CfPapers: Iuris Dictio No. 39: Tema--Más allá de la Mano Dura: hacia una seguridad democrática ante el crimen organizado [Beyond the Iron Fist: Towards Democratic Security in the Face of Organized Crime]

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It my great honor to serve on the Scientific Advisory Board of the journal Iuris Dictio whose home is the Universidad de San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador). It is one of the leading legal journals in Ecuador and the Andean region. Its editor in chief is Diego Falconí Trávez under whose leadership the journal has produced some marvelous work.

Iuris Dictio es una publicación arbitrada que se orienta al estudio del Derecho. Su objetivo es difundir investigaciones originales y recientes que contribuyan al análisis y discusión del complejo fenómeno jurídico. Con el objetivo de que el debate se difunda de modo extenso, periódico y en el marco de una academia internacional socialmente responsable, Iuris Dictio se publica de manera semestral y todos sus artículos son de libre acceso y circulación. La revista fue fundada en 1998 y está adscrita al Colegio de Jurisprudencia de la Universidad San Francisco de Quito. Se basa en la filosofía de Artes Liberales y, en tal virtud, acoge a especialistas de diversas instituciones y experiencias académicas como parte de su equipo editorial. Iuris Dictio is a peer-reviewed publication dedicated to the study of law. Its objective is to disseminate original and recent research that contributes to the analysis and discussion of the complex phenomenon of law. To ensure that this debate is widely and regularly disseminated within the framework of a socially responsible international academic community, Iuris Dictio is published semi-annually, and all its articles are freely accessible and available. The journal was founded in 1998 and is affiliated with the School of Law at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito. It is based on the philosophy of the liberal arts and, therefore, includes specialists from diverse institutions and academic backgrounds as part of its editorial team. (About Iuris Dictio)

The Journal has just announced a new call for papers for what is likely to be a quite exiciting issue. It focuses on the recent wave of tough measures imosed by States, especially in Latin America, against crominal organizations and its members (reporting here, here, here, and here).  

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CONVOCATORIA Nº 39 - REVISTA IURIS DICTIO
Más allá de la Mano Dura: hacia una seguridad democrática ante el crimen organizado

La revista Iuris Dictio invita a investigadoras/es y especialistas en Derecho, Ciencia Política, Sociología, Criminología, Seguridad, Derechos Humanos y disciplinas afines a enviar sus artículos para el Dossier Nº 39, a publicarse en 2026, dedicado a examinar alternativas democráticas, eficaces y sostenibles frente al avance regional de políticas de “mano dura”, militarización de la seguridad pública y enfoques estrictamente punitivistas.

CALL FOR PAPERS NO. 39 - IURIS DICTIO JOURNAL
Beyond the Iron Fist: Towards Democratic Security in the Face of Organized Crime

The Iuris Dictio journal invites researchers and specialists in Law, Political Science, Sociology, Criminology, Security Studies, Human Rights, and related disciplines to submit their articles for Dossier No. 39, to be published in 2026. This issue will examine democratic, effective, and sustainable alternatives to the regional trend of "tough-on-crime" policies, the militarization of public security, and strictly punitive approaches.

The full CfP follows below in the original Spanish and in an English translation (with links to the Spanish language version on line.  

The Shape of Things to Come: "Executive Order on Protecting Certain Property of Da Afghanistan Bank for the Benefit of the People of Afghanistan (11 February 2022)"

 

 

 On 11 February 2022 US President Biden issued Executive Order on Protecting Certain Property of Da Afghanistan Bank for the Benefit of the People of Afghanistan. As described by US officials:

The E.O. will block property of [Da Afghanistan Bank]DAB held in the United States by U.S. financial institutions and require U.S. financial institutions to transfer this property into a consolidated account held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The Administration will seek to facilitate access to $3.5 billion of those assets for the benefit of the Afghan people and for Afghanistan’s future pending a judicial decision. . . The E.O. is designed to provide a path for the funds to reach the people of Afghanistan, while keeping them out of the hands of the Taliban and malicious actors. (FACT SHEET: Executive Order to Preserve Certain Afghanistan Central Bank Assets for the People of Afghanistan")

But expect workarounds.

JPMorgan Chase repeatedly blocked her attempts to transfer money, she said, and she grew increasingly alarmed by students who said they couldn’t access cash at local Afghan banks — many of which have closed or imposed strict withdrawal limits. In response, she turned to cryptocurrency to provide monthly emergency payments to help students afford enough food to survive. . . There are several advantages to using crypto: Afghans fleeing the Taliban can take their assets with them without risk. Humanitarian agencies seeking to bypass banks and discreetly avoid the Taliban can provide cash directly to those in need. Smugglers and intermediaries who may steal or try to resell aid packages can be circumvented if aid is given directly through a digital transaction. (Starving Afghans Use Crypto to Sidestep U.S. Sanctions, Failing Banks, and the Taliban (19 January 2022); see also Central Bank of Iran to Aid Traders Making Sanction-Busting Crypto Payments).

All of this has substantial implications for what may be coming in the form of sanctions against the projected Russian invasion of Ukraine and the expected annexation of portions of that state and the domestication of the rest.  It also suggests the limits of these "after the fact" actions. One assumes that preparations are already well underway to shift the wealth of Ukraine out from under the potential control of either Russian forces or of locals acting as agents for an otherwise invading force. Of course, all of this is conjecture.  For the moment all one has is the very public narrative management of the parties and the movements of resources that are revealed form time to time.

The text of the Executive along with the White House issued "FACT SHEET: Executive Order to Preserve Certain Afghanistan Central Bank Assets for the People of Afghanistan" (February 11, 2022) follow below.

ASCE 2018 Presentation Summary: "The Challenge of Preserving the Revolutionary Moment in Changing Times--Cuba's Integration into the Global Economy "

I have been posting about the recently concluded annual meeting of the 2018 Conference of the Association for the Study of the Cuba Economy (please see here, here, and here). I was delighted to have been part of a panel organized for the conference, entitled "Cuba's Political/Economic Culture in the Post-Raúl Period." It was organized by Gary Maybarduk, U.S. Department of State (retired), who among his other assignments served in the U.S. Mission in Havana during a critical period in U.S. Cuban relations.

Cuba's Political/Economic Culture in the Post-Raúl Period
Chair: Gary Maybarduk, U.S. Department of State (retired)
     Larry Catá Backer, Coalition for Peace & Ethics and Pennsylvania State University, "The Challenge of Preserving the Revolutionary Moment in Changing Times"
     Arturo López-Levy, University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley and Ralf Otto Niederstrasser, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, "Five Keys to Cuba's Presidential Change in 2018"
     Luis Carlos Battista, Center for Democracy in the Americas, Washington, D.C., "Cuba’s Post-
Revolutionary Foreign Policy"
      Gary Maybarduk, U.S. Department of State (retired), "Cuba's Political and Economic
Arteriosclerosis: It is not just the Castros."

The panel was recorded; the video of which may be accessed HERE.  In the meantime this post includes the PowerPoints of my presentation:  The Challenge of Preserving the Revolutionary Moment in Changing Times. The presentation considered three questions:(1) what adjustments might Cuba have to undertake if it is to embed itself within the structures of global trade and finance?; )2) to what extent is Cuba is disposed to consider these possible reforms?; and (3) what may be possible in the aftermath of the U.S. Presidential election of 2016?

The paper from which this is derived may be accessed here: Backer, Larry Catá, Cuba's Integration into the Global Economy — How Much is Cuba Expected to Change; How Far is Cuba Willing to Go; and Will the EU Serve as the Mediator of Those Changes? (June 18, 2018). Available at SSRN:  https://ssrn.com/abstract=3198429 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3198429

ACSE 2018 coverage: 

Conference Program HERE.

ASCE 2018 Presentation Summary: "The Challenge of Preserving the Revolutionary Moment in Changing Times--Cuba's Integration into the Global Economy "

ASCE 2018 Conference: Summary of Carlos Díaz-Alejandro Lecture, "Identity, Pluralism, and Democracy," delivered by Andrés Velasco, Former Finance Minister of Chile

 ASCE 2018: Summary of Opening Plenary "Cuban Economic and Political Situation" / Resumen del Plenario de Apertura "Situación Económica y Política de Cuba"

"Cuba After Raúl?" Program of the 28th Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy, Miami, Florida 26-28 July/La Asociación para el Estudio de la Economía Cubana (ASCE) realizará su XXVIII conferencia anual titulada Cuba: Después de Raúl?

ASCE 2018 Conference: Summary of Ernesto Betancourt Keynote Address delivered by Mark Sullivan, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress

The Affair of the Sonic Weapons Attack: Cuba Goes on the Offensive Against the Science and the Evidence

(Cuban Interior Ministry's Colonel Ramiro Ramirez, who leads a team investigating U.S. complaints of "attacks" on diplomats in Havana, speaks during an interview at the Hotel Nacional in Havana, Cuba, October 22, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini)

In an earlier post I had suggested  that the United States and Cuba have begun the "litigation" phase of their state-to-state conflict in the courts of public opinion. "The objectives are fairly simple--to sway Western public opinion (and thus to manage pressure in the liberal Western democratic traditions of the rules of play, and to stoke the usual fears in the Cuban population-the fear of invasion, the fear of subversion, and the fear of the old imperial power seeking some sort of new neo-colonialist relationship with the people (that is the state). . . . During the litigation phase both parties begin a process of strategic disclosures and assertions based on evidence that they produce to suit the development of their "case."" (HERE)

The U.S. has been carefully developing its case the way American prosecutors eager for victory might approach a prosecution: tight control of witnesses, careful deployment of the science, and the development of plausible interpretation of events from the construction of a case built on circumstantial evidence and interpolations (e.g., here, and here). The consequence. of course, is that there is relatively little by way of vigorous cooperation from the U.S. side.  

On the Cuban side, there is also little incentive to cooperation.  Cuba does not trust the U.S. And Cuba has secrets of its own, even without the distraction of the Affair of the Sonic Weapons Attack.  Cuba has been approaching the case, then, the way a defense lawyer might consider: denial, demand for proof, the assertion that the U.S. bears the burden of proving (perhaps without a reasonable doubt) that there was an attack and that the Cubans had a hand in it (or someone else).

At this stage, of course, the denials and demand for (usually public persuasive) proof has put the U.S. to its evidence and raised the stakes. That has become clear from recent reporting from Reuters: Sarah Marsh and Nelson Acosta, Cuban Investigators Call US Sonic Attack Allegations ‘Science Fiction’ Reuters (24 October 2017). The reporting follows below.

Read carefully, what is clear is not that the attacks are implausible, but that the United States must be put to its proof, and that, at this stage, that proof is lacking. The political difficulty, though, is that this is not a criminal case, and the United States is not the state prosecutor with substantial authority over the body of the defendant (the Cuban state). The two states provide mirror images of each other in both their approaches and action. The current posture, though,will provide only momentary advantage.

At some point and soon, the case will have to advance  beyond controlled disclosure and name calling.  It is at that point that this Affair will become interesting-- both states appear to be hiding something and both appear willing to protect their secrets even as they gamble that they can make the other side disgorge valuable (in terms of political advantage) their secrets. Or more likely, it will serve as the excuse the right wing factions of both governments need to shift their respective governments away from normalization.  For the Cubans that will include a calculation that they can survive a renewed American hostility, which will in turn result from a calculation of the weakness of the current American administration in global circles. This is a miscalculation that Cuba and other states have made to their regret at various times since 1945 and reflects the error of relying too much on the propaganda and pseudo analysis in social media the purpose of which has always been to present a calculated vision for mass consumption. For the U.S. that will include a calculation of Cuban weakness and of the ability to use popular pressure to change Cuban internal policy. Implicitly, it is also a calculation that Cuba will have no place else to turn--a miscalculation that the U.S. has made with some frequency since the 1960s.

Substituting hope for analytical rigor, when that may entail giving up on ancient dreams and objectives is a hard thing for key players on both sides of this Affair.  It is regrettable that the rest of the stakeholders in both states have abdicated any responsibility for setting this right without unnecessary disadvantage to either state. Yet there is a calculation to all of this as well, one in which news media tend to be complicit. And that is the shared calculation by both sides--that U.S. and Cuban political classes, and those in the media and intelligentsia that serve them, can act to personal advantage because all consequences of risky behavior are borne by their respective populations. It is this detachment between action and consequence (the risk takers do not bear the costs of risk) that has unbalanced the entire calculus in this instance.  

The Battle Between Regulatory and Managerial Approaches Within the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund--The Case of Corruption

The Norwegian Pension Fund Global made public a set of recommendations on May 5.  Most are unremarkable in and of themselves.  What draws attention is what appears to be a difference in appears between the Ethics Council, on the one hand, and Norges Bank, on the other., on the more sensitive issue of corruption (with respect to which I have written critically here, here, and here) 

On 5 May 2017, the Council on Ethics issued four recommendations relating to gross corruption and one recommendation relating to serious environmental damage.

Norges Bank decided to place under observation two companies that the Council had recommended be excluded due to their involvement in cases of corruption. Furthermore, Norges Bank decided to exercise shareholder rights with respect to two companies involved in corruption cases, where the Council had recommended observation. Norges Bank decided to abide by the Council’s recommendation to exclude a company on the grounds of its involvement in serious environmental damage. (HERE)

This post considers some consequences of that rift and provides links to the decisions. 

My Commentary for the U.N. Forum on Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law - "Widening the Democratic Space: The Role of Youth in Public Decision Making"

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2016)

Human Rights Council Resolution 28/14 (9 April 2015) established a Forum on Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law. Further to that effort the UN announced its first Forum to be held in Geneva 21-22 November 2016 in Room XVII Palais des Nations. The Forum targets academics, non governmental organizations and experts. Resolution 28/4, and related materials may be found HERE.

The purpose of the Forum is to "provide a platform for promoting dialogue and cooperation on issues pertaining to the relationship between these areas" as well as to identify best practices, challenges and opportunities for states seeking some framework for engaging in the securing of the ideals of human rights, democracy and rule of law. Associated with that Forum is a consultation that is also open to academics and experts. The theme for the first session of the Forum is Widening the Democratic Space: The Role of Youth in Public Decision Making. The Call for consultation, Resolution 28/4, and related materials may be found HERE.

It was Romania's initiative to set up the Forum, which, together with Morocco, Norway, Peru, the Republic of Korea and Tunisia, promoted a resolution to this effect. Also on Romania's initiative, the Human Rights Council adopted its first resolution on human rights, democracy and the rule of law in 2012, resolution which led to this decision. "The forum proposed by Romania will be a single framework within the UN system, for the discussion of best practices and for sharing experiences on the interdependence of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Romania's creation of this important forum reflects the coherence and consistency of our country's support of UN important projects. The adoption of this resolution in 2015 is even more encouraging now that we are marking 60 years of Romania's membership of the UN". (Mission News, PERMANENT MISSION OF ROMANIA to the United Nations Office in Geneva and the Int'l Organisations in Switzerland)

This post includes my Commentary for the Forum on Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law - Widening the Democratic Space: The Role of Youth in Public Decision Making. It may be downloaded HERE or HERE.