The News Roundup is a regular feature of the blog where we select news articles from various sources around the web, with the goal of providing an overview of the weekly conversation about the countries where MCC works in the region. Quotes in italics are drawn directly from sources and do not necessarily reflect the position of MCC.
Land inequality in Latin America worse today than in decades (report)
Latin American countries have failed to govern their lands fairly and are now so deep in thrall to rich elites and big business that the future of sustainable and inclusive development of much of the continent hangs in the balance. A new Oxfam report, “Unearthed: Land, power, and inequality in Latin America,” describes the result of 50 years of botched policies and disastrous practices that continue to push millions of people into poverty and hardship.
- The concentration of Latin American land in the hands of a few is even worse now than in the 1960s, when the problem was so bad many governments pushed major reforms.
- One percent of “super farms” in Latin America now control more productive land than the other 99 percent.
- Colombia is at the top of the list, with Paraguay and Chile close behind in terms of gross land inequality.
- Women hold less land than men; from as little as 8% in Guatemala, and up to 30% in Peru.
The underworld operates openly in Carteland, but its covert networks reach everywhere illegal commodities are bought and sold. These transactions connect underworld producers to upper-world consumers in a complex transnational economy that has recently undergone tremendous expansion. The historian Nils Gilman has called this process “deviant globalization,” meaning that the same innovations in banking, communications, and technology that facilitated the globalization of regular commerce during the 1990s and early 2000s have also benefitted drug gangs and other underworld entrepreneurs. The result? Rapid territorial expansion, economies of scale, and outsourcing have become the norm in underworld enterprises as well. We cannot remain ignorant of the underworld for much longer. Globalization allows mafias and drug cartels to consolidate operations on an unprecedented scale. As a result, the boundaries between the upper world and the underworld have become blurred in many places, and have disappeared altogether in others.
Questionable New Security Index Gives LatAm Low Score
Nevertheless, the WISPI does offer useful details on certain aspects of where Latin America’s security apparatus is going wrong. Perhaps one of the most pressing issues the report touches on is the region’s ineffective and inappropriate use of security forces. The WISPI found that higher numbers of security forces — or capacity — did not necessarily lead to greater internal security. “Beyond a certain level additional security service capacity does not necessarily lead to better processes, increased legitimacy, or better outcomes,” the index suggests. Indeed, despite the fact that Central America and the Caribbean had the greatest armed force presence by far at a rate of 559 per 100,000, it was among the lowest-ranking regions. This gives weight to concerns that the growing militarization of public security in nations across the Americas is an ineffective use of state resources, and in fact risks worsening violence levels.
Killers on a Shoestring: Inside the Gangs of El Salvador
With an estimated 60,000 members in a country of 6.5 million people, the gangs hold power disproportionate to their numbers. They maintain a menacing presence in 247 of 262 municipalities. They extort about 70 percent of businesses. They dislodge entire communities from their homes, and help propel thousands of Salvadorans to undertake dangerous journeys to the United States. Their violence costs El Salvador $4 billion a year, according to a study by the country’s Central Reserve Bank. And yet, the reporting determined, MS-13 and its rival street gangs in El Salvador are not sophisticated transnational criminal enterprises. They do not begin to belong in the same financial league with the billion-dollar Mexican, Japanese and Russian syndicates with which they are grouped. If they are mafias, they are mafias of the poor. El Salvador has been brought to its knees by an army of flies.
Guatemala’s CICIG Says More Big Corruption Cases to Come
While Velásquez hailed CICIG’s work thus far and made the bold promise that future investigations would be as impactful as those involving a former president, he also recognized the ongoing challenges to the commission’s work. “There always exists the threat of the return of impunity,” he said. “The processes underway that are keeping well-known figures in prison could be manipulated and diverted to grant them freedom and the return of goods over time.” One obstacle is the continuing influence wielded by what Velásquez and others have referred to as “hidden powers.” Velásquez has previously identified what he called “consolidated structures” that can “reach relationships and understandings with each government” in order to continue siphoning public funds for illicit private enrichment through corruption schemes.
Renewable energy is violating human rights as much as fossil fuels have for decades
But it’s complicated. Indigenous leaders are fighting for land rights and against corporate “green-grabbing”—but they do genuinely want a just transition to renewable energy. Indigenous groups are considered a “frontline community” by environmentalists—they often experience the first and worst effects of climate change. For generations, they have followed weather and climate patterns for their agriculture and other means of livelihood. When these patterns become less reliable, climate change can have severe economic, social, and health impacts. “For indigenous peoples, renewable energy has both its good and bad sides. The good thing is we cannot deny that it can contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” says Tauli-Corpuz. Human rights defenders like Tauli-Corpuz and Horvath contend that native peoples’ voices need to be included in development projects meant to mitigate the effects of climate change, so that the vulnerabilities that result from the uneven power dynamic between large fossil fuel companies and local communities aren’t replicated in the shift towards green energy.
Nicaragua canal: in a sleepy Pacific port, something stirs
Instead of legions of construction workers, the only people to be seen are a farming family sheltering on porch hammocks from the midday sun, and a couple of guards manning a gate on the rutted dirt track down to the river. Yet contrary to the languid scene, local people have never been more convinced that the controversial mega-project is finally about to begin. In recent weeks, they say, engineers have conducted geological surveys and marked up the area, farmers have been paid $3,000 to allow surveys of their land, and more than 500 acres have been purchased by the Chinese developer HKND for road-widening. “The company is absolutely serious. We had a big meeting last month and they told everyone, don’t plant anything or build anything because you will only be compensated for the land,” said Brito shopkeeper Manuel Cruz. “They said they would start work on a pier within 15 days and bring in lots of workers in December or January.”
U.N. Apologizes for Role in Haiti’s 2010 Cholera Outbreak
The group that represents the victims, the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, has said it has not yet decided on whether to take the matter to the United States Supreme Court to seek compensation. Brian Concannon, the executive director of the group, called Mr. Ban’s proposals a step in the right direction. “But words alone won’t save lives or remove the stain on the U.N.’s reputation,” he said in an email. “The U.N. and its member states will have to rise to the challenge and actually fund and effectively execute the projects.” Mr. Ban’s aides have said they would prefer to use the material assistance funds to aid communities most affected by the cholera outbreak — by giving children of survivors a free education, for instance — rather than open up a fund for individual claims for compensation. Whatever they use it for, they need the money first. Of the estimated $200 million, only $500,000 has so far been pledged.
Peace is Ratified. When is “D-Day?”
The accord appears to indicate that D-Day was the day the final accord was signed (Thursday, November 24th), but neither side is holding to that. The government believes D-Day is now: the day after the accord’s ratification. The FARC insists that its members will not begin to demobilize and disarm without a guarantee that they won’t be subject to summary arrest for having rebelled. It wants a political-crimes amnesty law, absolving all members of the crime of sedition (rebelión), to be approved first, or at least formally presented and moving rapidly through Congress. Only then, in the guerrillas’ view, will D-Day arrive. The text of that law, which the Congress must approve, is embedded in the peace accord. Congress must approve a series of other laws to implement the accord: establishing a transitional justice system, guaranteeing protections for opposition political movements, carrying out a new rural development policy, among others. But the amnesty law is the one that must come first, since the FARC won’t even start turning in its arms without it.
Shrinking glaciers cause state-of-emergency drought in Bolivia
The government of Bolivia, a landlocked country in the heart of South America, has been forced to declare a state of emergency as it faces its worst drought for at least 25 years. Much of the water supply to La Paz, the highest capital city in the world, and the neighbouring El Alto, Bolivia’s second largest city, comes from the glaciers in the surrounding Andean mountains. But the glaciers are now shrinking rapidly, illustrating how climate change is already affecting one of the poorest countries in Latin America. The three main dams that supply La Paz and El Alto are no longer fed by runoff from glaciers and have almost run dry. Water rationing has been introduced in La Paz, and the poor of El Alto – where many are not yet even connected to the mains water supply – have staged protests.
Mining projects, big plantations mean Bolivia’s drought hurts more – campaigners
Water shortages caused by Bolivia’s worst drought in 25 years have been exacerbated by booming population growth in cities, poor infrastructure and the impact of big agricultural plantations and mining projects, campaigners say. Bolivia declared a national state of emergency last week as a prolonged drought has decimated crop harvests and cattle, affecting more than 177,000 families across the country. Environmental and land rights campaigners say the drought has exposed the impact of mining projects, which they say divert water supplies and contaminate lakes and other water sources. “Underground mines that use a lot of water also have an impact on water supplies,” said Oscar Bazoberry, the head of the Institute of Rural Development in South America.