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Thursday, May 24, 2012

compilation of published articles and commentary concerning defense and defense-related national security issues pertinent to the AOR, items related to the challenges associated with strategic communications/military public affairs, other missions, or general military affairs. This publication aims to supplement other USG compilations in assisting USSOUTHCOM and associated personnel to assess how the public, the Congress and the press see military and defense programs and other issues affecting our operations. It is an internal management tool intended to serve the informational needs of senior SOUTHCOM officials in maintaining situational awareness of public and media discussion of those issues and topics. The inclusion of these articles does not reflect official endorsement or verification of any opinions, ideas or alleged facts contained therein. Further reproduction or redistribution for private use or gain is subject to original copyright restrictions. Story numbers indicate order of appearance only.

USSOUTHCOM, Components & Associates


DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) Features
1. New York Times Thursday, May 24, 2012; A1

Drug Trafficking And Raids Stir Danger On The Mosquito Coast


The orange glow of a burning house brightened the morning sky. Then another Four homes were set ablaze in thistown just hours after the Honduran and American authorities swooped down in helicopters It soon became clear: the burned homes were not part of the raid itself, but retaliatory attacks by residents against their neighbors who were working with drug traffickers.

JTF-Guantanamo
2. The Miami Herald May 24, 2012

9/11 Accused Want Obama, Bush Testimony At Guantanamo


At issue in the motion unsealed Wednesday evening at the Pentagon is whetherKSM and his alleged co-conspirators can get a fair capital murder terror trial from a military jury Attorneys for the accused argue they cannot, citing widespread pretrial publicity that has included unending prejudicial statements from the highest public officials in the U.S. government.

3. Politico.com

May 23, 2012

Judge Demands Guantanamo Videos


A federal judge has ordered the Defense Department to turn over to the court three video recordings showing Guantanamo prisoners being forced out of their cells. U.S. District Court Judge John Bates's unusual order came Wednesday in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by families of Kuwaiti prisoners being held at at Guantanamo Bay.

Unitas (Pacific)
4. The (Jacksonville) FloridaTimes-Union/Mayport Mirror May 23, 2012 - 02:00pm

Underwood Prepares For Advanced Phase Of UNITAS


Commanding officers of the Chilean, Colombian, Mexican, Peruvian and U.S. Navy ships participating in UNITAS Pacific (PAC) gathered aboard Peruvian frigate Mariategui (FM 54) for a mid-exercise brief, May 19.The agenda included debriefs of the work-up phase of UNITAS PAC and an exchange of plans for the upcoming exercise scenario phase (ESP).

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Andean Ridge
Intra-Regional
5. The Los Angeles Times May 23, 2012, 3:55 pm

Energy deals boost Colombia-Venezuela ties despite border violence


BOGOTA, Colombia, and CARACAS, Venezuela -- Notwithstanding a border attack this week by leftist rebels hiding in Venezuela that left 12 Colombian soldiers dead, relations between the neighboring nations have improved steadily in recent months, as evidenced by energy deals including a proposed $8-billion pipeline as well as a crackdown on gasoline smuggling.

Southern Cone
Brazil
6. Associated Press May 23, 2012

Brazil subway workers end strike in Sao Paulo


Subway workers went on strike in Brazil's biggest city on Wednesday, but ended it five hours later after halting a system used daily by more than 4 million people and snarlingalready difficult traffic. The subway workers union said in a statement they accepted a 6.09 percent pay hike plus increases in the value of meal vouchers and household food supplement allowances.

USSOUTHCOM AOR Headline News 7. The Wall Street Journal

Thursday, May 24, 2012 May 22, 2012, 11:44 a.m. ET

In a Reverse, Brazil's Navy Says Oil Slick Not Present


There are no indications of an oil spill at a site off the coast of Esprito Santo state, Brazil's navy and the National Petroleum Agency, or ANP, said last week after an inspection of the area The naval inspector who overflew the area did see shadows of clouds on the surface of the ocean in the area, and such shadows are constantly mistaken for oil spills, the navy said in a note.

Features
8. Associated Press

May 23, 2012

Rio issues land titles to slum residents


Now local officials and human rights groups are working to give legal title to tens of thousands of people a process that increases their wealth and gives them greater access to credit, as well as peace of mindThe programs so far are just beginningA third of the people in Rio state, nearly 5 million people, don't have title to their homes

9. Los Angeles Times

May 24, 2012

Brazil's historically poor northeast finally gets its boom


For later generations, escaping the widespread poverty of the northeast customarily meant moving to livelier southeastern cities like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, though many migrants still ended up living in favelasToday, an economic boom has given locals good reasons to stay put, and large numbers of Brazilians are even making their way north in search of a better life.

USSOUTHCOM, Components & Associates


DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) Features
1. New York Times Thursday, May 24, 2012; A1

Drug Trafficking And Raids Stir Danger On The Mosquito Coast


By Damien Cave AHUAS, Honduras - The orange glow of a burning house brightened the morning sky. Then another and another. Four homes were set ablaze in this muddy river town just hours after the Honduran and American authorities swooped down in helicopters as part of a major drug raid that recovered a half ton of cocaine. "At first we had no idea what was happening," Sinicio Ordoez, a local leader, said of the fires. It soon became clear: the burned homes were not part of the raid itself, but retaliatory attacks by residents against their neighbors who were working with drug traffickers. As angry as residents were with the Honduran and American governments for a joint commando operation on May 11 that they insist took the lives of four innocent people, they had rage to spare for those who have helped make this poor town on the Mosquito Coast a way station for cocaine moving from the Andes to the United States. "The drug activity here creates a danger to all of us," said Mr. Ordoez, president of the indigenous Council of Elders. "The people here, they just wanted to be rid of it." Honduras has received an enormous influx of American military and antidrug support over the past few years, reflecting cocaine traffickers' shift toward Central America. But with all that muscle, people here in Ahuas and in other towns nearby now say they feel threatened from outside and from within. They are furious with traffickers for making their country a cocaine transfer point; disappointed in their neighbors who rely on the drug trade for work; and frustrated, as well, with the Honduran and American authorities who, in their view, often invade their communities with more concern for seizing cocaine than protecting people. "They need to take concrete steps to help people who live here," said Terry Martnez, head of development programs for Gracias a Dios, the department, or state, that includes Ahuas. "They're making global decisions, not local decisions." Vulnerability around here begins with the land. Gracias a Dios, which includes most of the Mosquito Coast, is a 6,420-square-mile area of jungle and savanna near Nicaragua with only 50,000 inhabitants. Most live in villages accessible only by boat or plane, scratching out subsistence lives, mostly speaking an indigenous language called Miskito. Government is essentially absent. The police station in Ahuas, a town of 1,400, is a concrete box with a red hammock outside that usually holds a young officer in shorts and sandals. The only hospital is run by Christian missionaries. 2

USSOUTHCOM AOR Headline News

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Given the context, residents and experts say it is no surprise that drugs and drug money have become accepted. Here in Ahuas, people blame outsiders - the Colombians and Mexicans who arrived in larger numbers starting five years ago - but they also admit that more recently everyone in town spoke openly about when drug planes would arrive, as if they were legitimate charter flights. The flights translated into much-needed work for local residents, who helped unload the contraband for transport further north. But they have also started to alter ancient customs. For many, hard work like farming has started to look like a waste of time. "It's creating huge long-term problems," said Mr. Martnez, who works in Puerto Lempira, the capital of Gracias a Dios. "People aren't thinking - they're putting their hopes in drugs; oh, next week there will be another plane.' " Young people have also started developing a taste for the "narco life." Drug use was once unheard-of on the Mosquito Coast. Now it is surging. More disturbingly to some, in a country with the highest homicide rate in the world, teenagers are developing a taste for weapons. "They don't even have enemies, and they want to walk around the village with a gun," said Mylo Wood, a lawmaker visiting his constituents in Ahuas on a recent day. Many Hondurans acknowledge that their country cannot possibly tackle the drug problem alone. "It has to do with a logistical problem, with communications, with detection," said Julieta Castellanos, president of the Autonomous University of Honduras. "The other problem, which is fundamental, is that the police are penetrated by organized crime." She added: "The participation of the United States is important. There are sectors of the country that are even asking for more participation." At the site of the raid, in fact, there is still a desire for American help. Town officials and victims like Hilda Lezama, 52, who has bullet wounds in her legs from the raid, say they mainly want an apology and an acknowledgment that they were not traffickers, as some American and Honduran officials have suggested. The recent raid has also prompted many here to insist on a more balanced antidrug approach. "Helicopters and soldiers are not development," said Raymundo Eude, a leader of the Masta ethnic group, which is calling for the Americans to leave the area by May 30. "It doesn't help." Opinions vary on what else the United States government could do to squelch the drug trade and its negative consequences. Many support programs to beef up the court system. Some, like Mr. Martnez, are calling for better roads to support agriculture, whereas Mr. Eude expressed fear that roads would draw too many people to the area. He suggested that the Americans compensate indigenous groups for protecting the forests. American officials, meanwhile, say they are already providing "soft side" assistance. The Agency for International Development has spent nearly $1 million since 2008 to preserve the spiny lobster fishery, a main source of work on the Mosquito Coast. The State Department has also contributed computers to a youth center in Puerto Lempira, while American soldiers have provided free medical and dental care. But many say such programs are not enough. "The Americans are driving the drug business with their demand, while we are the ones who end up with the dead bodies," said Carlos H. Sandoval, a forestry engineer who travels throughout the Mosquito Coast. And yet, for now, the frustration here is aimed at the traffickers, too. After Ahuas residents burned down the houses, several of the tenants who had links to the drug trade fled. American officials say they expect that traffickers may steer clear of the town given the highly publicized raid, and local residents agree that, at the very least, business will become more discreet. Other towns have also challenged the status quo. Officials and residents of Brus Laguna, a town upriver from Ahuas, said a mob there threatened the mayor after the raid because they believed he was receiving money from the traffickers that he did not share with the community, forcing them to assume the risks but not the benefits. And all across the area, residents are anxious about the future, questioning whether it will be the authorities or the traffickers who ultimately hold sway. "The people here are thinking more about all of this right now," Mr. Ordoez said. "But they are also thinking about the fact that they need to eat." (Return)

USSOUTHCOM AOR Headline News

Thursday, May 24, 2012

JTF-Guantanamo
2. The Miami Herald May 24, 2012

9/11 Accused Want Obama, Bush Testimony At Guantanamo


Lawyers for the alleged Sept. 11 conspirators are seeking testimony from presidents and others as part of a pretrial motion to get the case dismissed on grounds of unlawful political influence by senior U.S. officials.
By Carol Rosenberg Defense attorneys seeking to derail the trial of five men accused of orchestrating the Sept. 11 attacks are asking a military judge to order President Barack Obama and former president George W. Bush, Vice President Joe Biden, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and Attorney General Eric Holder to testify at the Guantnamo war court. At issue in the motion unsealed Wednesday evening at the Pentagon is whether accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his alleged co-conspirators can get a fair capital murder terror trial from a military jury of 12 or more U.S. officers. Attorneys for the accused argue they cannot, citing widespread pretrial publicity that has included unending prejudicial statements from the highest public officials in the U.S. government. They are asking the military judge, Army Col. James L. Pohl, to acknowledge the political influence in the process and, if not throw out the case entirely, remove death as a potential sentence--even before the case is presented to a jury at least a year from now. For the past 10 years, through the administrations of two presidents, these accused have consistently been described as thugs, murderers, and terrorists who planned the 9/11 attacks and must face justice, the lawyers argued. It can easily be understood by members of the public that this system of military commissions exists solely for the purpose of imposing a death sentence upon these accused. Unlawful command influence motions are not unusual at the Guantnamo war court, which Bush had set up within months of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Obama criticized them as a senator and candidate, then reformed them as president. At least one motion has succeeded in excluding a Pentagon official, a brigadier general, from involvement in a Bush-era case, after a military judge ruled the general was biased toward the prosecution and obtaining a conviction. Attorneys filed notice of the motion last week. But it was only on Wednesday that the Pentagon finally made public the list of eight upper-echelon witnesses the lawyers for the alleged terrorists are asking the judge to compel to testify to bolster their argument. A Pentagon spokesman did not have an immediate comment on whether the judge even had the authority to order testimony from the current or former commander in chief. Moreover, testimony at past commissions has not always been in person at the Guantnamo court, which has video-teleconferencing capabilities to hear witnesses from overseas. Grahams office said it would not be known until Thursday whether the senior Republican senator who has been influential in the creation of commissions had been told of the request, and whether he would voluntarily comply. The defense lawyers also want the judge to compel testimony from the senior Pentagon official now responsible for oversight of the war court, retired Navy Vice Adm. Bruce MacDonald, whose title is convening authority for military commissions; Defense Department General Counsel Jeh Johnson, Defense Secretary Leon Panettas most senior lawyer; as well as the chief prosecutor, Army Brig Gen. Mark Martins. One of the most damning quotes attributed to Obama in the 42-page motion--Khalid Sheik Mohammed is going to meet justice and hes going to meet his maker--actually came from the lips of then-White House spokesman Robert Gibbs in remarks to CNN in January 2010. Gibbs is now an advisor to the reelection campaign. Defense attorneys argue that Pohl, who is outranked by even the chief prosecutor on the case, is dutybound to ensure that the accused are afforded process that will guarantee them that a death sentence will not be imposed due to the passions and prejudices injected into the proceedings by the President of the United States, political appointees, or elected representatives. (Return) 4

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Thursday, May 24, 2012

3. Politico.com

May 23, 2012

Judge Demands Guantanamo Videos


By Josh Gerstein A federal judge has ordered the Defense Department to turn over to the court three video recordings showing Guantanamo prisoners being forced out of their cells. U.S. District Court Judge John Bates's unusual order came Wednesday in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by families of Kuwaiti prisoners being held at the U.S. military-run prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay. Bates said the Pentagon, which is represented in the case by the Justice Department, had failed to offer detailed enough explanations to sustain the government's position that the videos are exempt from disclosure under the law. Bates suggested he'd lost patience with the government in the case, noting that he'd given the Defense Department three chances to explain its position but that officials repeatedly offered "inconsistent and confusing" explanations. "The Court already allowed the Department a 'last chance' to supplement its declarations," Bates wrote in a 12-page opinion posted here. "Attempts by the Department to 'correct' or supplement its prior submissions have resulted in further obfuscation....The written submissions provided by the Department simply do not allow the Court meaningfully to assess whether the claimed exemptions actually apply." Bates said he was particularly puzzled by the Pentagon's assertion that in 45 videotapes of so-called "forced cell extractions" it could not segregate out images of the detainees from images depicting guards and other base personnel. "The Court finds it necessary to test those assertions by viewing a representative sampling of the videos themselves," the judge wrote, ordering the Defense Department to fork over three of the videos to him by June 11. So-called in camera inspections by judges are unusual in federal Freedom of Information Act cases and are particularly rare in suits over records that the government asserts are classified, as is the case with at least portions of the detainee videos. The lawsuit was filed back in 2008 by the law firm Arnold and Porter on behalf of the International Counsel Bureau, a legal group which has represented the Kuwaiti detainees in various fora. Bates, who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, served for a time as a deputy to Whitewater/Lewinsky Independent Counsel Ken Starr. (Return)

Unitas (Pacific)
4. The (Jacksonville) FloridaTimes-Union/Mayport Mirror May 23, 2012 - 02:00pm

Underwood Prepares For Advanced Phase Of UNITAS


By MCSN Frank J. Pikul, Southern Seas 2012 Public Affairs Commanding officers of the Chilean, Colombian, Mexican, Peruvian and U.S. Navy ships participating in UNITAS Pacific (PAC) gathered aboard Peruvian frigate Mariategui (FM 54) for a mid-exercise brief, May 19. The agenda included debriefs of the work-up phase of UNITAS PAC and an exchange of plans for the upcoming exercise scenario phase (ESP). We have worked at the basic level of operations with our partner nations such as gunnery exercises and we have worked with each nations helicopters to come to a common procedural understanding, said Cmdr. Peter T. Mirisola, commanding officer of Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigate USS Underwood (FFG 36). During the hot wash debrief, each nation discussed improving communication procedures and enhancing interoperability. When you bring the different capabilities with different navies, it is difficult at first, but we eventually overcame those problems and operated successfully at sea, said Mirisola. The ESP began May 21 and includes maritime interdiction operations, anti-submarine warfare scenarios, counter-piracy operations, and other training scenarios. It is the next level of complexity for us and our partner nation navies to work as a cohesive unit and communicate better with each other in order to accomplish our mission, said Mirisola. The crew is well prepared for these exercises and they get more proficient as they complete more operations at sea.

USSOUTHCOM AOR Headline News

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Underwood is representing the U.S. Navy during the 53rd iteration of UNITAS 2012 and is deployed to Central and South America and the Caribbean in support of Southern Seas 2012. U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command and U.S. 4th Fleet supports USSOUTHCOM joint and combined full-spectrum military operations by providing principally sea-based, forward presence to ensure freedom of maneuver in the maritime domain, to foster and sustain cooperative relationships with international partners and to fully exploit the sea as maneuver space in order to enhance regional security and promote peace, stability, and prosperity in the Caribbean, Central and South American regions. (Return)

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Andean Ridge
Intra-Regional
5. The Los Angeles Times May 23, 2012, 3:55 pm

Energy deals boost Colombia-Venezuela ties despite border violence


BOGOTA, Colombia, and CARACAS, Venezuela -- Notwithstanding a border attack this week by leftist rebels hiding in Venezuela that left 12 Colombian soldiers dead, relations between the neighboring nations have improved steadily in recent months, as evidenced by energy deals including a proposed $8billion pipeline as well as a crackdown on gasoline smuggling. Fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, apparently fled back to Venezuela after the bloody ambush Monday, prompting a promise from President Hugo Chavez to send three army battalions to the Perija Mountains area to drive the rebels from their sparsely populated refuge. We are active on the border ... and we will patrol by air and land, Chavez said during a televised meeting of ministers, his first public appearance since returning from medical treatment in Cuba two weeks ago. We are not going to permit this and as weve said a million times, all we want is peace for Colombia. Chavezs declaration came as Colombian Mining and Energy Minister Mauricio Cardenas said that Venezuela had agreed to expand exports of discount gasoline to several Colombian border states. The aim is to frustrate a cross-border gas smuggling racket controlled by mafias and terrorist groups, Cardenas said. Smugglers take advantage of the huge differential between the subsidized Venezuelan gasoline price of five cents per gallon and the $5-a-gallon price charged in Colombia. Cardenas said the crackdown is designed not to generate taxes, but to strike a blow at the armed groups. According to Francisco Monaldi, an economist at the Caracas think tank IESA, Venezuelas state-owned oil company PDVSA may lose up to 50,000 barrels daily to smugglers. That's 7% of the 700,000 barrels of fuel refined each day for domestic consumption. More than half of the smuggled fuel is believed to end up in Colombia, the rest in Brazil and Caribbean countries. Colombia has also agreed to increase by up to 50% its exports of natural gas from the northeastern Guajira peninsula to the western Venezuelan industrial city of Maracaibo. Moreover, Colombia will export electric power from its Inirida power plant to southern Venezuelan states. This month, Cardenas signed a preliminary deal with a Chinese development bank that could lead to financing for a 1,000-mile, $8-billion pipeline that Colombia and Venezuela want to build from eastern Venezuela to an undetermined port city on Colombias Pacific coast. The pipeline would provide better access to Asian markets for crude oil. The two Latin countries were at each others throats in 2008 after then-President Alvaro Uribe ordered commandos to invade Eduador to kill Raul Reyes, a top FARC commander. Chavez briefly called up troops and tanks to the border area with Colombia and said any similar pursuit of rebels in Venezuela would result in war. Chavez also said Tuesday that he telephoned Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos to assure him of increased border vigilance. While Santos has minimized his public complaints over FARCs alleged 6

USSOUTHCOM AOR Headline News

Thursday, May 24, 2012

use of Venezuela for refuge, his predecessor Uribe had routinely accused Chavez of tolerating the rebels' presence in his territory, which Chavez denies. (Return)

Southern Cone
Brazil
6. Associated Press May 23, 2012

Brazil subway workers end strike in Sao Paulo


By Stan Lehman SAO PAULO (AP) Subway workers went on strike in Brazil's biggest city on Wednesday, but ended it five hours later after halting a system used daily by more than 4 million people and snarling the city's already difficult traffic. The subway workers union said in a statement they accepted a 6.09 percent pay hike plus increases in the value of meal vouchers and household food supplement allowances. The Sao Paulo Metro Company confirmed the end of the strike and said workers had already begun to return to their jobs. It did not immediately provide further details on the agreement. Earlier, Ciro Morais, a spokesman for the subway workers union, said 8,000 of the city's nearly 9,000 subway workers walked off their jobs to demand a 20 percent pay hike. Morais said a few trains operated during the day because the company deployed non-striking workers and managers to run some stations. During the strike, the city's normally traffic-clogged streets and avenues became even more congested as more people used their cars or rode the city's overcrowded bus transportation system. Adilanta Fereira, 23, said she lives far away from the restaurant where she works on Sao Paulo's Avenida Paulista in the central part of the city and the strike turned her morning commute into a nightmare. "Normally I have to take two different buses to get to work and it takes about 90 minutes each way," she said as she handed out fliers on the street for the restaurant where she works. "Today it took three hours, I was late for work, and I have no idea how long it'll take me to get home." Police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse angry subway users who for more than an hour blocked a station to protest the strike. Local news media said two people were briefly detained and one woman was slightly injured when she fell to the ground. On Tuesday, a labor court ruled that all workers should be at their jobs during rush hours and that at least 85 percent of them had to work during the rest of the day. The court said that failure to obey would result in a daily $50,000 fine against the union. Public transportation in six other cities has been practically paralyzed for the past week in separate strikes by subway workers, bus drivers and commuter train operators. (Return) 7. The Wall Street Journal May 22, 2012, 11:44 a.m. ET

In a Reverse, Brazil's Navy Says Oil Slick Not Present


By Jeff Fick and Jeffrey T. Lewis BRASILIAThere are no indications of an oil spill at a site off the coast of Esprito Santo state, Brazil's navy and the National Petroleum Agency, or ANP, said last week after an inspection of the area. Earlier Thursday the navy said a slick was spotted close to the P-57 platform operated by state-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro, or Petrobras. The P-57 platform, which was installed last year, pumps oil from the Jubarte field, which is part of a larger oil-producing area known as the Whales Park because the fields are all named after different types of whales. Petrobras said all the control systems of its offshore drilling and production units in Esprito Santo are operating normally. The naval inspector who overflew the area did see shadows of clouds on the surface of the ocean in the area, and such shadows are constantly mistaken for oil spills, the navy said in a note. 7

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Thursday's incident comes after a series of spills offshore Brazil, including a leak in November at the Frade field operated by U.S. oil major Chevron Corp. A drilling accident caused an estimated 2,400 to 3,000 barrels of crude to seep into the Atlantic Ocean from cracks in the seabed. Production at the field was closed in March, when separate seeps were discovered in a nearby area. (Return)

Features
8. Associated Press May 23, 2012

Rio issues land titles to slum residents


By Juliana Barbassa RIO DE JANEIRO The home Jose Nazare Braga built in the Rocinha shantytown is his life's work, an investment that grew from a shack to a three-story building over 30 years. A restaurant and a papergoods store on the ground floor provide income, and his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren live above. The red-brick building is Braga's nest egg, his retirement home and an inheritance for his large family. But for decades, the property wasn't formally his, and he lived in fear of losing it all. Now local officials and human rights groups are working to give legal title to tens of thousands of people like Braga, a process that increases their wealth and gives them greater access to credit, as well as peace of mind. "I did this for my family, for my children," said the 70-year-old about obtaining the title to his property. For years he relied on a piece of paper given by the residents' association as his proof of ownership, and worried it wouldn't hold up in court if he was challenged. "Now this is safe, secure," Braga said, sitting in his tiny, neat living room decorated with pictures of his family. "No one takes it away from us." The programs so far are just beginning to tackle a widespread problem: A third of the people in Rio state, nearly 5 million people, don't have title to their homes, an uncertainty shared by most of the approximately 1 billion people who living in slums globally. Similar efforts are under way in many nations, where formalizing land tenure can give millions a secure hold on what is often a family's most valuable asset. Homeowners have quickly discovered that their land can be used as collateral for loans and that property with a title fetches a higher price in the formal real estate market. But there's also a downside. As the value of land goes up, it undermines the role of slums as the only well-located affordable housing available to low-income families in a city of booming real estate prices. Land titling is one of an array of programs that have brought utilities, sewage connections and other benefits to Rio's slums in recent years. A push to control violence before the 2016 Olympics has seen permanent police posts installed in some of the favelas once controlled by the drug trade. Thanks to such improvements, communities that began as informal settlements are starting to feel more like the city that surrounds them. Giving families official title to their land is the key element in this transition, said Luiz Claudio Vieira, who manages the land titling program at the state's Institute of Land and Cartography. "Bringing families into the formal city is a great benefit for Rio," Vieira said. "You integrate the community into the city, you put thousands of homes on the formal market, you take the residents out of the shadows, give them an address. This property starts to exist for legal and credit purposes." Often, the titling process also means an area is officially mapped, giving residents an address to put on job applications or to use when opening a bank account. Titling creates a healthier, safer urban environment, said Walter Borges Tavares, a public defender specializing in land tenure who provides legal counsel to the land agency. As slums are brought into the formal city, municipalities can enforce building codes and prevent the disordered construction that can degrade mountainside, destabilize slopes and cause landslides and deaths, he said. The right to occupy unused land is guaranteed in Brazil's constitution. Legally, after five years of use, a resident can claim ownership. In reality, Brazil's sluggish court system often turned those five years into 20. There was also discrimination against shantytowns and those who lived there. "There was this idea that if you regularized them, more people would come," Tavares said. A state law approved earlier this year allows the land agency to register property formally owned by the state as a donation to the family occupying it, doing away with legal and bureaucratic hurdles. Using the 8

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Thursday, May 24, 2012

law, the state of Rio will regularize about 10,000 properties this year and about 37,000 over the next four years. Another new mechanism was pioneered by the nonprofit Bento Rubiao Foundation, which is working with the city to map out and title 8,000 properties in Rocinha, including that of Braga. The foundation is preparing the title claims for approximately 30,000 families statewide, said the organization's executive coordinator, Ricardo Gouvea. The foundation recently won an unprecedented ruling that allows an entire community to get titled collectively. That case will help nearly 100 families receive their property papers all at once, and could be used to help other communities in the same way, Gouvea said. "Brazil has always made it hard for the poor and blacks to own property," Gouvea said. "This is an important symbol. To have a right to the city, you start with a title to your land." But as favelas are brought into the fabric of the formal city, slum dwellers are discovering some unwelcome changes to their communities. Vidigal, a slum on a hill straddling two of Rio's most expensive zip codes, was occupied by a permanent police force in November, increasing security. Some of its properties already have titles and hundreds of residents are waiting for their papers. But foreigners and investors attracted by the incomparable ocean views and by the privileged neighborhoods surrounding the shantytown have also started snapping up land in Vidigal. A boutique hotel with a rooftop pool, designed by a renowned Brazilian architect, is under construction in the community where six months ago drug dealers conducted business with heavy weaponry. Titling is happening very fast, without any education for poor residents or concern for preserving a community's positive characteristics, said Theresa Williamson, a city planner and founder of Catalytic Communities, an organization that works with favelas. "These aren't simply neighborhoods; they're communities, and need to be considered as such," she said, proposing creation of community trust funds to keep housing affordable for those already living in the slums. In Vidigal, rent has quadrupled over the past four years, and construction in the hyper-dense community is booming. Residents are torn between making money by selling to the highest bidder and staying amid the neighbors they have always known. Sabrina Rosa's daughter will be the fourth generation of her family to grow up in the community's steep, narrow alleyways. Rosa owns, with title and all, the apartment where she lives. She also owns an untitled apartment at the top, with windows looking out over a vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean. If Rosa waits for the title, she'll be able to sell the place for more, much more than a neighbor might be able to afford. Though it seems the obvious choice, she's unsure. "Vidigal is the Santa Teresa of the future," Rosa said, comparing the favela to a quaint, touristy Rio neighborhood. "The question is: What are the residents going to get from that process, and what are they going to lose? It's a change, and we don't know all the consequences. We have to find a way for it to work for everyone." (Return) 9. Los Angeles Times May 24, 2012

Brazil's historically poor northeast finally gets its boom


The area around Recife in particular has benefited from government and business investment, and the northeast's growth has far outpaced that of richer states.
By Vincent Bevins RECIFE, Brazil The Brazilian state of Pernambuco was once known for its vast plains of parched dirt and roving bandits called cangacos, who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. For later generations, escaping the widespread poverty of the northeast customarily meant moving to livelier southeastern cities like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, though many migrants still ended up living in favelas, or slums. Today, an economic boom has given locals good reasons to stay put, and large numbers of Brazilians are even making their way north in search of a better life.

USSOUTHCOM AOR Headline News

Thursday, May 24, 2012

The area around Recife, the capital of Pernambuco, has benefited from huge government and business investments such as the expansion of the port of Suape, a new shipyard and an oil refinery project. Government aid has also helped struggling families improve their lives, which has lessened the need to move elsewhere. In Boa Viagem, a new middle-class neighborhood south of downtown Recife, the signs of change include apartment complexes and chic restaurants that have sprung up in recent years. "The region is now much more than just big industrial projects," said Juliana Queiroga, regional coordinator at Endeavor Nordeste, a new northeastern branch of a Sao Paulo-based nongovernmental organization that promotes entrepreneurship. "It's a new gastronomic center, a tech center, and there's lots of innovation and international money coming in." In the last 12 years, unemployment in the Recife metropolitan area dropped from about 14% to 6.2%, and the population of the city grew 8% to more than 1.5 million during roughly the same period. The city has been a beneficiary of the growth that has powered the country's economy for a decade and pushed migration into parts of the country that had languished for a century. When Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva became president in 2003, he instituted a set of social programs that predominantly benefited the impoverished northeastern states, which had lost much of their economic relevance of the 19th century, when slave plantations were central to the country's growth. As a youth, Lula made the weeks-long journey on the back of a truck from the woods of Pernambuco to Sao Paulo, where he eventually found a job as a metalworker. The billions of dollars in government investments and projects have made the northeast home to nine states and 50 million people the fastest-growing population center in Brazil's economic success story, which recently helped the country overtake Britain to become the world's sixth-largest economy. The northeast has grown four times as fast as the richer states of Sao Paulo and Rio, said Marcelo Neri, a Brazilian demographics specialist. The distribution of wealth has improved across classes, and millions of people have moved from poverty into the middle class, he said. "This is the first decade in recorded history that net migration from the country to the big cities has basically stopped," Neri said. "It's remarkable. This is still a very unequal country, but we are one of a very few countries these days that can say that inequality is falling." Some Brazilians are moving around the countryside to take advantage of an agricultural industry that is profiting from selling soybeans and other commodities to China. The related jobs range from business experts familiar with specialized agribusiness techniques to laborers who hack away brush before seeds are planted. Some Brazilians are moving to newly revitalized urban centers such as Recife or Fortaleza to work in construction, infrastructure or oil refining. And some are leaving the crime-ridden slums of Rio for jobs in their families' home regions. The balance has shifted so far that many who traditionally would have taken high-paying professional jobs in the southeast are heading to places like Recife instead. Sergio Silvino, a native of Sao Paulo who moved to Recife in 2010, was happily surprised to find a job as an engineer on a huge construction site. "I didn't think there were any opportunities up here. But then I got wind that there were job openings, and I ended up with a position that paid much better than I could have gotten in Rio," Silvino said. "Now I see people here from all over the country, and it's very tough to find anyone without a job." Since President Dilma Rousseff, Lula's handpicked successor, took over in January 2011, growth has continued apace, surprising many of those who grew up in the area or arrived more recently. "If you would have asked me at the beginning of my college term, I would have said I wanted to leave Pernambuco," said Jorge Diogo Souza Costa, a business student who moved to Recife from a small town in the interior of the state so he could attend a decent high school. "But now I want to stay. We have the refineries, the port projects, shipbuilding and the pharmaceutical and tech industries now. It's just obvious that our time has come." Bevins is a special correspondent. (Return)

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