Supreme Court of Chile (Photo: Wikimedia)

Otilio escaped to the neighbouring country two years ago to avoid trial for his alleged involvement in over 100 cases of crimes against humanity, during Argentina’s last dictatorship.

After careful consideration of a report by Supreme Court Prosecutor Monica Maldonado, which indicated there were substantial grounds to assume Otilio Romano’s complicity during Argentina’s military regime, Judge Sergio Muñoz Gajardo ordered his transfer back to his hometown of Mendoza, situated in the western central part of the country.

Otilio’s lawyer, Claudio Feller, confirmed that the decision will be appealed one more time in the Chilean Court’s Criminal Division, which can take up to a few months, but it is largely believed that such an appeal will be rejected.

The report analysed accusations for the deprivation of freedom of 60 people, the torture of 36 more, and four illegal counts of breaking and entering.

Otilio Romano escaped to Chile on the 24th of March 2011, one day before being dismissed from his duties as a Judge in the city of Mendoza. The Chilean government refused him political asylum even though Romano declared himself a “political fugitive” and has been living under house arrest in Reñaca since September 2011.

Romano was interrogated extensively by minister of the Chilean Supreme Court of Justice Adalis Oyarzun who initiated the process of his extradition before Judge Muñoz took over.

Romano is not the only judge from Mendoza that will be taken to court for human rights abuses during the military dictatorship in Argentina. also on the list are Luis Miret, Guillermo Max Petra Recabarren, Rolando Evaristo Carrizo and Gabriel Guzzo, facing charges of denying justice to numerous victims of the dictatorship.

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who today signed the campaign election reform (from Wikipedia)

The government today published revised election campaign regulations in the Boletín Oficial, which control the distribution and allocation of parties’ television and radio campaigns.

Television channels and radio stations will now have to follow regulations in the allocation of political campaigns according to specific time slots and percentage of programming limits. The decree states: “The adverts will be broadcasted between 7am and 1am the following day” during campaign periods.

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Cabinet Advisor Juan Manuel Abal Medina, and Minister of the Interior and Transport Florencio Randazzo signed decree 760/2013 today.

Campaign ads will now be issued in four time slots with a specific percentage of airtime for each slot. For television services, 30% of total programming will be comprised of political campaigns between the hours of 7-11am and 4-8pm, whilst 20% will be allocated from 11am-4pm and from 8pm-1am. For radio broadcasting, 20% of airtime will be campaigns from 7-11am and from 11am-4pm, whilst the allocation will increase to 30% during the hours of 4-8pm and 8pm-1am.

Article five of the decree states that television and radio stations “must give 10% of every 12 hours of programming to campaign messages, free of charge, during campaign periods”. For stations with programming of less than 12 hours, “the allocation will be reduced so as not to exceed 10% of the effective emission time”.

These are the regulations which will govern the election campaigns for the upcoming 11th August primary elections, and the 27th October legislative elections, which will see half of the members of the Chamber of Deputies renewed for the 2013-2017 period, and a third of Senate members renewed for the 2013-2019 period.

Today the truck driver’s union declared itself in a “state of high alert and mobilisation”.

Hugo Moyano talk with the press. (Photo: Santiago Trusso)

The union is threatening action if its demands for a 34% salary increase are not met this Wednesday. It has warned that if a favourable outcome is not reached, they will begin a series of “surprise” 48-hour strikes – national transport also risks being affected.

Other ramifications if negotiations fail include marching on the Plaza de Mayo with other unions as a show of protest.

The union’s head, Pablo Moyano, had this to say: “we have been offered a 20% increase in three quotas, a ridiculous figure given that activity has not dropped, and the roads are choked with traffic: we are in a strong position to ask for a fair salary.”

Moyano does not hold high hopes for negotiations. By his estimates the truck companies will offer “more of the same ridiculousness” this coming Wednesday. He also accused the government of keeping the trucking companies on a “tight leash,” limiting their ability to negotiate future wage increases for the sector.

He was adamant however that the union would remain firm, and that they were not about to give in to lower offers. It would be the companies, and not the union that ceded ground. Other unions have thus far settled for a 24% rise.

The last two meetings were, in Moyano’s words, total “failures”.

Over the course of the last few weeks, seven people in the province of Buenos Aires have died after contracting Swine Flu.

Swine flu prevention poster (Photo courtesy of Freela Comunicação)

The fatalities occurred in Tornquist, San Martín, Hurlingham, and Mar del Plata.

A further 40 cases of the disease have been reported – although authorities of the provincial Health Ministry have ruled out the possibility of an outbreak similar to the one in 2009.

Luis Crovetto, head of primary health care for the province, explained: “We have had four cases in the whole of the province. That’s five or six more that in the same period last year. This is not an outbreak.”

He went on to remind people that, “the most important thing is that people get vaccinated” which, according to him, is “the best way” to avoid any serious consequences.

Another death was also been recorded last week in the province Cordoba – although the deaths have so far been largely confined to the province of Buenos Aires.

According to the Ministry of Health, the victim was not vaccinated and was at high risk for complications – thus underscoring the importance of vaccinations for those that are considered to be high risk.

Latin America is one of the most dangerous regions in the world, and according to some international reports, in fact tops the list. Just a few weeks ago, Gallup, a US-based research company, released a worldwide survey on safety perception that showed that Venezuelans are the people least likely to feel safe.

Eleven countries in the ‘top 30′ of Gallup’s ranking – which includes 134 countries – are Latin American, a worrying number that shows the notorious reputation this region has.

Venezuela’s crime problems are among the worst in Latin America, as could be seen in the last presidential election, when both candidates made this issue a key focus of the campaign. Though the Venezuelan government no longer releases official crime statistics, it is well known that the country continues to struggle with high rates of murder, kidnapping, and drug trafficking. In 2012, 40% of Venezuelans told Gallup there were illicit drug trafficking or sales in their area, and 10% said they had had a relative or close friend murdered in the past 12 months. Low ratings on Gallup’s physical security question are nothing new in Venezuela. Indeed, since 2008, less than one third of Venezuelans have said they feel safe walking in their neighbourhood alone at night.

Whilst Venezuela is a conspicuos example of a country with alarmingly high crime rates, it is not alone in Latin America. Hard data shows that high homicide rates are a constant in the region, especially in countries with serious and on-going drug trafficking and gang problems such as Mexico and Honduras.

San Pedro Sula, Honduras; the most dangerous city in the world (photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

The Most Dangerous Cities in the World

‘Seguridad, Justicia y Paz’ (Security, Justice and Peace), also referred to as the Citizens’ Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice, is a civil society organisation from Mexico that emerged in July 2002. Its members describe it as “a non-partisan network, secular and independent.” At the end of 2012, they published a study which ranked the 50 most dangerous cities in the world, based on homicide rates.

While homicides are far from being the only crime there is, they are widely used to measure crime rates because, unlike other types of offenses such as theft or rape, are generally reported to the authoritites. Homicide rate is considered an imperfect index for measuring insecurity and violence.

The report shows that three out of the ten most violent cities in the world are Mexican, while 47 of the 50 most violent cities are located in the Americas, with 40 being in Latin America. The first city on the list that is not in the continent is Cape Town in South Africa, ranked 27th.

Not much has changed on the top of the ranking since the previous year. With a rate of 169 intentional homicides per 100,000 inhabitants (ten more than in 2011), the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula was declared the most violent city in the world for a second year in a row. The city of Acapulco, Mexico, came in second with a rate of 143 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, with a rate of 119.

The report states that “a worsening of public safety and an increase in violence” has occurred in the last few years in countries like Honduras, Venezuela, and Mexico.

Indeed, despite a Mexican city (Ciudad Juárez, in the state of Chihuahua) having been displaced from the top position by San Pedro Sula, the country still has three cities in the top ten, and the violence unleashed in the last few years as consequence of the ‘war on drugs’ is notorious.

Honduran factory worker murdered in San Pedro Sula in 2010 (photo by Globovisión)

The behaviour of various government authorities in Mexico does not inspire confidence in official figures, since there are large amounts of conflicting data. For example, back in 2010 the governor of Chihuahua stated that there were around 4,000 homicides in his state, while the Attorney General offered two other numbers: 5,836 and 7,209. The final figure published by the National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics (INEGI) in December 2011 was 6,421 intentional homicides. With such conflicting information, it is difficult to know for sure what is the real number.

The UN officially published that there were 20,585 homicides in the entire country of Mexico for 2010. In November 2011, INEGI’s researchers noted that this number was inaccurate and should be in fact 38% higher. In their opinion, the mistake was induced by Mexican authorities, who were trying to make the country appear safer than it is.

A similar accusation was levelled at Honduran authorities by Seguridad, Justicia y Paz, who stated in their report the difficulties they found to obtain official information. “We would not be surprised if this lack of information by official sources had the purpose to try and hide the reality of the large cities in the country which is, today, the most violent in the world,” they said.

There is general consensus among sociologists and criminologists regarding the causes of crime in our region. Peruvian political analyst Carlos Basombrío explains: “These factors include rapid, large-scale urbanisation that is incapable of sustaining basic services; extreme inequalities between rich and poor; a culture of violence carved from many years of internal wars; poverty, exclusion, and lack of opportunity for young people; police abuse, corruption, and inefficacy; and the unimpeded availability of guns, drugs, and alcohol, including an overwhelming presence in many cities of small-scale drug trafficking.”

Killing the Watchdogs

Not even the individuals who spread the word to the world are safe. ‘Watchdogs’, who investigate and report from the most dangerous zones of our planet, are willing to risk their own lives just ‘to get the story’. This seems to be especially true in Latin America: according to a recent report by UNESCO, Honduras has the world’s highest number of journalists assassinated per capita.

Since the 2009 coup, Honduras has been one of the Western hemisphere’s most dangerous countries for journalists, with 26 journalists killed in the last four years, according to US-based Freedom House. Their report, published earlier this year, states that: “Harassment against broadcasting outlets has included assaults, threats, blocked transmissions, and power outages.”

Freedom House considers Honduras “to have a culture of impunity, where people who attack journalists are not actively brought to justice.” Many Honduran journalists fear the violence that has been (and is still being) carried out is approved by the government, the 2012 Freedom of the Press report on Honduras stated.

Mexico is not far behind on the ranking. According to a report by the Mexican Centre of Social Communication from 2010, it is the third most dangerous country to exercise the profession.

Is Argentina Becoming Less Dangerous?

Despite the region’s overall danger, it is somewhat of a relief to know that Argentina is getting safer. At least according to official criminal rates.

The Buenos Aires Province’s Ministry of Security stated that overall reported crime in the Province has dropped 5.67%. In the first quarter of 2010, there were 171,342 reported crimes, and in the first quarter of 2011, there were 161,620. The types of crimes included are generally violent ones, such as murder, rape, kidnapping, and theft.

Supreme Court judge Eugenio Zaffaroni (photo by departamentjusticia on Flickr)

“Argentina has gone through some serious situations of social and institutional violence, but currently does not have an alarming crime record, comparing it to the region,” says Supreme Court judge Eugenio Zaffaroni.

According to the latest available data, from 2009, Argentina recorded a murder rate of 5.5 per 100,000 inhabitants – considerably less than the average continental rate of 15.6, as published in the ‘Global Study on Homicide 2011′, prepared by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The same report states that the homicide rate in the Americas “more than doubles the world average (6.9), while with the rate of 17.4 per 100,000 inhabitants, Africa is the continent with the highest rate.”

Nilda Garré, then minister of security, spoke about criminality in Argentina confidently: “According to the UN data, Argentina is well bellow other Latin American countries with regards to homicides.”

For a complete understanding of the UN’s research, it is important to point out that the 2009 study did not include murders in Buenos Aires Province. In 2008, 45% of all the country’s homicides happened in this province, so the results could lose some of its representation.

Even so, Buenos Aires did not make it to the top 50 most dangerous cities. In fact, the homicide rate for the Argentine capital, according to a study by the Supreme Court’s Research Institute, is well below the last city on the list – Barranquilla, Colombia. While in Buenos Aires the rate is 6.57 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, in Barranquilla it is 29.41.

“If we compare the security situation of Argentina in 2009 with Venezuela, Brazil, and Mexico, the murder rate is much lower. However, when we compare it with other countries in the region, the differences are not so clear. Peru, Chile, and Uruguay do not have very different rates from those observed in Argentina,” explains Lucía Freira, analyst at the Crimes Research Laboratory of the Torcuato Di Tella University.

Despite the hard data, Argentina was still listed between the countries where residents are the least likely to feel safe walking alone at night. It hit 16th place, with Venezuelans and South Africans taking the top spots.

Two thirds of the world’s adult population (67%) feels safe walking alone at night in the area where they live. A figure that rose sharply since the global financial crisis began in 2008. “That is good news for global recovery, because public perceptions of physical security and social order are prerequisites for healthy economic activity. Widespread fears of bodily harm discourage people from venturing out to buy and sell in marketplace, for example, or taking jobs that require them to stay out after dark,” stated Steve Crabtree of Gallup.

Dealing with Criminality in Latin America

Crime and street violence, while prevalent in most parts of the world, are still considered an extreme and intractable problem in Latin America. And there is no visible sign of criminal rates lowering.

Political analyst Carlos Basombrío.

Numerous human rights violations occur as a consequence of efforts to combat crime, including police brutality, restrictive laws that curtail civil liberties, and the militarisation of the public order. Basombrío states: “Because the police in Latin America suffers from lack of training, scarce resources, and, in some instances, complicity with criminals, they frequently abuse and sometimes kill suspects. They almost always enjoy impunity from these acts because many segments of the public welcome such behaviour as means of promoting a safer environment.”

One of the most striking things about security issues in Latin America is the level of interconnectivity that can be found at every level.

“There is no doubt that keeping pace with the sophisticated and transnational nature of criminal organisations will require a sophisticated and transnational strategy – more time consuming, and complex for all actors involved in combating them,” said Maninder Gill, sector manager of the Social Development Department of the Latin America and Caribbean Region with the World Bank.

Addressing the problem of crime, as it affects people’s everyday life, is an enormous challenge for human rights advocates across Latin America, and even more so to defend their right to a secure environment. As Basombrío argues: “The issue of crime presents human rights advocates with challenges that must be resolved, if we are to build legitimacy for human rights principles.”

And that process – if it is ever fully completed – will be extremely long. For those living in or visiting the continent, the best advice is to exercise a greater degree of caution. For when it comes to avoiding crime, you can never be too careful.

How safe do porteños feel in the streets of their city? Click here to find out.

Lead image by Rodrigo Gómez Sanz on Flickr.

Marijuana (Photo courtesy of Flores y Plantas on Flickr)

Earlier today border police found 14kg of marihuana hidden inside the body cavity of a slaughtered pig.

The suitcase carrying the illicit substance was pulled from the hold of a long distance bus in the Northern province of Misiones.

The police operation took place in the bus station of the city of Posadas, approximately 1000km North West of Buenos Aires and 33km South of the so-called “Triple Border” between Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil.

The small blue suitcase aroused suspicion when police noted it was unusually heavy. Upon closer inspection, they found the carcass of a dead pig. The stomach had been badly sewn up through the middle, where it emerged the drugs had been stashed.

In total, ten rectangular packets of marihuana were removed from the pigs stomach, whilst a further 8 packets were found wrapped in a blanket in another part of the suitcase.

A press release issued by border patrol revealed that the owner of the suitcase was a Paraguayan male.

Latin America is no stranger to odd drug related hijinks – in February Mexican officials a marihuana firing canon which was being used to fire packets of marijuana over the border into California.

National Congress (Photo: Pedro-Ignacio-Guridi)

The idea behind the bill is to create a new National Sexual Health and Responsible Procreation program. If passed into law, social security, health insurance providers and hospitals will cover the costs of fertility treatment for couples that can’t conceive.

This is the second time the bill has been passed back to the chamber, following modifications from the Senate. The amended text has the approval of the majority of political blocks that participated in the plenary sessions of health, family and women, general legislation, and budget finance.

One of the Senate’s alterations allows for the possibility that the Ministry of Health might have the power to train medical professionals, and to set aside a national budget for promoting the new legislation.

The project includes: access to medical aid for conception (for both heterosexual and homosexual coupes alike), and to medical procedures of varying complexity, including the donation of gametes and embryos.

Future procedures and scientific technologies that secure the backing of the Ministry of Health will also be eligible for inclusion.

Subject to approval, the Ministry of Health would then publish a list of both private and public referral centres that offer the treatment.

It is unclear how insurance providers will react, given that if the law is sanctioned, their costs will substantially increase.

Chevron Oil Refinery (Courtesy of Robert Stupka on Flickr)

The Supreme Court has overturned an embargo on $19bn of Chevron Argentina’s assets, clearing the way for new investment into the country’s shale oil and gas.

The embargo, declared seven months ago, formed part of an environmental lawsuit brought against Chevron in Ecuador in 1993. The class action, carried out on behalf of 30,000 Amazonian residents, came about as a result of environmental damages incurred during the exploration of hydrocarbons by Texaco between 1964 and 1990. Texaco was later acquired by Chevron in 2001.

Last year a court ruled, on the basis of Inter-American Convention of Compliance with Embargoes, that the sentence was also applicable to Chevron subsidiaries, thus drawing Chevron Argentina into the drama.

Yesterday’s ruling in favour of Chevron Argentina, and broadcast by the Attorney General Alejandra Gils Carbó, declared the original sentence “void”. It also stated that the embargo had deprived Chevron Argentina of, amongst other things, its right to defence.

The Argentine lawyer for the Ecuadorean plaintiffs, Enrique Bruchou, responded that the ruling goes against the Inter American Convention cited earlier, which it claims Argentina is legally obliged to follow.

Chevron and YPF recently signed an agreement to explore and develop shale oil in the Vaca Muerta oil field. Now that the embargo against Chevron has been overturned, the joint venture will be able to advance. Chevron is expected to invest around $1.5bn total, with the final document to be drawn up in July this year.

The Vaca Muerta oil field, measuring 30,000km2 is considered to be one of the world’s largest reserves of unconventional gas and oil.

Earlier today president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner opened a new Profertil plant, part owned by YPF and the Canadian company Agrium, in the central province of Santa Fe. Construction has taken 18 months, involved over 300 people, and cost $273m.

The facility comes as part of a government led drive to boost the agricultural sector.

Silo by Nicolás Lope de Barrios

The plant itself is located in the heart of the nation’s agricultural production – the area accounts for 70% of the total amount of fertilizer used in the country. Its strategic location will allow it to better serve the region’s farmers.

Profertil’s general manager, Daniel Pettarin, said: “The use of fertilizers is a key factor in increasing the country’s production of grains and in developing said production in a sustainable manner.”

The new plant, which covers 24 hectares, will be used as a storage and delivery hub for fertilizers serving the region of Puerto General San Martín and beyond.

It will have a capacity of 200,00 tons of fertilizer, in two silos. There is also provision for expansion so as to accommodate a further 100,000 tons of solid fertilizer.

The plant’s presence will also optimise existing transport links – serving the interior of the country. Approximately 25,000 trucks will visit, load, and depart the plant per year.

Furthermore, its 282 metres of prime coastal land facing the Río Paraná and pier can accommodate boats with loads of up to 47,000 tons.

The president officially opened the facility via a live teleconference from the Casa Rosada, with an important group of national, provincial and municipal authorities also in attendance.

El Tren de la Costa, February 2011 (Photo: Andre M)

Minister of the Interior and Transport, Florencio Randazzo, is set to announce changes in the railway sector – most importantly the nationalisation of passenger and cargo trains.

The Brazilian company América Latina Logística (A.L.L) will see its concession revoked and the historic Tren de la Costa will return to state hands. A.L.L had already received a warning from the Auditor General’s Office for anomalies in its provision of services.

From 1990 up to 2012, the company amassed a debt of over $237m to the government, 866% in excess of its contract compliance. Payments over the last six months have stalled, allowing the government to rescind its concession.

Tren de la Costa, built at the end of the 20th century, served as a vital link between the neighbourhood of Belgrano and the port of Tigre. Following various changes in ownership, it converted to electric power in 1931.

It covers 15.5km and runs alongside the scenic Río de la Plata serving four provincial municipalities. It has a total of 11 stations with a standard fare of just $16m or $10 for those with a DNI.

A.L.L meanwhile operates two of the most important freight railway networks in all of the country: A.L.L Central (line San Martín) and A.L.L Mesopotámica (line Urquiza). A.L.L Central runs through the centre of Argentina, beginning in the province of Cuyo and passes through San Luis, Córdoba, Rosario, Santa Fe, and finally Buenos Aires. A.L.L Mesopotámica in turn runs through the provinces of Misiones, Corrientes, and Entre Ríos, linking them to Paraguay, Uruguay, and its own network in Brazil.

A.L.L is the largest operator of rail logistics in Latin America. A.L.L Argentina is the biggest rail operator in the country, spanning 8000km. It is also the second largest in terms of cargo volume, transporting more than 5m tonnes each year.

Randazzo was recently quoted saying, “in terms of policy and management decisions, the State is more competitive than the private sector”.