Understanding Latin America
Dear readers and colleagues, this month we bring you a special analysis by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation’s Andean Region Office about the growing security concerns across Latin America, and the increasingly dangerous government responses to these issues. We also bring you our Netpicks selection as usual, with four articles that reflect the reality of Latin America today. This includes articles from: Bolivia, one piece about ecocide in the region, Ecuador and Chile.
- Security as a Political Field: a Conceptual Approach
- The Poisonous Mercury Trade
- Latin America shows why ecocide must be an international crime
- Daniel Noboa’s Ecuador: “Iron Fist” as Electoral Strategy
- Why Chile has a Palestinian football team – the bigger history
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SECURITY AS A POLITICAL FIELD: A CONCEPTUAL APPROACH
Security has emerged as the focal point of government action in Latin America, where corruption, crime and violence has spread fear throughout the region. While State responses have been varied, they have generally followed two paths: the depoliticization of the problem and the militarization of security. One can look to Ecuador as a prime example of this, where President Daniel Noboa signed an executive decree to declare an internal armed conflict in January and, through a popular referendum, managed to legitimize the continued presence of the armed forces on the streets – yet the issues and root causes of violence remain unresolved, with no apparent political plan to address them. The public debate around these issues have been stagnant, but it’s essential that these government positions on security policies be scrutinized to avoid entering a new era of “democratic despotism,” says the author.
Read more bellow
Luis C. Córdova, June 2024
https://www.rosalux.org.ec/en/security-as-a-political-field-a-conceptual-approach/
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THE POISONOUS MERCURY TRADE
Mercury, used by miners to extract gold from soil and sediment, is smuggled daily out of Bolivia and used in illegal mining hot spots from Peru to Brazil and across the Amazon basin. The mercury waste from these operations contaminate the air, rivers and fish that most communities eat and rely on for substance, causing major health issues for locals. Several countries have cracked down on the imports and illegal trade of this toxic metal after the implementation of the international UN treaty Minamata Convention on Mercury. Bolivia, however, though it has ratified the treaty, has failed to implement reforms to tackle the trade. It has since turned into the region’s largest entry point for mercury, most of it imported by mining companies themselves, and become a key hub for its trade into neighboring countries, facilitating illegal mining in the region. What have other countries in the region done to curb the use of mercury, and why is Bolivia lagging so far behind? This article is part of a special series by Insight Crime about environmental crime in Bolivia’s Amazon rainforest, one of the lesser talked about Amazon regions. The series unpacks issues like the illegal timber trade, drug trade, poaching and gold mining that have gotten way out of hand.
María Fernanda Ramírez, May 2, 2024
https://insightcrime.org/investigations/poisonous-mercury-trade/
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LATIN AMERICA SHOWS WHY ECOCIDE MUST BE AN INTERNATIONAL CRIME
Ecocide refers to severe forms of environmental destruction, like oil spills, clear-cutting of primary forests or the large-scale contamination of river ecosystems, which environmental defenders usually risk their lives to fight against. In this opinion piece, the author argues that criminalizing ecocide globally is the best way to protect environmental defenders and strengthen their ability to keep fighting for environmental justice. Environmental defenders are facing increasing threats globally, but 90% of the world’s environmental-related killings occur in Latin America. A fifth of those killings occur in the Amazon. As a response to these threats, Latin American organizations have already spearheaded the regional Escazu Agreement, which provides more safeguards for environmental defenders, but it could also spearhead the need to acknowledge ecocide as a serious crime. The end goal of the movement to criminalize ecocide is to have it included as the fifth crime against peace within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. A growing list of states have already taken measures to create ecocide and environmental crime legislation, but can there be more?
Rodrigo Lledó, May 21, 2024
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/ecocide-must-be-international-crime-latin-america-cop3-escazu-agreement-environmental-rights-defenders/
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DANIEL NOBOA’S ECUADOR: “IRON FIST” AS ELECTORAL STRATEGY
Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa, who came into power at the end of 2023, has been ruling the country with an “iron fist,” imitating some tactics of President Bukele in El Salvador, and it seems to be working in his favor. This can be seen in the recent referendum, where Noboa put 11 questions to citizens, nine of which had to do with the security situation in the country, asking citizens if extraditions should be permitted, if the military should be allowed to patrol the streets, and if conviction times should be increased, among other questions. Citizens voted an overwhelming “yes” to all nine. They rejected, however, the other two questions that had to do with the economy: whether contract work by the hour should be legalized (rather than a monthly salary), and whether the constitution should be changed to allow international arbitration to settle investment disputes. He also declared an internal armed war in January; ignored international law and entered the Mexican embassy to remove the Correista politician Jorge Glass by force (who is now locked up in Ecuadorian prison); and fired his energy minister Andrea Arrobo, accusing her of sabotage, when the country faced electricity problems and was forced to undergo power outages for several weeks. Ecuadorians have been living the past years in an atmosphere of increased insecurity, fear and desperation, so his “iron fist” and “take action” tactics seem to be gaining him support – even if there are few practical results on security issues in the country, and recent austerity policies are putting extra pressures on many families. Many wonder whether he’ll be able to maintain his popularity by the upcoming elections in February 2025.
Pablo Ospina Peralta, May 15, 2024
https://nacla.org/daniel-noboa-ecuador-iron-fist-electoral-strategy
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WHY CHILE HAS A PALESTINIAN FOOTBALL TEAM – THE BIGGER HISTORY
The football team Club Deportivo Palestino, clad in white, green and red uniforms, in not located in the Middle East, but rather in Chile. The South American country is home to nearly 50,000 Palestinians, the largest population of Palestinian outside of the Middle East. The Club Deportivo Palestino plays in Chile’s top football league and has become a rallying point for the diaspora, but also an instrument of cultural exchange and diplomacy. It has also manage to wield political influence in both Chile and its homeland. This Palestinian diaspora has shaped Chilean policy towards Palestine, in both the left and right wings of Chilean politics. In 2019, during his second term in office, Chile’s former right-wing President Sebastian Piñera was criticized by Israel for visiting the Jewish holy site with a group of Palestinian officials. In 2022, Chile’s current left-wing president, Gabriel Boric, announced plans to open a Chilean embassy in Palestine. Palestino has also received encouragement from the homeland, with both current and former presidents of the State of Palestine writing them with message or support. How did this powerful diaspora arrive to Chile? And what has their role been in the current ongoing war in Gaza?
Mary Katherine Newman, May 21, 2024
https://theconversation.com/why-chile-has-a-palestinian-football-team-the-bigger-history-229849
