New president-elect in Honduras, while old one still at Brazilian embassy

This is hardly surprising. On Sunday, Hondurans elected Porfirio Lobo president-elect and, shortly thereafter, top U.S. officials called on Manuel Zelaya to participate in reconstruction talks. Zelaya, you may recall, was ousted by an army coup earlier this year and hustled out of the country in the middle of the night. At first - for about six hours - there were calls for his reinstatement and claims the age of the coup was over in Latin America. Not so fast. Those calls quickly turned into consideration of a more temporary reinstatement before the Nov. 29 elections and finally to a position that appeared to represent no reinstatement at all, at least before the elections. Despite a visit by, among others, Peter Kent, secretary of state for foreign affairs, to Honduras, the coup leaders weren't in a mood to make any concessions; for Zelaya to talk transition now seems to mean little more than finding a way to get him out of exile at the Brazilian embassy and out Honduras. Honduran legislators vote tomorrow on a U.S.-brokered plan to restore Zelaya to government until the transition date of Jan. 27 but that, too, looks unlikely. Why should the military leaders bend now? It would, I suppose, be nice if Zelaya were there to smile and bow at the handover so that everybody could pretend the coup never happened and that the U.S. and Canada, among other Western Hemisphere nations, offered more than empty rhetoric. Oh, and U.S. officials praise the election as fair.

There are a few loose ends, including the sticky situation of Zelaya stuck in the embassy and calling the election "a fraud." Moreover, a different view is available at the Common Frontiers website from a delegation of Canadian labour, human rights and faith-based organizations. In the daily reports you can read on their site, they describe conditions under military rule, with police barricades blocking communities and protestors facing tear gas, water cannons and a massed police presence, while military helicopters circled overhead. They also describe what appears to be a scant election turnout, which doesn't mean you shouldn't prepare for what could be wildly inflated numbers. Members of this delegation fanned out across the country to talk to the people (as much as possible with the heavy military presence).

What do they know?

CUPW letter to Scott Brison re Colombian rights abuses

Since I seem to be in Latin America week on Decoder, here's the recent letter from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers to Nova Scotia MP Scott Brison about his assertion paramilitary groups no longer exist in Colombia, other than narco-traffickers with no links to authorities.

Peter Kent in Honduras: No good news for ousted President Zelaya

Peter Kent, minister of state for foreign affairs, is in the thick of it in Honduras today, with an Organization of American States (OAS) mission to end the deadlock in Honduras over the ousting of the country's president. In a conference call with journalists (including thestar.com) late this afternoon, his prognosis (although framed in optimism) wasn't good. It's a question of what the delegation can get for Manuel Zelaya at this point. He was hustled onto a plane out of the country at gunpoint during a military coup last June. Currently, he's holed up in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa with de facto president Roberto Micheletti essentially refusing to budge on the arrest warrant for Zelaya and Zelaya supporters facing armed opposition from the military in the streets.

Kent said the delegation's goal is to reinstate Zelaya as president, admitting that it would be "a symbolic reinstatement" at this point, with presidential elections scheduled for November 29. (Zelaya can't run again and Micheletti is only filling in for the coup leaders as interim president.) 

Kent couldn't give a time line for talks between Micheletti and Zelaya representatives, along with officials for candidates in the upcoming election, noting: "We are realistic." He couldn't say if it would be "one day, two days, or even a week." It may be a question of now-you-see-him-now-you-don't if Zelaya is reinstated.

NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar again criticized Canada's approach, calling on Ottawa to impose economic and military sanctions against the de facto government. Said Dewar:

Canada is lacking the diplomatic will to defend the rights and freedoms of the Honduran people

Kent said he is "optimistic" about meetings that began Wednesday,  calling them a "significant step forward." To date, there has been little progress - apart from Zelaya's daring move back into the country under Brazilian protection and facing arrest. He said one of the points of discussion is to put the "perceived political crimes of both sides behind us . . . in a general amnesty. . . and move ahead." What that amnesty means must be worked out in the discussions. Asked whether there's balance between anything Zelaya may have done and the actions of military coup leaders who deposed a president in the middle of the night, Kent noted the Supreme Court and other Honduran institutions called efforts by Zeleya to run for re-election "offenses against the constitution." Such actions were cited in the warrant for his arrest.

Kent stressed Canada opposed the coup from the beginning and called for Zelaya's reinstatement. Zelaya's "unacceptable removal" came almost at the end of his term, he said, but OAS representatives don't consider it to be acceptable "under any conditions."

Kent said it "means a great deal" to Latin American nations who have been "traumatized by military coups" to see the president resinstated. In recent conversations he's had with Zelaya, he said, the ousted president indicated he "simply wanted to finish the term to which he'd been democratically elected."

Kent urged Zelaya and Micheletti camps to entreat their supporters to accept a negotiated settlement. There must be time, he said, for the OAS and other organizations to bring in oversight teams in order to ensure November elections that are "free and fair worthy of international recognition."

At this point, it appears all the cards are in Micheletti's hands. Kent appears to be doing the best he can with the cards he was dealt by Ottawa's position on Honduras. Still, it's seems farcical to watch talks to squeeze out a few hours in the presidential palace for Zelaya, while nobody talks about the elephant of coup leaders who will get nothing more than a slap on the wrists - if that. It may be a new definition of a coup, but it's a bad precedent.

Meanwhile, the situation for Honduran citizens remains extremely precarious.

Scott Brison: Say it isn't so

Nova Scotia Liberal Scott Brison is usually a careful politician who knows exactly what he's talking about when he debates. That is my impression of the man over some years now.

That is why it is surprising to learn what Brison said in the House of Commons last week about C-23, the bill to implement a free trade agreement with Colombia. It would appear the Liberals, among them key proponents Brison and Toronto Centre MP Bob Rae, who visited Colombia briefly in August, support the bill without the extensive rights review demanded by critics. (There is apparently dissension in Liberal ranks though, including among a couple of prominent MPs.)

Here's a part of what Brison said (with the bold being mine) last week during debate in the Commons:

 Madam Speaker, the hon. member claims that paramilitary groups have murdered trade unionists this year. She should be aware that paramilitary groups have been disbanded in Colombia, but there are drug gangsters who continue to exist. There continues to be a battle between FARC, the leftist guerrillas who philosophically are closer to her party, and the drug lords who continue to operate in what has become not an ideological war today but a drug war.

    To say that paramilitary forces are murdering union leaders today is false, because everybody who has been studying the issue recognizes that the paramilitary forces have been disbanded, and in fact the trend line on these attacks has decreased tremendously. The fact is that there is a drug war in Colombia and the best way to provide an alternative to the narco-economy is through legitimate trade.

 

(Brison also spoke the day before in the House, on September 29.)

Free trade with Colombia is a contentious issue. Last year an all-party committee unanimously recommended a full human rights review, a position still seemingly upheld by the Liberals earlier this year. (The Conservative rep on the committee voted for the review, only to reverse himself in the House a few days later, presumably when he realized what he'd done.) There has been significant, albeit little publicized opposition.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe would like nothing more than for Canadian parliamentarians to praise his efforts to restore peace to his country and disband the paramilitaries. The politically correct image is one in which FARC and other guerrilla groups, as well as drug traffickers, kill civilians. That is, however, not the full story.

The paramilitaries - let's be frank here, the death squads - are linked to the army and they are doing their fair share of the killing, according to the dogwork of respected rights and labour organizations (both national and international) and, among other journalistic endeavours, my own extensive reporting from and about Colombia. In fact, the latest figures provided to the Canadian Labour Congress by rights groups in Colombia says 460 unionists have been murdered since 2002 when Uribe came to power, 49 in 2008 alone. The CLC made its own submission to Parliament on Bill C-23. Brison called alleged connections between legislators and paramilitary groups "hallucinations" but there's nothing hallucinatory about these deaths.

Nobody argues the guerrillas - notably FARC - haven't become corrupted and entangled in the drug business since the early days of idealism, or that they're not doing their own share of kidnapping and killing. (It's too bad that point even has to be made, but given the level of debate it's the equivalent of the customary, "That doesn't mean I support Saddam," when decrying the U.S. bombing of Iraq).

Brison and I talked today and he made the point the information was provided to him in Colombia: that the paramilitaries have been disbanded and operate completely independently of the government and that most of them are actually drug gangsters. He said he listened to a wide range of views and makes the point "paramilitaries implies linkage to the government and the military" and he doesn't believe that to be the case.

We differ on concept here. Yes, "paramilitaries" does imply links to the government and military but by their very nature they work in the shadows and the government claims to be clean. To repeat: that's standard operating procedure. It's called deniability; you know the drill. I remember interviewing nuns in a mountain village - literally a day's rough going up into the mountains on muleback - north of Apartado in northern Colombia.  Here, the death squads are very strong, with names like the "headcutters" to describe their modus operandi.  A death squad arrived on a Saturday afternoon, lined up several old men and youths in the village common and gunned them down. Overhead, military helicopters circled during the entire massacre. I got there within a day or two of the massacre and, yes, I later interviewed government and the military brass and they all claimed these squads operated  independently of the government. They were shocked - shocked and outraged. (Going back down the mountain on muleback was frightening because military helicopters circles overhead for most of the 10-12 hours; I was pretty scared.) Since the word of nuns is not considered credible - compared to high-falutin' government officials and their contacts who welcome foreign dignataries - such stories are collected by rights groups and journalists and too often ignored. Human rights reports, by the way, aren't compiled from offices in Bogota; eye-witness testimony is searched out and verified by highly trained and brave field workers.

The other point is that paramilitaries, guerrillas, corrupt politicians = drug trade. What's new? They are all multi-dextrous, involved to some degree or another in trafficking, making the  "drug trade" the excuse of choice by governments for coming down hard on legitimate opposition in much of Latin America. That, and the "threat of terrorism." The reason the death squads have motivation to kill peasants, unionists, religious workers,  teachers and other civic leaders is to keep people too frightened to rise up and protest against governments who sign away their crops in international agreements and save the best resources for foreign corporations. Keep them in their place.

Going to Colombia is certainly better than not going and, for that reason, I applaud Brison and Rae for making the effort. But, as is often the case, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing and it would appear there is a full-court press campaign to bring legislators onside in the U.S. and, oh yeah, in Canada. Brison is a respected MP with integrity and his opinions are taken seriously. This blog post attests to the authority and influence I believe he carries (as does Rae).

A final note: Trade agreements are controversial, including this one with Colombia. I've always found it strange there's an embargo against, say, Cuba, and not, say, China. If you are inclined to favor trade agreements, fine, do so on Colombia. Brison argues trade can only help (a point that is hotly debated not because it's trade but by the nature of the neo-liberal deals adopted by the Colombians who benefit, notably wealthy landowners). But don't whitewash the actions of a government led by a president accused by Colombian human rights groups of sanctioning death squad activity when he was governor of Antioquia (where Apartado is located) in order to sell free trade. Rights groups claim workers trying to organize on Uribe's own family ranch were assassinated by the death squads. He is very well-known for his tirades against human rights organizations and the slick operations of his sales team.

For more reading, there are scores of reports about what's really going on in Colombia although it must be said the information has not been sanctioned by the Presidencia in Bogota. Here's a small sample.

http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=15019

Amnesty International Canada

Washington Office on Latin America

Here's what the Christian Peacemaker Teams say:

 The struggle against the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement is far from over, however.   While members of the Colombia Trade Reference Group of the Americas Policy Group—to which CPT belongs—have credited civil society’s opposition to the Bill for having an impact on the Liberal position, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff’s office continues to circulate a letter stating that “we support the principle of free trade with Colombia and will vote to send this legislation to committee for an in depth analysis.

The letter claims that the International Crisis Group (ICG) acknowledges that the human rights situation has improved under the current Colombian government.   In fact, ICG’s most recent report on Colombia, released 25 May 2009, states that “serious abuses, including of international humanitarian law, persist and in some instances are even increasing

The U.S. State Department, however, does report the situation is improving.

Honduran Powderkeg

Deposed Honduran President Michel Zelaya is back in the country, however under the most extreme circumstances - holed up in the Brazilian embassy with pseudo-president Roberto Micheletti's troops having a field day with protestors.

Amnesty International Canada has reported beatings, arrests and suppression over past days in this volatile situation. There is potential for massive loss of life. Just look at what happened with the shootings a few months ago when Zelaya put a toe across the border for an afternoon in El Paraiso.

I'm surprised Zelaya is back - certainly an act of courage - but it's difficult to believe the democratically-elected president will be allowed to resume his duties. He has not been supported - except with rhetoric and empty acts - by the OAS, or its most powerful members, including Canada and the U.S. since he was kicked out in June. Setting up a task force under Costa Rican president Oscar Arias has appeared to be  meaningless; Arias has asked Zelaya to be patient while the clock ticks down to elections still scheduled for November. The negotiations - marked by the unfortunate absence of Arias from the scene because of swine flu this summer - have been fruitless. The military-supported government insists it intends to arrest Zelaya.

Although the U.S. and Canada don't recognize the de facto government,  gestures of disapproval have been limp. In my experience as correspondent in Latin American and the Caribbean, coups don't happen without at least a nudge-nudge, wink-wink between U.S. intelligence forces and the local military. Remember, the U.S. has a large regional military base in Honduras and it's a stretch to believe the coup happened in an intelligence vacuum. (That doesn't mean in multifaceted Washington, senior levels of government signed off, or even that more than a few "need-to-know" people were involved. That, we'll know in 30 years.)

However, this situation is extremely dangerous, beyond the precarious position of Hondurans who have placed themselves in the sights of army guns. A deep left-right hemispheric split - arguably the first since Haiti - has developed over Zelaya, with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and Brazil's Luiz Ignacio "Lula" de Silva, among others, calling for his return and offering support.  Chavez at first threatened military action, which appears extremely unlikely. But these leaders can't be seen to be backing down. If one democratic president is allowed to be removed by coup leaders in the middle of the night and put on a plane to Costa Rica under trumped-up charges, every president is at risk - and the days of the coup in Latin America are not over. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was enthusiastic about the Arias mission - but the little else. The OAS has currently sent a mediator to the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.

The lack of real support for a president who moved left after his election was evident from the beginning. Latin America has, sadly, largely fallen off the political landscape in northern countries wracked by their own economic turmoil. But, as Canadian filmmaker Peter Raymont pointed out his award-winning documentary about Nicararagua, The World is Watching, events do not go completely unobserved. Raymont later made another documentary, The World Stopped Watching, about Nicaragua's fall from international appeal. But every time democracy is seen to be ignored in the region, it affects opinion in other countires,  including Mexico to the north. There, massive social resistance is barely kept suppressed and the massive assault to cross the U.S. frontier remains constant. The leaders of tomorrow's Latin America are watching, forming their opinions about whether Canada and the U.S. are serious about democracy for their countries, or prefer the paper version. So are their disillusioned citizens. Whether Zelaya is reinstated as president will shape their views.

Nicaragua: Children compelled to bear children

A report released today by Amnesty International calling for an end to a ban on abortions in Nicaragua has shocking statistics about the rising death rate among pregnant women in the Central American country. So far this year, 33 girls and women have died in pregnancy, compared to the same period last year and Amnesty blames changes to the Penal Code that expands restrictions on the medical profession. Under stricter provisions, doctors face prison terms for treating a  pregnant woman with malaria, cancer, HIV/AIDS or a cardiac condition if the treatment is contraindicated in pregnancy. Girls and women have been thrown in jail for having miscarriages. Victims of rape and incest are forced to carry the fetus to term, and physicians who are caught peforming abortions are imprisoned. Only 3 percent of the world's countries have a total ban on abortion, according to the rights organization.

After returning from a fact-finding mission to Nicaragua, Kate Gilmore from Amnesty International termed the situation a "human rights scandal that ridicules medical science," at a press conference in Mexico City.  She said one Nicaraguan doctor told the Amnesty group she dreads cases of anencephalic pregnancy, in which the fetus cannot survive, because the patient must nevertheless continue with the pregnancy.  Gilmore said:

"There’s only one way to describe what we have seen in Nicaragua: sheer horror. . . Children are being compelled to bear children. Pregnant women are being denied essential including life-saving medical care."

Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega refused to support a campaign from rights groups in Nicaragua - including girls and women who spoke up - to get the draconian legislation off the books. During that country's civil war of the 1980s, women filled the ranks of Ortega's Sandanista army, fighting and dying alongside the men. It seems in Nicaragua women's lives matter only on the battlefield. 

Now it's Panama for ousted Honduran president

OK, so it's not today. The latest on President Manuel Zelaya (capped because he's still recognized by UN, OAS, Canada, U.S., etc.) has him returning Saturday. Or so he says.

But now he's in Panama, a country that often hosts exiled politicians and military honchos. There's a lot of huffing and puffing about the age of coups in the Americas being over. The Organization of American States  warns Zelaya must be returned promptly or Honduras risks its OAS membership. (Oh no, not that!)

Meanwhile, Zelaya is in Panama, the renowned choice for exile of deposed politicians and retiring military honchos. The local Honduran press is full of reports (in Spanish, natch) of demonstrations against the allegedly corrupt "Mel" and provisional president Roberto Michiletti is busy appointing his cabinet. The big coffee unions publicly support the new leader. Zelaya has been told he'll return to an arrest warrant and police have begun scooping up his associates - ie. former telecommunications king, Marcelo Chimirri - on illicit enrichment charges. Allegations of cocaine-trafficking have surfaced in Honduras against Zelaya - and that certainly suggests co-operation between Honduran officials and U.S. drug authorities in Honduras.

All of the above are bad signs for Zelaya's return. The OAS is hardly an organization applauded for real action; besides, membership can easily be restored with a new Honduran president in November.

Earlier this week, I said I hope my cynicism about Zelaya's return is misplaced. If not, I won't keep bringing Decoder back to this sad tale of coups being alive and well.

Zelaya promises to be a good boy

Oh-ho, there's an interesting development with ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. He promised this afternoon in New York he won't seek re-election if allowed to return to Honduras. That was apparently the big reason behind his ouster. He made the statement at a press conference at the UN, replying, "No, never," when asked if he would ever enter politics again. He said he will return Thursday to Honduras. And, from Buenos Aires, we learn Argentine President Cristina Fernandez may accompany him, along with officials from, among other organizations, the OAS.

So, can a defanged prez (to use a polite body part) go home again? President in name only until November? 

I didn't think of that. It would certainly be a creative solution, presumably ending the sabre rattling from Hugo Chavez. It took three years of pressure to pummel Aristide into shape (see previous posting) but this was mental massage at warp speed.

Meanwhile, Honduran officials say he'll be arrested for treason if he tries to return. Plus, rumours suggest a cocaine link for Zelaya. How original. Consider the U.S. regional drug task force based in Honduras.

Stay tuned - although I'm still betting against a homecoming.

AFL-CIO on Honduran coup

A link to the union blog.

Ousted Honduran president should be checking out real estate in Costa Rica

I hope I've gotten this one completely wrong, or should I say hope  Political Decoder's perspective is out-of-whack.

President Manuel Zelaya was ousted by a Honduran army coup on Sunday to denunciations from world leaders, including President Barack Obama, as well as rights groups like Amnesty. The knowledgable Larry Birns, director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs, sounded optimistic about his return in an interview Monday on CBC radio's As It Happens. Military coups are a bad thing, agreed?

Odds are, though, that Zelaya will stay Costa Rica, where he was unceremoniously dumped, until a successor is chosen in the November presidential elections. That's because the coup would have been highly unlikely without, at the least, a nod and a wink from the CIA. Things of that nature don't happen in the Americas without assurances the U.S. won't pull a Panama. It's the Monroe Doctrine writ large, and Honduras is in America's backyard. The U.S. still has 600 soldiers stationed at Soto Cano military base in Honduras, also the site of a regional U.S. task force on narco-trafficking, humanitarian issues and disaster relief (read  counter-terrorism). Washington is no fan of left-wing politicians, especially one so physically close as Zelaya, with his ties to Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, and efforts to change the consitution to allow him to run for re-election.

Venezuelan President Chavez blames the entire coup on the CIA.  Maybe, but unlikely; it wouldn't have been necessary. Top soldiers in most Latin American countries, including Honduras, have done their advanced training at the School of the Americas (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security and Cooperation), and ties to the U.S. defence elite are maintained in many ways, including in-country spooks. (A link to an organization that opposes the existence of the Institute. ) Washington gets very nervous when Latin American or Caribbean leaders lean left. If something can be done, it is. 

I first witnessed how it works when then Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a former priest, was ousted in a 1991 army coup.  The State Department immediately denounced it, as did the big world agencies - just as the U.N. General Assembly moved this week to condemn the Honduran coup. 

However, three days after the coup I walked into army headquarters in Port-au-Prince to find the local CIA agent sitting there. (Sorry, naval attaché.) He was all chummy with coup leader Lt. Gen. General Raoul Cédras. Both men regaled me with stories of Aristide's lunacy, backed by bizarre documents lifted from the president's home by a shadowy Canadian, nicknamed (yup), "The Shadow." The documents were, to me, hilarious. In the age of snail mail, real weirdos sent reporters rants that would curl your toes - sometimes literally on toilet paper - and these documents were just like that. At the time, remember, the U.S. Administration wasn't supposed to be having buddy-buddy relations with the coup leaders and later backed a United Nations embargo that crippled the country's already improverished citizenry.

That was a Thursday. The next day, a top U.S. official in Haiti met privately with a select group of American reporters in Port-au-Prince and, Saturday, the big weekend U.S. papers carried the first stories about how Aristide had been unfit for the job, the coup was necessary, blah-blah. Obviously, the "proof" lay in those same wacko documents. The media covered them as if they proved something and that coverage fueled Aristide's opponents on Capitol Hill. By the time Aristide got back to Haiti in 1994, but he was a changed man, his liberation theory plans for his country in shambles. Of course, that's why he was allowed to return.

I learned covering the coup that U.S. policy is not monolithic - and I'm not talking here about division of powers -  and that the State Department, or even the president, can have very different objectives from the defence and intelligence communities. The latter usually wins if the issue involves security or perceived security. Witness Obama on Gitmo. Understanding Haiti would help me me see and write about the CIA hand in fabricating the "weapons of mass destruction" in the months leading up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Arguably, Dr. Paul Farmer's The Uses of Haiti is the best book on the country's tangled relations with the U.S., including the Aristide coup. Farmer is the physician and Harvard professor who spends six months of the year running a health clinic in Haiti with donated funds. (I should disclose he cites my coverage for the Toronto Star in his book.)

I wager the CIA signed off on the Honduran coup in ways that won't be proven for 30 years, if ever. Zelaya will malinger in Honduras during the  ongoing debate about his return - Will he? Won't he? - and that a new president, more pleasing to Washington's taste, will be "elected" in November. The coup has barely rippled in the public consciousness. 

I hope I'm out in left field on this one and I'll be happy to blog about it if I am. But I've seen this movie before.

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The Decoder (www.twitter.com/PoliticalDecode) will be back Thursday. Have a great Canada Day!

The pride of a Toronto Star photographer

I lived in Mexico for 7 years, but it's great to be here with Star photographer Carlos Osorio. Born in El Salvador, Carlos came to Canada when he was little and had never been to Mexico City. His only impressions of this country came from  the crowded, dusty streets of Juarez, where we went on a story a few years ago. That is the image of Mexico of most people: the Border. Mexicans and others trying to get across and the privileged North trying to stop them. Poverty, joblessness and desperation.

All those things exist in Mexico. But it is also a great country blessed with a capital that has been a literary, artistic, political, academic and religious beacon to Latin America for centuries. I would argue Mexico City is the capital of Latin America, no matter what Buenas Aires or other cities might claim. For Carlos, being here even on a terrible story like swine flu, has been an eye-opener to the beauty, even majesty, of a great Latin American city. "It feels so full of life, the noise, the churches, the smells, the people," he says. "It's great. I  love it - I guess for me it's in the blood."

Carlos gets to see the magnificence of the Latin American culture he shares. He's proud - and excited as a photographer. The light alone is amazing; he should see Havana.

It's sad fallout from cutbacks in the media (to cite one reason) there are no longer Canadian bureaus here. The news is so much richer than the occasional health catastrophe or earthquake. We think of Mexico then, or when we read about farmworkers coming to Canada. Or when we are part of the more than a million tourists who travel here every year. Such a pity. 

Oh dear. They say (in Spanish) if the dust of Mexico gets into your heart (or your soul, I don't remember), you are a prisoner for life. I guess that's me. I hadn't realized how much I yearned for the light, the birdsong, the gardens and, most of all, the people. Can I go home again?

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Mexico City is in lockdown for swine flu and tomorrow will be double lockdown because it's the May 1st International Workers Day holiday. So anything that is open today won't be tomorrow. And Tuesday is May 5. Cinco de Mayo. That's the day Mexican troops beat the French army in 1862 in Puebla.

Setting up interviews is so much fun. When I lived here I worked out how many holidays Mexican have and it's something like double those of dour Canada. Mexicans know how to live.

Hmmm, Does Michael Ignatieff's trip to D.C. mean the PM is out-of-step where it counts?

A seismic shift shouldn't be seen in Michael Ignatieff's jaunt to Washington today. An opposition leader's visit to the modern equivalent of Rome isn't a big deal in Washington's busy grand scheme. Opposition leaders have met with sitting presidents (Brian Mulroney and Ronald Reagan) and Ignatieff could even land an invite for that special meeting at some point.

Still, PM Stephen Harper's stock is not high in certain Washington circles.  With another Summit of the Americas behind us, the verdict by  Washington-based Public Citizen's Trade Watch is our PM stands alone - and out-of-date - in policies on trade initiatives in the Americas. In the past, Trade Watch has been highly critical of former president George W. Bush for his administration's Americas policy. But they've given high grades - so far at least - to President Barack Obama for his disinclination to push for the previously touted "Free Trade Agreement of the Americas." As Trade Watch noted, "happily missing" this time (in Trinidad & Tobabgo) was all the talk of hemispheric free trade and the "Washington Consensus". Lori Wallach, director of Trade Watch says there is a new sentiment among U.S. lawmakers trade agreements haven't benefited the U.S., a view long felt in many countries. Wallach argues: "Leaders throughout the hemisphere face broad public demand for real change in trade and economic policy and some have begun creating new approaches. Others, like Obama, have committed to do so."

She says events show neo-liberal policies are discredited in the Americas, and the world. There was no talk of the FTAA last week, plus Obama's administration has shown a new approach to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and some loosening on Cuba. (The U.S. is still far from Canada's lead in recognizing and dealing with Cuba, but that will come with time.) Trade Watch offers research showing Obama is in step with polls showing Americans don't believe free trade has been a positive force.

Meanwhile, Canada is the only country to have a free-trade agreement with Colombia and the Harper government hasn't distanced itself from the FTAA model so closely associated with Corporate America and U.S. presidents going back to Reagan.

There is a still general view in many Canadian circles NAFTA has been a real boon to the economy (or was pre-recession) but studies on everything from labour to oil by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives suggests that's a false premise.

The PMO may have hired a couple of former White House spokespeople to boost Canada's image in the U.S. However, being out-of-the-loop with thinking can only be a deterrent.

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Another Latin American offering for your listening pleasure: La Tropa vallenata. (It's that kind of week for me.) "Los Caminos de la Vida" is great road music, especially in northern Colombian where this band has its roots.

Newsflash: Afghan husbands stripped of rights, forced to have marital sex

While decrying the new law discriminating against Afghan husbands, Canadian officials are essentially taking a wait-and-see attitude. The new law legalizes marital rape and forbids husbands from leaving the house without the consent of their wives. Penalties for disobedience are harsh. Meanwhile, supporters of the law argue it applies only to the country's minority Shi'ite Muslim population - not to all men.

What if?

What if men had lost their rights, instead of women in the legislation recently signed by President Harmid Karzai? Close ally of the U.S. and Canada Karzai? Last week, men pelted demonstrating women with stones in Kabul, calling them "dogs," although it should be noted a few men marched with the women.

Within Afghanstan, clerics defend the law while, internationally, officials in countries like Canada express "deep concern" but little else.  It's unthinkable men would face such a fate - or that the rest of the world would maintain a helpless pose as women courageously marched.

Take any story on what's happening to women in Afghanistan and switch the word "women" to "men. See how bizarre it is?

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Humanitarian of the week award: Karlheinz Schreiber

The German arms dealer this week told the public inquiry into his business dealings with former PM Brian Mulroney he lobbied for a light-armoured vehicle plant in Nova Scotia two decades ago in order to save lives. "I am frustrated today because this is the reason why our soldiers are (being) killed in Afghanistan," said Schreiber (in an AFP photo at right). 

 "It's not about a few bucks in commission. This is about lives."

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On a glorious day with promise of a great Saturday ahead, Decoder ace contributor Lynne shares springtime images of the first calf of the year at Riverdale Farm in Toronto.

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Oh, yeah, and Joe the Plumber is back.

Reflections from Comrade Fidel

Toronto Star Photos

Castro in Havana in 1998

 Fidel Castro still muses publicly about world events and, this time, it's Fidel on Barack Obama. It's a strange one, part complimentary ("obvious good health, agile mind operating like a heavy machine"), part criticism of NATO and part a news summary of the recent Obama itinerary. One imagines Castro stretched out in his jammies dictating his world view or, more likely, authorizing writeups from his press corps. Oh, what foe old age.

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More for Latin America/Caribbean buffs: The People's Summit will be held simultaneously with the V Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, April 16-18. The People's Summit looks at labour, environmental and social issues, while politicians gather to come up with more of the policies that have been so successful in the Americas. Not.

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Why the Rush on Free Trade with Colombia? Despite an all-party report last fall advising a human rights review before free trade with Colombia, Parliament quietly ratified the agreement. As Rick Arnold, director of the human rights group Common Frontiers, asks about Colombian free trade in a letter to his MP: Why?

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Fujimori goes up the river: Earlier this week, former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in prison for mass murder for the activities of his death squads. Unlike Chile's Augusto Pinochet, Fujimori, 70,  didn't expire soon enough. His lawyers will appeal.

I remember an interview with Fujimori in the presidential palace in which he boasted about a different (distinto) type of democracy in his Peru. I'll say.

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Happy Easter

Barack Obama, K Street lobbyists and the grab for Mexican oil

Canadian unions may have found an ally in their fight to stop the endless rush to privatization in the Americas: Barack Obama.

This particular battle involves the significant issue of energy. Over the past week, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) sponsored a trip to Mexico by two trade lawyers to lend support to efforts to stop the privatization of the national oil company, PEMEX.

Lawyers Stephen Shrybman and Hugo Neal-Leri, who've done substantial work for both unions, spoke at various events in Mexico City and Villahermosa (in the oil state of Tabasco) and met with opposition party politicians and workers from small independent unions. It was a trip to offer moral support. Rick Arnold, from the advocacy group Common Frontiers (another trip sponsor), calls what happens to PEMEX (Petróleos Mexicanos) "a litmus test" for Latin America.  His worst-case scenario would be the entire Americas being controlled by a handful of powerful energy companies.

Mexico has been a holdout. It would difficult to find a prouder moment in recent Mexican history than when President Lázaro Cárdenas nationalized the oil companies in 1938, kicking out interests including Rockefeller's Standard Oil. U.S. trade negotiators, with their energy working groups, have tried to reverse that decision since free trade talks began in the 1980s. Remember, the genesis of free trade lay with Corporate America, and not with politicians like Ronald Reagan or Brian Mulroney.

When Canada agreed to NAFTA clauses ensuring proportional energy sharing even in times of shortage, Mexico said, "No, thanks."

Now, it looks as if PEMEX could fall. It's not that Mexico has such a sweet deal over Canada; the country still imports gasoline for its citizens in spite of being the world's sixth largest producer of crude. Still, the symbol of PEMEX is important.

President Felipe Calderón is pushing Congress for what his PAN party calls "minor" privatization, a move opponents see as a vast sell-off. It means that 37 of 41 divisions would be open to outside contracting to companies such as Halliburton. (Yes, that Halliburton. ) The Washington-based think-tank Council on Hemispheric Affairs has published a background report on the situation.

Arnold says the ongoing debate in the Mexican Congress is critical for the battle against privatization in South America, notably Venezuela and Bolivia. He argues his group is not against trade but opposes NAFTA because, in his view, it ignores social and labour concerns. A recent document published by Common Frontiers offers further insight and sets up Democratic candidate Barack Obama as a potential ally. The report opens with a statement from his recent policy paper:

In Mexico, as in the U.S. and Canada, citizens and democrats wish to “close the revolving door between the executive branch and K street (corporate) lobbying …”. Mexicans are currently mobilizing to stop the deeply un-democratic practice of lobbyists [writing] national policies.

From Barack Obama’s Blueprint for Change

It would be be wise to remember that, during another presidential race, the major unions in the United States believed they could count on another Democratic candidate, Bill Clinton. They thought he would join them in opposing NAFTA but, despite hints to the contrary, he waited until after Labour Day in 1992 to announce his support for the deal.

Now Democratric presidential candidate Obama is looking good. He doesn't oppose NAFTA (apparently not any longer) but it was the clout of corporate lobbyists that gave us the trade deals in the first place. Taking on the K-Street lobbyists could define an Obama presidency. Their business includes the energy industry advocates who push U.S. President George W. Bush to open up national parks to drilling and water down environmental legislation. They currently have their sights set on PEMEX. The lobbying industry could be seen as the fourth pillar of the U.S. political system - and arguably the most powerful. Closing that "revolving door" will be no easy task for Obama - if he attempts it.

I'll be lining up to see Paul Gross and Passchendaele

Promotional Photo/Star Files

Paul Gross in scene from Passechendaele

It was great news this week that Passchendaele, the film written, produced and directed by Paul Gross, will open the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival in September. The Canadian actor also stars, playing his grandfather, Sgt. Michael Dunne from the Canadian Corps, in his film about the third battle of Ypres, also known as Passchendaele, in the rain and muck of Belgium in the autumn of 1917. In The Great War, Passchendaele was another symbol of the growing reputation of Canadians as elite fighters, but as our young country came of age there was an awful price. By the capture of the town of Passchendaele in early November, the Canadian casualty count stood at 15,654. Star movie critic Peter Howell reports Gross as saying, "Passchendaele took longer to make than the First World War to fight."

He was joking, perhaps, but it sounded as if he were obsessed by the project, thinking about making the movie for more than a decade. He could not help but understand the horror of the place from his many conversations with his grandfather. As the old man lay dying, he told Gross ... ah, but this is his story to tell and best left to the filmmaker.

Like so many other Canadians, it feels as if I, too, have been waiting my whole life for this film. (We, too, have our own family war wounds.) I brooded endlessly over films like Australia's Gallipoli, loving it, hating it and raging at the inability of Canadians to tell our own stories — especially ones revealing what it was like to be a colonized country in time of war. That's not necessarily a phenomenon restricted to the past, however that's another topic. Today, I simply wish to acknowledge what Paul Gross has done and underscore how long we've been waiting. Not that Slings and Arrows wasn't terrific (in my opinion), but Passchendaele has the potential to be a touchstone for us all.

No pressure there.

I once saw a little Australian B-flick called Emerald City, not great, but so Canadian in its story about two writers desperate to make a movie about the experience of aboriginal peoples in their country. One of the guys — the slick one with the ready patter —  goes to the States to raise money and comes back all a-twitter because he's got funding — with only a few teensy changes. Like the guy is no longer an Aborigine, but  American Black, and the setting is no longer the Australian Outback but the American Deep South.

You get the picture.

His partner quits the project, but not before delivering a speech:

"We need to feel important enough to have fiction written about us. Otherwise, we will grow up thinking real life is something that happened to somebody else, and in accents other than our own."

Those lines from Emerald City have always stayed with me.

I hardly think they will apply to long-awaited Passchendaele.