La Secretaría General de la Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) ha iniciado la coordinación del proyecto “América Latina ante la Segunda Administración Bush”.  

Como parte de este  proyecto, la Secretaría General de FLACSO ofrece otro canal de información con un resumen noticioso semanal sobre lo que se publica acerca de América Latina en algunos de los principales diarios de los Estados Unidos.  Esto permitirá identificar   cuales son los temas que despiertan mayor  interés en Estados Unidos sobre la región latinoamericana y su tratamiento en la prensa estadounidense.  Las noticias han sido clasificadas bajo las categorías de:
 

POLÍTICA NACIONAL
ver noticia(s)

STEP 1 IN BOLIVIAN TAKEOVER: AUDIT OF FOREIGN COMPANIES
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MAY 4, 2006

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia, May 3 - Bolivian authorities said Wednesday that they planned to scour the financial records of foreign energy companies and they threatened explicitly for the first time to seize company assets if new contracts giving the state greater control could not be negotiated.

Wearing a hard hat and flanked by uniformed police officers, Andr és Soliz Rada, the energy minister, reiterated that multinational companies had six months to negotiate new contracts, many of which are likely to vastly increase the state's take.

"If the negotiations do not go well, we could go to the next step, expropriation," he said, adding that the companies would be compensated. But the first step, he said, is an audit of foreign company documents. "It's time to open the black boxes of the petroleum companies."

Mr. Soliz Rada held his news conference at a refinery run by Petrobras of Brazil, the company with the most to lose in Bolivia. Here, as at other private oil installations, military police guarded the entrances, searching cars to make sure no documents were being removed.

CALDERON HITS STRIDE IN MEXICO ELECTION
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 04, 2006

MEXICO CITY - He wasn't expected to win his party's primary, let alone surge ahead in the latest poll for the presidency. But soft-spoken, conservative Felipe Calderon has managed to overtake his charismatic left-wing opponent, and suddenly the campaign is looking like a roller coaster.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, until recently the front-runner, still has a full two months to regain the upper hand, but if Calderon wins on July 2, it would break a wave of leftist victories in Brazil, Bolivia and elsewhere in Latin America and give Washington a close ally at a time of tense relations over shifting U.S. immigration policies.

Calderon was already slightly ahead in two newspaper polls. Then came a survey published Wednesday in the newspaper Reforma that showed him leading Lopez Obrador by 40 percent to 33 percent, with Roberto Madrazo of the Institutional Revolutionary Party at 22 percent. The nationwide survey of 2,100 people, conducted April 28-30, had a margin of error of 2.3 percentage points.

LOPEZ OBRADOR COURTS MEXICO POOR FOR VOTE
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 04, 2006

MEXICO CITY - Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is a shopkeeper's son and a leftist who promises "the poor come first," but seeks to distance himself from the growing tide of leftist leaders in Latin America.

To win Mexico's presidency, Lopez Obrador will have to convince voters that he won't scare off investors or strain Mexico's new economic stability with spend-and-borrow policies.

Mexicans, who are tired of politicians who get rich in office, like his frugal style. A widower and father of three, he lives in a modest Mexico City apartment and rides in a compact car, albeit with a driver.

Born on Nov. 13, 1953, in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco, Lopez Obrador earned a political science degree at Mexico's National Autonomous University, and worked on development projects for Tabasco's impoverished Chontal Indians, sometimes living among them.

MEXICO POLICE CONTROL REBELLIOUS TOWN
THE WASHINGTON POST
May 4, 2006

SAN SALVADOR ATENCO, Mexico -- Hundreds of law enforcement officials fired tear gas and crashed through human barricades to take control of a rebellious town outside Mexico City just before dawn Thursday, hours after protesters released six badly beaten police hostages.

President Vicente Fox condemned the violent uprising by residents of San Salvador Atenco, which erupted Wednesday when inhabitants attacked police in response to the arrest of several of their companions at a market in a nearby town. A teenager was killed in the melee and dozens of people were wounded _ including 33 police, according to Mexican media.

The people of San Salvador Atenco have a history of clashing with authorities; their violent protests in July 2002 stopped government plans to build an international airport in the town, located 15 miles northeast of the capital.

'ZERO TOLERANCE' COMES TO BRAZIL
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
MAY 04, 2006

RIO DE JANEIRO – His stepmother beat him, so Aluizio Pereira fled for the streets.

Three years later, the scrawny 13-year-old still sleeps on the sidewalk along Ipanema Beach, begging for handouts in the shadows of the luxury hotels that dominate the upscale neighborhood.

But to some, Aluizio is more than just a reminder of a grim social reality. In this divided city, he represents a threat to public security and - thanks to former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani - the police are working to clear him, and others like him, off the streets.

Fed up with a growing climate of urban disorder, Rio police have declared a new war against the city's minor offenders - and they credit Mr. Giuliani for the idea.

Following Giuliani's assumption that public disorder leads to serious crime, Rio's new Zero Tolerance program targets the city's petty criminals. It increases the number of beachside surveillance cameras and radio-patrol police; cracks down on unlicensed vendors, petty thieves, and unruly motorists; and intensifies arrests of the self-appointed attendants who coerce motorists to pay for free parking.

NICARAGUA ASKS CHAVEZ TO STOP INTERFERING
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 05, 2006

MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Norman Caldera has asked Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to butt out of his country's political affairs after Chavez signed a favorable oil pact with dozens of leftist Nicaraguan mayors.

Peru and a Mexican presidential candidate also have recently accused Chavez of interfering in internal affairs.

Chavez agreed last month to ship 10 million barrels of fuel a year at preferential prices to 51 Nicaraguan communities, many of them allied with the party of Sandinista presidential candidate Daniel Ortega. He also made a donation of 10,000 tons of urea to Sandinista farming organizations, Caldera said.

Chavez has openly backed Ortega, saying he would like his "friend" and "brother" to win Nov. 5 presidential elections.

"We hope this partisan support comes to an end so that Nicaraguans can freely choose who we want to be the next leader of Nicargua," Caldera told a local television station Thursday during a government event in the city of Boaco, 45 miles northeast of the capital, Managua.

CHAVEZ WANTS VOTE ON GOVERNING UNTIL '31
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 06, 2006

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that Venezuelan voters should have the chance to decide whether he should govern the country for the next 25 years.

Speaking at a stadium packed with supporters in central Lara state, Chavez said he would hold a referendum to put the question of his remaining in office to Venezuelans if the opposition pulls out of upcoming presidential elections.

"I am going to ask you, all the people, if you agree with Chavez being president until 2031," he said.

It was not clear if Chavez was talking about holding a legally binding vote to eliminate term limits or proposing a plebiscite.

Chavez said Friday that he said he might seek "indefinite" re-election through a referendum if the opposition boycotts the presidential vote.

NOBEL LAUREATE RETURNING TO LEAD DIVIDED COSTA RICA
WASHINGTON POST
MAY 7, 2006

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - Nobel laureate Oscar Arias begins a second stint as president of Costa Rica on Monday, taking power in a nation divided over free trade with the United States and widely seen as rudderless.

Dignitaries from around the world, including former Polish President Lech Walesa, another Nobel Peace Prize winner, and U.S. first lady Laura Bush began arriving over the weekend.
Arias first served as president during the 1980s, when Central America was ripped by civil wars. He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in brokering an end to the conflicts.

Now he takes the helm as the nation and region focus on economic integration. He pledges to put his country of 4 million people on the road to developed-nation status, but lacks a clear mandate after his unexpectedly close election win.

Arias vows to push the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States, or CAFTA, through Congress.

Costa Rica has signed, but has yet to ratify the agreement already passed by the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.
Arias calls CAFTA "vital" but admits it is not ideal.

"I too have reservations about this free trade pact, but it cannot be renegotiated," he told a news conference on Sunday.

'INDEFINITE' CHÁVEZ REIGN?
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 07, 2006

CARACAS - (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said he could seek ''indefinite'' reelection through a referendum if the opposition boycotts upcoming presidential elections.

Chávez made the remark Friday, saying if the opposition pulls out of the Dec. 3 vote or makes false claims of electoral fraud, ''I would call a national referendum to have the people decide if I can continue here indefinitely or if I have to go after six years in 2014.''

Venezuela's constitution allows a president to be reelected only once in immediate succession. That limit would give Chávez six more years in office if he is reelected.

Polls shows Chávez is likely to win the elections, and international observers have validated recent votes. But some opposition members have questioned the selection of new directors for the country's electoral council, claiming they are government sympathizers.

ID MISTAKES RILE MISSING CHILEANS' KIN
THE MIAMI HERALD
May. 07, 2006

SANTIAGO, Chile - Dozens of families whose relatives disappeared during Chile's "dirty war" on dissidents in the 1970s are being forced to relive their grief in a case of bungled forensics that has shocked the nation and handed the new president her first crisis.

Authorities say that of 126 bodies identified in 1998, 48 were misidentified and 37 more are in doubt - leaving families mourning at the wrong graves.

President Michelle Bachelet, herself imprisoned and tortured during Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship, has promised to investigate the errors, which she said have left an "open wound" for those who thought they had gained closure.

The cause of the mistakes is unclear. Some relatives and lawyers blame sloppiness at the Santiago coroner's office. Others suggest the office felt pressure to deliver quick results and released the bodies without completing identifications - a suggestion denied by Dr. Jose Rodriguez, head of the office at the time.

ARIAS TAKES OVER PRESIDENCY IN COSTA RICA
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 08, 2006

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias returned to the Costa Rican presidency on Monday, hoping to use his skills as a mediator to unite a country sharply divided over free trade with the United States.

The 65-year-old Arias, best known for winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 after helping broker an end to Central American civil wars, was sworn into office promising he will work to stabilize Costa Rica's economy through increased investment in education, job creation and a government that is committed to ethics and openness.

But as Latin American leaders and first lady Laura Bush gathered for Monday's inauguration at Costa Rica's National Stadium, about 4,000 union members, students and academics marched outside the forum to demand that Costa Rica not ratify the free trade agreement known as CAFTA. Costa Rican officials have signed the pact, but it has not been ratified in the country's Congress.

"I haven't arrived at this post to please any particular group, but to defend the interest of Costa Rican society as a whole," Arias promised in a half-hour inauguration speech after his swearing-in.

ZAPATISTA REBEL LEADER GIVES INTERVIEW
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 09, 2006

MEXICO CITY - Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos Tuesday criticized a police crackdown against protesters in a town near the capital, predicting that political fallout from the clashes would affect the upcoming presidential election.

In a rare live broadcast interview with Mexico's Televisa network, the masked rebel leader said that a clash between police and protesters that left a teenager dead and scores injured in a town outside Mexico City last week shows the country's brewing tensions.

He added, however, that the Zapatistas will not boycott the July 2 elections for the presidency, state governorships and congressional seats. He emphasized that his rebel group is now committed to peace.

Marcos denied Institutional Revolutionary Party presidential candidate Roberto Madrazo's allegations that the Zapatistas instigated the clash last week in San Salvador Atenco, about 15 miles northeast of Mexico City.

HOT DESTINATION: COLOMBIA
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
MAY 09, 2006

CIUDAD PERDIDA, COLOMBIA – When they set out from their native Norway to travel around Latin America, it didn't occur to Silje Klokk and Tarjei Hueem to include Colombia - long considered South America's most dangerous country - on their three-month itinerary.

But as they hit some of the region's more popular tourist destinations, travelers they met along the way kept raving about Colombia and downplaying any security concerns Ms. Klokk and Mr. Hueem expressed.

"From what we were told, Venezuela is what Colombia was 10 years ago in terms of security," says Klokk. "It seemed safer to come here." So she and Hueem changed their plans and visited one of Colombia's prime attractions: the ancient Indian ruins of Ciudad Perdida, or the Lost City.

CRIME BRINGS VENEZUELANS INTO STREETS
Large Protests Over Soaring Homicide Rate Create Political Challenge for Chavez
WASHINGTON POST
MAY 10, 2006

CARACAS, Venezuela -- The swelling bruise on Dorian Ricardo's cheekbone was pink in the middle, marking the precise point where the butt of a pistol struck him before the gunman wrestled away Ricardo's $100 electrician's tool kit.

Now he was thinking about vengeance. Standing outside a police forensics office to file an official report, Ricardo admitted little faith in the Venezuelan justice system. But for about $50, he said, he could hire someone to kill the man.

"If you're not rich, the police here don't care about taking your case," said a humiliated Ricardo, 41, who described his attacker as a neighborhood thug. "That's why so many people here take justice into their own hands. You need to do something to protect your family. I have to do something, because I see the man who did this every day."

MARCOS BACK IN PUBLIC EYE IN MEXICO
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MAY 10, 2006

MEXICO CITY, May 9 - Subcommander Marcos, the Zapatista rebel leader, latched on to an ugly clash last week between the police and farmers outside the capital to revive his flagging campaign for a socialist movement that he hopes will someday topple the government without a shot.

Marcos appeared on national television on Tuesday and let himself be interviewed at length for the first time in years. As always, he appeared in his black ski mask and military fatigues, a headset atop his frayed cap, a pipe in his mouth.

He denounced the brutality of the police in putting down the rioting farmers, who wielded machetes and threw firebombs. He also accused the state and federal authorities of provoking the violence, raping women and jailing innocents.

MIGRACIÓN
ver noticia(s)

MI ENCUENTRO CON LA SOLIDARIDAD
WASHINGTON POST
MAY 5, 2006

Para inmigrantes cómodos en Estados Unidos, desvanecen temores de una reacción negativa

Hace unas semanas tuve una sensación de intranquilidad mientras esperaba el metro. Era el 10 de abril y docenas de otros inmigrantes hispanos se alineaban en la plataforma para dirigirse a la marcha inmigrante en el centro de Washington. Con un megáfono en mano, una de las organizadores daba órdenes a los manifestantes, interrumpiendo el silencio habitual del lugar. Miré a mi alrededor tratando de dilucidar la reacción de los otros usuarios, esperando secretamente no advertir en sus expresiones nada más que una simple incomodidad con la interrupción.

El viernes pasado sentí una aprensión similar cuando escuché "Nuestro Himno" -- la muy libre traducción al español del himno estadounidense Star-Spangled Banner. Y luego vino el boicot de esta semana. Los organizadores convocaron al paro de un día para demostrar el impacto del sector inmigrante sobre la economía estadounidense y poner presión al Congreso estadounidense para que actúe consecuentemente. Mi esperanza era que el estadounidense promedio no se sintiera ofendido, ni por la pobre versión del himno nacional, ni por lo que algunos han llamado chantaje económico.

No me siento particularmente orgullosa de haber sentido esta ansiedad. Pero me consuela en algo saber que no estoy sola. Millones de inmigrantes no participaron del boicot. Para muchos era prematuro y arriesgaba echar a perder la buena voluntad generada por marchas anteriores. Para otros el riesgo de perder su trabajo era demasiado grande. Y aun para otros todas las movilizaciones recientes simplemente no tienen nada que ver con ellos.

NOT ALL MEXICAN MIGRANTS ARE POOR LABORERS
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 06, 2006

MEXICO CITY - Juan Manuel Guillermo was a year away from a law degree. Then his son got sick. The 9-month-old needed expensive intestinal surgery, so instead of finishing school, Guillermo headed north in hopes of joining his brother toiling in the sun-scorched fruit fields of Santa Ana, Calif.

"I wanted to get settled as a professional and be with my family ... I never in my life thought I would go," Guillermo, 22, said recently from the border city of Tijuana after his fourth unsuccessful attempt to cross into the United States.

While many Americans associate Mexican immigration with poor, rural laborers, a large number of those seeking work in the United States these daus are better-educated and hail from relatively well-to-do, middle-class backgrounds in the city.

Many set aside years of training and education to illegally clean houses, take seasonal landscaping jobs or accept positions at meatpacking plants - all of which pay better than most white-collar work in their homeland.

15 YEARS AFTER VIOLENT CLASHES, FRAGILE ACCORD BEING REDRAWN
WASHINGTON POST
MAY 7, 2006

In 1991, Miguel Solis watched Mount Pleasant erupt in violence. Yesterday, he joined dozens of Latino residents in a dialogue with D.C. police on the anniversary of the clashes that shocked the nation and revealed the deep alienation of the District's new immigrants.

So much has changed over the past 15 years: Nearly all the city and police officials addressed the crowd in Spanish -- or at least tried. Yesterday's session was held in the spanking new, $55 million Bell Multicultural High School off 16th Street NW, an institution designed to accommodate the needs of immigrants.

But it was clear that some Latinos still felt frustration with the police, albeit less than in 1991, when the shooting of a Salvadoran man by a rookie officer sparked three days of burning, looting and fighting that left dozens wounded.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS HAVE KIDS SMUGGLED IN
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 07, 2006

TIJUANA, Mexico - Alejandro Valenzuela, a loquacious 12-year-old, memorized the details of a borrowed U.S. birth certificate and jumped in the front seat of his smuggler's car.

Tired from a two-day bus trip to the border from Mexico's central state of Jalisco, Alejandro soon fell asleep. He was awakened by the flashlight of a U.S. immigration inspector.

"I told him in English, 'I'm an American citizen,' but he kept asking questions. That's all the English I know," Alejandro said as he rested at a child welfare office back in Tijuana, across the border from San Diego.

Alejandro is one of a rising number of children trying to sneak into the United States without their parents. Some hide in cars or try to pass themselves off as U.S. citizens, while others ride inner tubes across the Rio Grande or trek through the harsh Arizona desert.

VIBRANT VILLAGE QUIETED AS SALVADORANS GO NORTH
WASHINGTON POST
MAY 8, 2006

PIEDRAS BLANCAS, El Salvador -- It was just past noon, yet the only sign of life in the main square of this remote eastern village was an elderly man swinging in a hammock on his porch.

There was a time, Jose Nieve-Reyes Rubio, 70, explained in a gravelly voice, when the plaza would have been packed with vendors and customers by this hour, their shouts ringing through the air as they bought and sold food, clothing and every imaginable kind of trinket.

"But that was more than 10 years ago," he said as he settled back into his hammock. "Before everyone left for the States."

Today, like villages across El Salvador, Piedras Blancas has been nearly emptied of its working-age inhabitants. Left behind are children and grandparents who live on money that relatives send from such previously unheard of places as "Manassas, Virginia," "Houston, Texas," and simply "Maryland" -- the catchall term by which people here refer to a host of Washington area suburbs.

Although exact figures are difficult to determine, the director of the village school, who has tracked the student population for two decades, estimates that more than 3,500 Piedras Blancas natives, or about 40 percent of the population, live in the United States.

In the fourth-grade class, where teacher Roney Ramirez was giving a social studies lesson on a recent afternoon, 17 of the 21 students have at least one parent abroad.

"What does the agricultural sector in our area consist of?" Ramirez, 26, asked the children.

"Farming and cattle raising!" they shouted back with the certainty born of growing up where families have lived off the land for generations.

"How many of you plan to remain here and become farmers when you grow up?" Ramirez asked.

No one raised a hand.

POLÍTICA BILATERAL
ver noticia(s)

IN BRAZIL, ANGER AT LEADER'S MILD RESPONSE TO BOLIVIA'S BOLD MOVE
 THE NEW YORK TIMES
MAY 4, 2006

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 3 - President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil continued his low-key approach on Wednesday to Bolivia's move to take control of its natural gas and oil industries, drawing a barrage of criticism here for what many consider Brazil's weak response.

Brazil is Bolivia's biggest natural gas customer, with more than half its supply coming from there, and Brazil's state-controlled energy company, with over $1 billion invested, is the biggest single investor in Bolivia's natural gas industry. But Mr. da Silva, who publicly applauded the rise of a fellow leftist, Evo Morales, to Bolivia's presidency last December, has offered a muted response since Bolivia announced on Monday that it would take control of its energy industry. Bolivia has South America's second largest natural gas reserves, after Venezuela.

Businesspeople, political opponents and large-scale consumers of natural gas in Brazil, which has South America's biggest economy, say Mr. da Silva was caught flat-footed by Bolivia's move and has been unwilling to parry decisively because of political affinity with Mr. Morales.

AMID U.S. PRESSURE, FOX BALKS AT DRUG DECRIMINALIZATION BILL
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 04, 2006

MEXICO CITY - U.S. officials welcomed Mexican President Vicente Fox's decision not to sign a drug criminalization bill that some had warned could result in "drug tourism" in this country and increased availability of narcotics in American border communities.

Fox reversed course and said he was sending the bill back to Congress for changes, just one day after his office had said he would sign into law the measure, which would have dropped criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs.

Fox's statement said he will ask for corrections "to make it absolutely clear in our country, the possession of drugs and their consumption are, and will continue to be, a criminal offense."

VENEZUELA RECALLS ITS AMBASSADOR TO PERU
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 04, 2006

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he will remove his ambassador to Peru in response to that country's decision to recall its ambassador to Venezuela after accusing Chavez of interfering in its presidential election.

"I have ordered the recall of our ambassador with much pain," Chavez said late Wednesday, according to Bolivian government news agency ABI.

"I don't believe it should have come to this, because a candidate there (in Peru) launched an aggression at me and I responded - I have the right," he added, referring to Peruvian presidential candidate Alan Garcia.

Garcia called Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales "spoiled children" and "historic losers" after they criticized Peru for signing a free trade deal with Washington.

Last week, Chavez described Garcia and current Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo as "crocodiles from the same water hole" - the remark which prompted Peru to remove its ambassador from Caracas.

UNDER U.S. PRESSURE, MEXICO PRESIDENT SEEKS REVIEW OF DRUG LAW
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MAY 4, 2006

MEXICO CITY, May 3 - After intense pressure from the United States, President Vicente Fox has asked Congress to reconsider a law it passed last week that would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs as part of a larger effort to crack down on street-level dealing.

In a statement issued late Wednesday, Mr. Fox said the law should be changed "to make it absolutely clear that in our country the possession of drugs and their consumption are and continue to be crimes."

Officials from the State Department and the White House's drug control office met with the Mexican ambassador in Washington Monday and expressed grave reservations about the law, saying it would draw tourists to Mexico who want to take drugs and would lead to more consumption, said Tom Riley, a spokesman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Later in the day, Mexico's chief of the Federal Police, Eduardo Medina Mora, tried to clarify the law's intent, saying its main purpose was to enlist help from the state and local police forces. Until now, selling drugs has been solely a federal offense, and the agents charged with investigating traffickers are stretched thin, he said.

URIBE'S MICROCHIP COMMENTS DRAW FIRE
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 04, 2006

BOGOTA, Colombia - Comments attributed to Colombia's president that microchip implants could be used to track Colombians working temporarily in the U.S. drew attention - and criticism - Thursday.

The alleged statement by President Alfaro Uribe dismayed some Colombians after it appeared in Colombian newspapers.

"It would be a blatant violation of human rights," said Jorge Pinilla, 50, a lawyer in Bogota.

Details of Uribe's conversation last month with U.S. lawmakers were revealed by Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania in a report he read into the congressional record last week.

14 JOIN NELSON BID TO BAR CUBAN OIL SEARCH OFF KEYS
MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 06, 2006

WASHINGTON - With efforts to open Florida's coast to energy exploration gaining momentum, more Florida lawmakers are turning their sights south, filing legislation aimed at blocking Cuba from drilling for oil near the Florida Keys.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Miami Republican, and 14 other House members -- 11 of them from Florida -- Friday joined in introducing a bill that would deny visas to any employees of a company or entity that ``contributes to the development of Cuba's oil-exploration program.''

Their bill, a companion to Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson's Senate bill filed earlier, would also impose sanctions on any individuals -- or companies -- who invest $1 million or more to help Cuba develop its oil and natural gas resources.

''My colleagues and I have been working tirelessly to prevent our own companies from ruining Florida's pristine beaches and delicate ecosystem by exploring and drilling for oil off our coast,'' Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement. ``To now have this murderous and totalitarian regime say it wants to drill just 45 miles from Key West is beyond the pale and totally unacceptable.''

URUGUAY: ARGENTINA EYES 6 IN '76 VANISHING
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 08, 2006

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay - Argentina on Monday requested the extradition of five former Uruguayan military officers and a former police officer wanted in the 1976 disappearance of the daughter-in-law of a well-known Argentine poet, authorities said Monday.

Argentine Ambassador Hernan Patino Mayer delivered the extradition request and supporting documents to Foreign Minister Reinaldo Gargano, according to Gargano's office.

The abduction and disappearance of Maria Claudia Garcia, the missing daughter-in-law of poet Juan Gelman, remains an unresolved case in the crackdown on dissent by military dictatorships in Argentina and Uruguay decades ago.

Human rights investigators believe Garcia was secretly taken after her abduction in Buenos Aires to the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo. Investigators suspect Garcia was killed after her abduction.

BOLIVIA'S POPULISM STEPS ON BRAZIL
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
MAY 08, 2006

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL – Bolivia's decision last week to nationalize its natural gas reserves shocked the West, but the country set to pay the highest price - both politically and economically - is Brazil, experts and analysts say.

More than half the gas used in Brazil is Bolivian, and in Sao Paulo - the state that accounts for roughly half of Brazil's GDP - the figure is 75 percent. Any disruption in supply from Bolivia would hit Brazil hard, and those in the heavily industrialized south of the country are especially concerned about the potential costs of last week's decision.

"If prices were to increase, industry would be very hard hit," says Saturnino Sergio da Silva, vice president of the Sao Paulo Federation of Industries, the state's most important business organization. "We want [Brazil's state-owned oil company] Petrobras to act; we have to be tough and say we don't accept this."

Petrobras's president Jose Sergio Gabrielli vowed last week not to invest a penny more in Bolivia, but Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was more equivocal.

U.S. OFFERS PERU CANDIDATE VISA HELP
THE WASHINGTON POST
MAY 9, 2006

LIMA, Peru -- The United States has offered presidential hopeful Ollanta Humala help in regaining his visa after revoking the document last year following his brother's armed takeover of a police station.

Humala, a populist former army officer in the mold of Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez, trails former President Alan Garcia, a more moderate leftist, in the polls ahead of a June 4 runoff vote.

A U.S. Embassy official confirmed Tuesday that Ollanta Humala's visa was revoked in January 2005 "based on information that indicated possible ineligibility for admission to the United States." He declined to provide more details of the revocation.

The official _ who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy _ said U.S. Ambassador James Curtis Struble has offered Humala help in regaining his visa.

"As a matter of fact we encourage him to apply," the official said. "It would be useful to him to visit the States, we think."

Carlos Tapia, a spokesman for Humala's party, told CPN radio that the candidate had been prevented from traveling to the United States since his brother, Antauro Humala, led 160 rebels to seize a remote Peruvian police station, demanding the resignation of President Alejandro Toledo.

U.S. SENATORS CONDEMN BEATING
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 09, 2006

Pushed by a hotel lobby of a different kind, several U.S. senators -- including two who are considering running for president -- on Monday condemned Cuba for the ''beating and intimidation'' of well-known dissident Martha Beatriz Roque in late April.

The effort began in Coral Gables' Biltmore Hotel, where -- in separate visits -- many of the senators got word of the attack on Roque from activists including Ana Navarro, the former Nicaraguan ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, whose boyfriend, Gene Prescott, is the hotel's proprietor.

''It was all a matter of coincidence and really talking to them with the truth,'' Navarro said. ``When policy makers are faced with the truth, they take action.''

DEBATE FAR FROM OVER FOR MEXICO'S DRUG BILL
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
MAY 10, 2006

MEXICO CITY – Welcome to Mexico, a paradise of beaches, Mayan ruins ... and methamphetamines?

Much to the relief of many in Washington, Mexican President Vicente Fox decided last week not to sign into law a bill that would drop criminal charges for possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and other drugs.

But Mexican lawmakers pledged Monday to keep pushing for the decriminalization bill, saying they could override Mr. Fox's veto. The bill has proved controversial, sparking debate in both the US and Mexico over how best to battle drug trafficking and use.

Fox helped design the bill, and when Mexico's Congress initially passed it at the end of April, presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar called it "an advance in combating narcotics trafficking." The reason: it would free up jail space and re-focus funding and manpower currently used to crack down on small-time users on big-time smugglers and dealers who, in the past few years, have turned Mexico into a more dangerous hub in the international drug trade.

EX-CON HELPS U.S. DELIVER SATELLITE PHONES TO FARC
MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 10, 2006

COMBITA, Colombia - It sounds like a spy novel: Using a cooperating drug trafficker, U.S. officials put several supposedly untraceable satellite phones in the hands of Colombia's FARC guerrillas, then listened to their chatter.

But the sting of Latin America's most secretive insurgency -- accused of direct involvement in cocaine smuggling to the U.S. and European markets -- really did take place, several U.S. officials told The Miami Herald.

U.S. intercepts of FARC communications were mentioned in a March U.S. indictment of the FARC's seven top leaders and 43 other commanders on charges of running a $25 billion drug trafficking network responsible for 60 percent of the cocaine on U.S. streets.

Other U.S. indictments have implicated mid-level commanders and couriers. In all, at least 55 members of the 50-year-old, 17,000-fighter Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia are facing U.S. charges ranging from drug trafficking and extortion to kidnapping and terrorism.

REGIONAL
ver noticia(s)

IN LATIN AMERICA, IT'S THE LEFT VS. THE LEFT
THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT
MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 07, 2006

Contrary to the conventional wisdom that there is a leftist tsunami against U.S.-styled capitalism in Latin America, there is a very different kind of clash spreading in the region -- one pitting the left vs. the left.

Consider the latest headlines from the region:

Last week, Bolivia's leftist President Evo Morales nationalized his country's natural-gas industry, sending troops to occupy 56 foreign-owned gas company grounds. The move, which most likely will soon leave Bolivia without investments to bring its gas to the surface, was applauded by Morales' followers, but antagonized three left-of-center governments that are key to Bolivia's future: Brazil, Argentina and Spain.

It so happens that Brazil's state-owned Petrobras oil company -- which has invested $1.5 billion in Bolivia during the past decade and is by far the biggest foreign investor in the country -- and the Spanish-Argentine Repsol-YPF are the biggest victims of Morales' measure. Brazil depends on Bolivian gas for 60 percent of its total gas imports, which has created a political uproar in Brazil that could affect President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the October presidential elections.

CHAVEZ WITHDRAWS PERU ENVOY AMID ANDEAN SPAT
THE WASHINGTON POST
MAY 4, 2006

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez withdrew his country's ambassador to Peru after Lima recalled its envoy as a fierce dispute over U.S. free trade agreements rattled the Andean region.

Chavez, a left-winger locked in a stand-off with Washington, made his announcement after Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo appealed to the Organization of American States to prevent Chavez interfering in Peru's election.

The spat between Caracas and Lima underscores sharp differences in Latin America over U.S. trade deals as Chavez contrasts with moderate voices in a regional left-wing resurgence such as Brazil, Chile and Uruguay.

Venezuela's diplomatic rift with Peru erupted after an exchange between Chavez and Peruvian presidential candidate Alan Garcia who called the Venezuelan leader "shameless" for attacking U.S. free trade deals signed with Peru and Colombia.

"We had no choice but to withdraw our ambassador," Chavez told reporters in Bolivia after meeting with ally President Evo Morales. "It should not have come to this as it was a gratuitous attack against me by a candidate from over there."

CRISIS FEARED OVER BOLIVIA GAS TAKEOVER
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 04, 2006

LA PAZ, Bolivia - South American leaders scrambled to avert a regional crisis over Bolivia's nationalization of its natural gas sector as Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez flew with Bolivian President Evo Morales to a hastily arranged summit in Argentina on Thursday.

Morales had announced Monday that he had nationalized Bolivia's natural gas reserves and will reduce foreign participants to minority players - giving the companies six months to sign contracts or leave Bolivia.

The socialist Chavez, a political mentor and ally of the leftist Morales, said he came to Bolivia late Wednesday not to give advice but to offer "congratulations and learn from Bolivia's wisdom."

"With good will, Morales will reach the agreements he needs to make with the foreign companies," Chavez said after arriving in the capital of La Paz.

S.AMERICAN LEADERS AGREE TO NEGOTIATE GAS PRICES
THE WASHINGTON POST
MAY 4, 2006

PUERTO IGUAZU, Argentina (Reuters) - Four South American presidents agreed on Thursday to negotiate prices of Bolivian natural gas and dismissed the notion that Bolivia's nationalization of its energy industry had caused a rift.

The leaders of Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela said it was important to keep the fuel flowing despite the problems caused by the takeover, which Bolivian President Evo Morales announced at a workers' rally on Monday as troops deployed in gas fields and company offices.

Brazil's state oil company Petrobras is the largest investor in Bolivian energy with $1.5 billion in investments and Brazil and Argentina are Bolivia's top gas markets.

"In this meeting, any concerns the presidents may have had have been dispelled," Morales told a news conference at the end of the three-hour emergency summit in this Argentine tourist town.

The leaders came up with a document spelling out the way forward, which essentially was to keep talking.

CHÁVEZ PLAYS OIL CARD IN NICARAGUA
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
 MAY 05, 2006

MANAGUA, NICARAGUA – Venezuela's populist president Hugo Chávez has been accused of using his country's oil wealth to help elect like-minded leaders in Bolivia, Peru, Mexico, and Nicaragua. But there's been little evidence, until now.

A cooperation agreement signed last week between Nicaragua's Sandinista leader - and longtime US nemesis - Daniel Ortega and Mr. Chávez is being touted by many here as an initiative to sell oil to Nicaragua on credit, allowing the country to invest more in poverty-fighting projects. Critics call it a blatant attempt to buy the Nov. 5 presidential election for Mr. Ortega.

"Central America is important for Chávez because the rest of his influence is concentrated in the Andean countries [of South America]," says Michael Shifter, vice president for the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue. Mr. Shifter says Chávez is clearly on a mission to challenge US influence in the region, but that he also appears genuinely concerned with helping the poor - two traits that don't necessarily contradict one another. "This shows a larger ambition, and he is focusing his resources on Nicaragua and calculating that Ortega has a chance to win [elections in November]."

CUBAN, VENEZUELAN AID STREAMS INTO BOLIVIA
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 06, 2006

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Gladys Melani was nearly blind from cataracts. Juana Mamani was illiterate. Sharon Mayra didn't officially exist. What these three Bolivians had in common was poverty, and help from Cuba and Venezuela in solving their problems.

Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez have made a fast and extensive start in providing President Evo Morales' three-month-old left-wing government with humanitarian aid, winning the thanks of its beneficiaries as well as political points.

It's part of what Morales, in a veiled taunt to the Bush administration, calls an "axis of good."

Melani's cataracts were removed for free by one of some 700 Cuban doctors who have fanned out to the farthest corners of Bolivia. Cuban teaching materials are helping Mamani learn to read and write.

Technology from Venezuela got 17-year-old Mayra the ID card without which she couldn't travel abroad, vote, enter government buildings or collect a pension. An estimated 1 million poor Bolivians, nearly 10 percent of the population, are expected to get the same help.

CUBA WINS SEAT ON U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
MIAMI HERALD
May. 09, 2006

WASHINGTON - Cuba on Tuesday secured a seat on the new U.N. Human Rights Council, which replaced an agency where abusers were often members, obtaining the seventh spot out of eight reserved for Latin American and Caribbean nations.

Cuba's candidacy was viewed as a test case for the seriousness of the new Council. Other nations with questionable rights records that were elected at a U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York included Russia, China and Saudi Arabia.

But General Assembly President Jan Eliasson, who oversaw the negotiations that created the new council, downplayed the election of some nations accused of rights abuses, saying it was nonetheless a ''truly historic occasion'' and a ''new departure'' for human rights work worldwide.

MEXICO'S DIRECTION DEBATED
MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 10, 2006

Mexico needs to play a more vocal role in the Latin American policy debate that has been raging since populists such as Presidents Hugo Chávez and Bolivia's Evo Morales came to power, the top foreign policy advisor to Mexico's leading presidential candidate has said.

''Mexico can't play second fiddle in this debate going on in Latin America,'' Arturo Sarukhan, international affairs advisor for the ruling National Action Party said at a Coral Gables seminar on the July 2 Mexican presidential elections.

Sarukhan, whose conservative party's candidate, Felipe Calderón, leads the most recent national poll, argued that Mexico should continue the policies of President Vicente Fox, by strongly aligning itself with U.S. interests.

Roberta Lajous, international affairs coordinator for the left-of-center Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico for 71 years before Fox ousted it, said her party's candidate, Roberto Madrazo, has helped distance itself from its corrupt and autocratic past.

REGION'S ALLIANCES ON SHAKY GROUND
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 10, 2006

MEXICO CITY - Latin American leaders head for a meeting with the European Union this week amid disputes that threaten some of the Western Hemisphere's political and trade alliances -- and that could harm ties with the old continent.

Chile and Mexico have strategic alliances with the European Union already in place, but other Latin American countries have not been able to reach major trade agreements with the EU.

Until recently, many viewed the three-day EU-Latin American summit, which kicks off Thursday in Vienna, Austria, as the ideal place to push such initiatives.

But member nations of the Mercosur and Andean Community trade blocs have become bogged down in internal fighting.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez has said his country will drop out of the Andean Community because two member nations, Peru and Colombia, have signed free trade deals with the United States.