Mennonite Weekly Review

If asked to name the most significant international news stories from last month, many people, including me, will think of the natural disasters in Myanmar-Burma and China. But interesting developments have been occurring closer to home.

Kathleen Kern, of Rochester, N.Y., serves with Christian Peacemaker Teams.

On May 4, the region of Bolivia around Santa Cruz held a referendum, seeking to split the area, where much of the country’s wealth is, from the rest of the nation. Boycotted by indigenous groups and other civil society organizations, the referendum was approved by more than 85 percent of the Santa Cruz electorate.

The United States and multinational corporations supported this referendum because the country’s first indigenous president, Evo Morales, is promoting a new constitution that stipulates the Bolivian people are the owners of the nation’s natural resources. The United Nations, the Organization of American States, other Latin American governments and the European Union declared the referendum unconstitutional. Indigenous groups, representing the majority of Bolivians, are now mobilizing to prevent the loss of civil rights and their share of the nation’s wealth.

Between May 1 and May 14, U.S.-trained Mexican security personnel who had joined drug cartels assassinated six Mexican drug-enforcement officials. As many as 200 of these mercenaries have contributed to violence that has killed 6,000 people over the last 30 months, and they have committed murders on both Mexican and U.S. territory. Republican congressman Ted Poe, testifying to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on May 14, was unsuccessful in persuading the committee to alter President Bush’s initiative granting $1.4 billion in training, equipment and law enforcement assistance to Mexico and Central American countries over three years. “We have no assurance that the equipment we’re sending to Mexico won’t be turned over to the drug cartels and used against us,” Poe said.

The Colombian government is embroiled in a scandal linking more than 60 legislators to paramilitary groups that have caused most of the civilian deaths in Colombia’s ongoing violence. Possibly to deflect attention from this scandal, Colombian prosecutors asked the Supreme Court on May 22 to investigate several politicians, journalists and internationals for collaboration with the FARC guerrilla movement. All of the accused said their “collaboration” consisted of negotiations with the FARC to release people it has kidnapped. Legislator Piedad Cordoba noted that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe had approved these negotiations. Accused U.S. academic James Jones, who has served as a consultant for U.S. congressional Democrats, told the Associated Press he considered the investigation of him “ludicrous” and that he had been trying to secure the release of three U.S. military contractors held by the FARC since 2003.

On May 26, 2008, Chilean judge Victor Montiglio issued 98 indictments for security officers involved in the kidnapping, torture and murder of 119 dissidents in 1975. The 42 victims whose bodies were never found would be considered part of an ongoing crime, kidnapping, Montiglio said.

The U.S. military announced it is activating its Fourth Fleet of the Navy for the first time since World War II. The ships will be patrolling and coordinating military activity in the Latin American region, beginning in July.

So it goes in the neighborhood of the Americas.