Would the nations of Latin America be better off replacing the Organization of American States with a new grouping that leaves out the U.S.? After the success of last week’s Group of Rio Summit - which the U.S. did not attend - in defusing a military-diplomatic crisis involving Colombia and a number of its neighbors, there are many people south of the United States that seem to think so. Ángel Guerra Cabrera for Mexico’s La Jornada writes in part, ‘Seemingly intractable antagonisms and ideological crisis can be overcome as long as they are addressed without the presence of the United States … Looking back at history, the OAS has never condemned a single Yankee misdeed against our America, nor has it defended any of our just causes.’ In terms of the attack against Ecuador by Colombia, Cabrera expresses the suspicions of many Latin Americans, when he writes, ‘the roots of the Ecuador incident, momentarily defused by the Rio Group, remain unchanged: the Colombian conflict, the fruit of a very unfair and devastating social and political reality which has been encouraged by “Plan Colombia,” is the nucleus of a feverish U.S. plot of subversion and military interference in South America, aimed at overthrowing the governments of Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, and closely related to the fierce onslaught against Cuba.’

By Ángel Guerra Cabrera

Translated By Fernando Uribe

March 13, 2008

Mexico - La Jornada - Original Article (Spanish)

The Group of Rio Summit’s resounding rejection of military aggression against Ecuador and the consequent defusing of the diplomatic crisis that it sparked, has once again forced Bush - who longed for fire in the Andes region - to experience the bitter taste of defeat WATCH . In this reversal, he had to swallow the clear and vibrant desire for unity, cooperation, and peace in Latin America and the Caribbean, which was so forcefully displayed at Santo Domingo’s capital, Quisqueya.

[Editor’s Note: The “Group of Rio” was founded in 1986, and includes nineteen Caribbean states: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. The 35-nation OAS (Organization of American States) has been the dominant regional decision-making body for many years. The earliest forerunner of the OAS first convened in Washington in 1890, and consisted of 18 nations].

The great lesson of the summit is the enormous capacity for dialogue and understanding that the governments of our region possess, with which seemingly intractable antagonisms and ideological crisis can be overcome as long as they are addressed without the presence of the United States.

The best evidence of this came days earlier at OAS headquarters in Washington. Due solely to Yankee pressure - even though for the first time all present clearly condemned all U.S.-inspired interventions, it was impossible to translate this into a collective statement.

On the other hand, despite the fact that Yankee pressure increased on the eve of the meeting in the Dominican Republic (as President Rafael Correa briefed several of his counterparts) U.S. intentions ended up crashing against a determined majority. So there was more than enough reason, in light of this experience, for Ecuador to assert the necessity of creating an organization of Latin American states without the Empire. Looking back at history, the OAS has never condemned a single Yankee misdeed against our America, nor has it defended any of our just causes.

The success of the Rio Summit was also made possible by other decisive factors. The most important was [Ecuadorian President] Correa’s unwavering defense of Ecuadorian sovereignty and demands for its violation to be condemned - and the unanimous disapproval of this ominous precedent. This included the resolute attitude of heavyweights like Brazil and Argentina not to accept under any circumstances, violations of the territorial integrity of another State, which left Uribe isolated.

The only positive attitude towards the Latin American peoples, once assured censorship of the summit to the armed attack against Ecuador, was not insist on the large differences in approach for the sake of opposing defuse the climate of war created.

The skilful and transparent conduct of the meeting by Dominican President Leonel Fernandez created the climate for the bright and balanced involvement of Hugo Chavez who took the lead, supported by [Nicaraguan President] Daniel Ortega and [Bolivian President] Evo Morales. This was the turning point that kept away the shadow of a fratricidal war and led to the unexpected conclusion. This singular attitude favored by the people of Latin America not only assured the summit’s censure of the armed attack against Ecuador, it made certain in the interests of not extending the warlike atmosphere, that little would be made of the vast differences in approach suggested by individual states.

READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing coverage of the United States from the Latin American press.

Foreign coverage of the U.S. elections reveal a lot that one might never expect. For example, change seems afoot in Nicaragua, now being governed by Ronald Reagan’s old Sandinista nemesis, Daniel Ortega. In this editorial from La Prensa of Nicaragua, which is heaped with praise for the U.S. election process, sharp criticism of Mr. Ortega’s rejection of primary elections is particularly striking.

“In every way, and despite of the defects that the U.S. primary system has, the U.S. system is far superior to the political procedures that exist in many Latin-American countries.”

EDITORIAL Translated by Miguel Guttierez February 9, 2008, Nicaragua - La Prensa - Original Article (Spanish)
The U.S. primary elections to choose Democratic and Republican Party candidates to contest the presidential election next November 4 show the strength and credibility of North American democracy and have resulted in admiration around the world. In fact, independently of which candidates the two parties select, these primaries demonstrate Read the rest of this entry »

From Colombia at the heart of the war on drugs comes this interesting article between the conflict that is arising between Washington and Caracas…
Read the rest of this entry »

Gary Webb

I have worked with a goodly number of great investigative journalists over the years, men and women who risk career, life and limb to get the story, and I can say with some satisfaction that this bunch usually did.

But beyond the glamour of the Woodward and Bernstein portrayed by Redford and Hoffman in All the President’s Men is a dark side: Investigative reporters and their editors can be an intensely jealous lot, and except for the biggest stories (like the Pentagon Papers, Watergate and the My Lai Massacre) rival papers are more apt to ignore an investigative story than mention it in their own pages, and sometimes even dump on it.

This brings me to one of the greatest investigative coups and most shameful episodes in modern American journalism — the August 1996 publication of a three-part series titled “Dark Alliance” by reporter Gary Webb in the San Jose Mercury News and what then transpired. I tell this story in memory of Webb, who took his own life three years ago this week.

Please click here to read more at Kiko’s House.

For those of you too young or too distracted to remember, the Ollie North-Iran Contra affair is worth reprising in light of the CIA terrorist interrogation tapes scandal.

Long story short, North was the Reagan administration’s point man in the sale of weapons via a covert network that included intermediaries in Iran, of all places, to the Contras in Nicaragua.

Reagan fired the Marine lieutenant colonel after the illegal sales became public in 1986. In a scene that still makes conservatives all weepy, North defended his conduct before a televised Congressional hearing (photo). Although he was indicted and convicted on several felony counts, including the destruction of documents on his orders by Fawn Hall, his secretary, he never saw the inside of a prison cell and all charges were dismissed because he had been immunized by Congress before spilling his guts.

Fast forward two decades to the revelation that, despite explicit warnings from on high, Jose A. Rodriguez, the chief of the CIA’s clandestine service, ordered the destruction of hundreds of hours of videotapes showing the brutal interrogations of two Al Qaeda operatives in an apparent effort to protect his case officers from personal danger, possible prosecution or both. Rodriguez, like North, already is being called an “American hero” for what arguably is just as egregious violation of his responsibilities.

Which begs the question: Will politics trump the rule of law as they so often have?

Stay tuned.

When you celebrate your freedom today, July 4th, remember that an American is languishing in jail in Nicaragua for a crime he didn’t commit.

FULL DETAILS ARE HERE (and there are some things you can do about it).