Monday, August 31, 2015

Cold War Latin America Shapes the Pope's View of the U.S.

The AP takes a look at the Pope's views of the United States, focusing in particular on his lack of familiarity. Fortunately, it successfully navigates the "anti-capitalist" message that many seem intent on misunderstanding. And this point is a good one:

But Francis' outlook is also shaped by another history, including U.S. ties with Latin American dictators, America's treatment of Mexican and Central American immigrants, and longstanding U.S. policy toward Cuba, Sanchez Sorondo said. Francis recently helped negotiate a historic thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations that has led to restored diplomatic ties between the countries. 
"I don't think the pope has anything against America," Sanchez Sorondo said in an interview in Rome. "What the pope might have is that he felt the repercussions of America in Latin America."
This is utterly new ground as well for American Catholics, accustomed to Francis' immediate predecessors, Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, who both lived through World War II, when Americans were considered liberators and generous benefactors who rebuilt the war-ravaged continent. 

These are great points. Pope Francis doesn't hate the United States and he is not socialist. But he remembers the terrible effects of U.S. Cold War policy--it affected him directly. So his perspective is not one of a benevolent power but rather a hegemonic power. You cannot quickly shake that off.

I don't know what Francis will say when he comes to the United States, and I don't know how he will be received (though my hunch is that he will draw huge crowds but then also grumbles from Republican presidential candidates). But his sensibilities will be new to most Americans, who take exceptionalism and self-reverence entirely for granted. The more Americans who listen to those unfamiliar sensibilities, the better.

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Sunday, August 30, 2015

Venezuela-Colombia Crisis and Moral Standing

It can be difficult sometimes for the United States government to effectively admonish other countries for human rights problems given its own activities. John Kerry's statement about the border crisis is one such example:

As we do so, we urge that special attention be paid to the worsening humanitarian situation along the frontier. We respect the importance of secure borders and safe and orderly migration. However, we also believe that deportations should take place in accordance with international law, respecting the human rights of all involved, and in coordination with the receiving country. We also believe that refugees with recognized protection concerns should not be deported.


Among other things, undocumented immigrants in the United States get locked up and held for months without due process, thus violating both international law and the U.S. constitution. Human rights are very clearly not respected in all kinds of ways. In short, failing to deal with our own challenges gives us a lot less moral standing.

We should still make statements and push for protection of human rights, which is currently a crisis on the Venezuela-Colombia border. But we should also take this as a springboard for taking steps to solve our own humanitarian crisis. We would have so much more foreign policy leverage that way.



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Friday, August 28, 2015

The Venezuela-Colombia Border Crisis

The crisis at the Venezuela-Colombia border continues on, as Juan Manuel Santos recalled his ambassador and Nicolás Maduro followed suit. Maduro's argument is that right-wing paramilitaries, encouraged/funded by Alvaro Uribe, are terrorizing the border and that Santos is being tricked. He also says he'll keep the border closed.

I think one key issue is proportionality:

The number deported in recent days is now more than half the 1,772 people expelled last year from Venezuela, according to Colombian statistics, and has overwhelmed a government-built shelter in the border city of Cucuta designed to provide assistance to returning nationals.

If you have a problem of violently criminal behavior at the border, I would think there are far better ways of addressing it than mass deportation of families.

Plus, as long as Venezuelan goods, especially oil, are highly subsidized, there is an incredible incentive for smuggling to occur. It's not clear how these particular deportations affect that situation at all. Maduro says he won't open the border until Colombia "prohibits" the sale of contraband. One major problem is that Colombia hasn't controlled its borders well so this isn't going to be effective anytime soon.

Finally, Maduro has a very legitimate point to make about how many Colombians live in Venezuela because they fled their homeland. But his heavy handed tactics drown that out completely. I guess he scores a few points domestically, but stories of the affected families will likely deflate that. And he's alienating Santos, who is fighting off a lot of his own domestic opposition who argue he's been too soft with Venezuela.

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Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Human Rights Abuses in Mexico

John Ackerman (who is at UNAM) rips up the Peña Nieto government in Mexico and Roberta Jacobson to boot. No words are minced:

It is an absolute disgrace that even after recent events in Mexico the Obama administration continues to prop up one of Latin America’s most corrupt and repressive political regimes. For instance, the State Department’s 2014 Human Rights Report openly protects Peña Nieto from international scrutiny and flat-out lies when it states that there are no reports of political prisoners, detainees or assassinations and that the Mexican government “generally respects” freedom of speech and assembly. 
The supervising officer for that report, Roberta Jacobson, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, has been nominated by Obama to be the next U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. While systematically turning a blind eye to the humanitarian crisis in Mexico, Jacobson has been quick to condemn much lesser human rights violations in Cuba. It is time to drop the double standard and put an end once and for all to the bloody complicity of the United States with a government which systematically massacres, silences and imprisons innocent civilians.
We hear about Cuba, Ecuador and Venezuela all the time, but Mexico needs the spotlight as well. It will not, however, ever receive that sort of attention from the U.S. government. Too much is riding on relative political and economic stability.

So I understand and sympathize with what Ackerman is arguing. But what can the United States government do that won't make the situation worse? If the Obama administration started going after Peña Nieto, would the result be positive or at least neutral for economic growth, drug trafficking, and undocumented immigration?

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Trump v. Ramos

The Jorge Ramos encounter with Donald Trump will keep getting plenty of attention--the image of one of the top reporters in the U.S. getting tossed out of a news conference is noteworthy. Of course, this will focus even more attention on how the Republican Party wants to deal with immigration, and one small comment in particular caught my attention.

During the five-minute exchange, Ramos said that 40 percent of undocumented people in the United States enter through airports, not over the Mexican border. "I don't believe that. I don't believe it," Trump responded. 
A 2006 report by the Pew Hispanic Center found that as many as 45 percent of the people in the U.S. entered with legal visas but overstayed them.

This is a major part of our collective problem. There are a lot of facts about immigration, but people simply refuse to believe them. When that's the case, there is no reasoned discussion, there is no real debate, and there are no common sense solutions. A large number of Americans strongly believe things about immigration and immigrants that are clearly untrue, and they vote based on these unfounded beliefs. I assume many of those same people believe that President Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim who happens also to be Communist. There's not much you can do with that.

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Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Assessing Obama's Latin America Policy

Michael Reid (from The Economist) has an article in Foreign Affairs assessing the Obama administration's Latin America policy. Although it is much better than most such efforts, by highlighting how moderation has served U.S. interests quite well, it still advances three ideas about Latin America that I think need more context.

First,

Because it is not a source of strategic threats, Latin America languishes at the bottom of the United States’ long list of foreign policy priorities. It is rarely the object of a coordinated approach from the White House. Rather, individual agencies, such as the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Treasury Department, exert unusual influence over policy. So do lobbies within Congress, such as Cuban Americans or sugar and cotton farmers.

It is good that the region is not a major focus of the U.S. and that we don't have a grand strategy. Very rarely in the history of U.S.-Latin American relations has such attention been beneficial to Latin Americans themselves. This should not be viewed as negative. Yes, lobbyists exert a lot of influence but that's true of all countries/regions.

Second,

Latin America has been much less inclined to blindly follow the United States for another reason: China.

Latin America has very rarely followed the U.S. blindly, except perhaps very weak Central American dictatorships. So this harks back to a mythical past. Even setting that aside, leftist ideology in Latin America predates China's entrance by a long time. Later in the essay he uses the word "biddable," as if that were previously the norm.

Third,

In today’s Latin America, it is hard to imagine that more confrontational policies would have achieved better results, as some of Obama’s critics imply: since the United States is no longer the only game in town in much of Latin America, bullying is often ineffective.

This reminded me of John Mearsheimer's argument about needing to dominate the Western Hemisphere, which in the past has led to disastrous policies. Bullying has rarely served long-term U.S. interests because it creates blowback and unintended consequences. So I totally agree with Reid that Obama took the right stance, but he seems to suggest that bullying might have been effective in the past.

I am grateful, though, that he doesn't write anything about "losing" Latin America. I hope we are finally putting that one to bed.

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Monday, August 24, 2015

Rundown on Argentine Elections

Mark Jones has a rundown on the December federal elections in Argentina at The Monkey Cage. It's a nice summary of the coalitions, candidates, scenarios, and schemes. This is all about two types of deals. There are big, coalitional deals and there are small, strategically placed clientelist deals. They are intertwined, of course.

In short, the primary told us what we already know: Daniel Scioli is the front-runner in the race to become the next president of Argentina. But at the same time, it reminds us that Scioli still has a lot of work ahead if he is to avoid a November runoff. That’s important for his chances. In a November runoff, voters who backed opposition candidates on Aug. 9 would outnumber those who cast a ballot for Scioli—and they wouldn’t be dividing their support among several candidates.

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Sunday, August 23, 2015

Purpose of U.S. Power in Latin America

The National Interest asked various people what the purpose of U.S. power was. John Mearsheimer's answer left me shaking my head in frustration:

There is one meaningful threat to the United States: the appearance of a potential hegemon in Asia or Europe. The purpose of American power should be to ensure that the United States remains a hegemon in the Western Hemisphere, and that there is no regional hegemon in Eurasia. This rationale led the United States to help prevent Imperial Germany, Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union from becoming regional hegemons in the twentieth century, and it remains relevant today.


First of all, it is inconceivable that the U.S. would cease to be "a hegemon" in the Western Hemisphere, so it's weird to claim this as a goal. I don't know if he means to suggest there could be several hegemons, but my hunch is no.

Instead, I take this to mean the U.S. dominates Latin America to keep out Russia, China and Iran. He does not mention that the Bush administration's obsessively efforts to do so actually pushed many Latin American governments even closer to those countries. U.S. blundering in the name of hegemony has caused all kinds of problems.

More troubling is that his example of keeping out the Soviet Union meant killing or encouraging the killing of countless people in Latin America. It included accepting the worst type of venality in the name of realism. It was shameful and contrary to what the U.S. claims to stand for. After all we learned about the Cold War, this is what U.S. power is for? I hope not.



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Friday, August 21, 2015

Who's Not Corrupt in Brazil?

Dilma Rousseff is facing serious corruption charges, which have led to calls for impeachment, but a key power broker who would help decide whether impeachment could move forward is also being implicated in corruption scandals. From The Rio Times:

The president of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Cunha, and former President, now Senator, Fernando Collor de Mello were accused of corruption and money laundering on Thursday by the country’s general attorney, Rodrigo Janot, as part of the on-going Operation Lava Jato (Carwash Operation) investigations. The two are the first high-ranking politicians to be involved in what is already the country’s largest public corruption scheme in history. 

According to documents presented by Janot to the Supreme Court, Cunha is said to have asked for US$ 5 million from companies to help a company obtain contracts to construct drilling vessels for Petrobras’ oil and gas operations. In July, a consultant for one of the companies accused Cunha of asking for bribes to push through the contracts. Brazil’s Attorney General also accused ex-President Collor of receiving approximately US$ 7.5 million in bribes related to Petrobras’ subsidiary, BR Distribuidora. Both men have continuously denied any involvement with the Lava Jato scheme. 

Cunha had gone to the length of publishing an op-ed saying he wasn't out to get Rousseff. I suppose a question for many Brazilian politicians will be whether going after the president will lead to a slippery slope that will prompt more of their own resignations. It's true that forcing Rousseff to resign now could cause political instability, but there is plenty of self-interest involved as well.

Collor, meanwhile, already had to resign the presidency in 1992 because of scandal as his own impeachment process got moving.

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Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Bloomberg's Confused Venezuela Editorial

Bloomberg's editors have a very confused editorial about Venezuela. It argues that Venezuela's neighbors need to address its impending implosion, yet focuses largely on the U.S. and China. It argues that economic crisis is severe, yet suggests that creditors should squeeze it harder. It argues that the U.S. should "intensify" diplomatic overtures without explaining what that means. It argues that the U.S. should enlist Cuba's help with making Venezuela more democratic, which is nonsensical. It concludes by arguing that the U.S. needs to send powdered milk. The end.

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Republican Response to Trump's Immigration Policies

I haven't written about Donald Trump's immigration proposals, primarily because they're so full of crap that it would take too long to go line by line about their false claims. Sadly, fear mongering and xenophobia have a long history in political campaigns. And remember that Trump also says that he gets his advice on military issues by watching shows.

But another reason is that Trump won't last. Yes, he'll last a while, but then he'll be out and everyone will focus on the front runner(s). When that happens, I think his proposals will quickly be forgotten by all but the crazy people (and academics, who are also crazy). I think the eventual Republican nominee will soft pedal immigration. Jeb Bush has come out against Trump's ideas, as has Marco Rubio. Even Scott Walker has stopped short of jumping entirely on Trump's anti-immigrant, anti-Mexican bandwagon. And he's only moving in Trump's direction at all because he's desperate. The New York Times picks up on this:

At the same time, Mr. Trump’s hard-line positions, including seizing remittances sent by undocumented workers to Mexico and severely restricting legal immigration, are allowing some rivals to define themselves more clearly in opposition to him.

Republicans really want to win the 2016 election and the Latino vote matters. Donors will provide reminders as well. We're much less likely to get a Mitt Romney Etch-A-Sketch, where you pretend all the nasty stuff you said in primaries is now gone. Trump will be nasty as long as he lasts, but establishment Republicans will not. And it's hard to see anyone but an establishment Republican getting the nomination.

In short, ironically Trump may be paving the way for the eventual nominee to be much more moderate than we've seen in the past two presidential elections.

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Tuesday, August 18, 2015

End of the Cuba Billboard

The Wall Street Journal has an op-ed lamenting how President Obama stopped using the electronic billboard erected at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. It was a "beacon of liberal solidarity in an otherwise benighted land."

This caught my attention immediately because it was the subject of my very first blog post ever, over nine years ago. I was so new that I forgot to make a title. And what I did was make fun of the billboard (with a link to the story that no longer works).

In its Interest Section in Havana, the U.S. government put up a sign that is beaming messages (such as the news that a conservative government won in Canada, though I am not sure how this would cause the Cuban people to get excited and overthrow Castro). Castro is now apparentlygetting really annoyed. The sad thing is that the U.S. has simply run out of ideas with regard to dealing with Fidel, and our policy has been reduced to trying to annoy him. Strangely enough, if that indeed was the goal of this particular stunt, it actually worked, which is a rarity for U.S. policy toward Cuba.


It's nice that we finally came up with a policy that goes beyond just being annoying.

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Latin American Soft Balancing

Tom Long and Max Paul Friedman have an article in The National Interest based on an article they have forthcoming at International Security. They argue that Latin America has traditionally soft balanced against the United States. Ironically, a reaction based on concern about a threatening unipolar power actually helps that power by tempering it.

Though U.S. policy makers often bristle at international opposition, we find that soft balancing has benefited (or would have benefited) the United States in the long term. Taking multilateral opposition into account can steer the United States away from costly unilateral interventionist policies. Despite the worries of many scholars writing in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion, soft balancing need not lead to hard balancing. Because balancers respond to perceptions of increased threats to their interests from the leading state, the United States can take steps to diminish those fears. Therefore, soft balancingneed not lead to lesser U.S. influence.

Interesting stuff, and I look forward to seeing the article when it comes out. One question I have is about causation. For example:

At a series of Pan-American conferences, an increasingly large and coherent Latin American coalition demanded that the United States forswear its self-proclaimed right to intervene. In dramatic fashion, Franklin Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy accepted this Latin American priority, even barring U.S. ambassadors from meddling in domestic affairs. Yielding to the demands of Latin American soft balancers helped produce a secure hemisphere mostly aligned with the Allies in World War II. 

For the Good Neighbor Policy, though, we might also advance a self-interest thesis based on the need to stop spending resources abroad (especially occupation) in the context of economic crisis. In other words, can soft balancing and U.S. self-interest dovetail? How might they interact?

Regardless, it is interesting to think about how Hugo Chávez's tireless efforts to soft balance the United States may well have led to policy shifts that improve the U.S. image.

Update: Tom Long sent me the link to the published article, which just came out, and says they do account for that dovetail. So I encourage you to take a look.

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Monday, August 17, 2015

The Disaster of Coca Eradication

Great AP story on the serious problems with coca eradication in Peru. The basic story is decades old--coca is a livelihood and you court disaster if you don't first create a legal alternative to growing it. Crop substitution is great in theory, but very tricky in practice:

Duran and her husband planted bananas after a government crew uprooted their coca crop for the first time in 2013. 
But when the fruit ripened, the river connecting them with the nearest market town was dry and they trekked for five hours with 100 bananas between them. 
Duran said the bananas turned out to be worth just $1 at market. 
The family went back to planting coca, which brings them a little less than $1,000 at harvest every four months. 
"Nobody buys anything but coca," she said.

Compare that to this article written 15 years ago.

Last week, some 35,000 Peruvian coca growers protested the government’s eradication campaign by blockading major highways. They called for an end to eradication until the government provides economic incentives for alternative crops. The low market value of alternative crops and the difficulty in getting them to markets has resulted in a desperate struggle for survival for many farmers forced to abandon coca cultivation.

Doesn't matter if it's Alberto Fujimori or Ollanta Humala--crop eradication has not worked. You trumpet how much coca you've destroyed and ignore the human cost.

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Saturday, August 15, 2015

Kerry's Trip to Cuba

I'm quoted in this Guardian story on Cuba. I emphasized something I keep thinking about, which is how each step--both symbolically and concretely--the Obama administration takes makes it more difficult for a future president to roll back the Cuba policy reforms. Kerry's trip to Cuba is one such example.

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Thursday, August 13, 2015

The Revolution Will Not Be Demographic

I have a new article up at Latin America Goes Global. The upshot is that demography does not bode well for the Bolivarian revolution. It's an important variable that receives too little attention (my co-author and I brought this up last year to help explain Cuba's desire to normalize relations with the U.S.). So go click!

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Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Popular Cuba Policy

The Pew Research Center tells us more of what we already know, namely that restoring ties (and even ending the embargo) with Cuba is very popular both in the United States and in Latin America.




Opponents of the changes say that popular opinion shouldn't drive policy. This is true, though in this case common sense coincided with public opinion. But public opinion will help explain why policy changes won't get changed back if a Republican is elected president. It costs very little to staunchly oppose change, but it is very costly to actively remove a policy that many people--even in your own party--like.

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Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Why Latin Americans Do Not Participate in Latin American Studies

Enrique Mu and Milagros Pereyra-Rojas, "Impact on Society Versus Impact on Knowledge: Why Latin American Scholars Do Not Participate in Latin American Studies," Latin American Research Review 50, 2 (2015): 216-238.

Abstract:

Although Latin America is home to 8 percent of the world’s population, only 1.7 percent of scholarly knowledge about Latin America is produced there. The limited voice of Latin American scholars in Latin American studies constitutes the loss of a valuable and unique cultural perspective. To address this issue, we interviewed Latin American studies scholars residing in Latin America as well as those residing in the United States and United Kingdom to reveal how and to what extent these scholars participate in the international academic community. Our findings show that the two groups were markedly different. Latin American scholars identify themselves as agents of change, motivated by a desire to solve problems and fulfill social needs in the region, whereas US/UK-based scholars see themselves mainly as experts in the field, driven by a desire to impact the knowledge about the region.

This is a really cool article that should spark both introspection and discussion. Especially through the quotes of US/UK scholars I saw myself in it. For me, it all started with learning Spanish starting in 7th grade (which at the time was the beginning of junior high):

I love Latin American studies. And I think that, for me, the most exciting thing is the interdisciplinary aspects about it. That is to say, many of us—many people like me—come into area studies, Latin American studies, even though we’re in political science, or in social science, we really got very excited about the language, about Spanish. . . . We really got excited about the culture. People who were studying in Latin America, they had experiences that shaped their lives. (28-US-F)

Like other interviewees, one of my major goals is to get people (like my students, but the general public as well) to understand Latin America better.

I guess somebody who is strongly committed both to teaching and research. So I enjoy both parts of that, and probably more than some, I guess, I feel my role is also to try to sort of reach out beyond the academy to help people to—well, to help students and others really understand issues of Latin American politics and the economy. (22-USA-M)

These motivations are very different from Latin American scholars, who came to this area of study in large part because of the problems they saw around them and/or experienced directly themselves. In the article, the juxtaposition of answers from Latin American versus US/UK scholars is really fascinating. Especially since I did not grow up in Latin America and do not live there, it seems presumptuous for me to claim an identity as an agent of change. I got into Latin American Studies because other people, my teachers, showed me how much they valued it. In college I took Spanish courses and read Latin American novels while also taking Latin American politics. During my MA I took Latin American history courses, and the interdisciplinary nature of my studies really appealed to me. It further drove me to understand how my own government dealt with the region.

There are other issues in the article as well. If you study Latin America, I recommend it.

In summary, a key lesson of this study is that the field of Latin American studies would be enriched by promoting the participation of Latin American scholars in the international academic community. For this purpose, the international academic community needs to be inclusive of the different but complementary worldviews of scholars and scholarship inside and outside the Latin American region in order to develop a truthful Latin American studies discipline in both depth and breadth.

Definitely.

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Monday, August 10, 2015

Marco Rubio's Vision of Foreign Policy

As candidates often do, Marco Rubio wrote an essay for Foreign Affairs outlining his vision of foreign policy. The tone is what you would expect--we're not "strong" and we need to be "leaders." We're responsible for everything, it seems.

What's notable, however, is that Latin America is absent. As in not mentioned unless you count a passing reference to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. In other words, after hammering the Obama administration for its "neglect" of Latin America, Rubio seems to think the solution is to...neglect Latin America. Not that I'm complaining--Rubio's hawkish views would be counterproductive anyway.

He doesn't even mention Cuba. Instead, he actually offers a vision that if followed would entail ending the embargo.

The second pillar of my foreign policy is the protection of an open international economy in an increasingly globalized world. Millions of the best jobs in this century will depend on international trade that will be possible only when global sea-lanes are open and sovereign nations are protected from the aggression of larger neighbors.

The "aggression of larger neighbors" is clearly unintended irony.

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Friday, August 07, 2015

Carlos Gamerro's An Open Secret

I read Carlos Gamerro's novel An Open Secret. It is the story of a man who returns to the small Argentine town where he spent summers a child, and now as an adult he investigates the Dirty War murder of a man. Using a cover story of writing about the case, he starts talking to people. Gradually he unravels the ways in which the town was really collectively responsible and how personal vendettas came together with the Dirty War. There is also a major plot twist that I won't spoil.

I found it a slow read and the long, bouncing, slangy paragraphs of dialogue can be tough to follow, as are the many characters (this must've been a really difficult book to translate). The novel has a powerful message, but I found it a bit blunted by the style. Reading over reviews after I finished the book, I am left with the impression that plenty of others didn't get the same impression so it may well just be a matter of taste.

Part of that message is how even now people harbor countless secrets about what happened during dictatorships, in Argentina and elsewhere. For many reasons, including self-preservation, they're careful about what they say and to whom. There are a lot of answers out there about the disappeared but they're hard to find.

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Thursday, August 06, 2015

U.S.-Venezuelan Diplomacy

More on the U.S.-Venezuela diplomatic dance. The State Department issues a statement about the upcoming election:

The United States views with concern reports of recent decisions by the Venezuelan National Electoral Council and Comptroller General banning certain members of the political opposition from running for or holding public office. These decisions clearly have the intention of complicating the ability of the opposition to run candidates for the legislative elections, and limiting the range of candidates that can be presented to the Venezuelan people. 
Democracy must be inclusive. Its purpose is to provide a broad enough range of choice for voters to express their preferences in meaningful fashion. To this end, we call on all relevant Venezuelan authorities to reconsider the ban imposed on candidates, and reiterate our call for credible and timely electoral observation. We encourage the appropriate institutions to ensure that Venezuelans can exercise their right to participate in the upcoming elections, as candidates and voters, in keeping with Venezuela’s democratic traditions and in accordance with the Inter-American Democratic Charter.

Venezuela issues an indignant reply:

El Despacho del Viceministro para América del Norte del Ministerio del Poder Popular Para Relaciones Exteriores de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela rechaza terminantemente las expresiones injerencistas del funcionario del Departamento de Estado de los Estados Unidos de América, Mark C. Toner, divulgadas públicamente el 4 de agosto del corriente año, en las que se inmiscuye en asuntos constitucionales internos relativos a la elección popular para cargos públicos en Venezuela. 
La República Bolivariana de Venezuela insiste que los actos de los poderes públicos venezolanos se rigen, de manera irrestricta y sin excepción alguna, por la Constitución venezolana y sus leyes. Por tanto, tan delicadas funciones públicas no pueden responder a mandato, directriz o instrucciones foráneas, lo cual, vulneraría los principios de soberanía, integridad y autodeterminación de los Estados. 
Finalmente, el Despacho del Viceministro Para América del Norte del Ministerio del Poder Popular para Relaciones Exteriores de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela reitera a los Estados Unidos de América que la construcción de relaciones amistosas y transparentes entre ambos países requiere, como condición indispensable, abandonar las prácticas injerencistas y propender al mantenimiento de un clima apegado al Derecho Internacional y sus principios. 
En tal sentido, ratificamos nuestra disposición a seguir cultivando conversaciones dirigidas a la regularización de las relaciones diplomáticas bilaterales, en el marco de la normativa internacional que rige las buenas relaciones entre los Estados.

David Smilde recently blogged about the thawing of U.S.-Venezuelan relations and I am chewing all this over. What's occurring is more than "thaw." It is also more than just "good cop, bad cop." There are positive and negative signals being sent simultaneously. You have sanctions, Tom Shannon chats, tough statements from Kerry, nice statements from Kerry, and then these pointed criticisms about elections.

Without knowing what's being said in private, there is no way to tell precisely how all these get linked together. But I would guess that a key message is that a) allowing election observers; and b) not banning everyone you dislike holds the promise of more thawing. The U.S. wants free elections, though it also wants Venezuela not to collapse. In that sense, Maduro's own mismanagement gives him a bit of leverage--the U.S. will talk for fear of getting an even worse outcome. In the meantime, you keep periodically sniping at each other. I'm not sure whether that qualifies as "thaw."

At this point, I don't know that the Obama administration has any better options. Cracking down hard on Venezuela would lead to more disarray and would not play well in the region. I still believe that the sanctions make it harder for Latin American governments to criticize Maduro, and I can't see the U.S. getting its desired outcome by imposing more. The best solution is for Venezuelans to sort it out themselves, and the way to do that is to encourage free elections.

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Wednesday, August 05, 2015

Militarization of Latin American Policing

Orlando Pérez writes at Latin America Goes Global on the militarization of policing in Latin America. There are three depressing conclusions:

First, having the military train the police or using the military itself for domestic policing leads to human rights abuses, such as higher homicide rates.

Second, crime doesn't go down.

Third, people support doing it anyway.

It's terrible yet popular, fueled by popular perceptions of police being overwhelmed. It is another example of needing to "do something." Its sounds tough and effective even though it isn't.

The U.S. context is different, but the vibe of militarization police with equipment is similar. It makes people feel like the police can be tougher on crime that way, but it leads to abuse. Even campus police are buying surplus military equipment! Police are trusted in the U.S. much more than in Latin America, but as we're seeing that support can erode.

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Monday, August 03, 2015

Pope Francis and Peronism

Nick Miroff has an article in the Washington Post about Pope Francis' background. The headline (for which authors are not responsible!) is terrible: "You Can't Understand Pope Francis Without Juan Perón--and Evita." It's awful for two reasons. First, Miroff doesn't argue that at all so the headline is misleading. Second, focusing on Evita will cause people to miss the most important point.

The point we need to repeat is that Pope Francis criticizes unbridled capitalism but does not call for socialism. That is the extent of the Peronist analogy and it has nothing to do with Evita.  It has nothing to do with being a "strongman."

I have a feeling that when he visits the United States next month we're going to hear all sorts of BS about caudillos, socialism, Evita, and what have you. All of these concepts are completely misunderstood in the United States anyway. Ignore that stuff and listen to what he actually says.

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Sunday, August 02, 2015

Foro de Sao Paulo

At the Foro de Sao Paulo, leftist parties from across Latin America came together (as they have since 1990) to discuss common issues. Multiple news agencies, including Cuban, note the emphasis on needing to "re-encounter dialogue."

This puzzles me a bit. My impression has been that there is more leftist dialogue now than ever. It's even institutionalized in ALBA, UNASUR, CELAC, etc. Leftist politicians and activists communicate extensively on social media. TeleSur provides leftist commentary to a broad audience.

On the other hand, are those actually examples of dialogue? I am not sure what they meant, but you could easily make an argument that what we hear now is endless monologue, even in fora intended to foster dialogue.

We hear a lot of empty phrases about anti-colonialism, but where is the open discussion about why Bolivia's economy is doing so well (hint, hint, it is not about copying the Cuban economic model, which the document also mentions) while others are not? What about discussion of how to build a lasting leftist party structure that transcends individuals, which has happened in some countries but not others? What about strategies of overcoming dependence on a single commodity? Etc.

That would be dialogue, and would be beneficial to all. More likely, though, we'll hear the same steady stream of buzzwords.



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