WBC

I had thought Cuba was allowed to participate in the WBC after agreeing that any proceeds would be donated to Katrina victims, and apparently so did Fidel and the entire Cuban team. But now Major League Baseball is denying that claim, saying the agreement was that Cuba would get no proceeds of any kind, and that no donations could be made in its name.

Interestingly, the Bush administration doesn’t want anyone from baseball making a donation: “U.S. officials say privately that the Bush administration would react angrily if MLB ends up making a donation from the tournament's proceeds to a Katrina charity.” So it’s not just Cuba. I suppose any such high profile donation would only serve to highlight further the poor response to the disaster.

Read more...

Cuba and Hamas

Thanks to my brother for pointing out this Op-Ed piece in the NYT, comparing Hamas to Cuba in terms of international response. For well over 40 years, the U.S. has insisted that the best way to effect change in Cuba is to isolate it, a policy that has proved to be a failure. The question is whether isolation of Hamas would be any more effective. It is a difficult issue, given Hamas’ origins and past, because establishing some sort of relationship could seem like validation of its tactics.

But U.S. efforts at isolating Fidel Castro have tended to strengthen his position domestically, and to grant him martyr status. It also gives him something to blame when the economy turns sour. The same dynamic may end up being true for Hamas as well.

One thing the article does not note is the contradictory nature of U.S. policy, which asserts that isolation will change Cuba, but that engagement will change China, Vietnam, and other former enemies.

Read more...

Latin American Armies

It’s curious that in the past few days I’ve read reports of different Latin American armies suffering from low morale. First it was in Colombia, where Uribe tends to wield a big stick, using presidential prerogative to fire generals when scandals pop up. Army leaders are particularly annoyed that he uses the press to blame them as he does so.

Now NTKLA references a story about the Brazilian army, as low pay and lack of equipment are leading people to leave in droves, and have led (directly or indirectly) to the suicide of two generals.

I wouldn’t ascribe too much importance to this yet, but it is never good for militaries to feel ignored and abused. At LASA, David Pion-Berlin and Harold Trinkunas presented an interesting paper on why civilians in Latin America show so little interest in defense issues. The phenomenon means that the armed forces may be building resentment against what they perceive as unqualified civilian authorities.

Read more...

Another Chávez Speech

Hugo Chávez repeated once again his concern about a U.S. invasion, but has added a new twist. He asserted that Venezuelans, in conjunction with other unspecified revolutionaries, would come to the aid of any other Latin American country that was invaded, which refers largely to Cuba.

Meanwhile, he also continues his policy of selling oil to specific parts of countries that might be more sympathetic to him, such as FMLN-governed cities in El Salvador, but also Democratic districts in Massachusetts.

Read more...

You know you're having a bad Monday when...

...you get off the phone with US Air, only to be told that your suitcase has still not been found after almost two days. Then you get into the car, and less than 10 minutes later you’re parked in front of a cop for going 45 in a 35, with your son saying, "Wow, look at the police car lights."

Read more...

Immigration Debate Heating Up

Charlotte’s own Sue Myrick and Patrick McHenry are at the forefront of a group of House Republicans who want to make clear that they reject the McCain-Kennedy immigration reform bill, which is now sitting in the Judiciary Committee.

The politics of the matter do not augur well for a real solution. Senate Majority Leader Frist has said he wants a quick vote, and threatened to bypass the Committee entirely if it didn’t speed up its debate. Frist is looking to 2008, and since he believes a guest worker program is unpopular with conservatives, he is opposing it (whether it is really unpopular with all conservative voters is, I think, debatable). On the House side, with more than 70 Republicans signing the letter, there will be a major showdown if the Senate manages to pass a bill that includes guest workers.

Read more...

Puerto Rico

I am now back from the LASA conference in Puerto Rico, and have come home to a mountain of work. San Juan was beautiful, especially the old part of the city, but it was incredibly expensive. I had just been in Paris, and San Juan even seemed pricey by comparison.

LASA now says it won't have another conference in the U.S. until the policy toward Cuban scholars changes. Rumors abounded about where it would go next--maybe Canada, which would be great, because I've never been to either Montreal or Toronto.

Read more...

Professors and the FBI

Here’s a disturbing story of a Latin American History professor at Ponoma College being questioned by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force about his connections to the Venezuelan community, since he has been a critic of U.S. policy. They said they wanted to “develop a profile of the Venezuelan community in the U.S.” The agents even talked to some of his students.

It seems there is no end to the ham handed tactics we’re using with regard to Venezuela. I hit on this topic all the time, but it bears repeating—nearly all our strategies for dealing with Hugo Chávez ultimately make him stronger, not weaker. He is able to portray himself as a victim of U.S. policy, which enhances his self-proclaimed role as the new Bolívar, standing firm against the U.S.

It also makes me wonder about all the post 9/11 intelligence reform, when what we have are FBI agents bumbling around college campuses.

Read more...

NCAA

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't remember all three of my alma maters being in the tournament at the same time - Cal, SDSU, and Carolina. Very cool.

Roll on you bears.

Read more...

Poll Numbers

I got back from France last night, and am very behind in reading both news and blogs. But here are some poll numbers from BBB. Of particular note is that approval ratings of President Chávez has experienced a drop, though his support remains strong. I think an interesting question would be how closely his ratings are tied to oil prices.

In presidential campaigns, Lopez Obrador continues to lead the race among presidential candidates in Mexico, while in Peru former president Alan García has stayed pretty strong, despite how widely his presidency (1985-1990) was viewed as a failure. At various times I've read that Alberto Fujimori, now sitting in a Chilean prison, would still receive a solid percentage of votes, despite having fled to Japan in disgrace.

Read more...

The ICC and Latin America

There's a good Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post about U.S. policy regarding the International Criminal Court and how it affects Latin America. We deny certain types of aid to countries that ratify the ICC but refuse to grant waivers for U.S. citizens (i.e. to ensure they cannot be tried by the ICC for some alleged crime). The article highlights the fact that we're punishing allies, thus further damaging our already poor relations with much of Latin America. But even more interesting is that the Defense Department is openly saying the policy is bad and should be changed.

Since the policy is intended largely to help the Pentagon--because U.S. soldiers are deemed most likely to be potentially arrested--then it is all the more absurd that anyone would support it after the Pentagon said quite clearly that the policy is counterproductive.

Read more...

France Trivia

Although in the U.S. we see the high profile protests in France against U.S. businesses, it was in France where the "hypermarket" (a la Wal-Mart) was created in 1963. The opposition to big business in the U.S. is actually the same type of conflict that's been going on in France for over 40 years.

Read more...

LASA and Cuba Part II

I mentioned a few days ago that the U.S. government has denied Cubans visas to come to the LASA meetings, and only belatedly realized that a Cuban was supposed to be on my panel, so it even affects me directly. It's still not clear to me how a professor studying Cuban demography has become a national security threat.

I must admit the meetings in Puerto Rico seem very distant, since it is a crisp, clear, beautiful, and cold morning here in Bourron Marlotte, a French village about an hour outside Paris.

Read more...

France

Tonight we're off to France for spring break to visit my brother and his family. Having a 4 year old and an 18 month old on an overnight flight should be quite an adventure.

Read more...

Student Life

I just finished reading My Freshman Year, by Rebekah Nathan (a pseudonym) an anthropology professor who registered as a freshman to see what current student life is like. I’m not putting it on my list on the side of the blog, because I don’t think it revealed much that isn’t mostly obvious. Her main conclusion is that students have many competing issues they have to deal with (classes, jobs, relationships, clubs, family, etc.) and so they constantly have to juggle and prioritize. Wait, does this mean that my class is not the most important thing in my students’ lives? What a letdown.

One conclusion I did find interesting, however, is that universities strive to create a sense of community, but then encourage student participation in a massively wide variety of activities that spread students thin and therefore end up decreasing that sense of community.

Read more...

Women and Latin American Politics

I’ve noted before that the much-vaunted “tilt to the left” in Latin America is vastly oversimplified, and an article in the Miami Herald details what I see as a more interesting story, namely the political rise of women. The article also mentions the quotas in some legislatures, which reserve seats for women (there was a good article about this in Journal of Politics not too long ago as well). This does not mean that women will suddenly be elected all over the region, but I wonder whether an updated version of the “domino theory” might apply, as people see that women are effective presidents and therefore become more willing to vote for a female candidate in their own country.

Read more...

LASA and Cuba

In two weeks I am off to Puerto Rico for the Latin American Studies Association conference (I am presenting a paper on immigration). Continuing the theme of politics based on spite, the NYT reports that, like the last meeting, the U.S. government is refusing to allow any Cubans to attend. There is just no legitimate reason for doing so. It's just another policy equivalent of the U.S. government sticking its collective tongue out at Fidel.

Read more...

New Report on Coca Cultivation

The State Department released this year’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report. It reveals an increase in the amount of coca cultivation, demonstrating yet again that U.S. drug policy is a failure. The foundation of this policy is that if cultivation decreases, then the price of cocaine will increase, which will in turn lead fewer people to buy it because it’s so expensive. Despite billions of dollars, massive aerial herbicide spraying, crop substitution efforts, manual crop destruction, and beefed up military patrols, the cultivation of coca continues. In the context of supply and demand, the U.S. focuses mostly on supply, while demand (i.e. Americans taking large amounts of cocaine) is barely addressed.

See here for a very good discussion of the report and its implications. My U.S.-Latin America students should recognize the author of the blog—Adam Isacson of the Center for International Policy is also the author of an assigned chapter in the book Drugs and Democracy in Latin America: The Impact of U.S. Policy. Or at least I hope you’ve read it, since the midterm is today…

Read more...

The Governator

I couldn’t resist this. My mom is a local elected official in San Diego, and recently met the man himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Read more...

Illegal Immigration in the South

The State of Mississippi just released a report about the economic impact of illegal immigrants. Such reports are proliferating—last month the Kenan-Flagler Business School issued one on North Carolina. The problem with these studies, however, is that they are based almost entirely on guesswork, then claim to pinpoint the economic impact exactly.

The Mississippi report is so bad it’s embarrassing. These are the words of the State Auditor on the cover letter:

“The most significant finding of this report is Mississippi’s inability to accurately quantify the costs of illegal immigrants because most state agencies, schools and other government entities do not currently document the actual number of illegal immigrants or their use of services.

The report does fairly estimate the net financial impact of illegal immigrants in Mississippi to be more than $25 million a year.”

Huh? There is no way to quantify the impact, so we’re going to pull a number out of a hat and pretend it means something. I guarantee that the students in my senior seminar will all turn in a paper of higher quality than this.

Read more...