We recently asked if the folks at the Council on Foreign Relations who want to remake US policy on Latin America have Barack Obama's ear. Here's a sign that they do. After a too-long period of annoying vagueness, he finally spells out some ideas. We'll have to oppose that "regional security initiative" of course, and that "Energy Partnership for the Americas" is likely to mask some unpleasant development proposals. But this is tentatively salubrious—and speaking truth to the Cuban American National Foundation earns him a big C for cojones. Foon Rhee writes for the Boston Globe, May 23:

From Reuters, May 22:

Tito Santana, one of the last tribal kings in the Americas, has been driven into exile from his lands deep in the Panamanian jungle by a fight over a hydroelectric project that has divided his tiny kingdom.

Breaking ranks with the loopiness of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his ilk, Bassem Naeem, health and information minister in the Hamas-led Palestinian administration in Gaza, explicitly acknowledges the historical fact of the Holocaust—while calling out Israel's manipulation thereof. From The Guardian's Comment is Free, May 12:

On May 21, as oil prices leaped to an unprecedented $133 a barrel, Big Oil's biggest executives got grilled on the Senate floor. "Where is the corporate conscience?" Sen. Dick Durbin asked execs from ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP America, Shell Oil and ConocoPhilips. Together the five companies earned $36 billion during the first three months of 2008. Their answers trotted out all the usual propaganda tactics...

As part of an emergency appropriations bill, the Senate May 22 approved $350 million in drug war aid to Mexico, with an adittional $100 million for Central America, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Reducing the Bush administration's request for $500 million to Mexico and $50 million to Central America, the Senate also adopted language that would hold up a quarter of the funds until the State Department rules that Mexico is meeting human rights markers. The House approved $400 million for Mexico, with similar provisions. Differences need to be worked out in a joint conference. "Human rights abuses in the army are routinely investigated by the military itself, and that leads to impunity," said Tamara Taraciuk of Human Rights Watch. "The big issue is accountability." (NYT, May 23) The Senate bill also provides $165 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into 2009. (AP, May 23)

Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega is under scrutiny for supposed links to Colombia's FARC guerillas. In one "partially decoded" February e-mail supposedly recovered from the computer of late FARC commander Raúl Reyes, fellow FARC director Iván Márquez wrote that Ortega could send via Venezuela's Hugo Chávez "some old caucheras they are keeping there [in Nicaragua], and he believes still function." Cauchera is said to be code for rifles.

In what the Colombian press is explicitly portraying as a "farcpolítica" scandal to rival the "parapolítica" outrage, chief prosecutor Mario Iguarán asked the Supreme Court to investigate three opposition legislators for alleged links to the FARC guerillas. The investigations were reportedly prompted by data from laptop computers seized in the March 1 cross-border raid into Ecuador. Under suspicion is Sen. Piedad Cordoba (Liberal Party), who helped mediate the recent release of six FARC-held hostages. She maintains her links with FARC were only to help free the hostages. Only the high court can bring charges against sitting legislators.

ETA commander Francisco Javier López Peña AKA "Thierry"—on the run since 1983 and held responsible for ending the last ceasefire—was arrested late May 20 in Bordeaux in a joint operation involving the French Gendarmerie and Spanish Guardia Civil. Arrested with Thierry at a downtown apartment were Ainhoa Ozaeta Mendiondo, Igor Suberbiola and Jon Salaberría, a former member of the Basque parliament and Batasuna leader. All four were armed, but did not resist. Ozaeta Mendiondo is the voice who reads ETA's communiqués in media releases, and said to be the lover of the son of veteran militant Josu Ternera. (ThinkSpain, May 21)