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WORLD NEWSThursday 24 December 2015
South American left retreats as economic crisis deepens Colombia peace
talks get blasted
JOSHUA GOODMAN litical dynasties are paying Wolff, a former leader of widening corruption scan- by rights groups
Associated Press the price for broken econ- the country’s M-19 leftist dal at state-run Petrobras,
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) omies and unchecked guerrilla movement. “In the including revelations of mil- LUIS LUGO
— After a decade on the corruption, most of South past decade it appeared lions in payouts from the oil Associated Press
advance, the left in South America’s governments to have stopped moving giant to close allies. Polls WASHINGTON (AP) — Hu-
America is in retreat. are run by leftists who came because the economic indicate she’s the least man Rights Watch this
Just in the past month, vot- to power as China’s econ- conditions were so favor- popular Brazilian president week harshly criticized an
ers in Argentina elected omy was taking off over the able.” since the nation’s return to agreement between Co-
a conservative business- past 15 years, fueling de- In Argentina, the pro-busi- democracy in 1985 follow- lombia’s government and
man president over the mand for the region’s raw ness mayor of Buenos Ai- ing a long military regime. leftist rebels on judging war
But by far, the biggest risk crimes committed during
Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez gestures after unveiling a bust of her late husband, and of unrest is in Venezuela. the country’s long conflict,
former president, Nestor Kirchner, at the presidential palace in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Voters in Following its victory in con- saying it sacrifices victims’
Argentina elected a conservative businessman president over Fernandez’s chosen successor. gressional elections, the rights to justice and guar-
opposition looks poised to antees impunity.
(AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan) challenge President Nico- The partial agreement on
las Maduro’s increasingly victims announced this
chosen successor of Cris- materials. res, Mauricio Macri, came fragile grip on power. In- month in Cuba was hailed
tina Fernandez and Brazil’s Now that the Asian gi- from behind in the polls to stead of letting his enemies by the government and
congress launched an im- ant is struggling, prices for win the presidency on a share the political cost of the Revolutionary Armed
peachment probe against the region’s copper, soy promise to unwind many of painful reforms to fix triple- Forces of Colombia as
President Dilma Rousseff, beans and oil have plum- Fernandez’s leftist policies, digit inflation and wide- a breakthrough in the
whose approval ratings meted along with its cur- especially on the econo- spread shortages, Maduro three-year-old talks, help-
have been languishing in rencies, taking with them my. In his first week on the so far is promising to double ing pave the way for the
single digits. the aspirations of millions of job, he dismantled taxes on down on statist policies that reaching a final peace ac-
In perhaps the biggest turn- families that rose into the farm exports as well as cur- got Venezuela into its mess cord in the coming months.
about, voters in Venezuela, middle class on the back rency controls blamed for and to disregard what he Under terms of the deal,
where the region’s leftward of the economic boom. At a flourishing black market. calls the “bourgeois parlia- guerrillas and members of
shift began, handed the the same time, U.S. interest In Brazil, President Dilma ment.” the military will be judged
opposition a landslide vic- rates are rising again for Rousseff is fighting for her Still, it would be a mistake by special peace tribunals.
tory in congressional elec- the first time in seven years, political life. Impeachment to say the left has lost all of Those who confess grave
tions — its first nationwide adding pressure on borrow- proceedings were intro- its oomph. crimes will avoid jail time
legislative win since the ers already struggling to duced this month in Con- The Peronist movement and instead carry out sen-
U.S.-bashing Hugo Chavez pay back dollar loans. gress over accusations she that produced Fernandez tences of a maximum 8
won the presidency in 1998. “What we’re seeing now is broke fiscal rules to cover still holds a majority in Ar- years enlisted in special
The backlash comes amid a reminder that the politi- up budget gaps for social gentina’s Senate, Rousseff’s projects such as clearing
an economic storm of the cal pendulum shifts in South spending. The probe comes Workers Party remains Bra- land mines and rebuilding
likes the region hasn’t seen America,” says Colombian against the backdrop of a zil’s best-organized political war-torn communities tra-
in decades. While all po- Senator Antonio Navarro shrinking economy and a faction and Maduro’s allies ditionally forsaken by the
still garnered an impressive state.
40 percent of the vote in Jose Miguel Vivanco, the
spite of an economy fore- Americas director at Hu-
cast to shrink as much as 10 man Rights Watch, said
percent this year. the agreement falls short
Other leftist stalwarts in of internationally accept-
South America remain on ed standards of justice and
solid footing, including Ec- should be reviewed by
uador’s Rafael Correa, the International Criminal
who enjoys a 52 percent Court.
approval rating even as his FARC rebels are accused
oil-dependent economy of committing an array of
struggles to fight off reces- abuses during a half-cen-
sion. tury of fighting, from sexual
Instead of a rightist revival, crimes to kidnapping, while
leadership may be splinter- leaders of Colombia’s mili-
ing between pragmatists tary have been implicated
and ideologues, says Chris- in a pattern of extrajudicial
topher Sabatini, an expert killings of civilians mischar-
on the region who teaches acterized as rebels.
at Columbia University. q “No international tribunal
has allowed convicted
Venezuela’s lame duck congress appoints justices war criminals to evade
prison for these types of se-
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) elections. Wednesday. won 112 of the assembly’s rious crime,” Vivanco said
— Venezuela’s lame duck The government-controlled The appointments would fill 167 seats in elections, giv- at a news conference in
congress has given initial National Assembly ap- vacancies left by justices ing them a “supermajority” Washington.
approval to the appoint- proved the candidates in who retired early rather to challenge the socialist Vivanco also criticized
ment of 13 Supreme Court its first debate this week. than risk a balancing of the administration of President what he called a lack of
justices in a move the op- Two more debates and staunchly pro-government Nicolas Maduro. Maduro clarity about how mem-
position says seeks to un- votes remain for final ap- high court, and the opposi- has vowed to defy the dic- bers of the new peace tri-
dermine its landslide victory proval and the congress tion denounced the move. tums of what he calls the bunal will be appointed.q
in this month’s legislative is expected to hold them Opposition candidates “bourgeois congress.”q
