Colombia on The Huffington Post

Luis Francisco Cuellar Dead: Colombian Governor's Body Found

2009-12-23T10:29:06Z

BOGOTA — It appears a southern governor kidnapped by presumed leftist rebels on his birthday had his throat slashed within a few hours of the abduction, a Colombian investigator said Wednesday.

The body of Caqueta state Gov. Luis Francisco Cuellar was found face down on a rural hillside Tuesday nine miles (15 kilometers) from his house in the state capital of Florencia, said the state's chief judicial investigator, Manuel Hernandez.

Colombia To Chavez: Maybe 'Spy Plane' Was Santa's Sleigh

2009-12-22T09:58:09Z

BOGOTA — Colombia's defense chief joked Monday that Venezuelan troops might have mistaken Santa's sleigh for a spy plane, dismissing accusations by President Hugo Chavez about drones flying over Venezuela.

Chavez on Sunday accused the United States of violating Venezuela's airspace with an unmanned spy plane and ordered his military to be on alert and shoot down any such aircraft.

Jane Guskin: It's Holiday Shopping Time, while the Peace of the Graveyard Marches on

2009-12-21T14:57:58Z

In Colombia there is an expression: la paz del cementerio - the peace of the graveyard.

This is the kind of peace that powerful forces enjoy when everyone who resists them is dead and buried.

Colombia's government and its military and paramilitary forces have spent decades working diligently for this kind of peace. The country is so intent on achieving it that its even dispensed with the graveyard. According to Senator Gloria Inés Ramírez, more than half a million people have been forcibly disappeared in Colombia in the past 33 years. The government's own "Justice and Peace Unit" has reports of 210,000 forced disappearances, based on complaints lodged by family members between 2006 and mid-2009. That suggests the 500,000 figure may be low; Yanett Bautista of the Nydia Erika Bautista Human Rights Foundation -- named for one of the disappeared -- estimates that family members have filed complaints in only 10% of the disappearance cases. Of the cases investigated so far, fewer than 2,500 bodies have been located, mostly in mass graves.

Israel, meanwhile, has spent six decades building its own brand of graveyard peace in Palestine. December 27 marks one year since Israel began a massive attack on the residents of Gaza, killing more than 1,400 people, including nearly 400 children and transforming the tiny strip of land from a de facto prison into a cemetery. Israel continues to strangle Gaza through a blockade, and greets nonviolent protesters with tear gas and bullets.

In Honduras, the rightwing elite and military high command, which have close ties to the extremist Catholic group Opus Dei, seem similarly committed to a graveyard peace. Last June 28 they toppled an elected president who in their eyes had bowed too far to pressure from progressive grassroots sectors. Already strong, the country's diverse social movements--including indigenous, African-descended, unionists, and lesbian and gay activists--responded to the coup by uniting and launching a coordinated nonviolent struggle from the streets.

Since the coup, 18 gay and transgender Hondurans have been among those murdered in a campaign of repression against the resistance movement, according to data compiled by the lesbian activist and research group Cattrachas. Killings of transgender women in Honduras were already rampant: in four years from 2005 through 2008, Human Rights Watch reports that 17 transgender women were killed. Now in just six months the coup government has doubled the number of victims.

On December 13, just two days after I met Cattrachas activist Indyra Mendoza at a New York City event organized by the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, Indyra's friend and fellow activist Walter Tróchez was shot to death in Tegucigalpa. A human rights defender for the gay community and for people living with HIV/AIDS, and an active member of the National Resistance Front Against the Coup, Tróchez had been threatened repeatedly, and on Dec. 4, four armed men in civilian clothes had attempted to kidnap him. "Walter used to go with me to recognize the bodies of our transgender friends when they were killed," said Indyra. "Now I had to go on my own to identify his body."

This is the peace of the graveyard. It is also known as genocide.

And if it makes you uncomfortable to read this while you would prefer to think about your last-minute Christmas shopping, that's fine, as long as your discomfort leads you to action. Because genocide is not exactly in the holiday spirit, and it's happening right now--in your name, and with your tax dollars.

You can start by picking up the phone and calling your representative and senators and telling them you believe that people have a right to protest peacefully without getting attacked or murdered, and you would like the US government to stop supporting regimes in Colombia, Israel and Honduras that are violating that right. Following the links in this article will lead you to more sources that can help you stay informed and get involved.

Ruchika Tulshyan: Depression and Suicide Rise for Hispanic Teenagers in Queens

2009-12-17T15:59:11Z

She has a terrible secret. But she keeps up a good front.

Outwardly the teen, whose name, like others interviewed for this article, will be withheld because of her age, seems like any bubbly 17-year-old. She seems cheerful and laughs easily. She won't mention any problems, not even to the Elmhurst Hospital volunteer who has helped her weekly with homework for several months.

But the Colombian-born girl complains privately of alienation and hating her mother. And she tried to kill herself earlier this year.

There are many like her in Queens -- severely depressed Hispanic adolescents who hide suicide attempts and other troubles behind a mask. In more traditional pockets of the community, to talk about mental illness is considered shameful. Many patients take months before they will trust anyone, even a doctor.

"Over time we find that they express themselves in ways that indicate depression, from irritability to attempted suicide," said Dr. Douglas Beer, the director of child psychiatry at Elmhurst Hospital.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death in 15- to 24-year-old Hispanic-Americans. Latinos comprised the largest proportion of American high school students who tried to take their lives, a 2007 Center for Disease Control survey found. It showed that 10.2 percent of Latino high school student had tried to kill themselves, compared to 5.6 percent of whites.

The pattern is seen in Queens, home to half a million Hispanics and where up to 50 percent of Elmhurst Hospital's adolescent patients seeking mental help are Latino.

One such case involves a 15-year-old Mexican girl who attempted suicide earlier this year. A rape so traumatized her that she was fearful all the time. "I want to stay in the hospital because I am scared of going out on the streets," she said. During interviews though, she declined to share details about happened, avoiding eye contact and fidgeting as she spoke.

Tensions between American-born children and immigrant parents cause much of the alienation, doctors say. "The dynamics between second- or third-generation teenagers and their parents play a part in the onset of suicidal tendencies and adolescent depression," said Dr. Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, a professor of Internal Medicine at the University of California Davis. "Many Latino children feel conflicted between the traditions at home and the American way of life they learn at school."

Local doctors cite clashes in which immigrant-born parents reject the behavior of their Americanized children. Dr. Beer said a typical conflict would involve teenage girl whose suicide attempt stems from her parents disapproval of her dating. "Suddenly it's not a simple emergency room [suicide] case," he said. "There are all these other elements we have to consider like the boyfriend, the girl and her parents as well as the cultural factors at play."

Hispanic adolescents face challenges similar to other immigrant groups, such as having to translate for their parents and adapting to two different worlds. But Latino teenagers also face a stigma about mental health treatment, said Dr. Daniella Heller, assistant director of psychiatry at Elmhurst Hospital.

Although statistics show that 15 to 20 percent of Hispanic adolescent patients at the medical facility are admitted for trying to take their lives, there are still a significant number of afflicted teenagers who never seek help.

"They are scared to be seen as crazy if they seek help; it's seen as a weakness in the Hispanic community that comes from the deep-rooted stigma associated with mental health problems," said Theo Oshiro, director of health advocacy for Make the Road New York, a non-profit advocacy group that deals primarily with the Latino community in New York.

There is also a lack of awareness about mental illness and treatment options. Three doctors interviewed said that many hospitals, including Elmhurst, lack sufficient staff who speak Spanish and understand the culture.

Also, many undocumented immigrants are terrified of speaking to officials. "There is the fear of deportation that makes many Latino parents unwilling to bring their children in for depression treatment," Dr. Heller said.

Among the Latinos who do seek treatment for mental health, an estimated 75 percent do not return for a second time said Dr. Aguilar-Gaxiola. "This is a hot potato policy," said the Mexican-born psychiatrist. He explained that even in facilities where Spanish translation is available, the cultural stigma associated with seeking mental help among Latinos makes it difficult to address the afflicted.

Mental health staff are largely white non-Hispanics, unlike their patients, echoed Dr. Beer of Elmhurst Hospital. "We face the challenge of not only [not] having Spanish-speaking staff, but [not] having people who can even identify themselves as culturally Hispanic," he said.

Dr. Heller, who is Colombian born, handles most of the Latino cases and the facility is in the process of hiring more such staff as well as developing Latino-specific adolescent mental health programs.

"We try our best," said Dr. Beer. "But there are challenges and barriers all around."

Gary Shapiro: A Holiday Wish List That No One Should Fulfill

2009-12-17T11:46:03Z

'Tis the season for end-of-year lists, so as we bring 2009 to a close, I offer my own, slightly tongue-in-cheek, list of all the things government could do in 2010 to bring our economy to its knees. You heard me right: this is a list of things government could adopt to prevent, not promote economic recovery. My one true wish for the holidays is that Congress not do - or in some cases, not repeat - any of these things.

So on the eve of 2010, here is my list of the "top ten" things our government could do in 2010 to reverse our nascent economic recovery. Of course, government shouldn't do any of these things - but its track record from 2009 causes me grave concern. [Note to Santa: if our government actually does any of the things on this list, please withhold presents from them in 2010.]

First, spend taxpayer money on feel-good programs, stimulus programs, rebates, cash for clunkers and anything else which has a short-term good feeling and a long-term hangover the next generation will pay for. This is a long-term investment in giving our kids a debt they cannot possibly repay. It will destroy their future and our nation - but hey - we feel good today.

Second, bail out the states so they don't have to make tough decisions about bloated governments. Give about one-third of stimulus money to states so they don't have to confront out-of-control spending and the high cost of defined benefit programs for their government employees. When this payment runs out in 2011, states will be worse off and still unable to meet the commitments they promised to their large workforces. Many states will be back in 2011 asking for an even bigger handout. And we can count these government jobs as "saved" by government scorekeepers! States will be more reliant on Uncle Sam (and this won't stop Congress from imposing new costs on states!).

Third, reward poorly run and inefficient American companies. Bailing out money-losing companies like GM, Chrysler and AIG is a great way to waste American taxpayer money and hurt better-run and more-efficient competitors. This rewards our friends the unions that brought down GM and Chrysler. The new union and government owners cannot make competitive decisions (a fact proven repeatedly in the last year by GM) but instead will be guided by political decisions. Their competitive future is dismal and we are guaranteed further American weakness as they return and insist on further bailouts and special treatment. This virtuous circle will allow politicians to claim they are protecting American jobs. Americans may still choose to buy cars from companies like Ford, VW, Toyota and BMW, which are not getting bailouts, but are making cars in the United States.

Fourth, bring down American crown-jewel companies that are the big job creators, innovators and the future of America. Companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Intel and Qualcomm are the envy of the world, and as the world comes after them you would expect the United States to stand up and protect them. Instead, as foreign governments challenge them with vague "monopolization" claims, the U.S. government appears to be mute. Instead, the U.S. government appears to be piling on - witness the Federal Trade Commission lawsuit against Intel.

Using some vague "unfair competition" complaint, the FTC is using new theories and an unprecedented "sue first and discover later" approach to challenge one of America's best companies. Worse, the government is insisting that Intel can only create products that are open to its competitors. It also seeks to ban volume discounts - a simple fact of a competitive world. Intel is a crown jewel of America, invests heavily in R&D on US soil, employs tens of thousands of Americans in good jobs and by any account has not hurt competition. This American attack on Intel is unprecedented and harmful to the future of innovation.

Fifth, raise taxes on job creators and make secret unionization possible. We must do everything possible to discourage successful U.S. companies from feeling comfortable investing in new jobs. That means we cannot allow a stable tax environment, a cautious approach to unionization efforts, and a resistance to further burdens on employers. Card check, health-care reform and several proposals on the table to raise taxes will push new burdens and costs on U.S. employers heavily, so that it is difficult to see why a company would choose to create new jobs in the United States.

Sixth, attack one of the most successful areas of American leadership - health care - by creating a lowest common denominator system. Health care is 16 percent of GDP, so it is a juicy target for mischief. And when doing so, make sure to protect America's one million lawyers so they can continue to be employed. They will also make sure doctors waste plenty of money testing patients unnecessarily so they don't get sued.

Seventh, make sure Americans spend heavily on a complex cap-and-trade system and do not invest in nuclear energy or use their own fuel in Alaska. Keep fuel prices low with low taxes so people feel no need to buy smaller, energy-efficient cars.

Eighth, continue to commit our armed forces to unending conflicts that drain our budget and resources without making America demonstrably safer.

Ninth, keep and put up barriers to trade. Pass more "Buy American" provisions so other countries can retaliate and put up barriers to American exports. Congress should also simply sit on the three free trade agreements that would remove high tariffs on American exports. Do the union bidding and hold up pending trade agreements with Korea, Panama and Colombia as American companies pay hundreds of millions of dollars more in tariffs, hurting our exports and ability to compete. Meanwhile, these countries have focused away from the United States and are cutting deals with a gleeful Europe and Canada. The world is amazed at the unique American botoxic arrogance to bite off the nose of trade to appease the incessant priggishness of the myopic labor leaders who fund them.

Tenth, and finally, make it as difficult as possible for business to occur in the United States. Block foreign investors and businessmen from getting visas to come to the United States to view products or attend trade shows. Make sure that we have ethics rules and policies that block anyone in government from helping host international visitors who flock to trade shows like the International CES, our event in Las Vegas. German Prime Minister Angela Merkel hosts dinners for international guests at our competitive event in Germany. Our White House could, but doesn't, help our economy by welcoming the 25,000 business leaders from abroad that the International CES brings to our country each January.

Here's to a happy, healthy and prosperous 2010 - and to policymakers who know how to get us there.

Gary Shapiro is the president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association.

Avital Binshtock: How To Green Your Holiday Meal

2009-11-26T11:32:52Z

Working up a menu for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, or another upcoming holiday? Here are three tips to help you be more environmentally responsible while planning that feast.

1. Opt For Organic. We know that organic foods are better for our bodies, but did you know that they're significantly better for the planet too? Since organic farmers don't use toxins on their crops, they prevent chemicals from contaminating soil and water, and from harming wildlife. It doesn't just need to be just the turkey or ham that's organic; it can be the wine, too, or the vegetables in the side dishes. An added plus: organic foods taste better!

2. Think Through the Decor. If you're shopping for table settings, look for organic, reusable linens and cloth napkins. As for the centerpiece, try to go with one that's nondisposable or edible -- such as a cornucopia filled with seasonal fruit and vegetables - instead of flowers. Did you know that around 80 percent of flowers sold in the U.S. are imported from Colombia and Ecuador and contain 50 times more pesticides than is legal to have on edibles? Just some food for thought.

3. Do Right With What's Left. If there's one thing synonymous with American holidays, it's lots and lots of leftovers. So what to do with yours? If there's a food bank or homeless shelter in your region that takes prepared foods, take them there. If not, you can turn your leftovers into other meals, including soup or sandwiches; mashed potatoes can become a breakfast hash.

Whatever becomes of your grub, deal with those licked-clean dishes responsibly: A full load in the dishwasher is greener than washing them by hand, especially if you skip the drying cycle.

Tell us: How do you green your holiday meal?

Read more HuffPost Thanksgiving coverage and commentary
Read more: Pesticides, Organic Farming, Hanukkah, Soil, Turkey, Agriculture, Thanksgiving, Flowers, Green, Toxins, Soup Kitchen, Decor, Vegetables, Christmas, Dishwasher, Leftovers, Holidays, Holiday Season, Food Banks, Crops, Ecuador, Green Living, Reusable, Family Meals, Decorating, Imports, Menu, Organic Food, Fruit, Cornucopia, Colombia, Water, Environment, Tips, Homeless Shelters, Food, Decorating Tips, Green News

Tracy L. Barnett: Lighting Out For The South

2009-11-23T08:46:00Z
Tomorrow I will follow in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway, Che Guevara and Celia Cruz to the irrepressible rhythm of the Cuban son - grandfather of salsa, popularized by the Buena Vista Social Club - emanating from Cuban human beings, not my CD collection or a cover band in downtown Houston. Far from the Bayou City, I'll savor the sunset breezes on the Malecon, the famous boulevard that stretches the length of the city along the Bay of Havana. As many a tourist has done before me, I'll sit at Hemingway's favorite bar and have a mojito in his memory.

And while I will embrace the cultural magic of this legendary land, my journey goes beyond culture to something more essential, something universal and urgent.

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Salopek recently articulated my thinking better than I could have. Salopek won the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award last month from Colby College, and like a modern-day Horace Greeley, he uttered some sage words of advice to young journalists in his acceptance speech.

"I would advise any ambitious young reporter today not to head to Washington or to London to launch a career but to light out for the South, because that's where the global narrative is rapidly taking shape," he said.

Salopek, for those who may not know, is the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent who was captured and held captive in Sudan for a month while reporting a National Geographic cover story on Africa's Sahel region. One can only hope that his words will inspire a fraction of the shift in the national zeitgeist reflected in the famous 1800s phrase attributed to Greeley, "Go West, young man."

I am no longer a young reporter, but lighting out for the South is exactly what I am preparing to do. Over course of the next year, I will be traveling through Latin America, reporting on the important and innovative work of world-changers at the grassroots. Here is where the passion and the color and the sazon of the Latino people finds its nexus with what's been called the most urgent issue of our time: remaking society in a way that will avert an ecological catastrophe.

Citizens of the Global South have too often been portrayed as victims, villains and bit characters in the global narrative playing out around us. We see the images of the distressed and dismayed, buffeted by yet another catastrophe. We hear about the druglords and narcotraffickers, the swine flu outbreaks and the hordes of undocumented immigrants besieging our borders.

What I have seen in my travels in the Global South is a sharp contrast. Yes, there is suffering, but as Salopek also noted, there is great joy. He describes Africa, with all its entrenched poverty, as one of the happiest places he's been. Paradoxical, yes; but paradox is the great crucible of the soul, and therein lies the story I am about to tell.

My Global South is peopled with heroes and heroines, men and women who face down their fears and the formidable challenges that stand in their way to produce meaningful change. It's also peopled with ordinary folks who are tackling the same challenges we are, but from a different angle.

My Global South is working quietly to create a model for a future that is ultimately more sustainable than the one that we here in the overdeveloped world have created, and we have barely noticed.

In the year ahead, as humanity wrestles with what may be the greatest challenge of our times - re-creating a society and a sustainable way of life that is consistent with long-term planetary survival - I will be giving voice to some of these unsung world-changers in the pages of The Esperanza Project, a green bilingual (and ultimately, multilingual) news portal for the Americas.

Esperanza is the Spanish word for hope - a commodity seemingly in short supply these days. With the rapidly approaching Copenhagen conference, climate leadership is hard to find - unless one looks south, where Brazil, the world's fourth-largest carbon producer, is pledging to cut emissions by a third; Cuba, which has turned crisis to opportunity with one of the hemisphere's most sustainable infrastructures; and mega-metropolises like Mexico City and Bogota, with green initiatives that go far beyond what most U.S. cities have attempted.
I've already begun the reporting on this project with an October trip to Mexico, where young professionals in Guadalajara are putting their bodies on the line for a more sustainable city, and in Mexico City where a sprawling, 30,000-person complex is making the conversion to an ecovillage.

In Cuba, I'll witness the creative responses to the crisis that followed the fall of the Soviet Union and the loss of its main source of petroleum. The country was forced to rapidly rethink its agricultural, energy, transportation and health care systems with a fraction of its previous oil supply, and in a process borne of necessity, created some of the world's most sustainable cities.

And in January, after packing up my belongings into a storage locker and saying goodbye to my family, I'll be hitting the road on a yearlong southward journey seeking and training collaborators for a new media project.

On this news network, Latin Americans are the protagonists of their own narrative, and one that we here in the North would do well to follow, as there is much to be learned from them. We'll be using all the tools of the digital age to tell their stories: video, photography, the new social media and, yes, the good old-fashioned written word.

Jorge Luis Sierra, an award-winning investigative journalist from Mexico City and a pioneer in online media himself, has signed on as The Esperanza Project's Spanish-language editor, giving the project greater depth and an exciting edge. Patricia Martinez, an environmental journalist from Guadalajara, Alejandro Manrique, an investigative journalist from Colombia, and Tami Brunk, an environmental writer based in New Mexico, are also among our collaborators.

We are looking for contributors from all over, and you can be one of them. You can follow us on Facebook or Twitter, subscribe to our RSS feed or receive updates in your e-mail. You can post relevant stories in the newsfeed, contribute to the discussion in the comment fields or even write stories of your own, if you feel so inspired.

I hope you will join the hemispheric conversation that is about to begin at TheEsperanzaProject.org. Click around the site, share your thoughts, forward it to your friends. This is how a new online media project is born, and you can be a part of it.

Tracy L. Barnett, www.tracybarnettonline.com, is an independent journalist based in Houston. She is a blogger at The Huffington Post and founder of The Esperanza Project.
Paul Salopek's inspiring speech, delivered last month upon receipt of the Elijah Lovejoy Award, is available in podcast here.

Read more: Latin America, Mexico, Environment, Green News, Media Criticism, Sustainability, Colombia, Cuba, Media, Media News, Green Living, Brazil, World News

Butterfly Photos

2009-11-13T17:53:37Z
This Thursday, a butterfly vivarium was inaugurated in Colombia. The vivarium holds 500 butterflies of over 20 species, and is intended to spread awareness about the country's biodiversity.

Most importantly, the photos are BEAUTIFUL. Have a look, and send in your vote for which butterfly is the most glorious.

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Read more: Animals, Animal Photos, Butterflies, Colombia, Biodiversity, Slidepoll, Green News

Chavez Tells Troops To Prepare For War With Colombia

2009-11-09T16:31:06Z
CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez on Sunday ordered Venezuela's military to prepare for a possible armed conflict with Colombia, saying his country's soldiers should be ready if the United States attempts to provoke a war between the South American neighbors.

Chavez said Venezuela could end up going to war with Colombia as tensions between them rise, and he warned that if a conflict broke out "it could extend throughout the whole continent."
Read more: President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, Colombia FARC, Venezuela Hugo Chavez, Colombia, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Colombia-Venezuela, World News

Jim Luce: U.N. Birthday Rocks for Its Peacemakers

2009-11-06T12:41:06Z

Flashbulbs popping non-stop, H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations in New York, entered the U.N. General Assembly Hall in New York City. He has attained the status of a rock star.

Speaking at the U.N. Day Concert 2009: A Tribute to Peacekeeping in the General Assembly last week, it seems that the Secretary General commands the world’s attention as much as Barack Obama.

One year older than the U.N., at 65, the Secretary General spoke of his mourning – the world’s mourning – for the 11 peacekeepers who died last month in a helicopter crash in Haiti.

Tragically, more than 2,600 U.N. Peacekeepers have died protecting humanity since 1948.

H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon recognizing the U.N. Peacekeepers (Photo: John Lee).

In an unprecedented effort, the concert was produced by the U.N. Department of Public Information and the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations, in partnership with Culture Project, and with the support of Kelvin Lim, Master Certified Coach of Executive Coach International.

Culture Project has been hailed as New York City’s premiere political and social performing arts organization, illuminating and championing the most pressing human rights issues of our time.

The concert was kicked off by Master of Ceremonies Isha Sesay of Sierra Leone, now living on London. Isha is the incredibly talented anchor and reporter for CNN International covering Africa.

The first performance was Roberta Flack singing “You Are Not Alone.” Six-time Grammy-Award winning singer, songwriter, and musician, Roberta has gained worldwide fame for hits such as “The First Time Ever” and “Killing Me Softly.”

Roberta was followed by a former child-soldier turned international rap star, Emmanuel Jal. From the Sudan, where he fought as a child in their brutal civil war, he was smuggled across the border to freedom by the now legendary British aid worker Emma McCune.

The award-winning film War Child chronicles the tumultuous, shocking, inspiring, and ultimately hopeful odyssey of Emmanuel Jal.

Emmanuel spoke, rapped, and danced hypnotically to thunderous applause, sharing a message of peace for his war-torn land and beloved Africa.

Emmanuel Jal’s music can be heard on the fundraising “War Child - Help a Day in the Life” album, as well as in three ER episodes, the National Geographic documentary God Grew Tired of Us, and in the feature film Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Jal is, of course, in Wikipedia.

Harry Belafonte with his wife Pamela at the photo op before the concert (Photo: John Lee).

One of America’s largest heroes, Harry Belafonte, spoke next. The acknowledged ‘King of Calypso,’ Harry is well known for his artful assimilation of jazz, folk and world music traditions. He is one of the most successful African-American pop stars in history.

He has been an unwavering voice against injustice for decades and today is one of the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors. Harry played a key role in the USA for Africa effort, singing on the 1985 single “We Are the World.”

“I became aware of the United Nations through my mentor, Eleanor Roosevelt,” Harry told the crowd.

Harry travelled to Rwanda where over one million people were driven from their homes with so many countless slaughtered in the Hutu-Tutsi conflict.

The General Assembly was alive with music and dance to honor the
dedication and sacrifice of U.N. Peacekeepers (Photo: John Lee).

“Once you witness such tragedy, you will not understand the critical need the U.N. peacekeepers play,” Harry said. “Nothing meant more to me than the Blue Helmets – the U.N. Peacekeepers – I witnessed there to protect the children.”

At 82, he did not disappoint the crowd despite and sang “Day-O” before leaving the stage. His incredible decades-long humanitarian career is covered in Wiki.

Cultural appreciation of the world’s peacekeepers then shifted to classical music played by one of the world’s top pianists, Lang Lang, from China. Lang Lang warmly embraced Harry and then sat down to play the grand piano.

Classical pianist Lang Lang, one of the world’s foremost players,
performed at the Summer Olympics in Beijing 2008 (Photo: John Lee).

Heralded as the “hottest artist on the classical music planet” by the New York Times, 27-year-old Lang Lang is the first Chinese pianist to be engaged by the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic. He played at the Summer Olympics 2008 in Beijing.

Lang Lang recently appeared in the 2009 Time 100, Time magazine’s annual list of the “100 Most Influential People in the World.” Lang Lang has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2004.

Salman Ahmad of Pakistan performed next, with virtuoso tabla player Samir Chatterjee of India.

Salman’s vibrant vocalizations lifted my heart out of chest and I felt so alive surrounded by an international audience united by their desire for peace and support of peacekeepers listening to the best voices of the world singing in support.

The two performed a competitive duet entitled “Entwined Twins.” Salman compared their duet to the road connecting India to Pakistan. A road of peace and understanding.

Samir performed at the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway. Samir is a firm believer in the transforming effect of music on society. He is working relentlessly towards the musical revival of Afghanistan.

Madam and H.E. Ban Ki-moon with the performers before the event (Photo: John Lee).

Salman is a musician and U.N. Goodwill Ambassador known for popularizing a blend of Western rock music and Eastern/Islamic music called ‘Sufi rock,’ which has been hailed as a cultural bridge within South Asia and between the East and West.

Salman founded Junoon in 1990, which has sold over 25 million albums worldwide and has shared the stage with artists such as Melissa Etheridge, Alicia Keys, Sting, Earth Wind and Fire, and Wyclef Jean.

With his wife, Samina, he launched an NGO called the Salman & Samina Global Wellness Initiative, focused on interfaith and cross-cultural dialogue, global health and wellness, and music education.

Indian singer, composer, and music producer Shankar Mahadevan.

Shankar Mahadevan introduced the next act – the group Remember Shakti – formed by John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain. John said that Shankar is the greatest singer he has ever known.

Melodic, haunting, sacred, his voice reverberated across the General Assembly hall like clouds floating on a windy day.

John has developed a unique style of jazz-infused Indian classical music with his band Shakti. Remember Shakti is an Indi-jazz fusion quintet, composed of legendary English guitarists Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, Grammy-winning Indian tabla player, Zakir Hussain, and Indian musicians, Shrinivas Uppalapu on mandolin, Selvaganesh Vinayakaram playing the kanjira, ghatam, and mridangam, and singer Shankar Mahadevan.

The song “One,” repeating its singular theme hypnotically, was in the words of the performer about destroying the walls of hatred and extremism by experiencing the world not only with our eyes and ears, but with our hearts.

Sister Fa then took the stage. This Senegalese rapper moved to Berlin. Propelled by her own personal experience, she traveled on a self-organized tour last year, “Education sans mutilation,”to sensitize the public to the issue of female genital mutilation.

The Xian Song & Dance Troupe made a special appearance (Photo: John Lee).

Chinese dancers from the Xian Song & Dance Troupe then floated next across the stage. The graceful women seemed to shed their butterfly wings as the beautiful dance continued.

Angelique Kidjo of Benin then took the stage and sang the world-popular Swahili song, Malaika. She brought the house down with her rendition of Axe Mama Africa!

The four-time Grammy-nominated and 2008 Grammy-winning, much-celebrated singer, composer and performer began in the Beninese port village of Cotonou. The political turmoil in her country led her to relocate to Paris, the capital of world music, and then ultimately here, where she now resides.

Her striking voice, stage presence and her fluency in multiple cultures and languages won respect from her peers and expanded her following across national borders.

It also earned her access to humanitarians who sensed the passion in the words of her songs, resulting in her long-term dedication to global charity work. Her extended bio is available onWiki.

The Colombian band Aterciopelados performed. Happening, earthy, and exciting, their music took the audience into Latin America.

Known for their work with Amnesty International, Aterciopelados recently marked the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by creating a new version of the song “Cancion Protesta” (Song of Protest).

The Xian Song & Dance Troupe made a special appearance (Photo: John Lee).

The event’s finale was an all-cast rendition of “The Price of Silence.” This is the new rendition of Aterciopelados’ “Cancion Protesta” created in partnership with Amnesty International.

Emmanuel Jal and Angelique Kidjo participated in the original project so it was fitting to “recreate” the performance as the finale of this concert. Link TV created a video with Amnesty international when “The Price of Silence” was first released.

Throughout the concert, the documentary film The War Against War was premiered. The film highlights the historic creation of the U.N. Peacekeeping forces and the challenges of fighting “the war against war.”

Culture Project has been hailed as New York City’s premiere political and social performing arts organization, illuminating and championing the most pressing human rights issues of our time.

Concert supporter Kelvin Lim of Executive Coach International with director Fisher Stevens.

Directed by Fisher Stevens, the film gave the audience one-of-a-kind access and insight into the formidable challenges facing peacekeepers and the committed individuals who serve some of the most victimized and vulnerable populations on earth. See Fisher’s interview here.

I, too, have a U.N. Peacekeeping story to tell. In Haiti, two years ago, as founder of Orphans International Worldwide, a misunderstanding with a crowd almost led to the deaths of myself, my staff, and two of our children there. Intervention by the Blue Helmets, after the police had been overrun by the mob, saved our lives. This story was so dramatic I wrote about it in the BBC.

Speaking to the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, the imposing Alain Le Roy, after the concert, I expressed my personal gratitude to him for his troops rescuing my team. He said simply, “Our peacekeepers have saved so many lives, I am not surprised.”

Indeed, these soldiers volunteer to go into extreme danger for the good of humanity. They may not singlehandedly be able to bring about Heaven, but through their presence the can help eliminate Hell.

Culture Project provides a creative home to dynamic artists who share its passion for challenging injustice, embracing diversity and affecting social change. Culture Project has been awarded the New York Times No.1 Play of the Year and an Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award.

The Culture Project team includes producer Allan Buchman, film director Fisher Stevens, music director Nile Rodgers, television consultants Steven Lawrence, line producer Michael Owen, co-producer Jayashri Wyatt, talent coordinator Julianne Hoffenberg, film editor Lauren Saffa, with public relations supported by Two Sheps that Pass.

Read more: India, Aterciopelados, Summer Olympics Beijing 2008, U.N. Department of Public Information, Emmanuel Jal, U.N. Day Concert 2009 a Tribute to Peacekeeping, Humanitarian, Shankhar Mahadevan, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, The War Against War, Angelique Kidjo, Cnn International, Jayashri Wyatt, Sierra Leone, Global Citizens, Wyclef Jean, Lauren Saffa, U.N. Secretary General, Norway, Lang Lang, Salman & Samina Global Wellness Initiative, Earth Wind and Fire, Xian Song & Dance Troupe, Africa, Zahir Hussain, Senegal, Leonardo Dicaprio, Cotonou, U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operation, Oslo, Education Sans Mutilation, Wikipedia, Rwanda, Melissa Etheridge, Sting, South Asia, Berlin Philharmonic, Entwined Twins, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Pakistan, Isha Sesay, Culture Project, You Are Not Alone, Amnesty International, Blood Diamond, Shrinivas Uppalapu, Julianne Hoffenberg, John Mahavishnu McLaughlin, Benin, New York, Junoon, Barack Obama, Time 100, Colombia, Killing Me Softly, Ghatam, The First Time Ever, General Assembly, Salman Ahmad, Fisher Stevens, Interfaith Dialogue, Thought Leaders, Steven Lawrence, China, Bbc, Allan Buchman, National Geographic, Day-O, United Nations, Jim Luce, Harry Belafonte, Paris, Injustice, Vienna Philharmonic, Sudan, She Mama Africa, Selvaganesh Vinayakaram, Malaika, Cancion Protesta, John Lee, Sister Fa, Samir Chatterjee, Blue Helmets, Roberta Flack Singing, War Child Film, Berlin, Grammy-Award, Mridangam, Cross-Cultural Dialogue, Nile Rodgers, Indi-Jazz Fusion, Afghanistan, Kanjira, Eleanor Roosevelt, Freedom of Expression Award, Nobel Peace Prize, We Are the World, Alain Le Roy, God Grew Tired of Us, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, The Price of Silence, Two Sheps That Pass., Female Genital Mutilation, Emma McCune, Orphans International Worldwide, Haiti, New York Times, U.N. Peacekeepers, Swahili, Alicia Keys, Hutu-Tutsi Conflict, Sufi Rock, Remember Shakti, Michael Owen, USA for Africa, New York News

Diane Tucker: Terrorist Or Activist? A Young Colombian, Gabriel Gonzalez, Fights For His Country, His Reputation (VIDEO)

2009-11-05T14:07:45Z
Last week in Manhattan, veteran journalist Tom Brokaw presented the 2009 Human Rights Award to Gabriel Gonzalez, a young activist who opposes the inhumane treatment of Colombian prisoners. The thoughtful young man then flew home to Colombia, where he is charged with being a terrorist and faces seven years in prison.

Call it one heck of an identity crisis for Gonzalez, or better yet, call it "same old, same old" in Colombia, where the difference between "hero" and "rebel guerrilla" can be a matter of opinion, and all too often a matter of life and death. Last year, 11 human rights workers were murdered in Colombia. So far this year, at least nine have been killed, despite increased government protection.

I spoke with Gonzalez just hours before he returned to Colombia to face the music.

What is the nature of your relationship with Colombia's leftist guerrillas?

Gabriel Gonzalez: I don't have any relationship whatsoever with the FARC or any other illegal group in Colombia. In my human rights work, I help prisoners promote their right to due process and legal representation -- legitimate and important work. However, some of these prisoners have been detained because they were suspected of being FARC members.

Is that why you were prosecuted?

No, the government accused me of being the commander of a FARC rebel militia force in Pamplona, the town I grew up in. I spent 15 months in jail -- in detention -- before the judge declared I was innocent because the court found no evidence of the FARC in Pamplona. Obviously it was impossible for me to be the leader of a group that didn't exist.

Then why were you sentenced to seven years in prison?

The Inspector General appealed the judge's decision, which was strange because the Inspector's job is to uphold the rights of defendants. Another court convicted me in absentia to seven years in prison, without a new trial or any new evidence. Human Rights First is helping me appeal this decision to the Supreme Court of Justice in Colombia. We still don't know if they'll take the case.

Do you believe you were set up?

Not long before the legal proceedings against me, I learned that paramilitaries were planning to assassinate me. It came as a terrible shock. Despite their death threats I continued my work, which included exposing human rights violations committed by public officials. I received a lot of attention from the national media. One might assume that since death threats didn't silence me, the baseless criminal charges were an attempt to silence me.

Do you expect you'll be treated fairly by the Supreme Court?

The Supreme Court in Colombia is a strong institution with very good jurisprudence. I certainly hope the court maintains its independence and doesn't succumb to political interests, because this is an emblematic case. Coached witnesses, biased prosecutors -- the same old patterns appear over and over again in human rights cases. It's time for the government to take concrete steps to address this problem, not in a case-by-case manner, but in a way that reforms institutions.

Does President Uribe deserve a third term?

His policy of Democratic Security has resulted in extrajudicial executions, forced displacement on trumped-up charges, and other serious human rights violations. A third term for Alvaro Uribe would continue along the same line.

But human rights violations have been occurring for decades in Colombia.

That's true. The solution depends less on one man, and more on a coherent state policy. For this we need the assistance of the international community.

So you think President Obama should do more to condemn human rights violations?

Plan Colombia isn't working. The U.S. is spending millions of dollars fighting drug trafficking in Colombia, without commensurate results. President Obama should focus on human rights, because ultimately it's the best way to combat problems like drug trafficking. Poor rural farmers must be allowed to cultivate their own land, sell their own products, and earn a livable wage. Instead, the farmers' political leaders are prosecuted on trumped-up charges. No wonder rural farmers grow coca or join the FARC, simply to earn money for food.

I thought the FARC were withering away.

They've suffered enormous blows. But we aren't sure whether they've become extremely weak, or are trying to regroup. What's certain is that Uribe said he would get rid of the FARC in four years. It's been eight years and the FARC is still here, which means less attention has been paid to education, jobs, and health care. Most of the international community thinks the main problem in Colombia is the war between the government and extremist groups, but that's not the case. The war is a consequence of the underlying problem.

Do you mean drugs, or poverty?

Lack of opportunity, lack of jobs, a dysfunctional health care system, a weak educational system -- together these problems generate social unrest. The government needs to sit down with civil society and listen to our proposals for a peace process, our ideas to improve Colombia's economic structure. As long as the government refuses to have an open dialogue with its people, it will never find viable solutions.

Should a U.S. free trade agreement with Colombia have human rights' strings attached?

A free trade agreement would give enormous benefits to Colombia. This would be the best time, and the best way, to achieve systematic reform of human rights.

You're returning to Colombia in a few hours. Do you fear for your life?

Sadly, everyone who works to promote human rights in Colombia fears for their life.

Then why do it?

Someone has to. I can't close my eyes and pretend nothing is happening. It's an ethical imperative for me, and for Colombia as a nation.

Your parents must be very worried.

When I was detained in jail for 15 months, it was a terrible time for them. But they're proud that I'm putting into action the principles they taught me as a child.

Gabriel Gonzalez at the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C. (Oct. 2009)
Photo: Andrew Hudson

Read more: Supreme Court, Venezuela, Colombia FARC, Human Rights First, Foreign Affairs, Terrorism, Democratic Security, Human Rights Campaign, Human Rights Abuses, Diane Tucker, Foreign Policy, Colombia Free Trade Agreement, Human Rights Violations, Hillary Clinton Colombia, Human Rights, Tom Brokaw, Colombia, Colombia Free Trade, Alvaro Uribe, Gabriel Gonzales, Farc, Mexico's Drug War, Alvaro Uribe Government, Video, World News

U.S.-Colombia Military Deal Angers Activists

2009-11-05T09:13:06Z
Colombian opposition groups have reacted angrily after details of a controversial military deal with the US were made public.
Read more: Us-Colombia, Colombia Us, Us Colombia, US Military, Colombia, Latin America, World News

Journalist Embeds With Colombian Army During Mission Against The FARC

2009-10-29T13:26:24Z
LA MACARENA, Colombia -- Accompanying frontline Colombian soldiers is not something I would have tried when I first arrived here 12 years ago. At the time, the army was getting chewed up by Marxist rebels who overran military bases and kidnapped hundreds of troops. Back then, it would have been safer to embed with the guerrillas.
Read more: Farc, Foreign Affairs, Colombian Army, Colombia, John Otis, World News

Sharon Kelly: In Broad Daylight: The Changing Face of Human Rights Advocacy

2009-10-28T15:02:28Z
"Human rights work in Colombia merits special protection: it's legitimate, it's legal and we can't continue to be persecuted just for defending and strengthening democracy" - Gabriel Gonzalez
When words like these, from visionary human rights defenders like Gabriel Gonzalez, are said to decision makers in Washington, the cause of human rights can advance. But this meeting of the minds almost didn't happen. Only several days before he was scheduled to accept an award for his activism and testify before Congress about human rights in Colombia, Mr. Gonzalez had not been approved to enter the United States.

You may wonder what happened. What major player with big-time clout and influence stepped in to slash through the red tape and ensure that the congressional human rights commission would be able to hear what Gabriel Gonzalez had to say? You did. In 72 hours, 3,700 of you, Human Rights First Facebook fans and email subscribers, signed our petition and, by the end of the week, his visa was approved.

Throughout our history, Human Rights First has had many successes in helping human rights defenders to be heard. There remain challenges to overcome, and much red tape to get through, but with the emergence of online organizing and activism, a powerful new tool can be brought to bear. The speed and agility with which large numbers of people can now express their support (or outrage) is changing the face of human rights advocacy around the world.

If I have to put my finger on it, the change is a dramatic drop in the cost of bringing human rights issues out into the open. Not very long ago, getting attention for an issue involved letter writing campaigns, personal meetings and press conferences. All of that was and is still effective, but it takes time to organize, and efforts only occasionally break through the noise. As you have proven, today we can put out a call to action and see results in a single week.

As our online community continues to grow, Facebook and Twitter will become increasingly effective tools to reach the people who will stand up for human rights and mobilize them when they are needed. The ability to instantly make issues public has changed the face of human rights advocacy, and as we all realize the full potential of our new tools, great progress can be expected. Thanks to all of the HRF supporters who stood up for human rights in Colombia. Lets grow our ranks for the struggles ahead.

Sharon Kelly is the Director of Communications at Human Rights First.
Read more: Human Rights, Colombia, Gabriel Gonzalez, Impact News

Leon T. Hadar: Counter-Factual History: McCain Is President and Bono Wins the Nobel Prize

2009-10-14T16:20:43Z
"I have to admit that I'm beginning to miss George W. Bush," is the way former Republican Senator "Chuck" Hagel responded when being asked by CNN's Wolf Blitzer to assess the foreign policy record of the administration of Republican President John McCain. "We probably should have paid more attention to what candidate was saying [on the top of the television screen: McCain declaring "We are all Georgians today!"] or singing [on the top of the television screen: McCain singing "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran"] during the presidential campaign," Hagel said.

Indeed, after occupying the White House for nine months, McCain's historic diplomatic and national security decisions have led to a dramatic transformation of the international system. The U.S. and its allies in the 10-member League of Democracies (LOD) are being drawn into a diplomatic and military confrontation with the Shanghai Treaty Organization (STO) headed by China and Russia in several geo-strategic hot spots around the world -- in the Caucasus (Russia-Georgia), the Balkans (Serbia-Kosovo), the Middle East (Israel-Syria) and East Asia (China-Taiwan), and the Straits of Hormuz (Iran).

A few weeks after his inauguration, President McCain dispatched his Secretary of State and former Senator Joe Lieberman to Europe to lobby France, Germany and Britain in support of giving a green light to Georgia's speedy accession into NATO. "A new iron curtain has descended across the Caucasus," Lieberman declared during an address at Charles University; in attendance were two former anti-Soviet dissidents, Poland Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa and former president of Czechoslovakia Vaclav Havel as well as representatives of Ukraine and the three Baltic states. Lieberman explained that in face of strong opposition from Berlin and Paris to offering NATO members to Georgia, the McCain Administration was planning to sign a bilateral defense accord with Georgia and deploy U.S. troops to that country. Secretary Lieberman also reiterated the McCain Administration's commitment to install a planned anti-missile shield system in the Czech Republic and Poland.

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev, who described the U.S. decisions as "only steps away from a U.S. declaration of war against my country," responded by inviting the republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and Transnistria, to join the Russian Federation. "The fascist clique in Washington, just like Hitler and Napoleon, has misjudged the will of the Russian people to defend their motherland and defeat the aggressors," Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told cheering crowds in Moscow, setting the stage for a series of international crises that seemed to threaten world peace.

First, a parliamentary election in Serbia brought to power a nationalist political movement that called for strengthening economic and military ties with Russia. Russia welcomed the outcome of the election and invited Serbia's new leaders to Moscow where a Russian-Serbian defense treaty was signed; it included a commitment to challenge "with all the necessary" Kosovo's declaration of independence.

China expressed support for what became to be known as the Moscow Declaration. Alluding to the separatist movements in Tibet and Xinjiang, the Chinese government explained that Beijing and Moscow were united in their opposition to "the secessionist puppets and their American puppeteer."

At the same time, the growing tensions in Ukraine over a proposal by the leading pro-Western political parties to apply for membership in NATO seemed to be degenerating into a civil war in the country, with Russia pledging to come to the assistance of the "courageous neighbors who favor independence over submission to American imperialism." Poland, the Czech Republic and the Baltic states called on NATO to come to Ukraine defense and "prevent another Munich," a plea that was backed by the McCain Administration.

In Washington, President McCain proposed that the "recent Russian aggression requires America and the great democracies to form a new league of freedom." But most of the West European states with the exception of Britain rejected the idea, with Germany and France warning the Americans the new aggressive U.S. approach toward Russia could return Europe to "the dark age of the Cold War." In response, National Security Advisor Robert Kagan stated, "Old Europe is getting even older and seems to remain stuck in Venus," adding that he was worried that much of Europe would be "Finlandized" and become "a dependency of Russia."

A growing split in NATO and Europe ensued, with the Czechs, Poles, Latvians, Lituinians and Estonians deciding to join the new LOD and take part in its founding session in Washington, on July 4th. Other members of the group included Costa Rica, Colombia, Israel, Mongolia, Kosovo, Albania, Georgia and Azerbaijan. In an opening address, McCain proposed that NATO be transformed into a global security arm of the LOD and recommended that it add Israel, Colombia and Mongolia -- and Taiwan - to its ranks.

The Chinese leaders responded to McCain's speech by recalling their ambassador from Washington and inviting Medvedev and Putin to Beijing. The two governments announced that they were planning to turn the STO into a global defense alliance that would consist of "all the anti-imperialist forces in the world" including Venezuela, Honduras, Iran, Syria, Serbia and Belarus. It also revealed that the STO was planning to dispatch a Russian cruiser and two nuclear missile submarines to the Straits of Hormuz to take part in a planned Iranian military exercise.

And on October 8th after Iran announced that it detonated five nuclear devices, Russia and China convened an emergency meeting of the STO in Caracas, Venezuela, which concluded with a warning to Washington that the members of the organization were ready to help Iran "protect itself from American-Israeli aggression." Adding to the worries about an approaching war, were reports from the Middle East indicating that Israeli military forces were massing at the border with Lebanon and Syria in the aftermath of number of deadly clashes between Israeli troops and Hizbollah guerillas.

"I don't want to sound despairing, and I do hope that I'm wrong, but I fear that we are heading towards a new and costly Cold War, or even - God forbid! - a World War III," Hagel said during his CNN interview with Wolf Blitzer the next day. Blitzer also interviewed noted musician and singer Bono who was just awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for his successful efforts to relieve third world debt and promote AIDS awareness in Africa. "I'm very, very sad that our efforts to promote peace around the world are being overshadowed by the gathering war clouds," Bono told Blitzer. "My guess is that if Barack Obama would have been elected as the U.S. president, the lights would not be going out all over the world today," he said, adding: "It's quite possible that President Obama would be the one receiving the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Imagine that."
Read more: Straits of Hormuz, Syria, Shanghai Treaty Organization, Mongolia, Vaclav Havel, Lithuania, Bono, Kosovo, China, Cold War, Robert Kagan, Putin, Iran, Nato, Joe Lieberam, Russia, Lech WałęSa, Czech Republic, Latvia, John McCain, Serbia, League of Democracies, Nobel Peace Prize, Colombia, Chuck Hagel, Barack Obama, Medvedev, Cnn, Poland, Georgia, Israel, Wolf Blitzer, Tawian, Lita, World News

Greg Grandin: Colombian Free Trade: Exporting Death Squads to Honduras

2009-10-10T18:24:12Z
A breaking story -- covered in the Colombian press for about two weeks but just now being picked up by English-language news sources, including CNN -- reports that 40 members of Colombian death squads, responsible for the execution of thousands, have been recruited by Honduran plantation owners to protect their interests. In addition to the Colombian mercenaries, 120 paramilitaries from other Latin American countries "have been contracted to support the government of Roberto Micheletti," who organized the overthrow of Honduras' democratically elected president, Manuel Zelaya, on June 28.

Since then, Micheletti and his business backers have hired US lobbyists and public-relations firms, including lawyer and confidant of Hillary Clinton, Lanny Davis, to make the case to Washington that Zelaya's ouster was a democratic transfer of power.

Yet Honduras' rising body count, along with the reappearance of death squads - responsible in the 1980s for the murder and disappearances of tens of thousands of Central Americans - makes Davis's efforts increasingly difficult.

Micheletti himself may be directly involved in the importation of Colombian mercenaries. According to Bertha Oliva, the president of the respected and besieged Honduran human-rights organization, Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras, the infamous "Billy" Joya - who in the 1980s was himself a member of the Honduran death squad, Battalion 316, and now is working as Micheletti's security adviser - traveled to Bogotá, Colombia, in early September to arrange the deal which brought the mercenaries to Honduras.

Read more: Colombia, Honduras, Lanny Davis, Death Squads, World News

Norm Stamper: Turning the Corner on Drug Law Reform

2009-10-07T18:50:34Z
A week ago I was in the Bay Area, touring medical marijuana dispensaries in Oakland and Berkeley, speaking to the Sausalito Rotary Club, visiting with police and elected officials, and addressing NORML's annual conference. (Special thanks to the extraordinary Carol Ruth Silver, former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, close friend of the late Harvey Milk, and LEAP speaker extraordinaire for opening doors around the city.)

Sunday night, I spoke at the Sydney Opera House, the first in a month-long, 60-event tour of Australia.

Around the globe, drug policy reform experts and organizations are being swamped by demands for speeches, white papers, interviews. Fellow speakers at Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (www.copssaylegalizedrugs.org) have never been busier. We've been churning out on-demand op-eds for new and old media alike, giving talks to service clubs, universities, police officials, and lawmakers throughout North America and beyond. Our executive director, recently returned from The Netherlands, is off to Brazil mid-month.

It's not hard to understand the reasons for all this reform agitation: dismal economic conditions; impossible pressures on the criminal justice system (especially our overpopulated prisons); escalating fears of drug cartel violence, and their insidious, expanding influence; and moral outrage at the damage the drug war has done our families and communities. Also, I have to say, there's been a remarkable surge of old-fashioned common sense as more and more people awaken to the ruinous nature of our drug laws.

Many Australians are acutely aware that the U.S. is and has been since 1971 the chest-thumping, fist-banging four-star general in the global war on drugs. The Aussies' resentment is palpable, their willingness to stand up to our bullying ways growing.

The same can be said for Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia, all of which have moved recently to decriminalize drug possession cases. And for Brazil and Ecuador, which seem poised to do likewise.

Read more: Ecuador, The Netherlands, Law Enforement Against Prohibition, Argentina, Mexico, Carol Ruth Silver, Drug War, Colombia, Brazil, Drug Laws, Leap, Drug Policy, Politics News

Maryam Ishani: The Evolution of Colombia's Narco-Submarines

2009-10-07T14:54:13Z
BUENAVENTURA, COLOMBIA: Captain Mario Rodríguez, Commander of the Colombian Coast Guard on the Pacific Ocean, is a man who is trying to push back a rising tide. For over 20 years he has worked to counter the steady advancement of the transportation technologies employed by Colombian traffickers to smuggle cocaine into Mexico and the United States. But this has been mostly a game of catch-up.

"In the 1980s we were tracking and chasing cigarette boats that traveled 20 knots per hour, and soon go-fast boats with 3, 4, or even 5 engines that could go 40 to 50 knots," said Captain Rodríguez. When the Colombian Navy acquired the U.S. made Midnight Express interceptors to keep up with those speeds, the traffickers slowed down and went underwater. "The first semi-submersibles we came across in the 1990s were very rudimentary," said Rodríguez. "They didn't have a motor and were attached with a cable to fishing boats, which dragged them along to their destinations." Since then semi-submersibles have become much more sophisticated.

While they still cannot dive, the new semi-submersibles are self-propelled and increasingly streamlined, with few visible appendages. They are also capable of traveling longer distances. To go to Mexico, the shorter routes, and also the most exposed to international interdiction efforts, follow the coastline of Central America and take about six days to navigate. However, some semi-submersibles travel as far as to pass south of the Galápagos Islands to get out of the reach of the Colombian Navy, a route that can take two weeks or longer.

According to the most recent estimates of the Colombian Navy, 55% of Colombia's total cocaine exports leave the country by sea from the Pacific coast--mostly aboard semi-submersibles, some of which can carry up to 14 tons of cocaine.

Made of fiberglass and wood, with single or twin diesel engines, semi-submersibles can cost anywhere between $500,000 and $1,000,000 to construct. The building materials account for only a fifth of the price tag. "What makes the semi-subs expensive is the cost of silence," said Rodríguez. "The traffickers need to keep 10 or 12 workers for 30 to 45 days in a secret location, and the discretion of these workers does not come cheap."

The returns, though, are enormous. A kilogram of cocaine is worth $1,800 in Colombia but $8,000 in Mexico and upwards of $20,000 in the United States. Although some semi-submersibles are known to have entered U.S. coastal waters, the organizations that operate them generally prefer to smuggle their cargo to destinations along Mexico's Pacific coast, where the Mexican cartels take over the business.

Colombia no longer has its own cartels, as it did in the days of Pablo Escobar and the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers. What it does have now is a series of relatively small criminal organizations that have divided among themselves the different stages of the drug trade: some harvest the coca plants; others run the labs that process the coca leaves into cocaine; and still others transport the drug.

Currently there are three distinct organizations that build semi-submersibles in the jungles along Colombia's Pacific coastline. Two are based in and around the Sanquianga National Park, in the Department of Nariño, while the other one operates in the Department of Chocó. These are some of the poorest and most remote regions of the country.

Searching for the sites where these organizations assemble the semi-submersibles is one of the Colombian Navy's most challenging tasks. "We sail up these muddy, narrow rivers and there is dense vegetation all around us," said a 23-year-old Navy officer, who asked to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to speak to the press. "Many of the people who live up there are working for the traffickers. As soon as we pass, someone picks up a cell phone and lets the people upstream know that we are coming." The risk of ambushes is high.

Once they reach the high seas, semi-submersibles are extremely difficult to detect. They do not leave a visible wake like go-fast boats, nor do they show up on most radars. Infrared systems can spot their heat signature, but the newest semi-submersibles have insulated motors that produce so little heat that surveillance planes often cannot spot them unless they are directly above them.

Since signing a maritime interdiction agreement in 1997, the Unites States and Colombia have maintained a close alliance to counter international drug trafficking. A new cooperation deal, which allows up to 600 U.S. troops and 800 U.S. contractors on Colombian military bases, is now set to improve the joint efforts to detect and seize semi-submersibles.

The deal has precipitated a diplomatic crisis in Latin America, with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez accusing "los yanquis" of wanting to overthrow his government, and even Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva expressing concerns about the geopolitical aims of the United States in the subcontinent.

The Colombian government, though, considers the new agreement to be crucial to its efforts to counter organized crime and the leftist rebels of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). "We are not talking about a political game, we are talking about a threat that has spilled blood in Colombian society," said President Álvaro Uribe defending the plan. Captain Rodríguez agrees: "This is an adjustment to a long established collaboration. The Americans can provide information that can help us with the detection and tracking stages of our work."

How will the traffickers respond to the stepped up interdiction efforts by the United States and Colombia? Captain Rodríguez is certain that they will seek to improve their underwater capabilities. "They will try to develop fully submersible vessels. In fact, we cannot exclude the possibility that they might have already acquired that technology."
Read more: Colombia, Drugs, Narco-Submarines, Colombia Narco-Submarines, Cocaine, Maryam Ishani Huffington Post, Maryam Ishani, Ishani, Colombia Submaines, World News

China Dissidents Top Nobel Peace Prize Speculation

2009-10-07T01:25:14Z
OSLO — Chinese dissidents are leading the odds of winning the Nobel Peace Prize this year, the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre and the 60th since the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

Speculation on the chances of Chinese dissidents for the peace prize, announced this year on Friday, has been a yearly ritual. But this time there's a stronger current of expectation surrounding critics of China's long-standing communist regime.
Read more: Jordan, Human Rights, Dalai Lama, Peace Prize Laureates, Laureates, Tibet, Activism, Tianamen Square Anniversary, Norway, Colombia, Nobel Peace Prize, China, Nobel Peace Prize Guesses, Barack Obama, Tianamen Square, Peace Prize, Vietnam, Russia, Afghanistan, Nobel Prizes, Chinese Dissidents, World News

Cannonball Man Falls Short Of Net (VIDEO)

2009-09-22T20:09:57Z
A cannonball man performing at a circus in Cali, Colombia missed the safety net after shooting out of a cannon on Tuesday. The performer, Israel Gaska, fractured several bones in the 65-foot fall. The shocking accident was caught on camera:

Read more: Cannonball, Circus Accident, Cannonball Accident, Cannonball Man, Human Cannonball, Colombia, Accidents, Circus, Cannonball Fail, World News

Christopher Herbert and Victoria Kataoka Rebuffet: New Strategy For Afghanistan, Good News Out Of Pakistan, Japan's Elections, Hondurus Crisis, And Columbia's Undemocratic Referendum

2009-09-11T16:13:09Z
These Past Two Week's Top Stories in Foreign Affairs:

A New Strategy for Afghanistan and A Rare Bit of Good News Out of Pakistan
SI Analysis: The US Senior Commander in Afghanistan Stanley McChrystal submitted his assessment report on the US/NATO AfPaq situation and called for a new strategy. Details of the report have yet to really emerge, however a change in tide of political will -- both in the US and abroad -- for the effort in Afghanistan has been palpable in recent weeks. McChrystal's task is greater now that Hamid Karzai has emerged as the likely victor of the Afghan Presidential elections and this news is being met with reports of massive fraud and a UN call for a partial recount. To add insult to injury, a botched NATO air raid on Taliban in Kunduz did nothing to help. Regardless of growing dissent for the war, McChrystal will likely call for an increase in foreign troops. In a rare bit of good news, there were reports of mass surrender of Taliban militants after the arrest of key Taliban leaders in the Swat Valley of Pakistan. This suggests that coordinated police and military action may be finally bearing some fruit following months of fighting.

Analysis in Brief:

Mugabe's Coup
SI Analysis: Hopes -- that the new South African President, Jacob Zuma, and his 14 cohorts of Southern African Development Community would put greater pressure on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to respect a power-sharing agreement with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai -- were dashed. Clearly Mr. Mugabe remains in clear and unchecked control of his failing country.

Japan's Elections
SI Analysis: The reactionary Democratic Party of Japan was elected in a landslide victory over the Liberal Democratic Party. Prime Minister-elect Yukio Hatoyama is faced with the daunting task of saving a flailing Japanese economy with diminishing demographics and inspiring a disenfranchised and nostalgic population. Most analysts fear the DPJ is better suited to winning elections than taking on the task at hand.

Under the Radar:

Colombia's Referendum with Undemocratic Tendencies?
SI Analysis: President Alvaro Uribe, who is the latest Latin American leader to come down with Swine Flu, seemed closer to being able to hold a referendum that would allow him to run for a third term. Meanwhile, many analysts note that Colombian agreements with the US to allow anti-narcotic US military operations to be launched fromColombian military bases have fueled the arms race in South America. Potential arms deals sought by Venezuela and Brazil in particular have drawn attention recently.

Honduras Crisis Endures
SI Analysis: After the failed diplomatic effort to broker a peace deal and a return for ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya led by Costa Rica President Oscar Arias and a delegation from the Organization of American States (OAS), the US has cut all aid to Honduras. US Secretary of State Clinton will meet with Zelaya soon to discuss what else the US will do to pressure the coup leaders to retrench. De facto President Roberto Micheletti says he is planning to call new Presidential elections in November.

Yemen's Enduring Crisis
SI Analysis: Poor management and strategy in confronting ethnic Houthis in the northern Saada Province is pushing tribal rivals of the central Sunni government to ally with the rebels. Furthermore, the moderate Shia group may now be receiving support from Iran. And Saudi Arabia is weighing in by supporting the government offensive. This conflict will likely escalate in the coming weeks, and risks conflagration with the fighting against foreign and domestic Sunni militias in the southern part of the country.

This briefing can be seen in the Huffington Post and on the Simple Intelligence site.

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Read more: Yemen, Honduras, Colombia, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Japan, Pakistan, Yukio Hatoyama, Mugabe, Abc, President Alvaro, World News

Latin American Leaders Seek A New Form Of Dictatorship

2009-09-01T15:40:49Z
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Across Latin America, presidents are pulling strings and pressuring lawmakers to change their constitutions to allow for multiple presidential terms -- a trend that began in the 1990s.

Read more: Carlos Menem, Hugo Chavez, Latin America, Colombia, Manuel Zelaya, Alberto Fujimori, Rafael Correa, Bogoto, World News

Alvaro Uribe, Colombian President, Has Swine Flu

2009-08-30T20:16:43Z
BOGOTA — Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has the swine flu and officials have advised other South American leaders who met with him at a summit of the infection, authorities said Sunday.

The 57-year-old Uribe began feeling symptoms Friday, the same day as a meeting of South American presidents in Bariloche, Argentina, and he was confirmed to have swine flu after returning home, Social Protection Minister Diego Palacio said.
Read more: Alvaro Uribe, Uribe Swine Flu, Colombia, H1n1, Swine Flu, World News

Karin Badt: Meeting a Girl FARC Guerrilla in Bogotá

2009-08-29T14:15:04Z
My image of a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla was not a small-framed pretty girl in a jean-jacket, hands bangled in silver rings and white-sparkling nail-polish, with a silver cross hanging down a low-cut t-shirt and high heeled black sandals that evidently cut in her feet (she kept fiddling with the straps). Yet that was Maria, the young woman who agreed to meet me in downtown Bogotá to discuss her experience in the FARC, as well as her new life in Colombia's de-mobilization program -- a program designed to encourage guerrillas to give up their arms and reintegrate.

Maria, age 19, had not actually needed much encouragement. She had decided on her own to quit the FARC after she was forced to give birth, with labor-inducing drugs, to her child before full-term, and listen to the baby scream as it was murdered. Babies are frowned upon in the FARC, which makes sense as it is a co-ed army, with the majority of the "soldiers" in their teens and twenties.

This was the surprise of the FARC: that so many begin as child soldiers. While Maria was on the young side when she was recruited -- at age eight -- it turns out that forty percent of FARC guerrillas, like child-soldiers around the world, enter when they are in their teens. The FARC banks on the fact that many children in the poor rural areas of Colombia dream of the security, adventure and thrill of being in a military force. Schooling is difficult for poor rural children (Maria had to walk three hours to get to school), and food, nurture and comfort hard to come by. Family abuse is also typical: Maria's own father had beat her.

"I wanted to be a guerilla," Maria told me smiling, her hair pulled back neatly in pink barrettes. "I dreamed of holding a gun. Then a FARC guerrilla came to recruit me, offering me a radio, so I left my father and stepmother."

Towards the end of our interview, Maria added, more familiarly and with a provocative grin, that what she had also dreamed of was "the pleasure of watching blood flow" -- "and knowing her own hands had done it."

"Yet you did not like killing the family with the three kids at the lake," I pointed out. "Isn't that true?" She had told me that the "battles" were okay, but the individual murders, she did not like.

Maria nodded, twisting in her seat (as she did constantly), putting her ringed-fingers over her face (as she also did constantly):

"No I did not like that."

"And the mother and the toddler?"

Maria had followed the command to shoot a mother in the face, then her baby. The mother, Maria told me, had cried out for her not to shoot her, to save "the little one." She had shot the mother first, then the one year old.

The commander had made this order, as part of the policy of keeping "terror" in the villages, so the campesinos would not cooperate with the Colombian military. The war between the Colombian government and the FARC (and the paramilitaries, ELN, etc.) has intensified recently under "Plan Colombia"---whose aim is to have a governmental presence in every municipality -- so the FARC has become even stricter (and Colombia much safer) : which is why Maria later opined it was not a good time now to join the FARC. Now, if she were to speak to children excited about joining the FARC -- to fly helicopters and shoot! -- she would warn the little ones that it is not so much fun.

"The mother and baby..." Maria started to smile, repeating her "sangre corriendo" comment, but then her voice dropped and she turned her eyes: "No I didn't like that. And I don't want to answer anymore questions about the people I killed. I speak enough about them with the psychiatrist I see. I don't want to see them. I don't like to see their faces--their gestures as they died." She winced, looked down at the table and began to play with her cell phone.

"You remember their faces?"

"Each of them." She flushed and put her hands to her face, the white nails sparkling in the fluorescent light.

As it turned out, aside from the thrill of using a weapon, life in the FARC didn't sound very thrilling at all. The platoons -- each about 54 in number -- had to move every three days or so, to find a new camp, and at night, would sleep under plastic-stretched between trees either alone, or, if married, in a couple. Although, oddly, Maria -- who had "married" at age ten -- shook her head "no" when asked if she had slept with her companion, "Jose" (father of her dead baby), the only person -- she later told me -- she cared for in the world. "No queria a alguna persona," she repeated three times with a proud lolling voice.

The rules too were strict: up before sun-rise, military line-up, checking of weapons, debriefing for the day (there were battles as often as twice a month), breakfast of "hot chocolate, bread and soup" and then "indoctrination." There was no freedom whatsoever: one had to ask permission to use the bathroom, even in the forest.

Each "guerrilla" was assigned to a special service: cooking, cleaning, recruiting, etc. Maria's service was financing. That means going to the peasants and buying the cocaine from them, for 3 dollars a gram, to later be sold to middle men for the cartels--and eventually the United States, at a few hundred dollars a gram.

"So you got to know all the coke farmers?"

"Yes," said Maria, with a confident nod.

Cocaine. What makes these child-soldiers (aka these young FARC guerillas) distinct from other child soldiers around the world is the boon of the cocaine industry. The guerrillas have access to money, and can even send cash back to their families: they have a steady coke-for-money or arms business going on -- while also stealing, extorting and killing for a percentage of their income. The kids don't need to raid for their food (as they do in Africa): they buy it. Each commander had a computer; and some guerrillas (those with special duties) even had cell-phones.

Maria admitted that she still talked to friends back in the FARC, with her cell-phone. And the Commander had called her a couple times, trying to convince her to come back -- although, "nah," she said, looking away, she would not. She liked her life in Bogotá, where she lived in the "Casa de Paz", the transition home for ex-guerillas.

Maria's is a success story -- so far. She is one of 20,000 guerillas demobilized since 2002, when the demobilization program began. The hope for peace, according to the various Colombians I met in Bogotá (called the "crystal city' by inhabitants, because quite frankly, it looks pretty good!) -- a political scientist, a UNHCR aid, an NGO director -- is to get it back to some kind of stability, through military control, education, and economic incentives, a stability the US has an investment in as well.

Demobilization is key to this plan. Administrators cleverly try to reach and convince these guerrillas -- many of whom cannot read -- by using public means of communication that advertise the phone number to call: a video in brothels (apparently, a popular outlet for FARC males) which shows a happy demobilized man; a CD of Colombian vallenato ballads crooning that "freedom" does not lie in the FARC, a traveling play about a brother and sister, one who joined the FARC, the other the Colombian army, who eventually reconcile rather than kill each other.

"Guerrilero hay otra vida!" reads one poster. "La desmovilizacion es la salida." [Guerilla, you have another life ahead of you! Demobilization is the way out."]

It is an attractive prospect. When a guerrilla like Maria gives up her arms, she is given money, a place to stay for up to six months -- a "House of Peace" -- and then supported, to some extent, in housing, schooling and job-location. Although of course they cannot go home, for fear of reprisal from the FARC.

Maria told me she enjoyed her new life in Bogotá now, and one day might like to be "a secretary." She also loved playing soccer, and was good at defending the ball. And no, she did not have flashbacks from the trauma of violence, but she did hear a male voice, from time to time, consoling her, as he had in battles.

As for whether she regretted having "wasted" her youth in the FARC, she said honestly and succinctly, as was her wont: "No I did not waste my life in the FARC. I lived the life I once wanted and chose."

"And the meaning of life for you?" I said. "Now that you have gone through all that you have gone through."

"The meaning?" Maria opened her hands. "Life is bonita!"

"Why?"

"Because it is!" she grinned.

But then she pointed at me.

"Can I ask you a question?" she said boldly, for the first time directly facing me.

"Go ahead."

"Why are you asking me all these questions?"

I explained that maybe many people have no idea what it is like to be in the FARC, and she was helping to communicate the story to people far far away.

She smiled, for the first time, a rather childlike smile, almost accepted a parting kiss on the cheek -- and then went back to playing with her pink cell-phone.

The Crystal City

Read more: Farc, Programa De Atencion Humanitario Al Desmovilizado, Demobilization Program, Bogotá, Guerillas, Colombia, Child Soldiers, World News

Adam Isacson: Tensions Flare in South America Over U.S. Troops in Colombia

2009-08-28T14:56:29Z

South America's presidents are meeting today in the ski resort of Bariloche, Argentina. Despite the tranquil setting, things could be tense.

Their agenda will be dominated by revelations that the United States and Colombia have quietly been discussing a deal to allow the U.S. military to operate from at least seven military bases inside Colombia. The base-deal negotiations - which only became known through leaks to the Colombian media - have created alarm throughout South America, as they involve, in the words of Argentina's most-circulated newspaper, Clarín, "The military presence in South America of the most powerful army on Earth."

Nearly every government on the continent has voiced concerns about the likely U.S. presence (except Peru, whose center-right government supports the deal). But there are varying degrees of opposition.

"Winds of war"

Venezuela, Colombia's neighbor sharing a 1,375-mile border, has been by far the most vocal opponent. Far-left President Hugo Chávez argues that the U.S. presence will seek to destabilize his government. He has announced plans to retaliate by cutting all diplomatic ties with Colombia, bringing the two countries' $7 billion of trade down to zero within a year, and buying tanks and other weapons from Russia. "These seven Yankee bases are a declaration of war against the Bolivarian Revolution [Chávez's term for his government]," he said Tuesday, building on earlier rhetoric about "winds of war" sweeping through the continent.

Few observers see much possibility of actual war between Colombia and Venezuela anytime soon. It is clear, though, that the base deal has given Chávez a huge political opportunity. The Bush administration's deep unpopularity had made it easy for the Venezuelan leader to portray the United States as an enemy bent on removing him from power. That argument became much less credible during the first months of the Obama administration, when the new U.S. president offered an "outstretched hand" to adversaries. It was difficult for Chávez to portray Barack Obama as an imperialist enemy.

But the U.S. and Colombian governments' ham-handed, secretive rollout of the base deal played right into Chávez's hands, giving the Venezuelan leader just what he needed to reignite his rhetoric about the "empire" on the march. (The lack of transparency about the deal, in fact, stirred up old resentments against the United States in almost every country. Would the United States have kept the deal secret from neighboring countries if the continent in question was Europe? Is a double-standard in effect?) Chávez has taken full advantage, dominating the debate.

Colombia has responded with new accusations about weapons from Venezuela's arsenal ending up in the hands of the FARC, a bloodstained, drug-funded insurgent group that continues to fight Colombia's government 45 years after its founding. Colombia's government also filed a formal complaint at the OAS this week demanding that Venezuela's government stop meddling in Colombian internal politics.

For Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, the crisis with Venezuela brings distinct domestic political advantages. The right-wing president is in the midst of a knock-down, drag-out battle to convince Colombia's Congress to schedule a referendum on a constitutional change allowing Uribe to run for a third straight 4-year term. Every time Chávez uses threatening language against Uribe or Colombia, Uribe gets a boost in public opinion polls, and a third term becomes more of a certainty.

The base deal has further worsened relations between Colombia and its neighbor to the south, Ecuador. These relations could hardly be worse already, as neither country has had an ambassador in the other's capital since March 2008, when Colombia's army launched a raid 1 mile inside Ecuadorian territory that killed a top leader of the FARC. Ecuador's pro-government-majority legislature approved a resolution on Tuesday contending that the Colombia base deal would undermine peace in the region. Ecuador's foreign minister said Wednesday that his government's problems with Colombia "would not be resolved with a simple handshake at Bariloche."

In Bolivia, leftist President Evo Morales has said that any leader who invites foreign troops onto his soil is a "traitor" to Latin America. At the Bariloche meeting, Morales will call for a multi-country referendum to approve or reject the U.S. presence in Colombia, something that Colombia will most likely reject out of hand.

Perhaps most significantly, Brazil, Argentina and Chile, the continent's wealthiest countries with its best-equipped militaries (after Colombia), all three led by left-of-center presidents, have voiced strong discomfort with the U.S. presence in Colombia. Despite earlier declarations of opposition, at least Brazil and Chile have indicated that they will accept the base deal as long as Colombia offers assurances, in the form of a written diplomatic note, that U.S. personnel will never support operations beyond Colombia's borders.

How we got here

This story really began a decade ago, in 1999, when the last U.S. soldier left bases in Panama that dated back to Teddy Roosevelt's time. The base closures, in compliance with a treaty Jimmy Carter had negotiated in 1977, left the U.S. military without a runway from which to conduct counter-drug surveillance flights.

In order to fill that gap, the Clinton administration negotiated 10-year agreements with El Salvador, Ecuador and the Netherlands (Aruba and Curaçao). From these so-called "Forward Operating Locations," U.S. aircraft - piloted and maintained by military personnel and contractors - sought to identify planes and boats suspected of carrying cocaine to the United States.

The agreement with Ecuador allowed U.S. personnel to use a base in Manta, on the Pacific Coast, and strictly limited them to counter-drug missions. The agreement caused an outcry among Ecuador's leftist opposition, which was voted into office with the election of President Rafael Correa in 2006. Correa swore that he would "cut off his arm" before allowing the Manta base agreement to be renewed in 2009, when the 10-year arrangement ended.

As a result, starting in 2008 the Bush administration quietly set out to find a new site from which to launch its counter-drug missions. Talks with Peru didn't get very far, but Colombia proved quite willing to host the U.S. assets. When the United States requested a presence at one base, Colombia offered five, then seven. (Many of these bases already had a semi-permanent U.S. military presence anyway, as Colombia has received more than $5 billion in U.S. military and police aid so far this decade.)

Secrecy - and real concerns

These negotiations occurred in total secrecy, however. Apparently, even Colombia's friendlier neighbors weren't briefed about what was going on. When details about the agreement found their way into Colombia's media in early July, the response was - and continues to be - explosive.

Critics of the deal are concerned about what appears to be a greatly expanded mission for the U.S. personnel at the Colombian facilities: instead of simply monitoring suspect drug-trafficking as they did in Manta, the U.S. assets will also be used to help Colombia fight its long, bloody war of attrition against the FARC.

There are concerns about the size of the U.S. footprint. A congressionally mandated "troop cap" - an attempt to discourage "mission creep" - currently limits the U.S. presence in Colombia to 800 military personnel and 600 U.S. citizen contractors. The "cap" has been increased before (in 2004), and there is reason for concern that, once the new U.S. presences are established, the Pentagon will go back to Congress asking for a bigger presence.

Despite U.S. and Colombian assurances that this will not happen, neighboring countries are concerned that the U.S. presence will be used to carry out operations beyond Colombia's borders.

Human rights advocates worry about the United States entering further into a marriage of convenience with the most abusive military in the Americas, accused of well over 1,000 extrajudicial executions since 2002.

The continent's leaders are now in Bariloche (the United States is not attending), and the meeting could be contentious. We must hope that it is not. A day of hostilities between Colombia and Venezuela could make tensions far worse than if the meeting had not taken place at all. The two countries have hardened their positions in advance of the meeting. Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermúdez is saying that "we are not going to Bariloche to consult about anything," and that the basing deal is all but signed. For his part, President Chávez published an open letter to the other presidents in an Argentine newspaper Thursday warning of a "counter-offensive from the North American empire."

Brazil's role, and South America's moment

Much will be up to Brazil, the Americas' largest country, which under center-left President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva has been playing a greater leadership role in regional politics. As the main regional military power in South America, Brazil is genuinely worried about having a significant U.S. presence nearby. Though it may sound odd to us, the Brazilian military for decades has operated under the threat hypothesis that the United States wishes to control the Amazon basin. The under-the-radar base negotiations with Colombia unhelpfully play into that hypothesis. Nonetheless, Lula has indicated that he will not oppose the base arrangement if he is given written assurances that the U.S. personnel will never leave Colombian territory and airspace.

In its regional leadership role, Brazil wants to calm tensions. Lula spoke on the phone for half an hour with Chávez on Thursday and is breakfasting with him before the Bariloche meetings, in an attempt to get him to tone down the rhetoric.

The Bariloche meeting could, years from now, be seen as a crucial turning point for South America's political stability and security. This is so because Latin America, as a whole, is suddenly in bad shape. Drug-related violence is killing nearly 5,000 people per year in Mexico, and the power of organized crime is growing almost everywhere. The June 28 military coup in Honduras has yet to be reversed. The tensions between right and left-wing governments in South America are like nothing we've ever seen, even during the Cold War. And militaries throughout the continent are seeing their budgets and arsenals increase dramatically, spurring fears of an arms race.

Will today's meeting be seen as the moment when the continent got together, independently of the United States, to reduce tensions and increase cooperation to solve common problems? Or will it be viewed as the moment when things really began to unravel, as the U.S. basing deal in Colombia - and the Obama administration's failure to explain it - became the catalyst for years of acrimony and instability?

Read more: Hugo Chavez, Venezuela, Bariloche, Colombia, Brazil, Military Bases, Mexico, Argentina, Hillary Clinton, Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, Home News