"Wretched CAFTA"

Here's some more news form the CAFTA front:

Several countries balking at Cafta plunge

By Elisabeth Malkin
The New York Times
Wednesday, March 1, 2006

Two months after the Central American Free Trade Agreement was supposed to go into effect, only El Salvador is ready to join, frustrating Washington after a hard-won victory in its push toward free trade.

Of the five other countries that agreed to participate, four have yet to change a host of laws to bring them into line with the agreement, which requires them to open up their economies to American trade and investment, dismantle protections for many local industries and enforce intellectual-property rights. The fifth country, Costa Rica, has yet to ratify the agreement.

As the legal changes make their way through the various congresses, they have reignited opposition from an array of groups who fear the trade alliance with the United States will destroy many local businesses and impoverish farmers.

Central American governments also face pressure from powerful business groups that backed the agreements to win the best deal possible.

To complicate matters, some Central American governments now argue that the U.S. government is asking for more than the countries agreed to.

The Bush administration has made the accord a centerpiece of its trade policy, although the six countries' economies account for less than 2 percent of the United States' overall global trade. The new delays bode poorly for Washington's efforts to create a free trade zone spanning the Americas, a plan that has met with little enthusiasm among larger South American countries like Brazil.

Read the entire article

In another article Guatemala's vice minister of foreign trade, Enrique Lacs, declared that "the U.S. negotiation practices have been wretched".

Lacs added that the U.S. negotiating team still wants several more side agreements with Guatemala including lifting restrictions on the importation of antennas and other telecommunications equipment.

Tags: Guatemala, CAFTA, Free, Trade, Agreement

CAFTA: 1 down, 5 to go

First the news story:

CAFTA goes into effect only with El Salvador on March 1

AP - The Bush administration announced Friday that a free trade agreement with El Salvador will take effect on Wednesday, but five other nations who are supposed to be included in the Central American Free Trade Agreement will have to wait.

The announcement was made by U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman who praised El Salvador for the strides it had made in revising laws and regulations to meet its obligations under CAFTA.

Portman said the administration would continue to work with the five other CAFTA countries to "ensure timely and full implementation" of the agreement which would eliminate trade barriers between the United States and the six nations over the next decade.

Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua are the other nations in CAFTA, which won congressional approval after a hard-fought battle last year.

Democratic critics charged that the deal would expose American workers to unfair competition from low-wage nations and will hasten the movement of American manufacturing jobs overseas.

Latin American officials have complained that the United States is making unfair demands for changes in their regulations and laws governing such areas as the protection of copyrights and patents.

And now the response from immigrant groups and solidarity organizations:

**Press Release**
February 24, 2006

Immigrant and solidarity groups protest CAFTA free trade agreement during visit of Salvadoran President Tony Saca to the White House

Stop CAFTA Coalition denounces flawed implementation, pledges to continue fighting CAFTA

Contacts: Burke Stansbury (English): 718 832 9399; Ulysses Miranda (Spanish): 301 675 4860

On Friday, February 24 several organizations gathered in front of the White House to protest the US-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) as the President of El Salvador Antonio Saca met with President George W. Bush to discuss the pending March 1st implementation of the accord.

“Salvadorans are upset that President Saca has come to sign our country on to CAFTA despite overwhelming opposition to the agreement in El Salvador,” said Ulysses Miranda, a member of the FMLN party living in Washington.

“We see Saca’s trip as nothing more than a ploy by the right-wing ARENA party to demonstrate its close relation with the US on the eve of the March 12 elections in El Salvador. But becoming the first country to implement CAFTA will not win votes with Salvadorans!”

Protesters gathered at Lafayette Park for a rally, and then marched to the Organization of American States, where the CAFTA implementing decree was delivered on Friday.

CAFTA implementation was supposed to take place on January 1 with five Central American countries (Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Costa Rica) as well as the Dominican Republic. However, various inconsistencies in the process of legal reforms in each of those countries delayed the implementation.

The Costa Rican legislature has yet to vote on CAFTA, and recent presidential elections there became a referendum on the trade agreement, giving CAFTA opponent Ottón Solís a chance to win a surprise victory pending an ongoing manual recount.

According to Burke Stansbury from the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), "from day one the Bush administration has been trying to ram CAFTA down people's throats, with little debate. In Costa Rica they have failed, and in other countries it took repression and dirty tactics to ratify CAFTA. But just as Central American social movements continue to resist the imposition of this devastating agreement, we too are not giving up."

In addition to becoming the first country to complete the requirements for implementing CAFTA, El Salvador is the only country in Latin America with troops in Iraq, and could soon become the home of a new US-sponsored police training school called the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA). Local Salvadorans claim that President Saca’s trip has more to do with shoring up El Salvador’s position as a US-satellite than it does the issue of immigration.

“Saca claims to be promoting the extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) but such benefits for Salvadorans living in the US have always been won by grassroots groups. If Saca really wants to help Salvadoran immigrants, he would pull El Salvador out of CAFTA,” said Miranda.

In addition to major anti-CAFTA mobilizations in El Salvador over the past month, a large demonstration against CAFTA implementation took place in Guatemala on Friday. “Today we continue to say "No to CAFTA!" in solidarity with our partners in Central America,” said Andrew de Sousa of NISGUA.

For more information see www.stopcafta.org

Tags: Guatemala, CAFTA, El Salvador, CISPES, NISGUA

The wrong answer to a tough question, part 4

Here are the final three of my Top 5 Reasons why former members of the Guatemalan army shouldn't be hired as a supplemental police force:

3. Spending money in all the wrong places

The government intends to spend 12 million dollars on this program during its first year of operation. At least the funds will come out of the military budget. Kinda. Ok, not really.

According to an article in Siglo XXI:

Army spokesperson Orlando Archila explained that "since the Ministry of Defense will be doing the hiring, the salaries will come out of the Defense budget." But then he added that since these salaries weren't included in the Defense budget, the Ministry of Finance will have to "reimburse" them.

The Human Rights ombudsman, Sergio Morales, questioned the operation and the funding. He stated: "We have heard that there will be a multi-million dollar expenditure for the incorporation of these people, when these same funds should be used to strengthen and dignify the work of the Police."

So there's the catch: every cent spent on this temporary band-aid band of soldiers is a cent not being invested in strengthening the police force with more officers, better training, decent salaries, and modern equipment.

4. Fears from the recent, dark past

While the men and women who are hired for this paramilitary force may be dedicated and well-intentioned, there is no denying the emotional and psychological impact that the specter of patrolling soldiers could have for the victims of the armed conflict... especially in the rural areas of Guatemala.

As my co-worker Erwin Perez wrote in an analysis for Incidencia Democrática:

The participation of ex-military in "securing the streets", awakens fears in that part of the civilian population which suffered, with their own flesh and blood, the counterinsurgent repression unleashed by the military during the internal armed conflict. The wounds are still too fresh to forget the atrocities committed by the military against civilian communities under the pretext of "defending the country".

It is telling sign when the military itself goes out of its way to assure that the these new soldier-cops will be trained in Human Rights as well as Police techniques. (The army doth protest too much, methinks.)

A mere ten years have passed since then end of after a brutal 36-year civil war, where 200,000 people were killed and over a million displaced from their homes. In this post-war era, the government should be constructing a small, modern, professional army dedicated exclusively to external defense... as defined by the Peace Accords.

Re-hiring and re-arming ex-soldiers to patrol and police the cities and countryside... well, that's just heading in the wrong direction.

5. The Dandelion Effect

For those of you who didn't grow up in the suburbs, the dandelion is a dastardly weed, difficult to control. Oh sure, you can mow your lawn and make it look as if you've rid yourself of the problem, but as long as those roots lurk untouched and underground... the dandelions will return, and most likely spread.

Dressing ex-soldiers up as police is like plucking at dandelion heads: it may look as if you're making a difference, but you aren't. To begin to really tackle the enormously complex problem of crime and violence in Guatemala, you have to look deeper... at the roots.

As Bernd Debusmann write in his article "Guatemala swept by vigilante killings in crime backlash":

Seasoned human rights experts say that no amount of force, by vigilantes, death squads, or the state, will end the violence now sweeping Guatemala (and to a lesser extent El Salvador and Honduras) as long as governments fail to address the root causes -- poverty, lack of education, lack of jobs, lack of prospects.

Development indicators by the United Nations have long placed Guatemala near the bottom of the list in Latin America. More than half the country‘s 12 million people live in poverty and 2.5 million in extreme poverty -- a condition an aid worker here defined as "being too poor to afford shoes and too poor to send your kid to school."

In an interview Sergio Morales, the Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman, sums it up well:

"The best weapon for combating all of our adversities is to give the Guatemalan population the opportunity for human development. If the social conditions in which we live are not transformed, crime and all the other evils will continue spinning their web and ensnaring the entire country. Which is why we must combat the root causes of these problems."

Obviously this is a complex issue that will require complex solutions. What cannot be allowed, however, is for this moment of crisis to be used as a pretext for militarizing the Civilian National Police, or the country in general.

The Guatemalan people deserve a better answer to this tough question!

Tags: Guatemala, Military, Police, Morales, Poverty

The wrong answer to a tough question, part 3

Here are the first two of my "Top 5 Reasons" why former members of the Guatemalan army shouldn't be hired as a supplemental police force:

1. They don't have the right training.

Police training has an entirely different focus than military training. Imagine what would happen if, instead of upholding and enforcing the law, the police viewed law-breakers as "enemies" to be combated.

The Minister of Defense has stated, though, that these new special forces will receive an "intensive" course before they begin patrolling. According to an article in the Siglo XXI newspaper:

The group will be trained for 45 days, beginning March 1st. "Experts at the Police Academy will give them classes on human rights and police techniques" said a military spokesperson.

And no-one sees the irony in the fact that the Defense Ministry believes that all you need to impart full knowledge of human rights and police techniques is 45 days?!?! (One wonders if weekends are included.)

2. What about the "C" in PNC?

During the civil war, the National Police had conspired with the military to commit crimes against humanity such as kidnapping, torture, and murder. (Read "Guatemala's Secret Police Files")

As part of the Peace Accords signed in 1996 between the government and the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG), the National Police force was completely disbanded.

In its place, the peace accords called for the creation of the National Civilian Police (PNC) force which would be separated from the military and oriented towards public service and guaranteeing the rights and security of the population.

The Peace Accord entitled "Agreement on the Strengthening of Civilian Power and on the Role of the Armed Forces in a Democratic Society" called for the following reform to the Guatemalan Constitutional:

It shall be the only armed police force competent at the national level whose function is to protect and guarantee the exercise of the rights and freedoms of the individual; prevent, investigate and combat crime; and maintain public order and internal security. It shall be under the direction of the civil authorities and shall maintain absolute respect for human rights in carrying out its functions.

That Constitutional reform was never passed.

Still, in 1997 the Guatemalan Congress approved a law creating the National Civilian Police. Unfortunately, just a few years later, Human Rights Watch published a report describing the discouraging failures of the new PNC:

Police abuses continued to occur, made all the more serious by the lack of effective internal disciplinary mechanisms, and that virtually all PNC officers had been recycled from the unprofessional National Police, Treasury Police or the army.

Another important report to consider is Guatemala: Memory of Silence. This was the ground-breaking publication of the UN-sponsored Historical Clarification Commission (CEH), otherwise known as "Guatemala's Truth Commission".

The CEH was mandated by the Peace Accords to investigate human rights violations and violence connected with the armed confrontation and recommend measures to promote peace and national harmony.

They too warned against the continuing militarization of the country:

Considering the grave human rights violations committed by Army agents during the armed confrontation and the marked weakening of the social fabric as a direct consequence of the militarization, the CEH believes it vital to promote legislative measures which establish the fundamental bases for the correct relationship between the Army and civil society within a democratic system, and the necessary subordination of the Army to civilian rule.

These measures should include ... the apolitical role of the military and restricting its role to external defense.

The principal aim of the restructuring of the security forces ... is to convert the role of the police into one of genuine public service. This implies the exclusively civilian character of the police force...

On this basis and with a view to guaranteeing suitable future development of the duties of the police, the CEH particularly recommends:

73. That under the guidance of the Ministry of the Interior, the PNC begin a process of internal reflection in consultation with organizations from civil society, with the aim of producing and defining the doctrine of the civilian security forces, whose bases should be:

a) service to the community, without discrimination of any type and with respect for the multiethnic character of the Guatemalan nation;

b) development of the civilian nature of the police force and the demilitarization of its organization, hierarchy and disciplinary procedures ...

With amazing clarity (practically anticipating the defeat of the Constitutional reforms), the CEH made a concise recommendation:

78. That, in case the reforms proposed in the Peace Accords are unsuccessful, Congress take the necessary legislative action to separate the functions of the Army and of the Police, limiting the participation of the Army in the field of public security to an absolute minimum.

Tomorrow I'll give you three more reasons why I believe that soldiers (even ex-soldiers) shouldn’t be playing cops & robbers!

{Disclaimer: All emphasis in the above selections is mine.}

Tags: Guatemala, Army, Police, CEH, Peace Accords

The wrong answer to a tough question, part 2

In yesterday's journal entry I painted a rather bleak picture of the spiraling crime situation in Guatemala. A deadly mix of gangs, drug smugglers, and organized crime has taken this country hostage.

One of the underlying problems is that Guatemala's National Police Force isn't a force to be reckoned with. The police force is short-staffed, ill-trained, poorly-equipped and under-paid. (That is to say, those who aren't on the payroll of organized crime. Corruption has spread like the plague through the ranks of police officers and officials.)

The Berger administration has been staggering ineffective at stopping, or even slowing, the violence. Meanwhile, the desperation of population has become so great that vigilante groups are taking "justice" into their own hands.

Guatemala swept by vigilante killings in crime backlash

By Bernd Debusmann, Special Correspondent
Herald News Daily

Guatemala City - Bodies dumped in vacant lots, shot through the head, hands and feet tied. Victims beheaded, strangled, clubbed, hacked with machetes. Torture marks. Hand-written notes pinned to corpses.

Such images, familiar during a long civil war, are part of the daily routine again in Guatemala, nine years after a peace accord ended the fighting.

The victims are often in their teens and early 20s, suspected of being gang members and targeted by vigilantes sick of Guatemala‘s relentlessly rising crime. They included a young woman who was beheaded and three young men shot through the head and stuffed into the trunk of a car, hands and feet tied. Hand-written notes said, "That's for robbery" and, "This is for breaking into my house."

Many of the killings in the past few years have been attributed to vigilantes, acting with impunity in pursuit of what is known here as "social cleansing."

"What is happening is that there is a lot of crime and nobody has confidence in the government‘s ability to provide security," said the Casa Alianza's Claudia Rivera. "Crime is out of control and the state cannot stop it. So people in neighborhoods get together to do it themselves."

Sergio Morales, Guatemala‘s human rights prosecutor, echoed that assessment. "The state is weak. The people have no confidence. Neither in the security forces nor in the justice system."

Please read the entire article

Putting an end to this cycle of violence is an urgent task for the Guatemalan government.

Unfortunately, President Berger has chosen to embrace the axiom: "Desperate times demand desperate measures."

Earlier this month he announced that 3,000 former soldiers would be hired to form a "special assistance force" to carry out police duties throughout Guatemala.

Tomorrow I'll explain why many of us feel that this decision is more aptly described by another axiom: "Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease."

Guatemala to beef up police force with ex-soldiers

Guatemala City (EFE) – Guatemala is in the process of hiring 3,000 army veterans – including both officers and enlisted men – to boost police ranks in order to better confront burgeoning violence, Defense Minister Francisco Bermúdez said Thursday.

In comments to reporters, he rejected complaints from human rights groups that the move would “militarize” the national civil police force, known as the PNC.

Those who will be joining the police, Bermúdez said, “are ordinary citizens” who no longer belong to the armed forces.

The minister said that the new police officers will make up six special contingents of 500 men each that are to be deployed in the most crime-ridden parts of Guatemala City and other urban areas.

President Oscar Berger’s administration is planning to spend nearly $12 million to augment the PNC, Bermúdez said, adding that the army will oversee the hiring process.

According to the defense chief, the new cops, who will include a number of former mid-ranking military officers, are to undergo an intensive course in police work at the PNC’s academy.

Separately, Interior Minister Carlos Vielman told journalists that the 3,000 new police will be replacing some 2,500 officers booted from the force for misconduct and involvement in criminal activity.

Berger has acknowledged the failure of Guatemala’s security forces to control the surge in violence, which he blames largely on gangs and organized crime bands that are often better-armed than police.

Please read the entire article

Tags: Guatemala, Police, Vigilantes, Berger, Violence

A Photo & A Quote

Here for your viewing enjoyment is a photograph published today, along with a totally unrelated quote from a Sherlock Holmes novel.

"Fire burst from its open mouth, its eyes glowed with a smouldering glare, its muzzle and hackles and dewlap were outlined in flickering flame. Never in the delirious dream of a disordered brain could anything more savage, more appalling, more hellish be conceived than that dark form and savage face which broke upon us out of the wall of fog."

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

Tags: George, Bush, Photograph, Savage, Face

The wrong answer to a tough question, part 1

Each time I go back to the States my family and friends ask the same valid but damn-near-impossible-to-answer question: "How are things in Guatemala?"

Talk about your loaded question. And "loaded" is an appropriate word in this case... because conversations about Guatemala always seem to come back to the problem of violence.

When I first arrived here in the late 80's the problem was political violence perpetrated by the Guatemalan State (government, military, police, etc.) against an internal "enemy", ie: those who struggled for justice and a change to the status quo of oppression (students, teachers, church workers, journalists, union members, indigenous and campesino leaders, human rights activists, etc.)

And, of course, many of the victims of the 36-year civil war were indigenous families, living in Guatemala's highlands, who were targeted and massacred by the army and civil patrols as part of a genocidal "scorched earth" counterinsurgency campaign.

The hope of the peace accords, which ended the war in 1996, was that they would bring about a new era of political, economic, social and cultural justice... and an end to the violence.

That didn't happen.

Although politically-motivated crime declined with the dawn of the new millennium, it was insidiously replaced by the growing menace of common crime.

Whereas before the accords were signed I felt somewhat risk for the work I was doing (promoting human rights through popular education) I also felt a degree of protection as a U.S. citizen.

Now the situation has turned 180 degrees. My work has nothing to do with the risks I run on the streets of Guatemala City, and my "gringo-ness" is now more of a liability than a safeguard.

Indeed, one of the most notorious aspects of this new violence is that its bloody blade slices right through the barriers of class, ethnicity, age and sex. It is brutal in its lack of discrimination.

Last year 5,338 violent deaths were reported, including 518 women. If those numbers seem striking, consider this: Guatemala's entire population is about 12 million people, roughly that of the state of Pennsylvania.

So far in 2006, Guatemala’s murder rate has risen from an already horrendous 14.6 a day to 16 every 24 hours. And 82 women have killed between January 1st and February 17th.

Guatemala has a serious crime problem. Unfortunately, the government's most recent solution is not only long-delayed, but extremely ill-advised. I'll talk about that tomorrow!

UN Worried about Guatemalan Violence

Guatemala, Feb 13 (Prensa Latina)

The UN Commission on Human Rights expressed concern for an increased violence in Guatemala and the government's weakness in fighting the scourge.

A UNCHR report released in this capital aid the country has gone from State political violence to social violence, with an increase in the number of homicides.

2005 was the country's most violent in the last few years with 5,338 cases of homicide, according to the document.

A representative of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights in Guatemala said the State's weakness and inability to protect citizens is what currently worries most of the population.

"Guatemala is currently going through a state of social alarm amid an increased violence due to organized crime, common delinquency, juvenile gangs and illegal, clandestine security bodies," the report added.

The UN official expressed concern over latest events, especially the appearance of bodies showing signs of torture or violent deaths by strangulation.

The report includes 24 suggestions for the State to improve humanitarian situation such as promoting prevention-oriented security policies and stepping up the institutions' abilities to investigate and punish culprits.

It also urges the government and judicial system to implement programs to protect the life and integrity of human rights champions, union leaders, journalists, judges and witnesses.

Tags: Guatemala, Violence, Peace, Accords, Crime

GSN Blog

I just received a wonderful email from Patrick Daniels of the U.K.-based Guatemala Solidarity Network.

Patrick and the others at GSN share the noble goal of "supporting the people of Guatemala who continue to struggle for change after centuries of oppression, violence, racism and exploitation."

And now, in addition to their website, they have set up an amazing blog with news, photos, solidarity information, and links about Guatemala.

(It's almost enough to make a fellow blogger jealous!)

Seriously, though, I'll be visiting this incredible resource on a daily basis. I invite you to, also!

The address is: www.gsn.civiblog.org

Congratulations to the folks at GSN... keep up the great work!

Tags: Guatemala, Solidarity, Network, Blog, United Kingdom

newyorkneworleansguatemala

For those of you keeping track (and good luck there) I am indeed back in Guatemala.

I returned Wednesday evening after having spent two months in the U.S. that ran the emotional gamut from "simply blissful" to "extremely difficult".

The most exhausting, and yet perhaps the most rewarding, part of my time in the States was working with my sister and brother to help our father make the transition from his apartment in New Orleans to an assisted-living center closer to his family in New York.

We found an amazing place called the Country House in Yorktown Heights, about 10 minutes away from each of our homes (well, when I'm in NY, that is.)

The staff who work there are a rare find: they somehow manage to be both exceptionally friendly and exceedingly helpful. Dad's new apartment is so nice that my brother tried to talk him into buying a bunk bed so that they could share the room. (He was kidding... I think.)

As for my Dad's health, it seems to be improving. He's had a ton of tests of done so far: the poor man has been prodded and probed, stripped and stuck so many times that he's afraid to get into the car with us anymore. (And that has nothing to do with my sister's driving... I think.)

At least we made it up to him by making sure that every medical trip was followed by a visit to Dunkin Donuts. Most of his test results haven't come back yet, so we're still anxiously awaiting word on what might be the cause of his memory lapses.

With so much still unfinished, I have to admit that my return to Guatemala this time was a very reluctant one.

After all, through the miracle of the internet, I was able to do my work with Incidencia Democrática from both New Orleans and New York.

(A special shout-out here to the fine folks at CC's Coffee House on Royal Street in N.O. While it may be true that there is no such thing as a free lunch, at CC's there was free wireless internet and free refills on their delicious coffee. Which, incidentally, were both essential to getting my work done every morning.)

So I had the best of both worlds... my work in Guatemala and my family in New York... and I was able to help Dad settle into his new life.

Unfortunately, American Airlines was super-strict about their 30 day extension to my ticket. My original departure date of January 15th could only be prolonged until February 15th. (In fact one particularly anal AA agent demanded that I return on the 14th because "January has 31 days" and she "knows how to count". I had to hang up on her.)

So, to take this journal entry full circle... I am indeed back in Guatemala.

Although I already miss being with my family, at least I know that Dad is in good hands. And I have to confess that I am glad to be back in mi querida Guatemala, surrounded by my friends and coworkers, and all those other wonderful things that make this place, too, feel like home.

One final word of thanks... to all of you who have sent letters to me with best wishes for my dad or compliments on this website. I'm sorry that I haven't been able to reply to you yet, but please know that I am enormously grateful for your kind words and thoughts. Your emails have most definitely lifted my spirit and brightened my days! Thank-you.

Tags: Guatemala, New York, New Orleans, Dad, Family