Octavio Islas. Director de Proyecto Internet-Cátedra de Comunicación Estratégica y Cibercultura. Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Estado de México

ÍNDICE NACIONAL DE CORRUPCIÓN Y BUEN GOBIERNO
TRANSPARENCIA MEXICANA
En 2007, se presentaron más de 197 millones de actos de corrupción en el uso de servicios públicos • Tan sólo los trámites y servicios medidos representaron un costo de 27 mil millones de pesos para los hogares mexicanos.

Las familias mexicanas destinaron el 8% de su ingreso al pago de mordidas en trámites y servicios públicos.

Estado de México, Distrito Federal, Tlaxcala, Puebla y Morelos las entidades con la mayor incidencia de corrupción en servicios públicos.

Colima, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Nayarit y Michoacán, las entidades con la menor incidencia de corrupción en trámites y servicios públicos en el país.

En 2007, los mexicanos “invertimos” $27 mil millones de pesos en actos de corrupción, lo cual equivale, en promedio, al 8% del ingreso de las familias mexicanas, es decir, el mismo monto que se destina en promedio a necesidades de vivienda de los hogares (renta o crédito).

Este impacto es aún mayor entre los hogares con ingresos de hasta un salario mínimo, para los cuales, el “impuesto de la corrupción” representa 18% de su ingreso.

Con relación a 2005, el INCBG 2007 registró 19 entidades que redujeron su incidencia de corrupción, pero ello no fue suficiente para revertir los resultados de 2005.

Descargar estudio: corrupcion

10 DE MAYO
DESCIENDE EL FESTEJO

Mayo es uno de los meses con más aniversarios y conmemoraciones del año en México: el día mundial del trabajo, el día del maestro y la batalla de Puebla, sin embargo ninguno se comparta con la fecha más identificada por los mexicanos, el 10 de mayo y la celebración del día de las madres, la cual es el motivo de la presente encuesta

Descargar estudio 10-de-mayo

EUA: 4 DE CADA 10 MEXICANOS
TENEMOS UN PARIENTE EN ESE PAÍS
Presentamos además nuestros resultados de la más reciente encuesta sobre el porcentaje de  mexicanos con parientes en EUA. De acuerdo a la encuesta nacional aplicada durante el primer trimestre de 2008, 4 de cada 10 mexicanos tenemos a algún familiar trabajando o viviendo en Estados Unidos. La metodología de la encuesta se presenta al final del documento donde se explican las características del TRACKING POLL ROY CAMPOS en el que como otros estudios se incluye esta investigación.

Descargar estudio: parientes

Anuario estadístico de América Latina
COMISIÓN ECONÓMICA PARA AMÉRICA LATINA Y EL CARIBE, ONU

La presente edición del Anuario estadístico de América Latina y el Caribe 2007 se propone responder a las nuevas exigencias de los investigadores que analizan la situación económica y social de la región e incorporar los avances tecnológicos que modifican la difusión y el uso de la información estadística. El Anuario cuenta con cuatro capítulos. El primero cubre los aspectos demográficos y sociales, con un especial énfasis en la dimensión de género. El segundo reúne las estadísticas económicas básicas, producción, precios, comercio internacional, balanza de pagos y cuentas nacionales. El tercer capítulo, en un afán de responder a una creciente demanda por el desarrollo sostenible, presenta información relativa al medio ambiente y los recursos naturales. El cuarto capítulo está concebido para orientar a los usuarios sobre los aspectos metodológicos referidos al origen de los datos, su definición y cobertura.

ESPERANZA DE VIDA Estados Unidos mantiene la mayor esperanza de vida con 79.4años en promedio, le sigue Costa Rica con 78.8. y Chile con 78.5. Haití es el país que ostenta la menor esperanza de vida de todo América y el Caribe con apenas 60.6 años.

SECTOR ENERGÉTICO Brasil es el país con el mayor valor de su mercado eléctrico de gas y agua, con un valor estimado de 22 mil millones de dólares, le sigue Argentina con ocho mil, México con casi siete mil y Venezuela con un valor de su sector energético de tres mil millones de dólares.

SECTOR DE LA CONSTRUCCIÓN Nuevamente Brasil es quien tiene el valor más alto del sector con 34 mil millones de dólares, seguido de cerca en esta ocasión de México con 32 mil millones y de Argentina con 19 mil millones.

SECTOR COMERCIO En el sector comercio al por mayor y al por menor del ramo hotelero, bares y restaurantes México se presenta claramente como el de mayor valor en el sector con un estimado de 127 mil millones de dólares, seguido de lejos de Brasil con 68 mil millones y de Argentina con 50 mil millones.

SECTOR COMUNICACIONES En el sector de transportes, almacenamiento y comunicaciones nuevamente México es el de mayor valor en el sector con 83 mil millones de dólares, seguido de Brasil con 61 mil millones y de Argentina con 33 mil millones.

Descargar estudios:

Estudio Económico 20071220_ei_cepal_anuario2007_economico5
Fuentes 20071220_ei_cepal_anuario2007_fuentes3
Introducción 20071220_ei_cepal_anuario2007_intro3
Tecnología 20071220_ei_cepal_anuario2007_ntecnica3
Recursos naturales 20071220_ei_cepal_anuario2007_recnatural3
Aspectos sociales 20071220_ei_cepal_anuario2007_social3

CENSURA
EL DIGITAL GALLEGO XORNAL DENUNCIA EL VETO DEL BANCO PASTOR A SUS PERIODISTAS
http://www.periodistas-es.org/pes/artigo.asp?cod_artigo=3250

TURQUÍA
LA REFORMA DEL ARTÍCULO 301 NO ELIMINA LOS PELIGROS SOBRE A LIBERTAD DE EXPRESIÓN EN TURQUÍA
http://www.periodistas-es.org/pes/artigo.asp?cod_artigo=3249

CHILE
DOS PERIODISTAS DE UNA RADIO COMUNITARIA DETENIDOS Y GOLPEADOS POR LA POLICÍA
http://www.periodistas-es.org/pes/artigo.asp?cod_artigo=3248

PERIODISTAS
ASESINADA EN MOSUL LA PERIODISTA IRAQUÍ THARWAT ABDEL WAHAB
http://www.periodistas-es.org/pes/artigo.asp?cod_artigo=3247

Con el esfuerzo conjunto de diversos organismos nacionales e internacionales (Secretaría de Economía, Centro de Comercio Internacional (CCI), Sede Subregional de la CEPAL en México (CEPAL), Agencia de Cooperación y de Información para el Comercio Internacional (ACICI), Instituto Mexicano de Ejecutivos en Comercio Exterior (IMECE), Cámara de Comercio de la Ciudad de México (CANACO), se llevará a cabo el Seminario “La Facilitación del Comercio: Negociaciones Multilaterales y Tratados de Libre Comercio” .

Este seminario, que se llevará a cabo mañana 7 y pasado mañana 8 de mayo en el Auditorio de la CANACO (Paseo de la Reforma, No. 42 Planta Baja, Col. Centro) ofrecerá un foro de intercambio público y privado, para discutir experiencias nacionales e internacionales sobre la facilitación del comercio así como la situación actual de las negociaciones de la OMC sobre este tema, el progreso realizado y los desafíos futuros. El programa se puede descargar desde www.cepal.org.mx.

Se contará con la asistencia de 160 invitados del sector público, privado y académico, y se llevará a cabo con la participación de 18 ponentes y moderadores de alto nivel provenientes de diversos organismos nacionales e internacionales.

La facilitación del comercio adquirió especial relevancia a mediados de la década de los noventa como consecuencia de su inclusión en los tratados de libre comercio de nueva generación y del inicio de las negociaciones en agosto de 2004 basadas en la inclusión como futuro tema de negociación en la Conferencia Ministerial de Singapur de la OMC en 1996. La importancia de este tema responde a la necesidad de aprovechar plenamente el potencial de intercambio entre los socios comerciales y de ayudar a las empresas nacionales a exportar en condiciones competitivas, tanto a nivel nacional como a los niveles regional y multilateral.

Por ello, este seminario tiene como objetivo general mejorar el conocimiento de los funcionarios públicos y del sector privado de aquellas propuestas o iniciativas en el ámbito de la facilitación del comercio y las implicaciones que pueden tener para México. Para poder alcanzar dicho objetivo general, el seminario se apoyará en los siguientes objetivos específicos:

• Promover el intercambio de información sobre experiencias exitosas de implementación de medidas de facilitación del comercio.
• Explorar áreas de mejora sobre campos concretos de interés general, tanto a nivel nacional como multilateral.
• Fomentar un diálogo público-privado para el análisis de la facilitación del comercio

La CEPAL participará en este evento con la discusión de documentos de reciente publicación sobre comercio:

• Costos de transacción de la infraestructura y el sector transporte de América del Norte. Exploración de la armonización de estándares, de Juan Carlos Villa
• Comercio: perspectivas de una mayor convergencia regulatoria en América del Norte, de Michael Hart
• Estado de la coordinación regulatoria de productos agrícolas para la alimentación bajo el Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte, de Ronald D. Knutson y Rene F. Ochoa

El Seminario se llevará a cabo en el Auditorio de la Cámara de Comercio de la Ciudad de México, Paseo de la Reforma, 42 Planta Baja, Col. Centro.

RUSIA
PREOCUPACIÓN EN RUSIA POR UN PROYECTO DE ENMIENDAS A LA LEY DE MEDIOS DE COMUNICACIÓN
http://www.periodistas-es.org/pes/artigo.asp?cod_artigo=3256

MARRUECOS
INICIATIVAS EN MARRUECOS A FAVOR DEL INDULTO REAL PARA EL PERIODISTA MOSTAPHA HURMATALLAH
http://www.periodistas-es.org/pes/artigo.asp?cod_artigo=3255

BIRMANIA
RSF PIDE A LA JUNTA MILITAR DE BIRMANIA QUE PERMITA EL ACCESO A PERIODISTAS INTERNACIONALES
http://www.periodistas-es.org/pes/artigo.asp?cod_artigo=3254

BOLIVIA
TRES PERIODISTAS HERIDOS Y UN CANAL INCENDIADO EN EL REFERENDUM AUTONOMISTA EN BOLIVIA
http://www.periodistas-es.org/pes/artigo.asp?cod_artigo=3253

COSTA RICA
EL TRIBUNAL CONSTITUCIONAL DE COSTA RICA AVALA EL SECRETO PROFESIONAL DE PERIODISTAS
http://www.periodistas-es.org/pes/artigo.asp?cod_artigo=3252

EN ESPAÑOL
HABLAMOS 7.000 LENGUAS TODAVÍA
http://www.periodistas-es.org/pes/artigo.asp?cod_artigo=3251

The Rise and Fall of Shining Path
In the Beginning

The Shining Path (Sendero Luminosos) Maoist guerrillas were formed by university professor Abimael Guzman in the late 1960s and were based upon Marxist ideology. At the time, Guzman was teaching philosophy at San Cristóbal of Huamanga University, while engaging in left-wing politics. He attracted many like-minded young academics to his cause of staging a radical revolution in Peru. He visited the Peoples Republic of China in the mid-1960s and his collection of inchoate ideas was profoundly influenced by a mumble-tumble of Maoist theories, which became the basis of the ideological foundations of the Shining Path. In 1980, he launched his campaign to overthrow the Peruvian government.

The Shining Path’s main goal was to destroy existing Peruvian political institutions and replace them with a communist peasant revolutionary regime, while resisting any influence coming from other Latin American guerrilla groups like the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), as well as from foreign ideologies. According to researchers, Shining Path’s basic strategy was to use violence to bring down the country’s imperfect democratic institutions, prevent citizens from participating in local government, destroy Peru’s economy, and to thwart government-sponsored programs to provide aid and services to the population. As a result of a series of clandestine meetings, Shining Path officials established a military school to teach young recruits military tactics and weaponry use. At first, Shining Path was successful in many of its endeavors because the Lima authorities were beset by organizational instability, corruption, and were ill-prepared to fight the internal war that would foreshadow the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent villagers caught in the middle of the struggle.

The Revolution Begins

Shining Path formally initiated its uprising against the Peruvian government in 1980 after decades of inequality and marginality immiserated the peasantry. Led by Guzman, the revolution based itself mainly in the rural areas of the country where it carried out the bulk of its activities; this tactic had been used by other revolutionary guerrilla groups like Colombia’s FARC, due to usual presence of a weak government, as was the case in Peru. The country’s armed forces did not have the necessary physical presence in the area to allow it to effectively deploy against the revolutionary cadres. This lack of on-site military credibility on the government’s part gave Shining Path the opportunity to deploy its forces to wage an effective guerrilla war against its enemies with near impunity. Shining Path initially based its headquarters in the mountainous region of Ayacucho and Huanta, to the remote regions around the central selva and south of Vilcabamba (the site of the last Inca resistance). Characteristically, it launched attacks on agricultural areas in the Upper Huallaga Valley and the southern part of Puno, which also helped to sever any lingering urban ties for its recruits. Guzman played the role of all-powerful military and spiritual leader of his organization; in this sense, Shining Path was organized as a hierarchical cult rather than on a cell-based model.

Buying and Selling

Similar to the FARC in Colombia and other revolutionary insurgencies, Shining Path in part funded its operations through the process of narcotrafficking, ransoms from kidnapping and forced taxes on small businesses and individuals. Shining Path also required Colombian dealers and buyers operating locally to pay higher than prevailing prices for raw coca in return for protection and the opportunity to buy weapons from them. Today, on a much smaller scale, Shining Path is attempting to revive and re-establish such a financial relationship. It has been listed by U.S. authorities as a terrorist organization based on the tactics it has utilized which include car bombings, kidnappings, and staged political assassinations. In 2006, Shining Path ranked 41 on the U.S. list of top terrorist organizations. Initially, Shining Path targeted local authorities (mayors, governors and mid-level bureaucrats) police barracks, and local political leaders. However, experts believe that by 1983, the group gradually began to target wealthy peasants and state agency heads with violence and the threat of abduction, as well as launched comparable attacks against left-wing activists, grass-roots organizers, and left-liberal intellectuals. This change in strategy eventually proved counterproductive for the insurgents because they were not able to capture the hearts and minds of the average Peruvian by their violent tactics. Instead, villagers were subject to the unremitting brutality by Shining Path and were unprotected by the military and intelligence services. Both the first Alan Garcia administration and his successor, Alberto Fujimori, used intimidation to tromp out local citizens. The Garcia government, as did the Belaúnde government before it, used tortures and randomly assassinated citizens for their alleged backing or at least sympathy for Shining Path.

Peruvian Citizens Caught in the Middle

There is no doubt that the average Peruvian often experienced traumatic brutality from both government forces and Shining Path. The U.S. Department of State, among other sources, determined that the combined death total caused by several decades of conflict reached at least 70,000. The total death toll from the beginning of the uprising in 1980 to 1990, just before the decade-long conflict under Fujimori, can be found in a study conducted by DESCO, in which fatalities attributed to the conflict between the government and Shining Path have been carefully scrutinized. The mid-1980’s, during the Garcia administration, proved to be the years in which a surge of fatalities occurred. This includes casualties inflicted upon ordinary Peruvian citizens, government personnel and security forces, as well as Shining Path recruits. In the early years of the revolution, Shining Path was estimated to have ten to fifteen-thousand members; with its recruitment efforts targeted at the most poverty stricken areas of the country and in the Quechua-speaking part of the highlands. Harsh tactics were an integral step in the organization’s operation and its devilishly skillful propaganda efforts were employed to engage those in the general population who were experiencing the greatest degrees of injustice at the hands of Lima authorities. A key factor contributing to the large number of resulting fatalities in the uprising was that the government found it difficult to distinguish between a Shining Path member and an ordinary inhabitant of the Altiplano, because of the similar native attire. In 1983, President Belaúnde was reported to have announced a 60-day national state of emergency, in which he suspended civil liberties and gave the police broad powers to seize suspected guerrillas for up to ten days without charges. In this account, 200 people were reported as being arrested just 24 hours after the announcement was made. The country had been attempting to move towards democracy before Shining Path declared its war, but President Belaúnde’s action in declaring martial law along with several of these authoritarian initiatives, countermanded the democratic trend taking place in Peru. Ordinary citizens were forced to pay the price, as the then Peruvian leader earned the well-deserved reputation for tolerating human rights abuses.

Under Garcia and Fujimori, the country again found itself caught in the middle of mounting ideological strife and was made to suffer severe human rights abuses from both Shining Path and government forces.

Shining Path singled out the poor, indigenous populations, whose interests it disingenuously claimed to have at heart. It forced farmers to slash production to subsistence levels and to destroy whatever modern farm equipment the campesinos possessed. In addition, Shining Path imposed puritanical regulations that outlawed fiestas and prohibited drinking as part of a strategy of strong-arming local populations into submission and self-abnegation. Any person believed to be sympathetic to the government or to even slightly disagree with Shining Path’s fundamental beliefs, was a candidate to be tortured and killed. Outlandishly, Shining Path then abandoned its professedly leftist ideology and began to identify leftists as candidates to be kidnapped, tortured and/or murdered.

Not surprisingly, Shining Path failed to capture the hearts and minds of the natives due to this extremely bizarre metamorphosis. With leftist and trade union officials being specifically targeted, more and more Peruvians learned to lean more heavily in favor of government efforts to bear down on Shining Path’s revolutionary operations. In the DESCO study, leftist assassinations carried out by Shining Path began to rise a few years after the revolution was triggered—peaking in 1988 and then slowly declining. In 1992, now under Fujimori, assassinations increased drastically, and then dropped after Guzman’s capture. During the Garcia era, leftist assassinations were targeted against two main groups when ideological factors gave way to more bare-boned battles between Shining Path and the government: Garcia’s American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) and the more radical United Left (IU). Shining Path’s tactic to force individuals into submission was a strategy calculated to eliminate the competition. Considering its goals of ousting foreign influence and rival organizations, it was Shining Path’s sudden and unpredictable strategy to turn against its own people as well as like-minded potential allies which foredoomed its end. In the ensuing struggle, large numbers of deaths occurred, helping to transform its revolution into a stark case of conflicting interests. The question of principle was increasingly not in play.

In 1992, the Alberto Fujimori administration staged a coup against itself which led to the dissolving of Congress and the dismantling of the country’s legal system. This cynical ploy enabled his administration and the military police to carry out large numbers of murders and kidnappings of those though to be enemies of the state without having an opposition party or legal capacity capable of challenging various illegal acts.

The various degrees of power under the administrations Belaúnde, Garcia and Fujimori worked to subvert law and order more than to uphold it. Under these governments, Lima’s security forces exponentially increased the murders of ordinary Peruvians, who were suspected of being part of the Shining Path. In addition to the unrestricted power of the government, the Fujimori administration did little to solve the country’s stressful economic situation. Research reports at the time found that 4.5 million people in Peru were living in extreme poverty (lack of sanitation, water, electricity, and gas). Fujimori then sought to enlarge the death squads that carried out orders to kidnap, torture and murder those suspected of being part of the Shining Path or known to harbor anti-Fujimori sentiments. For example, in 1997, the gruesome discovery of anti-Fujimori activist Mariella Barreto Fiofano’s body was found with her hands cut off and spine broken in half. This demonstrated how far the regime was prepared to go in order to suppress and silence those it saw as its foes.

The Decline of Shining Path

After his 1992 auto-coup, Fujimori took control of the press and almost all of the country’s other institutions, promising a return to democracy within a year. This formula enabled him to rule Peru by decree, with a massive number of killings taking place during this period as the result of fierce fighting between Shining Path and Lima’s security forces. On September 12, 1992, Abimael Guzman was captured by local authorities without a drop of blood spilled. This resulted in a major decrease of fatalities and the shrinking of the Shining Path’s armed effectiveness. One of Guzman’s top lieutenants had been interrogated after being detained and eventually was induced to reveal some of Guzman’s hiding places. By the local authorities rummaging through trash cans looking for any signs of his presence, the security forces were able to close in on him, finally locating him and placing him under arrest. Subsequently, Fujimori displayed him in an outdoor cage so the press could witness this act of public humiliation—simultaneously boasting of his success. Since capturing Guzman meant the destruction of Shining Path’s hierarchy, the group began to disintegrate due to organizational issues and opposition in the ranks. Research by DESCO demonstrates this decline in political assassinations of moderate leftist figures as part of the general trend after Guzman was captured. Looking back on the process, the government was able to bring down Shining Path, but only at the cost of suppressing civil rights and by carrying out a barrage of human rights violations against Peru’s general population. A few years after his capture, Guzman called for a supposed peace deal which caused the Shining Path to split into two groups: those who insisted on continuing to fight and those who wanted to put down their arms. Since then, the Shining Path has not come near having the success that it achieved as a guerrilla group in the mid-1980s. It has remained relatively quiet in comparison to the past, racking up relatively few kidnappings and murders.

The Return of Shining Path

Recent reports show that Shining Path may be making something of a comeback, reorganizing its cadres and military capabilities to combat the Peruvian state. Over the past decade a number of Shining Path leaders have been peacefully apprehended. For example, news articles reported in 1999 that Ramirez Durand, who goes by the nom de guerre “Comrade Feliciano,” had been cornered, along with three women rebels, after being pursued for two weeks by a force of more than 1,500 commandos. Durand was captured without a shot being fired.

On March 25, 2008 Shining Path rebel members working with drug traffickers killed a police officer and wounded 11 on anti-drug patrols. The unit is said to have been led by one of Shining Path’s last remaining leaders—Comrade Artemio. Comrade Mono—who eventually was caught in March of this year was, in fact, part of another branch of the Shining Path hierarchy. Their apprehension demonstrated that police efforts have been achieving some success in dismantling the organization. Along with these efforts, Peruvian authorities currently hold ex-President Fujimori. Fujimori now faces trial for corruption, fleeing his presidential office, and the ordering of death squads. Others are to be tried for a range of human rights and law violations. This shows that Peruvians may finally be witnessing some sort of justice, rather than the past neglect of democratic standards and the exercise of privilege in the country. Peruvians are responding to this movement toward justice. “Human rights groups in Peru and family members of the victims killed in a 1992 massacre are celebrating now that four members of a paramilitary group will spend between 15 and 35 years in prison” (LivinginPeru.com).

In recent months, there have been accounts of political kidnappings and murders which could be an indication of the recrudescence of the Shining Path. Other reports have told of police forces closing in on them. Shining Path is rumored to be financing their reviving terrorist activities by charging for protecting drug-traffickers and intertwining the organization with coca production and distribution networks. Consequently, Peruvians may soon find themselves dealing with an increase in drug violence, a growing insurgency and an increase in government repression.

This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associate Waynee Lucero