Articles in English

MundoOriente Próximo,

The shelling of Yemen’s presidential palace last Friday represented the end of the road for President Ali Abdullah Saleh — a decisive conclusion he had never expected, or even considered, when the youth revolt erupted four months ago.

Yemen’s tribal society, its problems with Al Qaeda, its struggle with separatist movements, and its rate of gun ownership, one of the world’s highest, should have led him to react cautiously — and to realize that the people, having taken to the streets to demand freedom and dignity, would not return home until they achieved victory.

Instead, Mr. Saleh resorted to sowing division among the Yemeni people.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica

Is Honduras ready for a return to the community of nations? It has been almost two years since the forced removal of then-President Manuel Zelaya at the hands of the Honduran military. On June 1, the Organization of American States said yes, when it lifted the suspension of Honduras from the organization by a vote of 32 countries in favor and one against. Still, the question on everyone's mind remains: Was there a coup d'état in 2009? Perhaps the better question to ask is: How can similar instability be avoided in the future in Honduras and elsewhere in the region?

Immediately after Zelaya's removal, the United States, the United Nations and the OAS denounced the ouster as illegitimate and demanded Zelaya's restoration, which triggered restrictions on foreign aid and trade.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica,

With General Radko Mladić now in the dock in The Hague to face charges stemming from the atrocities committed by troops under his command during the Bosnian War, the contrast with events in Southern Sudan could not be more appalling. Sudan’s government, led by President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, has taken a page from its Darfur playbook by waging war once again on civilians and their property, this time attacking the disputed border region of Abyei on the eve of South Sudan’s legal secession next month.

This is the same Bashir who is currently charged with genocide by the International Criminal Court.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo

For the first time in its exceedingly long history, Yemen now threatens the outside world. It does so in two principal ways.

First, even before the current political upheaval began there on Jan. 15, violence out of Yemen already impinged on Westerners. As President Ali Abdullah Saleh's weak government controlled only a small part of the country, violence had emerged both near to Yemen, such as attacks on American and French ships, and distant from it, like Anwar al-Awlaki's incitement to terrorism in Texas, Michigan and New York. With Mr. Saleh's apparent abdication on June 4, when he traveled to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment, the central government's writ will further diminish, leading to yet more attacks being planned inside Yemen for execution outside the country.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica

My country has just completed three rounds of federal and state elections that have been regarded by most Nigerians and acknowledged by the international community as the most free and fair in our history.

This is a considerable accomplishment in a nation of some 150 million people who have experienced military rule and suffered a recurring history of doubtful elections in much of the 50 years since securing independence from Great Britain in 1960.

In May 2010, Goodluck Jonathan assumed full responsibilities of the presidency in an orderly constitutional transition of power following the death of former President Umaru Musa Yar Adua.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa,

The arrest of Ratko Mladic on May 26 caught me off guard. I couldn’t believe it. I clenched my fists, trying to grip him tightly in my hands. Finally, I breathed a sigh of relief.

But then I heard the speech by the Serbian president, Boris Tadic. For him, Mr. Mladic’s arrest represents the closing of a dark chapter in our history and a removal of the mark of shame that has stained the Serbian people for two decades. But there was no mention of the many other perpetrators of genocide during the 1990s or of the responsibility the Serbian state bears for those crimes.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaInternacional, ,

Watching Dominique Strauss-Kahn plummet from managing director of the International Monetary Fund to criminal defendant, one could be forgiven for believing that diplomats do not get away with crimes committed in the United States. But one would be wrong.

Strauss-Kahn had functional immunity as head of the IMF, so only acts that fell within his official duties were covered. But if Strauss-Kahn had been a diplomat, even a low-ranking attaché, this story might have been quite different.

Envoys posted to the United States, like their American counterparts posted abroad, enjoy full diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. But in almost all cases, this immunity translates into impunity when those diplomats commit crimes.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia

The world looks to Nobel Peace laureates for depth of vision in human affairs, and their moral stature seems all the greater when they are persecuted by government. We have honored the views of such people as Andrei Sakharov, Lech Walesa and Aung Sang Suu Kyi.

Liu Xiaobo, winner of the 2010 Peace Prize, is in a prison in Liaoning, China, for “incitement of subversion of state power.” No one outside the prison has heard from him since Oct. 10, 2010, when his wife was allowed to visit and to pass along his wishes for the Nobel ceremony in Oslo in December.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública

Sunday marks 30 years since the first AIDS cases were reported. Since then, H.I.V. science has been translated into prevention and treatment breakthroughs, one of the greatest being the antiretroviral treatment that has ensured that millions of H.I.V.-positive people can lead healthy lives.

Furthermore, there is now robust evidence that early and highly active antiretroviral therapy can have a major impact on reducing H.I.V. transmission, demonstrating the “treatment as prevention” concept.

AIDS is no longer the death sentence it was, but there now remains extreme uncertainty concerning the long-term sustainability of treatment access, especially in resource-limited settings.

More than ever we need to find an H.I.V.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica

In 1954, the American government committed one of the most reprehensible acts in its history when it authorized the C.I.A. to overthrow the democratically elected leader of Guatemala, President Jacobo Arbenz. It did so secretly but later rationalized the coup on the ground that the country was about to fall into communist hands.

Guatemalan society has only recently recovered from the suffering that this intervention caused, including brutal military dictatorships and a genocidal civil war against its Indian population, which led to the deaths of an estimated 200,000 people. Only in the 1980s, when a peace process commenced, did democratic governance resume.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesNuevas Tecnologías

Oh, dear. Something else to worry about. Cellphones may cause brain cancer. “May” is the key word in that sentence, as in “maybe”, “possibly” or perhaps even “not likely”. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a branch of the World Health Organization, has not concluded that cellphones do lead to brain cancer, but that “we need to keep a close watch for a link between cellphones and cancer risk”.

Cellphones join a list of 32 things beginning with the letter C that are possibly carcinogenic to humans, including coffee, carpentry, coconut oil in shampoo and carrageenan, a thickener found in instant-pudding mixes.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa,

Turkey’s election in 2007 was preceded by threats of a military coup. The 2002 one was overshadowed by an economic meltdown. This year’s poll, scheduled for June 12, could have signaled a move toward political normality. However, a nasty sex-tape scandal and a flare-up of violence in the Kurdish southeast have not only poisoned the political atmosphere but also fueled allegations that the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) wants to grab ever more power.

Polls have left little doubt that the AKP will win its third consecutive election in June as voters reward Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for presiding over years of economic growth, relative political stability and Turkey’s growing international stature.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Within a 40-minute drive of this city stands the 11th-century Bost Arch. A former gateway to Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, the arch is today a national historic site; it even appears on the 100-afghani note. The arch withstood centuries of invasions, but today it’s a crumbling mess of inept supports and clumsy renovations.

Helmand has been the setting of some of the fiercest fighting in the Afghan war, yet strangely, damage to monuments like the Bost Arch has increased even as the security situation has improved. The problem is that they have gone neglected by the local and national governments, falling prey to squatters, treasure hunters and time.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo, ,

A new scramble for Africa is under way. As global food prices rise and exporters reduce shipments of commodities, countries that rely on imported grain are panicking. Affluent countries like Saudi Arabia, South Korea, China and India have descended on fertile plains across the African continent, acquiring huge tracts of land to produce wheat, rice and corn for consumption back home.

Some of these land acquisitions are enormous. South Korea, which imports 70 percent of its grain, has acquired 1.7 million acres in Sudan to grow wheat — an area twice the size of Rhode Island. In Ethiopia, a Saudi firm has leased 25,000 acres to grow rice, with the option of expanding.…  Seguir leyendo »

Internacional

At last they've got him. That Ratko Mladic is now sitting in the detention cell of an international tribunal in The Hague is a cause for unqualified celebration. The man directly responsible for the massacre of some 8,000 unarmed men and boys at Srebrenica will be held to account for that and other atrocities. This is another step forward in one of the great developments of our time: the global movement toward accountability.

Just over 60 years ago, Czeslaw Milosz wrote a poem addressed to the torturers and mass murderers. "You who harmed an ordinary person," he warned, "do not feel safe… The poet remembers."…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalEconomía

Summits are defined by their location. It is quaint that the 1933 World Economic Conference took place in the Geological Museum in London’s Kensington, at a time when international cooperation seemed as alien as a fossilized dinosaur. On these criteria, Deauville, in French Normandy, with the (slightly faded) elegance of a past era of elite luxury, ostentatious consumption, and sumptuous banquets, is also perhaps not an altogether fortunate choice for the G-8 meeting.

This year, the G-8ers are talking about interesting but peripheral issues, such as the economic impact of the Internet. Worse, they are talking about important issues, like food security, in a peripheral way.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

While I was pregnant, we moved from one area to another within New Delhi. After having my baby, I went back to visit my old neighborhood.

As I was pushing the stroller up the driveway, my erstwhile upstairs neighbor waved to me from her balcony. She was a sweet old lady who lived with her daughter. I used to sometimes stop in and have tea with her.

“Is it a boy or girl?” she asked excitedly.

“A girl,” I shouted back, expecting coos and an “isn’t-that-sweet.” I wasn’t prepared for her response.

“Oh well, don’t worry, you can have another one.”…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesIslam y Mundo ÁrabeInternacionalOTAN,

The dramatic developments across North Africa and the Middle East remind me of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. From Tunis to Cairo to Benghazi, people overcame fear to embrace freedom. Some governments in the region have taken important steps to meet the rightful demands of their citizens. Others realized their time was up and moved aside. But I was appalled to see that in some countries, and especially in Libya, the call for freedom and dignity has been met with state violence.

NATO’s reaction to the crisis in Libya has been quick and resolute.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

“The Agency concludes that the destroyed building was very likely a nuclear reactor and should have been declared by Syria” according to the safeguards agreement.

So writes the International Atomic Energy Agency’s director general, Yukiya Amano, in his May 24, 2011 report to the I.A.E.A. board of governors about the installation the Israeli Air Force bombed in September 2007. Although he does not explicitly say so, Mr. Amano’s finding places Syria in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Three years in the making, the I.A.E.A. certainly cannot be accused of a rush to judgment.

Now comes the hard part: At its meeting next week, the I.A.E.A.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo

The chairman of Egypt's stock exchange undertook an urgent mission last month to the Persian Gulf, where he implored rich Arabs to invest in Egypt's bourse. Low share prices and limited political risk, Mohamed Abdel Salam claimed, had made the Egyptian market "more attractive than ever."

Abdel Salam was right, at least about the low share prices. In the aftermath of the Papyrus Revolution, the drop in Egypt's EXG30 stock index was comparable to that of the Dow following 9/11. The Dow recovered by January 2002, but in the four months since the revolution, the EGX30 has plunged an astounding 22%.…  Seguir leyendo »