U.S. to Hollman Morris: Stay Out!

Just in case you needed further evidence that the Obama administration is continuing with the same policies towards Latin America as the Bush administration, prominent Colombian journalist Hollman Morris, who Big 'Al Uribe once called a "an ally of terrorism," was denied a visa by the US embassy in Bogota, this according to Matthew Rothschild at The Progressive. Morris was headed to the US after being selected as a fellow by the Neiman Foundation at Harvard.

You may remember from a post awhile back, that Morris was the target of a smear campaign by the DAS. The link was to Plan Colombia and Beyond who had the documents outlining DAS movies against not only Morris, but other opposition groups and journalists as well. Adam Isaacson wrote at the time:

Here are the files obtained by Hollman Morris, with English translations. They go beyond surveillance and wiretapping to reveal what it calls a “political warfare” campaign of dirty tricks and threats against President Uribe’s political adversaries. They date from 2005, the last year of Jorge Noguera’s tenure as DAS director.

The guy digs deep, goes where people don't want him to go and is a verifiable bad ass.  As Rothschild writes, quoting heavily from Human Rights Watch, who gave him a "Defender of Human Rights" award in 2007:

“A journalist and human rights activist, Morris has dedicated his career to uncovering the truth about atrocities committed on all sides: by right-wing paramilitaries, left-wing guerrillas, and government authorities,” said Human Rights Watch in granting him the award. “Morris has faced serious harassment and death threats for his work. . . . Human Rights Watch honors Morris for his courage and unfaltering dedication to exposing Colombia’s most egregious human rights abuses.”

But I suppose he's been just a bit too critical of the US' favorite ally to be welcome into the States, eh? Lets get this right, guy exposes DAS misdeeds, the US needs to cut off assistance to DAS, Colombia needs figure out a new way to spy on the president of Ecuador, and run smear campaigns against their opponents, and then the US denies this guy a visa? Sure sounds like the State Department is on the right side of this one! In fact, if you look at the image above, you'll see "Gestionar la suspension de la visa" as one of DAS' courses of action against Morris...Really State Department? Really? Straight outta the DAS playbook? Damn, that's just low.


(image from Plan Colombia and Beyond)

How Not To Normalize Relations in One Easy Step

This must have made for one hell of a phone call. Following Santos’ victory in Colombia's presidential elections last Sunday, Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa called him to congratulate him on his victory. Needless to say relations between the two countries are a lil rocky, I mean, a court in Ecuador recently issued an arrest warrant for the Colombia president-elect. In any case, following the phone call there was much hoop-la about the normalization of relations, yadda, yadda…well, how’s this for normalization (via Bloomberg):

Colombian police have been tapping the telephones of Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa and government and military officials since 2008

 But what's more is it’s not like Santos was an innocent bystander in any of this, the report includes this juicy lil nugget:

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and incoming President Juan Manuel Santos have been briefed at least three times on the operation, which began in the aftermath of a Colombian raid on a rebel base camp inside Ecuador in March 2008

Which brings us back to that phone call. Can’t you just imagine Santos answering Correa’s call, while three giggling DAS agents in a sixth story apartment in Quito listen in? Yup, got it.

Not to worry though, it’s not like Ecuador is the only one to get this special treatment. From EUObserver:

A group of MEPs is calling for action as further details of an alleged covert operation conducted by the Colombian intelligence agency (DAS) continue to emerge, with one of its reported aims being to undermine the authority of the European Parliament.

Recently released documents that were confiscated from the DAS by the Colombian Attorney General's office highlight the nature of "Operation Europe."

Its objective was to "neutralise the influence of the European judicial system, the European Parliament's human rights sub-committee, and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights," reads one text seen by this website.

And yes, the “alleged action in Europe includes phone tapping and the interception of emails”.

Diplomacy Colombia Style, Starring Hillary Clinton

So this post was going to be about the irony of Hillary Clinton acknowledging Colombia's advancement in human rights at the same press conference that Big Al' Uribe criticized the sentencing of former Army Colonel Alfonso Plazas Vega to 30 years in prison. I mean all the guy did was get convicted for the forced disappearances of 11 individuals in 1985. Or, as Uribe described it "someone who was simply trying to fulfill their duty", adding, "That hurts. That makes me sad." Awww. Just fulfilling your duty eh? Is that what you have to say about killing peasants and dressing them up as guerrillas to fulfill quotas too? Whatever, in any case, as ridiculous as his statements may be, the post was ruined because, well quite simply, Hillary Clinton didn't exactly say what I thought she had.

So what happened?

I read this Colombia Reports article that included this line, "Clinton also recognized advances that Colombia had made in terms of human rights." And where did that link take me? Well, the website of the President of Colombia of course! Where I read that Clinton said:

“Reconocemos los avances en derechos humanos que ha hecho Colombia, los retos que aún persisten y la necesidad de la vigilancia, del compromiso en ese tema"

Or, loosely translated:

We recognize the advances in human rights that Colombia has made...blah blah blah

And I'm like damn, Hillary Clinton is recognizing some advances, at the same press conference that Uribe slams the jailing of a human rights abuser and a few days after the International Trade Union Confederation announced that half of the killings of unionists in the WORLD happened in COLOMBIA. But because it's the Colombia government, there is just this hint of doubt about everything they have to tell me, so I check the quote with the State Department's transcript (more trustworthy? Eh, probably), and this is what I find:

We also discussed Colombia’s efforts to enhance human rights, the strides made, the challenges that remain, the ongoing need for vigilance and commitment.

Wait, what? "We discussed Colombia's efforts to enhance human rights"? I mean, even loosely translated that's not "We recognize the advances in human rights". At least she did include discussing "the strides made", but fair to say this statement from the Presidents website is grossly overstated, right?

So not exactly the post we set out to write, but hey, on the same day Uribe criticizes the jailing of a big time rights abuser, the President's press secretary grossly exaggerates the US secretary of state's comments concerning so called "advancements" in human rights....yes, just another day in sunny Colombia!

An Independent Foreign Policy

By now you have all heard about Israel's attack agaisnt the aid flotilla, killing at least 19 people, and injuring scores more. So while virtually the entire world has been extremely vocal condemning the attack, the US has been conspicuously quiet. One region not scared to speak up and condemn Israel...the new power bloc of Latin America. So while we got a statement like this about the US:

"We'd like to express our thanks to the United States that worked behind the scenes to water down the [statement] at the United Nations," said Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman.

We get this from Brazil (via Xinhua):

The Brazilian Foreign Ministry in a statement said that "Brazil strongly condemns the Israeli attack, because there was no justification for the military intervention against a pacific convoy with strictly humanitarian character. The event is worsened, according to the available information, because it occurred in international waters."

"The event must be investigated independently to make completely clear the event based on Humanitarian and International Laws," the ministry said.

Brazil added that this event "once more shows the need of immediate lifting the embargo in Gaza, in order to guarantee people's freedom of transit and their free access to food, medicines and consumption goods in that region."

The article contains statements from Argentina, Chile, and Mexico in addition to Brazil. Venezuela was also quick to offer their condemnation. Nothing really to add here, just pointing out the latest example of one of the most profound changes in the region over the last decade, an independent foreign policy.

On a separate note, the fact that the US is working behind the scenes to dilute the UN statement reminds me a lot of the Honduran coup. The forum then was the OAS, but the US ambassador worked hard to dilute or block anything that the OAS tried to do. Good ol' U.S. of A, using their relative power to protect their right-wing "allies" since....well I don't know, always?

(image is a poster from a Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff, via Canadian Dimension.)

Thomas Friedman SmackDown

I'm down anytime someone lays the smackdown to Friedman, but this is exceptional, and follows an exceptionally heinous op-ed this morning. Thank god for FAIR:

Thomas Friedman is upset in his New York Times column today (5/26/10) because Brazilian President Lula da Silva negotiated a nuclear deal with Iran. Asks Friedman, "Is there anything uglier than watching democrats sell out other democrats to a Holocaust-denying, vote-stealing Iranian thug just to tweak the U.S. and show that they, too, can play at the big power table?" And he answers himself: "No, that's about as ugly as it gets."

Friedman quotes a source complaining that Iran had just executed "political prisoners who were tortured into confessions," but "didn't mention a word about human rights." Friedman presumably is aware that the U.S., too, has prisoners that it has tortured into confessions, and that it maintains the right to execute such captives. Should Lula have said a word about those human rights issues as well, or would that just be an attempt to "tweak the U.S."?

Friedman has another expert who accuses Lula of "the thwarting of democracy across Latin America." Friedman's evidence: "He regularly praises Venezuela’s strongman Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro, the Cuban dictator...while denouncing Colombia, one of the great democratic success stories, because it let U.S. planes use Colombian airfields to fight narco-traffickers."

Please do click through and read the whole thing, the take town of Colombia as "one of the great democratic success stories" is priceless.

Also, for a more detailed, longer take down, see Robert Naiman in the Huffington Post. You want to see "ugly as it gets", watch this video of Friedman defending the Iraq War. Suck. On. This. Friedman.

Juan Forero, Chief Propagator

Juan Forero, the Washington Post's resident LatAm ignoramus, goes all in today with his article about Chavez and ties to terrorism. There is really nothing new here; magic laptops, former FARC rebels speaking anonymously, and of course "Colombian government documents". No surprise that the article got Ray Walser's panties in a bunch.

A couple points though; first and foremost, why the fuck would anybody trust anything from the Colombian government? On the same day as Forero's article, Latin America News Dispatch has a terrific rundown on Colombia during the Uribe years and specifically the intelligence agency, DAS. One of the many issues raised being that "documents surfaced indicating that the DAS coordinated “political warfare” against government critics, by disseminating false rumors accusing them of connections with leftist guerrillas." And it gets even better, the article quotes from some files that were released recently, outlining how DAS planned on linking a certain group they didn't like to rebels:

The mission’s objective was to “establish ties” between the collective and the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a guerrilla group. “STRATEGIES: Sabotage. ACTION: Exchange message with ELN leader, which will be found during a search of the premises.”

So it is public knowledge that the DAS actually tries to plant evidence, and then find it during raids on the camps. Sound familiar? It should, since it's the basis for almost all the allegations against Venezuela and Chavez.

So there are also former FARC rebels who spoke anonymously to Forero. But if this is such conclusive evidence of anything then why hasn't Forero written about the former DAS member Rafael Garcia who outlined how DAS coordinated with the Venezuelan opposition and Colombian paramilitary forces to assassinate Chavez. Or the former Army major who said there were some 2000 Colombian paramilitaries in Venezuela trying to topple the government.

Now, I'm not saying all these allegations are true, but that's exactly the point. Former members of DAS, just like former members of the FARC have plenty of reasons to say plenty of different things. But you'd never see the MSM air these types of allegations against Colombia, only if they fit the narrative of evil, terrorist supporting Venezuela. But maladjusted is hardly the first to notice this, just the most recent to point it out. For a much deeper look at the hypocritical coverage of Colombia vs. Venezuela, check out this FAIR study, or Kevin Young's take for Media Accuracy on Latin America. Young looks at how MSM coverage fits the Edward Herman/Noam Chomsky propaganda model, put simply:

The model predicts that the news media will look favorably upon the Colombian government of Álvaro Uribe, a close U.S. ally, while consistently vilifying the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chávez, whom the U.S. government frequently identifies as an antagonist. If the model holds, U.S. media outlets will be found to portray the Uribe government as relatively democratic, progressive, and peaceful, while casting the Chávez government as authoritarian, regressive, and militaristic.

Well, the model holds, and Forero is the chief propagator.

Smear Campaign in Colombia

Man, Santos sure is getting desperate. Colombia Reports writes today about the increasing use of smear tactics in the Colombia presidential campaign, "As Green Party candidate Antanas Mockus' popularity increases, so too do the attempts to sully his name." Last week banners started appearing with slogans criticizing Mockus, trying to tie his campaign to Chavez. CR continues:

Votebien political analyist Rodrigo Lozada says that the tactics seen today in Colombia "were copied from the campaigns in the United States. The idea is find the opponents' weak points, exaggerate and distort them, to make them look bad before society."

Maybe not such a surprise, given James Carville's role in the campaign...a smear campaign in Bolivia led to the election of Goni...another one of Carville's campaigns. But there is another political consultant who showed up in Colombia in recent days that probably better explains the situation, CR has the dirt:

Santos has relaunched his campaign strategy with Venezuelan spin doctor J.J. Rendon at the helm. Rendon has been called an "expert in rumorology" and 'the king of 'black' propaganda." In 2007 the Venezuelan publicist was almost deported due to accusations that he had blackmailed Congressman Nicolas Uribe by threatening that he would publish photos of the politician cavorting with prostitutes if Uribe didn't fire a certain employee. Uribe resigned from the Partido de la U campaign in protest when Santos contracted Rendon.

Since Rendon's arrival on the scene, a pro-Santos website has been launched, which attempts to discredit Mockus. The same banners that appeared in Cali are published on the website, along with videos and a cartoon depicting Mockus as Chavez's buddy. Again the inference is that Mockus is pro-Chavez atheist, who plans to extradite President Uribe.

Ah yes, Rendon (the one between Lobo and Uribe in the pic above)...who you might remember led the voter fraud charge in Venezuela in the 2004 referendum. Rendon also ran the campaign of former Venezuela president Carlos Andres Perez (eventually arrested for stealing public money) back in the 1980s, as well as doing PR work for Venezuelan defense ministers....ya know the defense ministers who killed hundreds of civilians during the Caracazo. He is especially notorious in Mexico, where, as Al Giordano pointed out, he was implicated in eight different criminal cases in 2001 for "printing anonymous propaganda… in which the proposals of the PAN party candidate for the mayoralty of Puebla, Luis Paredes Moctezuma, were distorted." Recently, he was seen shaking hands and advising Pepe "reconciliation" Lobo in Honduras. Sure is some good company Santos is keeping these days. Already since he joined the campaign, three of Santos' closest assistants have left the campaign, probably not too excited about cavorting with someone with such a lovely past as Rendon.

I don't think this is going to cut it though. His presence has already gotten a ton of press in Colombia and throughout the region, and its not exactly a secret what a slime ball this guy is. If Mockus is popular because he represents a change from "politics as usual", then a "politics as usual" smear campaign is not going to do the trick. Nice try Santos.

Mockus good for business?

So maladjusted hasn't done any scientific study on this, but the guess is that most casual observers would think the Colombian business community will support Santos in the upcoming election. It's not like Mockus' rise in the polls is rattling the markets or anything like that, but business generally likes continuity (and right wingers), not newcomers who dress up in super hero costumes and dispatch mimes to ridicule traffic violators. That said, one thing businesses like even more are profits. Currently, exports to Venezuela have collapsed (due to some testy relations, we'll say) and while the US has graciously stepped in (see the graphs below), the fact remains that Venezuela is right next door and even though they are pushing an FTA with the US, does Colombia really want to be EVEN MORE dependent on the US (just look at Mexico).

According to Reuters, "Colombia says the trade conflict could trim around one percent off its economic growth this year." That ain't no joke, especially not when your coming off this past year. The article also mentions that Colombia has relatively few exports to China compared to the rest of the region. So maybe to the extent that China takes the place of Venezuela that could be a good thing, but it seems the US is picking up most of the slack.


So this is where Mockus' statements about Venezuela come into play. During the presidential debate the other night Mockus stressed the need to separate relations with Venezuela from those with the US. This would be a serious break from the Uribe years in Colombia, where it seemed like their privileged relationship with the US was always put before everything else. Given that Colombia's neighbors aren't too thrilled with Santos, it seems pretty clear that Mockus would be the candidate most likely to repair relations with Venezuela and Ecuador. And who stands to benefit the most from that? Colombian exporters...



So maybe I'm over estimating the effect this is having, and how important this is for Colombian businesses (in which case let me know). Regardless, from everything I've read Mockus' economic policies would not differ much from Santos, and in any case it would be hard to argue that better regional relations would be a BAD thing for business.

(all images courtesy of Colombia's DANE)

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.

The Ragin' Cajun Heads to Colombia

Yeah, thats right, James Carville is back in Latin America, this time in Colombia as an advisor to the even more hawkish (if that's possible) presidential favorite in Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos.

Carville, of "Old School" fame....oh right, he was also the lead strategist for Bill Clinton's presidential run, is not new to the region. For those who haven't seen "Our Brand is Crisis", well, I'll let the Democracy Center explain:

The film is a portrait of how a team of savvy, Machiavellian US political consultants parachuted into a country they knew nothing about and designed a strategy to return one of the nation’s most disliked political figures to the country’s highest office. When polling and focus groups show that Goni is unlikely to win any more than a quarter of the vote, the visitors from the US implement a strategy to knock down the support of anyone who might win more than that.

First off, go see the movie. Secondly, THIS GUY GOT GONI ELECTED. Yeah, Goni, wanted in Bolivia for his role in the in the killing of near 60 protesters, and now living a cushy lifestyle where else, but in the good ol' U.S of A. So far no love from any US administration on Bolivia's extradition request, not even from "Hopey and Changey" himself.

I just can't wait to see what Santos does with all that political capital Carville gets him.....


(h/t Justin Delacour.....image from ourbrandiscrisismovie.com)

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.