Who said the press was free

This needs no additional commentary, from Jeremy Bigwood writing for NACLA:

Buying Venezuela’s Press With U.S. Tax Dollars

The U.S. State Department is secretly funneling millions of dollars to Latin American journalists, according to documents obtained in June under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The 20 documents released to this author—including grant proposals, awards, and quarterly reports—show that between 2007 and 2009, the State Department’s little-known Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor channeled at least $4 million to journalists in Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela through the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF), a Washington-based grant maker that has worked in Latin America since 1962. Thus far, only documents pertaining to Venezuela have been released. They reveal that the PADF, collaborating with Venezuelan NGOs associated with the country’s political opposition, has been supplied with at least $700,000 to give out journalism grants and sponsor journalism education programs.

Until now, the State Department has hidden its role in funding the Venezuelan news media, one of the opposition’s most powerful weapons against President Hugo Chávez and his Bolivarian movement. The PADF, serving as an intermediary, effectively removed the government’s fingerprints from the money. Yet, as noted in a State Department document titled “Bureau/Program Specific Requirements,” the State Department’s own policies require that “all publications” funded by the department “acknowledge the support.” But the provision was simply waived for the PADF. “For the purposes of this award,” the requirements document adds, “ . . . the recipient is not required to publicly acknowledge the support of the U.S. Department of State.”

Before 2007, the largest funder of U.S. “democracy promotion” activities in Venezuela was not the State Department but the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), together with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). But in 2005, these organizations’ underhanded funding was exposed by Venezuelan American attorney Eva Golinger in a series of articles, books, and lectures (disclosure: This author obtained many of the documents). After the USAID and NED covers were blown wide open—forcing USAID’s main intermediary, Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), a Maryland–based contractor, to close its office in Caracas—the U.S. government apparently sought new funding channels, one of which the PADF appears to have provided.

Although the $700,000 allocated to the PADF, which is noted in the State Department’s requirements document, may not seem like a lot of money, the funds have been strategically used to buy off the best of Venezuela’s news media and recruit young journalists. This has been achieved by collaborating with opposition NGOs, many of which have a strong media focus. The requirements document is the only document that names any of these organizations—which was probably an oversight on the State Department’s part, since the recipients’ names and a lot of other information are excised in the rest of the documents. The requirements document names Espacio Público and Instituto Prensa y Sociedad, two leading organizations linked to the Venezuelan opposition, as recipients of “subgrants.”

I urge you to go read the whole thing. Seriously, do it. Also make sure to check out the documents for yourself.

The Whitewash Commission

So today Pepe "reconciliation" Lobo and the rest of the golpistas unveiled their latest attempt to whitewash the coup. While the US, UN, and OAS were all holding hands and singing kumbaya, patting themselves on the back for a job well done...Honduran human rights organizations, and South American leaders were taking a stand. Bertha Oliva, head of the prominent rights organization COFADEH, wrote:

Now the Lobo government, in an effort to regain international legitimacy, is creating a Truth Commission, an initiative that is being applauded by the United States administration. Yet COFADEH and the other Honduran human rights defenders who have spent much of our lives calling for a truth commission to investigate past political violence are not applauding. We are protesting.

The fact is, Lobo's proposal in no way resembles our idea of a truth commission, or indeed any other truth commission that has played a role in healing the wounds provoked by repressive regimes, such as those of El Salvador, Argentina or South Africa. If we were not dealing with such a tragic situation, the Lobo proposal could be considered laughable.

To begin with, this so-called Truth Commission has been given no mandate to examine the human rights violations that have taken place since the coup. The presidential decree that establishes the commission does not even recognize that a coup took place on June 28th and makes no mention of the victims of the subsequent repression.

And that's certainly just the surface of it all. Honduras Culture and Politics notes that more so than truth, what it's really about is business; the coup cost Honduras a cool 6.6 percent of GDP. Not exactly disproving the theory, Rights Action reported a few days back that one of the members of the commission is a Canadian lawyer who also represents Canadian mining interests. If you remember, mining companies weren't exactly the biggest "Zelayistas".

Meanwhile, UNASUR was holding a meeting today, where among other things, several countries pledged not to attend the EU-Latin America & the Caribbean Summit in Madrid if Lobo is invited. A pretty clear stand against the US' position, also coming as the regional grouping picked their first Secretary General, Nestor Kirchner. In case you needed more evidence of the waning influence of the US in the region.

Oh and for good measure, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement today about a string of death threats against Honduran journalists...who happened to be reporting on the killings of other journalists...ya know, since there has been at least six of 'em murdered since good ol' Lobo took office...how's that for "reconciliation"?

(photo of May Day celebration in Honduras, via Quotha, via Mario Ardón Mejía...check it out)

Paramilitaries are "capturing" the state

A real interesting video piece from the Latin American News Dispatch:

Colombian journalist and political analyst Claudia López talks about how the paramilitaries are infiltrating the political system; she would know, it was in part her investigative reporting that led to the parapolitics inquiries. So while she expresses hope that now only 29% of congress has ties to paramilitaries (it was 37%), everyone should listen to her when she says that she still believes that they are “capturing” the state.

And just in case you don’t get how awesome human rights are in Colombia, the video notes that she was laid off from the Colombian daily El Tiempo for an article she published last year. Surprise, surprise, the US’ favorite client state is not only controlled by paramilitaries but according to the IACHR is close to being labeled a place where "you can barely say that there is freedom of expression."

López explains the situation with El Tiempo:

“Why was I laid off from El Tiempo? Because I published a column, based on facts and proof, that demonstrated that El Tiempo was publishing false data and misleading the public because of their political and commercial interests.”

The paper considered it a resignation letter. I guess more convenient than considering it a problem.

Just Another Week in Sunny Colombia

So last week a human rights defender and a journalist were killed in Colombia, making it, well, your average spring week in our favorite LatAm client state. Shockingly, Big Al, made a statement condemning the death of journalist Clodomiro Castilla:

"We have made every effort to stop the threat of assassinations against journalists," he said. "Just when we thought we had overcome the tragic situation, more killings of journalists appear."

Very interesting, as this statement from RSF makes it seem like "every effort" was most certainly not made:

Reporters Without Borders urges the Colombian authorities, especially the interior ministry, to explain why they recently stopped providing protection for Clodomiro Castilla Ospina, a magazine editor and radio reporter who was gunned down in the northern department of Córdoba on 19 March.

Really, it all is not terribly surprising, Big Al has shown himself time and time again to not be the biggest fan of so called "human rights defenders" and "journalists". Just check this video out, one of my personal favorites, from Adam Isacson at Plan Colombia and Beyond.