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George W. Bush Convicted of War Crimes

The trial was based on the principles set out in the Nuremburg Charter, to which the US is subject. The commission has sent all documents and transcripts to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as well as the United Nations and the Security Council.

By Reno Berkeley
Former President George W. Bush is now an international war criminal. Just last week he and several members of his administration were convicted of war crimes -- the first conviction of its kind ever. Bush, former V.P. Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes, Jay Bybee and John Yoo were all convicted in abenstia by a Malaysian tribunal in Kuala Lumpur. Granted, this isn't a powerful country who held this trial, and the conviction won't do much, and it's mostly symbolic... but it will send a clear message to the United States that it is not above international law. The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission convicted the eight men after a five-day hearing where witnesses testified regarding torture techniques used on prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay.

Unifying Honduras' Far-Left Parties

This alliance of the far-left in Honduras is entirely possible, primarily because Mr. Zelaya remains a sentimental favorite of all three of the far-left parties. Mel could be the great unifier of this narrow political body. All three parties could easily back Mrs. Zelaya's candidacy. The challenge will be to overcome the jealousies and bruised egos that have developed between the organizational leaderships of the parties...

By Marco Cáceres
With the recent (May 8) approval by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) of the registration as by the Broad Political Electoral Resistance Front (FAPER) to form a political party, Honduras now officially has nine political parties that will participate in next year's national elections. There is the ruling Nationalist Party, whose likely candidate will be the current president of the National Congress, Juan Orlando Hernández, followed by the Liberal Party, which will probably decide on attorney Mauricio Villeda as their candidate. These are the country's two traditional leading parties. In the presidential election of November 2009, the Nationalists, led by the current President, Porfirio Lobo, won just over 56 percent of the popular vote, while the Liberals under Elvin Santos took slightly more than 38 percent.

The Misunderstood Past and Future of Policing in the Americas

Many Latin American law enforcement organizations find it virtually impossible to secure the willing cooperation of the public (in some cases because people fear that the police and the criminals are one in the same).

By Jerry Brewer
In the history of traditional policing, it is hard to fathom that the need to evolve into paramilitary strategies and war-like engagement would become necessary. Regardless of public opinion and other pundit conjecture on policing methodology, the rule of law must prevail within a homeland to safeguard human life and property, and provide a harmonious quality of life. Latin American nations, especially Mexico, had a sobering wakeup call and faced the truth that their historic policing infrastructures were no match for domestic and transnational criminals and drug insurgents, who murder with impunity while brandishing weapons that inflict mass casualties. Mexican police have faced grenades, grenade launchers, military-type AK-47 and AR-15 rifles, body armor, and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition.

US Military Aid to Honduras: Unattractive and Unavoidable

The policy options are not good. The reality is that in today’s Honduras a government of any ideological stripe would turn to the military to counter the rampant drug trade and criminal violence.

By Michael Shifter
The spreading drug-fueled violence in Honduras -- arguably the most troubled country in the Western Hemisphere -- should be addressed through effective civilian law enforcement institutions, not military forces. Strengthening such institutions should be the principal focus of United States policy and cooperation with Honduras and other nations beset by criminal violence. The problem, however, is that building professional police forces is a difficult, long-term task, and countries like Honduras, with the world’s highest level of homicides, can hardly afford to wait. There is, understandably, enormous public pressure to call on the military to help contain the violence.

Mexico’s False Dilemma

The idea that security and human rights are a trade-off is pernicious to a rights-based society. There can be no security without human rights. The Mexican government’s retort that criminals are the major violators of human rights minimizes government responsibility for ensuring a society that respects human rights and for preventing and punishing violations by state actors.

By Laura Carlsen
Mexico is currently confronting a human rights crisis. Headlines document the overt violence that has claimed more than 50,000 lives since December 11, 2006 when President Felipe Calderón launched the war on drugs. Yet beneath the bloodshed, the erosion of the rule of law and the systematic violation of human rights in the context of the armed conflict caused by the drug war has created a more profound crisis in Mexican society, one whose causes and effects are not only ill-defined but often purposely obscured.

The Corruptive Failure of Chávez's Revolution

"From approximately 2006 through August 2010, Walid Makled-Garcia operated and controlled several airstrips located in Venezuela." The airstrips "were used by different drug trafficking organizations in order to fly multi-thousand kilogram quantities of cocaine out of Venezuela, to locations in Central America."

By Jerry Brewer
Thirteen years ago Hugo Chávez was sworn in as President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. And then, with his "Bolivarian Revolution" ideology, Chávez set out to build a mass movement to implement "popular democracy, economic independence, equitable distribution of revenues, and an end to political corruption." President Chávez's Bolivarianism, a slanted and sinister interpretation of Simon Bolivar's rule and doctrine, was an extreme and forced socialist perspective that has imposed horrific sacrifices on the Venezuelan people and their once cherished homeland. It is not a democracy; there is virtually no economic independence and equitable distribution of revenue; and political corruption has been a rampant unwelcomed commodity. His "Bolivarian Revolution" is clearly a leftist political and social movement that is reminiscent of the failed and shameful 50 year Cuban revolution of Fidel Castro.

The Ghost of Osama bin Laden

(The imagined conversation between the Ghost of Osama bin Laden and President Barack Obama)

By Ralph Nader
The Ghost of Osama bin Laden swirled into the Oval Office where Barack Obama was spending the evening going over a pile of requested sign-offs for drone missions. Osama’s Ghost: “Mind if we have a conversation one year after you dispatched my body to the ocean sharks?” With curiosity reigning supreme, President Obama replied, “Ok, so long as you remain hovering and do not alight to defile this solemn room.” Osama’s Ghost: “Thank you. After your SEALs bravely shot, rather than captured, me while I was defenseless in my bedroom, you told your nation that ‘for the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country.’” “Correct, the form of your presence now attests to that fact,” the President curtly declared.

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The Future of Mexico’s Drug Strategy

Editor's Note: The Mexican government's war against the drug cartels in Mexico serves as an example of what could happen in Honduras if Honduran governments fully adopt similar strategies. As the Lobo administration (and its successor) continues to struggle with how best to address narcotrafficking in Honduras, it would do well to closely evaluate the outcome ofPresident Calderón drug war in Mexico and study the alternatives being proposed by that country's presidential candidates.

By Manuel Corrales
Distracted by the admittedly discussion-worthy Cuba issue at the Sixth Summit of the Americas last month in Cartagena, Colombia, the nations of the Western Hemisphere paid little mind to the prospect of reforming hemispheric drug policy. Latin American nations displayed unalloyed unity, indicating a deeply felt disdain for Washington’s normal agenda in the region. Several Latin American countries have demonstrated a desire to approach drug policy in a sharply different manner from the heavy-handed direction traditionally favored by US policymakers. This prevailing tilt toward decriminalization became apparent as several Latin American countries proposed alternatives to the current strategy being used in the drug war. Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico have all proposed alternatives, each having recognized that militarized efforts against drug trafficking have proven ineffective.

Nation Building Comes to Honduras

Shanker explains that the US military is implementing many of the lessons learned from counterinsurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. Just as our presence in those countries was supposed to bring stability -- along with democracy, economic development, human rights, and the rule of law -- so it goes in Honduras...

By Christopher Preble
Sunday’s New York Times featured a front-page article by Thom Shanker on the United States military’s presence in Central America. In Honduras, American Special Forces operate out of three outposts—modeled on forward bases in Afghanistan and Iraq -- providing support to Honduran Special forces. Six-hundred US troops operate across Central America and try to maintain a “discrete footprint” and do not, it seems, engage in many offensive operations. Nonetheless, the ease with which US military personnel can be deployed practically anywhere is disturbing (though not surprising, given our recent experience). That some simply presume a need for having the US military deploy to the jungles of Honduras is equally troubling.

Media Freedom, Scarcity and Abundance

The world of media abundance does not make the press freedom debate go away. The threat of violence against journalists and bloggers continues to exist. As Evgeny Morozov writes in "The Net Delusion," repressive governments are becoming smarter about how to control and influence the information environment online, going as far as to track dissidents and hack their communications.

By James Bosworth
As yesterday was World Press Freedom Day, I want to highlight three threats to media freedom in this hemisphere, two we often talk about and one that is often neglected. The first threat is violence that is used against journalists. Transnational organized crime, and to a lesser extent governments and economic elites, have killed, kidnapped, assaulted and threatened journalists in this hemisphere in order to silence them. Honduras and Mexico stand out in this regard. Additionally, in the past year, the increase in violence against journalists in Brazil has been particularly troubling. A culture of strong investigative journalism is essential to the goal of citizen security in this hemisphere. All governments must do more to protect journalists from violence and prosecute crimes against journalists when they occur.