by the El Reportero’s news services
Álvaro Colom
On May 16, President Alvaro Colom declared a state of siege in the northern department of Petén, following a massacre there three days earlier, carried out by presumed members of the Mexican drug gang, Los Zetas, who killed 27 peasant workers, decapitating 25 of them.
Though Guatemala is one of the most violent countries in the region, the massacre is one of the most brutal since the end of the country’s 30 year civil war (1960-96). It underlines the growing problem posed to the country by the presence of Mexican drug gangs, which have stepped up their actions in response to antigang measures implemented in their own home territory.
Cuba’s (r)evolution
On 19 April President Raúl Castro closed the ruling Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC)’s sixth party congress with a defiant vow “to defend, preserve and continue perfecting socialism, and never permit the return of capitalism”.
It’s unclear what the 79-year old Castro meant by “capitalism”, but it’s certainly the case that the ruling gerontocracy that was (re-) confi rmed in the leadership may well struggle with the planned transition to a mixed system, whereby a centrally planned economy run by a one party state is expected to co-exist in harmony with a limited private entrepreneurial sector forthe fi rst time in fi ve decades.
Correa’s “yes” will prove a Pyrrhic victory
Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa faces a real test of his mettle now after he failed to get the resounding victory he had anticipated in a national referendum on 7 May.
The result, far from reasserting his authority after last September’s police uprising, will have revitalised the beleaguered opposition, especially indigenous groups and leftist dissidents.
It is important to note, however, that the disparate opposition lacks a clear fi gurehead; that Correa remains by far the most popular politician in Ecuador; and that the split vote refl ects a desire to constrain Correa rather than to replace him.
Return of Manuel Zelaya to Honduras announced
F o r m e r H o n d u r a n President Manuel Zelaya will return to Honduras between May 27 and 29, his legal advisor, Rasel Tome, said Tuesday. Zelaya will arrive at Toncontin international airport in the capital, where thousands of Hondurans will gather to welcome him, organized by the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), Tome said. Zelaya is returning to Honduras a few days before the 41st Assembly of the Organization of American States in El Salvador, which begins June 5.
While two trials on corruption charges against Zelaya were annulled, the FNRP insists that the government is responsible for his personal safety once in Honduras, where his wife recently denounced a conspiracy to murder him.
Zelaya has been living in the Dominican Republic for more than a year after Honduran soldiers kidnapped him and sent him to Costa Rica on June 28, 2009. Honduras was expelled from the OAS, which set the safe return of the Honduran president as a condition for re-entry.
