and width of the relations with Latin American countries has increased during this Administration". The declarations occurred just one week after the US ambassadors in Bolivia and Venezuela where expelled by the respective presidents of these two countries. Although McCormack recognised the difficulties with Bolivia and Venezuela, the argued that there is a positive general tendency in the region as a whole.

    REGION-VENEZUELA: During a radio interview on 22 September, the Democrat Presidential Candidate, Barack Obama, expressed his intention of establishing a “respectful dialogue" with Latin American leaders, including Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez . Obama said that Chávez has enhanced the anti-US feeling in the region partly because “the US has been obsessed with Iraq" and has not “focused enough its attention on the situation in Latin America". Almost immediately, the campaign of the Republican candidate, John McCain, launched a TV advert in which Obama is attacked by using the footage of President Chávez when he expelled the US ambassador from the country.

    CUBA: Cuba's foreign minister, Felipe Pérez Roque, said on September 18 that the trade and financial “blockade" (technically an embargo) imposed by the US since 1962 has cost the island more than US$93bn. According to the official, Cuba has seen the most brutal application of the blockade in the last year due to the “irrational prosecution against companies, banks, and North American citizens", producing an economic damage of US$3.7bn in 2007. These are some of the figures presented by Pérez Roque in the draft resolution that will be submitted to the UN next 29 October and that will allege the need of putting an end to the embargo. These declarations occur in the middle of the Cuba's struggle to deal with damage caused by hurricanes Gustave and Ike, calculated at US$5bn by the country's government. President Raúl Castro has refused US$5m in aid from the US arguing that aid “from a government which blockades us" cannot be accepted and has taken the opportunity to call on the US administration to lift its trade embargo “at least for the next six months". Pérez Roque also accused the US Secretary of State of creating an advertising campaign around the facts related to the hurricanes. The official said that the US's authorisation of sales of agricultural products to the island for US$250m on 10 September is not new, since they were excluded from the prohibitions set by the embargo from 2001.

    COLOMBIA:President Alvaro Uribe arrived in Washington on September 18 in attempt to attract support for Colombia's Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the US, which is currently stuck in Congress. Although no significant results were obtained on this issue, Uribe had a busy time in the US capital. On 20 September Colombia's President met his counterpart George W. Bush, who claimed that his successor 'must' understand the relation with Colombia as 'strategic' for the US and urged the Congress to sign the FTA. However, Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama expressed his desire to strengthen relations with Colombia but reiterated that he does not support the FTA due to its impact on US workers and his concerns over labour rights in Colombia. The Democrat Party is responsible for stalling the trade deal in the legislature. Uribe also held meetings with Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin; the French President Nicolas Sarkozy; China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao; a former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt; and the high representative for the UN, foreign and security policy, Javier Solana.

    ARGENTINA: On 23 September Guido Antonini Wilson testified to a court in Miami that there was a further US$4.2m on the Venezuelan jet aboard which he carried US$800,000 to Argentina. Antonini Wilson's testimony has increased the so-called suitcase scandal fivefold. US prosecutors claim that Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez , provided the election campaign of his Argentine counterpart, Cristina Fernández, with at least US$5m. Chávez and Fernández both deny the story and have accused the US government of fabricating the scandal for political ends. In his first day on the stand, Antonini Wilson did not implicate Fernández directly but he did point the finger at her planning minister, Julio De Vido, who held the same role under her husband and predecessor, Néstor Kirchner.

    CENTRAL AMERICA: A trade mission headed by the US Secretary of Agriculture, Edward Schafer, visited Guatemala from 21 to 24 September with the aim of promoting bilateral cooperation, trade and investment with the Central American countries. While representatives of the US, Guatemala, and Dominican Republic governments held meetings to analyse the benefits of the free-trade deal and to look for mechanisms that help increase the participation of the private sector, 17 businessmen from the US held meetings with about 70 companies involved in the agricultural sector in Central America. The bilateral trade of agriculture products between the US and Central America grew 21% in 2007 thanks to the CAFTA-DR and is likely to have increased further by the end of 2008, according to figures given by the US Embassy.

  • Washington Watch

    02 October 2008 Hits: 205

    REGION: On 30 September various Latin American governments warned that the current financial crisis is beginning to hit the economies of Latin America and announced protective measures. Brazil's President Lula da Silva and Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez met in Manaus, Brazil, and slammed the US for its failure to deal with the financial crisis. Both leaders said that “nobody deserves this crisis" and that they expect the US to take action to contain it. Lula, who had been optimistic regarding the effects of the crisis on Brazil, announced measures such as the increase of credit for companies and for the export sector. Chile, on the other hand, had already announced on 29 September that the Banco Central de Chile was ending its programme of buying dollars in order to boost liquidity in the domestic market.

    ANDEAN COUNTRIES: On 29 September the US Chamber of Representatives approved, in a unanimous decision, a one-year extension of the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (Atpdea). Through the Atpdea, the US eases access for manufactured imports from Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. In return for these trade preferences, these Andean countries must contribute to the fight against international drug trafficking. The Chamber of Representatives' decision can be taken as another blow from the US Congress to President George W. Bush, since the extension was ratified just three days after he announced his intention of excluding Bolivia from the benefits of the Atpdea. Bush justified his decision by claiming that Bolivia is “demonstrably" failing in its counternarcotics efforts. Although Bush still has the necessary executive powers to suspend the pact with Bolivia, a member of the Congress committee commented that Bush's intention does not affect the current extension to the Atpdea. The decision on the Atpdea goes now to the Senate.

    COLOMBIA-PANAMA: Presidents from 10 Latin American countries signed a missive directed to US President George W. Bush on 30 September, urging the ratification of the Free Trade Agreements (FTA) between the US and Colombia and Panama. The letter says that the countries - Peru, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and El Salvador - are united in their support for the FTAs. The presidents consider that the FTAs would bring benefits to the region as a whole, since “it would culminate a process that deepens a historical relation with friendly nations." However, the ratification of the agreements has been left aside, at least for now. The US Congress is about to enter recess and the call for an extraordinary session in order to decide on this subject is very unlikely to happen. Moreover, the US Democrat candidate, Barack Obama, has hinted that he could order a review of all US free trade agreements if he were to win the presidential election in November.

    COSTA RICA: The US trade secretary, Carlos M. Gutiérrez, announced on 30 September that the US and the five other signatories of the Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (Cafta) have agreed to give Costa Rica until 31 December to finalise the legislation required to implement the free trade agreement there. The five other signatories were: El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. This is the second extension given by other Cafta members to the government of President Oscar Arias: an earlier seven-month extension was approved last February. A longstanding US ally with close trade and investment links, Costa Rica is the largest and most developed economy in Central America and its inclusion in the Cafta is therefore seen as essential.

    COLOMBIA: A book published in Colombia this week claims that the US participated in the rescue of former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt from the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) on 2 July. Although the book does not completely contradict the version of the Colombian government - which claimed that the operation was carried out by the Colombian military forces - it does show that the participation of US troops was greater than the Colombian government has admitted. According to journalist Steven Dudley, the US sent about 900 soldiers to Colombia, surpassing the limit of 500 soldiers allowed by US law. By the end of January, 40 members of the US special forces, the so-called rangers, located where the hostages were being held. Surveillance equipment was then installed in strategic locations. However, the mission ended when a senior Farc member known by his alias, 'Gafas', found an audio recorder in the middle of the jungle and the guerrilla group left the area. Semana magazine questions whether 'Gafas' might have made an agreement with the Colombian or the US military forces, since the day he was captured he had two USB memory sticks which ended up in the hands of the FBI.

    CUBA: On 30 September the NGO Reporters without Borders (RWB) asked the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, to intervene on behalf of the two Cuban correspondents who were denied entrance to the US after going back to Cuba on holiday. Ilsa Rodrí­guez and Tomás Granados, from the Cuban press agency Prensa Latina, have been accredited to the UN for more than three years. RWB said that the measure is incomprehensible, since it is not coherent that journalists who are credited for the UN suddenly represent a threat to the US.

    PANAMA: On 29 September the US and Panama renewed an anti-narcotics cooperation agreement which will support programmes on citizen security and police training. The funds directed at the programme - which will initially comprise some US$70,000 - will be used to reinforce community administration and education programmes such as 'the culture of legality'. The US will also provide Panama with equipment and training in criminal investigation.

  • Washington Watch

    09 October 2008 Hits: 196

    ARGENTINA: The former police agent who discovered the US$800.000 that the Venezuelan Guido Antonini Wilson presumably intended to bring illegally into Buenos Aires in 2007, said on 7 October that the FBI had offered her political asylum and employment in the US. Marí­a Lujan Telpuk confirmed that she received this offer with the condition of modifying her witness statement in the trial that is taking place in Miami against Franklin Duran. Duran is accused of operating in the US as an illegal Argentine secret agent and of trying to stop Antonini Wilson from revealing the origin and intended destination of the money.

    After these declarations by Lujan Telpuk, the Argentine government accused the FBI of coercion and bribery. Lujan Telpuk said in court that Antonini Wilson was the owner of the suitcase which contained the money. This contradicts Wilson's version, who has assured on several occasions that the suitcase belonged to an official of the Argentine government and that the money was destined for the presidential election campaign of current president, Cristina Fernández.

    BOLIVIA: A Bolivian government mission will ask Washington for the extension of the Atpdea (a programme which gives tariff benefits to some Bolivian exports to the US), said an official source on 7 October. Finance minister Luis Arce will be explaining the Bolivian point of view at a press conference on 23 October, emphasising Bolivia's efforts at fighting drug-trafficking. President George W. Bush recently initiated a process to suspend the Atpdea benefits to Bolivia, claiming there is a lack of cooperation on the part of the Andean country in the war on drugs. Bush made the announcement in the middle of a diplomatic crisis after the Bolivian government expelled US ambassador Philip Goldberg from the country on 10 September.

    REGION: Insecurity in Latin America causes more deaths than HIV, malaria, or any other epidemic, assured the secretary-general of the Organization of American States, José Miguel Insulza, on 8 October. Latin American and US interior ministers discussed measures for various days in Mexico to try and stop the increasing insecurity in the region. According to the officials, it has diverse origins: drug-trafficking, corruption, the inefficiency of the public security forces, impunity, and economic difficulties. The situation in Mexico was identified as the most serious case, where recent waves of violence have caused almost 8,000 deaths in three years and over 3,450 deaths so far this year. The rising violent crime figures for Central America were also underlined: there are ten violent deaths in Honduras every day; between eight and ten in El Salvador; and 14 in Guatemala.

    MEXICO: The Banco de México reported that remittances to Mexico fell by 12.2%, year-on-year, in August. This is the biggest monthly fall since records began (in 1995) and suggests that the US is tumbling into recession. Remittances show what is happening in the real economy in the US rather than on the financial markets. Mexican expatriates working in the US have been particularly important in the construction industry. US figures show that 14% of the construction workforce is made up of expatriate Mexicans and 5% of the total US workforce comes from Mexico. The poor August figure for remittances means that the total for the first eight months of 2008 was down by 4.2% at US$15.5bn. Last week the finance minister, Agustí­n Carstens, forecast that remittances in 2008 would be between 7% and 8% down on the US$23.5bn the country received in 2007. The scale of the August fall suggests that this forecast is optimistic. Over July and August, remittances were down by 9.6% compared with the same months of 2007. This is far worse than the falls in the first two quarters of 2008, which were 3.4% and 1.1% respectively.

    MEXICO: On 7 October the council of Pima County Supervisors approved the renovation of water stations which are installed in the Arizona desert in order to save undocumented immigrants from dying of thirst while attempting to cross over into the US. Wes Bramhall, ex-president of the groups of Arizonians for Immigration Control, said that the supervisors were breaking the law as they were helping immigrants to cross the border in an illegal way. However, funds for US$25,000 per year were given to the humanitarian organization Fronteras Compasivas, as a measure to reduce deaths in the Arizona desert. During the 2008 fiscal year, 183 people died crossing the border, of which 59% were not identified, according to a human rights coalition in Arizona. The water fund was approved for the first time in 2001.

  • Washington Watch

    16 October 2008 Hits: 458

    COLOMBIA: On 9 October a court in Miami sentenced two Colombian paramilitary leaders to 24 and 21 years in prison after they were convicted of conspiracy to import cocaine to the US. Ramiro Vanoy Ramí­rez and Javier Lindo, known as "Cuco Vanoy" and "Gordolindo" respectively, are the first former paramilitary leaders to be sentenced by the US. They belong to a group of 14 leaders of the demobilised paramilitary group Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) that were extradited to the US on 13 May. Vanoy and Lindo received longer prison terms than had been recommended by the federal prosecutors. The prosecutors had suggested sentencing them to 19 and 17 years in prison respectively. One of the defence lawyers said that Vanoy was now considering ceasing to collaborate with the Colombian government's Justice and Peace process in Colombia. This allowed the paramilitaries to demobilise on the condition that group members confessed crimes that they had committed. The two former paramilitary leaders, who are also accused in Colombia of various crimes including homicide, pleaded guilty in Miami. Lindo was leader of the Bloque Pací­fico, one of the largest AUC blocks. Meanwhile, Vanoy, was in charge an army of almost a thousand men in Colombia's eastern region.

    COLOMBIA-VENEZUELA: The US presidential Democrat candidate, Barack Obama, announced in the third and final pre-election debate with Republican candidate John McCain on 15 October that he would aim to stop importing oil from Venezuela within the next 10 years, in an attempt to reduce the US's dependency on foreign energy sources. In addition, Obama reiterated his opposition to a free trade agreement (FTA) between the US and Colombia, on the basis that the proposed deal does not cover labour rights: Obama said that Colombian workers who join unions are frequently subject to violence, murder and intimidations. Obama emphasized, however, that he is not against free trade per se. He said that he supported the US FTA with Peru. Obama said: “The important point is that a president must understand free trade, but at the same time, he must be against unfair free trade".

    MEXICO: Shots were fired at the US consulate in Monterrey, Northern Mexico, on 11 October however the news was only released two days later. This is a further sign that the violence in Mexico is becoming increasingly political. This trend started when two grenades were thrown at an Independence Day celebration in Morelia, Michoacán on 15 September. No-one was hurt in the recent attack in Monterrey, but this may have been because one of the grenades thrown at the consulate did not explode.

    ARGENTINA: The Argentine economy minister, Carlos Fernández, ratified an agreement in Washington on 13 October to pay off US$6.7bn of defaulted debt to the Paris Club group of creditor nations. On 2 September President Cristina Fernández announced that the central bank would pay off Argentina's defaulted debt to the group of 19 sovereign creditors in one lump sum using Argentina's foreign reserves, which total some US$47bn. This would deplete Argentina's foreign reserves by some 15%, however settlement of the Paris Club debt would improve the country's access to foreign credit, lifting a ban imposed since the 2001 default that prevents the export-promotion agencies of many foreign governments from providing subsidised credits.

  • Washington Watch

    30 October 2008 Hits: 305

    PARAGUAY: President Fernando Lugo met US President George W. Bush in Washington on 27 October. Bush said after the meeting in the White House that he had been impressed by the former-bishop's “corazón grande" [big heart] and praised the “strong stand" that Lugo - who ended the 61-year hegemony of Paraguay's Partido Colorado when he came to power in August - is taking against corruption. “There's nothing more discouraging than to have the government of a people steal their money", said Bush, adding, “we [the US] stand with you". Lugo remarked that it was “a joy" to be able to reinforce Paraguay's “historic relationship" with the US.  “We have said since the very beginning that if anything were to distinguish our government, it would be international solidarity", he declared, adding that working together to eradicate poverty is more important than political alignment.

    CUBA: The UN General Assembly voted on 29 October against the US economic, commercial and financial embargo on Cuba. This was the 17th year running that the 192-strong General Assembly has urged the US to end what Cuba calls the “blockade" that has been strangling its economy since 1962. This year UN delegates voted in record numbers to lift the embargo, by 185 votes in favour, three against (the US, Israel and the Pacific island state of Palau) and two abstentions (Micronesia and the Marshall Islands). Iraq and El Salvador did not vote. Cuba's Foreign Minister, Felipe Pérez Roque, pointed out that the “blockade" is older than Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama, and added that seven out of every ten Cubans on the island have spent their entire lives living under this “irrational and useless policy".

    MEXICO & BRAZIL: The US Federal Reserve decided on 29 October to make the protection of key emerging economies a priority in the current financial crisis, and announced that it will would lending the two Latin American heavyweights - Mexico and Brazil - US$30bn each, along with South Korea and Singapore. This signals the increased importance of these countries to the global economy, as well as confirming the “contagion" effect of the crisis on emerging markets. The decision by the Fed to support these key Latin American and Asian economies is largely a response to the increased demand for dollars by banks and companies outside the US. Together with the International Monetary Fund, the Fed is attempting to encourage stability in the world economy by meeting the dollar liquidity needs of these four countries.

  • Washington Watch

    06 November 2008 Hits: 237

    ARGENTINA: On 30 October a judge in New York ordered a temporary freeze of Argentine private pension fund investments in the US in response to Argentina's moves to nationalise the funds. The freezing order was granted at the request of Aurelius Capital Partners, one of the holders of Argentina's defaulted sovereign debt, which sued the country for US$553m after refusing to accept then-President Nestor Kirchner's 2005 restructuring. The bondholders argued that the nationalization of Argentina's private pension funds (AFJPs) announced last week by President Cristina Fernández and met with horror by financial markets, will cause the funds to become the “immutable" property of the republic of Argentina. It is unclear as to what proportion of the funds' US$1.4bn of foreign assets is invested in the US. Judge Thomas Griesa asked representatives of the Argentina government to respond to the court by 6 November, when a hearing will be held to decide whether to extend the freeze.

    ARGENTINA: On 29 October the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that Argentina would not qualify for a new short-term financing facility for emerging market economies. IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the conditions for eligibility “include having a very strong track record and strong policies in the past" adding that Argentina, “will not be eligible for the facility."

    BOLIVIA: Bolivia's President Evo Morales recently announced the indefinite suspension of operations by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Bolivia, accusing the DEA of espionage and fomenting political unrest in the country. The US denied the accusations. The move followed the announcement last week by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the US would remove Bolivia from the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (Atpdea) trade program, which offers trade preferences in exchange for contributing to the fight against drug trafficking on the grounds that Bolivia had been failing “demonstrably" in its efforts. The same day Morales announced the suspension of DEA activities, he revealed that the government had met its annual target (agreed by the government and the US) of eradicating more than 5,000 hectares (12,300 acres) of illegally planted coca.

    COLOMBIA: On 30 October the defence minister, Javier Ponce, said that the Central Intelligence Agency had “full knowledge" of the Colombian raid into Ecuador on 1 March. Ponce was presenting an official report into the supposed infiltration by US intelligence of the Ecuadorean armed forces. Ponce said that the CIA knew exactly what was going in Angostura. This was the site of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia camp, just inside Ecuador, which was attacked by aircraft and then the Colombian army. Ponce stopped just short of accusing the US of involvement in the attack, which the Organization of American States condemned as an infringement of Ecuador's sovereignty. But he did say that it was odd that a US intelligence aircraft arrived, “surprisingly" at the US's Southern Command's Forward Operating Location in Manta, Ecuador, the week before the attack. Ponce said that this plane started night flights, which, he said, were unusual. On 29 February this aircraft apparently left the base at 9pm and then landed at 1am on 1 March. The Farc base was bombed early in the morning of 1 March. Ecuador leased the Manta base to the US for 10 years in 1998 to help in the war against drugs. Ponce said that the intelligence aircraft was withdrawn four days after the 1 March attack by Colombia on the Farc base.

    MEXICO: On 30 October the Asociación Mundial de Mexicanos en el Exterior claimed that 1.6m Mexicans would return from the US to live permanently in Mexico. These returnees would outnumber by four to one those Mexicans who cross the border into the US every year to try to better themselves. If the flood of migrants turns south, Mexico's social cohesion will be severely tested: successive Mexican governments have depended on migration to the US as an economic and social safety valve. The Asociación reckons that 600,000 Mexicans living in the US will return by Christmas and that another 900,000 will return in January, when the boom in temporary jobs to meet the US Christmas rush ends. The US economy registered a contraction of 0.3% in the third quarter of 2008, and most US economists expect the economy to continue to contract into the first half of 2009. The president of the association, Carlos Villanueva, said that in only one consulate in Santa Ana, California 570 families had asked about going home. Most of them come from the poor states of Zacatecas and Michoacán.

    PERU: Democrat Jim Hines is the first Peruvian-American to win a seat in the US Congress. Representing the fourth district of Connecticut, Himes, who beat Republican candidate Christopher Shays by 51% to 48% said his election owed in part to the large number of citizens of Peruvian, Ecuadorean and Mexican origin living in Connecticut who backed his candidacy.

    REGION: 66% of Latinos voted for Senator Barack Obama in the 4 November US presidential elections, with 32% voting for his rival Senator John McCain. This marks a dramatic shift towards the Democrats from 2004 when more than 50% supported Senator John Kerry and 40% voted for President George W Bush. One key victory was in Florida, which the Democrats took, where Obama won 57% of the Latino vote compared with 42% for McCain, the first time Florida's Latinos have backed a Democrat presidential candidate since polling of Latinos began in the 1980s. In 2004, President Bush won 55% of the state's Latino vote to John Kerry's 44%, according to exit polls. Obama's efforts to attract support from the Latino community included buying a 30-minute block on Univision, the country's largest Spanish-language network - a first in the history of presidential campaigns. He also launched an advertisement broadcast on national TV in which he appeared to speak fluent Spanish. Obama freely admits he cannot speak Spanish, but his aides explain that he has a facility for languages and that, with an hour's study of a text, he could appear to be fluent in any language, including Chinese.

  • Washington Watch

    13 November 2008 Hits: 263

    BOLIVIA: On 10 November the Bolivian government formally requested that the US extradite former president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and his ex ministers Carlos Sánchez Berzaí­n and Jorge Berindoague. Sánchez de Lozada and his ministers are accused of ordering the army to halt anti-government protests in 2003: at least 65 people were killed by the army and more than 400 injured.  The extradition request is the culmination of a process begun by the Bolivian congress in 2004.
    In June 2008 the US granted asylum to Sánchez Berzaí­n: this sparked protests outside the US embassy in La Paz, and prompted Washington to recall Philip Goldberg, the US ambassador, for two weeks. The Bolivian government eventually expelled Goldberg for interfering in domestic affairs at the beginning of September.
     
    BRAZIL: On 11 November the US president elect, Barack Obama, put in a 15-minute telephone call to President Lula da Silva in which he praised the Brazil's economic and social development policies, as well as its renewable energy policies (Brazil is the world's largest producer of sugar cane- based ethanol and is also investing in other biofuels). Obama also supported Lula's leading role in talks on the current global financial crisis, praising Brazil's regional role in the Americas and hinted at greater US support for a more permanent Brazilian position in key multilateral forums like the G-8/G-20, the UN and the IMF. Brazil hosted the first ever meeting of the G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors in São Paulo last weekend (8-9 November), while Lula will also attend the emergency G-20 presidential summit convened by President Bush in Washington on November 15.

    CUBA: On 10 November Cuba's first vice-president, José Ramón Machado, said that Barack Obama's electoral victory of 4 November was “interesting" and that Cuba is willing to talk to the US “without conditions" and “on an equal footing". Obama is on record as promising to abolish some of the more draconian measures of the outgoing Bush administration which Obama claims break up family ties. Obama promised to restore to Cuban-Americans unrestricted rights to visit their families in Cuba. Bush had restricted Cuban-Americans' visits to Cuba to once every three years. Bush also erected obstacles to Cuban Americans sending remittances to the island.

    MEXICO: The US ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza, said on 12 November that US experts had found no evidence of sabotage on the jet in which Mexico's interior minister, Juan Camilo Mouriño, died on 4 November. The US experts are analysing the black box flight recorder and the Cabin Voice Recorder recovered from the aeroplane crash which killed Mouriño, eight other people on the plane with him and at least five people on the ground. The plane crashed into a central district of Mexico City.
    Garza said that he had been in contact several times with the US team of analysts and so far they had discovered no evidence of sabotage. Now the team will run simulations to try and work out what happened. Mexico's communications minister, Luis Téllez, who is responsible for the investigation, has said that it could take 11 months to establish the cause of the crash.

    COLOMBIA: On 11 November the US press reported that during a meeting on Monday with President-elect Barack Obama, US President George W. Bush conditioned his support for a package to help the auto industry on congressional backing for a stalled free trade agreement with Colombia. The White House denied the reports. "The president did not suggest a quid pro quo", White House press secretary Dana Perino told reporters on 11 November.

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