Venezuela: A House Divided

13 May 2013: In a historic decision, a Guatemalan court convicted former military dictator José Efrain Ríos Montt on 10 May of genocide and crimes against humanity for the massacre, torture, rape and forced displacement of indigenous villagers during counter-insurgency campaigns in the early 1980s. The verdict is unprecedented: never before has a national court found a former head of state guilty of genocide. It sends a powerful message: no one is above the law and everyone – including indigenous communities long marginalized by discrimination and poverty – has the right to seek justice in the courts.

7 May 2013: The 19 April agreement between Kosovo and Serbia is an earthquake in Balkan politics: the ground lurched, familiar landmarks toppled, the aftershocks are still rumbling and the new contours are only slowly emerging.

The two prime ministers initialed a “First Agreement of Principles Governing the Normalisation of Relations” in Brussels. The brief, fifteen-point text is the first bilateral agreement between Serbia and its former province; as the title suggests, it’s unlikely to be the last. Curiously neither government has published it, though a reportedly authentic version leaked quickly in the Pristina press.

1 May 2013: President Obama’s visit to Mexico and Costa Rica this week is billed as an encounter on economics and democracy, but crime and security will be hard to ignore. Mexico is experiencing a marked revival; it is listed 11th in global purchasing power and does $500 billion a year in trade with the U.S. In Costa Rica, President Obama will highlight the democratic stability of a country that decided more than 50 years ago to do without an army. However, in both countries citizen security is now the main public concern amid unrelenting violence by Mexican criminal cartels engaged in extortion, kidnapping and cocaine trafficking.