by the El Reportero’s news services
Daniel Ortega
The impression that violence in Mexico may be about to reach a plateau has been gaining ground. David Shirk, director of the University of San Diego’s Trans-Border Institute (TBI), has ventured that 2011 may be the peak year, and that the pattern for a subsequent decline of drug-related violence could well be discerned in what he dubs the ‘Tijuana model’.
Chile inches forward
The student education protests in Chile have been largely defused by the government led by President Sebastián Piñera, which finally managed to outmanoeuvre the students by securing approval for the US$60bn 2012 budget in congress. The protests have been taxing, not only on the government but also on the political system as a whole. Political actors now recognise that Chile must contemplate fundamental political reforms to address some of the wider issues raised by the protestors (and the large section of the population that backed them).
Navy moves into Veracruz
The Mexican admiralty announced on Dec. 21 that marines would replace the state police in the state of Veracruz’s main conurbation, Veracruz-Boca del Río.
Ecuadorian Court ruling against U.S. Oil company for pollution
Press media and others affected by environmental pollution stressed the ruling of the Provincial Court of Sucumbíos against the U. S. oil company Chevron-Texaco, forced to pay over eight billion dollars for contaminating the Amazon.
The Single Chamber of the Sucumbíos Court issued its ruling on appeal, confirming the responsibility of Chevron-Texaco in a case that the settlers and natives of the Amazon have been pursuinbg for 18 years.
The plaintiffs, some Ecuadorian Amazon communities represented by U.S lawyers in Ecuador, claimed a compensation of 113 billion dollars and initiated the case in 1993 for alleged contamination caused by Texaco.
Judge Nicholas Zambrano, on Feb. 14, 2011, found the company guilty and indicated that it must pay 18 billion dollars to rehabilitate the environment, contaminated by throwing oil and liquid pollutants affecting rivers, streams, land and the environment.
The lawsuit, filed for damages caused between 1964 and 1990, when the oil company operated in Ecuador’s Amazon region, includes injury to the health of the inhabitants of the area and hundreds of deaths from diseases caused by pollution.
Humala tightens the ship with sweeping cabinet change
Peru’s President Ollanta Humala waited just 136 days before replacing his prime minister and half of his cabinet. It is unprecedented in recent history for a starting cabinet to last such a short time. The prime minister, Salomón Lerner, resigned on 10 December. The catalyst was the social unrest in the north-western department of Cajamarca over the proposed Conga copper and gold mine – but this alone would not have triggered his departure. The underlying reason was his failure to unite a pluralist cabinet behind Humala’s central policy – economic growth with social inclusion – leaving the government looking incoherent and disorganised. His successor, Humala’s former military instructor, Oscar Valdés, will impose more order, but at what cost?
In other news in Peru, the Mayor of Lima Susana Villarán said on Jan. 3, that a process to revoke her mandate and remove her from office is an attempt to derail her administration and will only hurt “the poor.”
