Skip to main content

Home/ Americas-MOAS/ Group items tagged U.S.

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Javier E

How Brazil's China-Driven Commodities Boom Went Bust - WSJ - 0 views

  • If the biggest economic story this century was China’s rise, Brazil was uniquely poised to benefit from it. Rich in iron ore, soybeans and beef, not to mention oil, Brazil was positioned as a supplier of many things China needed. Its annual trade with China, only around $2 billion in 2000, soared to $83 billion in 2013. China supplanted the U.S. as Brazil’s largest trading partner.
  • Brazil fell under what some economists call the “resource curse,” a theory describing how countries with abundant natural resources sometimes do worse than countries without them. The idea is that the money from commodity sales can lead to overvalued currencies and shortsighted policy-making, leaving such countries badly exposed when the resource boom finally ends.
  • “Unfortunately, the history is that commodity-dependent economies do not catch up with the U.S.,” said Ruchir Sharma, head of emerging markets at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. “Not just oil producers. More countries end up being poorer, compared with the U.S., after they find a commodity than catch up.” Using data going back to 1800, he said commodity-dependent economies typically grow for a decade, then spend as long as two decades wallowing or slipping back.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Buoyed by China trade, nationalist-minded politicians launched a foreign policy meant to reduce the role of the U.S. in Latin America. Brazil blocked a U.S. free-trade initiative for the Americas. They teamed with Venezuela to create a regional security council to supplant one that included the U.S. The foreign minister worked from an office with a huge map of the world upside down, offering the message that the era of emerging markets was at hand. But the world wasn’t upside down. While Brazil tied itself more closely to anti-American governments like Venezuela, Argentina and Iran, some regional neighbors—Chile, Colombia and Peru—went around Brazil and cut individual free-trade deals with the U.S.
  • Anticipating commodity sales, the government spent increasingly heavily. Government banks supplied Brazilians with easy credit. Brazil subsidized energy bills, issued cheap loans to big companies with government ties and built stadiums to host global events such as the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.
  • Meantime, Brazil produced far less oil than predicted. Production actually shrank in some years, as Petróleo Brasileiro SA, PBR 12.80 % known as Petrobras, struggled with the enormous task of developing oil fields in extremely deep water.
  • Commodities’ support of the economy allowed Brazilian leaders to put off addressing certain problems that had long bedeviled the nation, such as a political system that tended to breed corruption and a bureaucracy that stymied business innovation. “Brazil became complacent because of the intoxicating effects of China trade,”
Javier E

Latin Lovers' Quarrel - By James Traub | Foreign Policy - 0 views

  • the big news out of Cartagena -- outside of the Secret Service wing of the Hotel Caribe, that is -- was the united front that Latin American countries put up against the United States on several big issues.
  • whether Cuba should be admitted to the next summit, in 2015, which the United States and Canada opposed and all 30 Latin American countries, both left-wing bastions like Ecuador and traditional U.S. allies like Colombia, favored, thus bringing the meeting to an end without a planned joint declaration
  • The idea of an "American camp" in Latin America has been an anachronism for some while, but this became glaringly clear in Cartagena. "We need them more than they need us," as Christopher Sabatini, senior director of policy at the Americas Society, puts it. The United States remains the region's largest trading partner, the source of 40 percent of its foreign investment and 90 percent of its remittances. U.S. foreign aid still props up shaky countries like Colombia and Guatemala. But trade with both China and Europe has grown sharply over the last decade. And both big economies like Brazil and Argentina, and smaller ones like Chile and Peru, have experienced solid growth at a time when the United States has faltered. "Most countries of the region view the United States as less and less relevant to their needs,"
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The big issues that divide the United States (and let's not forget, Canada) from its Latin American allies are Cuba, drugs, and immigration. On a trip to Latin America last year, in fact, Obama promised Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes that he would push immigration reform through Congress -- an effort he later abandoned. But for all their recent maturation, Latin American countries are affected by U.S. domestic issues in a way that no other region could be. Latin America therefore suffers from the paralysis of U.S. domestic politics as Europe or Asia does not.
  • even Washington's closest allies in the region have lost patience with U.S. politics
  • This year, Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina, a former general elected as a hard-liner, dramatically reversed course and spoke up in favor of drug legalization. This earned him extraordinary visits from both U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. According to Eduardo Stein, the former vice president of Guatemala, Biden said that the United States was eager to discuss drug reform, just not at the summit, while Napolitano reportedly plainly said, "Don't think of raising the issue at the summit." Pérez then went ahead and called a meeting of regional leaders, who could not agree on an alternative set of policies but decided to raise the issue in Cartagena. Pérez later said that drug policy was the only issue discussed at the summit's final closed-door session.
luckangeloja

Comparative Criminology | North America - Antigua and Barbuda - 0 views

  • Antigua and Barbuda is considered a minor transshipment point for narcotics bound for the US and Europe; more significant as an offshore financial center
  • The U.S. Government has maritime drug law enforcement agreements with all seven of the Eastern Caribbean states. A Protocol to amend and update the maritime agreements was submitted to each country in April 2003. The Protocol would permit hot pursuit of maritime drug traffickers into the territorial waters of an Eastern Caribbean state by U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) law enforcement detachments aboard third country ships (e.g., UK). The Protocol also would permit a law enforcement shiprider from any Regional Security System (RSS) member state (The seven Eastern Caribbean states comprise the RSS.) aboard a USCG or third country vessel to authorize drug law enforcement operations in the territorial waters of any RSS member state. Only Antigua and Barbuda has signed the Protocol. To date, none of these countries has signed the Caribbean Maritime Counterdrug Agreement, which would facilitate cooperation among themselves.
  • Most Eastern Caribbean officials regard marijuana production and trafficking as serious offenses, although the question of legalization or decriminalization is being discussed in some quarters. The U.S. supports and encourages eradication campaigns as a means to combat marijuana use in the Eastern Caribbean.
  •  
    This article discussed the involvement of United States drug enforcement in the Eastern Caribbean. It says that even though several eastern countries have agreed to receive enforcement from the U.S., they have not agreed to receive enforcement from each other. This could help the drug related problems in Antigua and Barbuda and other countries as well.
Javier E

You have to have AAFTA - 0 views

  • former USTR and deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick wrote an essay proposing that the United States consolidate our trade diplomacy in the region: This year President Bush and the Democratic-led Congress should launch a new Association of American Free Trade Agreements (AAFTA). The AAFTA could shape the future of the Western Hemisphere, while offering a new foreign and economic policy design that combines trade, open societies, development and democracy.
  • U.S. global strategy must have a hemispheric foundation. Successful and sustainable international strategies must be constructed across administrations. Ronald Reagan called for free trade throughout the Americas, opened U.S. markets to our Caribbean neighbors, and completed an FTA with Canada. George H.W. Bush completed negotiations for a North American FTA, offered trade preferences to the Andean countries, negotiated peace in Central America, and freed Panama. Bill Clinton secured the passage of Nafta, launched work on a Free Trade Area of the Americas, and backed Plan Colombia. George W. Bush enacted FTAs with Chile, the five states of Central America and the Dominican Republic. He also completed FTAs with Colombia, Peru and Panama. If Congress passes these agreements, the U.S. will finally have an unbroken line of free trade partners stretching from Alaska to the tip of South America. Not counting the U.S., this free trade assembly would comprise two-thirds of both the population and GDP of the Americas. The AAFTA would draw together these 13 partners to build on the gains of free trade. It could also include the island states of the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act. Starting with a small secretariat, perhaps in Miami, the AAFTA should advance hemispheric economic integration; link development and democracy with trade and aid; improve working and environmental conditions; and continue to pursue the goal of free trade throughout the hemisphere. It might even foster cooperation in the WTO's global trade negotiations. The AAFTA might be connected to an academic center, which could combine research and practice through an association among universities in the Americas.... The U.S. cannot afford to lose interest in its own neighborhood.
  • in many ways, Zoellick is simply proposing a political trade with our FTA partners -- deeper economic integration in return for adding on stringent labor and environmental standards.
tristanpantano

Nicaragua 2015 Crime and Safety Report - 0 views

  • Nicaragua has low overall reported crime
  • In 2014, the most frequent violent crime reported by U.S. citizens was robbery (accounting for 75 percent of all violent crime reports).
  • For a large number of incidents, victims reported that the perpetrator possessed a weapon, but acts of gratuitous violence either with or without a weapon were only reported 33 percent of the time.
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • The number of reports of burglary increased 63 percent from 2013 to 2014.
  • 248:
  • ost frequently reported non-violent crime was thefts from or parts of a motor vehicle, accounting for almost half of all non-violent crime reports.
  • The most frequent locations where non-violent crimes were reported to occur were restaurants, hotels (60 percent increase), roadways (700 percent increase), and on buses.
  • 9:100,000 inhabitants.
  • 100,000
  • Areas of Concern
  • 100,000
  • The U.S. Embassy must pre-approve all travel by U.S. government personnel to the Northern and Southern Caribbean Coast Autonomous Regions due to crime and transportation safety concerns.
  • anagua, Granada, Masaya, San Juan del Sur, Rivas, Tipitapa, Leon, Diriamba, Bluefields, Puerto Cabezas, and the Corn Islands.
  • 102:100,000
  • Nicaraguan law requires vehicles to be equipped with a stopped/disabled vehicle indicator (a reflective triangle) and a fire extinguisher.
  • Nicaraguan law requires drivers to be taken into custody for driving under the influence of alcohol/drugs.
  • In 2014, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, there were 13 5.0+earthquakes near/in Nicaragua at depths from 8-124 miles
  • Nicaragua has many active and potentially active volcanoes.
  •  
    This article gives a lot of statistics about crime rates in Nicaragua. It has various foreign policies and how it affects the US. 
Javier E

Is the U.S. ready for Brazil's latest new beginning? - 0 views

  • This new G9 is the core of the too big and unwieldy G20. It is the United States, China, Japan, Germany, France, the U.K., India, Brazil, and Russia. The countries whose combined economic, political, military, demographic, regional and global strengths set them apart from all others. The EU doesn't belong because it doesn't really have a coherent foreign policy. The other members of the G20 are only invited to show up at the meetings because the world is too embarrassed to ask them to stay home.)
  • Shannon recognizes that he is the U.S.'s first ambassador to Brazil for a new era -- one in which Brazil is no longer principally seen by the United States as a regional power but is instead acknowledged as a major global actor, one in which the U.S.'s relationship with Brazil is no longer the natural axis around which the hemisphere turns and that new axes, such as that between Brazil and China, its number one trade and investment partner, may become even more important. Work on a big Brazil-EU trade deal might -- combined with the United States' limited bandwidth due to domestic and other foreign concerns -- have a similar effect of reducing  U.S. influence on the other big player in the Americas.
  • many in the United States have yet to come to view Brazil as we do, say, countries like China, India or France... where we expect to have differences, some major, and to nonetheless continuing to work on progress where we can find it.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Brazil deserves to be broken out of the Latin policy ghetto and, just as the United States has a China policy or Russia policy or India policy, perhaps it is time we really developed an independent, sufficiently complex and flexible, forward-looking, globally oriented, not-for-or-by-beginners Brazil policy.
horowitzza

Silent War in Nicaragua: The New Politics of Violence | NACLA - 0 views

  • At 2:30 p.m. on June 15, 2000—more than ten years after the U.S.-sponsored Contra war officially ended in Nicaragua—a guerrilla unit of rearmed ex-Sandinistas and ex-Contras surrounded the small campesino home of Guadalupe Montenegro in the rural municipality of Siuna
  • Without saying a word, the men opened fire indiscriminately, killing Montenegro and all ten members of his family before burning the corpses and torching the house.
  • Perhaps nowhere else in Central America are the problems of demobilized soldiers, weapons left over from the Cold War and poverty more obvious than in the rural area of north-central Nicaragua—a region where the war that began in the 1980s has still not ended.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • "the Colombianization of the country,"
  • various residual groups of ex-combatants, some of whom are known by the government to be involved with international weapons and drug smuggling cartels, have started to take control of parts of the socially and economically isolated Caribbean region of Nicaragua.
  • Initially dismissed by the government as "hotheads," "groups of delinquents" or "dogs of war" left over from the 1980s, the rebel groups appear to be anything but a rag-tag army.
  • According to testimonies from local sources, the rearmados are well-armed, expertly trained, equipped with modern methods of communication
  • In response to increased rebel activity in a gold and silver mining area called the "Mining Triangle" (Siuna, Bonanza and La Rosita), the Nicaraguan Army declared a military offensive
  • The legacy of war and violence in Nicaragua is both heart-breaking and angering. In the recent history of the country, violence has always been answered with more violence.
  • During the U.S.-backed Somoza dynasty the state-sponsored repression of the poor by the National Guard was answered by the violence of the Sandinista Revolution, the triumph of which led to the violence of an eight-year-long, U.S.-funded war
luckangeloja

Antigua and Barbuda Country Profile - International Security Sector Advisory Team (ISSAT) - 0 views

  • The dual-island state serves as a transit point in the international drugs trade and is home to criminal networks operating human trafficking rings.
  • Antigua and Barbuda was designated by the US State Department in 2013 as being a “Country of Primary Concern” with regards to money laundering. The country’s significant offshore financial sector makes it highly susceptible to the laundering of illicit proceeds from drug trafficking and financial crimes, the State Department noted.
  • The Royal Antigua and Barbuda Police Force (RABPF) is the primary body responsible for domestic law enforcement and numbers around 600 personnel. It is housed under the Ministry of National Security and Labour.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The Coast Guard conducts drug interdiction operations but, according to the US State Department, lacks the capacity to fully carry these out.
  • Antigua and Barbuda is a part of the Regional Security System (RSS) which seeks to promote cooperation between its members[9] in the Eastern Caribbean in drug interdiction efforts and maritime policing, among other areas.
  • The police are also engaged in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) programme which was launched in 2011 and provides educational talks to school students on avoiding gangs, violence and drugs.
  •  
    This article talked about how the safety and security organizations are applied in this country. According to the U.S., the coast guard of this country lacks the numbers that are needed to crack down on drug interdiction operations. If they're were more members, the drug related crimes would obviously go down. This article also touches on how easily money laundering can come from drug trafficking in Antigua and Barbuda.
luckangeloja

Our Partners | ONDCP Antigua and Barbuda - 0 views

  • Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force (ABDF) The mission of the Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force is to defend Antigua and Barbuda’s territorial integrity and sovereignty to include, aid to the civil authority, fisheries protection, drug interdiction
  • Due to the involvement of the ONDCP and ABDF in drug interdictions, both entities work in partnership to ensure that our borders remain relatively safe from infiltration by drugs traffickers and those who engage in illegal activities.
  • Although RPFAB have numerous units within the force the ONDCP is mainly in partnership with the Intelligence Unit, the Drug Squad and the Police prosecution department.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Over the years the ONDCP has worked closely along with the Customs and Excise division, sharing useful Information and Intelligence in order to clamp down on Money Laundering, Cross border movement of cash and Illegal Drugs which could be linked to terrorism.
  •  
    This article listed the forces used to enforce drug related policies in Antigua and Barbuda. There were connections between the local forces and the ONDCP, which is responsible for the U.S.'s anti-drug policies and one of Antigua and Barbuda's primary counter narcotics agencies.
Ellie McGinnis

2013 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) - 0 views

  • more than 80 percent of the primary flow of the cocaine trafficked to the United States first transited through the Central American corridor in 2012.
  • Guatemala’s weak public institutions, pervasive corruption, and porous ports and borders to move illicit products, persons, and bulk cash.
  • Improved law enforcement efforts in Colombia and Mexico, among other factors, led to an increasing volume of precursor chemicals transiting Guatemala.
  • ...30 more annotations...
  • Guatemala produces opium poppy and synthetic drugs for export
  • ombating drug trafficking one of his administration’s top priorities.
  • President Otto Perez Molina
  • government’s extensive anti-drug efforts and established a mobile land interdiction unit charged with targeting DTOs operating in remote areas
  • Guatemala’s pressing issues include high levels of violence fueled by the drug trade, money laundering, and other organized criminal activities; corruption within the police; and an overburdened and inefficient judicial system
  • Guatemala confronts continuing fiscal challenges in seeking to fund its counternarcotics initiatives. The country has the lowest tax collection rate in Central America and one of the lowest in Latin America.
  • Guatemala had the eighth-highest murder rate in the world
  • Guatemala worked with the United States to arrest high-profile traffickers in 2012
  • Guatemala is a party to the Central American Commission for the Eradication of Production, Traffic, Consumption and Illicit Use of Psychotropic Drugs and Substances
  • Inter-American Convention against Corruption
  • A maritime counternarcotics agreement with the United States is fully implemented
  • Guatemala is one of six countries (along with Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, France, Belize and the United States) that ratified the Caribbean Regional Agreement on Maritime Counter Narcotics, which is now in force.
  • 590 hectares of opium poppy on these missions
  • air interdiction efforts, supported by six U.S.-titled helicopters, have significantly deterred drug flights from entering the country.
  • Guatemala seized 4.7 metric tons (MT) of cocaine in 2012,
  • eight kilograms of heroin
  • $5.6 million in drug-related assets
  • United States intends to work with Guatemala to build capacity for proper storage and/or destruction.
  • uatemala lacks current information
  • underfunded with an annual budget of $450,000, of which approximately 80 percent was used to cover salaries
  • SECCATID developed a school-based drug prevention program, “My First Steps,
  • United States continues to work with the Guatemalan Police Reform Commission to address police reform.
  • Guatemala cooperated with the United States and regional partners on several important counternarcotics initiatives in 2012
  • Guatemala and the United States continued to collaborate on a range of ongoing citizen security, counternarcotics, law enforcement, and rule-of-law initiatives in 2012, including the Central America Regional Security Initiative. U.S. assistan
  • United States provided support to an inter-agency anti-gang unit that brought together the PNC, Attorney General’s office (MP), and analysts from the PNC’s criminal analysis unit (CRADIC) to investigate and dismantle local gang organizations.
  • .S. support for rule-of-law activities, Guatemala increased its capacity to prosecute narcotics traffickers, organized crime leaders, money launderers and corrupt officials.
  • productive relations with Guatemala and will continue to support the government’s efforts to improve its technical and organizational capacity in the security and justice sectors.
  • better equipped to combat narcotics-related crimes in the country by fully implementing the Organized Crime Law
  • The United States encourages the Government of Guatemala to continue implementation of the Asset Seizure Law; quickly implement an anti-corruption law enacted by the Congress in October; approve legislation to regulate the gaming industry; and reform its law governing injunctions, which is often used to delay processes and trials
  • Concrete and substantial police reform, with appropriate budgetary support, is necessary for sustained progress in Guatemala. 
Javier E

Insight-Batista's Brazilian Empire Was Sunk by More Than Hubris - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • things have gotten worse for Batista. Hit by mounting debt, a series of project delays and a crisis of confidence, his six publicly listed companies have suffered one of the most spectacular corporate meltdowns in recent history.
  • He pumped billions into the group's companies even as share prices plunged by as much as 90 percent.
  • His own fortune - the world's seventh-biggest last year, according to Forbes - has declined by more than $25 billion over the past 18 months.
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • His empire also fell victim to the sudden end of both the global commodities boom and a wild exuberance for emerging markets - two forces that attracted investors to Batista's vision.
  • A former Brazilian finance minister, a former energy minister and a former chief justice of Brazil's supreme court joined the OGX board, bolstering the credibility of the polyglot, European-educated "Brazilianaire".
  • When Batista raised $4.11 billion in OGX's initial public offering in June 2008, interest in Brazil was feverish. Petrobras had just made giant offshore oil discoveries and Brazil was expected to become one of the world's top five oil producers by 2020.
  • Record demand from China drove up the price of Brazilian soybeans, iron ore, coffee, sugar and other commodities. Oil rose to an all-time high. EBX had also just sold most of its first listed company, iron ore producer MMX Mineração e Metálicos SA, to Anglo American Plc for $6.65 billion, enriching Batista and his investors.
  • A lot of the people who invested with Batista were not fools, and his rise and fall has followed that of Brazil.
  • DeGolyer & MacNaughton (D&G), a Dallas-based certification company, estimated OGX's potential resources at 10.8 billion barrels of oil and natural gas equivalent. That would have been enough - if OGX could figure out how to get it out of the ground - to supply all U.S. oil needs for more than a year and a half.
  • OGX estimated it would produce 1.4 million barrels a day by 2019, equivalent to 70 percent of Brazil's output, or about half of the output of Venezuela, a founding member of OPEC.
  • Already Brazil's richest man, Batista bragged he would surpass Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Mexico's Carlos Slim to become the world's wealthiest person. Today he does not even make Forbes' top 100 list.
  • The consequences of Tubarão Azul's failure quickly spread because of the close links between EBX Group companies. EBX shipbuilder OSX Brazil SA was formed to build and lease a fleet of offshore oil vessels for OGX. Power producer MPX Energia SA is developing gas fields with OGX in Brazil's northeast. Port operator LLX Logística SA is home to OSX's shipyard, a place to store and process OGX oil and to ship Anglo American's iron ore.
  • Batista may also have been hurt by Brazil's efforts to help his and other companies weather the 2008 U.S. financial crisis and the world economic slowdown that followed. As Brazilian stocks, currency and bonds plunged, EBX stocks briefly fell to levels that were only broken this year.
  • EBX was one of the main beneficiaries of cheap capital that Brazil's government pumped into the economy to fight the downturn.
  • In Batista, the government was pursuing its then-fashionable strategy of creating "national champions" while making up for delays in its own infrastructure projects. It encouraged Batista to speed up just as Brazil's boom was about to end.
  • Batista and Brazil, though, have struggled since. As China slows, commodity prices are falling. In the last year Brazil's Bovespa stock index was the worst performer among the world's 28 largest indexes and the only one to fall in the period.
nataliedepaulo1

Nicaragua Follows Its Own Path In Dealing With Drug Traffickers : Parallels : NPR - 0 views

  • Eight out of 10 people in this city are unemployed, yet there are stores everywhere and business seems brisk.
  • The drug trade is this city's blessing and its curse. It's a city that's part of a country that has managed to remain relatively peaceful despite being in one of the most dangerous regions in the world. Analysts say one of the explanations for that relative peace is that Nicaragua has taken a different approach to fighting drug trafficking.
  • Back in 2012, the citizens of Bluefields took to the streets to protest the arrest of a notorious kingpin. News footage showed hundreds of people marching around demanding "justice" and "freedom." The government alleged that Ted Hayman was involved in the drug trade, so they confiscated his home — a huge, gaudy structure in the hills surrounding Bluefields.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • On the surface, it seems like the Nicaraguan government is doing quite a bit to fight the drug war and that Bluefields is a place of perdition. But reality is more complicated. Cocaine Trafficking Routes Through Nicaragua Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime: "Transnational Organized Crime in Central America and the Caribbean" (September 2012) Credit: Alyson Hurt / NPR 'Cocaine Republics' Cocaine's Influence on Nicaragua's Miskito Coast Nicaragua — the largest country in Central America — has a lengthy coastline on the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. With its remote location, Bluefields is well placed to serve as a pit stop along the corridor where drugs travel from the South American producers to U.S. consumers. What's more, the cocaine moving through Nicaragua's territory represents a higher share of GDP than any other Central American country, which in the words of the U.N.'s Office on Drugs and Crime, should give traffickers greater leverage to both sow more corruption and foment violence.
  • In 2011, The Global Commission on Drugs, a high-profile panel of world leaders – including former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker — declared that the "global war on drugs has failed." And this September, the commission followed up with a report recommending policies that work, including some legalization and encouraging countries to try regulating instead of prohibiting some aspects of the drug trade.
  •  
    This article explains the complicated drug issue in Nicaragua and how it affects the lives of the people.
Javier E

In Honduras, Deaths Make U.S. Rethink Drug War - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • Fearful that Central America was becoming overrun by organized crime, perhaps worse than in the worst parts of Mexico, the State Department, the D.E.A. and the Pentagon rushed ahead this year with a muscular antidrug program with several Latin American nations, hoping to protect Honduras and use it as a chokepoint to cut off the flow of drugs heading north.
  • the antidrug cooperation, often promoted as a model of international teamwork, into a case study of what can go wrong when the tactics of war are used to fight a crime problem that goes well beyond drugs.
  • “You can’t cure the whole body by just treating the arm,” said Edmundo Orellana, Honduras’s former defense minister and attorney general. “You have to heal the whole thing.”
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • A sweeping new plan for Honduras, focused more on judicial reform and institution-building, is now being jointly developed by Honduras and the United States. But State Department officials must first reassure Congress that the deaths have been investigated and that new safeguards, like limits on the role of American forces, will be put in place.
  • the new plan, according to a recent draft shown to The New York Times, is more aspirational than anything aimed at combating drugs and impunity in Mexico, or Colombia before that. It includes not just boats and helicopters, but also broad restructuring: several new investigative entities, an expanded vetting program for the police, more power for prosecutors, and a network of safe houses for witnesses.
  • The country’s homicide rate is among the highest in the world, and corruption has chewed through government from top to bottom.
  • The foreign minister, Mr. Corrales, a hulk of a man with a loud laugh and a degree in engineering, said he visited Washington in early 2011 with a request for help in four areas: investigation, impunity, organized crime and corruption.
  • Members of the Honduran police teams told government investigators that they took their orders from the D.E.A. Americans officials said that the FAST teams, deploying tactics honed in Afghanistan, did not feel confident in the Hondurans’ abilities to take the lead.
  • there were no detailed rules governing American participation in law enforcement operations. Honduran officials also described cases in which the rules of engagement for the D.E.A. and the police were vague and ad hoc.
  • the killing — along with the soaring homicide rate and the increased trafficking — sounded alarms in Washington: “It raised for us the specter of Honduras becoming another northern Mexico.”
  • Representative Howard L. Berman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote to Mrs. Clinton, “Unfortunately, this is not the first time the United States has come perilously close to an overmilitarized strategy toward a country too small and institutionally weak for its citizens to challenge the policy.”
  • Mr. Brownfield, the assistant secretary, said it was impossible to “offer a zero risk program for interdicting drugs in Central America.” He noted that the shootings during interdiction raids happened in the middle of the night, in remote locations that were hard for investigators to reach. Despite these challenges, he said that investigations were conducted and that he was “basically satisfied” that he knew what had happened.
  • From the moment the Honduran pilot departed in his aging Tucano turboprop, just before midnight, he was in radio contact with Colombian authorities, who regularly receive radar intelligence from the American military’s Southern Command.
  • Mr. Corrales, the foreign minister, and some American officials have concluded that the downed planes amounted to misapplied military justice, urged on by societal anger and the broader weaknesses of Honduras’s institutions.
  • Creating a stronger system is at the core of what some officials are now calling Anvil II. A draft of the plan provided by Mr. Corrales shows a major shift toward shoring up judicial institutions with new entities focused on organized and financial crime.
  • The D.E.A.’s role will also probably change. A
  • “It’s a tragedy; there is no confidence in the state,” she said, wearing black in her university office. The old game of cocaine cat-and-mouse tends to look like a quicker fix, she said, with its obvious targets and clear victories measured in tons seized.
  • “This moment presents us with an opportunity for institutional reform,” Dr. Castellanos said. But that will depend on whether the new effort goes after more than just drugs and uproots the criminal networks that have already burrowed into Honduran society.
oliviaodon

Recommendations To Enhance Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Aspects of U... - 0 views

  • While ICTs are an essential component in ensuring information flows during a disaster, it is often the case that ICTs are not considered by countries and organizations to be a ‘critical infrastructure’ in the context of international disaster preparedness plans and frameworks. Because of this, adequate priority is not often given by countries to the development and pre-planning of ICT resources in advance of a disaster, nor the restoration of ICT systems and networks following a disaster.
  • agencies responsible for international disaster and humanitarian response should formally recognize telecommunications / ICTs as a critical infrastructure for international disaster preparedness, response and recovery planning, and should encourage such recognition by other governments, NGOs and international organizations involved in disaster relief and recovery.
  • Nearly all recent major global disasters have shown the importance of first responders being able to communicate among each other and provide information to affected populations. Moreover, communications systems enable citizens to search for and confirm the status of their loved ones, and to offer up both resources and information about survivors and damage using channels such as SMS and social media, and broadcast technology.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Part of recognizing ICTs as a critical infrastructure is to ensure their advance incorporation into a country’s disaster management framework or plan, including pre-positioning of ICT resources and identification of personnel that may be required to use or restore those resources.
  •  
    This passage discusses how ICTs can be used by countries for disaster preparedness.
tristanpantano

Some Sandinistas Never Change | Foreign Policy - 0 views

  • o what do you do if you are the president of the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and you’re facing the worst drought since 1976? Why, you buy Russian fighter jets at $30 million a pop, and work out a secretive deal to trade private land and the patrimony of your citizens to a Chinese canal-building company, of course.
  • When I worked for the Bush administration, I met the newly-elected Ortega in Granada, Nicaragua, at an event he surely had mixed feelings about. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) had helped the government of Nicaragua design and implement a land reform program that put property titles into the hands of Nicaraguan citizens. Nicaraguans loved it,
  • Ortega is now serving his second term.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Ortega is once again trying to build up his military for no good reason.
  • First, he has signed a deal with a Caribbean-based Hong Kong company to dig a canal to rival the Panama Canal. It is unclear to what degree the Chinese government is party to the deal, but state-owned enterprises are involved. That means the government is involved, so of course we should expect Ortega and his cronies to benefit. Read the piece linked above for more details about the questions being raised over the dubious cost calculations ($40 billion? $50 billion? More?), impact on the environment, impact on private land ownership, and the forceful tactics of the authorities against citizens trying to get information about the project, or simply trying to protect their homes from intrusion by officials escorting Chinese researchers and contractors into their villages.
  • uled as an illiberal democracy, meaning that the constitution, laws, property rights, and free speech are curtailed whenever it suits the rulers.
  • If Ortega’s efforts to strengthen ties with Russia and China were simply about commerce and improving his economy, it would make sense. Poor countries regularly try to do such things.
  •  
    This article gives is valuable because it has a great deal about Nicaragua's current economic state, and why they are so poor. It talks about foreign policy and their military which could be important information.
malonema1

Environmental Sustainability Issues in Nicaragua - 0 views

  • As both the largest country in Central America and the least populated, Nicaragua has the opportunity to enforce environmental protection laws and conserve a relatively large amount of natural resources. However, a variety of forces are driving deforestation and rapidly increasing pollution.
  • Known as the "Land of Lakes and Volcanoes," and reveling in its status in Central America as the country with the most fresh water, Nicaragua has very little safe drinking water. Those who cannot afford to purchase water are extremely vulnerable to a variety of health issues.
  • Export agriculture in Central America has long been a booming business for U.S. corporations. Yet pesticides employed at fruit and cotton plantations and other export crops throughout the last 40 years contributed to health problems for entire generations.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Around 75 percent of Nicaraguan forests have already been transformed into crop and pasture land, and at least 50 percent of that deforestation has occurred since 1950. Yet there is still hope for preservation.
  • Due to policy shifts, 85 percent of the land that formed part of the reserve on the San Cristobal-Casitas volcano now belongs to one private owner
  • overnment control of the remaining 15 percent is all but nonexistent. Landless peasants, large coffee growers, and cattle ranches are slowly settling into these public lands such as San Cristobal, and the government is failing to stop it
  • When the Chamorro government created the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve in 1991, the territory encompassed 1.8 million acres—7 percent of Nicaragua's land, including a rich section of rainforest. However, they neglected to inform the Mayangna and Miskito indigenous peoples who lived there that the land was now federally protected (and hence, off limits from their traditional uses of fishing, hunting, and crop raising)
  •  
    This article talks about the land rights in Nicaragua and the lack of protection for forests.
horowitzza

Making Peace Is Political : Rejecting War, Nicaragua Now Relies on Democratic Support -... - 0 views

  • Significantly, the presidents not only continue to make strides in conflict resolution in Nicaragua, but also have started to place more emphasis on the other focus of civil war--El Salvador.
  • progress is the result of a combination of changes in the terms of the original equation in the quest for peace
  • The United States, though, has a legitimate concern to see the Sandinistas fulfill their pledge guaranteeing the safe return of the rebels and their families to Nicaragua from Honduras
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • President Bush could go a long way toward restoring peace in Nicaragua, and U.S.-Nicaraguan relations, if he proposed to use his influence and support--together with other heads of state, the World Bank and various other international agencies--to help launch a resettlement program, in Nicaragua
  • Nicaraguans who have sought asylum abroad would be enticed to return home. However, such a project to restore our dignity as Nicaraguans can be possible only if the Sandinista regime takes a sincere decision to adopt democracy.
horowitzza

Revolutionary Drift: Power and Pragmatism in Ortega's Nicaragua - 0 views

  • Thirty-six years after the 1979 revolution that overthrew the entrenched Somoza dynasty, Nicaraguans still fill Plaza La Fe in Managua to celebrate Liberation Day festivities every July 19
  • supporters of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and President Daniel Ortega view the revolution as an ongoing process
  • The conditions for his return to power in 2007 were created by a pact he struck in 1999 with then-President Arnoldo Aleman of the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC).
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • After being elected by only 38 percent of voters to a term that many expected to end in economic disaster, he was re-elected with more than 62 percent of the vote in 2011.
  • He owes his popularity to the success of popular social programs and improvements to the economy
  • his political opponents and some outside observers are highly critical of Ortega and the FSLN’s domination of Nicaragua’s political institutions.
  • corruption allegations in the 2008 municipal elections resulted in the loss of U.S. and European aid.
  • Opponents liken Ortega to Anastasio Somoza, calling him a corrupt dictator.
  • The resulting political imbalance has left the opposition with virtually no leverage in the legislature with regard to either policy or appointments.
  • Many presume that either Ortega will run for—and win—a fourth term, or that he will be succeeded by his wife, Rosario Murillo, or their son Laureano.
  • All of this has made for a particularly polarized political environment, much of it revolving around Ortega himsel
jblackwell2

Colombia is preparing for peace. So are its drug traffickers. - The Washington Post - 1 views

  • NECOCLI, Colombia — As the Colombian government nears a deal to end its 50-year conflict with FARC guerrillas, it is intensifying another war in the jungles here along the Caribbean coast, the stronghold of a shadowy drug organization known as Clan Úsuga.
  • Both the government and the traffickers know that a big share of Colombia’s billion-dollar cocaine trade will be up for grabs if FARC — whose rebellion runs on drug profits — goes out of business. Some of its 7,000 battle-hardened fighters may be looking for new jobs. Clan Úsuga will be hiring.
  • That $10 billion program, funded by Congress, is considered by many Republicans and Democrats to be one of the most successful U.S. foreign policy achievements of the past generation, forcing FARC to the negotiating table after a half-century of violence that has left more than 220,000 dead.
  •  
    This article talks about the illegal drug trafficking in Columbia, and how it will change once the peace process is complete.
bennetttony

US Congress Seeks to Expose Corruption in Nicaragua | The DC Dispatches | Law, Policy, ... - 0 views

  • On September 21, the House of Representatives approved passage H.R. 5708, the Nicaraguan Investment Conditionality Act (NICA) of 2017 that, if it becomes law, will prohibit loans by international financial institutions (“IFIs”) to the government of Nicaragua unless Nicaragua takes steps to ensure free, fair, and transparent elections as well as strengthen the rule of law.
  • The left-wing Sandinista government is economic and political disaster. Nicaraguan autocrat, Daniel Ortega, and his power-obsessed wife Rosario Murillo, are running for president and vice president in the upcoming November elections. Unless the opposition unites, quickly, the power hungry Ortegas may pull it off. The road to this point is paved with enough human rights abuses and corruption to keep tribunals and courts busy for years.
  • The Nicaraguan people seem to be reaching their limit. When Ortegas sacked the opposition party leadership a few months ago in the mostly puppet Congress, it seems to have lit a spark within the opposition as well as within his own Sandinista party.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • In addition to the domestic problems, Nicaragua, a staunch ally of Communist Cuba and Venezuela, is causing regional tensions to rise.
  • Corrupt officials, for example, should be denied U.S. visas to visit the United States, something that should extend to immediate family members
  •  
    This article talks about measures that the US is taking to help combat the corruption in Nicaragua (even though the US isn't doing too much).
1 - 20 of 38 Next ›
Showing 20 items per page