PERU: Stepping Up Protection for Native Groups in Voluntary Isolation

March 27, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

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Women and children from a Nanti community in initial contact with Western culture in the Peruvian region of Madre de Dios. Credit: INDEPA

Milagros Salazar

LIMA, Mar 26 (IPS) – In the dense Amazon rainforest of Peru, there are five reserves inhabited by indigenous groups who have chosen to remain totally or partially isolated from the rest of society. But these areas are not officially demarcated as indigenous lands, and only one is protected with a control post.The authorities responsible for them are now attempting to reinforce protection of these vulnerable populations, ignored for years by the state.

“A reserve is an instrument to protect the rights of these communities, who have found themselves obliged to live in isolation due to a series of violations they have suffered, particularly during the rubber boom. We owe them a historical debt,” Paulo Vilca, the general director of intercultural affairs and peoples’ rights at the Vice Ministry of Intercultural Affairs, told Tierramérica*.

Throughout the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, the expansion of rubber tapping in the Amazon brought disease, death and virtual extermination to the rainforest’s indigenous peoples, who were forced into slave labour.

Groups living in “voluntary isolation” have chosen to avoid all contact with the rest of society in the countries where they live, for historical reasons such as the extermination described above. Other groups are categorised as living in “initial contact”: while they remain largely isolated, they engage in contact with the outside world for certain concrete reasons, such as health care.

After many years of waiting, a multi-sectoral commission in Peru recognised five reserves in August 2012. Three of them – Isconahua, Murunahua and Mashco-Piro – are in the eastern region of Ucayali. The Madre de Dios reserve is in the southeastern region of the same name, while the Kugapakori-Nahua-Nanti reserve is in the southern region of Cusco.

The latter is additionally home to the Matsiguenga and Yora peoples, but it also overlaps with the natural gas fields in Lot 88, an area under lease to the Camisea gas consortium.

All five are currently classified as “territorial reserves” but are slated to be designated as “indigenous reserves”, a category created in 2007 by Law 28.736 to provide greater protection for people living in isolation or initial contact.

In order for this reclassification to be official, the executive branch must issue a supreme decree. The Vice Ministry of Intercultural Affairs submitted the proposal in the first week of March, and it is now under study by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

The categorisation of these lands as indigenous reserves would mean the official demarcation of the territory needed to provide greater guarantees for these populations who face permanent ongoing threats, said Vilca.

Julio Ibáñez, an attorney with the Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP), stressed the need for indigenous organisations to form part of the commission responsible for evaluating these requests, in order for the native peoples themselves to have a say in the decision.

“This would guarantee that the rights of indigenous peoples in isolation or initial contact are represented and protected by genuinely representative organisations,” Ibáñez told Tierramérica.

This commission is currently made up by representatives of the national government, regional governments and universities, but includes no indigenous delegates.

Vilca reported that his department is drafting a proposal for the inclusion of indigenous organisations in the commission.

Since becoming active again in mid-2012, the commission has had to deal with a number of pending issues, such as the evaluation of requests for the recognition of another five reserves, which date back 10 to 14 years.

Vilca is preparing a report on this matter, after receiving the files for these requests in December from the National Institute for the Development of Andean, Amazonian and Afro-Peruvian Peoples (INDEPA).

He acknowledged that the state has not paid sufficient attention to these populations, but is now trying to rectify that situation.

Of the five territorial reserves that have been recognised, only the Kugapakori-Nahua-Nanti reserve is protected with a control post.

The vice ministry has announced the signing of agreements with local governments and the National Natural Protected Areas Service to guarantee the protection of the other reserves.

In the meantime, a whole range of threats loom over them, from illegal logging to oil and gas operations.

Argentine-based Pluspetrol, which heads up the Camisea gas consortium, is seeking to expand its activities in Lot 88 into a section of the Kugapakori-Nahua-Nanti reserve – which encompasses three communities in initial contact: Santa Rosa de Serjali, Montetoni and Marankeato – and the buffer zone around Manu National Park.

In 2010, the government agency that promotes oil and gas industry investment accepted the request from Pluspetrol, which presented the terms of reference and a citizen participation plan to modify its environmental impact assessment in order to include the new activities.

In May 2012, technicians from INDEPA and Vilca’s department stated that gas exploration activities would pose a risk to the populations living in isolation.

As a result, the public participation mechanisms should only apply to the three communities in initial contact mentioned above.

Pluspetrol then asked Vilca’s agency if it should present a citizen participation plan to inform these three settlements of its activities.

The response, which came in late August, was that this would not be necessary unless the communities themselves demanded it, and that it should be carried out in coordination with the Vice Ministry, since it would be an ad hoc procedure.

The non-profit organisation Law, Environment and Natural Resources (DAR) questioned this response, since it opens up the possibility of information-sharing workshops in territories that are supposed to be protected.

Vilca replied that the mission of the Vice Ministry of Intercultural Affairs is not to promote investment, but rather “to enforce respect for the rights of the peoples.”

In addition, his team must still evaluate the modification of the environmental impact assessment for the expansion of activities in Lot 88, and in this case, its evaluation will be binding.

After Pluspetrol activities were reported in the Manu National Park buffer zone, the company stated that it would not continue with its plans in the area. But DAR and indigenous organisations believe that the matter is far from settled.

Tierramérica contacted Pluspetrol and the Department of Energy-Related Environmental Affairs for their input on the subject, but neither had responded by press time.

In the meantime, a million dollars in funding from the Inter-American Development Bank will be used this year to step up protection of indigenous reserves, reported Vilca.

* This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network.

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This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Culture, Environment, Human Rights, Justice, Latin America, Lead, Politics Tagged With: ,

Obesity and Hypertension – Signs of Inequality in Chile

March 27, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

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Promoting friendship and outdoor games for children is part of Elige Vivir Sano’s programme to combat obesity. Credit: Elige Vivir Sano

Marianela Jarroud

SANTIAGO, Mar 27 (IPS) – The prevalence of obesity and hypertension among the poor in Chile is a factor that aggravates inequality, requiring public policies for prevention and mitigation of the high cost of a healthy diet.The most recent national health survey, carried out in 2012, found that 8.9 million people in Chile are overweight or obese, equivalent to 67 percent of the population.

The figures indicate that there are 2.1 million more obese people now than in 2003, when the previous survey was done. Morbid or extreme obesity has increased by more than 100 percent and now affects 300,000 people.

Broken down by socioeconomic level, 35.5 percent of the poorest, least educated segment of the population is overweight, compared to 24.7 percent of the middle-income segment and 18.5 percent of the highest.

Chile’s statistics are in line with the results of a 2012 study by the World Health Organization (WHO), which found that the prevalence of obesity worldwide nearly doubled between 1980 and 2008.

Latin America leads that increase. Mexico has one of the highest obesity rates in the world. And in South America, Chile has the third highest obesity rate, after Argentina and Venezuela. It is also the country with the highest proportion of men with hypertension or high blood pressure in South America.

Juan Carlos Prieto, a cardiologist at the Clinical Hospital of the University of Chile, said the figures are not new and reflect complex aspects of social inequality.

"Chile also has record carbohydrate consumption, especially of refined flours, like bread," he told IPS.

"If you make a quick survey, especially among low-income people, you find the staple food is bread: a person can eat up to six to eight servings a day, which means consuming the same number of grams of salt a day," he said.

In his view, that is the nub of the problem. "A salty diet, plus obesity derived from over-consuming carbohydrates with the calories they imply, explains the environmental factor of the level of hypertension in Chile," he said.

Prieto, an associate professor of pharmacology at the University of Chile School of Medicine, said the prevalence of hypertension and obesity is higher among people with low incomes, "and there is quite a significant difference" between this group and other sectors of the population.

The problem, he said, is that the prices of fruit and vegetables, essential elements of a healthy diet, have soared in Chile in the past 10 years.

For instance, a kilo of apples used to cost 20 cents of a dollar in street markets, and now costs 1.50 dollars. In supermarkets, the price is even higher.

As a result, Chileans are eating on average 86 kilos of bread a year, an amount that is worrying the experts.

"People on low incomes resort to the cheapest foods, like pasta or bread, which fill them up quickly and do not cost very much," Prieto said.

This, together with sedentary habits and high levels of stress in society, led the government of President Sebastián Piñera to implement the Elige Vivir Sano (Choose Healthy Living) programme, aimed at changing dietary habits and fomenting the practice of sports among Chileans.

When Piñera took office in March 2010, "over 88 percent of the population did less than 20 minutes exercise three times a week," the director of the government initiative, Pauline Kantor, told IPS.

She added that this is a social problem, as it affects mainly the most disadvantaged sectors.

"Chile is a sick country, and if we do not take care now, in another 10 years we will be in deep trouble when it comes to heart disease and diabetes, and we will have health costs that will be difficult to sustain," she said.

Elige Vivir Sano, headed by Piñera’s wife, Cecilia Morel, is one of a number of public policies being taken forward jointly by several organisations.

For example, the Education Ministry decided to increase the time allotted to physical education in schools, from two to four hours a week, while the Health Ministry extended the traditional children’s programme of health control to teenagers, so that overweight adolescents are referred to nutritionists for treatment.

Another novelty is the installation of exercise equipment in public squares, now called "active plazas." These have been set up in 172 out of the 346 municipalities in the country.

"We are not asking people to join a programme at a gym, but only to learn some exercise routines so they can work out at home or in nearby squares," Kantor said. The campaign includes radio and television advertising that invites homemakers to exercise using one-kilo packages of rice or beans as weights, to get people to adopt a home exercise routine.

Kantor said that while it would take 10 years to see real change, some progress has already been made. "The last survey of physical activity and sports found that 500,000 Chileans are no longer sedentary, an important achievement," she said.

Also, "40 percent of the people who contacted Elige Vivir Sano said they had changed at least one habit," she said.

Now the goal is to turn the programme into law. The draft bill, which will be presented to Congress soon, includes the creation of an executive secretariat, under the Ministry of Social Development, that will coordinate programmes from different ministries. The aim of the bill is "to give the changing of habits the priority that Chile needs," said Kantor.

In the view of Prieto, the cardiologist, the initiative is "interesting," but the main thing is to create concrete possibilities for bringing about change.

"When it comes to diet, I repeat, people are urged to eat five fruits a day, but you have to look at the cost of that compared to a plate of pasta, for a family living on the minimum wage," which in Chile is only 400 dollars a month.

"It has to be evaluated whether this depends only on individuals, or whether the state has to take action to make this happen, for instance by increasing access by the lowest-income sectors,” he said.

Promoting friendship and outdoor games for children is part of Elige Vivir Sano’s programme to combat obesity. Credit: Elige Vivir Sano

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Filed Under: Featured, Health, Inequality, Latin America, Poverty Tagged With:

Group Warns of “Natural Resources Giveaway” in Latin America

March 27, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

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Caudalosa workers clean up mining tailings in Peru’s Opamayo River. Credit: Milagros Salazar/IPS

Joe Hitchon

WASHINGTON, Mar 26 (IPS) – Researchers have unveiled new data warning that governments in Latin America are infringing on the rights of their indigenous populations in a bid to fuel development through the extraction of natural resources.The Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), a Washington-based organisation, says it has documented a “natural resources giveaway” in Latin America, which highlights how an outdated development model is trampling on human rights and the environment throughout much of the region.[pullquote]3[/pullquote]

“Without recognition of local rights, transparency of deals and decisions, and mechanisms to ensure accountability of governments and investors, there will be a rollback of environmental, human and tenure rights of forest communities,” Omaira Bolanos, RRI’s programme director for Latin America, told IPS from Bogota.

“Foreign investors prefer countries with weakened regulations to expand their investments. So, governments, citizens, civil society and businesspeople must work together to address the risks and opportunities of advancing the economic development and prosperity of all Latin Americans.”

She added: “But this must be done without harming the human and tenure rights of rural, indigenous and Afro-descendant communities.”

A new study from RRI (available in Spanish here) finds that even while some governments in Latin America are increasingly looking to natural resources extraction to fuel their economic development, several are paying scant attention to the impact of mining, oil exploration and other activities on the environment or local landowners.

Margarita Florez, executive director at Asociación Ambiente y Sociedad, an environmental and human rights group in Colombia, analyses the impacts of the extractive industries on the collective land and forest rights of people and communities in Colombia, Peru, Guatemala and Panama.

Florez writes that the mining activities in those countries increased in intensity and range over the last two decades, particularly focusing on lands owned by indigenous and Afro-descendant communities.

“A lot of the real impacts aren’t coming to light,” Augusta Molnar, director for country and regional programmes at RRI, told IPS.

“Governments think they can dramatically expand mining or petroleum exploration in their countries because it is a small percent of the total land area and, therefore, they believe the environmental impact will be small – despite the fact that 90 to 100 percent of these areas are in the middle of forests and indigenous lands. So in fact, the impacts are quite massive.”

All four countries, for instance, reported destruction to vital water sources for indigenous communities, due to the very high water demand for mining operations.

Little oversight

In each of these four countries, foreign direct investment (FDI) was found to be focused mainly on the extractives sector. In Colombia, for example, oil and mining investment accounted for 92 percent of FDI in 2011 – around 13.2 billion dollars.

FDI also increased in these sectors in Guatemala, Peru and Panama. Indeed, the states evidently competed to attract FDI, often reducing or eliminating restrictions or regulations in order to attract companies.

In addition, the report says little consultation appears to be taking place between affected communities and governments – let alone with the private mining companies. This sets the stage for conflict and creates precedents that undermine both legal and governance issues at the national level.

“There are some companies with high standards and some companies with very poor standards,” Molnar said.

“Broadly, we found that the institutions are not in place at the state level to oversee the environment impact assessments and their implementation. There is not a broad set of standards for prior consent, and there is a prevailing assumption that a set of consultations have been carried out when in reality there is no mechanism in place for oversight.”

Opposition movements have attempted to push back, but these have been countered by government efforts to paint indigenous communities as obstacles to eagerly awaited progress.

“If you fully recognise a people’s rights, than the engagement with these peoples and decisions to go ahead with an investment make them very much in the middle of negotiations between the companies and the state,” Florez writes.

“This will require the state to be much more accountable. We know that indigenous people are very important actors in managing forests and living in harmony with forests. We also know that poverty increases if you don’t work with these local people.”

She continues, “A company cannot just collect revenues and expect the local economy is going to grow. There needs to be a balanced development.”

Need for consultation

In 2011, James Anaya, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, published a report questioning the current development model in much of Latin America. The idea that the extraction of natural resources leads to progress, Anaya stated at the time, constitutes a violation of indigenous peoples’ cultural, social, environmental and economic rights.

Florez furthers this line of inquiry. For instance, she highlights an inequitable distribution of royalties garnered from the exploitation of the region’s non-renewable natural resources, and finds that this money has failed to translate into greater well-being for local communities.

Over the weekend in Bogota, representatives from the four governments, including leaders from indigenous and Afro-descendant groups, gathered to discuss the effects of resource extraction on nearby communities. According to Molnar, both the government and indigenous representatives were happy to be able to talk face to face.

“We hope this demonstrates that the governments are at a pivot point,” she says. “Will they pursue massive resource extraction at any cost or create a detailed and regulated development plan?”

According to Melissa Blue Sky, project attorney with the Washington-based Centre for International and Environmental Law (CIEL), it is a precedent that is gaining force. A consultation law just came into force last year in Peru, and other Latin American countries are creating similar national laws.

“An increased level of dialogue and an effort to protect the rights of indigenous peoples is being seen in Latin America as more countries are beginning to implement national consultation laws,” she told IPS.

“High oil and gas prices are giving countries new incentive to extract from previously undisturbed regions where indigenous people often live. National consultation laws are giving strength to these voices.”

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This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Development, Environment, Featured, Latin America Tagged With: ,

Young Computer Scientists in Cuba Short of Opportunities

March 26, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

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Jobs in the industry are hard to find for new computer engineering graduates in Cuba. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Ivet González

HAVANA, Mar 26 (IPS) – Thousands of young Cubans are graduating in computer engineering, a sector the government decided to strengthen over the past decade. But their professional future is uncertain because of failures of organisation and of internet connectivity."I haven’t been able to work as a computer engineer," a 24-year-old woman who graduated in 2011 told IPS. She attended the University of Information Science (UCI), a centre for development and training that was planned as Cuba’s great stride forward in 2002 to boost the field of software programming.

While she was studying, the young woman imagined she would have a secure future in the field of computing. But instead she has been posted for training in a state institute of statistical analysis, where the work is suitable "neither for a computer engineer nor an information technologist.

"I am not learning anything in my specialty, and at the office I just work on statistics," the engineer, who requested anonymity, complained. Only a few of her fellow students got jobs in software development, while many others are teaching in secondary schools or institutes.

A total of 1,600 computer engineers graduated in her year.

Juan Triana, at the state Centre for Studies on the Cuban Economy, said this Caribbean island nation needs to make better use of the human capital educated over decades at its universities.

The country has the potential to make progress in the knowledge economy, but it must be more innovative in science and technology, and organise regional and local innovation systems that make use of its human resources, Triana says in his 2012 article "Cuba: la economía del conocimiento y el desarrollo" (Cuba: the knowledge economy and development).

That way, he says, computer engineers and technicians from the Havana-based UCI could play an important role in the economic reforms set into motion by the government of President Raúl Castro in 2008.

Up to July 2012, 10,021 computer engineers had graduated from UCI in Havana, not counting graduates from the university’s campuses in three other cities.

Other universities also teach information science, but have fewer students.

Technical education also includes this specialisation. The National Office of Statistics and Information reported that in 2011, 1,466 students graduated in electronics, robotics and communications.

But there are more computer professionals than jobs generated by the industry, according to observers.

However, Luis Guillermo Fernández, the head of Softel, a company creating computing solutions for healthcare, disagreed with this analysis in conversation with IPS at the international Informática 2013 Fair, held in Havana Mar. 19-22.

The fair has been held for the past 15 years for the exchange of ideas and knowledge with companies and researchers from other countries, and to boost business deals and cooperation. This year it was attended by some 1,400 experts from 30 countries, with China in the lead.

Fernández maintained "there is no surplus of graduates; on the contrary, we will need more of them when we get organised." He pointed out that "almost all undertakings nowadays use computer science."

In his opinion, "it is essential to organise and update the computer industry. We have not properly organised what we need or defined what our goals are." The industry veteran said it was urgent "to expand information science culture in order to use human resources more effectively and open up more opportunities."

Among the problems, Fernández mentioned the need to set clear development goals and priorities, attract investment, bolster competitiveness, quality and efficiency in order to increase service exports and attract foreign companies to manufacture some components in Cuba.

The country only has a bandwidth of 323 megabits per second via satellite, which limits connectivity to internet by institutions, companies, and even more so by households. Since 2012 a fibre optic cable has been operational thanks to an agreement with Venezuela, which, it is hoped, will gradually improve matters.

Exporting goods and services was one of the aims in 2003 when the sector was expanded. Although centres like UCI sell some of their products and computer engineers are working on projects with countries like Venezuela, experts say there is still a long way to go.

Import substitution and export promotion were other goals, but not enough progress has been made, participants in the fair said.

At the end of 2003, the country had 44 software production firms, 24 of which belonged to the ministry of Informatics and Communications. The ministry has since reduced that number to 22.

Most of the companies are devoted to supplying demand from Cuban institutions and the local economy, which is still heavily centralised.

Young people are finding employment in firms like Desoft, which is dedicated to computerising business management and is present in the 15 provincial capitals and 139 municipalities, according to Anabel García, a spokeswoman for the state company. However, the average age of its employees is still around 40, she told IPS.

But it was the young who were actually more in evidence at the fair. Among them was 27-year-old Abel Fírvida, who works on Nova, the Cuban adaptation of the Linux operating system, a free and open source software system created in 1990 by Linus Torvalds of Finland.

Version 3.0 of Nova was presented at the fair. Owing to Fírvida’s excellent grades, he joined the project while he was still a student, and in his view, graduates with the best academic records do have good job opportunities.

Nova was developed by UCI and a company created by the armed forces. At present it is available free to anyone interested in installing it, Fírvida, who is also a teacher, told IPS. The 60-member Nova team is thus contributing to migration to open-source digital systems that guarantee greater security and sovereignty.

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Filed Under: Development, Latin America, Lead Tagged With: , , ,

Wheels of Industry Slowing in Brazil

March 6, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 06 (IPS) – Industry is the ailing sector of the Brazilian economy, with production falling 2.7 percent in 2012 in spite of government incentives, and in contrast with the strong expansion of retail trade and the lowest unemployment rate in history.The enigma of a stagnant economy that nevertheless has symptoms of growth that is happening too fast for the country to handle, including a shortage of labour and rising inflation, appears to be explained in several recent publications.

Some of the causes mentioned by economists are a fall in the number of young people joining the labour market and accumulated excess inventory.

The slowing of manufacturing activity is the chief concern of the government of President Dilma Rousseff and economic operators, because it accentuates a trend that calls into question the future of the country. Deindustrialisation, recognised years ago by industrialists and a few economists, is now hard to ignore.

Improved forecasts for this year are raising expectations. But low levels of investment, reflected in the 11.8 percent fall in production of capital goods in 2012 and the surge in inflation, which may cause the Central Bank to take measures to curb demand, do not support the promise of a vigorous recovery.

Results at the close of 2012 were "a bucket of cold water," frustrating hopes of resuming the path of growth and indicating that "the crisis is deeper" in Brazilian industry, and not just a circumstantial effect attributable to the severe problems facing the global economy, said Julio de Almeida, a consultant at the Institute for Industrial Development Studies (IEDI).

Brazil "has not kept up with the development of global industry" in the last 20 years, as China, South Korea and India have done, he told IPS. As it has not developed the most dynamic sectors, like electronics and the pharmaceutical industry, it has not advanced enough in technological innovations, either, he added.

For the past 15 years, industry and certain "organised services" have also been suffering from an accumulation of costs, whether logistical, financial or energy-related, which have harmed their competitiveness, he said.

To cap it all, wages have increased in the last five years at a rate much higher than productivity. Only last year they rose by an average of 5.8 percent, while productivity fell by 0.8 percent, according to IEDI.

It is possible for less competitive countries to survive if the world economy is growing at a good rate, but problems appeared with the crisis that broke out in 2008 in the United States and then spread mainly to Europe, which "shrank the industrial market" worldwide and created intense competition in the domestic Brazilian market, de Almeida said.

In spite of it all, de Almeida believes that this year there may be some recovery, thanks to government measures to reduce electricity costs, cut taxes for some industrial sectors, lower interest rates and stabilise exchange rates, as well as its announcement of large forthcoming investments in transport infrastructure.

However, it will be necessary to boost productivity by investing heavily in technological innovations, especially because Brazil’s industrial base is "aged," he said.

In fact, the mechanical engineering industry, especially the automotive industry, is increasingly predominant in the country.

With its long production chain, ranging from automobile parts to agricultural machinery, the automotive segment represented 21 percent of industrial production in 2011, according to the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers (ANFAVEA).

This proportion has doubled in the last 20 years, while the contribution of manufacturing as a whole to GDP has declined, falling to 14.6 percent in 2011. In other words, the importance of automobiles in the Brazilian economy is still rising.

As a result, the main government measure to reduce the recessionary effects of the international financial crisis was to cut taxes on vehicles, from December 2008, after three months of a sharp decline in sales. The strategy had been used before in other crises.

Oil and steel are also key elements in Brazilian efforts to reverse deindustrialisation.

Recovery is being sought in the shipbuilding industry, taking advantage of the oil discovered under a salt layer deep below the sea bed of the Atlantic ocean, close to the Brazilian coast.

In order to bolster national production, legislation was designed to demand variable and increasing proportions of Brazilian-made components, that may reach up to 70 percent of every ship, platform, depth sounder and other equipment constructed for oil extraction.

All these state interventions, such as tax or financial incentives for specific sectors and measures seen as protectionist, including customs barriers and requirements for a high national content for products like automobiles, as well as oil tankers, are rejected by many free market analysts, who have a keen following among operators and media specialised in economics.

Deindustrialisation is not necessarily a "sickness," since "industry is doing badly, but Brazil is doing very well," with high employment and high wages, said economist Edmar Bacha in interviews last year when he announced a book he edited, titled "O Futuro da Indústria no Brasil" (The Future of Industry in Brazil), published in February 2013.

According to the book, the manufacturing sector in Brazil lost competitiveness mainly due to the rise in wages, which drove up costs.

The average wage in Brazil grew 14.4 percent a year between 2006 and 2011, a global record seconded at a great distance by Australia, which had nine percent wage growth, according to co-authors Beny Parnes and Gabriel Hartung.

Bacha, who took part in previous governments that implemented more free market economic policies, maintained that competitiveness is not built by protectionism, but by more open trade, allowing integration into international production chains. Mexico is cited as an example.

Taking a broader range of expert views, the only point of agreement about the loss of industrial capacity is that it is caused by lack of competitiveness. But there are broad differences in interpretations of its origins and solutions.

Analysts in the commodities sector, for instance, question the primacy attributed to industry as the driver of progress and innovation. They argue that agriculture today adds a great deal of technology and knowledge, involving scientific research and mechanisation.

But the Brazilian government is led by so-called "developmentalists," for whom economic growth is paramount, and chief among them is President Rousseff herself.

It is ironic, then, that industrial decline continues while the country is administered by leaders who prioritise the sector and, to recover its competitiveness, have adopted measures accused of being overly interventionist by the partisans of free market solutions.

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Operation Condor on Trial in Argentina

March 6, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

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Manuel Cordero, captured on camera in 2009 by a journalist with Uruguay’s Channel 12 violating house arrest in Brazil. Credit: Canal 12

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Mar 05 (IPS) – The trial over a campaign of terror coordinated among the dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America in the 1970s and 1980s began Tuesday in Buenos Aires with former dictator Jorge Rafael Videla as one of the main defendants, along with another 24 former military officers.Under Operation Condor, as the coordination between the military dictatorships in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay was known, opponents of the regimes were tracked down, kidnapped, tortured, transferred across borders and killed – including guerrilla fighters, political activists, trade unionists, students, priests, journalists or mothers demanding to know what had happened to their missing sons and daughters.

"This is the first time in Latin America that a trial is being held over Operation Condor, to prosecute those responsible, above and beyond trials held in some countries for specific cases," lawyer Luz Palmas of the Fundación Liga Argentina por los Derechos Humanos (FUNLADDHH), a human rights organisation, told IPS.

The 25 defendants include Videla and other former generals like Reynaldo Bignone and Luciano Benjamín Menéndez. Uruguayan general Manuel Cordero, prosecuted for the role he played in the illegal detention centre at Automotores Orletti in Buenos Aires, was extradited from Brazil for this trial.

Three of the accused were declared unfit to stand trial for health reasons. Another 15 people under investigation died before the case came to trial.

"Orletti was an operational base for Condor. Foreigners who were kidnapped were taken there, which is why it was decided to take both the cases to oral trial together," said Palmas, who represents survivors of the torture centre as well as victims of forced disappearance.

The trial that began Tuesday, which could stretch on for up to two years, is for the kidnapping and forced disappearance of 106 people. The largest group of victims were Uruguayans (48), but there were also Argentines, Bolivians, Chileans, Paraguayans and one Peruvian.

The case was initiated in 1999, when the two amnesty laws that put a stop to the prosecution of members of the military for human rights abuses committed during Argentina’s 1976-1983 dictatorship were still in force.

The lawsuit thus invoked forced disappearance as a crime against humanity that was not subject to amnesty.

After the amnesty laws were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2005, along with the presidential pardons of former members of the military junta, the case picked up speed, more victims were included and more people came under investigation.

In the Orletti case, the crimes are illegal detention and torture. Sixty-five victims were identified, some of whom survived and, like Ana Inés Quadros, a Uruguayan citizen, have already testified in an earlier stage of the trial in 2010 against four torturers belonging to the Argentine intelligence services.

At that time, Quadros declared that she was kidnapped in Buenos Aires in July 1976 and taken to Orletti, where she was tortured and raped by Cordero. She was later transferred to an illegal detention centre in Uruguay, and eventually freed.

However, Cordero is only being tried for illegal detention under Operation Condor, and not for the crimes he committed in Orletti, because the Brazilian justice system did not grant extradition for that case.

In the view of Lorena Balardini, research coordinator for the Centre for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), a local human rights group, this trial "is the biggest to be held so far in the region over Operation Condor, and could serve as an impetus for other countries where there have been delays or backsliding," she told IPS.

Balardini said there had been "a setback" in Uruguay. She was referring to a Supreme Court ruling in February this year overturning a lower court verdict to remove the statute of limitations on crimes of the 1973-1985 dictatorship, regarded as crimes against humanity.

"This trial is a way of making these abuses visible and judging them from the viewpoint of coordination between dictatorships," she said. For this reason, CELS, in its capacity as legal representative of several victims, has focused on key cases in which that coordination is proven.

For example, CELS is representing the families of Marcelo Gelman – the son of Argentine poet Juan Gelman – and his wife María Claudia García Irureta. The couple was kidnapped in Buenos Aires in 1976 at the ages of 20 and 19 respectively, when García was seven months pregnant.

Gelman was killed and his body was identified in 1989, but García was taken from Orletti to Uruguay, where she gave birth to Macarena Gelman, who was finally tracked down at the age of 23 by her grandfather in 2000. García’s body has never been found.

Complaints will also be lodged on behalf of Horacio Campiglia and his secretary Susana Pinus, Argentine citizens who were kidnapped in Galeão airport in Rio de Janeiro in 1980 and were presumed to have been transferred to Argentina, where they disappeared.

In the context of Operation Condor, other famous cases were investigated specifically, such as the murders in Argentina of Uruguayan Congressmen Zelmar Michelini and Héctor Gutiérrez Ruiz in 1976.

Former Bolivian president Juan José Torres, who took refuge in Argentina after being overthrown by Hugo Banzer in 1971, was also murdered there in 1976.

According to lawyer Carolina Varsky, head of litigation at CELS, these murder cases were not included in the Operation Condor trial in order to evade restrictions imposed by the amnesty laws, and only cases of forced disappearance – considered “ongoing crimes” – were taken up.

As for the central role played by Chile’s DINA, the secret police of late dictator Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), Varsky regretted the lack of progress in prosecuting direct or indirect agents of repression who participated in Operation Condor.

Essential evidence came from Paraguay, where lawyer and journalist Martín Almada discovered in 1992 what are known as the Archives of Terror in a police station in Asunción, containing innumerable documents shedding light on the fate of Operation Condor victims from the seven countries.

Further evidence is contained in declassified documents from the United States State Department, such as a 1976 memo from an FBI agent describing the coordinated actions of South America’s military regimes, which could go "as far as murder."

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2013.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Featured, History, Human Rights, Justice, Latin America Tagged With: ,

Chávez Leaves a Deep Imprint

March 6, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Chavez-small

Hugo Chávez greeting a little girl in a campaign rally. Credit: Carabobo Comando in the 2012 election campaign.

Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Mar 06 (IPS) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez died Tuesday in the Military Hospital of Caracas after a long battle with cancer in his abdominal region, which was diagnosed in June 2011.Born on Jul. 28, 1954 in Sabaneta, a small town in Venezuela’s southwestern plains, Chávez was the second of the six sons born to rural schoolteachers Hugo de los Reyes Chávez and Elena Frías.

Raised mainly by his grandmother, the young Hugo was passionately devoted to baseball. At the age of 17, after graduating from high school, he entered the Military Academy.

As a lieutenant in the army, he founded the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200, a political and social movement, in 1982, influenced by his older brother Adán, an active member of the Venezuelan Revolution Party headed by guerrilla leader Douglas Bravo.

Chávez first made history on Feb. 4, 1992, when he surrendered after leading a failed uprising by several army battalions against then president Carlos Andrés Pérez (1974-1979 and 1989-1993).

Wearing combat fatigues and a red paratrooper’s beret and walking calmly among the jittery officers who arrested him, he gave an improvised 70-second speech addressing his fellow troops involved in the uprising, which had an immediate impact on millions of Venezuelans watching the live TV coverage.

“Lamentably, for now, our objectives were not achieved…But the country has to take the road to a better destiny, and I assume responsibility…for this Bolivarian movement,” he said, calling for his companions to lay down their arms to avoid further bloodshed.

Instead of blood, ink ran, as analysts discussed how, in a country where millions of people were marginalised from the oil economy and where leaders who acknowledged the shortcomings of the political system were lacking, a young army officer had assumed responsibility for the attempted coup in the name of a movement that invoked independence hero Simón Bolívar (1783-1830).

Chávez’s legend was thus born, and his popularity began to grow. After spending two years in prison he was pardoned by then president Rafael Caldera (1969-1974 and 1994-1999) of COPEI, Venezuela’s Christian Democratic party, and began to travel the country raising hopes of a new uprising.

But in 1996, on the advice of veteran left-wing politicians like Luis Miquilena, his political mentor, he decided to seek power at the polls.

Chávez founded the Fifth Republic Movement (MVR), which grew and grew while the traditional parties that had ruled since 1959 went into decline. He won the Dec. 6, 1998 presidential elections with 56 percent of the vote.

In 15 other elections held between 1999 and 2012, the proportion of voters who backed Chávez and his supporters remained fairly steady at that level. From the start, his main voting base was made up of the poor.

The hope of the poor

To the economic, social and cultural reasons that explain this support were added “the hope of justice that lives always in the depths of the soul of the poor,” as well as Chávez’s charisma, former socialist leader Teodoro Petkoff told IPS.

People of “mestizo” or mixed-race heritage identified easily with Chávez, who looked like them. Other aspects of his charismatic personality were a casual, accessible approach, a powerful stage presence and commanding voice, and a speaking style that at times had a trace of the preacher. His speeches were splattered with references to Bolívar and to the independence and land reform struggles of the 19th century.

Since taking power, he made 2,200 nationwide broadcasts and nearly 400 editions of his Sunday show "Aló Presidente", where he discussed political questions, aspects of his military career, or history, largely unscripted and for several hours, in colloquial language.

Chávez supported left-wing causes and governments throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, had a close alliance with Cuba, and described Fidel Castro as his mentor.

He had the constitution rewritten and approved by voters in 1999 and amended in 2009.

In 2001, land laws aimed at redistributing unused rural property unleashed a backlash from the moneyed classes and prompted constant protest marches by Venezuelans calling for him to step down.

On Apr. 11, 2002, the largest opposition march to date ended with gunfire near the house of government that claimed the lives of 19 people and left many more injured – an incident that was never clarified.

The military high command, backed by powerful civilian elites, staged a coup against Chávez, and Pedro Carmona, the head of Fedecámaras – the main business association – was declared president and immediately dissolved most of Venezuela’s democratic institutions, including Congress.

But loyal members of the military, along with tens of thousands of supporters who surrounded the government palace and military institutions in Caracas, put Chávez back in power less than 48 hours after he was ousted.

In late 2002 and early 2003, a lockout by top management of the PDVSA oil company and by private firms aimed at toppling Chávez caused extensive damage to the economy. But the two-month business shutdown failed and the country’s democratic institutions remained stable.

In August 2004, the opposition organised a recall referendum asking Venezuelans whether Chávez should leave office immediately. But 59 percent of voters said he should continue to govern, in a transparent vote overseen by the Organisation of American States and the Carter Centre, among other observers.

With support from Cuba, the Chávez administration introduced a broad range of social programmes, known as “missions”, bringing healthcare, dental care, education, subsidised food, literacy programmes and direct financial aid to the poor, along with employment and housing plans, outside of the traditional bureaucratic channels.

According to the World Bank, between 1999 and 2012, poverty was reduced to 28.5 percent, from at least double that. In addition, per capita GDP increased from 4,105 dollars to 10,810 dollars in 2011, according to World Bank figures.

After his re-election in December 2006, the president stepped up his verbal and diplomatic confrontation with the United States, forged closer ties with countries outside the region like Russia, China and Iran, broke off relations with Israel, and declared that his aim was “21st century socialism”.

Chávez invariably defined himself as Bolivarian, to the point that he officially named the country the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and used the term in the names of his works and proposals. But he also described himself as Christian, humanist, Marxist, socialist, anti-imperialist, pro-indigenous and pro-worker.

The high price of oil, which accounts for 40 percent of Venezuela’s budget revenue, made it possible for him to nationalise a number of companies and place the economy under tight controls, starting with exchange controls. But he failed to curb the heavy dependence on the importation of foodstuffs or Venezuelans’ rampant consumerism.

After a new constitutional reform was voted down in 2007 by a narrow majority, he had to wait until 2009 to push through the possibility of indefinite re-election for the presidency and other posts.

Long before, in a brief conversation with IPS in 2003, Chávez had said that he did not want to govern forever, “just for two terms, until January 2013, and after that another revolutionary will do so.”

But he changed his mind later, arguing that he needed to stay in power in order to usher in the necessary changes, saying the constant shifts in administration in Latin America and the Caribbean had thwarted similar initiatives.

His effort to be elected to a fourth term apparently had an impact on his health. Doctors said it was extremely negative for him to dedicate himself to the government and the election campaign simultaneously in 2011 and 2012, while neglecting his health.

Only in extremis, after his health took a turn for the worse in December 2012, did he decide to name a chosen successor: Nicolás Maduro, his candidate to replace him in the presidency.

The first big question mark is whether his political heirs will inherit the leadership role and popular support he enjoyed for 20 years, 14 of them in the government.

Another question is whether “Chavismo” will give rise to a strong political movement, along the lines of Peronism in Argentina after the death of Juan Domingo Perón (1895-1974), or whether Chávez will become a cult figure for the left like Argentine-Cuban guerrilla Ernesto "Che" Guevara (1928-1967).

Chávez frequently said that when he reached old age he imagined himself retired, under the shade of a tree on the Venezuelan plains where he was born, teaching children, and perhaps cultivating one of his passions: the “copla” music of the plains region.

A born warrior, a “simple soldier” as he liked to say, with combat terms always on hand to explain any situation, who defeated almost all of his rivals, a true winner in politics, Chávez was unable to win the final battle against cancer that brought him down at the age of 58.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2013.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: History, Latin America, Lead, Politics Tagged With: , ,

Argentine Rights Violators under "House Arrest" Stroll the Streets

February 17, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 16 (IPS) – In spite of repeated violations of house arrest by people convicted of crimes against humanity during Argentina’s dictatorship, some activists remain in favour of this lenient alternative to prison, but they want better oversight by the courts.The Prosecution Unit for the coordination and monitoring of cases involving human rights violations committed during the state terrorism indicated that in late 2012, 37.8 percent of the 813 persons detained for crimes against humanity were under house arrest.

Home detention may be allowed by judges for prosecuted or convicted persons over 70, those with terminal illnesses, or with health problems that cannot be treated in prison. But because of the lack of control measures, those supposed to be under house arrest frequently violate its terms.

"You always hear about cases in which victims recognise and denounce them, and if they are not denounced more frequently it is because they aren’t recognised," lawyer Alan Iud, of the Grandmothers of Plaza Mayo, the organisation devoted to looking for the children of the detained-disappeared during the 1976-1983 dictatorship in Argentina, told IPS.

In January, former army intelligence agent Carlos Hidalgo, prosecuted for more than 200 crimes against humanity and convicted for the baby theft of Laura Catalina de Sanctis, the daughter of a disappeared couple, was seen cycling through the streets of Buenos Aires.

Hidalgo, who had registered Laura as his own biological child, was recognised in the street by de Sanctis herself, who denounced him to the justice system. He was supposedly under arrest in a geriatric centre in Buenos Aires, where he lived. The court revoked his privileges and transferred him to a hospital at the Ezeiza Prison Unit, in the outskirts of the Argentine capital.[pullquote]3[/pullquote]

This month, obstetrician Jorge Luis Magnacco, convicted for baby theft and prosecuted for his part in several childbirths at the Navy School of Mechanics, located in a residential neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, home to one of the most notorious illegal detention centres of the dictatorship, was seen strolling through the streets with his wife.

Members of the association HIJOS (Children for Identity and Justice, against Forgetting and Silence) filmed Magnacco entering a shopping centre and then a restaurant.

The court that had granted Magnacco the privilege of house arrest decided to repeal it and transfer the convicted doctor to a correctional facility.

Human rights organisations say they are not against house arrest per se in properly justified cases. However, they say home detention cannot be granted without any control or oversight.

"The judge should regulate house arrest, which is not the same as granting release from prison," said Lorena Balardini, coordinator of research at the Centre for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), an NGO working on legal and human rights issues.

"Curtailing the granting of house arrest is not an option, because it is part of the guarantees of due process for any crime. But neither can detainees be left to their own free will," the expert told IPS. "The problem is not the privilege itself, but slackness in its regulation," she said.

In Balardini’s view, house arrest should be terminated when its conditions are violated by the detainee leaving the premises, contrary to what was agreed with the judge.

"Home detention is a privilege because the detainee is living in the comfort of his or her own home, and it is based on legal and humanitarian criteria," she said.

"This implies a commitment on the part of these persons to comply with the rules of the game, but if they do not, house arrest must be revoked because this is another way of making the benefit tangible," she said.

"But one must not fall into the trap of concluding that the problem lies in house arrest itself," she said.

In Balardini’s view, the main thing is that the accused or convicted person is in detention. "The form or method, so long as it is suitably implemented, is not important. As a human rights organisation working with persons deprived of their freedom for common crimes, we do not want to see the eradication of house arrest," she said.

She also warned of the danger of creating special rules just for crimes against humanity.

"These trials are emblematic, but they cannot be played by different rules, because that could endanger their legitimacy. Criminal law ordains the availability of house arrest, and it is the judge who decides when to apply it," she said.

Iud, the lawyer for the Grandmothers association, agreed. "We are not against the institution of house arrest when it is used for humanitarian reasons, which must be studied case by case, but we do believe that once it is ordered, and is strictly justified, oversight should be in place, and there should be controls that today do not exist," he said.

"The judge, or the secretary or other personnel of the court, should be in charge of verifying compliance with the court order. They could carry out surprise visits, or make phone calls, or set temporary guards. A mechanism must be sought, because at the moment there is no control whatsoever, and they (the detainees) know it," he said.

In Iud’s view, judges cannot shelter behind the excuse of lack of resources, because a simple phone call would suffice to make periodic checks that the order is being respected.

If this is not possible, an institution should be authorised to carry out oversight. Iud suggested this could be the Patronato de Liberados (a welfare organisation for released inmates) that comes under the justice ministry and has a budget provided by the judicial branch.

The trials of military personnel and civilians for crimes during the dictatorship so far add up to 1,013 persons prosecuted and 378 convicted. The number of convictions has increased five-fold since 2008 as a result of combining cases and accelerating trials, according to the Prosecution Unit.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2013.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Human Rights, Justice, Latin America, Report Tagged With:

Empty Promises Behind Haitian Govt’s "Free School" Program

February 17, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

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Students at a public school in Croix-des-Bouquets. Credit: Haiti Grassroots Watch/Marc Schindler Saint Val

Correspondents

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 17 (Haiti Grassroots Watch) – Ever since his election in 2011, Haitian President Michel Martelly has touted his "free school" program as one of the government’s major accomplishments. "A victory for students!" banners and posters boast.The Program for Universal Free and Obligatory Education (Programme de scolarisation universelle gratuite et obligatoire – PSUGO) is a program that costs 43 million U.S. dollars per year and aims to send over one million young Haitians to school every year for five years.

A two-month investigation by Haiti Grassroots Watch (HGW) in Port-au-Prince and Léogâne, however, found more children in school but also discovered a long list of unkept promises, inadequate funding levels, late payments and even suspicions of corruption.

"In my opinion, the PSUGO is a failure!" exclaimed Jean Clauvin Joly, director of the Centre Culturel du Divin Roi, a private school in Croix-des-Bouquets about 15 kilometres north of the capital of Port-au-Prince. "Last year, we suffered under that program. One of the many terrible things was that we were paid late. Thanks to the delay, a lot of our teachers quit."

At Joly’s school, first and second graders share the same room and the same teacher, Francie Déogène. A thin sheet of plywood that also serves as a "blackboard" separates her classroom from others. Dérogène doesn’t have a desk. She piles everything on a plastic chair. Facing her, on four benches, ten students repeat together "a pineapple, a melon…" This is a writing course.

‘The state guarantees the right to education’

During the 2011 presidential elections, "lekòl gratis", or "free school", was a favourite refrain of singer-candidate Joseph Michel Martelly. But in Haiti, the guarantee of free education is not just a politician’s promise; it is an obligation. According to the Constitution, the state "guarantees the right to education… free of charge".

The PSUGO program aims to keep that promise by paying school fees for primary school children: 250 gourdes (about 6 U.S. dollars) for public school students and about 3,600 gourdes, or 90 U.S. dollars, for those at private school. (In Haiti, slightly more than 80 percent of schools are private.) PSUGO is also supposed to open new schools and ensure that students have supplies and books and that teachers are properly trained.

The government claims 1,287,814 new students are in school this year through the PSUGO program, an impressive number considering that Haiti has only about 3.5 million young people aged 14 and under. HGW was not able to confirm this figure and has reason to doubt it, first and foremost because it is only one of many.

HGW did not have access to the PSUGO budget, nor could it visit all of the 10,000 schools allegedly inscribed in the program. But journalists did visit 20 schools, most of them staffed by angry or frustrated teachers.

Jean Marie Monfils, a teacher and also the director of a school in Léogâne, about 30 kilometres west of Port-au-Prince, is furious about PSUGO’s false promises. "They talked about a uniform, about hot lunches, and other things. But from where I am sitting, I can say we haven’t gotten hardly anything. We are the ‘forgotten’ of Léogâne."

Monfils’ experience is not unique. Hercule André, a man in his fifties who directs a public school in Darbonne, outside Léogâne, lauds the initiative but adds, "The only benefit that the students get is that they don’t pay anything. Apart from that, there’s nothing. The students come to school, but they don’t have the books that were promised so that they can follow courses."

HGW’s investigation in the capital and around Léogâne discovered that only two of the 20 schools visited reported receiving school supplies and books. As of late November 2012 – ten weeks after classes had started – only one of the 20 schools reported having been paid for the current school year, and 16 out of 20 said the school still had not received the final payment for the previous school year.

"I can’t even tell you if we are part of the program or not," Monfils admitted with an air of desperation. "At the moment I am speaking to you, we haven’t gotten anything from the authorities. It’s a really huge problem, because many of the schools that signed up with PSUGO haven’t even gotten what was due them for the 2011-2012 school year."

The National Confederation of Haitian Teachers (Confédération nationale des éducateurs et éducatrices haïtiens – CNEH), one of the country’s national teachers’ unions, confirmed the claim.

"The fact that the government hasn’t disbursed the money on time has been a big problem for school directors, who haven’t been able to pay their teachers," reported Edith Délourdes Delouis, teacher and CNEH General Secretary.

Quality control and fraud

Apparently, the government has also been unable to supervise new teachers to the degree it claimed it would. Despite the announcement that 2012-1013 would see a "turn towards quality" with more supervision, directors of schools visited by HGW said they could do virtually whatever they want. Of 20 schools visited, 25 percent had not received a single visit and another 24 percent had received only one.

Guillaume Jean, director of the Collège Chrétien in Léogâne confirmed, embarrassed: "We haven’t gotten many visits. They just call to get information."

Perhaps because of its large size and even larger budget, the PSUGO program appears to have attracted cheaters.

In July 2012, a regional MENFP official in Port-de-Paix allegedly stole over five million gourdes (over 119,000 U.S. dollars). According to media reports, he used a group of young men as fake "school directors", and wrote them checks of 200,000 and 300,000 gourdes. The official implicated fled to the Dominican Republic.

HGW does not have the means to investigate potential PSUGO fraud at the national level, or even in the capital. However, journalists did discover one school name on the MENFP list as having received payments, even though it had never functioned.

"Soon – the Justin Lhérisson College!" a small dusty sign announces on the Darbonne road near Léogâne.

"That was a project one of the local mayors set up when he was a candidate," a neighbor claimed. "Once he got elected, he dropped it."

A study from the Civil Society Initiative (CSI) last year concluded that the program had created number of "phantom schools".

"We discovered that a third or a quarter of the schools being paid by the government hadn’t even been officially approved," CSI Director Rosny Desroches, a former minister of education, told HGW.

At another school with both PSUGO money and foreign assistance, it’s almost noon. Under a blazing sun, scores of students focus on their work. The Charlotin Marcadieu national school was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake and today functions in 14 tents arranged in three rows. Gravel crunches under students’ feet. Before heading into his "classroom", one of the teachers says bitterly, "After 10 in the morning, these tent-rooms are like furnaces."

*Haiti Grassroots Watch is a partnership of AlterPresse, the Society of the Animation of Social Communication (SAKS), the Network of Women Community Radio Broadcasters (REFRAKA), community radio stations from the Association of Haitian Community Media and students from the Journalism Laboratory at the State University of Haiti.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2013.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Development, Education, Latin America, Report Tagged With: ,

Haiti-Dominican Republic Trade: Exports or Exploits?

February 17, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

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A typical scene: mounds of Dominican products for sale in a marketplace in Pétion-ville, Haiti. Photo: Jude Stanley Roy/HGW

Correspondents

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 16 (Haiti Grassroots Watch) – "I get everything at the Haiti-Dominican Republic: carrots, squash, eggplant, cabbage, peppers, eggs, salami," explained a merchant at the Croix des Bossales marketplace, her stand teeming with goods. "The border is what feeds us."The vendor – who refused to give her name for fear of reprisal from Haitian tax collectors – sells vegetables and other food products at Croix des Bossales, the biggest open market in Port-au-Prince. Here, as in Haitian supermarkets, mountains of Dominican pasta, towers of Dominican eggs, mounds of Dominican plantains and piles upon piles of tomato paste, ketchup, mayonnaise and other prepared foods are everywhere.

Haiti has food. But less and less of it is produced inside the country, and great deal of it now comes from the Dominican Republic, the Haiti Grassroots Watch (HGW) investigative journalism partnership has discovered. Haitian products are difficult even for merchants to find. "We can’t find them. They hardly even exist," one egg seller attested as she sat next to a tower of eggs in grey Dominican egg crates.

In hardware stores, sacks of Dominican cement reach the ceilings. In most of the eight stores visited by HGW teams, salespeople said cement from the neighbouring nation sold at a lower price than the "Haitian" product, which is actually imported and then bagged in country.

"Haitian cement is more expensive, but it’s better," a worker at one store, GB Hardware said. "Dominican cement is cheaper, but it’s also lower in quality." At another store, Alliance Distribution S.A., a salesman reported that it getting Dominican cement delivered was "easier and quicker".

Haiti undoubtedly needs these products. But is the flow of Dominican products a simple matter of exports, or is Haiti’s neighbor exploiting an economy weakened by a devastating earthquake?

Widening commercial deficit

Even before Haiti became independent in 1804, its economy was mostly extroverted, and governments after the revolution rarely developed economic policies that encouraged national industries and modernised agricultural production to keep up with population growth.

Local elites tended to export raw goods such as coffee, cacao, indigo and sugar and import foodstuffs and finished products. Haiti did not follow the "import substitution" trend that swept most ex-colonies in Latin America, Africa and Asia in the 1950 and 1960s, and up until the 1970s, Haiti was largely self-sufficient in food, cement and other products. Since then, the country has suffered an increasingly negative trade balance.

"We are following a growth model that weakens productive sectors in the face of imports and importers," explained economist Camille Chalmers, professor at the State University of Haiti and director of a platform of organisations who promote "alternative development".

The bordering Dominican Republic, however, followed a different path.

Their model goes back "50 or 60 years", according to Maria Isabel Gasso, president of the Santo Domingo Chamber of Commerce. "For a while, there were laws that promoted industries and production, and also laws promoting exports and the Free Trade Zones. These industries have been there for years…and they have benefited from various policies promoting exports and production."

Neoliberal knockdown

Neoliberal economic policies – reduction of protective tariffs, privatisation of state industries, and cuts to social services – at the end of the twentieth century took its toll on Haiti’s ailing economy. Tariffs on food and other agricultural products were first cut in 1982 and plummeted to zero or three percent in 1995. Today, Haiti has the lowest tariffs in the Caribbean.

The drastic reductions were part of the 1994 "Paris Plan", an agreement between the exiled government of Jean Bertrand Aristide and international actors such as the United States and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in which the Aristide government would enact a series of neoliberal policies in exchange for international support for its return to power in 1994 after being overthrown in a bloody coup d’état in 1991.

Since 1995, Haiti’s trade balance has widened, from about 500 million U.S. dollars that year to about 2.2 billion dollars for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, according to the IMF. Similarly, the food "deficit" has grown from 242 million U.S. dollars in 2000 to 342 million dollars in 2007. According to the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture, Haiti imported 57 percent of its food in 2005. That figure is undoubtedly higher today.

Ministry of Commerce director general Luc Espéca is conscious of the damages wrought by these policies, admitting that local "producers can’t sell what they’ve grown. When you work had to produce something, but then you don’t make a profit, you get discouraged."

The neoliberal policies affected the economy in other ways too. The Aristide government had to sell off state enterprises, among them the state cement company, even though Haiti possesses all the raw materials necessary for cement.

Still, imports and lowered tariffs are not the only reasons Haiti’s agricultural production hasn’t kept pace with population growth. Factors such as the lack of public and private sector investment in agricultural production, or Haiti’s antiquated land tenure system, have all contributed.

"When I came back to Haiti in 1976, we made everything: pipes, cement, etc," remembered Gérald Emile "Aby" Brun, a vice president of the 30-year-old Haitian construction and architecture firm TECINA S.A, who regretted that his country no longer produces cement. The state telephone company, "the flour mill, the same thing happened to all of them", he told HGW, blaming in part Haitian "capitalists".

"The Haitian capitalist is afraid of the country’s instability and of the corruption of a series of governments," Burn continued. "He doesn’t want to take any chances and wait 10 or 15 years to make his profit. In fact, Haitian ‘industrialists’ are not industrialists at all. Three-quarters of them are vendors, merchants."

Haiti Grassroots Watch could not find exact data on the amount of Dominican cement exported to Haiti, but the Dominican Association of Portland Cement Producers said that six major companies employ 15,000 people and that cement makes up 21 percent of the country’s exports.

The direction of Haitian production

Many are calling for the Haitian government to rescue Haitian production, which cannot satisfy the nation’s demands. Dominican producers are increasingly capitalising on this weakness, especially since the January 2010 earthquake.

"The Haitian state is not defending Haitian economic actors," said Chalmers.

Gasso, of the Santo Domingo Chamber of Commerce, generally agreed. "I personally would like to see Haitian products here, but the Haitian government is the one who needs to promote what it needs to promote in Haiti in order for there to be exports," Gasso said. "They need a plan. When a boat leaves port without a destination, it doesn’t get anywhere."

Surrounded by mountains of Dominican vegetables and seated beside colleagues hawking Dominican pastas and eggs, the Croix de Bossales merchant agreed with Gasso. She wanted to see change but remained pessimistic.

"We need a change but where will it come from? I don’t know. All we hear are beautiful words," she said. "We need people to become aware so that we can rescue the country from this terrible situation."

*Haiti Grassroots Watch is a partnership of AlterPresse, the Society of the Animation of Social Communication (SAKS), the Network of Women Community Radio Broadcasters (REFRAKA), community radio stations from the Association of Haitian Community Media and students from the Journalism Laboratory at the State University of Haiti.

This report is part of the "New Visions for Haitian-Dominican Reality – More and better journalism" program, financed by the European Union and coordinated by the UNESCO Chair in Communication, Democracy and Governance at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2013.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Latin America, Report, Trade Tagged With: ,
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