Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Latin American left rising? First stop Mexico for Argentina's Fernandez
Frank Jack Daniel. Reuters. November 4, 2019
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The prospect of a more united Latin American left grew on Monday after the incoming president of Argentina and his Mexican counterpart discussed reviving a regional diplomatic alternative to the Washington-backed Organization of American States.
Latin American countries have oscillated between left-wing and conservative governments, often with radically different economic and social policies, over the past few decades.
Since last year, anger at corruption, inequality and poverty have pushed conservatives out in Mexico and Argentina, while fueling protests in recent weeks that forced Ecuador and Chile to water down liberal economic policies.
Argentina’s president-elect Alberto Fernandez used his first foreign trip since winning office last month to proclaim a new era of leftist cooperation, in an apparent bid to demonstrate he will not be isolated despite South American neighbor Brazil’s right-wing government.
“I am determined to make Latin America united again, to again join forces to face the challenge of globalization in another way,” Fernandez told reporters in Mexico’s presidential palace after meeting with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Next year, Mexico will assume the presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, a regional body established in Venezuela during late President Hugo Chavez’s government that has lost influence in recent years.
“That is a chance to boost one of the organisms, one of the spaces for integration that have been forgotten recently,” Fernandez said of the organization, seen by some on the left as a future counterweight to the OAS, which they argue is a vehicle for U.S. influence in Latin America.
Mexico’s deputy foreign minister for Latin America lent credence to the idea of the region’s second and third largest economies working together from opposite ends of the continent to revive the grouping known as CELAC.
“Mexico and Argentina have in front of them the opportunity to promote the repositioning of Latin America in the world,” Maximiliano Reyes wrote in the La Jornada daily.
MADURO’S PRAISE
Apart from managing Mexico’s relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, Lopez Obrador has not taken a prominent global role so far, skipping events like the Group of 20 Summit and the U.N. General Assembly.
However, he has stepped back from his predecessor’s robust criticism of Venezuela’s current socialist leader President Nicolas Maduro - instead pursuing Mexico’s traditional policy of non-intervention in other countries’ affairs.
Under U.S. sanctions and declared an illegitimate president by right-leaning governments in the region, Maduro praised Lopez Obrador and Fernandez in a speech in Cuba on Sunday, calling them leaders of a new progressive front in Latin America.
“New winds are blowing,” said Maduro, who has presided over an economic meltdown and who is accused of abuses by rights groups.
Mexico and Argentina’s new foreign policy, combined with the protests and allegations of rights violations by Chilean security forces was “very good news for Maduro,” said David Smilde, a Latin America expert at Tulane University and senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America.
Still, when asked if he would pursue a stronger alliance with like-minded governments in the region, Lopez Obrador demurred on Monday, stressing he had a “very good” relationship with Trump.
When asked to comment on Maduro’s praise for him, Lopez Obrador again sought to occupy the middle ground.
“Not to show off, but the same thing president Maduro is saying, president Trump is saying.”
Different in style to Chavez, who reveled in verbal clashes with the U.S. “empire,” or jailed former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who felt at home on the global stage, Lopez Obrador was unlikely to announce himself leader of any bloc, said Mexican academic John Ackerman.
But the Mexican president’s return to Mexico’s non-interventionist stance was equally important and was acting as a “wall of contention” against those interested in meddling in other countries, said Ackerman, a constitutional law expert at the National Autonomous University of Mexico who is close to Lopez Obrador’s administration.
“People said Mexico arrived late to the pink tide, and now it’s arriving early to the second pink tide,” said Ackerman, using a term that described the election of socialist governments in Latin America in the early 2000s.
“It’s not a straggler, it’s a leader of this new wave.”
Haiti Is Not “in Crisis.” Haitians Are Fighting for Governmental Accountability.
Cécile Accilien & Randal Maurice Jelks. Truthout. November 2, 2019
When Haiti makes the headlines of The New York Times, it is always in “crisis.” The recent story written by Kirk Simple is headlined “‘There is No Hope’: Crisis Pushes Haiti to Brink of Collapse.” However, the article fails to decipher just who and what is behind the crisis. Instead, Haiti’s citizens come across as simply some “ungovernable” and “irrational” Black people, just like those in many other majority Black, particularly African, countries are frequently depicted. This is a problem more broadly in American news outlets in their representations of Black-led nations like Haiti, and as media watchdogs point out, is not a new phenomenon.
Haiti’s representation is not fully contextualized as being a part of the ongoing democratic struggles occurring throughout the Americas — Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, the United States and Venezuela. Haiti is not alone in its “crisis.”
Haiti is one of the oldest democracies in the Americas. It is only three-and-a-half hours from the U.S. shore. The two countries share a long and complicated history, including the Louisiana Purchase that resulted in the western expansion of the U.S. This was a direct result of Haiti’s fight for independence from Napoleonic France. In 1804, Haiti became the first Black-led republic in the Western Hemisphere.
However, the United States has always been troubled by Haiti as a Black independent nation. This began with the country’s eradication of slavery. Further, most Americans are ignorant to the fact that the United States occupied Haiti from 1915-1934 and has been one of the country’s neocolonial overlords alongside France.
It’s only when it’s convenient that the United States, Canada, France and other powers claim that they do not want “to meddle in Haiti’s democratic process.” Yet there is a history of constant meddling by the United States and France in the support of corrupt politicians through fraudulent elections. In Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, anthropologist Michel-Rolph Trouillot has written that “the past does not exist independently from the present. Indeed, the past is only past because there is a present.”
For weeks Haiti has been on lock down, or peyi bloke, as it is called in Haitian Creole. There have been several statements by professors at the Université d’ État d’Haïti who have demanded that President Jovenel Moïse step down. Haitian political activists have consistently called for a thorough investigation into the more than tens of millions misappropriated from the PetroCaribe fund, an oil alliance and economic cooperation fund between Caribbean countries and Venezuela.
Cleverly, Moïse has asked for foreign aid for famine relief from the United Nations. However, many Haitians have concluded that this is a political tactic to protect himself from being held accountable. Unfortunately, Moïse has self-servingly played into the stereotype of Haiti being a “shithole” of a country. As a result of his political maneuvering, peaceful protests ensued to no avail before the current “crisis.”
In Haitian politics, politique de doublure refers to the various powers that control the country but hide their influence. Haiti, like the United States, is corrupted by a government whose only agenda is to serve the wealthy and foreign investors that include the United States, Canada and France — none of which seem interested in the actual lives of the Haitian people.
Haitians are not victims who are unable to speak for themselves. They have taken to the streets demanding governmental accountability. We stand in solidarity with all Haitian citizens who demand more transparent and democratic governing processes.
We also demand that the reporting by The New York Times and other news outlets provide more contextualization for the current state of affairs in the country. Haiti is not a racially exotic country; it is a small yet important Caribbean nation. It is a bellwether as to what is occurring throughout the Americas. We believe as scholars and intellectuals that responsible journalism must be employed when reporting on Haiti’s current struggles.
Amnesty International to Haiti president: End excessive force against protesters
Jacqueline Charles. Miami Herald. October 31, 2019
Supporters of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse want the Trump administration to help while those in opposition want the U.S. to stop supporting him as Haiti faces week seven of sustained protests. By House Foreign Affairs Committee
Amnesty International is calling on Haitian President Jovenel Moïse to guarantee the rights of Haitians who are taking to the streets to protest against his government, and to put an end to the use of excessive force by his security forces.
The human rights organization said Thursday that it has verified multiple instances of “security forces under the command of President Jovenel Moïse” using unlawful and excessive force, and it must end.
Amnesty said it verified the abuses by the 15,051-member Haiti National Police by reviewing videos of several incidents of police using weapons “indiscriminately and unlawfully, including launching tear gas out of a moving police vehicle ... firing on protesters with less-lethal ammunition at extremely close-range, and beating a protester.”
Amnesty said it also verified instances in which police, armed with semiautomatic rifles, fired live ammunition during protests, in violation of international human rights law and standards on the use of force.
While some of the protests have been peaceful, they’ve also turned violent, with protesters throwing rocks at motorists and Molotov cocktails at foreign embassies and government buildings, and blocked ambulances from crossing barricades.
The sustained anti-government protests demanding the resignation of Moïse are now in their seventh week. At least 35 people have been killed since Sept. 16, with the Haiti National Police implicated in many of the deaths, according to a report by the National Human Rights Defense Network (Réseau National de Défense des Droits Humains). More than 200 people have been injured, including at least eight journalists, between Sept. 16 and Oct. 17, the human rights network said.
“Such incidents must be investigated promptly, thoroughly and effectively,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International. “President Moïse must take urgent measures to ensure people protesting against his government can do so safely, without putting their lives at risk. The police must stop using firearms carrying live ammunition in the context of protests and take particular measures to guarantee the safety of journalists covering the political and human rights situation in Haiti.”
Amnesty’s report echoes those of the National Human Rights Defense Network and other human rights defenders in Haiti who have accused Haitian authorities of launching tear gas into crowds and violating protesters’ rights. They also accused the government of using security forces that drive around in unmarked vehicles and hide their faces when quelling protests.
Hours after Amnesty’s report was released, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who told the Miami Herald last month that the U.S. should interfere with Haiti’s deepening political crisis, tweeted a warning to Moïse.
“Govt leaders in #Haiti should not confuse an unwillingness to interfere in their internal politics with tolerance for violence against protestors & journalists. They have an obligation to uphold the rule of law & will face consequences if responsible for human rights abuses,” Rubio said.
Haiti police did not immediately respond to questions for comments.
Last week during a hearing of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs on aid to the Caribbean and Latin America, Rep. Andy Levin, D-Mich., raised the issue of human rights abuses by the Haiti National Police, which has had some of its stations and vehicles set ablaze during protests and some of its own members marching against the government due to subpar working conditions.
Citing a recent Miami Herald article on human rights abuses and activists’ calls for investigation into excessive use of force, Levin asked Michael Kozak, the acting assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere at the State Department, if the agency had raised human rights concerns with the Haitian government.
Kozak said the State Department “generally” raises human rights concerns but its experience is that the Haiti National Police is one of the few institutions that “has been performing reasonably well.”
“It’s gone from being a very small organization that was really incapable of policing the place to now having the capability,” Kozak said about the force, which has been trained by the United Nations and is partly financed by the U.S. and other nations.
“Are there abuses committed from time to time? Yes,“ Kozak said. But he added the U.S. has been helping the police carry out internal investigations when allegations of abuse are made.
“We’re urging them to use those mechanisms to deal with the abuses when they occur,” he added. “It’s actually been doing a pretty good job of trying to control the unrest without committing [abuses].”
Levin, raising police handling and implication in the massacre that happened in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of La Saline last November, told Kozak he did not “share your sunny view.”
On Thursday, Port-au-Prince and other major cities remained paralyzed with barricades erected on roads and the opposition remaining firm in its position that Moïse needs to resign and it’s too late to hold a dialogue. It has been joined by other groups in society, including human rights activists, the Catholic Church, students and health professionals, all of whom are calling on the president to step down.
Haiti’s Office of the Secretary of State for Communication said Thursday that it was deeply concerned about the difficulties being encountered by many journalists and press workers.
“The Office of the Secretary of State for Communication denounces with the utmost severity all attacks against journalists and workers of the free press in a tumultuous situation,” it said in a statement.
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