Haq’s e-mail was in response to a confidential Aug. 8 report by UN special rapporteur Philip Alston; the report was obtained by the New York Times and reported on by Jonathan M. Katz. Alston went much further than Haq in assigning blame, stating that the epidemic “would not have broken out but for the actions of the United Nations.” The UN’s failure to pay reparations, Alston wrote, “upholds a double standard according to which the UN insists that member states respect human rights, while rejecting any such responsibility for itself.” The UN’s position “provides highly combustible fuel for those who claim that UN peacekeeping operations trample on the rights of those being protected.” (NYT, Aug. 17)

Claims that MINUSTAH was responsible for the outbreak first appeared in English-language media with October 2010 reports by Katz, who was then an Associated Press correspondent in Haiti. US media tended to dismiss the claims as “rumors,” and suggested, without evidence, that demonstrations by Haitians protesting the UN’s role were hampering efforts to fight the epidemic. Some US-based scientists presented implausible scenarios intended let MINUSTAH off the hook for the outbreak. There were speculations that the cholera bacterium, which was identified as South Asian in origin, was brought to Haiti in imported food or water, or in ballast discharged from ocean-going ships—without any evidence that Haiti ever imported food or water from South Asia, or that bacteria could somehow swim more than 90 kilometers up the Artibonite River from the Caribbean to Mirebalais.

The UN’s admission comes six years late and with qualifications, but Haitian activists consider it an important step forward. The prominent human rights attorney Mario Joseph hailed the UN’s new position as “a great victory for the thousands of Haitians who have marched for justice, have written the UN, and have even taken it to court.” (AlterPresse, Haiti, Aug. 18)

Map: Perry-Castañeda Map Library

The suspension came four days before preliminary talks between the government and representatives of the Ngöbe-Buglé indigenous group, which opposes the Barro Blanco project. The Feb. 13 talks were in preparation for a formal dialogue scheduled for Feb. 24. The two parties are seeking "a consensus that takes into account human rights, the protection of the original peoples, the environment [and] sustainable development," Governance Minister Milton Henríquez said on Feb. 12. The government has invited United Nations (UN) representatives to participate in the discussions. However, the UN itself has come under criticism from international environmental groups for the decision of its Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to approve the project. Eva Filzmoser, the director of the Brussels-based Carbon Market Watch, charged on Feb. 10 that the CDM board "approved Barro Blanco when it was clear that the dam would flood the homes of numerous indigenous families. This decision is a warning signal that safeguards must be introduced to protect human rights, including robust stakeholder consultations and a grievance mechanism." (La Estrella de Panamá, Feb. 9, Feb. 13; Intercontinental Cry, Feb. 10)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, February 15.

One cause of poverty and violence in Honduras, according to the report, was the June 2009 coup that removed former president José Manuel ("Mel") Zelaya Rosales (2006-2009), with only token objections from the US government. "Since the 2009 coup, the ruling governments have failed to respect worker and human rights or create decent work, and instead have built a repressive security apparatus to put down dissent," the authors wrote. Another principal cause of the country's problems was the implementation of the 2004 Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). The delegation found that CAFTA-DR's "architecture of deregulation coupled with investor protection allowed companies to outsource labor-intensive components of their supply chains to locations with weak labor laws and low wages." The agreement "accelerated free market devastation," Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and a participant in the delegation, told a reporter. He noted "constant violations of organizing rights…that included everything from the murder of [union] leaders to the collapse of bargaining rights where they once existed."

"Failed trade and migration policies continue to exacerbate Honduras' problems," the report concludes. "The US government criminalizes migrant children and their families, while pursuing trade deals that simultaneously displace subsistence farmers and lower wages and standards across other sectors, and eliminate good jobs, intensifying the economic conditions that drive migration. This dynamic is enhanced in countries like Honduras, where the government's own policies leave workers and families vulnerable to abuse." (National Catholic Reporter, Jan. 28; The Nation, Feb. 6; Equal Times, Feb. 10)

Probably the best known of the displacements of subsistence farmers occurred in northern Honduras' Lower Aguán River Valley, where campesino groups struggling to regain their land have been victims of violence by the military and private security forces since 2009. A recent example was the forced disappearance of Cristian Alberto Martínez Pérez, a young activist in the Gregorio Chávez Campesino Movement (MCGC, also referred to as the Gregorio Chávez Collective), as he was riding his bicycle the evening of Jan. 29 near his home in Panamá community, Trujillo municipality, Colón department.

Human rights groups and several campesino organizations quickly responded to Martínez Pérez's disappearance by joining together in an intensive search. The youth was found alive—but tied up and dehydrated—a few meters from the Paso Aguán estate the morning of Feb. 1, about 62 hours after his abduction. He said he had been seized by a soldier and a security guard and confined to a vehicle, where he was questioned about his group's leaders and possible plans for an occupation of the estate. Paso Aguán is owned by Honduran entrepreneur and landowner Miguel Facussé Barjum and is guarded by soldiers and security employers of the powerful Corporación Dinant food-product company, which Facussé founded. At least two deaths have been reported on the estate in the past; the MCGC is apparently named for one of the victims. (Defensores en Línea, Feb. 3; Honduprensa, Feb. 5)

The Aguán campesino movement is the subject of a new documentary, Resistencia: The Film, which is premiering in Montreal on Feb. 20.

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, February 15.

The report was based on an evaluation the CED carried out Feb. 2-3 at the group's headquarters in Geneva. The CED recognized some advances by the Mexican government, including the ratification of all United Nations human rights treaties and the adoption of a General Law for Victims, but expressed dissatisfaction with the government's failure even to keep an accurate record of the number of forced disappearances. The committee's recommendations included creating a national registry of disappearances and formation of a special unit to search for disappeared persons. (La Jornada, Mexico, Feb. 14; Jurist, Feb. 14)

The Ayotzinapa case has brought international attention to Mexico's record on disappearances. On Jan. 22 the London-based rights group Amnesty International (AI) criticized what it called "the faltering investigations overseen by the Mexican Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam." "The disappearance of [the Ayotzinapa] students is a crime that has shocked the world," AI Americas director Erika Guevara Rosas said. "This tragedy has changed the distorted perception that the human rights situation has been improving in Mexico since President [Enrique] Peña Nieto took power" in 2012.

Criticism is also starting to increase in the US, whose government and media have strongly backed Peña Nieto in the past. The Mexican government's account of the Ayotzinapa abductions "isn't a historical truth," José Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director of US-based Human Right Watch (HRW), said recently. "It's an official version." The website of the influential weekly The New Yorker has carried five articles so far on the Ayotzinapa case by novelist Francisco Goldman. The latest, posted on Feb. 7, details the many questions raised by the official account of the abduction of the students. (AI press release, Jan. 22; New Yorker, Feb. 7; Jurist, Feb. 13)

In related news, the cousin of a disappearance victim was murdered around noon on Feb. 13 in Iguala de la Independencia, the Guerrero city that was the site of the September attack on the Ayotzinapa students. Two men on a motorcycle gunned Norma Angélica Bruno Román down in front of her three children as they were on the way to a cemetery for the burial of another murder victim, José Ramón Bernabé Armenta, who had been killed two days earlier. Initial reports said Bruno Román was an activist with the local Committee of Forced Disappearance Victims; the committee is also known as "The Other Disappeared," since it deals with victims other than the missing 43 students. The group clarified later that Bruno Román had participated in the group's activities in her search for her cousin, Ivette Melissa Flores Román, who has been missing since she was abducted from her home the night of Oct. 24, 2012. However, Bruno Román wasn't part of the group, and committee members felt her murder wasn't connected to their work. (Proceso, Mexico, Feb. 13; LJ, Feb. 14)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, February 15.

In October, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions called on Mexico to fully investigate police extra-judicial executions. 

Petit-Goâve and Miragoâne in South department observed the strike, while Cap-Haïtien in North department and Les Cayes in South department mostly ignored it the first day, according to media reports. There was more strike activity in Cap-Haïtien the second day, while a few people went back to work in Port-au-Prince, where the government provided some free bus service.

This was the second general strike in a week over fuel prices. A two-day strike called by transit workers for Feb. 2-3 ended after one day when the government agreed to lower gasoline prices from 215 gourdes to 195 gourdes (about US$4.58 to US$4.15) for a gallon, with corresponding reductions for diesel fuel and kerosene. But the second general strike was more political, with support from such opposition groups as the Patriotic Force for Respect for the Constitution (FOPARC), which backs the Family Lavalas (FL) party of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991-1996, 2001-2004). The government refused to consider the protesters' demand for a price reduction of 100 gourdes (about US$2.17). Officials said the country needed to pay off some of a large debt for the oil it has acquired through Venezuela's Petrocaribe program. But many people disagreed. "We are poor, we cannot live anymore," a driver of one of the minibuses known as tap-taps complained to a reporter. "Gasoline prices are falling worldwide, so it should be the same here in Haiti." (AlterPresse, Haiti, Feb. 9, Feb. 10, Feb. 10; Reuters, Feb. 10)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, February 15.

Haitian immigrants and human rights organization questioned the police version, noting the increase in anti-Haitian sentiment following a September 2013 Constitutional Tribunal (TC) ruling that deprived thousands of Haitian-descended Dominicans of citizenship. "Nobody knows yet the reason behind the lynching, but it comes in the context of constant discrimination and violence against Haitians," the Robert F Kennedy Center for Human Rights' Santiago Canton said. Jean Harry was murdered just hours after a group of Dominicans publicly burned the Haitian flag in Santiago. As of Feb. 13 the authorities said they had arrested five members of the group. (The Guardian, UK Feb. 12, from correspondent; AlterPresse, Haiti, Feb. 13; El Nuevo Diario, Dominican Republic, Feb. 15)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, February 15.

The $1 billion proposal appears to be a more detailed version of a plan presented by Vice President Biden and the presidents of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in Washington on Nov. 14. It provides "over $400 million" for "trade facilitation" and other forms of economic development; "over $300 million" to "advance regional security efforts"; and "nearly $250 million" to "strengthen institutions," including "rule-of-law institutions" so that they can "better administer justice." In his op-ed Biden indicated that the US proposals for Central America are modeled on Plan Colombia, a $9 billion program started in 1999 as a "war on drugs" effort. The vice president claimed that Colombia is now "a nation transformed."

The economic reforms in the proposal are aimed at "creating business environments friendly to entrepreneurs." "Central American economies can grow only by attracting international investment," Biden wrote. The US is "ready to work" to help "ensure that local enterprises get the most out of existing free trade agreements," such as the 2004 Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). (White House Fact Sheet, Jan. 29; New York Times, Jan. 29)

Despite its neoliberal economic features, the proposal has the support of at least some center-left Latin American leaders, including Salvadoran president Salvador Sánchez Cerén, a leader in the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), once a leftist rebel group. With the US aid in the proposal "we have opportunities to go on working to guarantee you the right to education, to health, to live in families," he told a group of Salvadoran school children on Jan. 31. (La Prensa Gráfica, El Salvador, Feb. 1) Center-left Chilean president Michelle Bachelet also backs the plan, which includes having Central American countries join the Pacific Alliance, a trade bloc currently composed of Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. Bachelet was in Guatemala on Jan. 30 for talks with Guatemalan president Otto Pérez Molina about his country's request to be admitted to the alliance. (Télam, Argentina, Jan. 30)

The proposal emphasizes the need to reform Central American justice systems but doesn't give specifics. On Feb. 2-3 the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights (CorteIDH), an agency of the Organization of American States (OAS), held hearings on a complaint by four Honduran judges over their dismissal from their posts after they publicly opposed the June 2009 military coup that removed former president José Manuel ("Mel") Zelaya Rosales (2006-2009) from office. Former judges Guillermo López, Luis Alonso Chévez, Ramón Enrique Barrios and Tirza Flores say the dismissals violated their free speech rights. The current Honduran government supports the removal of the judges. Government attorney Jorge Serrano argued that the action "doesn't violate…precedents set by the inter-American system." (Tico Times, Costa Rica, Feb. 4, from AFP)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, February 8.

Meanwhile, right-wing politicians and business representatives are blaming Mapuche activists for many of the 150-160 forest fires reported in Chile's Araucanía region in the past six months. In January Senator Alberto Espina of the center-right National Renewal (RN) party implied that the fires are being set by Mapuche activists protesting what they consider the theft of their land by forestry companies. Patricio Santibáñez, president of the Chilean Timber Corporation (CORMA), charged that 70% of the fires are "organized, planned." A report by the carabineros militarized police put the total number of fires connected to the Mapuche conflict at 15 for the period, less than 10%, and said the number of arson cases had declined. Santibáñez repeated charges from 2012 that Mapuche activists were responsible for an outbreak of forest fires then, including one in which seven firefighters were killed. The 2012 fires came at a time of severe drought; Mapuche spokespeople said the situation was aggravated by the forestry companies' planting of more flammable trees such as pine and eucalyptus. (PanAm Post, Jan. 30; Rebelión, Feb. 7)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, February 8.

The Mexican government has concluded that all the students were killed and that their bodies were incinerated in a dump in the Guerrero municipality of Cocula and thrown into the San Juan river. The Argentines found several problems that they said made it impossible for them to confirm the official version. For example, the government had agreed to keep the independent experts involved in all phases of the investigation but didn't in fact include them on some occasions—notably, at the time when the supposed remains of the students were found. The Argentines also said the Cocula dump wasn't guarded during part of the period of the investigation, so that evidence could have been altered. Journalists and researchers have questioned other aspects of the official account, including the government's contention that only municipal police and a local gang were involved in the violence and the claim that the bodies could be thoroughly incinerated in an open-air fire. (La Jornada, Mexico, Feb. 8)

Teachers in Guerrero have regularly joined with students in demonstrations over the Ayotzinapa disappearances, but on Feb. 6 they had an additional reason to protest. Members of the National Education Workers Union (SNTE) and the Only Union of Guerrero State Public Servants (Suspeg) blocked the Miguel Alemán coastal highway in Acapulco for nearly three hours to protest the state's failure to pay their salary. According to the national SNTE, some 12,000 Guerrero teachers didn't get valid paychecks. The unions indicated that both the state and the federal governments were responsible for the shortfall in funds. (LJ, Feb. 7)

Forced disappearances by the police are not limited to Guerrero. According to Denise García Bosque, an attorney for families in the northeastern state of Coahuila, the nonprofit Families United has documented 150 disappearance cases in the past 18 months in just one area, the small city of Piedras Negras and the region known as Cinco Manantiales. García said that in at least 60 of these cases there is evidence of participation by special police groups, principally a state unit created in 2009, the Special Arms and Tactics Group (GATE). A total of 51 of the victims have been found alive but are all in prison; they charge that they were tortured into making false confessions that they were members of criminal groups. Special police units are proliferating throughout Mexico, the national daily Excélsior wrote last November; they "sometimes receive special training by US, Colombian or Israeli elite groups," the paper said. (LJ, Feb. 7; TeleSUR English, Feb. 7)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, February 8.

Mexican media described Yes International as a maquiladora, a tax-exempt assembly plant producing for export. Its products were largely socks, but press accounts didn't indicate what retailers contracted with the factory. The day after the initial raid, the federal Labor and Social Welfare Secretariat (STPS) said the factory was closed for irregularities in its operation, such as a failure to certify the plant's boilers, not for mistreatment of workers. Some plant employees told reporters they hadn't experienced abuses and that they objected to the closing of the plant. Although the workers said the pay was low—600 to 700 pesos a week (about $40.50 to $ 47.24)—they were upset about losing jobs in an area with limited employment opportunities. (La Jornada, Mexico, Feb. 6, Feb. 7; International Business Times, Feb. 6)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, February 8.