Freedom at Issue

Crossroads Dispatch – Notes from the Field: Colombia

Countries at the Crossroads staff recently visited Colombia, a nation featuring the Western Hemisphere’s longest-running and perhaps most complicated internal conflict. Security gains and economic growth in recent years have improved the situation of many Colombians and resulted in an astronomic approval rating for President Alvaro Uribe. Yet in terms of governance there remain serious unresolved issues in nearly all the spheres of governance analyzed in Countries at the Crossroads. While not all the Crossroads categories were investigated in-depth during this visit, meetings with a range of civil society actors permitted observations regarding a number of key aspects of governance. Note that because the term governance by definition emphasizes state behavior, the focus here is on government actions.

Taking the Wheel in Nepal, Maoists Face a Rocky Road

Former rebel leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known by the nom de guerre Prachanda, was sworn in as Nepal’s prime minister on August 18, confirming his status as the country’s most powerful political leader. While the achievement sealed the victory of his Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) in its long struggle with the now-defunct monarchy, it came at the cost of a grueling 1996–2006 insurgency and some 13,000 lives. The new government will have to address the simmering instability and institutional wreckage left in the wake of the conflict, all while managing an uncertain political coalition and coping with urgent problems like food shortages and rising fuel prices.

New Ministers in Iran May Quash Ahmadinejad’s Economic Plans

Last week, Iran’s parliament, or Majles, gave its vote of confidence to three new cabinet ministers. The relatively moderate Shamseddin Hosseini and Ali Kordan will take up crucial roles as the economy and interior ministers, respectively, while Hamid Behbahani will head the Ministry of Transport. The Financial Times described Hosseini and Kordan as compromise candidates and called their appointment a blow to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his fundamentalist administration.

Mauritanian Military Ditches New Democracy

Just 15 months after surrendering power to the country’s first democratically elected president, the Mauritanian military seized control again on August 6, pledging to conduct fresh elections at some point in the future. The move, which has drawn international condemnation, represents a crushing setback for what was initially seen as a promising democratic transition. The general who led the coup, Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz, has argued that the ousted president’s attempt to fire him and three colleagues earlier that day would have otherwise prompted unacceptable bloodletting between military factions, presumably including one commanded by Abdelaziz himself. He cited a number of other grievances with the president, Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdellahi, but at bottom the coup was a sign that the military was unwilling to submit to the civilian government—or the constitutional system—it had helped to establish.