The following is a round-up of some of the top news highlights from around the region since Monday.

Brazil

Blog del Narco

Uruguay Marijuana Bill

Rios Montt trial

Mexico's 2014 security budget

Presidents of Peru and Mexico to China

Armed groups and illegal gold mining in Colombia

Colombia's "emerald czar" dies

El Salvador

While the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has dominated the news this week, there were a few other stories of note, which are highlighted below.

1. The Economist looks at the risk of Honduras becoming a failed state. The report concludes, "Honduras's politics has become as dysfunctional as its government and security forces." It quotes the head of Honduras's official, but independent, Human Rights Commission as saying, "The rule of law in this country has broken down."

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Roberta Jacobson, this week said that police reform in Honduras must continue or "the aid that we offer will be useless."

2. A new report focuses on changes in the FARC's control in Colombia since 2002, when the last attempted round of peace talks ended. The report, by Colombian NGO Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris, discusses how loss of territorial control, desertion and the success of the government's aerial bombing campaigns have forced the guerrilla group to alter their tactics. Some interesting findings:

• In 2012, 15 aerial operations by the government resulted in the death of 200 guerrillas.
• The FARC have lost control of the center of the country and has been pushed out to the periphery.
• The government lacks a strategy against drug trafficking organizations and neo-paramilitaries such as the Urabeños and Rastrojos, which pose the greatest threat to the country's security.

3. This month marks the one-year anniversary of El Salvador's gang truce between the country’s two most violent gangs, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18. Mother Jones and Tumblr's Storyboard project put together a photo essay on the violent conditions that continue in El Salvador.

Here is another powerful photo essay that notes, "El Salvador, a small country of six million people, is brimming with an estimated 50,000 street gang members, plus another 10,000 who are behind bars. Since the first truce took effect about a year ago, the average daily death toll from gang-related violence has gone down from 14 to five."

4. Ecuador is leading the charge to reform the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States. Many of the reforms aim to limit the body's power. America's Quarterly published a Q&A with José Miguel Vivanco, Americas Director of Human Rights Watch, and Gustavo Mohme, director of Peruvian newspaper La República, on the potential consequences of the reforms.

5. Today is International Women's Day. In honor, various media outlets have released reports on the high rates of femicide in Latin America. BBC Mundo published a graphic highlighting what it calls a "pandemic" in the region:

The following is a round-up of some of the top news highlights from around the region this week.

Mexico

El Chapo Guzman, head of Sinaloa Cartel

Authorities are investigating whether a shootout occurred in the Guatemalan department of Petén last night that resulted in the death of El Chapo Guzman, head of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel and Latin America's biggest drug trafficker. According to Insight Crime, the country’s Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez confirmed that there had been two confrontations, while a Guatemalan army spokesman said there was no sign that a shootout had occurred at one of the sites. Lopez said one of the dead allegedly "looked like" El Chapo, however reports of what happened remain confused. The Insight Crime article provides good analysis of what the news-- albeit likely false, according to the website-- would mean for Mexico.

Colombia

Honduras

El Salvador

Given reports of a recent increase in revenge killings between rival gangs, there are concerns that the gang truce between the MS-13 and the 18th Street gangs could be breaking down. According to Insight Crime, "recent killings had seen the murder rate creep up to an average of 6.6 a day since the start of this year, up from 5.3 at the end of 2012. However, the rate still remains far below the average of 14 murders a day registered before the truce."

Costa Rica

The Associated Press put out an article on Monday looking at U.S. counternarcotics assistance to Costa Rica. Although the country's crime levels remain the second-lowest in Central America (after Nicaragua), in recent years the country has seen a spike in crime due to its increasing involvement in the drug trade. To counter this trend, "Costa Rica's conservative government has proposed looser wiretapping laws, easier confiscation of suspect assets and quicker approval of U.S. warships docking in Costa Rican ports," reports the AP.

The article notes that the U.S. spent over $18.4 million in direct security aid to Costa Rica in 2012. It also continues to equip the army-less country with gear such as night vision goggles, provides law enforcement with training and invested in a $2m satellite and radio communications station on the Pacific Coast linked to the U.S. anti-drug command in Key West.

Cuba

Caricom meeting in Haiti

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder attended a summit in Haiti of the 15-member Caribbean Community, known as Caricom. The discussion centered on crime and security concerns, but the main point of media coverage surrounded gun control. The group asked for the United States’ help in ensuring an international arms treaty included provisions dealing with small arms. "It is the small arms and ammunition which do the most damage in the Caricom region," said Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, which is in charge of security issues within the bloc.

U.S. in the region

United States Southern Command leader John Kelly visited Panama this week and met with President Ricardo Martinelli, Minister of Public Security Jose Mulino, and the directors of Panama's National Aeronaval Service (SENAN), National Border Service (SENAFRONT), and the Panamanian National Police. He then spent two days in Guatemala to meet with senior government and security officials. This was General Kelly's second trip to Central America this year.

On January 23rd, the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning for El Salvador. Given the improving security situation in the country due to a government-mediated gang truce in March, the decision to do so was seen by many as an attempt to discredit the agreement. It was met with condemnation from analysts, El Salvadorian government officials, and particularly from the gang leaders themselves.

The main reason for criticism of the travel warning is essentially a question of timing. 2012 was the least violent year for El Salvador since 2003, yet no warning was issued in 2010 or 2011, some of the most violent years for the country. Also, the crime stats that are used in the warning are from before the truce. It cites the 2011 murder rate of 71 per 100,000, even though the homicide rate dropped 40% following the start of the gang truce in March.

The travel warning does note, “In 2012, a truce between El Salvador’s two principal street gangs contributed to a decline in the homicide rate.” However, it questions the truce, noting that the “sustainability of the decline is unclear, and the truce had little impact on robbery, assaults, and other violent crimes.”

In response to the warning, El Salvador's Minister of Security, David Mungía Payés, told El Salvador’s La Prensa Gráfica, that “the United States could have been misinformed.”

The travel warning also elicited a response from El Salvador's most prominent gang leaders. On January 25th, the heads of several gangs, including the two most powerful, the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18, released a communiqué to the media criticizing U.S. policy and calling the travel warning an "obstruction" to the truce.

The English translation of the gang leaders' statement is below. For more information on and analysis of the situation, check out The Pan-American Post, Center for Democracy in the Americas and Central American Politics blogs.

Here is the English translation of the gang leaders' statement:

The national spokesmen for the gangs MS-X3, Barrio 18, Mao Mao, Máquina, and Mirada Locos to the Salvadoran people and to the world make it known:

1. That, with the date of January 24, a document released by the Department of State of the United States has circulated in our country and throughout the world containing a “travel alert for El Salvador,” the contents of which paints a frightening image of this country, with which it tries to scare and discourage all those who want to visit it whether for business or pleasure. The information utilized that serves as support in the “alert” is outdated, as it cites figures from 2010-2011. We presume that when the document was written, the U.S. diplomatic headquarters in El Salvador did not make an effort to provide updated information to the Department of State about the country’s new reality, that was transformed in 2012. We resist to accept that it could have been an intentional action inspired by the threat of interests of large U.S. companies that profit from the violent situation that overwhelms the countries in the region, in which they find a large market for the sale of weapons, security systems and all types of technology related to the security strategies promoted by the United States.

2. We understand that a few years ago the Government of the United States subscribed to an agreement of “Partnership for Growth” with El Salvador, which is why this type of publication, which does nothing to help growth and development in El Salvador, surprises us, as it profoundly damages the image of our country, hurts our national dignity and disregards all the efforts that Salvadorans have been making since March 9, 2012 to overcome our most serious problem; a process whose results have surprised the world, as the Salvadorans have not only halted the increase in violence, but have also considerably diminished it, and we are on the road to the recovery of social peace, something that has not happened in the rest of the Western world, including in the United States, where terrifying acts are becoming more and more frequent, like the murder of dozens of children in schools and of young people in universities.

3. We understand the reasons for which the United States has maintained an indifferent attitude toward the truce and peace process, which has been underway in our country since March 9, 2012, and of which the Salvadoran gangs are the protagonists, as an integral part of Salvadoran society as a whole. We respect the position of the United States to express doubt as to its sustainability; nevertheless, it cannot be ignored that this process is already ten months underway and, instead of losing strength, it is gaining strength every day and it is spreading into more territories, making the involvement of many local actors a possibility.

4. We accept that the decision to support the truce and peace process or not is the sovereign decision of the Government of the United States, although from our point of view, it is obligated to do so, since it has co-responsibility as the gang phenomenon was imported from the United States to the region and is fed monthly by the enormous quantity of deportations. If the [United States] supports the process, that help would be welcomed and appreciated by all Salvadorans; and, if not, we ask that it at least not obstruct it, because we as Salvadorans have the right to make our best effort to restore peace, as self-determination of the people is also a human right.

5. To the citizens of other countries that want to travel to El Salvador and get to know its people, its landscapes, enjoy our warm climate and experience the new reality that is developing in our country, we advise you to do so without any kind of fear; the Salvadoran gangs have never been interested in affecting tourists and we inform you that from this moment on we are circulating precise instructions so that your integrity is respected even more from the moment of your arrival to El Salvador, so that your visit may be as secure and pleasant as possible.

6. Finally, on our part we reaffirm that our will is not breaking and that we will continue contributing to the solution of the violence problem in El Salvador. We are more and more convinced that this is the right path for us to continue following; in that order, we notify that although the pertinent legal norms are no longer approved, we will put into effect the commitment to a second voluntary turnover of weapons, which we previously offered.

(This statement was translated by CIP intern Marissa Esthimer)

• Amid the political crisis surrounding ailing Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s absence, a few analysts have sought to measure the mood within the country’s armed forces. Ewald Scharfenberg at Spain’s El País sees three principal factions, which he calls “ideologues,” “pragmatists,” and “institutionalists.” Alfonso Ussia of Spain’s La Razón calls them “officialists,” “unionists” and “institutionalists.” Rocío San Miguel of Caracas’s Control Ciudadano think-tank warns that Vice President Fernando Maduro is not in the chain of command, and that with Chávez out of contact the armed forces are currently “orphaned.”

• The Mexican Army’s and Air Force’s involvement in fighting organized crime is an “atypical situation” that “cannot, and should not, in any way, be prolonged.” The author of that phrase is surprising: Gen. Guillermo Galván, who served as Mexico’s secretary of defense until last December. Gen. Galván wrote the preface to a book on the fight against organized crime published by Mexico’s Secretariat [Department/Ministry] of Defense.

• 19 officers who graduated Peru’s military academy in the same year (1984) as President Ollanta Humala, a former officer, are now generals holding key army posts. This is a record.

• Former soldiers of El Salvador’s army, veterans of the country’s 1980s civil war, blocked main roads — including border crossings with Honduras and Guatemala — to demand pension payments. Last year the Salvadoran government approved a US$50 monthly stipend to former members of the FMLN guerrillas over 70 years of age.

• A “serious setback in human rights” and “incompatible with the American Convention on Human Rights” is how the OAS Inter-American Human Rights Commission, in a January 4 statement, characterized Colombia’s December 28 approval of a constitutional amendment that will send many more human rights cases to the military justice system, which has a strong tradition of lenience toward accused soldiers.

• The infosurhoy.com website points to a regional poll by the Latin American Social Sciences Faculty (FLACSO) showing strong Latin American support for involving the military in internal missions. Of 9,057 people surveyed in 28 cities of 18 countries, 84% supported giving armed forces a role in fighting narcotrafficking, and 83.2% (86% in Mexico) favored a role in fighting organized crime. 85% — 91% in Brazil and Ecuador, 73% in Paraguay — oppose abolishing the armed forces. 77% see no risk of a military coup in their country.

• Argentina’s vice-president, Amado Boudou, rang in the new year in Gonaïves, Haiti, accompanying Argentine infantry troops stationed there as UN peacekeepers.

• The Nicaraguan Army’s “Ecological Battalion” has set up five posts in Nicaragua’s northern Caribbean coastal region, a sparsely populated zone susceptible to narcotrafficking activity. The posts, which will operate for three months, are a response to a request from 200 local farmers concerned about worsening security.

The following is a short overview of some of the more significant events of the past year that set the political landscape for the region going into 2013.

Colombia peace talks
One of the biggest and most hopeful happenings in 2012 was the August announcement of peace talks between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that began on November 19 in Havana, Cuba. Conversations between government and FARC negotiators began in Norway in mid-October, where they gave a joint press conference. (See here for a timeline of the talks)

President Santos has said that if “firm advances” are not made by April-July 2013, “the process will not continue.” As Colombian political analysis website La Silla Vacia has posited, if the talks fail, the country can expect a political swing to the right, as was seen following in the 2002 failed peace talks, however if they are successful, a more leftist agenda that includes guerrilla participation in politics and increased rural development will be implemented. A December Gallup poll last month showed that while 71% of Colombians supported the peace process, only 43% believed they would end in a peace deal. The second round of talks covering land and rural development came to conclusion December 20 before the discussions broke for the holidays. Talks are set to restart January 14.

Paraguay’s golpeachment
Former President Fernando Lugo’s 2008 election marked the end of the Colorado Party’s long-term control of Paraguay politics. However, in June 2012, Paraguay’s Congress (the Colorado party and their allies) hastily voted to impeach Lugo and install Vice President Federico Franco, a move that was triggered by the mishandling of a still un-resolved violent land conflict between police and landless peasants that left 11 campesinos and six police dead. While the impeachment was technically legal, many countries considered Lugo’s rapid removal a coup, resulting in the country’s suspension from the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) political bloc and the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR). The Mercosur suspension allowed Venezuela to finally enter the bloc, comprised of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, after Paraguay’s long opposition to its inclusion.

El Salvador’s gang truce
In March 2012 a government-mediated truce was brokered between El Salvador’s two most violent gangs -- Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13, the first street gang operating in the U.S. to be labeled a transnational criminal organization) and Barrio 18. The deal lead to a 40% drop in the country's homicide rate, making 2012 the least violent year since 2003 for El Salvador, one of the world’s most violent and insecure countries. In 2011, the county’s National Civil Police (PNC) registered 4,371 homicides, putting it right behind Honduras, which holds the world’s highest murder rate. In 2012, the PNC registered 2,576 murders. Despite skeptics’ fears that the deal would be fleeting, nine months later the truce is still holding and the groups are now conducting talks about how to proceed. In December, the MS-13 and Barrio 18, along with other street gangs, agreed to end gang activity in designated “peace zones” throughout the country, however these zones have yet to be identified and the level of government involvement has also yet to be determined. It is still a very much evolving process, but one to watch in 2013. In November, the Congressional Research Service released a report about the country's political and economic conditions and its relations with the U.S.

Fuero militar in Colombia
In mid-December, the Colombian Congress passed a justice reform bill, known as ‘Fuero Militar’ (Military Jurisdiction), that would likely result in human rights violations by military members -- including extrajudicial executions, torture, and rape -- being investigated and tried by the military justice system. Human rights activists say that limiting the civilian court system’s ability to try and convict members of the armed forces will lead to further impunity and worry that the more than 1,700 cases of extrajudicial execution currently in civilian courts will be moved under military jurisdiction. Most recently the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released a statement voicing its “deep concern over the serious setback in human rights” that the reform would represent.

Mexico’s new president
On December 1st, Enrique Peña Nieto was sworn in as Mexico’s new leader, marking the return of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), after a 12-year hiatus following its 71-year stronghold of the Mexican political system. Mexican police struggled to manage the thousands of protesters that took to the streets during the inauguration to denounce the PRI's return to power. Security forces arrested several people unjustly and contributed to the outbreak of violence, which led to Amnesty International setting up a support page for victims of police brutality. Peña Nieto’s security proposal for Mexico continues with a militarized approach, but he has vowed to fight violence and other crimes as opposed to targeting drug traffickers. The new Mexican leader has also reiterated his plans to increase economic ties with the U.S. However, it remains to be seen whether or not a PRI-presidential term with Peña Nieto will mark a significant change for Mexico.

President Hugo Chávez’s cancer
The biggest question mark in the region at the moment is who will be ruling Venezuela in the months to come, as there is the ever-growing possibility of a power vacuum. In October, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez publicly stated he had beaten cancer, only to announce in early December that it had returned and he would be undergoing treatment in Cuba. President Chávez, who won re-election in early October despite a strong opposition and debilitating illness, is currently in Cuba recovering from his fourth round of surgery. He was set to be inaugurated on January 10, however due to the increasing likelihood that he will be too ill to be back from Cuba in time, Vice President Nicolas Maduro announced Friday that President Chávez will retain power and be sworn in after the date. President Chávez called on Venezuelans to vote for Vice President Maduro to be his successor should he step down or die before being sworn in. The constitution requires that power be handed over to Diosdado Cabello, the recently re-elected speaker of Venezuela’s National Assembly, until another election is held within 30 days. While there is growing uncertainty around the county’s future leadership, some analysts say Chávez’s Socialist Party (PSUV) would most likely be re-elected given the presidential election victory and recent wins in 20 out of 23 states in mid-December’s gubernatorial elections.

Obama’s re-election, Immigration and the Latino vote
In addition to changes in U.S. drug policy, many hope immigration reform will top President Obama’s agenda in his second term, given his victory was largely helped by winning just over 70 percent of the Hispanic vote. In his election speech, Obama mentioned immigration reform as a priority just behind reducing the deficit and tax reform. The hope for 2013 is for the administration to make good on this promise for the eleven million immigrants living in the U.S., and that it scales back on increasingly harsh deportation practices.

Honduras and the DEA
The Drug Enforcement Administration's involvement in several killings in Honduras this year highlighted growing U.S. involvement in counternarcotics operations in Central America. In April, the DEA sent special teams to some of the more rural, drug-ridden areas of Honduras as part of a joint counternarcotics operation known as Operation Anvil. Three of the five joint interdiction operations during Anvil included the shootings of Hondurans by either DEA agents, or by Honduran officers trained, equipped and vetted by the U.S., causing the operation to end days ahead of schedule.

About $50 million due to be assigned to antidrug and security efforts -- amounting to about half of all U.S. aid to Honduras for 2012 and including $8.3 million in counternarcotics aid, and $38 million under the Central America Regional Security Initiative -- is being withheld by Democrats in Congress over concerns about American involvement in the killings and over accusations that the director of Honduras' national police had ties to death squads. The aid is still being withheld, but the U.S. has begun to share radar information with the Honduran air force again.

Honduras currently has the highest murder rate in the world with 86 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Since the 2009 coup, drug trafficking, violence and human rights violations have rapidly increased, while impunity for killings, particularly of journalists and human rights defenders, is high and corruption pervades all government institutions. The country is currently undergoing a constitutional crisis, with the executive and congress attempting to overhaul the Supreme Court. Presidential elections are set to take place this year.

Marijuana legalization and regulation
As the death toll in Mexico continues to climb over the 60,000 deaths recorded during previous Mexican President Felipe Calderón's drug war, and drugs continue to flow into the United States from below the border, as well as throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, experts and Latin American presidents are increasingly calling for alternatives to the "War on Drugs." Earlier in 2012, there was a lot of discussion surrounding drug legalization, particularly following Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina’s advocacy for the international legalization of drugs in March. There was more discussion about the issue before the fairly uneventful Summit of the Americas held in Colombia in April, after which it seemed to die down a bit. In September at a UN General Assembly meeting, the presidents of Colombia, Mexico, and Guatemala submitted a proposal for drug reform, which Honduras and Costa Rica later backed. The UN then agreed to hold a special session on on drug prohibition by 2015.

Several former leaders, including Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, Vicente Fox and Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, had already called for changes in global and U.S. drug policies in 2011, but Latin American presidents and former leaders from all political sides continued to call for reform in 2012. In June, Uruguay’s President José Mujica proposed legislation to legalize marijuana that was moving through the country’s congress until a poll in mid-December indicated that 65% of Uruguayans opposed legalization, while only 26% supported it, causing President Mujica to slow down the initiative.

Drug legalization throughout the region will continue to be widely debated, particularly following Colorado and Washington’s passage of referendums in November for legalizing recreational marijuana use. Now that there are legal markets for marijuana in the U.S., many Latin American leaders are questioning why they should continue to invest financial and human resources into enforcing drug laws. As one Mexican official responded, "we can't handle a product that is illegal in Mexico, trying to stop its transfer to the United States, when in the United States, at least in part of the United States, it now has a different status." Mexico is currently exploring its own legalization measures, modeled on Washington State law.

In just the past week, the armed forces were given, or are on the verge of getting, new internal security roles in four Latin American countries.

In Peru, President Ollanta Humala declared a state of emergency over the weekend in the Cajamarca region, where protests by affected communities have halted the largest mining project in the country’s history. President Humala’s emergency decree “allows the military to help police reopen roads, schools and hospitals shut down for days by rallies and marches against the proposed mine,” reports Reuters.

In Bolivia, soldiers were deployed to support police in high-crime areas of Santa Cruz and El Alto. The decision came after several days of deliberations. Bolivia’s constitution allows the armed forces to support the police when the latter’s capacities have been “surpassed.” A vice-minister of Interior, Roberto Quiroz, had opposed the deployment, arguing that poorly trained conscripts (“17 and 18 year old kids”) might not be up to the job.

In Honduras last Wednesday, the Congress quickly approved a temporary constitutional reinterpretation allowing the military to “take on policing roles” in the fight against violent crime. The El Salvador-based website El Faro observed that the turn the armed forces was in part a response to the virtual collapse of Honduras’s poorly trained, abusive and corrupt police. President Porfirio Lobo said that an earlier temporary deployment of the military to support the police – “Operation Lightning,” which began on November 1 – brought a 36% drop in homicides since October.

In El Salvador, President Mauricio Funes defended a 2009 decision to give the military a greater crimefighting role and, as the La Prensa Gráfica newspaper put it, “softened the ground for a possible reform to give new functions to the army to fight organized crime, narcotrafficking, gangs and state corruption.” Funes, whose political party (FMLN) was once a guerrilla group that fought the government in the 1980s, warned that the country is in a “new war” whose “enemy” is “strongly armed criminal bands.” Funes added that critics who worry about “militarization” have “prejudices” that are “anchored in the past.” The speech came a week after Funes moved Defense Minister David Munguía Payés, a former general, into the position of minister of justice and security, making him the first official with a military background to head the Salvadoran police since the end of the country’s civil war. Meanwhile the new defense minister, Atilio Benítez, argued that the military needs new internal crime-fighting functions. Gen. Benítez said that El Salvador should follow the example of the steps that Honduras just took.

All articles linked from this post are from November 30 or later. Military roles are expanding very quickly.

Obama’s first trip to Latin America ended Wednesday, having been largely overshadowed by events in Libya and Japan. The U.S. media was both critical and supportive of Obama’s decision to go on the five-day trip, despite the crises in Libya and Japan, but seemed largely underwhelmed by the actual content of the trip. But what was the Latin American media’s response to the trip? Last week we looked at what was being said in the days leading up to the trip, now we focus on the trip itself.

Brazil

• Obama widely praised Brazil during his visit for the country’s successful transition to democracy and economic success, saying that Brazil is “a country that shows how a call for change that starts in the streets can transform a city, transform a country, transform a world.” He also emphasized that the two countries must be “equal societies”, although he stopped short of supporting Brazil’s bid to gain a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. Instead, a statement was released saying that he “expressed appreciation” for Brazil’s desire to gain a seat on the council, a move that did not sit well with Brazil’s President Rousseff, who reportedly “barely looked at Obama during her remarks” in which she called for an end to what she sees as the “empty rhetoric” that has characterized relations between the two countries in the past.

  Rousseff was also less than pleased by Obama’s focus on Libya during his visit, because, in her words, “I don't like declarations of war, wherever they occur.” She expressed disappointment that more wasn't done during the U.S. president's visit to remove U.S. barriers to Brazilian products

• Brazilians denounced the U.S. security for Obama’s trip, calling it “aggressive”, with Brazil’s minister of science and technology Aloizio Mercadante calling it “unacceptable”. For its part, the U.S. embassy in Brazil maintained that it was a “classic system of security.” Similar criticisms were seen in Chile.
• In spite of the intense security surrounding Obama during his trip, he did make a much-heralded trip to the City of God (Cidade de Deus) favela in Rio de Janiero, the largest of the city's slums “pacified” by the Unidades de Polícia Pacificadoras (UPPs) or the Police Peacekeeping Unit, a program Adam Isacson looked at in greater detail here on our blog.

Chile

• During his stopover in Chile, Obama stirred up controversy, agreeing to help Chile deal with the human rights violations committed during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, but avoided apologizing for U.S. policies in Chile at the time, that are believed by many to have led to the 1973 coup that ousted democratically-elected president Salvador Allende and began the brutal dictatorship of Pinochet. While President Obama noted that it is important to “learn from” and “understand” our history, he said that we should not be “trapped” by it. According to MercoPress, “Chilean judges are still pursuing criminal investigations into nearly a third of the 3,065 deaths of leftists and other Pinochet opponents, including the two former presidents, whose deaths remain shrouded in mystery.”
• The president also faced criticism over tight security during his trip to Chile, because it didn’t allow much opportunities for Chileans to actually see Obama, with no public appearances scheduled during his visit comparable to his trip to Brazil’s City of God favela. However, the security situation during Obama’s visit to Chile probably wasn’t helped by the small bomb that exploded in Viña del Mar just hours before the U.S. president arrived in the country.
• Despite disappointment over the tight security, there was praise for President Obama's visit, with Patricio Melero, a right-wing Chilean politician, calling Obama's expressed view of Chile “fair recognition of our way to development.” Ignacio Walker, president of the Christian Democratic Party, meanwhile, stated that the U.S. president's visit served to “highlight the capacity to reconcile democracy, politics, economic growth and social equity.”

  Not everyone was as pleased by Obama's visit. Osvaldo Andrade, president of the Socialist Party, was one of several critics of the lack of concrete agreements between the two countries, labeling the president's visit to Chile a "show".

• As for the president himself, Obama referred to Chile as a one of the “success stories of the region” and said the rescue of 33 miners trapped in the San Jose mine in Copiapó in October “inspired the world.” However, the Secretary General of the Organization for American States (OAS) Jose Miguel Insulza and Chilean President Sebastian Piñera criticized the lack of free trade agreements with Colombia and Panama.

El Salvador

• While President Obama’s stopovers in Chile and Brazil were focused mainly on economic successes, the tone shifted on his stopover in El Salvador, during which issues surrounding drugs and immigration took center stage. Drug cartels pose a growing threat in El Salvador and the rest of Central America, and earlier this year, the U.S. pledged $200 million to fight the problem, as part of the the Central American Regional Security Intiative (CASI), aimed at increasing border security and expanding community-based anti-gang initiatives. Obama announced during his visit that the U.S. had pledged an additional $200 million to support security in the region, and that the U.S. would work with Central America to develop a new security strategy. Analyst Paolo Luers criticized the move, saying the only way for the U.S. to help combat the drug violence El Salvador and the rest of Central America faces is to legalize drug use and address the problem with drugs as a “public health problem” because “Washington knows it will never win the war against narcotrafficking.”

  President Obama also focused on immigration, saying that despite opposition, he would continue to fight for immigration reform, a move supported in El Salvador, as there are over 2,000,000 immigrants in the U.S. from El Salvador. The remittances from these Salvadorans are an important source of income to maintain the Salvadoran economy.

• Obama left El Salvador a few hours ahead of schedule to turn his attention to the ongoing crisis in Libya, but still managed to make a visit to the tomb of Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero, just before the 31st anniversary of his assassination. The archbishop was a revered Catholic figure, and the visit was seen as symbolic of Obama's support of human rights in El Salvador, where approximately 75,000 people were killed during a bloody 12-year civil war.
• Some analysts and politicians were critical of the president's visit to El Salvador, which lasted less than 24 hours and, they say, caused “much noise” with little policy action, although some, such as analyst Salvador Samayoa, here, praised the visit, due to the “distinction” and “international attention” it brought to the country.

Entire Region

• During his visit to the region, Obama lobbied for a “new era of partnership” in Latin America, saying the region, which has seen impressive economic growth in recent years, has become more of asset for U.S. prosperity and security than in years past. Latin America, said Obama, is a “guide” to others seeking a transition to democracy. The region has shown that there is “no substitute for democracy” and that there is an “obligation to defend” democracy throughout the world, said the U.S. president.

This post was written by CIP Intern Erin Shea

Adam reviews President Obama's stops, major policy speeches, and pending issues in Chile, Brazil and El Salvador. Plus, a look at elections in Haiti and Peru.

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