Hemisphere Volume 9 Article 1 Issue 2 Spring

2000 Hemisphere Volume 9 Number 2, Spring 2000

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I Volume 9 • Number 2 • $7 ^ ^ ) r r i i g 2000 http://lacc.fiu.edu

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Latin American and Caribbean Center Florida International University University Park, DM 353, Miami, Florida 33199 Telephone: (305) 348-2894, Fax: (305) 348-3593, E-mail: [email protected] m— , ^ 1 A M A G A Z I N 1E OF THE AMERICAS

Volume 9 • Number 2 Spring 2000 Hemisphere http://lacc.fiu.edu

FROM THE EDITOR Eduardo A. Gamarra 3

COMMENTARY

| Stranger Than Fiction Laurie Goering 4

1 REPORTS 22 Autumn of the General Gregory Weeks 6

Toward a New Partnership? Paul Sutton 10

The Banana Wars Adam Levy 14

Crisis in the Brazilian Amazon Janet Chernela 18

FEATURES

The Other Journalism Jose Luis Benavides 22

Building the Fourth Estate Chappell Lawson 26

La Politica del Palo Silvio Waisbord 30

PHOTO ESSAY

J Gone to Rust Patricio Crooker 34

REVIEW FORUM

Desperate Measures, Layered Truths Kathleen Martin 46 ^ 1 A MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAS

UKC Hemisphere Providing Leadership in the Field of Latin American and Caribbean Studies for Two Decades EDITORIAL STAFF LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN CENTER Founding Editor Anthony P. Maingot Editor Eduardo A. Gamarra Associate Editors Mark B. Rosenberg lorida International University, a pub­ Richard Tardanico lic institution of higher education in Patricia Price South Florida, has devoted resources Managing Editor Alisa Newman Fand effort to the study of Latin America and Art Editor Pedro D. Botta the Caribbean. From the resulting synergy, Book Review Editor Ivelaw Griffith the Latin American and Caribbean Center Bibliographer Marian Goslinga (LACC) came into existence in 1979. As a federally supported National Resource CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Center for Language and Area Studies, LACC has a mandate to promote graduate David Bray Walt Peacock and undergraduate education, faculty Janet M. Chernela Lisandro Perez research, and public education on Latin American and Caribbean affairs. Carol Damian Ana Roca Damian J. Fernandez Andrea Mantell Seidel Sarah Mahler Victor Uribe C e n t er s and I n st it u t e s • Summit of the Americas Center Ted Young • Cuban Research Institute • Intercultural Dance and Music Institute EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD • Florida-Mexico Institute • Florida Caribbean Institute Don Bohning Guido Pennano • Hemispheric Center for Environmental Ettore Botta Alejandro Portes Technology Wolf G rabendorff Sally Price Alistair Hennessy David Ronfeldt

A cadem ic P r o g ra m s in L a tin Am erican Harry Hoetink Selwyn Ryan and C a ribbea n S t u d ie s Franklin W. Knight Steven E. Sanderson • Master of Arts Program Vaughan Lewis Saskia Sassen • Undergraduate/Graduate Certificate Larissa A. Lomnitz Andres Serbin Programs Abraham F. Lowenthal Carol A. Smith • Certificate Program in International Terry L. McCoy Lourdes Sola Business Andres Oppenheimer Yolande Van Eeuwen • Foreign Language and Area Studies Robert A. Pastor Arturo Villar Fellowship Program Anthony J. Payne Juan Yaries

C o n fer e n c es and W o r k sh o ps • Journalists and Editors Workshop Hemisphere (ISSN 08983038) is published three times a year by the Latin • Telecommunications Development American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University. Program Copyright © 2000 by the Latin American and Caribbean Center, Florida • Teacher Training Workshops International University. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of • Americas Internet Seminar America.

Hemisphere is dedicated to provoking debate on the problems, initiatives, and P ublications achievements of the Americas. Responsibility for the views expressed lies sole­ • Magazine Hemisphere ly with the authors. • Occasional Paper Series • Position Papers and Market Briefs Editorial, Circulation, and Advertising Offices: Latin American and Caribbean • Newsletters and Websites Center, Florida International University, University Park, Miami, Florida 33199. Tel.: (305) 348-2894, Fax: (305) 348-3593, E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://lacc.fiu.edu/hemisphere/hemisphere.html Latin American and Caribbean Center Florida International University University Park, Miami, Florida 33199 Tel. (305) 348-2894/Fax (305) 348-3593 FROM THE EDITOR

n August 1999, Jaime Garzon, a popular political satirist, was gunned down on his way to the Bogota radio station where he worked. The murder sparked an outpouring of protests and mourning in Colombia and received extensive coverage in the international press. Regrettably, however, the murder of a journalist is an all too common occurrence in much of Latin America. Scores of less famous reporters, photographers and editors in the region have lost their lives in the past decade as a direct result of their work, without receivingI the same public attention. This issue of Hemisphere focuses on journalism in Latin America, in both its positive and nega­ tive aspects. In his article about anti-press violence in the region, Silvio Waisbord argues that such attacks are not isolated events, but rather the product of societies with legacies of human rights abuses and weak civil institutions. He uses the murder of Argentine photojournalist Jose Luis Cabezas as a case in point. Another journalist who died violently in Argentina, Rodolfo Walsh, is the subject of an article by Jose Luis Benavides. The article celebrates the lifework of a man rec­ ognized as a pioneer in the movement toward socially responsible journalism. Chappell Lawson also emphasizes a lessening of state control over the media in his article about the growth of inde­ pendent journalism in Mexico. Finally, Laurie Goering, a reporter with The Chicago Tribune, shares her (often humorous) experiences working as a correspondent in Brazil. Other topics covered in this issue include the ongoing legal proceedings against General Augusto Pinochet. Gregory Weeks provides a summary of the case and its implications for Chilean politics, as well as other dictators past and present. Two articles look at trade relations between the countries of the Western Hemisphere and Europe, a timely issue given the recent protests against globalization in many parts of the world. Janet Chernela’s piece on the changing economic landscape of Manaus ties into this theme by studying the shifting role of the Amazonian rainforest in the global economy. A double book review by Kathleen Martin focuses on Rigoberta Menchu, the Nobel Prize- winning indigenous activist who found herself at the center of controversy last year. Martin reviews Menchu’s own book as well as a critical account of her story by anthropologist David Stoll. Finally, the photo essay in this issue features a series of poignant images from the mining towns of Bolivia, many of which were virtually abandoned after a 1985 decree closed the state-owned tin mines. The pictures return to the theme of globalization and the impact streamlined economic policies can have on specific industries and populations. Yet, they also reveal the tenacity of the displaced mine workers and the birth of private enterprises in many towns. As always, we welcome your comments about Hemisphere and look forward to bringing you our next issue, whose focus will be racial and ethnic identity in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Eduardo A. Gamarra

Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two 3 o M M Stranger Than Fiction

Laurie Goering

ften, it seems, cover­ ing Brazil comes Writing about Brazil—and the rest of Latin America—has its down to a test of sta­ oivn set of pitfalls, and in four years of living in Brazil I’ve found mina. Take the forest fires that roared most of them. through Brazil’s northern Roraima state last year, blackening rainforest and parts of the Finally, 14 hours later and with photocopy them or record them in country’s main Yanomami Indian midnight approaching, we pulled any other way. reserve. into Manaus, covered head to toe in We chatted a while longer, as I For the better part of a week I and thick red dust. glanced nonchalantly through the other journalists made forays into the “Let me guess,” joked the airline documents. In time, she decided fire zone by rental car and small agent at the counter. “Boa Vista?” that perhaps I could copy them after plane on the days when the smoke Writing about Brazil—and the rest all, just as long as I promised never wasn’t too thick. We interviewed fire­ of Latin America—has its own set of to use her name in connection with fighters, local victims and Indian pitfalls, and in four years of living in my story. I did, and we both left sat­ agency officials. We scorched our Brazil I’ve found most of them. isfied. shoes and drank warm soft drinks in This country, for instance, does Encounters with Brazil’s notorious the stifling heat. not have the kind of comprehensive bureaucracy don’t always go so Finally, it came time to leave for open records laws journalists rou­ smoothly. Last year, it took me near­ other stories. The problem was, we tinely depend on in the United ly a year to renew my working visa, couldn’t. States. Getting government docu­ including a standoff with a clerk who Thick smoke that made a joke of ments is mostly a test of patience opined that my letter of application the capital’s name—Boa Vista, or and charm, not a matter of submit­ wasn’t detailed enough and insisted “Good View”—had downed all flights ting Freedom of Information Act my visa wasn’t ready, eight months for days. With each cancellation, the requests. after it had been granted. Along the lines at the airport grew. I once tried to get a set of proper­ way the customs authority threatened Finally, desperate, several of us ty records at a government office in to deport my furniture and my cat. climbed aboard the only transporta­ the northeastern city of Fortaleza, as Eventually I got the visa—one day tion out of town, a bus to Manaus part of an investigative series. I was after Veja, Brazil’s leading news­ arranged by the airlines. Only 13 met with suspicion by the woman magazine, ran a story about my hours, on “mosdy” paved roads, the behind the counter. plight. ‘You’re famous,” said the ticketing agent promised. Once Of course I couldn’t see the docu­ chief of the visa section, when I there, we’d have priority status for ments—not that she had them any­ walked into the office. He gave me a flights out of the Amazon. way, she said. Why did I need them? big hug and the desk clerk gave me We got the last seats on the bus, What was my motive? The fact that I my visa—after insisting that I make a next to the toilet, which quit function­ was a journalist wasn’t good enough. new photocopy of a key document, ing less than an hour into the “flight.” For a few hours I sat with her and as the current one was 23% too During frequent rest stops the driver chatted about her job, her kids, my large. lurched back to visit with us, whiskey job, Chicago, the weather and the Magical realism is alive and well in botde in hand. At river crossings, fer­ latest soccer results. She served me Brazil. Sometimes the smaller issues ries failed to appear. A live sex act a bowl of homemade candied of journalism in Latin America, how­ took place in the seat in front of us. cashew fruit. ever, are just as thorny. Take the Eventually, after a bit of looking, term “Latin America” itself. she found the records and let me Brazilians, of Portuguese rather than Laurie Goering is the South America see them. She hadn’t given them to Spanish heritage, take offense some­ correspondent for The Chicago Tribune. me, she emphasized, and I couldn’t times at being termed part of “Latin”

4 Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two N T A R Y

Covering the news in Brazil

America. The problem is, there is no What is increasingly clear to me is The Brazilian media in turn other easy way to describe the that when American journalists here prompted their own run on the region. Calling something an issue focus on writing straightforward banks by repeating rumors—in large in “Latin America and Brazil” is awk­ news stories, about elections in front-page headlines—that President ward and confusing for readers, par­ Venezuela or lack of funding for Fernando Henrique Cardoso was ticularly when journalists don’t have environmental protection in Brazil, planning to freeze bank accounts, room repeatedly to explain Brazil’s not many readers come along for the despite his vehement denials. rather different history to an audi­ ride. Accounts were never frozen, and cus­ ence that still thinks that Spanish is When we spin tales, however, we tomers trooped back to redeposit the only language spoken between pull in readers who wouldn’t other­ their money when the scare was over. the Rio Grande and Antarctica. wise pay attention. Who could put I’ve seen intentional media abuses Describing Indians is for me anoth­ down a story, for instance, not about as well. I once visited a group of er vexing problem. Newspapers in Venezuela’s elections but about a Guarani Indians who had seized what the United States try to use the politi­ charismatic former coup leader who they considered ancestral land from cally correct term “native Americans” thinks himself part Jesus Christ and a local farmer. A Brazilian television when possible to describe Indians in part Simon Bolivar and rises to news program a few days earlier had this country. What then to call power democratically, quoting Walt shown one of the Guarani holding a Brazil’s natives? Surely they too are Whitman in his inauguration speech? gun to the television reporter’s head. native Americans, but how do I stop Or how about the Roman Catholic I asked the Indians why they’d readers from picturing the Sioux in priest/pop star who was voted threatened the reporter. “Oh, he Amazonia? I still haven’t come up Brazil’s sexiest man—and just hap­ begged us to do that. He said it with a good alternative, despite pens to be leading one of the most would make good television,” one of hours of pondering. successful revivals of the Roman the Indian leaders said. I winced for As a non-speaker of Portuguese Catholic Church in the region? my profession. when I arrived in Brazil, I’ve had my Magic realism is alive and well in I myself, however, have also been moments with the language as well. Latin America, and it is these kinds accused of plotting. While covering I once referred to a source—let’s call of tales that bring the region to life the fires near Boa Vista, I and other him Joao Oliveira Neto—as Mr. Neto for readers who otherwise have little foreign reporters happened to see a in second reference. Neto actually interest in this part of the world. news analysis segment by a religious means “the third.” 1 also early in my Brazil’s recent economic crisis has commentator on local television. tenure narrowly avoided translating pointed to another potential pitfall Amazonia, he squawked with indig­ the Zona de Mata, near the coast of of reporting here—journalists’ ability nation, was the victim of a plot. Pernambuco state, as the Zone of to influence, as well as simply cover, Spies and foreign operatives, posing Death. It is, of course, the Forest the news. as foreign journalists, were rushing Zone. With investors scrutinizing Brazil, a to town not to write about the blaz­ Perhaps the greatest difficulty fac­ foreign news agency in Rio de ing fires but to try to lay the ground­ ing a correspondent in Latin Janeiro released a photo showing work for a foreign takeover of the America, however, is simply making Brazilians jammed in long lines out­ Amazon, he said. stories from the region interesting to side the banks. In Brazil, everyone By suggesting Brazil is incapable of the readers back home. knows that such lines are normal, caring for the world's largest rainfor­ I admit that before I moved to Rio but in the United States the photo est, he continued, the spies were cre­ de Janeiro, I rarely read a story from was taken as evidence of a run on the ating the justification for an invasion. the region, except for tales from the banks—and nearly produced one Those of us gathered around the Amazon, and I had to look at a map here as worried foreign investors television looked at each other in to find Rio. I try to keep that in fled, the currency plunged and amazement. An international plot? mind as I write for others, many of depositors ran to switch their savings We hadn’t even been able to orga­ whom share my shortcomings. into dollars. nize a flight out of Boa Vista yet. ■

Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two 5 REP Autumn of the General

Gregory Weeks

lthough General already showing signs of strain; the Arriagada, a prominent Christian Augusto Pinochet Pinochet arrest made unity even Democrat, wrote in an editorial that handed power back more problematic and complicated a "peaceful transition from dictator­ to civilians in 1990 Frei’s policy choices. ship to democracy is not a judicial after nearly 17 years Supporting the arrest would problem. Rather, politics must dis­ of dictatorship, he antagonize the military, and espe­ criminate among the differing and remains a polarizing force in ciallyChile. the army. Pinochet is revered sometimes antagonistic objectives AHis continued presence as comman­ within its ranks, and the new com­ that society demands." Even Raul der in chief of the army proved mander in chief, General Ricardo Rettig, the former head of a com­ problematic for establishing civilian Izurieta, would have been forced to mission that investigated and pub­ supremacy over the armed forces. react. Throughout the 1990s, the lished the details of human rights Once he retired from the army in army resorted to shows of force, abuses, stated that the issue should March 1998, he was entitled under veiled threats and intense media be left to Chile to resolve. In other the military-penned 1980 constitu­ campaigns to protest government words, foreign judicial proceedings tion to become a senator for life, policies it believed were contrary to would upset the delicate political thus ensuring his active presence in its interests. Consequently, the balance so carefully constructed politics until his death. When threat of a new crisis was very real. since 1990. Pinochet was arrested in London on It would necessarily politicize The government was also acutely October 16, 1998 on the orders of Izurieta, whom the government aware that popular support for Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, the considers a more “professional” offi­ Pinochet was far from negligible. Chilean government was dealing cer and who refrained from the Polls demonstrated that nearly 40% not with an aged and discredited constant political pronouncements of the population considered them­ dictator, but a senator who contin­ that characterized Pinochet. selves Pinochet supporters, while ued to command considerable sup­ However, Izurieta also faced consid­ 31% opposed him and 29% either port from the Chilean right. erable pressure from the officer didn’t know or didn’t respond. corps to retain a hard line and to Despite the fact that a significant D o m e st ic P o l it ic s protect the commander in chief minority of Chileans opposed the Pinochet’s case presented the benemento, a title granted Pinochet arrest, however, the Concertacion’s administration of then President before he retired that has no legal leftist parties criticized Frei’s stance, Eduardo Frei with a difficult situa­ basis other than to demonstrate his stretching the integrity of the coali­ tion. Frei is a Christian Democrat elevated status. tion to its limits. Yet, while fissures (as was his predecessor, Patricio The army did not hesitate to had always been evident, rum ors of Aylwin) but part of the ruling party make its concerns known to the the Concertacion’s death were coalition known as the government. The day after the greatly exaggerated. Concertacion, which includes the arrest, it issued a statement express­ Socialist Party and the Party for ing its "permanent support and soli­ T h e International R e a c t io n Democracy. Both are left-leaning darity" with Pinochet. Izurieta met Overshadowing the implications parties that have clamored for more several times with the commanders of the Pinochet case for Chile’s active efforts to bring to trial those in chief of the other branches of domestic politics is the internation­ military officers who committed the military, and all watched the al prerogative to punish dictators human rights abuses under the mili­ governm ent closely. There was little who grossly violate the human tary regime. The coalition was immediate reason for complaint: rights of their citizens. President Frei, former President International law proved amenable Aylwin, Foreign Minister Jose and Garzon was active in utilizing it. Gregory Weeks is a lecturer in the Miguel Insulza and the Archbishop Aside from Pinochet, Garzon target­ Department of Political Science at San of Santiago consistently demanded ed 37 other former government Diego State University. Pinochet’s release. Genaro officials and military officers, whom

6 Heinisphene • Volume Nhie, Number Two o R S

Pinochet and the search for justice in Chile

his release came also from former Pinochet’s case highlights the long-term problems of dealing with US president George Bush, Henry Kissinger, Jessie Helms, and even the past, in Latin America and elsewhere. the Vatican. With influential allies, Pinochet was in a much better posi­ tion to resist prosecution. the Chilean government advised courts to prosecute Chileans. Even Skeptics also began to worry not to leave the country. Garzon Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria about the power of national courts. also gained the largely symbolic sup­ Aznar stated publicly that he disap­ As a result of Garzon’s efforts, port of the European Parliament, proved but could do nothing. judges and citizens in eight other which issued a declaration congrat­ Debate ensued as to whether European countries initiated indict­ ulating both Spain and Great Pinochet’s arrest was legal. As a ments against Pinochet. If he could Britain for detaining Pinochet. senator, he was traveling on a diplo­ be arrested, then did not every Garzon argued that the 1948 matic passport, and the Chilean national leader potentially face the Geneva Conventions allow any government argued that he was on same threat? President Frei asked country to try cases involving seri­ an official mission to discuss possi­ rhetorically whether a Chilean court ous crimes against human rights, ble arms sales. Nevertheless, the could then initiate proceedings for regardless of where they took place. 1961 Vienna Convention on crimes committed under the In addition, he pointed out that in Diplomatic Relations does not grant Spanish dictatorship of Francisco 1985 the United Nations expanded immunity from prosecution unless Franco. Around the world, critics its definition of genocide to include the diplomat is formally accredited warned of a dangerous precedent extermination of political oppo­ with the host country. No interna­ that would engender frivolous nents. Under Spanish law, further­ tional law or convention prohibits attempts at prosecution, while sup­ more, Spanish courts are justified in prosecution of visiting heads of porters clamored for prosecution of proceeding with cases involving state, weakening even further claims dictators and their followers. By genocide. Garzon had already of immunity by a former head of January 1999, Portuguese lawyers gained notoriety by bringing state. had announced plans to seek the charges against 110 Argentine mili­ Since World War II, many states— extradition of former Indonesian tary and police officers accused of particularly in Western Europe— president Suharto for the killings he the most serious violations against have codified into national law the ordered in East Timor, a Portuguese Spanish citizens during the period ability to try universal crimes against colony forcibly annexed by of military rule in Argentina. These humanity. In the 1990s, both Indonesia in 1976. Pinochet’s fate cases led him to investigate Rwandans and Serbs were prosecut­ will represent an im portant prece­ "Operation Condor," in which the ed (and even jailed) for violating dent for these and similar cases. Chilean government illegally coor­ these laws. Pinochet’s case is differ­ dinated swaps of political prisoners ent. Despite the glaring and brutal B r it a in ’s D ilem m a with other South American military violations of human rights during Once the decision regarding regimes. The culmination of these his regime, Pinochet continues to extradition was in British hands, the investigations was his effort to seek enjoy domestic and international issue was far more political than Pinochet’s detention for genocide support, and he is a senator. juridical. On October 30, 1998, the against victims of any nationality, Former British Prime Minister English High Court ruled that not only Spaniards. Margaret Thatcher published a let­ Pinochet should never have been Garzon’s case had been proceed­ ter stating that Pinochet "was a arrested, since he was head of state ing for months before Pinochet was good friend to this country during when the crimes were committed arrested, and the Chilean govern­ the Falklands War. By his actions and therefore entitled to immunity. ment made clear that it did not rec­ the war was shortened and many Lawyers for the Spanish govern­ ognize the legitimacy of Spanish British lives were saved." Calls for ment appealed, and the case was

Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two 7 Reports: Chile

referred to a five-member panel counter to the decision to avoid March 24, 1999, the Law Lords from the House of Lords. In the antagonizing Pinochet in favor of ruled that Pinochet was not meantime, Home Secretary Jack democratic stability, and that it immune, but could not be tried for Straw, England’s top cabinet-level would complicate government-army crimes committed before December judicial authority, had the authority relations just as Izurieta took con­ 1998, when Britain signed the to order Pinochet’s release. He was trol. Thus, although twelve sepa­ International Convention on lobbied intensely to do so by rate cases against Pinochet have Torture. Under these terms, only Pinochet supporters, who flew en been launched in Chile, the three of the original 32 charges still masse to England to secure the gen­ amnesty law and his senatorial stood. The Law Lords also asked eral’s freedom. Straw could have immunity almost certainly doom Straw to decide whether or not cited humanitarian reasons based them to failure. Pinochet could face extradition. on Pinochet’s ill health, but the Straw took no action, and both in On April 15, Straw decided affirma­ irony was obvious; as many noted, Chile and abroad there was consen­ tively, thus ensuring that the case humanitarian pardons were not sus that the House of Lords would would continue for months. issued to the thousands of people not overturn the High Court’s deci­ tortured and killed under sion. But on November 15, 1998 F u t u r e I mplications Pinochet’s direction. (Pinochet’s eighty-third birthday), In many ways, the Pinochet case From the perspective of human the panel voted 3-2 to deny immu­ helped define Chile’s last presiden­ rights activists and Chileans adverse­ nity, ensuring that the general tial election, in December 1999. ly affected by Pinochet’s rule would remain in custody. In The two parties on the Chilean (including many members of the December, Straw decided that the right (the conservative government and Congress who were extradition process should begin, Independent Democratic Union exiled, beaten and/or had relatives opening the way to months of hear­ and the moderate National killed), the Spanish initiative repre­ ings, deliberations and appeals. Renovation), often at odds, united sented the most promising way to The Chilean army and navy behind demands to bring Pinochet judge Pinochet. In 1978, the mili­ issued official declarations in back to Chile. They even called on tary regime proclaimed an amnesty protest. Both asserted that the mili­ Frei to expel the Socialist Party that granted a blanket pardon for tary government had been Chile’s from the government, blaming it 1973-1978, the period when the savior in a time of national crisis. for failing to secure Pinochet’s bulk of the abuses occurred. The army went further, complain­ release. Despite this campaign, Pinochet argued that the country ing that the Chilean government’s their candidate, Joaqum Lavfn had been in a state of war, and that efforts to release Pinochet had (UDI), a conservative mayor of an any "excesses" should be viewed in been inadequate. Pinochet himself affluent Santiago suburb, lost to the this light. Although the democratic sent a letter addressed to all Concertacion’s Ricardo Lagos in a governments of the post-1990 peri­ Chileans in which he defended the runoff vote in January 2000. Lagos, od did prosecute a few officers, 1973 coup and claimed that the a well-known politician and former including former intelligence chief army had acted to save the "funda­ Socialist cabinet member, ran a Manuel Contreras, these successes mental values of our civilization" campaign that highlighted the left’s came only after significant conces­ from communism. Subsequently, concerns but largely avoided the sions to the army. everything he did was rooted in Pinochet issue. The only remaining way to judge "thinking of the liberty of Chileans, Pinochet’s arrest convulsed Pinochet was to enact a constitu­ their well-being and national unity." Chilean politics, underlining the tional measure accusing him of vio­ He went on to assert that he was dilemma of pursuing justice in diffi­ lating the nation’s honor. A group the "object of a political-juridical cult political contexts. There is no of Christian Democrats forced this machination, crafty and cowardly, threat of a coup d’etat in Chile, but measure to a vote in early 1998, which has no moral value." the government must address a when Pinochet retired from the Meanwhile, Pinochet’s lawyers politically active military that has army and entered the Senate. They succeeded in overturning the exerted considerable and consistent were defeated by a combination of House of Lords’ decision by noting influence even after the transition military pressure and exhortations a conflict of interest regarding one to democracy. Regardless of the from both current and former gov­ of the panel’s members, who had final outcome, Pinochet’s case has ernment officials, including close ties to Amnesty International. highlighted the long-term problems President Aylwin. These officials A new panel was charged to begin of dealing with the past, in Latin argued that the proposal ran deliberations all over again. On America and elsewhere. ■

Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two The Women’s Studies Major a t F l o r id a I nternational U n iv er sit y

A More Rewarding Choice: New Knowledge for a New World

The Women’s Studies Program at Florida International University offers a B.A., an academic certificate and elective courses. Students with a declared major in anoth­ er field may double-major in women’s studies, an interdisciplinary field that focus­ es on the situation and experiences of women across social and cultural categories in history and contemporary society. The more than 50 courses offered include such options as “Caribbean Women Writers,” “History of Women in Latin America,” “Philosophy and Feminism” and “Sex, Power and Politics.” For a com­ plete list of courses and faculty visit the Women’s Studies Program at:

Women’s Studies Center Florida International University University Park, DM 212 Miami, Florida 33199 Tel. (305) 348-2408, Fax (305) 348-3143 E-mail [email protected]

F l o r i d a International U n iv e r sit y Reports: Caribbean Toward a New Partnership? Paul Sutton

n international relations, all is change and uncertainty. Poverty and paradise do not coexist easily in the minds of most Yet, longstanding relations Europeans; insofar as paradise has the edge over poverty in between countries and estab­ lished ways of conducting popular perception, the Caribbean will suffer. international affairs bring a measure of stability and predictabil­ I ic principles and the rule of law, ity. One of the more enduring of ued European presence in the these relationships is that between Caribbean, and in particular, the and good governance.” Europe and the Caribbean, which EU’s role in such areas as human This wording has touched a raw m arked its half m illennium in 1992. rights, economic development and nerve with some in the ACP. The In the last 500 years, Europe has trade. Caribbean especially is sensitive to left deep legacies in the region, perceived infringem ents of its sov­ both tangible and intangible, good T h e E u r o p e a n U n io n a s F o r e ig n ereignty, but in this case, the critics and bad. To this day, the bound­ P o l ic y A c t o r may be overreacting. The EU pro­ aries of the European Union (EU), For the EU, the Lome posals are part of a general move­ represented by the French Convention is but one of several ment toward greater conditionality Departements d’Outre-Mer, the frameworks for dealing with the in the provision of development Netherlands Antilles and the British developing world. Recently, the EU assistance, a process driven by the Dependent Territories (newly has upgraded its interests in Latin Organization for Economic renamed Overseas Territories), America, especially the Mercosur Cooperation and Development’s extend to the Caribbean. Since countries, and in Asia. In engaging major aid donors. They also find 1975, the cornerstone of this rela­ with these areas, the EU is seeking support among the European pub­ tionship has been the Lome commercial and political advantage, lic, particularly the major non­ Convention. with only passing reference to the governmental development organi­ The Lome Convention is the sin­ provision of development assis­ zations (NGDOs). The proposals gle most important framework for tance. This is consistent with a are being presented as part of an bringing the largest number of greater emphasis in EU external established process of political dia­ underdeveloped countries (the 71 relations on political issues and a logue that the Libreville countries of Africa, the Caribbean heightened vocation by many in the Declaration, which outlines the and the Pacific, collectively known European Commission, the EU’s principles governing the ACP’s as the ACP) into a close ‘develop­ executive body, to provide the EU approach to the Lome negotiations, ment’ relationship with the largest with the power to exercise political agreed had value. bloc of developed countries (the 15 leadership in global affairs. The Commonwealth Caribbean member states of the EU). The The political dimension is a core has nothing to fear from political original convention was signed in feature of the Commission’s pro­ dialogue, and much to gain if it can 1975 and renegotiated in 1980, posals for a new Lome Convention. add its particular concerns to those 1985 and 1990; in its current form, This is perhaps most clearly stated of the EU. One obvious considera­ it runs until February 29, 2000. in the preamble to the Draft tion is coherence between the inter­ Negotiations to determine its future Negotiating Mandate the nal policies of the EU and their shape began in Septem ber 1998. Commission released in January external effects. Another is rela­ At stake is the nature of the contin- 1998. This document states that tions with third parties which the convention will contain “an adversely affect ACP interests (such essential elements clause” confirm­ as the current conflict with the Paul Sutton is director of the Centre for ing that the policies of all parties to United States over the EU banana Developing Area Studies at the the convention are “informed by regime). Other concerns, as listed University of Hull, England. respect for human rights, democrat­ in the ACP negotiating mandate,

10 Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Reports: Caribbean

The future of Caribbean-European Union relations

include treatment of ACP immi­ lion dollars for the independent Current thinking has advanced the grants in the EU, extraeconomic states and dependent territories of idea of vulnerability as the key to activities of transnational compa­ the Caribbean. Proportionately, as the special needs of the region’s nies, transboundary movement and a region of mostly small states, the smaller states. Small states, it is disposal of hazardous waste, drug Caribbean did well on a per capita argued, are more vulnerable than trafficking and money laundering. basis within the ACP grouping and larger ones to economic shocks, The EU proposals should therefore even better in relation to other environmental risks and security not be resisted as a matter of princi­ developing countries. In some threats. In particular, small devel­ ple, but rather reworked to provide parts of the Caribbean, and espe­ oping states (those with a popula­ a genuine forum for regular cially among the smaller states of tion of 1.5 million or less) exhibit exchanges of views with the goal of the Eastern Caribbean, such aid has greater volatility of output com­ improved cooperation and a more been especially significant. pared to large states as a conse­ equal partnership. The key question for the quence of greater exposure to The Commission also proposes a Caribbean is, how m uch of this aid external economic forces and envi­ greater engagem ent with civil soci­ is at risk in a successor convention? ronmental hazards. When these ety. The Caribbean can make its The answer is not easy to deter­ factors are taken into account and presence felt in this area, drawing mine; it depends to a considerable quantified in a composite vulnera­ on the well-established democratic extent on a much wider debate on bility index, 20 small ACP states out tradition in the majority of its states the purpose and priorities of devel­ of a sample of 100 developing states and the wide range of interest opment assistance. However, the are categorized as most vulnerable. groups active in various national omens are not good for the more Of these, seven are in the debates. These need to be har­ developed, high-income countries Caribbean. nessed if there is to be a genuine of the region. The EU, along with The idea of a vulnerability index political dialogue about Lome. The other major donors, has deter­ has yet to win general recognition. parties involved must also reevalu­ mined that development assistance The figures cited above are from a ate how such a forum should be should target the poorest countries. study commissioned by the structured. To date, governments, In the Caribbean, Haiti and Guyana Commonwealth Secretariat, which the private sector and NGDOs have undoubtedly qualify, but the has promoted the use of such an held separate discussions, a selec­ Bahamas, Barbados, and most likely index. Its value to the Caribbean tive pursuit of interest that leaves Trinidad and Tobago do not. The and other small developing coun­ the Caribbean open to the strate­ other states are somewhere in tries, most of which are defined as gies of divide and rule it claims the between. Political and procedural middle-income states, is to provide metropolitan powers practice in the considerations undoubtedly play a a case for special consideration in region. role in such assessments, but there accessing official development assis­ is also a moral dimension to the tance. The Commission appears D e v e l o p m e n t C o o p e r a t io n perception of lesser need in the sympathetic to such arguments; its In discussing the future of Lome, Caribbean which is linked to the Draft Negotiating Mandate men­ it is important to realize what is at popular image of the region as an tions that special provision will be stake in development assistance idyllic holiday destination. Poverty made for vulnerable states, includ­ alone (separating it for the moment and paradise do not coexist easily ing landlocked and island coun­ from trade, which in the past has in the minds of most Europeans; tries. It also proposes that the over­ been the other core element of the insofar as paradise has the edge all figure for programmable Lome package). In the period over poverty in popular perception, resources (those directed to specific 1975-1995, the EU’s own develop­ the Caribbean will suffer. countries and regions) "will be cal­ ment program (as distinguished In any successor arrangement to culated in the light of a country’s from that of individual EU states) Lome, the Caribbean will have to estimated needs—size, population, earmarked approximately $2.08 bil­ demonstrate objective need. income, vulnerability, geographical

Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Reports: Caribbean

situation—and an assessment of its advanced regional organization E u r o p e a n In t e r e st s a n d t h e merits based on performance and among the ACP states. A major C aribbea n sound management." If these are Caribbean concern is that such an Britain, France and the indeed the criteria, then many states agreement could divert rather than Netherlands have direct interests in in the Caribbean will be able to create trade. the Caribbean, and Spain a marginal meet them in full. but significant one. Their responsi­ Which option is best for the bilities have mounted in recent T rade Caribbean? Anthony Gonzales of years, as drug trafficking and money The same cannot be said for trade. Trinidad’s Institute of International laundering have joined development This has always been a contentious Relations has studied this question and good governance on the list of area in ACP-EU relations and the in depth and reached the conclu­ European concerns. The sum of most important element of the sion that "an FTA would appear in these interests ensures that the Lome Convention for the the long term to be a superior region commands attention it would Caribbean. The Commission’s cur­ instrument to most favoured nation, not otherwise receive. rent proposals have run into opposi­ GSP and Lome. It would expand New political and social dimen­ tion from all sides. Both the British market size by providing better sions have also been introduced into government and the International access to FTA preferences as well as what was once a largely economic Development Committee of the offer greater security of market portfolio of concerns. The House of Commons, which released access, transparency and stable rules. Maastricht Treaty, and more recently a detailed report on renegotiation of It could better focus the attention of the Treaty of Amsterdam, have the Lome Convention in May 1998, the region on dynamic gains by expanded the EU’s competence in a believe they will be unworkable in examining other trade barriers, pro­ number of areas, including social their present form. The ACP shares tective rules of origin and restrictive policy; common citizenship; cooper­ their concern, as do virtually all investment provisions that impede a ation on police, judicial and immi­ major NGDOs in Europe. better flow of efficiency-seeking gration affairs; and cooperation for As far as the Caribbean is con­ investment to areas where the a common foreign and security poli­ cerned, there are two major issues: region exhibits competitiveness." A cy. All these rebound on the whether the region will benefit from Caribbean-EU FTA could be made Caribbean and have particular a Free Trade Area (FTA) with the compatible with any agreements importance for the EU’s possessions EU, and what will happen to existing emerging from the Free Trade Area and territories in the region. The trade protocols. With respect to of the Americas and with WTO EU and its m em ber states therefore trade frameworks, the Commission rules, which the EU insists are essen­ have a considerable interest in stabil­ spells out three options: tial to all its trade agreements. ity, security and development in the Although an FTA may eventually Caribbean, giving the Caribbean • The status quo for least developed be best for the Caribbean, a great ACP a rarely acknowledged advan­ countries (LDCs) that can continue many issues remain to be clarified tage in negotiations. to benefit from current Lome pref­ and negotiated. In general, howev­ The operative factor in EU- erences. In the Caribbean, this er, the arguments against an ACP- Caribbean relations can best be option applies only to Haiti. EU free trade agreement are most described as “interest plus.” valid in the African context. The National and regional interests are • Adapting non-LDCs to the EU’s Caribbean is a different matter; sub­ clearly at work for both parties. In general system of preferences ject to appropriate safeguards, a addition, the intangibles of shared (GSP). This option is open to all Caribbean FTA tilts the balance history and shared culture continue Caribbean states; however, prelimi­ toward the future of trade liberaliza­ to play an influential role. It is only nary research suggests that it implies tion rather than the past of trade natural to expect some dilution of considerable loss of benefits, with preference. It opens the prospect of this common heritage over time, the Caribbean seriously affected as a a customized framework in which and the pace of global change has group. new instruments can be devised to helped to speed up the process. Yet, improve competitiveness and devel­ such relationships are by nature • The negotiation of an FTA with op new products and markets. Such enduring even as they admit change. the EU by 2005. The Commission gains may not be possible within an It is in this spirit that Europe and believes that the Caribbean will ACP-wide agreement. On this issue, the Caribbean should seek to main­ choose this option, since it possesses the Caribbean must part company tain their partnership in a renewed the greatest cohesion and the most with Africa. Lome Convention. ■

12 Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Nuinber Two Master of Arts in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at FIU

THE PROGRAM The Master of Arts in Latin American and Caribbean Studies responds to the diversity of disciplinary and subdisciplinary approaches to the study of Latin America and the Caribbean. The program prepares students for doctoral-level studies in academic disciplines and for careers in the public and private sectors. Full-time students can expect to complete the pro­ gram, including thesis, in 18-24 months.

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS The program consists of 36 hours of course work, including a thesis and specialization in a discipline to be selected from the program’s core departments (Economics, History, Environmental Studies, International Relations, Modem Languages, Political Science, and Sociology/Anthropology). Students work under the guidance of social science faculty whose exper­ tise includes diverse themes such as the illicit narcotics trade, the environment and sustainable development, migration, commerce and trade. Subregional strengths include the Andes, Brazil and the Southern Cone, Mexico, Cuba and the Caribbean. Financial assistance is available on a competitive basis.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT Two decades o f leadership Theodore R. Young, Director of Academic Programs in Latin American and Latin American and Caribbean Center Caribbean Studies Florida International University University Park, DM 353, Miami, Florida 33199 Telephone: (305) 348-2894, Fax: (305) 348-3593 L a t in A m e r ic a n a n d C a r ib b e a n C e n t e r E-mail: [email protected]; http://lacc.fiu.edu F lo rid a International U niversity • M iam i, F lorid a Reports: International Trade The Banana Wars Adam Levy

ew would have thought that a H ade conflict involv­ ing import barriers on Latin American bananas could drag the US into a heated trade conflict with the European Union (EU). Yet, on March 3, 1999, the Clinton adminis­ tration unilaterally imposed trade sanctions on European products val­ ued at $520 million, an amount the FUS claims equals the losses incurred by its commercial interests due to European banana import restrictions. The reprisal came after three favor­ able rulings in the World Trade Organization (WTO) condemned the EU’s banana trade restriction as a vio­ lation of international trade law, although a subsequent ruling last April trimmed the amount of US sanctions authorized to $191.4 mil­ lion. The roots of the conflict go back to 1993, when Latin America’s banana- producing countries entered into a dispute with Europe and its former Afro-Caribbean-Pacific colonies (known collectively as the ACP). In what came to be known as the Declaration of Guayaquil, on February 12, 1993, eight Latin American countries pledged to fight the European banana import regime collectively using GATT’s dispute res­ olution mechanisms. In these days before US involvement, the conflict was notable for the divergent levels of economic power among the major players: the European Economic Community (EC)—an economic pow­ erhouse—confronted a loose coali-

Adam Levy is a customs broker in Miami, Florida. He holds an M.A. in political science from Tulane University.

1 4 Hemisphere • Volume Niue, Number Two Reports: International Trade

Might still makes right in international trade politics

European import regimes have clashed with the interests of banana-exporting companies and non-ACPcountries. tion made up of Costa Rica, plex import licensing scheme. new banana trade policy with predic­ Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Europe justified the trade restrictions tions of economic devastation. Latin Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and to protect former ACP colonies, such American producers had increased Venezuela. Given Latin America’s as Jamaica, the Philippines, St. Lucia, the amount of land under banana emphasis on outward-oriented mod­ the Windward Islands, Cameroon and cultivation in the 1980s, expecting els of development, the evolution of the Ivory Coast, and European increased demand from a newly uni­ the conflict during this period pro­ domestic possessions, including fied Europe and Germany. Trade vides important insights as to whether Guadeloupe, Martinique and the analysts estimated that the new restric­ international trade dispute mecha­ Balearic Islands. Since 1975, the tions would result in a global glut of nisms can function effectively to Lome Convention had granted ACP 900,000 metric tons of surplus pro­ defend Latin America against the countries trade preferences on duction. unfair trading practices of more pow­ bananas, with the rationale that many To the US multinationals that dom­ erful developed countries. ACP producers are smaller and less inate the commercialization of Latin competitive than their Latin American production, the most griev­ D o llar B ananas a n d A C P B ananas American counterparts. Under the ous aspect of Europe’s banana trade The 1993 EC trade legislation limit­ new system, ACP countries and policy was the complicated licensing ed Latin American banana imports to European possessions were allocated scheme it introduced. These regula­ two million metric tons beginning in duty-free annual quotas of 857,700 tions required an import license for 1994, subjected them to a tariff of 100 and 854,000 metric tons, respectively. every box of bananas brought into Ecus (US $175) and created a com­ Latin Americans greeted Europe’s the EU. O f the newly reduced mar­

Hemisphere • Volume Nitte, Number Two Reports: International Trade

Ecuador, the world’s largest and low­ est-cost producer of bananas, strongly opposed a quota, since between 1991 and 1993 it had become the single largest exporter to the EU. Costa Rica, on the other hand, was more willing to accept a quota. Costa Rican producers had to contend with higher costs, due to higher wages and overhead. Before being displaced by Ecuador, Costa Rica had been the largest exporter of bananas to Europe and thus could argue that it deserved the largest market share. The EU’s December 1994 proposal was weighted heavily in favor of Costa Rica and Colombia. It proposed allocating the market as follows: Costa Rica, 23.4%; Colombia, 22%; Ecuador, 20.2%; Panama, 19.7%; Honduras, 6.8%; Nicaragua, 1.9%; The banana conflict highlights the advantages of regional integration for Latin America. and Guatemala, 1.5%. Venezuela and other "third party" countries jointly received a 4.5% market share. ket of two million metric tons now cies of a newly formed, borderless Further sweetening the deal, the allocated to Latin America, the EU Europe. The talks centered on four Europeans recognized a Costa Rican gave many import licenses to main points: quotas for individual demand that Latin America control European primary importers, banana countries, total ceiling limits for Europe’s import licenses. However, distributors and ripeners, even imports from Latin America, control in a move that would further compli­ though many of these companies had of import licenses and tariff reduc­ cate the selling of bananas in the not imported bananas directly from tions. European market, the EU created a Latin America before. Once the The European strategy for resolv­ entire new layer of licenses called import regime took effect, the licens­ ing the conflict was to exploit the "export licenses,” of which Latin es were a requirement for anyone cleavages within the coalition of Latin America would get 70%. As a final wishing to sell in Europe. They American banana-producing nations. concession, the Europeans raised the could be sold without importing any Only Costa Rica, Colombia, Latin America quota to 2.1 million fruit at all for an average price of Guatemala, Venezuela and Nicaragua metric tons in 1994 and 2.2 million between $4 and $8. United Fruit, the were GATT members in 1993, and of in 1995, and lowered the Latin largest US exporter to the EU, bore these countries, only two—Costa Rica American tariff from 100 Ecus ($100) the brunt of the licensing scheme. and Colombia—were "substantial to 75 Ecus ($75). Its EU market share declined by producers" in the European market. The deal meant that Costa Rica about 25% from 1991 to 1994, Hence, the best EU strategy would be received the largest market share, according to EU officials. to induce Costa Rica and Colombia, even though it had lost its status as the pivotal players in the negotia­ the leading banana exporter to E u r o p e ’s D ivide a n d C o n q u e r tions, to drop their GATT case. Europe in the early 1990s. Colombia S trateg y The most divisive issue was the received the second largest market Negotiations between the EU and EU’s proposal to establish quotas for share, despite the fact that Panama Latin America began in earnest in individual countries. Quotas, by their traditionally had exported more December 1993, as part of the clo­ very nature, penalize the most effi­ bananas to Europe. Costa Rica and sure of the GATT Uruguay Round. cient producers of a given commodi­ Colombia would also benefit dispro­ From the outset, the Europeans indi­ ty by freezing their market share, portionately from the export licenses. cated their desire for a prompt reso­ while offering stability to producers Both had large contingents of nation­ lution of the dispute, which cast an with higher costs who are under al producers who would gain eco­ embarrassing light on the trade poli­ threat from low-cost producers. nomic leverage vis-a-vis the American

16 Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Nwnber Two Reports: International Trade

multinationals by holding the licens­ GATT/WTO procedures. These returned to the negotiating table and es. Countries such as Panama, countries were lumped into a "non­ pledged again to make their banana Honduras and Guatemala, whose quota" category by the Europeans, import regime WTO-compliant. national producers were a smaller entitling them to approximately This case suggests that the threat of and less potent political force, valued 46.3% of the European market. collateral economic damage, when the export licenses less. Mexico, also a banana producer but applied within the framework of the Despite a GATT ruling in January not a large exporter to Europe, WTO, is sometimes the only way to 1994 condemning the EU’s new played a minor role in the negotia­ dislodge the unsavory trade practices trade regime as a violation of interna­ tions and joined the group of hold­ of powerful nations. The implication tional trade law, four countries ulti­ outs. for Latin America is that regional mately accepted quotas. In what integration may be the best way to became known as the Framework C lash o f t h e T itans protect the area’s trading rights. Agreement, Costa Rica received The US finally entered the conflict Regional trading blocs enhance Latin 23.4% of the market. Colombia in 1996, lodging a complaint in the America’s attractiveness as a market, received 21%, while Nicaragua set­ WTO with the other protesting coun­ along with its capacity to inflict recip­ tled for 3% and Venezuela for 2%. tries. After the WTO ruled against rocal economic damage when devel­ In addition, the EU designated 4.3% the EU in 1997, the Europeans modi­ oped countries violate members’ of the Latin American quota to non- fied their import regime slightly by trading rights. With US sanctions traditional suppliers. Honduras, abolishing the export licenses. beginning to affect European Panama, Guatemala and Ecuador, of Otherwise, they maintained many of exporters, the question remains which Guatemala was the only GATT the regime’s major tenets. It was not whether the Europeans will follow member, rejected their quotas and until the US inflicted reciprocal eco­ through with their pledge or accept vowed to continue pressuring the EU nomic damage under Section 301 of the consequences of US trade penal­ for a more acceptable solution using US trade law that the Europeans ties. ■

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Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Reports: Brazil Crisis in the Brazilian Amazon Janet M. Cheniela

n the decade between 1988 In the mid 1800s, however, advances attract industry to the north by allow­ and 1998, Brazilian policy in vulcanization processes increased ing exemptions on steep import regarding the Amazon rainfor­ the strength and resilience of rubber duties. The plan was designed to est abrupdy turned from and broadened its application to a attract industrial development, partic­ “brown” to “green.” This was wide range of commodities. Rubber ularly electronic assembly plants, that most apparent in Amazonas, became Brazil’s principal export in relied on imported components. Ithe largest state in Brazil, accounting 1871, and by 1909 Amazonia was the The duty-free area was designated the for one-third of the 1.9 million source of 94.4% of the world’s rub­ Zona Franca de Manaus, or Manaus square miles designated as Legal ber supply. Free Trade Zone. Amazonia. The shift to preservation­ Brazil’s rubber boom came to an The decree came in the context of ist policies is best explained not by end in 1913, when managed planta­ a Brazilian economy that was rigor­ growing environmental awareness, tions in Malaysia outperformed ously protected by trade barriers. In but rather by political and economic Brazilian forest extractors. Previously, the 1960s, approximately 3000 prod­ processes occurring at the interna­ Asia had contributed only minimal ucts were prohibited from import, tional level. This article traces the amounts of rubber to the world mar­ while many others were subject to reversal in political positioning, sug­ ket (four tons in 1900, compared to hefty import taxes of 80%. Firms gesting contributing factors that may Brazil’s 27,650). By 1913, however, within the federally designated free explain changing policies toward the Asia had overtaken Brazil as the trade zone could sell imported items Amazonian forest and its preserva­ world’s largest rubber producer. By at prices that were not available else­ tion. 1918, Amazonia’s share of the world where in Brazil, providing them with rubber supply had fallen to 10.9%. strong competitive advantages. T h e B o o m o f B lack G o l d Just before World War II, when Given these conditions, it was cost The Brazilian Amazon has long Brazilian rubber came into tempo­ effective for Brazilians from the south been characterized by a continuum rary demand by Allied nations, its to travel to Manaus to purchase of slow economic growth, interrupt­ contribution to the world market had imported goods. Despite the city’s ed at intervals by peaks of economic diminished to 1.4%. distance from Rio de Janeiro and Sao prosperity. For four hundred years— With no export commodity to Paulo, thousands of Brazilians from from the sixteenth through the mid­ replace rubber, the economy of the the metropolitan south traveled there twentieth centuries—wealth was central Amazon entered a period of annually to purchase tax-free luxury derived principally from the export stagnation. The region’s wealth was and electronic goods. A passenger of forest products. The most eco­ concentrated in the city of Manaus, leaving Manaus was permitted to nomically significant of these prod­ strategically situated near the conflu­ carry up to $2,000 in tax-free import­ ucts was rubber, latex extracted from ence of the Negro and Amazon ed items. the Amazonian tree Hevea brasiliensis. Rivers. As the rubber boom dissipat­ Investors reacted quickly to the Demand for this commodity surged ed, Manaus contracted to a fraction new fiscal incentives. Having lan­ in the latter half of the nineteenth of its former size, its revenue sources guished for five decades, the econo­ century, when first vulcanization, and limited to the export of a few raw for­ my of Amazonas state and its princi­ then the nascent automotive indus­ est products. pal city, Manaus, was spurred forward try, catapulted world demand for rub­ by new industrial and commercial ber to unprecedented levels. A B o o m o f a D iffer en t K in d : T h e development. Between 1970 and Rubber was a minor export in the Z o n a F ranca o f M anaus 1990, the zone attracted over 600 first half of the nineteenth century. Manaus was lifted out of its stagna­ firms, including Honda, Kodak, tion in 1967, when the Brazilian gov­ Olivetti, Philco/Ford, Philips, Sanyo, ernment decreed a portion of the Seiko, Sharp, Sony, Telefunken, 3M, Janet M. Chernela is professor of anthro­ city to be duty free. The decree out­ Toshiba and Xerox. This growth, in pology at Honda International lined fiscal incentives from federal, turn, carried with it other parts of the University. state and municipal governments to tertiary sector, particularly tourism.

1 8 Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Reports: Brazil

Global integration, the Zona Franca of Manaus and ecotourism

Domestic tourism to Manaus fueled $150 million in hotel construction. Employment rose correspondingly. By 1989, virtually all the state’s rev­ enue came from the tariff-free indus­ trial sector, which produced $7 bil­ lion in products and employed 137,000 people. Once a sleepy river­ front town, by 1990 Manaus ranked as Brazil’s largest manufacturing cen­ ter after Sao Paulo. The lure of jobs caused the city’s population to surge from 173,000 in 1960 to 1.5 million in 1990. Two-thirds of the popula­ tion of Amazonas was now concen­ trated in Manaus.

T h e P o litics o f F o r e st D evelo pm ent During the period of growth of the Zona Franca, the prevailing rhetoric among national policy makers and local Amazonas elites emphasized development without regard for for­ est preservation. Throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, Brazil’s federal gov­ ernment spent $7.5 billion to subsi­ dize deforestation, including pro­ grams that subsidized the clearing of large tracts of forest for pasturage. In less than two decades, at least 300 large-scale ranching operations replaced formerly forested lands. Three-time Governor of Amazonas Gilberto Mestrinho pursued a policy of distributing free chain saws to any colonist who would “develop” the for­ est. The policy remained in place through the early 1990s. The ideology of the times was expressed in the 1985 speech, “Nossa Natureza” (“Our Nature”), in which President Jose Sarney stressed the threat to Brazilian national sovereign­ This monument was built in 1899 across from the Manaus Opera House— itself a tes­ ty posed by international environ­ tament to the rubber boom—to commemorate the opening of Amazonian ports and mentalists whose preservationist lan­ rivers to foreign navigation. The figure at the top is an allegory of commerce. guage, Sarney claimed, obscured

Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Reports: Brazil

Political and economic elites once eager to cut down the Amazonian rainforest now see it as an environmentally correct source of cash.

their own intentions to exploit the tion, agriculture and security along ventures, intended to bring prosperi­ riches of the forest. Preservation the northern borders. ty to the north, had clearly failed. By became synonymous with foreign this time, more than 80% of the large appropriation. T h e G r o w in g E c o n o m ic A r g u m e n t landholders receiving benefits had The anti-environmentalist lobby in Fa vo r o f F o r e st P reservation; o r abandoned their lands or sold them reflected the views of prominent How B u sin e ss a n d P o litical E lites to speculators. commercial interests as well as those in A m azo nas L earned t o S t o p At the same time, Brazil’s govern­ of impoverished rural residents, for W o r r yin g a n d L o v e N a tur e ment began to phase out trade pro­ whom the industrialized duty-free Four concurrent processes con­ tections. In 1990, prices for import­ zone provided employment. tributed to change the attitudes of ed electronic goods and household Preservation was regarded as a frivoli­ Amazonian business and political appliances were 50% to 275% higher ty of the wealthy. Former Governor elites toward environmental preserva­ in Brazil than overseas. Brazil came Mestrinho was quoted as saying that tion: 1) the failure of large-scale colo­ under increasing pressure from inter­ foreign ecologists “want the Amazon nization and ranching initiatives; 2) national entities, including multilater­ to be kept like a circus, with us as the the loosening of trade restrictions to al lending institutions, to remove bar­ monkeys.” open the Brazilian economy; 3) the riers to free trade. In 1991, President Opposition to forest preservation recognition of international eco- Fernando Collor de Melo removed also emerged from the military, tourism as a potential source of import bans on more than 1,000 which favored rapid development income; and 4) new fiscal incentives products and reduced import tariffs along the northern frontiers to from international sources targeting from 80% to 20%. Currently, Brazil’s ensure Brazil’s sovereignty over its development projects that could be tax on imported goods is approxi­ hinterland. In 1985, vast tracts of judged both economically and eco­ mately 12%. Amazonia were placed under nation­ logically “sustainable.” New global integration posed a al security in a program known as By the latter half of the 1980s, the threat to the economy of Manaus. Calha Norte, combining coloniza­ policy of subsidizing large ranching The success of a free-trade zone in

20 Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Reports: Brazil

the north depended upon protec­ workers to 36,537. Salary expendi­ tributed to the development of a tions granted by the federal govern­ tures in 1999 were the lowest since Tourism Development Program ment. Removal of trade barriers the duty-free zone’s implementation. (Prodetur) and provided $200 mil­ would eliminate much of the zone’s Indeed, the draw away from the rural lion to Brazil’s Ministry of competitive advantage. In sector into the urban may have Environment. Half of the money Amazonas, the removal of trade bar­ served to deter deforestation by con­ financed private sector investments riers was regarded as an indication of centrating an otherwise dispersed in Amazonian ecotourism, and the oscillating federal commitment to population. other half was set aside for efforts to the region. Retail trade and domes­ improve and expand conditions for tic tourism in Manaus’s Zona Franca T h e G r e e n in g o f C om m erce ecotourism projects. The funding began to decline as those protections The decline in domestic tourism to included the production of educa­ were threatened. the Zona Franca coincided with ris­ tional materials aimed at making Travel to Manaus from the densely ing expectations for a surge in inter­ local Amazonian communities aware populated south is limited by dis­ national ecotourism, with rainforests that, in the words of Aldemir tance and the remoteness of the loca­ among the favored destinations. A Paraguassu, Secretary of Amazonian tion. Access by air from Brazil’s 1991 poll of international travelers Affairs, “nature sells.” Local largest cities is time consuming and showed that 47% considered natural Amazonian institutions, including expensive. Between 1980 and 1990, features to be major criteria in vaca­ those geared toward industrialization a domestic flight from Rio de Janeiro tion planning, and an OAS study the of the Zona Franca, also were influ­ to Manaus (2,862 kms) took four same year predicted that the number enced by incentives from multilateral hours and cost more than an interna­ of foreigners participating in nature banking agencies to promote eco­ tional flight to Miami. Travel to tours in the Amazon would triple tourism. The result was the greening Manaus for retail purchases, there­ from 123,000 in 1988 to at least of the duty-free zone itself. fore, was cost effective only if the 375,000 by 1999. The 1990s marked a dramatic shift price of imported goods within Brazil Hoping that “green” tourism in Brazilian government and busi­ remained at artificially high levels. would pick up where consumer ness attitudes toward the rainforest, Removal of Brazil’s protections on tourism left off, the Amazonas busi­ influenced mostly by international foreign goods eroded Manaus’s price ness community reversed its position political and economic pressures. advantage and sent shoppers else­ on rainforest preservation. Before Prior to 1990, business and political where. Between 1986 and 1991, 1990, environmental protections had leaders in Amazonas consistently Brazilian visitors to the city’s Zona been considered a luxury of wealthy opposed measures to preserve the Franca had averaged 175,000 annual­ nations; now, these same protections rainforest. Both the private and pub­ ly. With the removal of trade protec­ came to be regarded as economically lic sectors actively supported efforts tions, domestic tourism to Amazonia advantageous. With tourism infra­ to clear the forest for ranching. In plummeted, dropping from 150,000 structure already in place, a rapidly the last decade, however, the same in 1989 to 96,973 in 1990-a decline expanding world market in eco­ sectors came to regard the forest of 60% in one year. Correspondingly, tourism, and a commodity in the itself as a source of revenue. income and employment in the Zona form of “the largest rainforest on According to the Brazilian news mag­ Franca also dropped. Revenues from earth,” Amazonian policy makers azine Veja, the federal government national sales in the zone dropped came to view ecotourism as a source spent $7.5 billion to subsidize defor­ from $6.5 billion in 1990 to $3.6 bil­ of economic return for nature estation activities in the 1970s. lion in 1992, and remain below 1991 preservation. “Now,” the magazine reported in late levels. The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio 1997, “if the government is consider­ Among the goals of the Zona (UNCED) helped draw international ing any program to subsidize Franca were job creation and income attention to the Amazon and served Amazonia, it is considering an for the northern populations and the as a lever to promote international aggressive program to stimulate consolidation of liaisons between the investment in Brazil. In 1993, the tourism.” ■ local economy and the overseas mar­ Inter-American Development Bank ket. Manaus had become the fastest- (IDB) and the World Bank approved Data published here were derived from the growing urban center and source of credits exceeding one billion dollars Superintendencia da Zona Franca de employment in the north of Brazil. for projects in the Amazon. Credits Manaus (SUFRAMA) and the Empresa Between 1990 and 1992, however, targeted environmental preservation Amazonense de Turismo (EMAMTUR), employment in the Zona Franca and economic development. IDB now the Secretary for Tourism and dropped dramatically, from 76,798 funding in 1996 and 1997 con­ Culture, among other sources.

Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two F E A T The Other Journalism

Jose Luis Benavides

n the morning of November 16, 1959, “I researched and narrated the tremendous facts to give them Trum an Capote was flipping through the the widest possible publicity, to make them inspire fear, to never pages of The New York let them happen again. ” 0 Times when he stopped on page 39 to read a UPI —Rodolfo Walsh news story from Holcomb, Kansas, headlined “Wealthy Farmer, 3 of Family Slain.” Capote had been to a boxing match on the radio in widest possible publicity, to make looking for ideas to turn journalism the house of a man allegedly them inspire fear, to never let them into a “serious” literary art form, the involved in the uprising. happen again.” “nonfiction novel,” and this crime in For a while, Walsh thought he While Capote remained only spo­ Holcomb seemed to him to be a per­ could forget the episode and contin­ radically interested in journalism, fect opportunity to accomplish his ue writing detective stories. But six Walsh was a journalist throughout objective. The result was his cele­ months later, on December 18, a his life and turned his reporting and brated book In Cold Blood. friend told him the story of Juan writing into politically explicit tasks. Three years earlier, on the night Carlos Livraga, a victim of the clan­ His work has had a growing influ­ of June 9, 1956, Rodolfo Walsh, a destine execution, who had been ence on contemporaryjournalism in young writer in La Plata, Argentina, shot in the face but survived. Soon Latin America because it exemplifies was playing chess in the Club after, Walsh began publishing stories a key challenge faced by indepen­ Capablanca when the sounds of in the opposition press about dent journalists: the need to over­ explosions and shotguns interrupted Livraga’s case. He tracked down come the silence of the mainstream his game. The noise came from the other survivors, changed his name, press—the result of fear or collu­ Plaza San Martin, the site of the bought a gun and went into hiding. sion—about crimes committed by heaviest fighting of a doomed army His nonfiction novel based on the the state apparatus. insurrection in support of Juan case, Operacion masacre, was first pub­ “During many months I have seen Domingo Peron against the military lished in December 1957, eight years the voluntary silence of the whole regime of General Pedro Enrique before In Cold Blood. ‘serious press’ about this heinous Aramburo. That night, Walsh later massacre, and I have felt ashamed,” learned, the police executed a E n d in g t h e S ilenc e Walsh wrote in the introduction to group of civilians in a garbage Today, both Capote and Walsh are the first edition of Operacion masacre. dump—five were killed, one was considered, in their respective coun­ In 1964, in the preface to the sec­ seriously wounded, and five more tries, pioneers of the nonfiction ond edition, he expressed even managed to escape. The police had novel. In truth, neither writer greater disillusionment: “One arrested the 11 men as they listened invented this art form, although believes that a story like this one— both influenced its development. with a dead body that speaks—is Unlike Capote, however, Walsh was going to be disputed in the news­ Dr. Jose Luis Benavides is a founding not trying consciously to create a rooms; one believes that this is a member• of Corre(i)o, a nonprofit organi­ new literary genre when he wrote race against time, that at any time a zation devoted to the dissemination of Operacion masacre. He wrote the big daily will send a dozen reporters Latin American and Latino journalism. book out of indignation—to and photographers like in the He is co-author ofEscribir en prensa: denounce a crime unrecorded in movies...It is like a joke because, Redaction informativa e interpretativa the mainstream press and to serve seven years later, one can review the (Mexico City: Alhambra/Longman, the cause of justice. “I researched newspaper archives, and this story 1997), a college textbook for journalism and narrated the tremendous facts,” did not exist then, nor does it exist students. Walsh wrote, “to give them the now.”

22 Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two U R E S

Rodolfo Walsh’s legacy of socially responsible reporting

4

Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two 23 Features: The "New" Journalism

mitted” journalism, opposing the It is precisely their departure from the notion of objectivity and notion of objectivity valued in main­ stream US journalism and embrac­ their insistence on presenting alternative, counterhegemonic ing instead a style closer in spirit to accounts of events that has made these journalists’ work so that practiced by muckraking, inves­ tigative and socially responsible jour­ meaningful. nalists. Their work has directly and indirectly influenced the training of young journalists and has helped to Walsh’s book became one of the to Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor, for strengthen freedom of speech in the first major contemporary examples example, cites Tom Wolfe as one of region. of what one might call Latin Garcia Marquez’s main influences, American “new” journalism. This despite the fact that the reportage A L ife ’s W o r k C u t S h o r t informal literary and journalistic was first published in 1955—seven By the time Capote’s In Cold Blood movement denounced state crimes years before Wolfe got his first news­ was published in 1965, Walsh had that went unreported by the region’s paper job. Second, those who main­ already published two editions of mainstream press and influenced the tain that journalists must be objec­ Operacion masacre. Also, together development of independent jour­ tive, impartial observers of events with a group of famous journalists nalism in Latin America. Gabriel believe that most Latin American and writers—including Garcia Garcia Marquez’s The Story of a new journalists practice “advocate Marquez and fellow Colombian Shipwrecked Sailor (1955), for journalism.” Instead of being impar­ Plinio Mendoza, the Uruguayan instance, denounced the Colombian tial, critics charge, these journalists Juan Carlos Onetti, and the navy for the deaths of a group of promote social justice and social Argentines Jorge Masetti and sailors who were washed overboard change. But it is precisely their Rogelio Garcia Lupo—he helped to with ill-secured contraband from a departure from the notion of objec­ establish the Latin American news navy destroyer. Other examples of tivity and their insistence on present­ agency Prensa Latina. Working for this genre include Elena ing alternative, counterhegemonic that agency in the early 1960s, Walsh Poniatowska’s Massacre in Mexico accounts of events that has made became known among his colleagues (1971), which chronicled the 1968 these individuals’ work so meaning­ as “the man who outdid the CIA” army massacre of hundreds of stu­ ful for Latin American journalism. after he deciphered a secret dent demonstrators in Mexico City; For instance, Poniatowska’s writ­ telegram from Guatemala detailing Carlos Alberto Luppi’s Araceli ings about the 1968 massacre of stu­ the plans of CIA-sponsored Cuban (1979), which exposed the coverup dents in Mexico City might be con­ exiles to invade Cuba. of the kidnapping and assassination sidered biased because her own In 1968, Walsh established the of a teenager by local magnates in brother was among those killed. Yet, Peronista newsweekly CGT in collab­ the Brazilian city of Vitoria; and since most of the mainstream oration with Horacio Verbitsky, today Miguel Bonasso’s Recuerdo de la Mexican press only recorded the the most respected independent muerte (1984), which narrated in a official, manicured version of events, journalist in Argentina. CGT circu­ spy thriller format the activities of Massacre in Mexico quickly became a lated legally until mid-1969 and clan­ the Argentine military’s internation­ standard college textbook that serves destinely until February 1970, when al operatives during the so-called as a good example of reportage for the government forced it to close. dirty war. journalism students. Walsh’s work with the weekly gave Although the literary importance Rodolfo Walsh advocated this him material for a second nonfiction of these and other works has been other kind of journalism, one that book, i Quien mato a Rosendo ?, pub­ widely studied, their journalistic sig­ refuses to be an accomplice of injus­ lished in 1969. This reportage nificance has been ignored or tice. He and other Latin American described the murder of a union underestimated. Unlike its counter­ new journalists helped to establish leader at the hands of corrupt labor part in the US, Latin America’s new and sustain independent news media union bosses who served the inter­ journalism is not identified formally outlets and spaces within the main­ ests of the Argentine government as a specific movement. Two factors stream press for the practice of inde­ and foreign corporations. contribute to this oversight. First, pendent, investigative journalism, Between 1972 and 1973, Walsh some Latin American literary critics particularly in periods of extreme worked in a community project in and journalists exhibit a colonialist institutional repression. They prac­ the villas miseria (shantytowns) of mentality. A Spanish-language guide ticed what some call “socially com­ Buenos Aires, teaching journalism

24 Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Features: The "New" Journalism

and helping students publish the military regime inside and outside ANCLA, edited a book in the mid- Semanario Villero. By 1975, when his Argentina. He was murdered, the 1980s about Walsh’s clandestine last nonfiction book was published, junta banned his writing, and his years. He described those times to he had become a member of the contribution to the fight for free­ the Mexican journalist Alma Montoneros—a leftist, nationalist dom of expression went unrecog­ Guillermoprieto as “the militant, faction within Peronismo that nized. rancorous, aggressive, unforgiving turned into an urban guerrilla move­ tradition of the nineteen seventies.” ment. He served as the crime editor Wa l sh ’s L egacy In a book published in 1997 about of Noticias, a Montonero daily closed Despite the totalitarian nature of Argentina’s greatest journalists and by the government the following the military junta, Walsh’s voice publications, Walsh ranked third— year. could not be silenced completely. behind Verbitsky and Jacobo After the military coup in Neither military surveillance nor the Timmerman—in the number of Argentina on March 24, 1976, Walsh risk of being killed or arrested entries to his name. That same year, and Verbitsky organized the clandes­ stopped journalism students from his surviving partner, Lilia Ferreyra, tine news agency ANCLA and learning about him and reading his and his daughter, Patricia Walsh, denounced the military’s human books. convinced the Argentine Congress to rights abuses. On September 29 of “Walsh suddenly became our jour­ reopen his case, find his body and that year, Walsh’s daughter nalistic model,” writes Gabriela determ ine how he was killed. Victoria—also a member of the Cerruti, editor-in-chief of the news­ The growing recognition of Montoneros—killed herself to avoid magazine Trespuntos. Her book, Los Walsh's journalistic legacy culminat­ capture during a military assault on herederos del sikncio, recounts her ed on March 25, 1998, when the a guerrilla hideout. Six months years as a journalism student at the University of La Plata’s School of later, on March 25, 1977, Walsh him­ University of La Plata during the mil­ Journalism announced its first self was m urdered by a military itary dictatorship. Before the 1976 Rodolfo Walsh Journalism Awards. squad sent to kidnap him. Just military coup, the journalism pro­ The occasion was timed to commem­ before the attack, he mailed his gram at this university was the most orate the twenty-first anniversary of famous “Open Letter to the Military prestigious in the country. Its pro­ his assassination. It served as an Junta” to Argentine newspapers. He fessors included such respected implicit rebuke to those who do not had finished writing it the day names as Gregorio Selser, Silvio count Walsh among the 91 journal­ before, on the first anniversary of Frondizi and Eduardo Galeano. In ists killed in Argentina between 1976 the coup. At the time, no Argentine the first few years following the and 1983, on the grounds that he newspaper dared publish this letter, coup, 36 students and professors out was not an impartial reporter. This described by Garcia Marquez as “a of a total of approximately 220 “dis­ group includes the two most widely masterpiece of universal journalism.” appeared.” The school closed for a available books about Latin It circulated clandestinely in year and a half; it reopened under American journalism published in Argentina, found its way to some heavy military surveillance in 1978. the US during Argentina’s military Latin American independent media, Librarians were required to fill out a dictatorship, Robert Pierce’s Keeping and was later published by the form for each book checked out of the Flame (1979) and Marvin Alisky’s French magazine Esprit and the US the library, making the information Latin American Media (1981), both of magazine Dissent. available to the military to identify which fail to mention Walsh at all. Emile Zola’s “J’Accuse” and the “subversives.” Even in this repressive The Rodolfo Walsh Journalism entire Dreyfus affair pale in compari­ environment, Cerruti remembers Awards promise to inspire another son to Walsh’s fate. After Zola that some librarians managed to kind of journalist: one who strives to accused the French military of falsely smuggle Walsh’s books to journalism be as innovative in literary terms as convicting Captain Alfred Dreyfus students. Capote, as investigative as Ida Tarbell and then covering up the affair, he Walsh influenced many of the and George Seldes, and as danger­ was charged with libel and forced to reporters who worked with him, ous to those who abuse power as the leave France. But justice eventually some of whom went on to become German journalist Gunter Wallraff. prevailed, and Zola’s letter became a well-known independent journalists. The awards may also trigger a powerful symbol of the fight for free­ In Recuerdo de la muerte, Miguel renewed interest in the dissemina­ dom of expression. Walsh accused Bonasso, who worked with Walsh at tion of the work of Latin America’s the military junta of genocide and the M ontonero daily, referred to new journalists, promoting both provided the most detailed, critical him as “my mentor.” Horacio freedom of expression and an inde­ and documented appraisal of the Verbitsky, a colleague at CGT and pendent and responsible press. ■

Hemisphere • Volume Nbie, Number Two Features: Mexico Building the Fourth Estate Chappell Lawson

n ju n e 1995, President sented, if at all; and the entire per­ sense, a modicum of political liberal­ Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico formance was carefully edited before ization was probably necessary for held a press conference in the being rebroadcast by the country’s Mexico’s independent media to sur­ town of Cuauhtitlan. The reliably pro-government media con­ vive and establish themselves. president was seeking to reas­ glomerate, Televisa. Aggressive or At the same time, it would be inac­ sure his fellow citizens that hostile inquiries were simply not curate to portray political reform as Itheir country, then in the midst of part of the regularly scheduled pro­ the principal driver of media open­ deep economic crisis and political gramming. ing. Mexican journalists insist that turmoil, was back on the right track. Reporters’ reactions to the malosos any autonomous space the media In the course of his remarks, Zedillo incident exemplified the changes now enjoy is due to changes within made reference to a group of “bad that have occurred in Mexico’s civil society and the media them ­ guys” (malosos) within the ruling media. Over the past two decades, selves, which gradually pried control Institutional Revolutionary Party independent publications have out of the government’s hands. As (PRO. These naughty officials, emerged and flourished, supplanti­ Jose Gutierrez-Vivo, host of the pop­ Zedillo implied, were responsible for ng their more staid and traditional ular independent radio show many of Mexico’s recent troubles, counterparts. Feisty talk-radio shows “Monitor,” put it in 1996, “The including the 1994 assassinations of have come to dominate the airwaves media did not get opened from the PRI’s leader, Jose Francisco Ruiz in Mexico’s largest cities. Even above. We opened it. We broke the Massieu, and the party’s presidential broadcast television, long viewed as a limits.” Journalists are especially candidate, Luis Donaldo Colosio. sort of private Ministry of adamant about the limited influence Mexican journalists responded vig­ Information, has begun to devote of former President Carlos Salinas orously to Zedillo’s comments. Did more coverage to opposition and de Gortari (1988-94), sometimes he mean that ruling party officials civic groups. These changes have credited in the United States with were responsible for Colosio’s mur­ brought increased media attention encouraging media openness. der? Who, exactly, were the officials to civil society and its viewpoints, Salinas initiated a number of modest in question? Could the country’s more even-handed coverage of elec­ reforms in press-government rela­ problems really be blamed on a toral campaigns, more incisive criti­ tions and ended the practice of pay­ small group of individuals, however cism of the political system, and— ing bribes (known as embutes or chay- nefarious? And was “bad guys” really perhaps most dramatically—more otes) to journalists at the presidential an appropriate term to describe aggressive investigation of potential palace itself. In general, however, such people, given that their scandals. his administration was never sympa­ extracurricular activities apparendy thetic to Mexico’s independent included drug trafficking and politi­ T h e R ise o f I n d e p e n d e n t M e d ia : press, and it became increasingly cal assassination? S o m e T h e o ries abusive toward the end of his term. The vehemence of the journalists’ What caused the remarkable trans­ This impression was shared by virtu­ reaction surprised many observers. formation of Mexico’s media? One ally all of the independent journal­ Traditionally, interactions between familiar explanation for the success ists interviewed in Mexico in 1995- the president and the press in of Mexico’s emerging fourth estate 1997, regardless of their opinions of Mexico were carefully scripted is the general mellowing of the Salinas’s program of market- affairs. Questions were often plant­ country’s political climate over the oriented reform. According to ed by government officials; indepen­ last decade. In theory, without this Gutierrez-Vivo, “Salinas was the pres­ dent newspapers were underrepre- political thaw, the government could ident who was hardest on the media. have squashed any independent He was the one who sought most publications—as it did when it control over the media.” Chappell Lawson is an assistant profes­ helped eject an independent- The Zedillo administration (1994- sor of political science at the minded team of editors from present) has been substantially more Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Excelsior newspaper in 1976. In this tolerant of Mexico’s independent

26 Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Features: Mexico

Mexico’s independent media

A third potential explanation for the rise of independent media in p r o c e s s Mexico is the development and DIRECTOR: JUUQ SCHERER G ’ spread of new communication tech­ nologies. Ever since the printing press curtailed the power of the pulpit in medieval Europe, technophiles have emphasized the liberating impact of innovation on mass communications. Today, direct broadcasting from satellites, the Internet and a host of equally remarkable inventions threatens to undermine government attempts at fSC) - m censorship. In theory, these inno­ vations in communication might have allowed independent media to em erge and flourish. Yet, while : v technological change has undoubt­ edly had a powerful effect in cer­ press, but Mexican journalists still cation, improvements in living stan­ tain settings, it has played only a regard its policies as partial and dards, rapid urbanization and the limited role in Mexico. The pene­ contradictory at best. Among other growth of a substantial middle class. tration of advanced communication incidents, Zedillo’s tenure has wit­ This theory holds that the process technologies remains quite small, nessed a number of physical of modernization created the social according to surveys by Nielsen and assaults against journalists and at raw material for independent jour­ IBOPE of Mexico. As late as 1995, least a few well-documented cases nalism. In 1950, Mexico probably for instance, just 2% of Mexican of official harassm ent (such as the did not have the kind of demo­ households had a personal comput­ arrest on tax evasion charges of the graphic profile that would have sup­ er and only 10% were connected to publisher of El Universal newspa­ ported a diverse and independent a pay-television system. Moreover, per). Furthermore, fundamental print media. By 1990, proponents some of the allegedly liberating reform of the legal architecture of this hypothesis argue, it did. technologies—cable television, for governing Mexico’s media was The timing of media opening, example—have long been con­ blocked by the PRI’s legislative however, provides only limited and trolled by Televisa and other enter­ majority during the first half of conditional support for this expla­ prises aligned with the PRI. Zedillo’s administration. Rather nation. Mexicans did not become Changes in the Mexican media than promote media freedom, the richer, more educated or more lit­ were more likely to be the result of Mexican government has simply erate during the 1980s and 1990s, increased competition from tradi­ failed to repress an independent and it was during this period that tional outlets, such as broadcasting press that emerged for different independent publications and and print media. reasons. broadcast programs emerged. Like This brings us to a fourth possible A second explanation for the political liberalization, economic explanation for increased indepen­ changes in Mexico’s media is the development may have been a nec­ dence in the Mexican media: eco­ impact of economic development. essary background condition for nomic liberalization and market During the 1960s and 1970s, media opening, but it did not lead competition. This theory argues Mexico enjoyed steady economic automatically or immediately to that market-friendly reforms in expansion, the spread of mass edu­ changes in the Mexican press. tightly controlled economies can

Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Features: Mexico

undermine government control and It explains why independent-minded the mechanical result of political or allow independent media to flourish. journalists who experimented with economic changes. Rather, it As Mexican journalist Raymundo new styles of reporting were more depends on the efforts of a new Riva Palacio told Business Week in likely to be successful in the 1980s cadre of journalists, their own inter­ 1993, “Economic reform in an and 1990s than in earlier eras. It nal process of identity formation, authoritarian state like Mexico weak­ also explains why their experiments and the contagion effect they ulti­ ens the system and opens up oppor­ tended to be contagious. But it does mately have on other media. It is tunities for other sources of power.” not explain why they were motivated this change inside the press, as much In other words, recent Mexican pres­ to experiment in the first place, nor as changes in the external environ­ idents may not have promoted why many of them persisted in doing ment, that explains media opening media freedom directly, but they so despite impressive obstacles in Mexico. supported it indirectly by imple­ (including occasional episodes of Interestingly, recent studies of the menting market-oriented reforms. official repression). media in other countries seem to A substantial amount of evidence The answer to this question lies in point in the same direction. One supports this argument as it applies the development of a new journalis­ example comes from Silvio to the Mexican media. Independent tic culture in segments of the Waisbord’s research on the press newspapers proved they could suc­ Mexican press. Mexico’s emerging and political scandal in Argentina. cessfully compete for readers and fourth estate was not simply the Waisbord argues that journalists’ advertisers. Their financial autono­ product of structural opportunities; own sense of mission was a decisive my in turn gave them the ability to it was the product of imagination, factor in determining which media resist official pressures and blandish­ learning and struggle by particular remained independent in the face of ments. In radio, the tremendous journalists and clusters of journalists mounting pressure from the govern­ success of feisty talk shows in the whose vision led them to reject the ment of President Carlos Menem. early 1990s encouraged other sta­ old ways of doing business in favor of Of particular importance was the tions hungry for advertising rev­ a new style of reporting. Collectively, emergence of Pagina 12 newspaper, enues to experiment with more inde­ they converted the opportunities whose staff retained a unique profes­ pendent coverage. Finally, commer­ provided by political liberalization, sional self-image and ideology that cial competition following the priva­ socioeconomic development and fortified the paper’s independent tization of government-owned televi­ market-oriented reform into practi­ stance. Although factors like market sion channels in 1992-1993 put pres­ cal realities. competition may have encouraged sure on the country’s dominant net­ The role of journalistic profession­ larger media consortia to cover work, Televisa, to introduce a mea­ alism was especially crucial for touchy stories after they broke, it was sure of independence in news Mexico’s independent publications, often Pagina 12 that made sure they reporting. The effects of commer­ including such titles as Proceso, La were reported in the first place. cial competition were reinforced by Jornada, El Financiero, Reforma, Zeta If these arguments are correct, economic crisis, which spurred and Publico. Each of these periodi­ they suggest a new approach to the Televisa to search out novel strate­ cals was created with the conscious study of press freedom. This gies to protect its ratings. goal of avoiding the traditional approach would not deny the impor­ We thus have the makings of a tidy foibles of Mexican journalism, tance of certain background condi­ explanation for the transformation including corruption and collusion tions, including the political and of Mexico’s media. Political liberal­ with the political establishment. economic realities of each country. ization—while partial and tenta­ Many were founded or invigorated It would, however, focus on the moti­ tive—ruled out the sustained system­ by individuals whose previous vations, decisions and actions of atic assault on Mexico’s press. encounters with officialdom had journalists themselves, as well as on Meanwhile, changes in Mexican reinforced their own self-image as the training and experiences that audiences brought on by economic independent journalists. Without shaped their behavior. In other development helped create a market reference to this broad process of words, it would assume that a free for independent journalism. Finally, professionalization, it is simply press does not appear automatically the introduction of market-oriented impossible to explain where and in the wake of political liberalization, reforms rewarded independent- when independent media emerged. economic development, technologi­ minded media and encouraged oth­ cal innovation or market-oriented ers to adopt new styles of coverage. T h e Im p o r t a n c e o f A g en c y reform. It must be built by commit­ While compelling as far as it goes, These findings suggest that the ted journalists willing to risk censure this story is unnervingly agent-less. emergence of a fourth estate is not or repression. ■

2 8 Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Eighteenth Annual Journalists & Editors Workshop on Latin America and the Caribbean

May 5-6, 2000

Biscayne Bay Marriott Hotel and Marina 1633 N. Bayshore Drive Miami, Florida

The Journalists and Editors Workshop is an annual event that brings together journalists, academics and policy makers to examine the events that affect and determine news coverage in Latin America and the Caribbean. This year’s theme is:

“Latin America, the US Elections and Beyond”

For more information, call the Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University at (305) 348-2894.

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L a tin A m e r ic a n a n d C a r ib b e a n C e n t e r

F l o rid a International U niversity • M iam i, F lorid a Features: Anti-Press Violence La Polftica del Palo Silvio Waisbord

n January 25, 1997, the charred body of news photographer NO SE OLVIDEN DE Jose Luis Cabezas was found inside a burnt car in Pinamar, a Ofashionable Argentine resort town. The murder sent a chill down the spine of Argentines, for it resembled the infamous methods of the death squads that roamed the country when the juntas ruled and rekindled memories of the “dirty war” waged by the last military dictatorship. Cabezas had been kidnapped, hand­ cuffed, tortured, shot point-blank and set afire inside the vehicle. The corpse was unrecognizable; investiga­ tors used Cabezas’s car keys, watch and dental records to identify it. The event became a symbol of vio­ lence against the press and a rallying cry for journalists in Latin America. Demonstrations were organized to petition the government to investi­ gate and prosecute the individuals responsible for the murder. Cabezas’s picture and the slogan “Don’t Forget Cabezas” became ubiq­ uitous on billboards and signs in public buildings and newsrooms. Although almost 900 physical or ver­ bal attacks against journalists were recorded in Argentina between 1989 and 1997, this case crossed the line JOSE LUIS CABEZAS of the limits of expected violence. The savagery of Cabezas’s execution­ REPORTERO GRAFICO ers not only was a reminder of the worst years of state-sponsored vio­ lence, but also jettisoned the convic­ ASESINADO EN PINAMAR tion that the killing of journalists EL 25 DE ENERO 1997

Silvio Waisbord is assistant professor of ASOCIACION DE REPORTEROS GRAFICOS DE LA REPUBLICA ARGENTINA communication at Rutgers University. He is completing a book about investiga­ A R G R A tive journalism in South America.

30 Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Features: Anti-Press Violence

Violence against the press in Latin America

ended with the collapse of the plagued Latin America. In a region areas subjected to the rule of drug authoritarian regime in Argentina, dominated by violent politics, it barons, paramilitary squads and under whose rule nearly 100 journal­ would be surprising if the press were guerrilla movements attests to the ists were reported m urdered or dis­ not a target of attacks. It is no coin­ breakdown of state authority. appeared. cidence, then, that there have been Although any generalization would The Cabezas murder is one of the more lethal attacks againstjournal- miss the nuances of each case, latest examples of the persistence of ists in countries where historical lev­ attacks against journalists need to be anti-press violence in Latin America. els of violence continue unabated. understood as an expression of a sit­ The shift from authoritarianism to According to the records of interna­ uation of "uncivil" war: localized, dis­ democracy has neither put an end to tional and domestic organizations, persed and unstructured violence violence against journalists nor the situation in Colombia, that lacks the characteristics of for­ brought justice for its victims. Out of Guatemala, Mexico and Peru is sig­ mal civil wars. This type of crisis 27 reporters killed worldwide in nificantly worse than anywhere else varies across and within countries, 1997, 10 were in Latin America, in the region. A death toll of 153 but it is glaringly evident in countries including four in Colombia, three in journalists between 1978 and 1997 where anti-press violence is recur­ Mexico, and one each in Argentina, has made Colombia in particular rent. Brazil and Guatemala. During the one of the most dangerous countries The weight of the drug economy last decade, scores of journalists have for journalists in the world, although has exacerbated the situation. Often been intimidated and assaulted, and the situation has improved somewhat in complicity with local and national 122 have been murdered or "disap­ in the 1990s: 18 journalists were authorities, druglords hold absolute peared." Domestic and international killed in 1986 during the heyday of control over determined geographi­ organizations have mobilized to peti­ the Medellin cartel-related violence, cal zones in Latin America. Any tion full investigations, and the compared to five in 1997. Also in journalist reporting on drug issues Organization of American States the 1990s, 15 murders of journalists faces not only the prospect of anger­ (OAS) created the office of the press have been documented in Mexico ing narcotraficantes with no patience rapporteur to report abuses. Yet, the and 20 in Peru. for democratic debate, but also the perpetrators of anti-press violence In these countries, anti-press vio­ passivity of official authorities. The have rarely been prosecuted. As in lence does not seem to be isolated problem is complicated further by the Cabezas case, judicial investiga­ from broader political conditions. the military and paramilitary squads tions lag and become trapped in a Violence has characterized created to combat drug trafficking web of political interests. Colombian politics for much of the or guerrilla insurrection. Such What drives anti-press violence in country’s modern history. groups enjoy a great deal of autono­ Latin America, and what does it say Guatemala, too, is still reeling in the my and, if accountable at all, answer about the current state of freedom aftermath of 56 years of civil war. In only to military authorities. The of expression in the region? Is the Mexico, drug-related violence has combination of powerful druglords problem related to the difficulty of become commonplace, especially in and corrupt official forces, especially guaranteeing respect for human the northern states. Peru is grap­ in regions dominated by guerrilla rights? Or is it a manifestation of pling with the remnants of violent movements in the last decade, has larger dynamics of political violence guerrilla movements and the legacy been lethal for journalists. A com­ that underlie the region’s political of the 1992 coup, which gave carte plex web of interests, including history? blanche to military and intelligence druglords, local bosses, police, mili­ services. tary forces and guerrillas, is con­ A n t i-P ress V io l e n c e a n d P o litical Anti-press violence is linked to the firmed or suspected behind dozens V io l e n c e crisis of the state; that is, the inability of attacks against reporters. Anti-press violence is, arguably, to monopolize the legitimate means These problems characterize the merely another manifestation of the of violence and monitor respect for interior of countries especially. widespread violence that has long the rule of law. The existence of Although urban areas are certainly

Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Features: Anti-Press Violence

not exempt, the provincial press has of 108 murders of Colombian jour­ nuisance that can and must be elimi­ been more prone to fatal attacks nalists between 1977 and 1995. The nated. Despite the evident improve­ than the metropolitan press in Latin problem is not so much an absence ment of general press freedoms since America. In the last decade, 75% of of legislation, but a lack of enforce­ the return of democratic rule to the murders and disappearances of ment. This shortcoming is not Latin America, the ambiguous atti­ journalists in the region occurred in unique to violence against the press; tude of governments in the region provincial areas. Between 1986 and it represents the larger difficulties of toward the press implicitly sends the 1996, one out of a total of 10 jour­ institutionalizing the rule of law and message that violence against jour­ nalists killed in Mexico was mur­ eliminating impunity in the region. nalists will not be punished. Legal dered in the country’s capital. attempts to muffle press criticism Similarly, journalists reporting for V io l e n c e a n d a N ew J ournalistic reinforce the sense that an adversari­ news organizations in Brasilia, Rio de S pir it al press cannot be tolerated. Janeiro and Sao Paulo have rarely Anti-press violence is not indis­ In Argentina, the government’s been the targets of violence; most criminate. It is not "the press" as a tirades against journalists run attacks have been directed against whole that suffers violence, but indi­ counter to the official rhetoric that a their colleagues in the Brazilian inte­ vidual reporters and news organiza­ critical press is a welcome develop­ rior. In Paraguay, too, journalists tions. In the past, harassment of ment for a democratic order. When working in border towns have suf­ reporters was linked to partisan and a reporter investigating connections fered more intimidation and physical ideological confrontations. Today’s between political mafias and promi­ attacks than their counterparts in attacks show a different pattern, nent politicians was beaten recently, Asuncion. reflecting the rise of news organiza­ President Carlos Saul Menem matter- When the state fails to exercise full tions that dare to take jabs at govern­ of-factly observed that such attacks sovereignty and the rule of law is m ent officials and examine the activi­ were "occupational hazards." After weak, journalists, like other citizens, ties of paramilitary organizations and an expose about the construction of confront a dangerous situation. drug-trafficking organizations. The a new airport runway in his home­ Unlike regular citizens, however, majority of the victims are reporters town, Menem lashed back, stating journalists—especially those affiliat­ who cover controversial and sensitive that the report was produced by "stu­ ed with major news organizations in issues, such as corruption, narcotics pid, lying and despicable [journal­ metropolitan areas—are in a posi­ trafficking and human rights abuses. ists] paid by the opposition." During tion to attract wide publicity. Large In Mexico, the targets include publi­ a press briefing for foreign corre­ media organizations as well as cations that investigate the linkages spondents in June 1997, he national and international organiza­ between drug barons and local described Horacio Verbitsky, an tions offer "deterrence by publicity," police and judges, such as Tijuana- influential columnist for the daily although this does not guarantee based Zeta. Reporters who write Pagina/12, as “one of the biggest ter­ invulnerability—the frequent harass­ about police corruption, including rorists in Argentina.” Later the same ment of journalists in metropolitan journalists from TV Azteca, Reforma year, Menem endorsed the ley del areas, including assassinations in and El Universal, are also attacked. polo, paraphrasing Benjamin broad daylight, is evidence enough. In Peru, the newsweekly Caretas and Franklin on making “the liberty of Journalists removed from the lime­ the daily La Republica, as well as print the cudgel” a condition of freedom light of the big media are even less and broadcast investigative reporters, of the press. Franklin joked that this protected. Lacking the visibility and are intimidated by military and intel­ law would make it permissible for prominence of metropolitan news ligence services. In an episode that writers who attacked individual repu­ media or effective checks on local had national and international tations to be waylaid and beaten, and powers, regional reporters are vul­ repercussions, the staff and owner of for reporters who affronted the pub­ nerable to police brutality or para­ the television station Frecuencia lic to be tarred and feathered. The military repression. Latina had to leave the country in ironic tone of Franklin’s comments The ineffectiveness of the judicial the aftermath of reports that did not translate well in a country system exacerbates the situation of denounced military abuses, corrup­ still reeling from the brutal assassina­ lawlessness in much of Latin tion and illegal government wiretap­ tion of Cabezas. Finally, in the after- America. Perpetrators are rarely cap­ ping. math of press revelations about gov­ tured, and when they are, cases are In countries that lack a legacy of ernment corruption, the Menem often shelved and forgotten; for respect for basic democratic rights, administration submitted a proposal example, perpetrators were identi­ the belief persists among some pow­ to Congress that included prison sen­ fied and apprehended in only six out erful actors that critical reporting is a tences and hefty fines for “insults”

32 Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Features: Anti-Press Violence

and libel. The recommended pun­ ishments were harsher than those prescribed for torture. Menem rescinded the “gag law” proposal only after domestic and internation­ A Blend of al observers protested. Elsewhere in Latin America, the Real World Experience legal situation is not much better. Ml and Theory The Peruvian press continues to be subjected to antiterrorist laws enact­ ed after the 1992 coup. In Mexico, the Zedillo administration presented • Multidisciplinary teaching approach an official proposal to Congress that • Multifaceted writing emphasis included fines of up to $100,000 for • Multicultural student mix defamation and unlimited amounts in damages against media owners. Seventy-four cases have been filed so far. Innovative

W h y D o e s A n t i-P r ess V io l e n c e Graduate Programs M a tter ? A democratic press is contingent on the strengthening of civil society and the observance of fundamental • Spanish Language Journalism constitutional liberties. In Latin • Student Media Advising America, the difficulty is not only • Integrated Communications: the establishment of a press Advertising and Public Relations autonomous from the state but also the existence of societies decimated by uncivil, violent practices. Anti­ Get to the top of the fastest growing seg­ press violence magnifies the fragility ment of news media—the Hispanic of democratic institutions in coun­ media. Study journalism in Spanish in tries still experiencing internal wars Miami at one of America’s most dynam­ and whose governments are inca­ ic and multicultural universities. Our pable of protecting basic rights. Latin America bears a legacy of vio­ Spanish-language Master of Science lence inherited from dictatorial peri­ degree in Mass Communication special­ ods. The region continues to suffer izes in investigative journalism and is from the discretionary use of state taught entirely in Spanish. force and criminal organizations that escape any means of democratic control. The equivocal attitude of elected officials toward the protec­ Fl o r id a I nternational U n iv e r sit y tion of press rights contributes fur­ School of Journalism ther to create an atmosphere of vio­ and Mass Communication lence. Prospects for affirming a North Campus democratic press are seriously con­ strained when civil society, ideally a North Miami, Florida 33181 realm of pluralism and tolerance of dissent, is shredded into islands of http://www.fiu.edu/~journal/ civility. Beyond those islands the 305-919-5625 press, if critical of local and national powers, faces the violence of decid­ edly uncivil wars. ■

Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two 3 3 PHOTO Gone to Rust Photos by Patricio Ctvoker Text by Alisa Newman

ince Bolivia first entered ed” to more productive sectors. become taxi drivers, bricklayers and the global economy during More than 20,000 miners lost their locksmiths. Young people fill the the period of Spanish colo­ jobs, and once-thriving mining cen­ main plaza, and four separate bus nial rule, its role has been ters became ghost towns. Tent cities companies serve neighboring cities. that of mineral exporter. sprang up on the outskirts of La Paz A university and television station are The legendary mines of and Cochabamba as unemployed proof that the town is beginning to Potosf and other rich silver veins inminers migrated to urban centers in recover culturally and psychologically, AltoS Peru, as Bolivia was then known, search of work. as well. In other areas, zinc and ore financed the Spanish empire Today, the mines and the towns have replaced silver and tin as prof­ throughout much of the colonial built around them languish in desola­ itable minerals to mine. Many former period. In the twentieth century, tion. Theaters that once premiered mining centers, however—Corocoro Bolivia’s mines again pulled the new shows are boarded up. Carts and Catavi among them—appear to country into the world economy, this that carried ore out of the mines rust be slipping irretrievably into oblivion. time with exports of tin. Bolivia in their tracks. Incongruous rem­ In her 1979 study of workers in became the world’s leading tin pro­ nants of the good life, like the golf Bolivia’s tin mines, We Eat the Mines ducer, feeding industrial demand for club in the deserted mining town of and the Mines Eat Us, anthropologist canning and other uses. Catavi, are painful reminders that the June Nash quoted one miner as say­ Eventually, however, the tin mines wealth of the past is the poverty of ing to another, ‘You are like a piece were depleted or rendered obsolete the present. of ore; you are a part of the mine.” by new metal alloys and synthetic Little by little, some of the former This statement reflects the degree to materials. By 1980, Bolivia’s export mining towns have begun to revive. which the lives of Bolivia’s miners commodities had diversified to Taking advantage of good transporta­ were linked to the mines they include natural gas and agricultural tion routes, necessary at one time to worked, and the trauma posed by products, with tin representing only get the minerals to market, the city of “relocation.” At the same time, it about one-quarter of the value of Oruro has reinvented itself as a thriv­ captures the miners’ resiliency and total exports. The price of tin was ing center of contraband. In ability to endure seemingly unending $5.72 per pound in 1978; by 1985, it Llallagua, former miners have hardship. ■ had fallen by more than half, to $2.50. Miners who already suffered notorious working conditions and poor health clung to the jobs that were the only source of their survival. In 1985, President Victor Paz Estenssoro, who had nationalized the country’s mines after the 1952 Bolivian Revolution, enacted a decree that shut many of them down. Instead of acknowledging the dis­ missals, the government claimed that workers were merely being “relocat-

Patricio Crooker is a photojournalist based in Bolivia. Some of the following images appeared in the Bolivian newspa­ per La Razon in June 1999 as part of a special feature on former mining towns.

34 Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two E S SAY

The decline of Bolivia’s mining towns

A miner pushes a cart at the opening of the Siglo XX mine. Some miners continue to hang on, working under extremely poor conditions to salvage leftover minerals.

Opposite: Siglo XX, near the town of Llallagua in the northern part of Potosi, is one of the oldest mines in Bolivia. This photo shows what used to be an important facility in a state of near collapse. After the gov- emment of Victor Paz Estenssoro issued decree 21060 in 1985, thousands of miners lost their jobs and moved to the cities in search of work.

Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two 35 Photo Essay: Bolivian Mines

m o d i

A building serving as headquarters for a cooperativa, or labor cooperative. After the economic reforms of the mid 1980s, many miners who lost their jobs organized into such cooperatives to work the mines'leavings. Many work 12 hours a day, squeezing what they can from the rubble. Lacking in technology and capital, they resort to grinding the rocks by hand.

36 Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Photo Essay: Bolivian Mines

The hands of this palliri—a worker who tries to salvage the last bits of mineral from rocks extracted from the mine—reflect the long hours she has toiled for meager reward. This picture was taken near the river in the town ofHuanuni, once an important mine oumed by tin baron Simon I. Patino. Now it is oumed by Comibol, the state mining company, and employs only 300 mitiers. This woman and others like her earn approximately $4 for a 12-hour day.

Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Photo Essay: Bolivian Mines

This miner, in charge of draining water from the mine, is one of the 300 workers who kept their jobs in Huanuni. Without proper drainage, the tunnels could flood, trapping the miners inside.

38 Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Photo Essay: Bolivian Mines

Two kilometers in and 200 meters down, breathing becomes difficult. A miner fortifies himself against the darkness with coca leaves and a cigarette.

Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Photo Essay: Bolivian Mines

Two Bolivian soldiers nod off during their 12-hour shift inside the Huanuni mine. Comibol pays the Army to guard the remaining minerals from pilferers. The soldiers share the same miserable working conditions as the miners themselves.

40 Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Photo Essay: Bolivian Mines

An elderly woman walks down the mam street of Com com, Bolivia’s most important copper mine at the begin­ ning of the century. Today the mayor’s pickup truck and one military vehicle are the only cars on the town’s empty streets. Comcom’s young people leave for the cities as soon as they can; only the elderly stay behind. Many homes that were boarded up during the mining exodus of the mid-1980s remain abandoned.

Hemisphere • Vohime Nine, Number Two Photo Essay: Bolivian Mines

Statues honoring miners in Llallagua. The statue on the left represents Federico Escobar Zapata, who died fighting for a better life for miners. The one on the right is dedicated to all those who gave their lives in the mines.

42 Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Photo Essay: Bolivian Mines

The abandoned dub house of the Catavi Golf Club near Llallagua in northern Potosi. During the mining boom years, the mining towns were the center of Bolivia’s economic and cultural life. New plays and films premiered there, and the best soccer teams visited for tournaments. The Catavi golf course is now a wheat field.

Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Photo Essay: Bolivian Mines

The Teatro 31 de Octubre in Llallagua used to be one of the first stops on the touring schedules of new plays. The town no longer has enough people to keep it open, and the theater’s fagade has fallen into disrepair. Catavi’s theater has met the same fate.

44 Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two Photo Essay: Bolivian Mines

A dilapidated Comibol station wagon parked in front of an abandoned building in the mining town of Catavi. The scene captures the desolation of most mining towns in Bolivia today.

Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two R VW Desperate Measures, Layered Truths

Kathleen Martin

utobiographical accounts such as Rigoberta Menchu’s Crossing Borders have a wide readership, whether because of the fame of the subject, the com­ Apelling nature of the story or the eloquence with which the protago­ nist’s account is told. The very best autobiographical literature, of course, embodies all of these ele­ ments. Rigoberta Menchu’s first book, I,...Rigoberta Menchu, written before the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner became an internationally known figure, achieved its fame based on its stunning first-person account of the poverty, violence and racism experienced by the indige­ nous peoples of Guatemala. Her Crossing Borders Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of second book is unlikely to stir the by Rigoberta Menchu All Poor Guatemalans controversy generated by her first Translated and edited by Ann Wright by David Stoll and is, unfortunately, disappointing. London and New York: Verso, 1998. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1999. Crossing Borders is not a compelling 242 pages. 336 pages. story, nor is it compellingly told. Only the fact that a Nobel laureate is telling it provokes interest. a child. Political harassment contin­ moving across cultural, political and Crossing Borders, published in ued to plague her, reaching into her national frontiers—promises to be a 1998, is a continuance of Rigoberta innerm ost family life. Yet, despite useful framework for Menchu’s dis­ Menchu’s life story, covering the 15 these significant events, Crossing cussion of her life as an internation­ years intervening since I,... Rigoberta Borders has none of the immediacy al activist. Yet, in Crossing Borders Menchu was first published in 1983. of I,...Rigoberta Menchu. It fails to the concept seems to be taken quite During this period, the author went provide the sort of personal reflec­ literally, as the author describes sev­ into exile in Mexico and reached tion that would allow readers to eral incidents in which she experi­ the high point of her career as an understand the thinking of this cen­ enced difficulties crossing interna­ activist by winning the Nobel Peace tury’s most important indigenous tional boundaries. In these pas­ Prize. She got married and adopted leader. sages, as in others, Menchu presents Menchu writes straightforwardly, herself as a victim—an inappropri­ but without the depth one would ate stance for someone of her inter­ Kathleen R Martin is a professor in the expect from someone with her national stature and political impor­ Department of Sociology and accomplishments and life experi­ tance. Anthropology at Florida International ences. She is most insightful when Crossing Borders is a potentially sig­ University. Her research includes a book describing the complexities of fame, nificant book, because it gives the about the Yucatec Maya poet and politi­ but less so when discussing other, author a chance to tell her story cian Araceli Cab Cumi, including a more abstract issues. For example, directly. In contrast, I,...Rigoberta translation of her works. the concept of “crossing borders”— Menchu was an “as-told-to” testimoni­

46 Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two FORUM

al in which Venezuelan anthropolo­ in the Spanish edition but not in study—to take but one example, gist Elizabeth Burgos interviewed the English one. The Spanish ver­ Myrna Mack Chang, who was Menchu and edited the resulting sion gives proper credit to Dante stabbed to death because of her text. Crossing Borders may be more Liano and Gianni Mina for their reports about the state-sponsored authentic, but it is not necessarily a assistance in producing the book, violence in Guatemala. more analytical, accessible or con­ while the English version does not. The editors of Crossing Borders textually richer account. While the Crossing Borders, however, contains a have produced a substandard author’s own limitations as a self- glossary, an index, a not very useful account of Menchu’s story and reflective writer restrict the book’s map and a list of Menchu’s family should be held answerable for their usefulness, the life story of the not present in the Spanish edition. omissions and inattentive editing. world’s leading spokeswoman for Crossing Borders could have used Those interested in the Nobel laure­ indigenous peoples deserves a some careful editing to make it ate’s story would do better to read much more careful presentation more accessible to readers or simply the Spanish-language original. than it gets here. Perhaps to improve the text. Since the book Despite the flaws of Crossing Menchu’s advisors, and certainly was intended to chronicle Menchu’s Borders, it is Menchu’s first book that her editors, are at fault for doing life over the past 15 years, present­ lies at the center of the current con­ her a disservice in the production of ing her story in chronological order troversy surrounding her. This con­ this book. would seem to be an obvious deci­ troversy erupted as the result of the Crossing Borders was first published sion. Unfortunately, the account 1999 book Rigoberta Menchu and the in Spanish as Rigoberta: La nieta de skips back and forth through time, Story of AU Poor Guatemalans, by los may as. The English and the making it difficult for anyone unfa­ North American anthropologist Spanish versions are quite different; miliar with Menchu’s history to David Stoll. Through long and the latter is more than 100 pages keep track of events. careful research, Stoll refutes signifi­ longer, and is undeniably better. Thoughtful editing could have cant portions of the Nobel laure­ Absent from Crossing Borders are improved Crossing Borders in other ate’s story as reported in prefaces by the Uruguayan writer ways as well. A sensitive editor I,...Rigoberta Menchu. The resulting Eduardo Galeano (who recently could perhaps have persuaded the uproar has stirred debate in the won the Lannan Foundation’s author to delete some of her more press, especially in Guatemala and Cultural Freedom Award) and the peevish comments, unworthy of a the United States. head of the Spanish section of Nobel laureate. Menchu is prone to Fifteen years ago a young (23-year- Amnesty International, Esteban blame others for failings that she old) , politically committed Beltran. Also omitted are a pro­ herself shares. She criticizes the Rigoberta Menchu told an allegedly logue by Italian writer Gianni Mina personal appearance of groups and first-person account of her suffer­ and an especially lyrical introduc­ individuals—Latinas, fellow ings as an indigenous woman in an tion by Maya Quiche poet Guatemalans, even some of her oppressive Guatemalan society. Hum berto Ak’abal. The essays by Native American supporters—yet Elizabeth Burgos, the anthropolo­ these writers provide a rich context bristles at comments about her own gist who recorded Menchu’s story, for Menchu’s story. The Spanish looks. Likewise, she condemns fel­ originally intended it as a magazine version includes the author’s own low Guatemalans for leaving their article; she later decided that she acknowledgments and the text of country to mobilize from abroad, had enough material for a book. the Guatemalan peace accords— although she herself spent years liv­ First published in Spanish, both important in understanding ing in exile in Mexico. Menchu also /,.. .Rigoberta Menchu went on to her story—as well as 16 pages of takes anthropologists to task for become an international bestseller. photographs that visually enrich the their parasitic relationship with It has been translated into a dozen text. A random line-by-line compar­ indigenous peoples, but ignores languages and added to required ison between the two versions examples of anthropologists who act reading lists in many universities. It revealed other sections that appear on behalf of the communities they is unlikely that anyone involved in

Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two 47 Review Forum

the first interview with Menchu I,...Rigoberta Menchu, the author indigenous identities in the service thought that either she or the book became a symbol used to prolong a of intellectual and activist communi­ would go on to achieve such fame, guerrilla war that the Guatemalan ties. Stoll’s work is proof that when or that at some later time the accu­ left was losing and which from the scholars go against the accepted wis­ racy of her account would be sub­ start had found questionable sup­ dom (or political correctness) of ject to the close scrutiny it has port among the indigenous peas­ the day, they may inadvertently received. The goal of recording her antry. Furthermore, he makes the reconstruct the paths of intellectual story was to draw public attention to case that the North American and inquiry. the genocidal war being waged European scholarly and human The sad consequence of the con­ against the indigenous peoples of rights communities used Menchu’s troversy surrounding Rigoberta Guatemala. account of her life to idealize Menchu is that she and the cause of Stoll suggests that this explains indigenous peoples, ultimately to the indigenous peoples she repre­ why Menchu’s account neglects to serve their own moral needs. sents have been tainted in the pub­ mention aspects of the Guatemalan Uncritical acceptance of her narra­ lic eye and perhaps lost credibility. reality, such as intra-Maya land own­ tive was virtually required as proof An uninformed reading of Stoll’s ership disputes, that would cloud of one’s commitment to the book could lead to the simplistic the construct of the Guatemalan oppressed and, for scholars especial­ conclusion that Menchu was delib­ tragedy as an indigenous versus ladi- ly, to ease the troubling nature of erately untruthful in telling her life no conflict. He also discovered that working as observers of the lives of story, albeit in the service of a des­ some of the book’s wrenching eye­ the poor. For such readers, the dis­ perately immediate human rights witness testimony was not in fact course of unequal power relations cause. Hers appears to be a case of part of Menchu’s personal experi­ was enough to excuse accounts such the ends justifying the means—a ence. As one Guatemalan as Menchu’s from the need for any morally debatable proposition for expressed it, “The book may not be sort of validation. most readers. true about her, but it is true about The elaboration of these themes Stoll has thoroughly checked Guatemala.” In sum, the human is the lasting, thought-provoking every aspect of Menchu’s story. rights agenda in Guatemala called contribution of Stoll’s book. Some One can only hope that those for desperate measures and ended of his ideas remain undeveloped, responsible for the genocide of with layered truths. but his provocative account has Guatemala’s indigenous peoples will Stoll did not start out with the spurred debate on several issues, in be held to the same exacting stan­ idea of writing a book to refute particular the construction of dard of accountability. ■ Menchu’s story. But in the process of interviewing survivors of the political violence in Guatemala in the late 1980s, he began to hear The Summit of the Americas Center (SOAC) at Florida International University is currently accounts that differed, in some revamping its web site: www.americasnet.net. This instances greatly, from Menchu’s site will serve as a clearinghouse and an Internet original narrative. This led him to portal for analytical literature related to the conduct detailed, fact-checking Summit of the Americas process and for the nego­ research into Menchu’s life story. tiations on the Free Trade Area of the Americas The result is a carefully crafted (FTAA). Americas Net will cover the four pillars of piece of scholarly investigative work, hemispheric integration that SOAC is concentrat­ clearly written and accessible to ing on: readers. The bulk of the book is in ■ Iff Summ the form of a counternarrative to Trade and Integration Tent* Menchu’s account in I,.. .Rigoberta Democracy and Governance Menchu. Yet, this is not Stoll’s most Sustainable Development significant contribution. The most Human Security > interesting part of his book is the final four chapters, in which he Please visit us at www.americasnet.net for the most interprets the meaning of Rigoberta updated information and analysis of the Summit Menchu as an iconic figure. process as we lead up to the III Summit of the Stoll maintains that through the Americas in Quebec City in 2001. construction of her narrative in

48 Hemisphere • Volume Nine, Number Two FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY’S INTERCULTURAL DANCE AND MUSIC INSTITUTE

presents in collaboration with the Florida Dance Association and the Florida Dance Festival the third annual...

LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN

June 25 - July 1, 2000 New World School of the Arts Miami, Florida

The Summer Dance Institute is co-sponsored by FIU’s Department of Theatre and Dance, African/New World SUMMER DANCE INSTITUTE Studies Program and Latin American and Caribbean Center NDAMI’s Latin American and Caribbean Summer Dance Institute offers an exciting week of intensive study opportunities For further information Ifor students, artists, scholars, teachers, and others interested in For detailed information regard­ studying the dance, music, and distinctive cultural traditions of ing college and in-service credit, Africa and the diaspora. Two separate and concurrent intensive or more information on INDAMI programs are combined with dance technique classes, seminars, and other FIU programs, panel discussions, and performances to offer participants the please contact: opportunity to engage in an exciting dialogue and exchange with artists and scholars of these culturally rich areas of the world. The 2000 Summer Institute unites local, national, and international INDAMI Program Coordinator scholars, artists, students, and educators in a celebration of the Florida International University dance, music, and culture of the culturally diverse city of Miami, University Park, DM 353 helping to preserve and promote these distinctive traditions. This Miami, Florida 33199 year’s program will feature Chuck Davis and the African American Tel: 305-348-2894 Dance Ensemble and Raimundo “Mestre King” Santos from Fax: 305-348-3593 Salvador, Brazil. Highlights of the Summer Dance Institute include E-mail: [email protected] technique classes in Haitian, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Brazilian, capoeira, Caribbean, and West African dance and drumming with renowned Florida Dance Festival teachers and artists; interdisciplinary, team-taught academic inten- 505 17th Street sives in “Dance and Culture of Africa and the Diaspora” and Miami Beach, Florida 33139 “Cultural Expressions of Latin America and the Caribbean;” panel Tel: 305-674-3350 discussions with distinguished scholars in the field; a pre-perfor­ mance processional and libation ceremony down Miami Beach’s Fax: 305-674-3354 famous Lincoln Road and a concert at the Colony Theater by E-mail: fldance@fldance. org Chuck Davis and the African American Dance Ensemble; and an informal dance and drumming jam with Institute master teachers and musicians. t h e m o s t fr e q u e n t l y s p o t t e d BIRD THROUGHOUT LATIN AMERICA.

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