Press Releases

• On 11 June 2008, in a press release titled Chávez’s Blockbuster Proposal: Finally the right message for peace, COHA praised Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s statements calling for an end to Colombia’s civil conflict. In the release, COHA urged that thought be given to the major role that Chávez, a leader with significant resources at his disposal, could play in such a scenario. Today, 12 June 2008, COHA appeals to Chávez and all his regional colleagues to take this call for peace one step further, arguing that the situation is ripe for a negotiated settlement and that Chavez’s strong words should be translated into an ambitious peace plan.

Colombia could be facing a historic moment. Under Conservative President Uribe’s wavering guidance, the country is approaching a negative stalemate, the very same scenario which El Salvador fell into just before it experienced the successful negotiation that ended its bitter civil conflict. That struggle accounted for the loss of close to 100,000 lives, including brutal massacres and human rights violations by that country’s armed forces. The United Nations Mission to El Salvador (ONUSAL) was successful at the time not because of the inherent qualities of its peace plan but because of the precise historical moment in which it was launched. The fall of the Soviet Union meant the end of the financial and ideological support upon which the country’s leftist guerrilla group, the FMLN, depended so heavily. It also signified a shift in US foreign policy towards El Salvador. At the height of the conflict, El Salvador was yet another stage on which one of the Cold War dramas was being played out. But with the beginning of the peace talks, it suddenly became an uninteresting skirmish on the periphery of US consciousness. Following a string of very public human rights abuses, including the murder of a number of priests at San Salvador’s Jesuit university in 1989, the US congress voted to cut military aid to El Salvador by half. This left both the FMLN and the Salvadoran Army unable to mount serious military offensives. At that point, the war was, for all intents and purposes, at a stand still.

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This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associate Jessica Bryant

Time for Clarification: Puerto Ricans Need to End their Indecision

On June 9, 2008, the UN Special Committee on Decolonization considered yet again the status of the world’s oldest remaining colony, Puerto Rico. The Committee called on the United States to accelerate the process of self-determination for the island, an action that many Puerto Ricans regard as a crucially important step towards fulfilling their fifty-six year-old quest to achieve a majority opinion on the permanent status of the island. However, this is not the first time the UN has issued the same appeal. For the last eight years, the UN Committee has called upon the United States to grant autonomy to Puerto Rico, but has yet to witness any changes. In response to the most recent resolution, Washington has reminded the international community that Puerto Rico democratically decided to enter into a free association with the United States in 1952. Accordingly, the persisting inconclusive political status of Puerto Rico is a domestic matter that has no place on the UN agenda. The United States has repeatedly stated that only the Puerto Rican people can decide the structure of their future political arrangement. If the United States is willing to resolve Puerto Rico’s status, why are Puerto Rican representatives annually attending a UN Committee that has repeatedly failed to produce results for them?

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This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associate Michelle Quiles