Chile's "Children of Silence"

From CNN

There could be hundreds, even thousands of cases of babies who were either stolen from their biological parents or given away during the dreaded dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s and 1980s, according to multiple interviews with Chilean authorities, people with knowledge of the issue and parents still looking for their children.

The disappearances occurred in the upper classes of Chilean society, where children of unmarried women were given up or taken to protect a family's reputation and honor. And they occurred in the lower classes, where children were simply stolen and sold.

Through the years, the missing became known as the "Children of Silence."

Sounds like the tip of the iceberg. And, really, did it have to be a Catholic priest?

Civil war era trials go forward in Guatemala

On September 11, 1990, anthropologist Myrna Mack was stabbed to death in Guatemala City. Less than one year later, Miguel Mérida was murdered. At the time, Mérida was leading the investigation into Mack's assassination.

Mack was stabbed to death in the historical center of the city four days after a group of Mayan community representatives presented a report that documented the displacement of thousands of indigenous Guatemalans as a result of ongoing military repression at the time.

Months earlier, Mack had published a study called “¿Dónde está el futuro?” (“Where is the future?”), based on her anthropological fieldwork of the brutal consequences for indigenous communities of the state’s military campaign. In 1993, military specialist Noel de Jesús Bateta was convicted of committing the actual murder.

Judge Miguel Ángel Gálvez recently told journalists that three member of the former National Police, Julio David López, José Miguel González Grijalva and Alberto Barrios Rabanales, will stand trial on charges including conspiracy to commit Mérida's murder. Prosecutors allege the he was killed to disrupt the investigation in Mack's murder. The men who allegedly killed Mack pleaded guilty but were later released on a reversal. One died and the other has since disappeared.

In other legal developments,

Guatemala’s Court for High-Risk Crimes ruled that charges would be brought against two members of the Army for sexual slavery and domestic slavery against q’eqchís women in the military outpost of Sepur Zarco, and other serious crimes perpetrated in the framework of the government counterinsurgency policies during the armed conflict.

At the public hearing, Judge Miguel Angel Galvez ruled that there is sufficient evidence to open a trial against Colonel Esteelmer Reyes Girón, former chief of the Sepur Zarco military outpost, and Heriberto Valdéz Asij, former military commissioner in the region.

Reyes will be tried for the crimes against humanity of sexual violence and sexual slavery, domestic slavery, and the assassination of Dominga Coc and her two young daughters on the base. Valdez will face charges for the crimes against humanity of sexual violence and forced disappearance.

The reversal of the Rios Montt trial was clearly a setback for the cause of justice in Guatemala. So has the recent election of judges and related scandals. Those events make the recent announcements that trials will go forward in the Mack and Sepur Zarco case all the more remarkable.

The Battle of the Invisibles - Puebla, Mexico and California

On Tuesday, the University of Scranton's Latin American Studies Program welcomed filmmaker Manuel de Alba to campus to screen his award winning film, The Battle of the Invisibles.

The Battle of the Invisibles: Undocumented Workers vs Supermarkets” is a 60-minute documentary film that focuses on the janitorial labor force from Puebla, Mexico and the exploitation of their labor by major U.S. supermarkets. It also tells the story of how thousands of workers from a rural town in Mexico became employed by California's grocery stores and engaged in a five-year struggle against labor abuses by powerful supermarket chains including Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons.

After years of having been taken advantage of while working as janitors in California, over 2,000 people, many from Puebla, Mexico, joined in a class action lawsuit against the supermarket chains that exploited them. They had suffered lost wages for not being paid the minimum wage, not receiving breaks or vacation days, and were forced to work with toxic chemicals without the proper clothing, gloves, or masks. In the end the supermarkets agreed to an out-of-court settlement of $22 million with the janitors.

It was a very good film that addresses several important issues in immigration and labor exploitation, One of the more interesting targets of the film were the Puebla power brokers who made an economic killing facilitating the travel of their neighbors, often family members, to California and their subsequent exploitation by the supermarket chains.

National Children's Alliance at the University of Scranton

As some of you know, I am the coordinator of the University of Scranton's Education for Justice office. We are a group that encourages faculty to incorporate justice-related themes into the courses and provide some financial assistance for programming.

Last night we welcomed Denise Richards to campus. Denise is the director of government affairs for the National Children's Alliance (NCA), the national association and accrediting body for Children's Advocacy Centers (CAC). It was a great opportunity for our students, many of them engaged in service opportunities and committed to helping others as part of their post-graduation plans, to hear from someone who was able to turn her passion and faith into a very effective advocacy career. We had a good turnout, especially among counseling and human services majors and the Scranton community. Unfortunately, I can't say that the political science representation was at their level.

Denise spoke about her efforts to keep the federal government committed to funding the nationwide Children's Advocacy Centers. These centers are community-based, public-private partnerships that coordinate child abuse investigations and intervention needs of children who experienced abuse and their families. As as foster parent this past year, I have a much better understanding of how important these centers are and how important Denise work is.

One of the issues that can up during her talk and our conversation during the day was the unaccompanied minors crisis. She is optimistic that Congress is going to move on legislation related to unaccompanied minors in the new year. There is more across the aisle cooperation on children's issues than most others in Congress. When I asked her about the media coverage of Republicans who had wanted to do away with the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, she said that is was a small but vocal group of House members. She did not think that repeal or significant changes to the law would have passed the Senate or President Obama's desk. There was more bite than bark this summer.

Denise's visit was a great opportunity for our student body and wider community to come together to learn more about a very important issue and to continue a conversation as to how we can continue to work together to improve our Scranton community.

Pacific Rim against El Salvador in an international arbitration tribunal

Lauren Carasik has an article in Foreign Affairs on Undermined: The Case Against International Arbitration Tribunals.

A decision in favor of Pacific Rim -- allowing its corporate profits to trump El Salvador’s domestic safeguards -- would set a dangerous precedent about who has the power to dictate the terms of development for emerging economies. Corporations, concerned primarily with maximizing profit, should not be able to subvert the will of sovereign countries, especially those whose poverty requires them to seek outside investment. Compounding the problem, developing countries often submit to bilateral investment treaties and free trade agreements whose terms usually grant jurisdiction to international tribunals.

The dominant development orthodoxy of the past several decades has pressured countries to make concessions to attract foreign capital by implementing neoliberal reform packages, including austerity measures, privatization, and deregulation. In practice, this has often meant gutting labor, health, and environmental standards. Foreign tribunals, which further expand corporate prerogatives while limiting the ability of states to protect their citizens, are another step in the wrong direction.

I'm not that persuaded (read the comments to the Foreign Affairs article as well). I still hope that El Salvador wins or reaches a settlement with Pacific Rim that maintains the de facto ban over mining in the country. I just have a lot of questions over the safety of the operations and mining's potential to reignite social conflict that was the norm a few years ago. Mining doesn't have to go hand in hand with social conflict but in countries with weak rule of law and a history of government and elite exploitation of their people, it sure seems to. Social conflict around mining remains a permanent condition in Honduras and Guatemala whereas tensions seem to have subsided since the de facto ban.

While I have no love for Pacific Rim, the case was brought to an international arbitration tribunal because it was the Salvadoran government that agreed that in order to encourage foreign investment in a country that lacked the rule of law and where the courts were weak, corrupt, and politicized, investors needed greater guarantees than what their courts could provide. Go back to the McDonald's case.

The Salvadoran people and the FMLN generally seem to support the mining ban in general and in the decision not to extend an exploitation permit to Pacific Rim. However, the tribunal will (hopefully) decide the case on the legal merits. I'm hoping that the tribunal rules in favor of the Salvadoran government on the legal merits of the case ("The government countered that Pacific Rim had not complied with the requirements for a permit, including acquiring land titles for the area encompassing its proposed mines, obtaining the appropriate environmental authorizations, and submitting environmental impact assessments and a project feasibility study") rather than the more abstract argument that a ruling in favor of Pacific Rim goes against the will of the Salvadoran people.

A ruling along those lines would appear to do more to strengthen the rule of law in El Salvador than other alternatives at this point.

El Salvador at-a-glance

Just came across Quique Aviles' poem, Salvador at-a-glance, while visiting Marquette. 

El Salvador at-a-glance

Area: the size of Massachusetts

 Population: Not much left

Language: War, blood, broken English, Spanish

Customs: Survival, dance, birthday parties, funerals

Major exports: Coffee, sugar, city builders, busboys, waiters, poets

You can read the rest of the poem here, including this nugget:

El Salvador’s major cities:

San Salvador

San Miguel

Santa Ana

Los Angeles

San Wachinton, DC

El Salvador and the University of Central America: Yesterday and Today

I am giving the keynote address tomorrow at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on "El Salvador and the Central American University: Yesterday and Today."  As you might know, the 25th anniversary of the deaths of six Jesuit priests and their housekeeper and her daughter will take place on November 16th. All the Jesuit universities in the country are holding a series of events to commemorate the occasion. 

I don't imagine that I would be teaching Latin American politics today had it not been for the work and death of Ignacio Ellacuria, Martin-Baro, Segundo Montes and the other Jesuits in El Salvador. Their martyrdom caused me to focus on El Salvador while their academic and pastoral work led me to ask how do civil wars end and what happens to armed opposition groups, the FMLN in this case, one the war ends. 

I'll probably talk more about the topic over the last month but, for now, I'll just say the UCA remains a model for 21st century Jesuit and Catholic education.

Private security has become a labor option for a large section of society – namely displaced agricultural laborers

Anna-Claire Bevan takes a look at Have gun, will travel: The rise of Guatemala’s private security industry. There are currently 100,000 - 150,000 private security guards in Guatemala protecting everything from hair salons to the children of the country's wealthiest elite. Where do they come from?

The majority of people living below the poverty line in Guatemala are concentrated in rural, majority-indigenous areas where access to education and jobs are limited. Because few private security companies require their employees to have prior experience or a high level of schooling, many unemployed people from the rural areas flock to the capital to seek work as a security guard, allowing them to earn a salary without the need for credentials.

“Private security has become a labor option for a large section of society – namely displaced agricultural laborers,” says Dr. Argueta, the German researcher. “It works like an ‘arms sweatshop’: offering low wages, evading taxes and labor responsibilities, and contracting casual staff that lack qualifications.”

In recent years, the government has tried to get a handle on the private security industry with new regulations but it is obvious that the new regulations, just like every other regulation in Guatemala, has has limited success. It's just not entirely clear whether it is the lack of financial resources, organizational capacity, or will. Perhaps, a combination of each I guess.

The US already has a Plan Central America

Ana Quintana at The Heritage Foundation has a new look at Does the U.S. Need a “Plan Central America”? For the most part, she argues that we already have one. We "simply" need to make important reforms in its implementation. Here are her three recommendations for what the US should do:

Formulate clear goals for CARSI. CARSI was originally designed as a supplement to the Mexico-focused Mérida Initiative. Regional security issues and threats have evolved since then. CARSI should reflect these changing dynamics.

Lift congressional withholdings that undermine U.S. security efforts. Current withholdings against Guatemala and Honduras continue to weaken U.S. regional counternarcotics efforts. Increasing levels of U.S.-bound drug trafficking and accompanying violence will continue to destabilize Central America, and Congress should recognize the need for continued engagement.

Recognize the importance of supporting civil society in Central America. In the U.S. and other Western democracies, civil society functions as the intermediary between the government and the public. Democratic and governance institutions in many of these countries are weak and in many cases corrupt. The U.S. should support groups and organizations that hold regional governments accountable.

I'm all for recommendations one and two. However, with regards to point number two, which mostly corresponds to the Leahy act tying military assistance to human rights improvements, I clearly do not support lifting the conditions. However, instead of removing them, the US needs to move forward with our Central American partners (Guatemala and Honduras) to double down on programs that will help them qualify for the removal of such conditions. Because their militaries do not meet human rights standards is not a reason to remove the conditions. However, at the current rate, neither military is going to meet the standards anytime soon.

[Does this sound like US policy towards Central America during the Reagan administration to anyone else?]

The same goes for economic assistance. Only El Salvador qualifies for a large Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact. Neither Guatemala nor Honduras meet the necessary democratic and economic conditions for a compact but they do for a threshold program. While the US has told them what they need to do to receive one hundred million dollar-plus compacts, they need more assistance to get there.

How much more and how to deliver that assistance, I don't know.

Panamanian Supreme Court justice suspended

Like every other recent administration in Central America, there were a number of allegations of corruption and abuse of power during Ricardo Martinelli's presidency - infrastructure spending kickbacks and court packing to name two.

Well, there's some movement in Panama right now to hold one Supreme Court Justice accountable for some unexplained wealth accrued during the last few years.

Alejandro Moncada has for weeks been battling accusations he profited from his ties to the former conservative leader after documents emerged showing he paid mostly in cash for two luxury apartments valued at over $1.7 million. Such properties are seemingly incompatible with Moncada's $120,000 a year salary and don't show up in a sworn affidavit delivered shortly before joining the bench in 2010 in which he declared a 4x4 truck and an expensive watch as his only assets.

As part of the ruling by lawmakers leading an impeachment probe, Moncada's assets were temporarily frozen. He was also ordered to turn over his passport and remain confined to his residence.

Moncada denies any wrongdoing and said he's the victim of a campaign by Martinelli's political foe and successor, President Juan Carlos Varela, to reshape the nine-member high court.

Salvadorans demand food and water security

On October 15th, Salvadorans took to the street in support of Food Sovereignty Day and World Food Day. Voices on the Border has the entire write-up.

Food sovereignty is a fairly straightforward concept articulated first by La Via Campesina in 1996. It simply asserts the right of people to define their own food systems, placing the individuals who produce, distribute, and consume food at the center of the decisions on food systems and policies.

Marchers had some very specific policy points they want their government to address. (If this post and these demands sound familiar, they held a similar march last year making many of the same demands.)

Salvadorans want the government to recognize food security as a basic right, ban several toxic agrochemicals, pass water and mining laws, and do more to protect the region's fragile ecosystem.

Again, none of these issues or demands is new, but people are protesting because there has been little to no action. While many celebrate the Sanchez Cerén administration as the second consecutive leftist government elected into power in El Salvador, many in the FMLN’s base are grumbling because they have not seen the kinds of changes they expected. Some have been reluctant to protest against the government officials they voted into power, believing the alternative to be far worse. But others are tired of the perceived inaction on issues related to basic rights such as food sovereignty and access to water, and are speaking up.

It's not clear that the FMLN wants to pass all these laws but there are international agreements / considerations that inhibit their passage and practical reasons such as the fact that the FMLN does not have a majority in the Congress. Liking the ban on mining, Salvadorans might have to settle for de facto bans for the time being. Those commitments are not as secure, however, as de jure bans.  

US extends TPS to Nicaragua and Honduras

On Friday, Department of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson extended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to eligible nationals of Nicaragua and Honduras. TPS was originally granted to Honduras in 1999 and to Nicaragua in 2001. As a result, thousands of their citizens were provided with work permits and legal documents to remain in the United States even though their papers had expired or they had never received any.

As I wrote in 2011, the US probably won't be ending TPS to Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, or Hondurans anytime soon. All of the people eligible for TPS have been in the country for over a decade. It doesn't make sense to make them go "home." For many, this is their home. I also wrote that the administration should start thinking about how to transition these people to some form of permanent legal status. However, it's now time to move beyond thinking about it and to act on it.

Unfortunately, other than increasing the number of deportations, President Obama doesn't really seem to be concerned with the crisis affecting millions of precariously documented and undocumented migrants in our country. Or maybe he cares and just doesn't think that it is a politically winning strategy to care. We'll learn more after the November elections apparently.

Building a brighter future for Guatemala's kids

Guatemalan Juan Pablo Romero Fuentes has been named a 2014 Top 10 CNN Hero in recognition of his efforts to help over 1,000 young Guatemalans survive and maybe escape poverty and violence through turning his family's home into a community center in 2006.

Romero Fuentes' program takes place in the entire front portion of his family's home as well as another building down the block.

At the main center, painted with colorful murals and quotes, children are exposed to a number of creative outlets. They take classes in dance, music, photography, theater and juggling and often put on performances for each other.

"These classes are to show kids that they can pursue their own passions in order to improve their lives," Romero Fuentes said.

Leadership seminars teach the children about social, political and cultural issues. They learn the importance of moral courage, social justice and self-expression. They also explore ways to reduce violence.

"We are raising them to be the future leaders of Guatemala," Romero Fuentes said.

The group's feeding program provides a nutritious meal to more than 100 children each day. For many of them, it is the only meal they will have all day, says Romero Fuentes.

Los Patojos also runs a medical clinic that provides basic health services to more than 1,500 people each year. And the organization is in the process of building its own school, where more than 250 students will attend preschool through sixth grade.

Read more about Los Patojos and go to CNN to vote for Mr. Romero Fuentes. 

They said that San Pedro Sula wasn't that bad and laughed

The Grim Reaper awaits 

On Tuesday, we returned to the Kino Border Initiative (KBI) in Nogales, Mexico. While most of the other Scranton faculty and staff on the trip served food to the migrants, I sat down to help the first time arrivals complete a survey. The survey included questions like their name, age, hometown, where they had been deported from (the border area of living in the US), and whether they had suffered some form of abuse.

I'd say the migrant who moved me the most was Nicolas. He wrote that he was 19 and was traveling with his brother who was 32. However, he looked more like he was 12 years old. Later I learned that he was 14 and his older brother was actually his dad which honestly made more sense. I assume that he said that he was 19 so that he would not be separated from his dad. They had both been recently deported from the United States after getting detained while in transit. The young boy did speak to me but I was affected by the fact that he and his dad were most likely returning to their hometown in the state of Guerrero. Guerrero is the Mexican state where 43 college students were disappeared and presumably killed by police working in cahoots with a local drug gang.

Unlike Monday, all the migrants I spoke to had left their homes primarily because of the lack of work. It seemed that unemployment, violence, and family reunification all played a role but that the lack of economic opportunity was the primary cause for why they had left their homes.

While it wasn't too many, I was surprised at the number of migrants who had lived in the United States without papers but had decided to return home voluntarily. They often returned to Mexico to visit a sick or dying relative. They were then caught returning to the US. While it is somewhat hard to believe, they hadn't realized how much more difficult and dangerous the illegal trip to the US is today than when they had last made the trip a few years ago. They were honestly surprised.

Another migrant stood out. We spoke about Illinois, Colorado, and North Dakota - three states where he had worked before returning to Mexico voluntarily. He was apprehended crossing the border. I asked if he was considering recrossing. He said no. He was returning to his home state (which at this moment I don't remember). He did not want to risk getting apprehended again because a second apprehension would be a felony and result in jail time. Neither he nor his family could risk that. He thanked all the volunteers at KBI in Spanish and then in English which he spoke rather well.

Mexicans are allowed in KBI only after they've been deported and only for a few days. However, Central Americans are welcome to come in and eat even if they haven't attempted the trek to the United States. They are still only allowed to come in for a few days. I spoke to two young men from San Pedro Sula. They hoped to cross the border on Saturday. It was to be the first attempt for the two of them.

I asked if they were leaving San Pedro because of the violence. They looked at each other and sort of laughed. They said that San Pedro wasn't that bad. It sure seemed like a bit of black humor to deal with what is a pretty rough city.

The Nogales, Sonora side of the border

Today, we took the "walk of shame." Well, at least what will become the walk of shame when the new corridor is finished on the Nogales border. It is an enclosed corridor that has been designed to make migrants so feel bad that after they are deported, they will not want to return to the US. Migrants call it the walk of shame because of how they feel after having failed to get to the US or for having been deported after having spent years there. From what I understand, however, migrants returned to Mexico are still being repatriated through the old path.

We then walked to the Kino Border Initiative which serves food and provides services to migrants who have been deported recently. It is a joint initiative supported by several organizations on both sides of the border, including the Jesuits. We helped serve food to about 40 people this morning and maybe another 40 this afternoon. I spent most of my time speaking with the migrants which wasn't really that much time because they are in and out in 45 minutes or so.

I spoke with a few guys from El Salvador and Honduras this morning. Central Americans can use the comedor's services on the way north. However, most of the migrants were from Mexico. They can only use the comedor's services after having been deported and for about a week. Therefore, all the migrants from Mexico had been deported from the US within the last week or so. Some were planning to return home (Oaxaca, Michoacan, Mexico City) while others were going to try to cross the border again, perhaps tonight.

While the Salvadoran and Hondurans spoke about the violence in their country, every person I spoke to placed greater emphasis on family reunification. Some had spent years in the US while others perhaps little or no time at all. However, it seemed as if all of them were trying to get back to the US to reunite with a wife or a child. Several of the men and women broke down and cried.

The most powerful story of the day came from Mary. She has three children with US citizenship and three with Honduran. Her daughter visited Honduras over three years ago. While there, her US passport and that of her nine month old son were stolen. She was able to have a new one issued for herself but there were problems with getting a renewal for her son. Eventually, she returned to the US to continue working on the passport issue. In the meantime, the grandmother who was watching the child witnessed some drug trafficking activity. After going to the police and the human rights office to denounce threats against her, her house was burnt down. She then fled with the boy with nothing but the clothes on her back.

That was in April. She passed through Guatemala and then Mexico on the beast before arriving in Nogales a few weeks ago. She told of some harrowing stories along the way. It looks like the grandson that she has been caring for these last few years will be reunited with his mom in Dallas within the next few weeks. Mary, on the other hand, is going to apply for asylum in the US. She was threatened by the narcotraffickers and then attacked after reporting the threats. Her situation is obviously a difficult asylum case but there's not much she can do.

The cemetery on the right here is where many of the migrants sleep at night if they are unable to afford a hotel or get into a shelter. The groundskeepers lock the gates in the evening so that the migrants are safer than if they were to sleep outside of the gates. There's also some protection from the rain if necessary.

A really powerful day that I am not doing justice too right now but that I thought that I would share.

Walking the migrant path in Sasabe, Arizona

We just finished day two out in Arizona. Day one was primarily an uneventful travel day from Scranton to Atlanta to Tuscon. However, we were able to sneak in two stops on our way from Tuscon down to Nogales. Our first stop was San Xavier del Bac Mission.

San Xavier del Bac

Jesuit Father Eusebio Kino founded the San Xavier del Bac Catholic mission in 1692. The Church was built nearly several decades later. The Jesuits were expelled a few years after the first Church was built and then the Franciscans took over its operations. Instead of celebrating Francis Xavier at the mission, the Franciscans celebrated St. Francis of Assisi. They celebrate both feast days now. We then traveled to Mission Tumacácori. Tumacácori was also founded by Kino and the Jesuits. The two missions are well worth a visit if you are on your way to the border.

Tumacacori

Today, we traveled from Nogales to Sasabe, a community off the beaten path for those traveling the North-South corridor by car. However, it is the place where many undocumented migrants make the hike north across the border and into the United States.

It was a really powerful experience knowing that thousands of migrants, mostly Mexican, walk this path each year. Today wasn't too hot and we didn't walk that long (two hours or so) so you could only imagine how difficult the trek would be after having already walked several days, traveling at night, and carrying a pack or maybe even a small child. Honestly unbelievable.

Finally, we ended the day with Mass and lunch in the community. The Mass and potluck were fine until we listened to a talk by one of the local landowners. She started ranting about ISIS terrorists coming across the border and how it was nothing new - Muslim terrorists have been working with the cartels to come across the border for the last decade. She wanted the government to build a much longer wall than the one that already exists and to build a forward operating base as well. She had several other whoppers. We were guests so I didn't want to argue her facts.

With the other people we spoke to this afternoon, one gets the impression that they are more concerned with cartels using the foot paths than they are migrants using them. The community used to provide food and water to the travelers. They still do but less so given that they are concerned about the threat of trafficker violence. In some ways to demonstrate that they are not against people coming north for work or other noble ventures, they mentioned that they were interested in a Bracero Program or something similar.

Tomorrow, we are off to the Kino Border Initiative in Nogales, Sonora. I am looking forward to the visit. It should be quite the experience.

I'm off to the US-Mexico border for the next few days

I am off to the US-Mexican border tomorrow, specifically the border between Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora. I'm really looking forward to the trip. I crossed the Tijuana, Mexico border once or twice in the 1980s which I would venture to say was another world ago.

I'm traveling with the University of Scranton's Jesuit Center to learn more about the Kino Border Initiative and their work on the border.

The Kino Border Initiative (KBI) is a binational organization that works in the area of migration and is located in Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. The KBI was inaugurated in January of 2009 by six organizations from the United States and Mexico: The California Province of the Society of Jesus, Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, the Missionary Sisters of the Eucharist, the Mexican Province of the Society of Jesus, the Diocese of Tucson and the Archdiocese of Hermosillo. The KBI’s vision is to help make humane, just, workable migration between the U.S. and Mexico a reality. Its mission is to promote US/Mexico border and immigration policies that affirm the dignity of the human person and a spirit of bi-national solidarity through:

• Direct humanitarian assistance and accompaniment with migrants;
• Social and pastoral education with communities on both sides of the border;
• Participation in collaborative networks that engage in research and advocacy to transform local, regional, and national immigration policies.

I'm be there through Wednesday. 

This could get ugly in Guatemala...or another wasted game-changer?

Marguerite Cawley has the write-up on Following Outcry, Guatemala Suspends Election of High Court Judges.

Guatemala's Constitutional Court (CC) has suspended the election of high court magistrates, following outcry from judicial officials over corruption in the selection process -- a positive move toward reform, but one that could still be derailed. 

Gloria Porras, the interim president of the CC, said in an October 9 press conference that the body would temporarily grant five appeals made for the nullification of the process by civil society organizations and a lawyer, reported Prensa Libre. This decision, which saw just one opposing vote, will suspend the congressional agreements via which 13 Supreme Court and 126 appellate court judges were selected and keep the selected candidates from assuming their posts until the CC has made a final decision. 

Go read the entire thing. It continues to amaze me that certain individuals and groups in Guatemala continue to thumb their nose at the rule of law when the eyes of the world have been on this small country. Whether is was the political violence of the 1970s and 1980s, the call for implementing the Peace Accords in the 1990s and 2000s, or prosecuting human rights violators and other criminal networks in the 2000s and 2010s, they simply go about their business as victims of some global conspiracy.

The savior Rudy Giuliani goes to Guatemala City

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani recently visited Guatemala City to speak at a forum organized by the Guatemalan Development Foundation. On the one hand, former Mayor Giuliani said somethings rather reasonable.

“My top recommendation is to set up a system to measure the effectiveness of your police, your prosecutors and your prisons,” Giuliani, 70, said today at a forum sponsored by the not-for-profit Guatemalan Development Foundation. “That helps give you the right answers to questions like how many more police do you need. At what level should they be compensated so you can reduce the level of corruption.”

Following allegations of corruption, several thousand police have been removed from their positions under the Colom and Perez Molina administrations. At the same time, they have been trying to increase the number of police to 35,000 or so. As of December, they counted approximately 30,000. The United Nations recommends 222 police per 100,000 population. That 35,000 number then is just about right. However, it's a national average that doesn't take departmental differences into account. Another problem is that these new police are green and tend to be involved in a larger share of criminal activity than they should (read that in Prensa Libre some months ago).

CICIG and Attorney General Paz y Paz were also involved in removing court officials. There was the judges of impunity report that CICIG produced went nowhere. Paz y Paz needed congress' authorization to remove corrupt prosecutors, or at least those who were not performing their jobs satisfactorily. Prosecutions are up and impunity is down. Even with improvements, the system is still failing.Not sure if he did but it would have been nice had the Mayor criticized the recent judicial selection process in Guatemala as a setback for the rule of law. If elected officials can't take such high profile selections seriously, the Mayor shouldn't have bothered coming.

“When you have a tremendous amount of crime in your society, you are not going to solve it with schools, libraries, nice neighborhoods and sports teams,” Giuliani said. “You have to emphasize law enforcement. As soon you get the crime down, the next thing you do is build up the social programs. That’s when you create more jobs, better neighborhoods, better schools.”

I'm assuming that there's good theoretical and empirical research on this timing question. That's how the Mayor works obviously. Effective law enforcement comes before crime prevention programs. I don't know. I don't like the either/or dichotomy. It seems as if you need to improve the police force and criminal justice system at the same time you invest in programs to reduce criminal activity. Again, I'd rather the Mayor to have said you need to invest in law enforcement to tackle crime rather than investing in the military to tackle crime. We've been saying that for awhile.

You'd have to take a look at the plan that he delivered to the Guatemalan government. I assume he delivered a plan. He says he spent the last four months reviewing Guatemalan crime data and police practices. But if I didn't know any better I'd say that this sounds like he was calling for a return to failed mano dura practices of the past. I really hope that is not what he is saying in public and in private.

Has anybody seen the Peace Accords? We can't seem to find them.

El Salvador's government can't seem to find the official Peace Accords. They are hoping that former President Alfredo Cristiani has the accords. If he stole them, he could face one to three years in prison. Wouldn't that be a hoot.

A Spanish court recently ruled that it has jurisdiction to proceed in the case against Salvadorans responsible for the massacre of six Jesuits and their housekeeper and daughter in November 1989. Five of the Jesuits left Spain to serve in El Salvador.

El Salvador's Constitutional Chamber ruled that transfuguismo is unconstitutional. Deputies elected to Congress cannot abandon the party on which they were elected and jump ship to another party (ARENA --> GANA) nor can they form their own political grouping (ARENA --> United for El Salvador). Their only option is to remain independent. The rules apply even to those kicked out of their party. (Fox, Tim)

The US isn't just giving El Salvador money. It's giving them US policing practices - Can U.S.-style youth programs in Central America keep kids from migrating?

Disappearances in El Salvador - Salvadoran Families Struggle to Commemorate Their Disappeared and the Yellow Book.

Guatemala, once a leader in war-crime prosecutions, at a standstill?

Tracy Wilkinson takes a look at Guatemala, once a leader in war-crime prosecutions, at a standstill for the Los Angeles Times. In it, he looks at what has happened to Claudia Paz y Paz and Yassmin Barrios since the groundbreaking trial of Efrain Rios Montt in 2013.

Paz y Paz was removed from her job a few months early under pretty shady circumstances. She then did not make the final cut on the list presented to President Otto Perez Molina to select the next and current attorney general. After a shady selection process, the nomination went to Thelma Aldana, a woman that CICIG had declared unfit for the Supreme Court in 2009.

And what of the judge who presided over the Rios Montt trial?

Then Yassmin Barrios, the judge who presided over the high-profile Rios Montt trial, faced the wrath of a conservative legal establishment that never wanted to see the case in court. She now handles more mundane crimes, from a small office in a nondescript judiciary building in Guatemala City.

"My ideals have not changed," Barrios said defiantly in an interview, as her bodyguards watched a soccer match on TV outside her office. "I still want justice for this society."

The treatment of Paz y Paz and Barrios during and after the trial have set back the cause of justice in Guatemala and there's uncertainty surrounding when/if the trial against Rios Montt will resume so I am glad that the article was published.

However, it was published the same week that a new civil war era trial began against Pedro Garcia Arredondo (see here and here). He is charged with having been complicit in the 1980 Spanish massacre, one of the more high profile massacres of the civil war.

The article also comes three months after former ORPA commander Fermin Felipe Solano Barillas was sentenced to 90 years in prison. He was found guilty on charges of homicide and crimes against humanity involving the massacre 22 civilians in the village of El Aguacate, Chimaltenango in 1988.

It's tough to say that Guatemala is at a standstill yet even though most of us probably expect this to be a more accurate title a year from now.

What's been impressive is that these two cases have continued since Paz y Paz was removed as attorney general in May. The trial against the ORPA commander was resolved in July and the one against Garcia went to trial when it was pretty clear that neither the attorney general's office nor the president's office supported such initiatives.

Caused serious distortions and greatly weakened the institutions in charge of public security

Just getting around to reading the UCA Executive Summary of The Situation of Security and Justice 2009-2014 - Between expectations for change, heavy-handed military and gang truces. Glad to see that they didn't pull any punches concerning the militarization of public security under President Mauricio Funes. The increased role for the military is hard to separate from the 2012 gang truce, but I wonder which was will end up doing more harm to the country. I supported the gang truce but had serious problems with the government's involvement / lack of involvement and its inability to move to stage two (to transform the truce into a peace).

The study reveals there was an abrupt change away from the approach to strategic security initially proposed, which was progressively put aside for measures that were short-term and aimed at the media, such as increasing the number of military troops involved in security work, and a greater use of force. This led to a falling into the inertia of continuing the populist-punitive approaches that have prevailed in the administration of security, and hindered the advances toward professionalizing and modernizing the institutions in charge of security at the onset of the administration's term. 

A statistic that reveals this shift that the Funes Administration made is the 253% rise in the number of military troops involved in security work during the first year of his administration, an unprecedented increase in the post-war period. Furthermore, the president expanded the attributions and competencies of the Armed Forces in other areas such as penitentiary security and border security, and he authorized their participation in security plans for public transportation, for security in schools, and in different crime fighting and prosecuting tasks, with no subordination to the police. This afforded the military broad discretion with which they progressively took control of security operations in other key settings, such as the international airport, customs and borders, immigration and foreign services, to name a few. Likewise, the National Defense budget allocation grew 20.4 million dollars in the last five years, and the number of military troops in the Armed Forces increased by 40% between 2009 and 2012, this is in contrast to the progressive reduction in spending and troops proposed in the Peace Accords. 

The prominent role given to the military at the forefront of internal security – that had been reverted by political reform two decades before – reached its maximum expression when general Munguía Payés was formally appointed the head of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, and general Salinas at the National Civil Police. Before their appointments they had been Minister of National Defense and Head of the Armed Forces, respectively. This decision went against the police reform proposed in the Peace Accords, whose core had been the demilitarization public security. It violated the constitution, which establishes that a civilian should lead the National Civil Police. 

All this, set the stage for the military to take on unprecedented relevance and it positioned itself in the public view as a sector that was indispensable for solving the problems of crime in the country, in which negotiation with the gangs had a key part. These decisions caused serious distortions and greatly weakened the institutions in charge of public security, particularly the National Civil Police, by mixing conflicting approaches, interrupting the professionalization processes that had started and reversing the removal of bad elements in the police that the previous authorities had started, generating effects that were adverse, and counterproductive in the institutional culture that take time to rever

An order was delivered to remove the protesters “dead or alive.”

Prensa Libre

On day two of the Spanish Embassy massacre, the court hear testimony from witnesses that support the prosecution's case against Pedro García Arredondo.

 César Escalante served as a chauffeur for then-Spanish Ambassador Máximo Cajal.

“Police officers called another officer who was in the street and told him to dump [fuel] inside the building, and another said that no one should be left alive,” Escalante said. The witness said that when he tried to stop police from setting the fire, they assaulted him.

... 

Escalante said he remained outside the embassy and witnessed police attacking the Spanish ambassador as he attempted to escape the fire. Cajal and Gregorio Yujá were the only two survivors from inside the building, but Yujá was later kidnapped from the hospital and murdered. His body was dumped on the lawn at the University of San Carlos.

Other witnesses, including former Interior Ministry spokesman Elías Barahona, who arrived to the courtroom in a wheelchair, admitted to overhearing a conversation between then-Interior Minister Donaldo Álvarez and National Police Director Germán Chupina where an order was delivered to remove the protesters “dead or alive.”

Guatemala remains a country of contrasts

Guatemala is a country built on contrasts: ancient to modern; unbelievably wealthy to vastly poor; downpours of rain to warm sunshine; an Indian majority and a Spanish ruling minority; a large German population to astonishing numbers of European tourists; and diverse languages, with Spanish as the official language. 

There's such injustice in the aborted prosecution of Efrain Rios Montt yet hope for justice in the trial of García less than two years later.

WOLA is busy tackling the Northern Triangle

I just finished an article for the World Politics review on the rule of law in Central America and am now tackling some Freedom House reports for the region so I'll just link to some reports by Geoff Thale and the Washington Office on Latin America.

First, they lay out 12 Principles to Assess the Plan of the Alliance for Prosperity in the Northern Triangle.

1. Ensure that the plan’s strategies are comprehensive and coordinated within each country. 
2. Governments must show institutional commitment to full implementation. 
3. Focus on institutional reforms that will improve the daily life of citizens in Central America.
4. Strengthen transparency and fight corruption. 
5. Build capacity and accountability for the judiciary and public prosecutors, and protect witnesses in sensitive cases. 
6. Support evidence-based, community-level violence prevention. 
7. Target employment training and job creation programs to communities where youth are especially at risk and from where many young people are migrating. 
8. Emphasize fiscal reform and the long-term sustainability of programs.
9. Recognize that different countries require different approaches. 
10. Avoid any plan that is too narrowly targeted on only one element of the problem. 
11. Evaluate successes and failures.
12. Ensure that the plan includes mechanisms for effective donor coordination.

The alleged plan is now down from the internet (found it again) but you can read a description here. It looks like the Northern Triangle wants the US to pay for its infrastructure projects. While the US is in someways the only one with the money for such a billion (multibillion?) dollar investment, I'm not sure that's what we were hoping for. Call me crazy but I don't foresee any big changes in US policy towards / support for Central America anytime soon. We'll just keep muddling along. 

Then there's also Migration and Citizen Security in El Salvador from Geoff and WOLA. They mostly describe the recent report from the UCA on citizen security under Funes.

But most interesting was the study’s critique of how public security policy was handled over the course of the last five years, under the government of left-of-center President Mauricio Funes. Initially, the administration, installed in 2009, turned away from the “mano dura” policies of its predecessors on the political right, and focused on institutional changes to make the police a more honest and effective force that would both capture criminals and deter crime. New leadership was named, the investigative unit was reorganized, and an anti-corruption campaign was launched. But a backlash from hardliners and only modest drops in the homicide rate led the President to radically shift strategies. He moved the Minister of Defense over to the Public Security Ministry, and military or military-linked officials were soon named to key posts in police investigation, police intelligence, and at the head of the police. The anti-corruption campaign stalled, and officials who had been under suspicion were soon rehabilitated.  The number of army troops assigned to patrol the streets soared. And individuals linked to the government brokered a pact between the country’s two main street gangs that prohibited killings of rival gang members, while gangs continued to engage in extortion and other criminal activity.  

The UCA’s critique focuses on the administration’s shift away from institutional reform and its turn toward military involvement in policing. The report ends by calling on the new administration, which took office in June, to renew the focus on police reform, strengthen the commitment to a civilian-run police force, and invest more in community-based violence prevention efforts. 

Finally, Geoff and WOLA have The MCC Announcement in El Salvador: What It Says about U.S. Assistance to El Salvador and the Region. They are certainly much more positive that the Wall Street Journal's Mary Anastasio O'Grady who came out swinging with American Aid Props Up a Castro Ally. I have my concerns about El Salvador and the second MCC Compact but she's just silly.

On the positive side, she only mentioned Hugo Chavez's name one. 

Trial in Spanish Embassy massacre begins in Guatemala

A trial opens this morning in Guatemala City against Pedro García Arredondo. The former police chief is accused of having ordered the massacre at the Spanish Embassy in 1980. Thirty-seven people, including Rigoberta Menchú's father, Vicente Menchú, died in a fire allegedly begun by the security forces.

Soldiers and police set fire to the embassy with the protesters inside, killing 37 people – most of them indigenous Mayans. Human rights groups called the attack one of the worst atrocities committed by the armed forces during the civil war, which lasted from 1960-1996. More than 200,000 people were killed or disappeared during the war, according to the United Nations.

Spanish Consul Jaime Ruiz del Árbol also was killed in the embassy attack, along with Guatemala’s former Vice President Eduardo Cáceres and former Foreign Minister Adolfo Molina.

“We want them to give us the opportunity to close a chapter that’s been open for 34 years, because I’m completely convinced that if we don’t close the open wounds that thousands of Guatemalans still have, it will be difficult to create peace,” said Menchú, a plaintiff in the case.

The only person to survive the embassy fire and its aftermath was then-Ambassador Máximo Cajal, from Spain. An indigenous protester survived the fire, but was later kidnapped from the hospital and murdered. His body was dumped on the campus of the San Carlos University.

Cajal died last April, but his testimony in the case has been documented in order to present it at trial, Menchú said.

García is already serving a seventy-year sentence for enforced disappearance and crimes against humanity in the 1981 disappearance of Édgar Enrique Sáenz Calito.

Honestly, I haven't followed the details of the case but I don't know how they are going to convict the former police chief unless there's a paper trail, Protesters occupied the Embassy on January 30th. Instead of negotiating with the protesters, Guatemalan forces entered the Embassy. During the siege, a fire began which led to the thirty-seven deaths. Some claim that the protesters' molotov cocktails were ignited during the siege which led to the deaths but I'm not sure there's hard evidence for that scenario or for a different scenario in which the security forces were more directly involved in starting the fire.

The security forces on the scene do not seem to have made any effort to allow the protesters to escape the building but instead refused to allow the firemen to extinguish the blaze and to enter the building. This is where it appears that García comes into play. Knowing / believing that security forces were to blame is different from proving it.