Just Foreign Policy News, August 30, 2012
Ecuador upbeat on Assange talks; cutting Pentagon vs. Social Security
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I) Actions and Featured Articles
Cut Pentagon Budget, Not Social Security & Veterans' Benefits, Save 380,000 Jobs
Some people want to "save" the government $145 billion over 10 years by
cutting Social Security, veterans' benefits, and federal pensions. A
much better idea is to cut the bloated Pentagon budget instead. Not only
would that protect Social Security and veterans' benefits and make it
harder for the Pentagon to occupy other people's countries, it would
save 380,000 jobs.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/cut-the-pentagon-budget-n_b_1844125.html
Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) Talks have resumed between Ecuador and Britain over Julian
Assange, and Ecuador said it was optimistic of a deal that would prevent
him being extradited to the U.S., Reuters reports. "I'm convinced we'll
find a way out ... I'm hopeful because the global mood that the Julian
Assange case is generating will help us to find a way out," Ecuador's
Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said. Patino told Reuters he was
optimistic that Britain would agree to compromise on Ecuador's demand
that Assange be given written guarantees he would not be extradited from
Sweden to any third country. President Correa has said that if Britain
and Sweden agree not to extradite Assange to the U.S., Assange would
decline Ecuador's asylum offer and hand himself over to Swedish
prosecutors.
2) Five Australian soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan within
hours of one another on Wednesday and Thursday, three of them at the
hands of a turncoat Afghan soldier, the New York Times reports. Insider
attacks on coalition forces that have left 45 dead this year at the
hands of the Afghan security forces or other Afghans working with them.
15 members of the international coalition have been killed in insider
attacks this month, 12 of them American. Earlier this year, Australia
announced it would withdraw its troops by the end of 2013 - one year
ahead of schedule.
3) In the weeks following the May 11 DEA shooting of civilians in Ahuas,
US and Honduran officials made statements criminalizing the victims,
Miskitu communities and local authorities, writes Annie Bird of Rights
Action in Alternet. In response, the Miskitu indigenous federation
requested that CEPR and Rights Action undertake an independent
investigation. The report was released August 15. On August 27, Honduran
Human Rights Commissioner Ramon Custodio announced that his commission
had completed its investigation and intends to request that the US
House and Senate Judiciary Committees investigate the shootings.
4) The Washington Office on Latin America says the Labor Action Plan
agreed upon by Colombia and the U.S. to improve labor rights in Colombia
has "only led to cosmetic changes," says Colombia Reports. "Sadly,
since the plan was put in place in April 2011 we've seen that over 30
trade unionists have been killed and another 480 have received death
threats," said Gimena Sanchez of WOLA. Sanchez said there have been "big
reprisals" against workers who tried to organize under the plan,
including mass firings and the killing of a prominent union leader.
5) Two Americans who were wounded when gunmen, including federal police,
fired on an American Embassy vehicle in Mexico last week were CIA
employees sent to help with the drug war, the New York Times reports.
The incident casts doubt on U.S. efforts to improve the federal police,
the NYT says. Some Mexican lawmakers said they would press for a full
explanation of what the CIA and other U.S. agencies were doing in
Mexico.
Iran
6) Western officials said that while the new IAEA quarterly report
on Iran shows Iran continues to flout Security Council resolutions
calling for a suspension on enrichment, there is no sign of a
"game-changing" acceleration in the program that would warrant military
action, the Guardian reports. Alarmed by claims by Netanyahu that the
report showed Iran was "continuing to make accelerated progress toward
achieving nuclear weapons while totally ignoring international demands",
US and European governments took the unusual step of giving briefings,
before IAEA inspectors presented the report to member states, to play
down its significance, the Guardian says.
7) An ultra-Orthodox Jewish party in Israel's coalition government is
wary of plans for possible military strikes on Iran, Reuters reports.
Reservations by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the top spiritual authority for the
Shas party, could be an obstacle to any attempt by Netanyahu to get
security cabinet approval for hitting Iran's nuclear sites. "He believes
the price would be too high, and for an action that may not achieve its
goal," said a person briefed on discussions inside the Shas party.
Yosef, a former Israeli chief rabbi, gave a sermon Saturday calling for
next month's Jewish holidays to include prayers for the destruction of
Iran, "those evil ones who threaten Israel.".
Ecuador
8) A judge from Ecuador's highest court has rejected an extradition
request for a former police investigator from Belarus who has been
jailed since June, and ordered that he be freed immediately, Reuters
reports. Aliaksandr Barankov's case attracted attention after Ecuador
granted political asylum to Julian Assange. Barankov had argued he could
be killed if sent back to Belarus. Barankov says he fled Belarus after
uncovering an oil-smuggling ring involving senior government officials.
"I'm happy. They saved my life," Barankov said.
Honduras
9) Honduran authorities announced the National Police have busted a
rare, makeshift cocaine laboratory in a remote region near the Atlantic
coast, AP reports. A DEA agent said such labs are rare.
Colombia
10) 74 percent of Colombians support talks to end the armed conflict
with the FARC, the Washington Post reports. A key issue in the talks
will be guarantees of safety for demobilized guerillas who participate
in politics, the article notes: in the 1980s and early 1990s, hundreds
of members of the Patriotic Union, a leftist political party partly
created by FARC leaders, were gunned down by death squads.
11) According to a Colombian radio report, the governments of Cuba and
Norway, as guarantors, and those of Venezuela and Chile, as
co-guarantors, will support the talks, EFE reports. The agenda for the
dialogue, according to the document published by RCN, includes the
issues of "comprehensive agrarian development policy," "political
participation," "end of the conflict," "solution to the problem of
illicit drugs," "victims" and "implementation, verification and
endorsement." The text discusses a "bilateral and definite" ceasefire
and cessation of hostilities, the laying-down of weapons and
reincorporation of the guerrillas into society and politics as an
opposition force.
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Ecuador upbeat about deal to end Assange standoff
Eduardo Garcia, Reuters, Wed Aug 29, 2012 3:43pm EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/29/us-wikileaks-assange-ecuador-idUSBRE87S15I20120829
Quito - Talks have resumed between Ecuador and Britain over the fate of
WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange, and Ecuador's government said on
Wednesday it was optimistic of a deal that would prevent him being
extradited to the United States.
[...]
"I'm convinced we'll find a way out ... I'm hopeful because the global
mood that the Julian Assange case is generating will help us to find a
way out," Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino told Reuters in an
interview in Quito, confirming talks resumed in London on Wednesday.
[...].
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has granted Assange asylum and says
he shares Assange's fears that he might be sent from Sweden to the
United States to face charges over WikiLeaks' publication in 2010 of
secret U.S. cables.
Correa fumed at a veiled British threat to enter the embassy to arrest
him but said over the weekend that the threat had been lifted and he
considered the "unfortunate incident" over.
Assange remains trapped in the embassy, but both sides have said they
want to talk. In a sign of thawing tensions, Ecuador's Vice President
Lenin Moreno met Foreign Secretary William Hague on Wednesday during a
visit to London for the Paralympic Games. Both governments said they
discussed the situation with Assange.
Patino told Reuters he was optimistic that Britain would agree to
compromise on Ecuador's demand that Assange be given written guarantees
he would not be extradited from Sweden to any third country.
"It's possible that Great Britain could seek to move forward with the
guarantees, because they have repeatedly said that they don't want to
provide the safe-passage (so Assange could leave the embassy and fly to
Ecuador)," Patino said.
"The option of the guarantees is possibly more feasible ... We should
get clear, written guarantees from the countries with which we're
negotiating."
In an interview last week, Correa told Reuters he was skeptical the
British and Swedish governments would shift their stance on Assange, but
that it would be "perfectly possible", in theory, for them to grant
Assange the assurances he wanted.
Correa said that if Britain and Sweden agree not to extradite Assange to
the United States, he would decline the asylum offer and hand himself
over to Swedish prosecutors.
[...]
2) 5 Soldiers' Deaths in Afghanistan Mark Australia's Worst Toll Yet
Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Matt Siegel, New York Times, August 30, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/world/asia/afghan-soldier-kills-3-australian-service-members.html
Kabul, Afghanistan - Five Australian soldiers were killed in southern
Afghanistan within hours of one another on Wednesday and Thursday, three
of them at the hands of a turncoat Afghan soldier, making it the
deadliest period in a decade of fighting here for one of the United
States' staunchest allies.
Two soldiers died when their UH-1 Huey helicopter crashed in the Baghran
district of Helmand Province on Thursday morning, NATO officials said.
They said they did not know what caused the crash, which left other
soldiers injured as well.
Three other soldiers were killed on Wednesday night when an Afghan
soldier turned his gun on them in Oruzgan Province, the latest in a rash
of insider attacks on coalition forces that have left 45 dead this year
at the hands of the Afghan security forces or other Afghans working
with them.
The attack happened at a fuel depot when a member of the Afghan National
Army shot the Australians and then fled the base, coalition officials
said. The international force command said that the motive was unclear
and that it was investigating.
With 1,550 troops in Afghanistan - most of them in Oruzgan - Australia
has the largest non-NATO military presence in the American-led coalition
here. The only other Australian military fatality in Afghanistan this
year was in July. Last year, 11 Australian service members were killed
here, according to data from Icasualties.org.
The five new deaths stunned Australia. Prime Minister Julia Gillard called it "the most awful news" for the country.
"This is a very big toll," Ms. Gillard said during a visit to the Cook
Islands, where she said she would cut her trip short to return to
Canberra, the Australian capital. "This is our single worst day in
Afghanistan."
She said insider attacks like the one that killed the three Australians were "corrosive of trust" and difficult to deal with.
This year, Ms. Gillard announced that Australia would withdraw its
troops by the end of 2013 - one year ahead of schedule - citing what she
said were security improvements in Afghanistan, while also
acknowledging the unpopularity of the war.
[...]
With the latest deaths, 15 members of the international coalition have
been killed in insider attacks this month, 12 of them American.
NATO officials blame Taliban infiltrators posing as Afghan soldiers or
police officers for about 1 in 10 of the recent insider attacks. A
somewhat larger proportion, officials believe, is tied in some way to
broader Taliban influence, like coercion. But most of the shootings are
seen as stemming from cultural or personal disputes.
[...]
3) Militarizing the Police and Killing Natives: How the US Drug War Is Ripping Honduras Apart
Human rights organizations investigating a deadly raid where DEA agents
killed four people found a peaceful indigenous community under siege.
Annie Bird (Rights Action), Alternet, August 29, 2012
http://www.alternet.org/world/militarizing-police-and-killing-natives-how-us-drug-war-ripping-honduras-apart
Since the Central American peace processes began 25 years ago, a
tremendous effort has been made to remove militaries from policing, an
effort now apparently being reversed in the US's increasingly
militarized and multinational war against drugs.
On May 11, the US Drug Enforcement Administration led an operation that
ended in the deaths of four indigenous Miskitu villagers on the Patuca
River near the town of Ahuas, Gracias a Dios, Honduras. US and Honduran
officials claimed the boat that came under fire was part of a
trafficking operation. Neighbors, local authorities and human rights
organizations claimed they were innocent bystanders.
Though the US Embassy provided technical assistance for the Public
Prosecutors' investigation, little probing occurred. In the weeks
following the shooting US and Honduran officials made statements
criminalizing the victims, Miskitu communities and local authorities.
In response, the Miskitu indigenous federation, MASTA, requested that
two Washington-based organizations undertake an independent
investigation. Through witness testimony, and interviews with Honduran
and US Embassy officials, Rights Action and the Center for Economic and
Policy Research brought into focus a disturbing picture of a peaceful
indigenous community ripped apart by the US drug war. This disturbing
picture has been created by the transfer of counter-insurgency
strategies used in Afghanistan to Central America and a regional push to
create militarized police forces.
The report was released August 15. Then, on August 27, Honduran Human
Rights Commissioner Ramon Custodio, highly criticized for his role in
the June 2009 military coup and coverup of abuses that followed,
announced that his commission had also completed its investigation and
intends to request that the US House and Senate Judiciary Committees
investigate the shootings.
[...]
Survivors of the shooting explained that the boat had taken lobster
divers to a commercial fishing boat in Barra Patuca, about six hours
away. They brought passengers on the return trip, including two families
moving to Ahuas from Roatan, a diver who had been treated for
decompression sickness and family members of divers.
Just moments before arriving in Ahuas, the boat driver saw an apparently
unmanned boat float by, and the passengers were awakened by low flying
helicopters that soon opened fire on them. Survivors and the wounded
explain they struggled to get to shore while two helicopters dropped
security forces just 20 meters away at the town's boat landing. Hilder
Lezama got a call from a survivor who had swam to shore and borrowed a
neighbors' telephone to tell him that his mother, the 53-year-old boat
owner, was wounded in the river. He hurried to the landing, just as the
helicopters descended.
The first helicopter dropped what appeared to be Honduran police, though
some spoke mostly English, and were described as "gringos." A second
helicopter landed, and stayed on the ground for over two hours. All on
board were white English-speaking men--even the door gunner and pilots.
All wore tan camouflage with American flags on their shoulders. To one
resident who had studied near the Soto Cano Airforce base where the US
Army Joint Task Force Bravo is stationed, the outfits looked like US
army uniforms.
[...]
In early August, the State Department issued a report explaining it was
"carefully limiting assistance to special Honduran law enforcement
units, staffed by Leahy-vetted Honduran personnel who receive training,
guidance and advice directly from U.S. law enforcement and are not under
[Juan Carlos] Bonilla's direct supervision," while it investigates
allegations that the current director of Honduran police had directed a
death squad in 2002.
This description appears to fit the TRT and a new security force being
created as the State Department issued the report, the Intelligence and
Special Security Response Groups Unit (TIGRES). Though it's unclear
whether the force has received training, guidance and advice directly
from the US government, the team's mandate closely matches US strategic
interests in the region.
According to Honduran press, the TIGRES will live in military barracks,
be commanded by military and police officers, and report directly to the
Minister of Security, though they will report to the Minister of
Defense in times of war. The force will focus on intelligence,
information and communications technology; areal and maritime combat;
control of population and territory; and combating organized crime, drug
trafficking, and illicit association. The TIGRES will operate with
"embedded" justice officials, public prosecutors and judges.
The day the law to establish the new force was presented, July 26,
Honduran officials announced the Inter American Development Bank (IDB)
would fund the force with a $57 million loan. Two hundred TIGRE agents
were already in training, scheduled to be completed in August.
The IDB loan is one of 22 planned for Central America within the
framework of the Central American Regional Security Strategy of the
Central American System for Regional Integration [SICA], an initiative
spearheaded by the Inter American Development Bank and the US
Department of State. A group of friends was created to promote the
strategy, including Chile, Colombia, the US, Canada, the OAS, the United
Nations and others.
Chile, Colombia and the US are playing a hands-on role in implementing
the strategy, which clearly promotes the use of the military in
policing. Chile's Carabineros--a militarized police force renowned for
forming death squads and reprimanded by the Inter American Commission on
Human Rights in October 2011 for excessive use of force in recent
student protests-- are working closely with SICA and the OAS to reform
the region's police forces. The US has partnered with Colombian police
who are training Central American police and military in a new center
located in Panama.
[...]
4) Colombia-US Labor Action Plan led only to 'cosmetic changes': WOLA
Adriaan Alsema, Colombia Reports, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 07:41
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/25772-colombia-us-labor-action-plan-led-only-to-cosmetic-changes-wola.html
The Labor Action Plan agreed upon by Colombia and the U.S. to improve
labor rights in Colombia and decrease impunity for perpetrators of
crimes against unionists has "only led to cosmetic changes," said think
tank Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) Tuesday.
In the Washington-based organization's podcast, WOLA Gimena Sanchez
expressed to be positive that "the labor situation has gotten more
attention ... in the recent history of Colombia" and "the creation of
the Labor Ministry" which has focused more on rights abuses in sectors
wher workers have been most vulnerable.
"However, up until now, the Labor Action Plan has only led to cosmetic
changes and not to major results," said Sanchez, "The situation in
Colombia needs requires many years for there to be the structural
changes needed for that plan to be implemented"
"Sadly, since the plan was put in place in April 2011 we've seen that
over 30 trade unionists have been killed and another 480 have received
death threats," the human rights advocate said.
Additionally, "since [United States President Barack] Obama was in [the
Colombian city of] Cartagena in April announcing that the FTA was moving
forward we've seen some big reprisals against the sectors in the Labor
Action Plan."
"For example, we have seen mass firings of workers in the port sector
who were trying to organize and who basically put their belief in the
Labor Action Plan as the way forward for them," Sanchez said, stressing
that a prominent union leader was among unionists killed and there had
been a "crack down" against workers for oil company Pacific Rubiales who
had demanded improved labor rights.
5) Americans Shot in Mexico Were C.I.A. Operatives Aiding in Drug War
Randal C. Archibold and Eric Schmitt, New York Times, August 28, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/29/world/americas/americans-shot-in-mexico-were-cia-operatives.html
Mexico City - The two Americans who were wounded when gunmen fired on an
American Embassy vehicle last week were Central Intelligence Agency
employees sent as part of a multiagency effort to bolster Mexican
efforts to fight drug traffickers, officials said on Tuesday.
The two operatives, who were hurt on Friday, were participating in a
training program that involved the Mexican Navy. They were traveling
with a Mexican Navy captain in an embassy sport utility vehicle that had
diplomatic license plates, heading toward a military shooting range 35
miles south of the capital when gunmen, some or all of them from the
Federal Police, attacked the vehicle, Mexican officials have said.
The Mexican Navy said Tuesday in a statement that an American was
driving the vehicle and that during the attack the captain, who was
handling logistics and translating for the men, remained in the back
seat calling for help on his cellphone.
The men were wounded, the Navy said, when the rain of bullets managed to
tear through the car's protective armor. It was unclear if the
Americans, who officials said were unarmed, were specifically targeted,
if the shooting was a case of mistaken identity or if there was some
other reason that the vehicle was ambushed. Mexican prosecutors have
detained 12 federal police officers and have said no theory can be ruled
out.
[...]
The notion that a squad of federal police officers would attack an
embassy car could be another blow to the developing trust and
cooperation between American counternarcotics personnel and their
Mexican partners.
Through programs like the $1.6-billion Merida Initiative, the United
States has spent millions of dollars on training and equipping the
federal police.
Eric Olson, an expert at the Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute in
Washington, said the shooting could only sow some doubts about the
police, and at best pointed to a lack of communication among Mexico's
military and the police. "This seems to suggest there isn't better
communication between the various elements of the Mexican government,"
he said. "One fundamental issue is the lack of trust."
[...]
Lawmakers, instigated by the left, have hauled Mexican government
officials before Congress for sometimes testy hearings and after the
newspaper La Jornada first reported the C.I.A. involvement on Tuesday,
some politicians said they would ask for a thorough explanation of the
American role here. "It's is time to speak clearly and for us to know
what institutions are intervening in what specific way in our country in
regard to security,' said Iris Vianey Mendoza, a senator from the
left-leaning Party of the Democratic Revolution.
[...]
This latest episode has caused Mexicans to reflect on the quality of the
federal police force, which had achieved growing respect but which has
been tarnished by recent corruption scandals. "The thing that really
worries me," said Gabriel Guerra, a political analyst who has worked
with the three major parties here, "is that we are seeing the unraveling
of what was supposed to be the main achievement in the fight against
organized crime, which was the creation of a trustworthy national
police."
Iran
6) Report on Iran's nuclear capabilities to show increase in enrichment equipment
International Atomic Energy Agency to put more pressure on Tehran as concerns are raised over country's nuclear aspirations
Julian Borger, Guardian, Wednesday 29 August 2012 13.35 EDT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/29/iran-nuclear-report-tehran
The latest International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran's nuclear
programme due out on Thursday is expected to say that Tehran has rapidly
increased the quantity of equipment at an underground uranium
enrichment plant but has not started using the new machinery to produce
nuclear fuel.
The IAEA quarterly report will say that more than 300 centrifuges have
been installed at the fortified cavern at Fordow, near the city of Qom,
but are not yet spinning, and the rate of uranium production has not
risen since the last report in May.
[...]
Western officials said that while the new IAEA quarterly report on Iran
shows that the Tehran government continues to flout Security Council
resolutions calling for a suspension on enrichment, there is no sign of a
"game-changing" acceleration in the programme that would warrant the
military action threatened by Israel.
Alarmed by claims by the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu,
that the report showed Iran was "continuing to make accelerated progress
toward achieving nuclear weapons while totally ignoring international
demands", US and European governments took the unusual step of giving
briefings, before IAEA inspectors presented the report to member states,
to play down its significance.
Western officials believe that while Iran is steadily increasing its
capacity to make nuclear weapons in the future, its leadership has not
yet made the political decision to do so. Tehran insists its programme
is intended entirely for generating electricity and producing medical
isotopes.
The Obama administration is particularly nervous that Netanyahu might
order attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities at the height of the US
presidential campaign in the hope of drawing Washington in, under
pressure from pro-Israeli public opinion. A White House spokesman, Tommy
Vietor, broke precedent by commenting on the expected report before
publication by insisting "there is still time and space" for diplomacy
in the long-running nuclear stand-off.
[...]
Iran has now produced about 190kg of 20% enriched uranium, which would
be enough for one nuclear warhead if further enriched. But nearly 100kg
of that total has been converted into reactor fuel plates – these would
harder to turn into material for a bomb.
"It's more of the same," said Jim Walsh, an expert on the Iranian
nuclear programme from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
arguing that Iran's desire to install more of its centrifuges
underground was understandable under threat of air strikes. He added
that Iran had already entered a "zone of immunity" in Israeli terms,
because if it did want to make nuclear weapons, it would probably be too
late to stop it militarily. "You can't bomb the knowledge out of their
heads and you can't destroy Fordow."
7) Religious Israeli government party wary of war with Iran
Dan Williams, Reuters, Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:48am EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/30/us-iran-nuclear-israel-idUSBRE87T0NE20120830
Jerusalem - An ultra-Orthodox Jewish party in Israel's coalition
government is wary of plans for possible military strikes on Iran,
political sources said on Thursday.
Reservations by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the top spiritual authority for the
Shas party, could be an obstacle to any attempt by Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu to get security cabinet approval for hitting Iran's
nuclear sites.
"He believes the price would be too high, and for an action that may not
achieve its goal," said a person briefed on discussions inside the Shas
party, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Israeli leaders have long weighed the possible benefits of striking Iran
with the operational and diplomatic risks, and officials say
Netanyahu's inner council of nine senior ministers is split - a
harbinger of deadlock should he seek a vote.
[...]
Yosef, a 91-year-old former Israeli chief rabbi, gave a sermon on
Saturday calling for next month's Jewish holidays to include prayers for
the destruction of Iran, "those evil ones who threaten Israel".
Though often hawkish in tone, Yosef has in the past broken with Israeli
ultra-nationalists by calling on Israel to cede occupied land for peace
with the Palestinians and spare lives.
[...]
Ecuador
8) Ecuador court refuses to extradite Belarussian dissident
Aliaksandr Barankov, whose case attracted attention after Quito granted Julian Assange asylum, to be freed from jail
Associated Press, Wednesday 29 August 2012 03.22 EDT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/29/ecuador-extradition-aliaksandr-barankov-belarus
Quito - A judge from Ecuador's highest court has rejected an extradition
request for a former police investigator from Belarus who has been
jailed since June, and ordered that he be freed immediately.
Aliaksandr Barankov's case attracted attention after Ecuador granted
political asylum to the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, earlier this
month.
Judge Carlos Ramirez of the national court of justice found the
political refugee status granted to Barankov to be justified, according
to a court official.
Barankov, 30, had argued he could be killed if sent back to his former
Soviet bloc homeland, where President Alexander Lukashenko has been
nicknamed "Europe's last dictator".
Barankov says he fled Belarus after uncovering an oil-smuggling ring
involving senior government officials, including relatives of
Lukashenko.
"I'm happy. They saved my life," an overjoyed Barankov said by phone
from jail. His Ecuadorean girlfriend had notified him just moments
earlier.
[...]
Barankov's case came under scrutiny when Ecuador announced it was
granting Assange asylum, deeming that he ran the risk of being unfairly
tried if extradited to the US, where he could face the death penalty.
The Ecuadorean president, Rafael Correa, said he would not comment on
the Barankov case until the court ruled. But his deputy foreign minister
said the government would treat the case with the same respect for
human rights that guided it in considering Assange's asylum request.
[...]
Honduras
9) Honduran National Police bust cocaine-processing laboratory in remote mountain region
Freddy Cuevas and Martha Mendoza, Associated Press, August 29
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/honduran-authorities-bust-cocaine-processing-laboratory-in-remote-mountain-region/2012/08/29/7f9db530-f218-11e1-b74c-84ed55e0300b_story.html
Tegucigalpa, Honduras - Honduran authorities announced Wednesday that
the National Police have busted a rare, makeshift cocaine laboratory
hidden in a remote, mountainous region near the Atlantic coast as part
of their U.S.-backed anti-drug efforts in Central America.
[...]
In March 2011, Honduran police busted a cocaine lab in what the U.S.
State Department described as the "first of its kind" in Central America
in recent years. The labs process relatively cheap cocaine paste from
South America into higher priced, more pure cocaine destined for the
U.S.
While Honduras is a major transit point for drugs heading from South
America, Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Jeffrey Todd
Scott in Washington said Wednesday that such labs are rare.
"While this is one of the first labs we've identified in Honduras, we're
always concerned when we find any operational lab," he said. "We'll
continue working with our counterparts to investigate and dismantle such
sites as they are discovered."
Political analyst Robert Naiman, who studies drug policy in the region,
said Honduras offers an "attractive location" for traffickers because
its law enforcement agencies are plagued with corruption.
"Unfortunately, I fear this development will be used to justify further
militarization of U.S. drug policy in Honduras," he said.
Colombia
10) Colombia exploring peace talks with FARC
Juan Forero, Washington Post, August 28
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/colombia-explores-peace-talks-with-farc/2012/08/28/7a1fcae2-f152-11e1-b74c-84ed55e0300b_story.html
Bogota, Colombia - The Colombian government says it has embarked on
"exploratory talks" with rebel commanders to end one of the world's
oldest armed conflicts, a hit-and-run guerrilla war that is fueled by
the cocaine trade and leaves hundreds dead every year.
President Juan Manuel Santos's brief announcement in a nationally
televised address prompted cautious optimism Tuesday in a country where
polls show that 74 percent of people support talks to end the conflict.
Though in recent years Colombia has become more peaceful and attracted
record levels of foreign investment, terrorist attacks and combat are
not uncommon in the countryside far from the biggest cities.
[...]
The president did not reveal details of the talks. But RCN Radio in
Bogota and Venezuela's state-run television network, Telesur, reported
that Santos and negotiators from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC) had agreed to begin official peace negotiations in Oslo
in October. Colombian media had also reported that discussions between
the two sides had been secretly taking place in Cuba.
[...]
The FARC is engaging in talks with an adversary its commanders appear
increasingly open to trusting: Santos, scion of a politically
influential family that once ran Colombia's most important newspaper.
Though Santos was a hard-line defense minister in the government of his
predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, he has shown that as president, he can be
politically flexible in order to bring the rebels to the negotiating
table.
His government repaired broken relations with Venezuela's leftist
president, Hugo Chavez, whom the FARC views favorably. Santos also
pushed through reforms designed to compensate victims of political
violence and return land to thousands of people displaced by armed
groups, including the right-wing militias that collaborated closely with
military units. The FARC leadership viewed all those gestures
positively.
Carlos Lozano, editor of the communist newspaper Voz and an activist who
has had contacts with FARC commanders, said the guerrillas will need
the state to protect them from reprisal killings as the group engages in
negotiations. In the 1980s and early 1990s, hundreds of members of the
Patriotic Union, a leftist political party partly created by FARC
leaders, were gunned down by death squads.
"The state must ensure safety, that they're not killed," Lozano said,
referring to the FARC leadership. "But the state also has to guarantee
them political space in which to operate."
11) Colombians Learn First Details on How Peace Dialogue Will Go
EFE. August 29, 2012
http://laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=566214&CategoryId=12393
Bogota – Colombians learned on Wednesday the first details about how the
peace dialogue between the national government and the FARC guerrillas
may go, a process that has sparked great expectations but also fear and
rejection.
Amid the government's caution at engaging in such a dialogue with the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC – and Bogota has only
confirmed having "exploratory" contacts with the leftist rebels – RCN
radio station released on Wednesday the text of the agreement to "begin
direct and uninterrupted talks" with a commitment to "put an end to the
conflict as an essential condition for the building of a stable and
durable peace."
The document, consisting of four pages and six general points,
establishes that the delegates of the government of President Juan
Manuel Santos and the FARC initially will hold the talks in Oslo and
later move them to Havana, which will be their permanent seat.
The governments of Cuba and Norway, as guarantors, and those of
Venezuela and Chile, as co-guarantors, will support the talks, according
to the RCN report.
"It's a very balanced group of countries," Leon Valencia, the director
of the Corporacion Nuevo Arco Iris, or CNAI, a research center for
conflict and peace, told Efe by telephone.
He said that the involvement of Cuba, which has hosted several Colombian
peace dialogues, and Venezuela, which has facilitated meetings with
similar aims, "gives (the FARC) a lot of confidence" in the process.
Norway and Chile also provide "a lot of confidence" to the Colombian government, Valencia said.
The CNAI director also said that Bogota has gotten along well with and
been well-accepted by Cuba and currently has a "good relationship" with
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
[...]
The agenda for the dialogue, according to the document published by RCN,
includes the issues of "comprehensive agrarian development policy,"
"political participation," "end of the conflict," "solution to the
problem of illicit drugs," "victims" and "implementation, verification
and endorsement."
In addition, the text discusses matters such as a "bilateral and
definite" ceasefire and cessation of hostilities, the laying-down of
weapons and reincorporation of the guerrillas into society and politics
as an opposition force.
[...]
Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is in Tehran
participating in the non-aligned summit, expressed through his New York
office his satisfaction at the announcement of the exploratory talks
between Bogota and the FARC, and he offered his mediation to help arrive
at a resolution of the country's internal conflict.
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