Letters from Our Readers

This Week in the Americas

Pedophilia and Repression of the Press in Mexico:
The Power of Corruption and the Corruption of Power
By Laura Carlsen

The investigative reports of Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho and the attempts to silence her are but a glimpse into worlds most of us would rather not know about—international pedophile rings, drug trafficking and its related violence, the brutal exploitation and abuse found in the off-shore assembly plants that make our clothes and our televisions. All form part of the underbelly of globalization where illegal activities have increased on a par with trade in legal goods and services.

As the governor of Puebla struggles to save his name—and his job, since he faces Supreme Court and Congressional investigations—and businessmen seek to defend themselves, the close alliance between wealth, power, and victimization of the weak has been exposed. Globalization’s tendency in this country and elsewhere to polarize wealth and power can only strengthen that alliance.

Laura Carlsen directs the Americas Program of the International Relations Center (online at www.irc-online.org) based in Mexico City.

Haiti’s Elections: Right Result for the Wrong Reason
By Brian Concannon Jr.

On February 7, Haitian voters went to the polls to elect a president for the fourth time since 1990 and handed their chosen candidate a landslide victory. Also for the fourth time, Haitian elites—with support from the international community—immediately began to undercut the victory, seeking at the negotiation table what they could not win at the polls.

The negotiations reached a deal that boosts the successful candidate, Rene Preval, over the 50% of the vote necessary to avoid a runoff election. By choosing to negotiate the process instead of confirming the clear winner through a fair count, it provides leverage for those seeking to delegitimize Mr. Preval’s presidency and block the progressive social and economic policies that he was elected to implement.

Haiti’s politics are not parlor games. Each coup d’etat leads to thousands of deaths, and many more times that are killed by diseases that would be prevented or treated by the programs of a less embattled government. The life expectancy for men in Haiti has dropped below 50. It is far past time for the international community to stop condemning Haiti to repeating this outrageously unjust history.

Brian Concannon Jr., Esquire, directs the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, www.ijdh.org, and is an analyst for IRC's America's Program. He observed several elections in Haiti for the Organization of American States.

The Deepening Dimensions of the U.S.-Mexico Border Crisis
By Kent Paterson

Long resentful at what they regard as second-class treatment by Washington, Mexicans across the political spectrum are blasting the Bush administration’s border and immigration policies. Stinging criticisms, diplomatic tiffs, street protests, and even calls for boycotts of U.S. businesses have characterized the Mexico-U.S. relationship in recent weeks.

Fuelling the discord are two recent events: the United States House of Representatives passage in December 2005 of HR 4437, the Sensenbrenner border security/immigration bill, and the December 30 shooting death of a young Mexican migrant, Guillermo Martinez, by U.S. Border Patrol agents near San Diego-Tijuana. In Mexico, reactions to the events ranged from frustration to bewilderment to anger.

Kent Paterson is a freelance journalist based in Albuquerque, NM, and a frequent contributor to the IRC Americas Program (online at http://americas.irc-online.org).

Bringing Civil Society into U.S.-Brazil Relations
By Mark Langevin

For over a decade U.S.-Brazil relations have been tangled up in deliberations for a Free Trade in the Americas Agreement (FTAA). Last month’s Fourth Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina did little to unravel the knots. Instead, the meeting confirmed the limits of the Bush administration’s “competitive liberalization” months after the troubled ratification of CAFTA-DR in a close and questioned vote in the U.S. House of Representatives. The U.S. government could only watch as Brazil and its Mercosur partners, along with Venezuela, shunned the FTAA in favor of continued efforts to deepen South American economic and political integration. Given the demise of the FTAA, the future of U.S.-Brazil relations may increasingly depend upon the participation of many of those sectors of civil society marginalized from the free trade talks.

Mark S. Langevin, Ph.D., langevin@chapman.edu is a contributor to the IRC Americas Program, www.americaspolicy.org and Assistant Professor of Political Science at Chapman University College. He is also National Organizer for the Brazil Strategy Network (http://brazilstrategy.net/) and sits on Chapman University's “Critical Friends” board of the Paulo Freire Democratic Project. He has lived and worked in Brazil, conducted research on United States-Brazil Economic Relations, is an editorial board member of Revista Humana of the Department of Human and Natural Sciences at the Federal University of Espirito Santo, and is an appointee to the California State Senate – California/Brazil Partnership's Strategic Action Team.

U.S. Hegemony or Global Good Neighbor Policy?
By Laura Carlsen and Tom Barry

Over the past few years we have faced two major challenges in conceiving of a new foreign policy in Latin America. The first is the relative lack of attention to the region, by both the U.S. government and public. The second is the increasing friction between the current U.S. administration’s strategies for global U.S. hegemony and Latin American elected governments and grassroots trends toward greater independence and new models.

The following policy review of U.S.-Latin American relations examines the salient new developments in Latin America and the Caribbean and U.S. policy in the region. It concludes with general guidelines for a more coherent and constructive U.S. Latin American policy in the region, along the lines of the “Global Good Neighbor Ethic for U.S. Foreign Policy.”

Laura Carlsen directs the Americas Program of the International Relations Center, online at www.irc-online.org. Tom Barry is the IRC's policy director.

Related IRC Analysis:

A Good Neighbor Ethic for International Relations
http://ggn.irc-online.org/ggncontent/142

The Good Neighbor Policy—A History to Make Us Proud
http://ggn.irc-online.org/ggncontent/99

Pax Americana—What's the Alternative
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/rw/753

Project for New American Century
Right Web Profile: http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1535

Timely Demise for Free Trade Area of the Americas
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/2954

Letters from our Readers

Re: Haiti Elections: Right Result for the Wrong Reason

The article neglects to mention that never before in Haiti's history have blank votes been counted against a candidate's percentage. Counting them to lower Mr. Preval's percentage was part of the crookedness that people were complaining about. Your article makes it look like they were bending rules to accommodate Mr. Preval and this was certainly not the case.

Fred Williams
Haiti Action Montreal

The author, Brian Concannon Jr., responds:

Dear Fred,

Thanks for reading my article on the IRC site, and for sending feedback. I know that several people have reported that the blank ballots were not previously counted against candidates. I was an election observer for the OAS during several elections in Haiti in 1995, including for Preval's first victory, and I was in Haiti during elections in 1997 and 2000. I am certain that the electoral law treated blank ballots the same as this year's law did in 1995—meaning they counted against the 50%, and I am fairly confident the law was applied the same in 1997 and 2000.

I think it is a bad law, and that it disproportionately hurts Lavalas candidates (the only one likely to come close to a first round victory), but it has, I believe, been consistently applied.

The blank vote law was not an issue in the 1995 and 2000 Presidential elections, because Preval and Aristide won such heavy landslides. It was an issue in several Senate elections, including the 2000 elections.

I hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions.

Brian

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