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)

Making the Case for Argentina

Not sure who to root for with the quarterfinals of the World Cup starting tomorrow? Well, Dave Zirin makes the case for Argentina, who in addition to playing "with the wicked grace of decades past", brings it politically as well:

At a training session in South Africa, the entire Argentine team unfurled a banner that read, "We Support the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo for the Nobel Peace Prize." The group has in fact been officially nominated for the prize and Abuelas president Estela de Carlotto, is in South Africa, meeting with Nelson Mandela and other world leaders. She has also been publicly and literally - embraced by Maradona. The critical work that Abuelas has done will only receive a greater spotlight if Argentina continues to advance. This makes all those connected with Argentina’s dirty war, who still hold tremendous power in the country, increasingly, and deliciously, apprehensive.

I can certainly understand, and have heard from numerous people, that these kinds of political concerns shouldn’t play into our rooting interests when it comes to the World Cup. It should just be about the game. But this is like wishing a double cheeseburger didn’t have cholesterol. There is simply no sporting event on earth more entangled in politics than this brilliantly bombastic tournament. Anytime you have half the earth tuned in - as colonies play their former colonizers and dictatorships challenge democracies - politics follow like rainbows after rain. As long as politics are part of the mix, we might as well support a team that in addition to epitomizing the beautiful game stands with a beautiful cause. Viva Argentina!

I urge you to go read the whole thing, only Dave Zirin can quote from Galeano and Yahoo! Sports writers in the same piece. For those of us who enjoy our sports almost as much as our politics, Zirin is a must read. 


(image also from Zirin)

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”.

Weekend Update

 

South America continues rolling through the World Cup, Uruguay and Argentina advance, Chile and Brazil meet tomorrow...

• This is some serious structural maladjustment shit right here: While calling for austerity in Greece and elsewhere, the IMF and World Bank approve "have pushed ahead with pay raises above the rate of inflation for thousands of workers". WaPo has the story.
  
  
• More Jessica Jordan is a good thing. The Telegraph takes a look at their native beauty's new role as "Director for Development of Frontier Zones and Macroregions" in Bolivia. For background, check out El Duderino's profile of Jordan from awhile back. 
  
  
• With the one year anniversary of the Honduran coup tomorrow, 27 US lawmakers sent a letter to Hillary Clinton concerning ongoing rights violations. The number of slain journos so far this year is 9, for those at home counting.
  
  
• Earlier in the week, various places got nose deep in some stats on cocaine production in South America. Bottom line, the UN and US have very different numbers, Colombia is doing better, Peru much worse...down in one place, up in another...how long are the suits really going to keep up this nonsense "war on drugs", seems like they "learn" the same lessons every few years or so.
  
  
• The vultures are circling again after the latest round of debt swaps in Argentina.  Finance Minister Bodou says that that "a total of 92.4 per cent of the nearly $100bn on which the country defaulted in 2001 has been restructured after including the results of an earlier swap in 2005." But fear not, billionaire hedge fund managers and all around douchey-douche vulture funds are still bitching and moaning about evil Argentina.
  
  
• The Huff Post is a wonderful place, but they need some better oversight. On Friday they let Nancy Soderberg use their space for pure propaganda without even identifying who she represents. Soderberg is the former US ambassador to the UN under Clinton (which the Huff Post says), but she also represents the American Task Force Argentina, a group led by vulture funds that has continually railed on and brought litigation against Argentina for the better part of the last decade. On Friday, she wrote:
  
  
  

  Last month, Argentina put forward its Global 2017 bond offering but the markets are not buying, forcing the government to extend its offer until June 22, a stunning vote of no confidence in the policies of President Kirchner. The international message to Argentina was loud and clear: No deeds, no prize. Investors don't trust you, or your policies. Looking over Argentina's record on financial responsibility, it's no wonder why.

  
  Nevermind that Argentina has reached an agreement with 92.4% of bondholders; these assholes bought in late for cheap and intend to reap massive profits no matter how they get 'em, and Nancy Soderberg has been enlisted to do their bidding. It's a shame the Huff Post allowed this without having her disclose her troubling ties.
  
  
• Juan Forero in the WaPo takes a look at the daunting back log of human rights cases facing Colombia, and the implications for both Santos and the US. I know Maladjusted has ragged on Forero before, but he does a nice job of showing how the US support for Colombia despite the serious rights abuses has prevented improving relations with other countries in the hemisphere. Money quote:
  
  
  

  But Washington's closest ally in the region, Colombia, has been the source of the most serious cases of abuse before the commission, investigators familiar with the cases said. In all, the commission is evaluating 1,055 cases. Dozens of the cases of serious violations took place during Uribe's administration. 

• Finally, as a follow up to this post from last night, and for a good laugh, a picture of the best mis-pic in recent memory...maybe even better than the old dusty farts at WaPo not knowing who Evo is, courtesy of The New York Times, via Howard Kurtz:
  
  

Presidential edition of Whats Wrong With This Picture?

UPDATE BELOW

Last Wednesday the Washington Post style section ran a story on the front page about Oliver Stone's new movie "South of the Border". The story included a picture of the six current South American presidents that Stone interviewed. But, wait, there was one tiny little problem...take a look at the picture below:


(Top, Chavez, Correa and de Kirchner. Bottom, Lugo, Morales and da Silva)

You may have noticed, something is amiss.....got it yet??? Answer and more after the jump.

The Count: childhood poverty

45 and 17.9...

...are the percentages of children and teenagers in Latin America living in poverty and extreme poverty defined in terms broader than simple income. That's right, ECLAC has a new research bulletin out giving us a sneak peek of an upcoming ECLAC and UNICEF report on poverty trends throughout the region.

The idea is simple. Much like the World Bank's Human Opportunity Index (HOI), which sets out to measure access to the resources that grant a child the opportunity to succeed in life, this new measure of childhood poverty is based on the notion of human rights--both social and economic. In other words, going beyond the mere notion of income, a child is considered poor if any of his or her basic rights are violated. The six rights explicitly considered are:

1. Nutrition: defined in terms of weight and size by age.
2. Clean drinking water: taking into account it's origin, supply and accessibility.
3. Sanitation: defined as relative access to a sewer system.
4. Housing: considering the number of people per room, the building materials of the roof, floor and walls.
5. Education: in terms of assistance and number of completed school years.
6. Information: defined as access to electricity and having a radio, tv or telephone.

So how much of a difference does this new measure make? A LOT. The pie chart below shows the percentages of different poverty classifications for the whole region. Light blue is outside of poverty, dark gray represents income poverty, light gray is poverty in terms of both income and the absence of rights, and green is poverty just in terms of the violation of rights. In other words, without the new methodology, we'd be ignoring all of the green chunk and a big part of the light gray chunk.



Now, as usual, the Count asks: what does the country breakdown look like? And you'll find just such a thing right below, courtesy of Maladjusted Graphs™.

[Percentage of children and teenagers living in poverty and extreme poverty, circa 2008]

As can be seen above, the top five on the list are, in order, Costa Rica, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and Venezuela. On the other extreme, the five countries where children are worse off are, again in order, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Peru. (so much for Peru's economic miracle, no?)

Well there you have it folks. Yet another welcome attempt to challenge the misleading simplifications of standard statistical indicators.

Cocaine+Futbol+World Cup=Great Documentary

If the equation above confuses you, or pops up on your screen when your boss is looking over your shoulder, apologies. But bear with me here. First off, I'm back and props to my comrade Gringo Juan for holding it down while I was off gallivanting through the woods. I also got to catch up on some reading and watching, the reading recommendation is still a few days off, but let's get to the movie recommendation: "Two Escobars".

It's a documentary by Jeff and Michael Zimbalist which aired as part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series. I know, ESPN, not exactly who you would turn to for your documentary needs, but this one is well worth the time.

It traces the rise of Pablo Escobar and Colombian futbol (and star player Andres Escobar, the only Colombian ever to be offered a spot on Inter Milan). Everyone knows Pablo, but not everyone knows he was a futbol fanatic and also played a huge role in the barrios in Colombia, especially Medellin. In his more formative years, he donated soccer fields in poor neighborhoods throughout the country, but even in his later years the passion for soccer never left him. Colombia was far from a soccer powerhouse and much of the top talent often left for bigger money and more fame overseas in Europe....until the cocaine cash started to flow, that is.

All of a sudden not only could club teams keep the top talent, but players from all over the region were coming to play in Colombia. Turns out a soccer organization is a really good way to launder money, ticket sales being in cash and all. Every drug lord had a team, or two. Pablo was no exception, and the other Escobar, Andres was quickly rising to the top of his profession.

Colombia became one of the favorites to win the 1994 World Cup, and as violence raged at home, the national soccer team became the Colombian government's best PR tool. The team was a way to show the world that Colombia was not just about violence and to give Colombians an escape from the everyday hardships. But, just as Pablo's notorious run came to a crashing halt, so did Colombian soccer.

I really don't want to give much more away, it's a tragic and fascinating story, and incredibly informative to boot (not bad for an ESPN docu). As much as the story can carry the movie on its own, the historic footage is really the icing on the cake. Colombia, in their bright jerseys, played some beautiful futbol back in the day and they've got the footage to prove it. As an example of some of the team's flair, here's a clip that you may have seen before, Colombian goalie Rene Higuita's infamous scorpion kick:



Damn. Unfortunately, Higuita was not on the team for the '94 World Cup, for reasons that you will find out when you watch the movie. Not only is there amazing footage of the national team, but also of the brutally deadly drug war, including some footage of Pablo that is really stunning. Pieced together with interviews with such characters as Pablo's right hand man (in jail for murder) and his cousin, it makes for a must watch. It doesn't paper over the massive atrocities that Pablo is responsible for, but neither does it just give you one side of the story. Footage from his funeral shows the thousands and thousands of grieving Colombians, mostly from the barrios, who had lost one of the only men who had truly provided for them. Nor does it overlook the heavy hand of Carlos Castano and Los Pepes (later of AUC paramilitary fame), and their support from El Norte. Perhaps, since its a sports network, the political considerations don't weigh as heavily, but good for ESPN for airing this informative, entertaining, and deeply tragic documentary.

Here is a 5 minute introduction to the movie, and below, the upcoming schedule for when it will be on ESPN, ESPN deportes, and ESPN classic.



Saturday June 26, 10PM ESPN Classic, Friday July 2, 1am ESPN 2, Sunday July 4, 1pm ESPN 2. Check your local listing, all times EST.

For the record, I was not paid to shill for this movie, it just kicks ass.