On Saturday, Enrique Peña Nieto was sworn in as Mexico's new president amid massive public protests against a return of his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and allegations electoral fraudulence. His election marks the party’s restitution to power after a 12-year hiatus following the PRI's 71-year stronghold over the Mexican political system.

Below is a compilation of articles and analysis from think-tanks and news outlets examining what comes next in U.S.- Mexico relations. The majority of mainstream media outlets and many analysts focus on the potential for Mexico and the United States to increase trade and deepen the economic relationship between the two countries, while touching on the importance of reforming U.S. immigration laws.

The discussion on the security outlook in the country given the change-over in power is more scant. In the meeting with Peña Nieto on November 27, Obama signaled that he would like to shift the relationship away from being primarily security focused. Peña Nieto has echoed this, saying he wants to emphasize issues such as investment, trade, and energy, however as the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) and the Latin American Working Group (LAWG) mention in a joint statement, a dramatic shift seems unlikely.

Laura Carlsen of the Center for International Policy's America's Program outlines promises made by Peña Nieto and examines the "five strategic points" he mentioned in his inauguration speech-- to put Mexico at peace, putting citizens at the center of security policy, to create an inclusive Mexico, closing the gap of inequality, to provide quality education for all, to promote economic growth, and to make Mexico a responsible global actor.

Carlsen characterizes these goals as "mostly cosmetic and devoted to appearances on the surface." She goes on to offer analysis of Peña Nieto's policies to carry out these goals, particularly with regards to security. Peña Nieto had said that there would be a "change in paradigm" in security efforts, focused more on reducing violence instead of targeting drug traffickers.

The new head of state has proposed to create a 40,000-member “gendarmerie,” or a military force charged with police duties among civilian populations, but has not laid out a specific security plan. In November he announced he planned to dismantle the Secretariat of Public Security and put Mexico's security forces once again under the control of the Interior Ministry. He also said he would replace the Secretariat of Public Function with a National Anti-Corruption Commission with the power to investigate, charge criminals, assign cases to judges, and expedite lingering cases.

On Tuesday, Peña Nieto said he would continue with Calderón's course of using the army and navy to fight drug cartels until a new security strategy was determined.

As Carlsen and others have pointed out, Peña Nieto's security plan will continue to pursue militarized counternarcotics efforts and will maintain the current state of security cooperation with the U.S. government.

As several analysts have noted, Peña Nieto has inherited a trend of reduced violence in Mexico, but as LAWG and WOLA set out in their call for Mexico to reform its justice system, security is very much front and center in U.S.-Mexican relations, noting that "Since 2008, the United States has allocated almost US$2 billion in security assistance for Mexico through the Merida Initiative, including around $800 million still in the pipeline. This funding and ongoing security concerns...make it clear that addressing security challenges will continue to be top priorities in the bilateral agenda."

On November 15, the House Homeland Security Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Management released a report that examines "the increased presence and influence of Iran and Hezbollah in Latin America and their relationship with drug cartels." It also looks at the turf wars between Mexican drug cartels and the threat they pose to the Southwest border.

The 50-page document, titled “A Line in the Sand: Countering Crime, Violence and Terror at the Southwest Border,” determines that "While Latin American bases serve as a finance mechanism for Hezbollah, it is believed the ability exists to turn operational if the need arises. There is no doubt that the enemy is at our doorstep and we must do something about it now."

While cited evidence from congressional reports, experts and news articles supports some of the report's findings regarding increasing Iranian presence in the region, the subcommittee's broader claims about established links between Mexican drug cartels and Hezbollah/Iran posing an imminent threat are largely unsubstantiated.

Several previous government statements and investigations on transnational crime take note of Iran and Hezbollah's engagement in the region, indicating it is something officials are aware of and monitoring, but show no solid transnational links between the groups or an immediate threat to homeland security.

"A Line in the Sand" details Iranian political and economic involvement in Venezuela and other Latin American countries, funding sources for Hezbollah in the region, incidences of criminal links between Hezbollah-supporting individuals and/or Colombian and Mexican drug trafficking organizations, and a failed 2011 Iranian assassination attempt on the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S.

With regards to Iran, much of the report relays what several other government sources and analysts have found:

• Hezbollah receives funding from individuals, primarily within the large Lebanese population in the region and especially those in the tri-border area between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, who support the group, providing a large portion of its extra-state financing.
• Of note on this matter is that according to the State Department, this has been occurring since the mid 1980s. However, Iran is Hezbollah’s primary funding source, donating at least $200 million in 2008, with income from criminal enterprises in general only representing a sliver of the group's financing.
• Individuals who support Hezbollah are involved with criminal networks and illicit activities.
• An important note to this point is that while the cases of individuals arrested for drug trafficking and human smuggling highlighted in the report were linked to Hezbollah, the document did not identify any of them as actual members of the group.
• Iran has increased its cultural and political presence in the hemisphere and now has 11 embassies in the region.
• Iran has been able to circumvent sanctions because of its economic partnership with a few countries in the region, most notably Venezuela. It is either economically involved or looking to become economically involved with several countries in Latin America.
• Iran has strengthened ties with Venezuela, with which it is ideologically aligned. According to testimony from analyst Douglas Farah, a 2011 Univision documentary showed Hezbollah training Venezuelan troops.
• A testimony from Ambassador Roger Noriega, visiting fellow from the American Enterprise Institute, claims Hezbollah cells and Sinaloa cartel members are operating together in Venezuela, but cites unnamed sources and fails to footnote this part of the testimony.
• In 2011 Iran attempted to hire an alleged member of the Mexican Zeta cartel to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States in Washington D.C. for a fee of $1.5 million. The Zeta operative turned out to be a DEA informant and the plot was foiled.

Aside from more detailed expansion on these points, the report in many cases uses these findings t make overreaching conclusions are often not sourced, cite the same subcommittee's previous report or cite individual's previous testimonies with unchecked sources.

In his opening statement to present the report, subcommittee Chairman Michael McCaul sets the stage for the report, claiming "Iran’s strategic migration and its relationships in Latin America are a clear and present danger to American national security" and that it "is also attempting to lay the foundation for military and covert operations within the U.S. by partnering with Mexican drug cartels."

Nowhere in the report are either of these statements corroborated. As security analyst Steven Dudley from Insight Crime and Samuel Logan from Southern Pulse both contend, Mexican criminal groups are not likely to commit acts of political violence in the U.S., much less involve foreign governments.

The document goes on to state, “Iran and Hezbollah have been involved in the underworld of Latin America long enough to become intimately familiar with all of its inhabitants and capitalize on their capabilities.”

It substantiates this claim with a testimony from former DEA executive Michael Braun, who says, "If you want to visualize ungoverned space or a permissive environment, I tell people to simply think of the bar scene in the first Star Wars movie. Operatives from FTOs (foreign terrorist organizations) and DTOs (drug trafficking organizations) are frequenting the same shady bars, the same seedy hotels and the same sweaty brothels in a growing number of areas around the world. Based upon over 37 years in the law enforcement and security sectors, you can mark my word that they are most assuredly talking business and sharing lessons learned."

According to the report, the 2011 plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador was the result of these links established in "shady bars." The incident is the strongest established connection between Iran and Mexican drug cartels that the report examines.

While the plot was real and revealed developments to which policymakers should pay attention, many analysts and major media were skeptical of the details and whether the incident truly denotes Iranian-Zeta links. As Adam Isacson pointed out on border fact check blog, there was no evidence that the Zeta organization knew about the plan.

Insight Crime looked at the details of the case and concluded the failed plot served to show the lack of intimate contact and knowledge between Iran and the Mexican cartels, which many analysts have said are "not interested in committing acts of political violence on U.S. soil." Analyst James Bosworth also examines the case on his blog, saying "the clearly amateurish nature of Iran's involvement here shows that we have less to fear. The fact that an Iranian Qods-linked official is poking around the border looking for Zetas sicarios and ends up with the DEA informant suggests that Iran and Hezbollah have far less ties to the Mexican organized crime scene than some analysts would want you to believe."

In the "2012 Terrorism and Transnational Crime Report," Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper said "It remains to be seen whether this alleged plot is indicative of greater crime-terrorism cooperation or a one-time departure from conventional IRGC-QF tactics." He did however note that the plot indicates some Iranian officials are more willing to conduct an attack in the U.S., but said nothing about established links to Mexican cartels.

Other government reports and statements acknowledge Iran and Hezbollah's presence as a potential threat, but not as an imminent danger. Similarly none of the security reports note any direct transnational connection between terrorist organizations and Mexican drug cartels, or highlight Iran's involvement in Venezuela as a threat to national security.

In the "World Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community" Clapper acknowledges the potential for links, but admits that the extent of connection between the groups is unclear. There is no discussion of Venezuelan-Iranian ties as a threat.

The State Department's 2010 "Country Report on Terrorism," published in August 2011, denied the existence of transnational terrorist groups actively operating in the country, saying, "There were no known operational cells of either al-Qaida- or Hezbollah-related groups in the hemisphere."

Similarly, the 2011 "Country Report on Terrorism" indicates no threat of a transnational terrorist attack in the Western Hemisphere and discovered "No known international terrorist organization had an operational presence in Mexico and no terrorist group targeted U.S. citizens in or from Mexican territory." It found "no evidence of signs of ties between Mexican criminal organizations and terrorist groups."

The findings from the House's Countering Iran in the Western Hemisphere Act of 2012, passed by the body in September, follows the general trend of government statements by recognizing Hezbollah presence, funding sources and some involvement in illegal activity, but states no known operational links between Hezbollah and Mexican drug cartels, other than the assassination plot and a money laundering scheme between the Zetas and Lebanese Canadian bank, which has since been shut down.

"A Line in the Sand" also concludes that "the FARC is operating with Iran and Hezbollah in Venezuela, and the Venezuelan Government is complicit in these operations." For this reason, the subcommittee gives the recommendation that "the U.S. government should consider designating Venezuela a state sponsor of terrorism."

In an interview with Polifact, Vanda Felbab-Brown of the Brookings Institution, who testified in 2009 for the House subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs on illicit economies, organized crime, and their impact on U.S. and global security, said, "Allegations of al-Qaida, Hamas, and Hezbollah contacts with the FARC or these groups' penetration of the Latin American drug trade have not proven robust."

Kevin Casas-Zamora, former vice president of Costa Rica, added, "If Venezuela was indeed harboring a serious Hezbollah operation we would surely know it by now. The U.S. has had for years an official policy of toning down the confrontation with Chavez, but a serious terrorist threat is the one thing that the U.S. would not countenance."

When asked directly about Iran's involvement in the hemisphere during testimony to the Senate in March, former Southern Command leader General Doug Fraser highlighted the continued financial support the organizations receive from the region, saying, “Our concern remains their traditional connections with Hezbollah and Hamas, who do have organizations in Latin America. Those organizations are primarily focused on financial support to organizations back in the Middle East, but they are involved in illicit activity."

As far as the threat of these groups to U.S. security, he did comment on the connection between these groups and illicit activities in the region and said it is something SOUTHCOM will "continue to look for as we watch in the future, that connection between the illicit activity and the potential pathway into the United States," echoing the watchful caution presented in SOUTHCOM's 2012 posture statement.

Towards the end of the section on Iran, “A Line in the Sand” says "it is believed the ability exists to turn operational if the need arises. There is no doubt that the enemy is at our doorstep and we must do something about it now.”

The 2010 "International Terrorism and Transnational Crime: Security Threats, U.S. Policy, and Considerations for Congress," along with other government reports, supports this statement to a degree, noting the potential of Hezbollah supporters in the region to become more involved. It says, “If the organization decided to attack U.S. or Israeli interests in West Africa or South America, it is possible that these sympathizers could play a concrete role.” However no reports give the sense that "the enemy is at our doorstep."

The United States government, along with several security experts, has conducted many investigations into this issue. The overall conclusion seems to be that while the threat of Hezbollah in the hemisphere is there, it is relatively small and something that is being monitored.

• The Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Management, part of the U.S. House of Representatives, released a Majority Staff report, entitled, "A Line in the Sand: Countering Crime, Violence and Terror at the Southwest Border." According to their website, [the report] details the "increased presence of Middle East terrorist networks in Latin America and their growing relationship with drug cartels." The report also looks at the Mexican cartels' operations in the [United States], drug trafficking operations, and the turf wars between rival organizations.
• Amnesty International, the Center for International Policy, Latin America Working Group, and the Washington Office on Latin America sent a letter to key members of the U.S. Congress, urging them to "to retain the human rights conditions pertaining to security assistance for Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras that were included in the Senate Appropriations Committee version of the FY13 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill."

Colombia

• On Monday, the ELN, Colombia’s second largest revolutionary guerrilla[,] published an open letter on their website saying they were willing to join the peace talks between the FARC and the Colombian government. In the letter, the ELN reaffirmed its commitment to a political solution in Colombia, while citing they deem the issue as a "collective construction of the nation."
• Later this week in response to the ELN’s statement, President Juan Manuel Santos said in an interview that the ELN would not be joining the peace talks. However, he expressed the possibility of including the group in future talks with the FARC. The peace talks, which were scheduled to start this week in Havana, Cuba, have been delayed until Monday.

Cuba

• Early this week, the UN General Assembly voted for the 21st time to condemn the U.S. embargo against Cuba. It was an overwhelming vote resulting in 188-3, with only Israel and Palau joining the U.S. in support of the embargo. While addressing the General Assembly, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez referred to the embargo as “inhumane, failed, and anachronistic.”

• Normalizing relations between Cuba and the U.S. continues to be a hot topic, as one week after President Obama was reelected, Cuba offered a "draft agenda" for negotiations, which largely reiterates the regime’s old positions and proposes the swap of the Cuban Five for U.S. development [contractor] Alan Gross.

Ecuador

• In Ecuador, current President Rafael Correa announced he is running for reelection for a third term. Correa seems likely to win, with some polls showing his domestic support at around 80 percent.
• Latin American political analyst James Bosworth cited the issues that matter in Ecuador’s elections in Christian Science Monitor, citing the economy, citizen security, and Correa’s personality as key factors. Bosworth says "Correa retains support because his style remains well liked by many voters."

Brazil

• On Monday, the Brazilian Supreme Court sentenced former chief of staff to Luiz Inazio Lula da Silva to 10 years and 10 months in prison for charges of bribery and conspiracy. José Dirceu de Oliveira e Silva was found guilty of setting up a vote-buying scheme that used public funds to pay coalition parties for political support. The scandal became known as “Mensalao” or Big Monthly Allowance. The court ruling is a testament to Brazil’s advancement in ending a long history of impunity for corruption.
• In the past two weeks, the city of Sao Paulo has experienced an increasing wave of violence which has resulted in the deaths of at least 140 people. The victims include 90 police officers. According to the city’s Public Safety Department, the killings began increasing in the month of September. The violent spurt is likely linked to the First Capital Command, a violent prison-based gang, which likely feels the government has violated an informal six-year truce to subside prison transfers of gang leaders and limit its operations on the city’s outskirts in exchange for an end to violence. In response, state and federal police announced the creation of a new joint intelligence agency to fight organized crime last week.

Bolivia , Brazil and Peru

• The three South American governments declared they will create a joint fund fund using money seized from criminal groups to help fight organized crime in the region. Bolivia’s interior minister, Carlos Romero, said the fund will be used to purchase necessary technology and to pay informants. In order for the project to move forward, Bolivia would have to follow Brazil and Peru and implement laws that permit the use of criminal assets by state. The initiative highlights how money from criminal groups is often an “untapped source of revenue” that can be used.

Mexico

• Mexico's top organized crime investigator stepped down yesterday for "personal reasons." This comes just weeks after three members of his team were charged with having links to the powerful Sinaloa cartel.
• On Thursday, the country's Democratic Revolution Party submitted a proposal for a bill that seeks to legalize the sale, distribution and use of marijuana. Reuters says the bill is unlikely to pass since a strong majority of Mexicans are against legalization, but may bring about a broader debate on the country's approach drugs, particularly after two U.S. states voted in referenda to allow recreational marijuana use last week.
• On Tuesday, Mexico's Congress passed the controversial labor reform that has sparked protests within the country in recent weeks. The New York Times profiled the law, saying it "will make it easier for companies to hire and fire workers, signaling the first major economic change in Mexico in more than a decade." Mexican President Felipe Calderón now must sign the bill into law, but he is likely to meet opposition before doing so as congressional leaders from the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) say the legislation was passed without proper debate in the Congress.

Venezuela

• The United Nations General Assembly voted Venezuela onto the Human Rights Council (UNHRC), along with Argentina, Brazil and the United States. Ahead of the vote,
  Amnesty International published an open letter urging Venezuela to reconsider their decision to denounce the American Convention on Human Rights, while the Washington Post argued, "Venezuela under [Chávez] has no place at this table," as "Mr. Chávez has shown what he stands for, and it is not the protection of human rights." Human Rights Watch also published a letter decrying Venezuela's inclusion on the Council, saying "when it comes to promoting and protecting human rights, Venezuela currently falls far short of acceptable standards."
• On Wednesday, Venezuela extradited one of Colombia's most notorious drug traffickers, Daniel "Loco" Barrera, to Colombia. The Colombian government is preparing to extradite him to to the United States, who reportedly offered $5M for his capture in the country. El Pais has a good graphic of the hardest hits to Colombia's drug traffickers in recent months.

Last Tuesday, Washington and Colorado passed referendums legalizing recreational marijuana use, a move which some crime analysts have predicted will curtail the Mexican cartel's profits and that many hope will mark the beginning of the end for the United States' long, much-criticized "War on Drugs."

When conservative Mexican President Felipe Calderón took office in December 2006, he launched a drug war that put thousands of soldiers on the streets. Since then, some 60,000 Mexicans have been killed, an estimated 10,000 have gone missing and around 250,000 have been forced from their homes. While the approved referenda will not halt an increase in these statistics, the decision signals a change in the Western Hemisphere's approach towards drugs and counternarcotics efforts.

The decision has already prompted debate on anti-drug policies in Mexico, as well as around the region, and will certainly affect the coordinated counternarcotics strategies between the United States and its southern neighbor. Mexico now is facing the possibility having to try to stop the smuggling of a product in heavy demand and considered illicit within its own borders, but legal in parts of the United States. Mexico is said to provide between 40-67 percent of the marijuana currently consumed in the U.S. Though the sale, distribution and and use of marijuana is now considered legal in Colorado and Washington, it still remains illegal under U.S. federal law.

As John Walsh from the Washington Office on Latin America notes, the U.S. government is known in Latin America for its lead role in championing the "war on drugs," and thus "the symbolic significance of the passage of the marijuana legalization proposals is already obvious, both in the United States and in Latin America."

Last week a top official in Mexican president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto's incoming administration said the legalization "changes the rules of the game" in the war on drugs and would require a joint review of policies with regard to drug trafficking and security in general, calling the decision an "unseen element."

He expressed the problem directly, saying, "Obviously, we can't handle a product that is illegal in Mexico, trying to stop its transfer to the United States, when in the United States, at least in part of the United States, it now has a different status."

Peña Nieto, who takes office December 1, has signaled he plans to focus his security force strategy towards curbing the endemic violence plaguing Mexico's citizens, suggesting he will move away from current President Calderón's staunch, militarized drug interdiction program and "kingpin strategy," which targets the leaders of Mexico's cartels, although he plans to continue on with Calderón's use of the military to fight crime. Peña Nieto has also said repeatedly that he opposes drug legalization, which Videgaray reiterated Wednesday.

On Monday, Mexican President Felipe Calderón, along with the leaders of Belize, Costa Rica and Honduras, "issued a joint statement" calling for a hemispheric analysis of the implications of the move to legalize. Calderón went on to say that it marked a fundamental "paradigm shift" in global drug policy and required an analysis of public policy and health in the entire Western Hemisphere.

Some have said that the government is no longer in a position to continue to pressure other nations in its anti-drug crusade. On Tuesday, President Calderón said the United States now has a limited "moral authority" to ask others to champion prohibitionist policies and continue the fight against illegal drug trafficking. As drug analyst Alejandro Hope from the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMOC) told Time Magazine, “Now it would be very hard for the U.S. to tell people not to legalize marijuana.”

Mexican Congressman Manlio Fabio Beltrones echoed calls for renewed reform, saying, “This obligates us to think deeply the strategy we have to have in Mexico toward fighting this criminality,” highlighting the fact that "the largest consumer in the world has liberalized its laws."

Despite recent emphasis on the IMOC study claiming the implementation of legalization would cut cartel funding by 20-30 percent, the Mexican ambassador to the United States, Arturo Sarukhan, thinks it “may not have that big an impact on the finances of the cartels.”

Speaking at an event at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, D.C., he said anyone who thinks legalizing marijuana is the answer to ending violence in Mexico is “absolutely wrong,” and that cartels will “muscle into other illegal activities.” He also noted that the decision has had a "profound impact" on Mexicans' perceptions of their country's marijuana interdiction efforts. “It will be hard for a public official to explain to the mother of a federal police officer killed seeking to deter a shipment of marijuana coming into the United States that that was a good thing given that two states in the U.S. legalized marijuana,” he said.

Cesar Duarte, governor of the violence-ridden Chihuahua state (home to Ciudad Juarez) saw a possible positive economic outcome for Mexico, proposing the organized, legal exportation of marijuana. "We would have control over a business which today is run by criminals. And which finances criminals,” he said in an interview with Reuters.

It was reported Thursday that the United Nations deemed the legalizations a violation of international treaties that require drug enforcement. The President of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), Raymond Yans, voiced his concerns, saying the referenda "pose a great threat to public health and the well-being of society far beyond those states.”

However, the decision comes as other countries in Latin America set out to find their own alternative approaches to the drug issue. In August, Chile introduced a legalization bill that is still in the congress, while Uruguay is close to voting on a bill that would allow adults to purchase up to 40 grams of marijuana each month and have six pot plants, producing up to 480 grams (just over a pound a month). It would also allow individuals to form pot groups of up to 15 people [to] grow up 90 plants, producing 720 grams (almost 16lbs) of marijuana per year.

On the heels of Uruguay's legalization legislation progression, Mexico's leftist Democratic Revolution Party (Partido de la Revolucion Democratico or PRD) presented a bill of their own on Thursday to legalize the production, distribution and use of marijuana.

Several Latin American leaders have called for reforms, including the presidents of Colombia, Mexico, and Guatemala who called for drug policy reform at the UN General Assembly meeting in September, while many former leaders, including former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, former Colombian leader Cesar Gaviria and former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, have signed statements criticizing U.S. counternarcotics policies.

Organized crime analysis organization InsightCrime says that the legalization will have little effect on cartel income as the cartels can fill in the financial disparity with other illicit activities. (See InsightCrime's map from April 2012 on the drug policy positions of leaders from the region)

However, the implications of the referenda -- both in America and throughout the region -- are a long way off, as the two states have to create regulations and infrastructure in early 2013, supposing they survive any challenges in court and depending on the U.S. government's enforcement of federal drug law, which classifies marijuana as a schedule 1 drug along with heroin and LSD. So far the government has remained fairly silent on the matter, with the Justice Department merely saying "its enforcement policies remain unchanged" and they are reviewing the initiatives.

In the event that the referendums are ultimately overturned or delayed, their introduction at the very least signals a change in the international discussion on drugs. As Walsh points out , "it’s a safe bet that now that that Colorado and Washington have put legal marijuana on the map, fresh initiatives to legalize marijuana will be on the ballot in other states in the years ahead, and that federal marijuana law itself will eventually be revised to keep up with the times."

What seems to have emerged, particularly in recent weeks, is a more united chorus for debating drug legalization, or at least decriminalization, and finding alternatives to a failing drug war.

You’ve likely heard about the exciting buzz that has been permeating in Colombia. Yes, you guessed it; we’re talking about the announcement of the peace talks! We’ve decided to compile our own list of interesting sources –including the important voices of different civil society actors that are sometimes not heard –for our faithful readers to easily access.

We’ll begin with the voices of civil society and their takes on the peace process. Some of the main points brought up by these actors are:

• Civil society inclusion and participation in the peace process

A Colombian victims’ group, MOVICE, made this official statement regarding the peace talks, in which they welcome peace and call for the inclusion of victims in the peace process, as well as call for a bilateral ceasefire.

 LAWGEF and USOC’s statement regarding the peace talks; warmly receiving the negotiations, the organizations call for the full inclusion of civil society, including women, Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities.

A critical explanation from La Silla Vacia of why civil society’s demand to be included in the actual peace negotiations is unfeasible.

• The topic of a bilateral ceasefire

The Coordinación Colombia Europa Estados Unidos (CCEEU), a major coalition of Colombian NGOs, issued this official statement regarding the peace talks, calling for special attention to be given to the victims of the armed conflict and for both parties in the negotiations to refrain from escalating the violence during the actual negotiations.

Colombians for Peace issued an open letter addressed to President Santos, Timochenko of the FARC and Nicolas Rodriguez of the ELN calling for the parties to develop an agreement to respect international humanitarian law as a peace agreement is developed. The letter asks that the government stop bombing civilian buildings and that the FARC stop using landmines and give information about kidnapped persons. Colombians for Peace also emphasize four points to “humanize the conflict” which revolve around: ending the use of landmines, stopping child recruitment, stopping attacks on civilian buildings and establishing a truth commission. 

Next, we’ve compiled an assortment of editorials from Colombian newspapers and news magazines such as El Tiempo and Semana. 

An interview with León Valencia, director of the Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris, in which he analyzes statements from President Juan Manuel Santos and head commander of the FARC, Timoleón Jiménez, alias “Timochenko” regarding the peace talks. He notes that of particular interest is the FARC’s agreement to include laying down its weapons in the agenda. This piece in El Tiempo presents the argument that even when taking into consideration the frustrations of previous talks with the FARC, this time there's a real, genuine possibility that the negotiations will be successful. 

A special reconciliation issue from El Tiempo focuses on the need for broader social change in Colombian society, viewing the peace talks as a step on the pathway towards widespread reconciliation.

Experts and analysts weigh in at El Tiempo about the realistic outline of the Colombian peace negotiations without a negotiated ceasefire. 

This interesting analysis in Semana looks beyond the public and official announcements about the peace negotiations and instead, examines the important symbols that show why the public should be optimistic about these current peace talks.

Former paramilitary leaders say in an interview with Canal Capital that their peace process failed and caution the government to take into account many of the mistakes that occurred in their peace process when preparing to sit down to negotiate with the FARC.

In Portafolio, several leaders from different Colombian business sectors give their support to the upcoming peace talks, hopeful that if peace negotiations are successful it will be very good for the economy

Just in case those articles were a bit difficult to read in Spanish, we’ve included here some English-language coverage.

Scholar Milburn Line calls for the United States to do a better job in visibly supporting the peace talks. The article suggests it’s time for the U.S. to reexamine its foreign policy in Colombia, including the impact of Plan Colombia, and vigorously support peace negotiations that are more rewarding for U.S. foreign policy and legacy in the region.

Colombia Report’s editorial describes the peace process as a complex process that must incorporate all Colombians, with emphasis on the populations affected most by the conflict, in order to have a successful peace negotiation and sustainable peace throughout the country. It prioritizes systems and strategies for fully supported demobilization and long-term reintegration programs for those fighting.

This Colombia Reports op-ed suggests that the peace talks are “destined to fail” because, in its opinion, the conditions of these negotiations are no different than those of the past. It also argues that the FARC is a terrorist organization that the “desperate-to-please” Santos administration should not negotiate with.

This blog in the Financial Times examines the international politics and possible motives of the peace process, ultimately arguing that successful negotiations are win-win for all: Colombia will have achieved peace and President Santos stands to gain a potential boost in popularity; Cuba creates a reason for the U.S. to relax its embargo; Venezuela helps end gun-smuggling which is good for the region; and the U.S. Plan Colombia policy can be seen as a success and will save the U.S. money not supporting Colombia anymore.

A fairly optimistic article in Commentary Magazine that says peace talks have the potential to be successful this time around mainly due to the fact that “the FARC has been essentially defeated militarily” as a result of the crushing setbacks by the military under the Uribe Administration, forcing the FARC to now negotiate.

Finally, here are some very valuable experts in themes such as conflict resolution and regional security policy.

Hear actual voices from Colombian civil society in this live recording from the event,“The Colombian Peace Talks: Perspectives from Civil Society,” hosted by the Washington Office on Latin America and cosponsored by LAWGEF and other groups.

Colombia Calls is a great blog from long-time astute observer of the peace process and senior program officer for Latin America in the Center of Innovation at the U.S. Institute for Peace, Ginny Bouvier.

The International Crisis Group’s official report is an excellent, comprehensive analysis on the state of the armed conflict and peace negotiations.

The Washington Office on Latin America’s Adam Isacson, Senior Associate for Regional Security Policy, weighs in with reasons to be more optimistic with this peace process than with past attempts and some possible obstacles.

Aldo Civico, professor of anthropology at Rutgers University, has this insightful blog on “Engaged Anthropology, Peace Building, and Human Rights.”  Civico has served as a conflict resolution facilitator to international institutions, government, corporations and non-governmental organizations in Italy, Haiti, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia.

The following is a compilation of articles and analysis from think-tanks and news outlets examining how President Obama's re-election could impact U.S.-Latin American relations going forward.

"Obama's Election and the Caribbean: What Does it Mean?" by Kevin Edmonds for the North American Congress on Latin America (Nacla) looks at Obama's involvement in the Caribbean during his first term and notes that there is a "cautious optimism" throughout the region, with most leaders calling for more engagement. It highlights the president's more "hands-off" approach, saying this position "comes with both new problems and possibilities for change through new alliances and spaces for policy development in the Caribbean."

"Analysis: Obama faces Latin America revolt over drugs, trade" by Brian Winter for Reuters considers how relations between the U.S. and Latin America will change in the wake of Obama's re-election, noting the potential for governments in the region to become more independent, as "even close allies are increasingly emboldened to act without worrying about what 'Tio Sam' will say or do."

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' Mexico Institute provides analysis on the implications of the 2012 U.S. Presidential Elections for Mexico. They look at trade, immigration and Obama's relationship with Mexican President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto.

The Inter-American Dialogue's U.S. election page houses several articles in English and Spanish from its analysts, including a good piece from organization president Michael Shifter in Foreign Policy magazine and a collection of opinions on what Obama's second term will mean for Latin America from several analysts, including Rubens Barbosa, former ambassador of Brazil to the United States.

"Top 10 Policy Drivers for U.S.-Latin American Relations in 2013," by Eric Farnsworth of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas reviews the top ten policy drivers for U.S.-Latin American relations in 2013. They all start with the letter "C" and include the Castros, Chavez and China.

"Congressional Update: How the Election Results Impact U.S.-Latin America Policy" by Kezia McKeague, also of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, looks at how the picks for U.S. Congress in the most recent elections will affect the House and the Senate's stance towards the region.

"Will Latin America become a higher priority during second Obama term?" by Mimi Whitefield and Tim Johnson explores if Latin America will become a higher priority during Obama's second term, examining how much issues like immigration, the rise of the latino vote, trade, security and political changes within the region could attract more attention to the region during Obama's presidency.

"The Writing is on the Wall: The Cuban-American Vote and the Future of U.S. Policy toward Cuba" by Geoff Thale notes a change in Florida's Cuban-American community's position on U.S. policy towards the island, after they came out to vote for Obama in record numbers on Tuesday.

On the Havana Note blog, the director of the U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative for the New America Foundation, Anya Landau French, writes about the historic Cuban-American outpouring of support for Obama, saying it marks a shift in U.S. politics, commenting "engaging Cuba is no longer the political liability it once was."

"Obama won. What does his victory mean for the United States and Mexico?" from Mexican news website Animal Politico collects opinions from 14 different analysts, professors and politicians about what an Obama second term means for relations between Mexico and the United States.

"Mexico says marijuana legalization in U.S. could change anti-drug strategies" by William Booth for the Washington post looks at how Mexico's incoming government will responded to the approval of marijuana ballot measures in Colorado and Washington. A top aide for Mexican President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto, who will take office in December, said it "changed the rules of the game," and that Peña Nieto and his advisors will have to reformulate their anti-drug strategy.

"Obama continues" is an editorial in Colombia's El Tiempo that highlights the importance of Obama's return, saying it signals to both the Colombian government and the FARC that the United States will continue to back the peace talks, set to start in Havana on November 15.

Overall, Obama's victory over Romney is seen as a positive development for the region, but it has been met with cautious optimism. For the most part, there are few expected changes, although many hope that Obama will turn his focus south and address several issues, from the Mexican drug war, to Cuba, to Colombia, that involve the United States and are pressing in the region.

Also, in case you missed it, yesterday's Just the Facts blog reviews Latin American leaders reactions to Obama's victory Tuesday night and what it could mean for the region as a whole over the next four years.

President Barack Obama was re-elected Tuesday night, winning over 300 electoral votes and the popular vote by 2.6 million over Republican candidate Mitt Romney. Romney led the popular vote for most of the night, until western states like California closed their polls and counted their ballots. In the end, Obama handily took the electoral college with 303 vote to Romney's 206 and the popular vote with a narrow margin of victory, winning 50% of the vote to Romney's 48%.

Tuesday's election was historic in the United States for several reasons -- marijuana was legalized in two U.S. states, same-sex marriage was passed in another three -- but also of particular note was the increase in the Hispanic electorate's importance. President Obama won just over 70% of the Latino vote, compared to Romney's 27%, ensuring his slight victory in a number of battleground states like Colorado, Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Nevada.

Leading up to the election, many analysts, politicians and voters were disillusioned that Latin America was noticeably absent from both candidates campaigns, especially in relation to issues such as the Mexican drug war that has claimed some 60,000 lives since 2006, the re-election of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, the Cuban embargo and Brazil's growing economic presence.

Before the election took place, regional analysts and leaders, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, El Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes and OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza, said they expected few changes with regards to U.S. policy in the region, regardless of the outcome.

Reactions to President Obama's victory throughout the region held a similar tone. There was a general consensus that Obama was the preferred victor of the two candidates, but that the region expected more attention and cooperation from his administration in the next four years.

Aside from the usual congratulatory messages, many leaders took the opportunity to voice their concerns over a domestic problem that reverberates throughout the region -- immigration reform -- reminding Obama that he owed a large part of his victory to Latinos.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos congratulated President Obama saying his re-election was "good news for Colombia," and noting that now the two countries can "continue to work in cooperation, with the same proposals and objectives and getting results."

Colombian Vice President Angelino Garzón also applauded Obama's re-election as something "positive for the United States and Colombia," but said President Obama had to fulfill his obligation to the international community and the region as a whole, which "expected more" from him. Garzón highlighted the contentious immigrant situation in the U.S., saying "It's good to point out that Colombian immigrant workers have rights that must be respected, human rights, including the right to have American citizenship and residence."

Ecuador's deputy foreign minister, Marco Albuja, echoed these sentiments on Twitter, asking Obama to "always remember the transcendental latino vote." He added that he hoped the new administration would pass immigration reform to "find a definitive solution to the more than 10 million people in [the US] without a defined migrant status."

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, who showed his support for President Obama during the campaign, extended his congratulations, calling Obama "an extraordinary person," but also commenting that he expected little change because "the foreign policy of the United States is inertial and they will need many years to change it.... Everything will practically be the same in Latin America."

Paraguay also weighed in on the immigration issue with Foreign Minister José Félix Fernández Estigarribia pressing Obama to recognize that "part of his win he owes to our Latin American compatriots," and he hoped "President Obama contributes to improving relations with [the rest of] Latin America and to solving the latino immigration problem."

For Honduras, President Porfirio Lobo's government, which enjoyed strong support by Obama in its 2011 election following a contentious 2009 coup, said it did not expect "much change in general relations with the United States," but secretary of planning, Julio Raudales, did comment that "Obama's reelection is good news." Former Honduran President Ricardo Maduro told local television he hoped Obama would focus his attention "towards the south."

Bolivian President Evo Morales had a more critical response to Obama's re-election. After condemning the U.S. electoral process, he suggested Obama settle the score with Latino voters by doing away with the Cuban embargo. He also took a jab at Obama's refusal to extradite Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, a former president accused of corruption and genocide in Bolivia.

"He was reelected thanks to latinos and the best thing he could do to recognize their vote is end the embargo in Cuba," Morales said. "If he wants to dignify his government, it would be important to stop protecting delinquents that escape from many countries, Bolivia included."

With respect to the country's economy, the Bolivian leader gave little clout to the U.S. election, saying "who wins in the United States does not affect the Bolivian people... We should export but [the US] market cannot define our political economy."

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has not commented since the election, but during the campaign he said that if he were an American, he would vote for Obama, although he later said he did not expect much change in U.S. foreign policy.

Cuban President Raul Castro has also yet to publicly respond, however Cuban state-run news website CubaSi reiterated the general feeling of indifference, saying "The news of Barack Obama's triumph in yesterday's general elections in the United States was received with some relief and without great optimism."

Argentine President Cristina Kirchner congratulated President Obama with a letter and also via Twitter, adding that it is "his turn" to "take his place in the history of his people and the world," and assume his "role as global leader to overcome this political and economic crisis."

In this election the Republican Party, as it is wont to do, adopted a more aggressive stance towards the region, particularly with regards to leftist governments, that signaled a possible unwelcome return to the diplomacy of Bush's presidency. Across the board, there was more a sense of relief that Romney lost than excitement that Obama won.

While in practice the policy differences might have been marginal, a Romney presidency would likely have included bellicose rhetoric towards Venezuela and Cuba and potentially cause greater political polarization in the hemisphere, as Inter-American Dialogue president Michael Shifter noted most recently in Foreign Policy magazine.

As Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas points out in the Miami Herald, there are several pending situations could force a change in the region's political and economic landscape, pulling more attention to it, such as the death of Hugo Chavez, the death of Fidel Castro or his brother Raúl, the possible success of peace talks in Colombia, and China's financial growing financial involvement.

Although the issues that shifted the rhetoric away from Latin America during the campaign are still front and center-- Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, jobs, etc-- there is hope that going forward Obama will prioritize the region, and at the very least immigrants looking for a home in the United States, in his second term.

The following links and summaries are some recent news highlights from around the region.

Bolivia

• Last Tuesday, Bolivia's Constitutional Tribunal declared a long-standing law criminalizing defamation of government officials, known as the "desacato" law, unconstitutional for violating freedom of speech. Under the law, individuals can incur a three-year prison sentence for insulting a member of the government.
• Later in the week Bolivian media was abuzz following comments from Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera, who warned those who might dare to criticize the president via social media, saying "I am always going online, and I am writing down the first and last names of the people who insult him on Facebook and Twitter." Morales' Movement for Socialism party (MAS) is currently attempting to push through a law monitoring Bolivian citizens' political commentary on digital news sites and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
• Earlier this month, reports revealed the government was harassing journalists from media outlets that reported on government corruption, causing them to flee over fears of incarceration. In a most recent example, a Bolivian journalist was set on fire by four masked men while on air at a radio station in the southern city of Yacuiba, along the Argentine border and a drug smuggling route. Fernando Vidal, 78, was a harsh critic of the local government and was reporting on trafficking in the area at the time of the attack. Vidal along with other journalists have been increasingly denouncing a rise in smuggling across the border, particularly of liquid petroleum gas.

  Amnesty International said the attack is "one of the worst instances of violence against journalists in Bolivia in recent years.” Four men have been arrested in the case. Bolivian Interior Minister Carlos Romero along with Vidal's son-in-law, also a journalist, believe two local government officials hired the men.

Mexico

• In Mexico, workers are protesting after the country's Senate passed through a version of labor reform legislation. Members from the conservative National Action Party (PAN) as well as president-elect Peña Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) supported the bill despite differences over certain details in the law, like the election of union leaders by secret ballot, a provision opposed by the union-friendly PRI party, but was ultimately included in the draft.

  Lawmakers say the bill seeks to increase transparency of trade union finances and union leader elections-- the country's two most prominent union leaders (Elba Esther Gordillo of Mexico’s largest teachers’ union and Carlos Romero Deschamps of the Oil Workers Union) won uncontested re-election. Mexican trade unions dominate state industry and their leaders are often accused of corruption. The government says the new reforms will create thousands of new jobs, making Mexico more competitive. Some economists and politicians say the reforms could create upwards of 150,000 jobs a year.

  Workers however rose up saying that under the proposed law, it will be easier for companies to fire employees and they will be forced to accept lower wages. Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM) called the reform "simplistic," saying it is not the "magic bullet" to create jobs and could harm workers' interests, particularly those in the informal sector who account for 28.8 million of the country's 50 million workers. Congressman in the lower house will now vote on the bill, however the vote has been delayed as the PRI fight to protect union interests.

• The PAN, PRD and Citizens' Movement (MC) parties held a press conference Wednesday where they announced they would form a united legislative opposition front against PRI president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto to fight "clientelistic and corrupt practices" during his six-year term.
• A faction of the Zetas reportedly split off and formed a new group called the Legionaries, according to Insight Crime. A banner hung by the group in Nuevo Laredo in northern Mexico says the organization has a "clear mission to kill people from the Zetas and their families" and their business is "solely and exclusively drug trafficking." The formal split comes following the capture of Zetas leader Ivan Velazquez Caballero, alias "El Taliban" and the recent killing of another head, Heriberto Lazcano, alias "Z-3," whose death was finally confirmed by authorities who used his dead father's DNA to corroborate his demise after Z-3's body disappeared from the morgue.
• Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, from Mexico, pleaded guilty Tuesday in the 2010 shooting of US border patrol Agent Brian Terry. He claimed to be part of a group that crossed into the US to steal from marijuana smugglers and had entered the country the week prior to the shooting to stash guns and food supplies.

Panama

• There were massive protests in Colon, Panama last week in response to a government law allowing for the sale of state-owned land to private companies in Latin America's biggest duty-free zone. Three people were killed, including a 9 year-old-boy, prompting groups like Amnesty International to call for investigation into excessive use of force.

  After the bill was passed last Friday, protesters from trade unions, student groups and business associations took to the streets, claiming that the sell-off will cause layoffs and a loss of revenue. The Panamanian government has since repealed the law, with assembly president Sergio Galvez saying "An error has been corrected," after the measure passed.

• A free-trade agreement between Panama and the US was entered into force on October 31, meaning that about 86% of US products will now enter the country tariff-free. The agreement was signed by former President George W. Bush in June 2007 and approved by Panama’s parliament the same year. The U.S. Congress did not ratify the agreement until October 12, 2011, held up with concerns over labor rights and tax laws for U.S.-based corporations in Panama. Opponents of the agreement said it would normalize Panama’s status as a the second-largest tax haven in the world and allow it to remain conducive to laundering money from criminal activity, creating vulnerability to terrorist financing, as was cited in a 2006 Wikileaked memo. President Obama signed the treaty into law on October 21, 2011.

United States

• Last Monday was the final debate in the US Presidential elections, covering foreign policy. There was virtually no mention of Latin America, causing analysts, politicians and voters to express dismay with both candidates.
• Some saw the lack of discussion about Latin America as a positive sign. In a press conference after his meeting with Hillary Clinton, Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio de Aguiar Patriota said of the debate, "it’s true that Latin America was not present, to my knowledge, and Brazil was not mentioned, but I think that the debate concentrated really on problem issues and concerns. And today, Brazil, South America in particular, is more of a region of the world that offers solutions than problems. So we interpret that in this positive light."

  Similarly in an opinion piece for Christian Science Monitor, Geoff Thale from WOLA said the scant discussion of Cuba could signal a more rational approach towards the island.

• The Global Post profiled the relatives of US presidential candidate Mitt Romney,whose father was born in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. They are reportedly part of a Mormon community often targeted by the cartels.

Colombia

• A total of 15 Colombian government security force members since formal peace talks between the FARC and the Colombian government began in Oslo, Norway on October 18. Last week nine soliders were killed in combat, while six police were killed Monday in the southwestern Cauca department.
• The FARC proposed a cease-fire during the talks, but President Juan Manuel Santos has repeatedly refused their request. A group of Colombian NGOs has called on the government to stop fighting for the month between December 15 and January 15. A recent Gallup poll showed 72% of Colombians support the peace process, but only 39% believe they would be successful. Another recent poll indicates President Santos' approval rating has gone up seven points to 58% since the announcement of the peace talks.
• In an interview with W Radio, President Obama said his hope was that a "peaceful Colombia would be created and that the FARC lay down their arms and recognize that although they disagree with the government they should participate in the political process instead of using violence."
• Last Thursday, Human Rights Watch sent a letter to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, criticizing a proposed constitutional amendment which would expand the jurisdiction of the military. According to the letter, the measure would, "result in serious human rights violations by the military—including extrajudicial executions, torture, and rape—being investigated and tried by the military justice system."
• Colombia is also in the process of producing their own unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or "drones." Although Colombia has been using US drones since 2006, this will be the first domestically-produced UAV used by the country's military.The drones will reportedly be used for military operations as well as for other functions such as monitoring oil pipelines.
• Colombian drug lord Henry de Jesus Lopez Londoño, alias "Mi Sangre," was arrested
  in a Buenos Aires supermarket. Mi Sangre was a top leader of the Urabeños drug gang and was in charge of expanding and maintaining the group's presence and control throughout Medellin, Colombia's second-largest city.
• Speaking at a trade-show on defense and security, Colombian Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon said within two years the country would be adding 25,000 members to its armed forces,which currently have about 450,000 members, making it the second-largest military in South America following Brazil.

Honduras

• The Honduras Truth Commission released a report on human rights violations before and after the 2009 coup. The blog Honduras Accompaniment Project summarizes the reports findings: "In total, the Truth Commission received “1,966 reports from citizens about human rights violations by state agents and armed civilian apparatuses protected by state institutions” between June 2009 and August 2011. Based on these reports, the Commission analyzed 5,418 human rights violations and categorized 87 forms of aggression."

Brazil

• In Brazil several convictions have been handed out to officials in former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government-- including his then chief of staff Jose Dirceu-- who were found guilty of using public funds to pay monthly installments to opposition congressmen in return for their support, known as the "Mensalão" case, in which about 40 officials were implicated. The case is historic in showing a strengthening of the rule of law in the country as Brazil has a long history of impunity for political corruption.
• In another landmark legal proceeding, a federal judge in Sao Paulo agreed to charge a soldier and two officers with the kidnapping of a dissident during Brazil’s 1964-1985 dictatorship, marking the second accusation of a top military officer for human rights abuses committed during the dictatorship, despite a 1979 amnesty law.
• On October 28th, Brazil held run-off municipal elections, with President Rousseff's and former President Lula's Workers’ Party (PT) winning the majority of the mayoral races, including Sao Paulo. Analysts say this puts the party in a favorable position for the 2014 presidential elections.
• In Sao Paulo 600 police were sent to the city's largest favela, Paraisópolis, as part of a larger initiative that was launched on Monday called "Operação Saturação," or "Operation Saturation,"intended to stifle drug trafficking and organized crime throughout the city. According to numbers from Sao Paulo's Secretary of Public Security,crime rates in Sao Paulo are on the rise, with the city registering 144 homicides in the month of September against the 71 that occurred in the same month last year and 145 homicides in October, an 86% increase from 2011 when 78 murders were registered in the same month that year.

  According to government statistics, 40 people have been killed since last Thursday, 124 in the past 23 days, with a large part of the murders being carried out by men on motorcycles or in cars. A spokesman for the Sao Paulo police force denied the operation was launched in response to the recent wave of murders, saying they "received intelligence that there were criminals, weapons and drugs" inside the favela and that "there will be more actions like this in the coming days."

Venezuela

• Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez replaced Defense Minister General Henry Rangel Silva, appointing Navy Admiral Diego Molero Bellavia to the post. Rangel, a close ally of Chavez, will be the candidate for Chavez' United Socialist Party (PSUV) for governor of Trujillo in state elections on December 16. The US accused Rangel in 2008 of "materially assisting" the drug trafficking operations of Colombia's Farc guerrillas.
• President Chavez said on Thursday he will be attending the upcoming Mercosur presidential summit set for December 7 in Brasilia. Venezuela became a full Mercosur member July 31 following the group's decision to suspend Paraguay, whose Senate had barred Venezuelan participation. Brazil's foreign ministry noted the benefit of Venezuela's inclusion to the regional trade bloc saying, “With the entry of Venezuela, Mercosur has now a population of 270 million inhabitants (70% of South America population), GDP at current prices of 3.3 trillion dollars (79.6% of South American GDP) and a territory of 12.7 million km2 (72% of South American area), extending from Patagonia to the Caribbean and asserting itself as a global energy power.”

As Colombia moves forward with a peace process, the government's ability to deliver on restitution and reparations to victims is crucial for construction of a just and lasting peace. Lutheran World Relief and the Latin America Working Group Education Fund, along with our partner Agenda Caribe, toured the Caribbean coast of Colombia, the provinces of Sucre, Bolívar and Córdoba, in June 2012 to investigate whether displaced communities are starting to be able to return to their land and whether the Colombian government's landmark initiative, the Victims' and Land Restitution Law, has gotten off the ground. This law aims to provide reparations to victims of the conflict and land restitution or compensation for some of the more than 5 million people who were displaced by violence. It has generated enthusiasm in the international community and raised hopes among survivors of violence in Colombia's brutal, decades-old conflict. See our full report, Still a Dream: Land Restitution on Colombia's Caribbean Coast [PDF].

Despite the shining promises of the Victims' Law, we found that land restitution has not begun on the Caribbean coast, except for cases in which brave and organized displaced communities decided to return on their own. As of June 2012, a year after the law's passage, no land has yet been restituted via the Victims' Law, according to USAID. Although the Colombian government estimates 360,000 families were forced off their lands, only 15,208 land claims nationwide as of June had been filed under the Victims' Law, and none had yet been ruled upon by a judge.

It is important to recognize that the Colombian government has made some progress in the last year in titling land for campesinos and Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities that are not currently displaced. As we learned in our investigation, this is a critical step to help prevent further displacement. But the harder task of removing illegal occupiers and supporting returning communities is yet to come.

In interviews with local government officials, human rights groups, displaced communities and campesino associations, we found that land restitution faces enormous obstacles. It was encouraging to see that some local officials view the Victims' Law as a tool for addressing injustices and are grappling with how best to use it for that purpose. However, we found that:

• local governments are receiving little orientation from the national government regarding how to implement the Victims' Law;
• local governments are so far receiving few additional resources for implementing the law;
• the Victims' Law and its implementing institutions are perceived as replacing the existing institutions serving the displaced. A system barely beginning to function is being scrapped and replaced with yet another; and that under-resourced programs for internally displaced persons now have to be broadened to serve additional kinds of victims without necessarily having greater resources;
• interpretation of "who is a victim" is crucial; there is a risk that some local authorities can stack Transitional Justice Committees and Victims Roundtables to avoid authentic victims' representation and thus fail to address the needs of the full range of victims;
• there is a temptation for the government and international community to emphasize symbolic acts of reparation in ways that are neither meaningful to victims nor do much to address the broad community of victims; and
• there is a concerning lack of legal assistance to victims to help them defend their rights and access restitution and reparations.

The most serious obstacle, however, is that victims are not being provided with the protection necessary to be able to reclaim lands. More than 25 land rights leaders have been killed since the Santos Administration took office in August 2010. Without real protection, even the very institutions intended to return land to victims can become generators of new dangers and new displacements. For example, we heard concerns that victims who presented information or requests to Transitional Justice Committees then received new threats.

We also found that displacement is hardly a problem of the past. On the Caribbean Coast, there is still a ferocious reverse land reform that is occurring right now, today: mining, cement, lumber, teak and palm companies, large-scale farmers and ranchers, hotels, and other land purchasers are continuing to buy up or take over land, using means both legal and illegal, including the use of illegal armed groups to threaten, abuse and kill community leaders. This report provides recommendations about how to improve the still very weak implementation of the Victims' Law. However, it is equally urgent for the Colombian government to increase its efforts to provide secure titles and protection to campesinos and indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities who are not currently displaced and have lived on land for decades or centuries without title, and to provide protection for communities with title that are still under assault, to prevent the "reverse land reform" that is ripping like a tropical storm through the Caribbean coast—and many other areas of Colombia.

The U.S. government is funding and promoting the Victims' Law. This is a worthy choice. However, it is essential to fund this initiative with open eyes, close monitoring and, especially, careful consultations with victims' associations, humanitarian agencies and human rights groups. Otherwise, U.S. funding can end up financing symbolic actions that are more publicity stunts than real reparations, line the pockets of corrupt officials, or create islands of land restitution while displacement continues to grow.

Recommendations: To the Colombian government:

• Provide substantial orientations to municipal governments regarding the implementation of the Victims' Law, including how to ensure broad participation of victims' organizations.
• Provide adequate resources to municipal governments and victims' attention centers to apply the Victims' Law, above and beyond the resources already available to attend to internally displaced persons.
• Ramp up provision of legal advice to victims for land restitution and reparations via the Ombudsman's Office and local personeros.
• Pay particular attention to the needs of women in obtaining land restitution, titling, and reparations.
• Greatly expand the titling of land occupied by campesino families and Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities, which have been on land for decades, but do not have title.
• Monitor land restitution units, judges, notaries and Transitional Justice Committees to ensure that they are not being coopted by those who benefitted from stolen land, and sanction corrupt officials. Enforce sanctions on landowners and companies that are using coercive or other illegal means to expand landholdings.
• Provide protection to communities at risk of displacement, designing local protection plans in close consultation with communities. (For a description of what effective protection looks like, click here.)

To the U.S. government:

• Condition assistance for the Victims' Law on greatly improved actions to protect returned and returning communities and land rights leaders, with protection plans created with full participation of the affected communities.
• Provide assistance for protection programs for communities and land titling as part of support for the Victims' Law. Provide increased legal accompaniment for victims via the Ombudsman's Office and personeros. Carefully monitor these programs with input from victims' associations and human rights groups to ensure they benefit the intended population. Fund and work with existing campesino and victims' organizations rather than creating new ones, and ensure funding unites, not divides, social movements.
• Withhold certification on human rights conditions if the Colombian government moves to approve legislation that would result in human rights violations by military members being investigated by the military justice system.
• Actively monitor the implementation of the Labor Action Plan, pressing for full implementation, particularly elimination of all forms of illegal subcontracting, protection of the right to organize, protection of union leaders, and prosecution of threats and attacks against union members.
• Urge the Colombian government to take a much more vigorous approach to capturing and dismantling paramilitary successor groups. Urge careful monitoring of the situation on the Caribbean coast as paramilitary leadership is released from jail, including increased protection for victims and human rights defenders.

See the complete report, Still a Dream: Land Restitution on Colombia's Caribbean Coast here. Véase el informe, Aún un sueño: Restitución de tierras en la costa Caribe colombiana, aqu?.

This post is cross-posted with the Latin America Working Group Education Fund's LAWGBlog. It was written by Lisa Haugaard, Executive Director of the Latin America Working Group Education Fund.