Abigail and Adam discuss Colombia-Ecuador relations, arms sales to the FARC, the Haiti rebuilding cost, the Falklands dispute, press freedom, citizen security in Mexico, and upcoming congressional hearings.

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July: News of a military deal between Colombia and the United States is made public. The deal will allow the U.S. access to seven Colombian military bases. At this point details of the agreement are not yet available to the public. The deal creates tension throughout Latin America, especially between Venezuela and Colombia. Like many other leaders in the region, Chávez was angered by not being consulted before the announcement of the deal. Moreover, the deal represents a threat to Venezuelan sovereignty and he fears a U.S. led invasion.

October 2 2009: Venezuela arrests three DAS agents charged with spying for Colombia. Colombian DAS Director Felipe Munoz says "We're waiting to see what this is about because officially there are no DAS officials in Venezuela carrying out any activities."

October 24 2009: The bodies of 11 young men are found, including nine undocumented Colombians, in the Western Venezuelan state of Táchira. The young men were kidnapped by a group of heavily armed men in pickup trucks while while playing soccer in a town four hours from the Colombian border. Venezuelan government and Colombian opposition believe that their deaths were the result of a clash between paramilitary groups from Colombia. Venezuelan opposition asserts that Chávez is only interested in rooting out the right-wing paramilitaries, and is actually aiding the guerrillas. In response to the violence, the Venezuelan government restricts trade and other economic activities with Colombia.

November 2 2009: Two Venezuelan National Guardsmen are murdered. Colombia expels a Venezuelan National Guardsman. In response Venezuela closes two international bridges between Colombia and Venezuela, as Venezuelan authorities search for the suspects, creating mass confusion for residents.

November 4 2009: Venezuela announces the deployment of 15,000 troops to the two countries' common (1,375-mile) border. President Chávez also shuts down several border crossings, and threatens to shut down more. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Maduro says that the violence along the border is part of a U.S. and Colombian plot to destabilize Venezuela.

November 9 2009: President Hugo Chávez' rhetoric becomes increasingly inflammatory. He announces on Venezuelan television, "Let's not waste a day on our main aim: to prepare for war and to heLp the people prepare for war, because it is everyone's responsibility." He also orders 15,000 troops to the border, citing increased violence by Colombian paramilitary groups. In response, President Uribe states, "Colombia has not made nor will it make any bellicose move toward the international community, even less so toward fellow Latin American nations." Colombia also responds with a letter to the U.N. Security Council, "explaining in detail concerns Colombia has about remarks by President Chávez and other sensitive matters."

November 19 2009: Venezuela blows up two pedestrian bridges on its border with Colombia. Venezuela argues that the bridges were being used by narcotraffickers and guerrillas. However, while the bridges were not major structures, they were important to the people that used them. See this video news report from Caracol showing interviews with local residents and the mayor of the town. Colombia's Defense Minister Gabriel Silva says Álvaro it will lodge a complaint with United Nations and the Organization of American States over the "aggression."

December 1 2009: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez expels over 400 illegal Colombian and Brazilian miners, creating chaos in the small border town of Puerto Inirida, Colombia. According to the governor of Guainía, many of the miners arrived malnourished, having walked two or three days through the mountains, running from the Venezuelan Guards, and are staying with friends. Colombian Defense Minister Gabriel Silva says "We're going to report this sort of forced displacement to international human rights authorities because it violates international humanitarian rights."

Most recently, Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernández has agreed to serve as mediator, after Colombian President Uribe asked him to do so in a private meeting during the Ibero-American Summit, which ended last week in Estoril, Portugal. President Fernandez stated that his country "because of its geographical and friendship with its neighbors, has on other occasions mediated in regional conflicts to see solutions to these differences."

This post was written by CIP Intern Hannah Brodlie

In September, Ecuador and Colombia began the process toward reestablishing diplomatic ties. This week, the two countries took another important step toward that goal, despite fears that the process would be jeopardized by both the new U.S.-Colombia military base agreement and an arrest warrant issued by an Ecuadorian judge for Colombian General Freddy Padilla.

Diplomats from both countries met on Tuesday in Cotacachi, a town in northern Ecuador, and announced that they have agreed to name embassy charges d’affaires by November 15. The charge d’affaires will head each embassy’s mission in the absence of an ambassador. In addition, the two countries agreed to further strengthen the Bi-National Border Commission (COMBIFRON), and to continue working towards friendly relations.

In 2008, Ecuador withdrew its ambassador from Colombia after the Colombian army crossed the Ecuadorian border to launch an ultimately successful attack on a FARC camp, killing FARC leader Raúl Reyes. After many months of tension, Colombia and Ecuador have recently begun to try to mend the diplomatic rift. The process suffered a setback when an Ecuadorian judge issued a warrant for the arrest of former Colombian defense minister Juan Manuel Santos and General Freddy Padilla, the head of the Colombian armed forces, for their role in the 2008 invasion of Ecuador. However, yesterday afternoon the charges against Santos and General Padilla were dropped.

On Sunday, Ecuador's largest indigenous organization, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), mobilized its bases to protest new water, mining and oil laws. The new water law would give the state control over the country's water supply, including those resources found on indigenous territory. CONAIE argues that "the policy amounts to privatization of the country's water supply" and threatens the indigenous population's collective rights to their territories and resources, as required by the Ecuadorian Constitution and international laws such as International Labor Organization Convention 169 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

As a result, hundreds of indigenous protesters blocked the Pan American highway in several provinces throughout the country on Monday, but the protests were called off after Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa promised to hold a dialogue, "without conditions," to hear their objections to the new laws.

President Correa classified the indigenous uprising as a "complete failure," and urged an end to the protests on Monday, adding that he hopes "the indigenous peoples realize that they are being used by the right who want to create a scene like that in Honduras, where President Manuel Zelaya was ousted." News outlets reported on Tuesday that President Correa had "successfully gotten around his first political run-in with the indigenous groups" after CONAIE called off the protests.

In the past, the indigenous population in Ecuador was one of the strongest and most well-organized groups in the Andean region (CONAIE played an important role in the fall of three presidents, Abdalá Bucaraum (1997), Jamil Mahuad (2000) and Lucio Gutierrez (2005)). However, tensions within the organization that started during the presidency of Lucio Gutierrez have weakened CONAIE's power, and large factions of CONAIE objected to Monday's protest.

The tension within the organization continued on Tuesday, as leaders of indigenous groups from the Amazon announced they disagreed with CONAIE's decision and they would continue the protests. This split within CONAIE impeded the beginning of a dialogue with the government, as Minister of Internal Security Miguel Carvajal said the internal discrepancies must be resolved and the protests must end before a meeting with the government could take place.

The three-day protest erupted into violence on Wednesday, with at least one indigenous protester killed and over 40 police and protesters injured near the town of Macas, in the Southern Ecuadorian Amazon. The Ecuadorian government claims the indigenous peoples fired at police with shotguns, while the protesters claim the police fired upon them.

CONAIE and other indigenous organizations have called for further mobilization of the bases to "radicalize the protest," saying that they "cannot stay here with our arms crossed." While President Correa has continued to call for dialogue, saying in a televised address, "we wait for them with open arms. But please, we never want to see this again, killing among Ecuadorians."

Conflicts such as this one, between the government and indigenous peoples, are common in the Andean region, as each party fights for control of the valuable natural resources found on indigenous territories. While a solution will not be found overnight, honest dialogue between the two groups is an important first step.

Yesterday, Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermúdez and Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Fander Falconí held their first official meeting since diplomatic ties between the two countries were cut in 2008 after a Colombian attack on a FARC camp in Ecuadorian territory. The meeting between the two counterparts took place in the New York offices of the Council of Americas and lasted four hours.

Colombia and Ecuador have not had ambassadors in each other's capitals since March 2008, after a Colombian Army raid a mile inside Ecuadorian territory killed a top leader of Colombia's FARC guerrilla group.

The meeting yesterday was the beginning of a long process of reopening diplomatic ties between Colombia and Ecuador. While both foreign ministers are in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, they will hold multiple meetings in order to "consolidate the process of dialogue."

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Falconí described the meeting as "frank, constructive, and open."

Colombian Foreign Minister Bermúdez told the press that "we have had the opportunity to have a long, calm, frank, and sincere meeting with the foreign minister of Ecuador ... and we have initiated a process to explore mechanisms that will allow us to achieve a normalization of relations."

Tuesday's meeting between the Colombian and Ecuadorian foreign ministers was intended to be a working meeting where both parties could put their demands on the table, develop mechanisms for future dialogue, and assess the diplomatic environment between the two delegations. In a press conference prior to the meeting, Colombian Foreign Minister Bermúdez said, "we have the will to advance in the way possible, but what we do not have is to generate false expectations. It is important that each country, that has its own considerations, puts them on the table and is able to advance. We will see."

This weekend 54 heads of state and other officials from African nations and 12 from South American nations will arrive in Margarita, Venezuela for the second South America–Africa Summit, headed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and co-chaired by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. The summit is meant to bolster to cooperation and economic ties between the two regions in a variety of areas, including education, energy, communication and the global economic crisis. Cultural festivities began this week in Caracas to prepare for the upcoming summit.

Venezuelan Deputy Foreign Minister for Africa, Reinaldo Bolivar, told IPS that Africa "has linked up as a region and has sought cooperation collectively, mostly with the European Union, but in recent years also with China, India, Russia, Iran and, of course, South America, where it is finding open doors because of the new progressive governments."

Bolivar also stressed that this is the first “South–South” summit in the world. Among others, participants will include Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The first summit was held in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, in 2006, and the resulting declaration called for reform at the United Nations, commitments to educate men and teenage boys about the rights of women and girls, commitments by South American nations to invest in Africa and assist in agricultural development and the alleviation of hunger.

During the last week of August, Ecuador signed a counternarcotics and organized crime agreement with the United States, renewing cooperation between the two countries after it was suspended last February. The new agreement includes the exchange of information between the two governments and training for special police units, which will be carried out by the government of Ecuador and in accordance with its laws, in addition to $7 million in U.S. aid to help combat narcotrafficking and organized crime. The agreement also places emphasis on the prevention of drug consumption.

The signing of this agreement came seven months after Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa kicked U.S. Embassy officials out of the country for "meddling" with counter-drug police units after four officials of the Ecuadorian National Police were accused of turning over classified computers and information to the United States. As a result, Correa immediately suspended any counternarcotics agreements Ecuador had with the United States.

The timing of the new agreements is also viewed as significant since it came only a few days before the UNASUR summit in Argentina, where President Correa criticized the pending U.S.-Colombia military base agreement. President Correa perhaps used the reestablishment of cooperation with the United States' counternarcotics strategy to demonstrate that his dislike of the new U.S.-Colombia military deal was not linked to any sort of support for narcotrafficking or guerrilla groups.

According to Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Fander Falconí, the previous agreements with the United States included "informal agreements" that should have been "transparent and on the table." The new agreement with the United States is an effort to "make the information transparent so the public knows what we are doing."

Below is a translation of an article, "A turn in the counternarcotics agreement with the United States," from Ecuador's El Comercio, which outlines the details of Ecuador's prior counternarcotics agreement with the United States in comparison to the newly signed agreement.

Ecuador and the United States reoriented the goal of its collaboration in the fight against drugs. Prior to August 25th, the goal was the guarantee the annual rate of detained and confiscated drugs in exchange for resources.

This policy became official in an agreement that was signed in 2003 during the government of Lucio Gutierrez and was an update of an agreement signed in 2002. In this document, Ecuador agreed to increase drug seizures by 10% each year; arms, ammunition, and illegal chemical seizures by 15%; and people detained for narcotrafficking and linked crimes by 12%.

The consequences were positive and negative. On the one hand, Ecuador is one of the countries with the best results in counternarcotics control. For example, from 2005 to September of this year 178.9 tons of drugs were confiscated.

However, Ecuadorian prisons were full of people accused of trafficking drugs. According to the Office of the Ombudsman, they made up 60% of people detained in the country. "The police were excessive and captured small dealers and consumers to justify the agreements," said Ernesto Pazmiño, the Ombudsman.

Since his arrival to power, Rafael Correa made announcements that would change the counternarcotics strategy of the United States. For example, he suspended all of the agreements last February, after denouncing CIA interference in the Intelligence and Anti-narcotics units of the police.

This decision brought Ecuadorian and U.S. representatives to the negotiating table. Ecuador went with the mission of not losing the aid, but to make all of the agreements transparent and to reorient them.

Last week, three agreements were signed and they are public: the Program of Anti-contraband Investigation Units, another program of Sensitive Investigations and, the most important, an amendment to the Cooperation Agreement to Control the Production of Illegal Drugs that was signed in 2003.

The new agreement places emphasis in the prevention of the consumption of drugs and in the control of money laundering. Martha Youth, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy, assured that money laundering was taken into account because it is a worldwide concern.

Also, they took into account other crimes such as the trafficking and smuggling of persons, which have increased in recent years in the country.

Youth said that the negotiation formed a part of the normal process, because whenever an amendment is carried out, each party proposes reforms and evaluation systems. Therefore in this agreement, although rates are not specifically discussed, the improvement of counterdrug control, money laundering, and trafficking and smuggling of persons is mentioned. This evaluation will occur annually and each party "will define the parameters and methodology used to carry out the projects."

Domingo Paredes, of the National Council on Drugs and Pyschotropic Substances (Consejo Nacional de Sustancias Psicotropicas y Estupefacientes), agrees with the changes. Before these agreements they were given "through frames, under the principle that it had to do with a sensitive subject for security... But this gives attention to the faults in the control of resources and objectives."

Now, adds Paredes, everyone can access the documents and review them. "Although you have to understand that there will be information, like the names of agents, that cannot be revealed in order to not give them away."

Within the new agreements, the United States agrees to offer economic assistance to the police units of the Police and the Armed Forces. Additionally, they will collaborate in the formation and training of personnel with instructors and resources. "This is very important, because the resources that are given to the Ecuadorian police are limited," says Joel Loaiza, the director of the National Police Counternarcotics division.

As the other party, Ecuador has to guarantee that the personnel who make up these units are vetted. In this plan they also agreed to create two new elite teams of the Police: the Anti-contraband and -trafficking unit; and the Sensitive Investigations Unit.

They must be made up of trained personnel. One requirement is a polygraph test that demonstrates the competence and trustworthiness of the candidate for secure management of information.

Also, there will be an analysis of drug consumption and a study and verification of its causes; it will also demand that all applications are voluntary and its candidates sign a legal declaration of their goods and financial situation.

The police will be in charge of identifying and qualifying the candidates that will be a part of the special investigation units. Loaiza believes that these definitions are a good indication for fighting narcotrafficking, since "it proves that both governments want to avoid that bad elements make up the ranks and involve themselves in corrupt acts."

Over the past week, a spotlight has turned onto an ongoing lawsuit against U.S. oil company Chevron-Texaco before a court in Ecuador. The Washington Post, NPR and 60 Minutes have all run stories on the case against Chevron (who bought Texaco in 2001 and inherited the lawsuit) and the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held a hearing last week on "Indigenous Communities, Environmental Degradation and International Human Rights Standards," where oil contamination in Ecuador, in addition to Nigeria and West Papua, was a major topic of discussion.

The lawsuit was originally filed by indigenous and campesino Ecuadorians in a New York District Court in 1993 but, according to NPR, "Chevron argued that the case be moved to Ecuador, saying that Ecuadorian courts were impartial and professional." In 2003, proceedings began in Ecuador, in the small Amazonian city of Lago Agrio, (the town was founded by Texaco in the 1970s when oil production began in the region, named after the town of Sour Lake, Texas, where Texaco got its start). Today, Chevron is arguing that Ecuador's judicial system is "corrupt and politicized," according to Silvia Garrigo, Chevron's manager of global issues and policy.

This change of posture seems to coincide with the impression that Chevron appears likely to lose the case in Ecuador. Especially after the court-appointed environmental expert, Richard Cabrera, sided with the plaintiffs in his report. Cabrera has assessed damages at up to $27.3 billion, "dwarfing the $3.9 billion awarded against ExxonMobil for the 1989 spill in Alaska," according to Juan Forero of the Washington Post.

Yet according to Chevron, "in the thousands of soil and water samples that we have taken in the Amazon, there has been no detection of any type of toxin that is not naturally occurring in the environment, and that is dangerous to human health or the environment." Silvia Garrigo continues to explain this to 60 Minutes' Scott Pelley by comparing the oil that remains in the water and the soil of Ecuador's Amazon to the makeup on her face, saying that "I have make up on, and there's naturally occurring oil on my face. Doesn't mean that I'm going to get sick from it."

While the final verdict on whether or not Chevron is guilty of spilling and dumping millions of gallons of oil and production wastes into the Ecuadorian Amazon is dependent on the decision of the Lago Agrio based judge, Juan Nuñez, the hearing last week made the point that regardless of who is culpable, a humanitarian and environmental emergency is taking place in the Ecuadorian Amazon and affecting the thousands of people who live there - causing cancer, skin rashes, and other health problems, as well as killing off native species and harming the traditional livelihoods of many indigenous communities whose ancestral lands have been overtaken by oil companies and the towns built up around the oil industry.

As pointed out during the first panel of the hearing last week, there are various human rights instruments, including the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, under which the rights of communities affected by oil pollution should be upheld. The witnesses noted that even the most basic rights, such as the right to shelter, the right to an adequate standard of living and the right to health, are being violated by oil contamination. However, how to address this violation of rights is a difficult question to answer.

Potential measures that could be taken, all brought up at the hearing, included more regulation and monitoring on the part of the transnational corporation's home state or country, ratification of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the U.S., and increased aid to affected communities, such as those in the Ecuadorian Amazon, to address its immediate and emergency humanitarian needs.

CIP staff traveled to Ecuador last November, where they witnessed much of the environmental degradation and health problems caused by the incredibly large amounts of oil contamination that remains in communities surrounding Lago Agrio, Ecuador. Regardless of who is at fault, a humanitarian emergency exists there and steps must be taken to help those in need. Photos from our trip can be found on Flickr here and here.

Download the report: (PDF, 1.1 MB)

Over the past nine years, an estimated 300,000 Colombian refugees have crossed their country's border with Ecuador, fleeing persecution, threats, disappearances, murders and deliberate displacement by the parties to Colombia's long conflict. In November 2008, staff from the Center for International Policy accompanied Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) on a four-day visit to Ecuador's northeastern borderlands. We found the humanitarian crisis to be more severe than anticipated, and the need for action - from the U.S. government as well as international humanitarian organizations - more urgent than is generally recognized.

The Center for International Policy's new report, "Ecuador's Humanitarian Emergency: The Spillover of Colombia's Conflict," documents the consequences of the spillover of Colombia's conflict into Ecuadorian territory and the extent of the humanitarian crisis in Ecuador's border provinces - Esmeraldas, Carchi and Sucumbíos. The Ecuadorian state's presence historically has been minimal in the border region, yet the influx of hundreds of thousands of Colombian refugees - 85 percent of whom remain close to the border - has drastically worsened living conditions and stressed social services. And the fact that Colombian refugees live among the Ecuadorian population and not in refugee camps makes it difficult for humanitarian agencies, such as UNHCR, to extend their services to the entire population in need - not to mention the 250,000 Colombian refugees who remain "invisible" and therefore out of the scope of UNHCR's assistance.

After spending time in Ecuador, Rep. McGovern told his colleagues on the floor of the House of Representatives that "Colombia's war is literally bleeding - violently - in Ecuador." The CIP report offers six short- and medium-term recommendations for addressing Ecuador's humanitarian crisis and ensuring the well-being of both the Colombian refugees in need of protection and the Ecuadorian citizens living near the border. These recommendations include:

1) The international community, including humanitarian NGOs, UN agencies and foreign governments, including the United States, must provide immediate emergency humanitarian assistance to the refugee population in Ecuador.

2) Colombia must address the needs of communities being displaced by violence within its territory, through "integral reparations" for the conflict's victims as well as through full compliance with the guidelines set out in Colombia's Constitutional Court decision T-025.

3) Social and development assistance must be provided to entire communities that receive refugees in order to cover the urgent need, among refugees and residents alike, for basic infrastructure, health, education, and a state presence in general.

4) The United States should increase its commitment to Plan Ecuador and similar Ecuadorian governmental efforts through Economic Support Funds and Development Assistance.

5) U.S. contributions for Fiscal Year 2010 through the Migration and Refugee Assistance (MRA) program of the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM), and through the contribution to UNHCR for the Western Hemisphere, should at least double over 2009 levels.

6) Assistance to protect populations from armed groups and crime, strictly conditioned on human rights performance, should be provided to the border region.