Week in Review Share This /

The Los Angeles Times' Chris Kraul reports on the rise of drug trafficking in Ecuador.

In the News:

• For three weeks, Venezuelans and the rest of the world were wondering why President Hugo Chavez was still in Cuba. Government officials said President Chavez was recovering from a surgery to remove a pelvic abscess, while other speculation focused on prostate cancer. Late Thursday night, President Chavez confirmed the rumors in a video address to the nation. Though Chavez supporters stress he is still in charge and running the country from Havana, many are asking what this will mean for the president's future -- will it stir up problems within his party, the PSUV, will the opposition be strengthened, and, what would happen if his conditions worsen to a point that he could no longer serve?
• Colombia's El Tiempo reports that of the 32,000 right-wing paramilitary fighters who "demobilized" between 2003 and 2006, the Colombian government can't find 6,000.
• Using White House budgets, reports obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests and congressional transcripts, the Associated Press tallied up what taxpayers spend securing the U.S.-Mexico border. The total? $90 billion in 10 years.
• In Honduras, former President Mel Zelaya and his supporters formed a new political party--The Broad Front of Popular Resistance (Frente Amplio de Resistencia Popular--FARP).
• In Mexico's Nexos magazine, Nora Lustig points to Latin America's recent decline in economic inequality. According to Lustig, the concentration of wealth has declined in 13 of the 17 countries over the past decade. She attributes this decline to the expansion of basic education and "targeted spending" programs designed to address extreme poverty.
• On Wednesday, Peruvian President-elect Ollanta Humala traveled to Colombia where he met with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. The two agreed to work together to strengthen bilateral cooperation on issues such as security, economy and regional integration. As pointed out by El Tiempo, "the fight against narcotrafficking, of course, is one of the main focuses of the relationship."

New Reports:

• The U.S. State Department released its annual "Trafficking in Persons" report this week. As Adam Isacson shows on this map, the three-tier ranking system used by the State Department makes the report appear rather politicized. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the only two countries ranked as "tier 3," or "not fully complying with the minimum standards..." are Venezuela and Cuba, two countries with poor relations with the United States. On the other hand, the only country in the region ranked as "tier 1" is Colombia, which has very good relations with the United States.
• "Confronting the News: The State of Independent Media in Latin America," by Douglas Farah of the Center for International Media Assistance. The report calls attention to the deteriorating environments for independent news media in many Latin American countries as governments across the region increasingly push for limits on the press.
• UNODC's World Drug Report for 2011 was released late last week. The report shows a 16 percent decline in coca cultivation in Colombia in 2010, from 68,000 to 57,000 hectares. Peru, on the other hand, saw a slight increase of 1,300 hectares in coca cultivation. The release of this report came right after the U.S. Office on National Drug Control Policy released its new data about coca cultivation in Colombia in 2010, which also cited a decrease in coca cultivation in Colombia, but reported much higher production - with 116,000 hectares under cultivation in 2010.

On the Hill & in the Administration:

• The State Department hosted a Diplomacy Conference on U.S. Policy in the Caribbean this week. Conference transcripts and "suggested reading" can be found here.
• Yesterday, the Senate Finance Committee was to hold a "mock markup" of the Colombia, Panama and South Korea free trade agreements. However, the meeting had to be postponed after eleven Republicans on the committee decided to boycott the meeting.
• The Senate Committee on Armed Services completed its markup of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2012. The bill now goes to the full Senate for consideration. Latin America-relevant parts of the bill are on the Just the Facts website.
• The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations' Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Global Narcotics Affairs held a hearing on "The State of Democracy in the Americas" on Thursday. Watch the hearing and download witness testimony here.