CoDev E-Bulletin September 2015
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- Published on Friday, 30 October 2015 10:15
- Written by editor
r18.
Greetings Friends and Supporters
Here is your October 2015 CoDev E-Bulletin.
******** SPECIAL EVENT NOTICE!
Hello CoDev supporters! Thanks to all who have responded to the member renewal notice. Remember all memberships expire at the end of December. New members who paid after June 2015 will not receive a renewal notice, and memberships for Monthly Donors will renew automatically!
******* Happening Now
UN Sustainable Development Goals: How to Succeed
The CCIC (Canadian Centre for International Cooperation) has a new blog post on Huffington Post Canada: Development Unplugged. Guest bloggers Julie Delahanty and Denise Byrnes, EDs of Oxfam Canada and Quebec respectively, contributed this look at what is required to make the Sustainable Development Goals successful.
******* Around the Americas
COLOMBIA
January 1: Timeline for Bilateral Ceasefire
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Wednesday that he agreed to work towards a bilateral ceasefire with FARC rebels that should take force on January 1.
*******
GUATEMALA
Guatemala elects a joker’s mask
Fresh from a public uprising that ousted former president and retired General Otto Perez Molina, Guatemalans voted overwhelmingly in October 25 run-off elections for a president with deep ties to military hardliners. Television comedian Jimmy Morales, a man with no previous political experience and best known for his mocking portrayals of indigenous Mayan and Garifuna Guatemalans, won a landslide victory over former first lady Sandra Torres, taking 67% of the vote to Torres’ 33%.
Morales, candidate for the virtually unknown National Convergence Front (FCN), benefitted from rising popular distrust of mainstream political parties during the electoral campaign. In the midst of revelations of deep institutional links to organized crime reaching to the highest levels of the government, the television personality leveraged his “outsider” image to beat mainstream party candidates and win a surprising first place finish in the September 6 first round elections. Under Guatemalan electoral laws if no presidential candidate takes more than 50% of the vote, the first and second place challengers must face each other in a run-off election. Morales took 24% of the vote, while Torres of the National Union of Hope (UNE) barely edged out third place finisher Manuel Baldizón with 19.72 percent to his 19.64.
But a closer look at Morale’s FCN reveals more of a deep insider, than an outsider, profile. The party was founded in 2008 by retired military officers involved in the far-right Guatemalan military officer veterans association (AVEMILGUA) and the Foundation Against Terrorism, (which counts among its executive members former army Captain Byron Lima, convicted of the brutal 1998 murder of bishop Juan Gerardi, coordinator of the Catholic church’s investigation into the Mayan genocide of the 1980s). Both organizations have launched vociferous campaigns against human rights and social activists, including filing legal charges accusing the activists of involvement in the now disbanded guerrilla movement. Morales’ chief advisor during the campaign has been retired Colonel and School of the America’s graduate Édgar Justino Ovalle Maldonado. Guatemalan military documents obtained by the US National Security Archives (NSA) indicate that Ovalle commanded the military task force occupying the Ixil region of Guatemala’s Quiche province between September 1981 and 1982, a period when the United Nations Truth commission report on Guatemala estimates that 77 massacres of civilian populations took place in the region. The NSA documents also indicate that Ovalle’s immediate superior in the army during this time was none other than then-Captain Otto Perez Molina.
After months of daring and massive street protests, Guatemalans appear to have ousted one corrupt military officer only to turn to the urns to replace him with the smiling mask of another.
For more on why Guatemalan’s elected Jimmy Morales, and the prospects for his presidency, we recommend this article.
*******
MEXICO
Search for 43 Missing Students Continues
The Inter American Commission on Human Rights will continue to investigate the disappearance of the 43 students.
*******
PARAGUAY
Campesinos Demand Resignation of President
Marching toward the capital city of Asuncion, hundreds of campesinos demanded the resignation of President Horacio Cartes. Read more here. *******
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EVENTS Save the Date! CoDev's Holiday Open House
December 10, 2015
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Save the Date!
Just Film Festival
February 11-13, 2016
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