The News Roundup is a regular section of the blog, featuring 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.
Marichuy: Mexico’s First Indigenous Woman Presidential Candidate
Like voter ID laws in the United States, Mexico’s candidate-nomination process seems designed to put a damper on democracy. It took a few minutes for the volunteer I observed to gather signatures from each shopper at an organic market in Oaxaca. But without reliable Internet access or voter registration cards, Marichuy’s base of support in the remote villages of Southern Mexico won’t be able to sign. The hill is getting higher as the February 19 deadline for gathering signatures nears. But Marichuy is forging on, and delivering a message you will never hear from the mainstream candidates.
Mexico negotiates NAFTA with painful history in mind – and elections on the way
There are plenty of lessons to learn here. The expected benefits of NAFTA were at first deliberately “oversold” to the Mexican people, and the resulting optimism quite probably contributed towards the country’s democratisation. Two and a half decades on, this overegging is no longer necessary. Instead, Mexico’s best negotiating position would be a moderate approach that treats NAFTA as beneficial, but not indispensable. Moderation would help avoid the sort of crisis that beset Mexico’s economy in the 1990s. While that crisis did at least push the PRI out of the presidency and force a political liberalisation, few would want to repeat the experience.
Guatemala ex-president, ministers arrested over graft
Guatemala‘s fight against corruption has intensified with the arrest of a former president and nine of his ex-ministers. Alvaro Colom and members of his former cabinet are suspected of having embezzled funds and committing fraud while helping set up a public bus system in Guatemala City in 2010. Ivan Velasquez, head of Guatemala’s international commission against impunity (CICIG), said on Tuesday: “[Colom] intervened personally and institutionally to facilitate the fraudulent procedure of creating the agreement.”
MS13 Gang Truce: Social vs. Criminal Capital
The question is how to respond to the gang. Authorities have routinely emphasized a law enforcement approach. From mano dura in Central America to more recent efforts in the United States to round up alleged gang members, the focus has been on arresting or removing gang members from the communities where they operate. However, that approach has not worked. The MS13, now nearly 40 years old, continues to operate and some would say thrive. It seems time to try alternative ways of thinking through this problem.
Canada’s Deadly Diplomacy and the Plight of Political Prisoners in Honduras
Seven weeks later, Hondurans continue to bear the brunt of heavily militarized government repression, tacitly supported by funding from Canadian taxpayers. Honduras is home to Canada’s largest bilateral development program in Central America, and Ottawa offers significant contributions to strengthen security institutions in the country despite a poor human rights record. Since the election, more than 35 people have been killed, mostly at the hands of state security forces, and hundreds more have been detained. Meanwhile, Canadian companies, mostly in garment manufacturing and mining, have reaped major profits in Honduras since the 2009 U.S. and Canada-backed military coup, thanks in part to a free trade agreement ratified in 2014 and behind-the-scenes political support to ensure favorable changes to the Honduran mining law in 2012.
Claribel Alegría, 93, Poet for Central America’s Voiceless, Dies
The Nicaraguan poet Daisy Zamora once called Ms. Alegría “a voice for the voiceless and the dispossessed.” In the 2000 Bomb interview, Ms. Alegría spoke of the reluctance of people in El Salvador and other countries riven by war and oppressive regimes to come to grips with that history. “This refusal to speak about it is transitory,” she said. “Sooner or later we have to face it. We have to reach inside ourselves, and inside our people, too. It’s a lot of work, but something great is going to come from it. Maybe I will not be alive to see it.”
Former Haitian President Martelly banned from Haiti carnivals — and Trump’s the reason
“We couldn’t let him come here and ruin the youth in Jacmel,” said Marie-Ange Noël, whose feminist organization, Fanm Deside, or Women Decide, was among the groups that pressured Jacmel to shut the singer out of its rollicking celebration known for its papier-mâché masks and artistic costumes. “Trump doesn’t have a right to say what he said because we are talking about discrimination,” she said. “But if at home, we don’t start to scream ‘no’ against immorality and against people who are doing it, then we will be giving them a reason to denigrate us.”
With Armed Strike in Colombia, ELN’s Warmongers Seek Upper Hand
The ELN claims it is trying to revive the peace talks, attributing the strike to “the government’s refusal to continue the fifth round of conversations in Quito” as well as the victimization of social leaders and protesters. However, the ELN may also be seeking to strengthen its position in some of Colombia’s most criminally strategic regions, as the demobilization of the FARC has left power vacuums across the country.
The Key to Evo Morales’ Political Longevity
In short, Morales has been able to stay in power thanks to continued strong economic performance and significant progress in redistributing income and power. This has so far prevented the emergence of significant electoral challenges from the left or the opposition. Similar trends account for the longevity in office of left-wing parties in Ecuador and Uruguay, whereas the opposite dynamic has been responsible for the defeat of the left in Argentina and Chile. Moreover, it looks as though Morales is set to continue his tenure in office. Lacking a viable successor, the MAS responded to the 2016 referendum loss prohibiting Morales from seeking another term by petitioning the country’s Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal to remove the term limits and obtaining a favorable court ruling. Despite this legally questionable maneuver, however, Morales’ chances of winning reelection once again remain high given his continued popularity.