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)

BOLIVIA MOVES CLOSER TO NATIONALIZATION
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 15, 2006

LA PAZ, Bolivia - The Bolivian government pressed ahead with its moves to re-nationalize its energy industry on Monday, ordering foreign financial companies to surrender control over shares they administer for a public pension fund.

The move would immediately give the government control over a large, but minority block of shares in three energy companies. The shares are worth an estimated $1.5 billion, according to Andres Soliz, Bolivia's hydrocarbons minister.

Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera said attempts to negotiate with the financial institutions had been unsuccessful and the government was forced to issue a decree demanding the shares.

"Nobody is going to stop the nationalization, no external force, and much less any conservative internal force that has tried to block this," Garcia Linera said after signing the decree.

ACTIVIST OFFERS HIS VISION OF NEW FREEDOMS FOR CUBA'S CONSTITUTION
THE MIAMI HERALD
May. 11, 2006

HAVANA - (AP) -- Activist Oswaldo Payá presented a proposal Wednesday for a new constitution with expanded freedoms for Cubans, calling for the right to criticize the government and operate private businesses.

The 170-page document, compiled by Payá's Christian Liberation Movement with input from Cubans on and off the island, contains a blueprint for a modified constitution and new electoral laws and rules of association.

It was considered highly unlikely that Cuba's communist government would heed the call for change. There was no immediate comment from authorities.

Copies of the proposal were released to international journalists exactly four years after Payá delivered to Cuba's parliament the first batch of 25,000 signatures gathered for his Varela Project. Payá's earlier democracy drive gained international recognition and prompted the government to declare socialism ``irrevocable.''

LEFTIST POISED TO CAPTURE PERU ELECTION
THE MIAMI HERALD
May. 12, 2006

LIMA, Peru - When Alan Garcia's presidency ended 16 years ago, Peru was in shambles, with 3,000 percent inflation, guerrilla violence and rampant corruption. Now he's poised to return as president.

One force driving this remarkable comeback is his exchange of insults with Hugo Chavez, which is playing well with voters fearful of the Venezuelan president's left-wing radicalism and alliance with Cuba's Fidel Castro.

It's a striking rearrangement of the political landscape. During his first presidency, Garcia might have passed for a proto-Chavez, railing against imperialists, proclaiming a new socialist deal for the poor and balking at paying off Peru's huge foreign debt.

Now it's retired army Lt. Col. Ollanta Humala, Garcia's opponent in the June 4 presidential runoff, who is identified with Chavez, while Garcia has acknowledged past mistakes and claims he has been reborn as a moderate leftist - pragmatic, market-friendly and not hostile to Washington.

It's not the first example of how Latin America's recent leftward surge is being dampened by a fear that Chavez, with his anti-American rhetoric and friendship with Castro, is taking things too far.

COLOMBIA'S TOP COP SHAKEN BY KIN'S ARREST
MIAMI HERALD
May. 13, 2006

BOGOTA, Colombia - The head of Colombia's judicial police - a top crime sleuth who has led a relentless crusade against the country's drug cartels - said he was shocked to learn his brother is suspected of involvement in a major European drug trafficking ring.

Gen. Oscar Naranjo broke the news of his brother's arrest in Germany to a stunned Colombian public this week. On Friday he said his brother, 29-year-old Juan David Naranjo, is accused of being part of what authorities say appears to be a major European drug smuggling operation.

"Juan David was a normal guy, an honest individual, though we haven't communicated very much in the past few years," Naranjo told The Associated Press. "My family and I could have never imagined he was involved in this."

An official in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said Juan David Naranjo was arrested in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe for having 220 pounds of drugs. The official did not disclose the type of drugs found.

Gen. Naranjo said he had not spoken to his brother and that he did not know about the amount of drugs found. He said he believed two or three others were arrested in the German operation.

52 DEAD IN 2ND WAVE OF BRAZIL GANG ATTACKS
THE MIAMI HERALD
May. 14, 2006

SAO PAULO, Brazil - A notorious criminal gang unleashed a second wave of attacks against police Sunday, bringing to at least 52 the number of people killed in what one official said was the deadliest assault of its kind in Brazil's history.

Meanwhile, another 33 related prison rebellions also broke out on Sunday, bringing the number of uprisings across Sao Paulo state to 51 - more than one-third of Brazil's 144 prisons. Inmates were holding 244 prison guards hostage.

The rebellious inmates have not made any demands nor have they harmed any of their hostages, said Jorge de Souza a spokesman for the Sao Paulo Prison Affairs Department.

He said visiting relatives were inside several of the prisons but "we don't consider them hostages because they are there to show solidarity with their jailed relatives."

HAITIAN PRESIDENT RENÉ PRÉVAL IS INAUGURATED
MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 14, 2006

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Réne Préval, a quiet bakery owner who five years ago became the only elected president to leave office after a full term, was sworn in again as president today, restoring constitutional rule to Haiti for the first time since an armed rebellion forced President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile two years ago.

Préval's inauguration brings the troubled nation a rare glimpse of hope in a bleak 202-year history of predatory rule, perpetual insurrection, crushing poverty and scant development.

On the steps of the National Palace,in front of thousands of people, Préval urged Haitians to stop fighting each other and begin talking about how to rebuild.

''We have to make peace,'' he said. ``We have to have a dialogue ... Peace is the key to open doors -- the door of investment to create jobs and employment, the door for tourists to come the country, for roads, more schools, more hospitals.''

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush led the U.S. delegation to the inauguration ceremony, which took place in the sweltering parliamentary chambers. Also in attendance were Canadian Governor General Michaelle Jean, Actor Danny Glover, OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza and Venezuelan Vice President José Vicente Rangel.

BRAZILIAN GANG ATTACKS THE POLICE
THE  NEW YORK TIMES
MAY 14, 2006

SÃO PAULO, Brazil, May 13 (AP) — One of Brazil's most notorious gangs staged dozens of attacks on the police early Saturday, setting off gun battles in three cities that killed at least 30 people, officials said. Twenty-four prison uprisings were also reported across São Paulo state.

It was the worst assault on authority since gangsters armed with machine guns, bombs and other weapons attacked police stations in São Paulo city over a 10-day stretch in November 2003. That spree also was blamed on the gang First Capital Command, which is known by its Portuguese initials, P.C.C.

The gang was founded in 1993 by prisoners at the Taubate Penitentiary in São Paulo. Authorities say it is involved in drug and arms trafficking, kidnappings and bank robberies.

The attacks that began late Friday "were obviously the work of the P.C.C.," said Enio Lucciola, the press spokesman for the São Paulo State Public Safety Department.

"It is trying to undermine our authority and intimidate us and the population at large at a time when we have redoubled our efforts to destroy the organization," Mr. Lucciola said by telephone.

70 DIE IN 4 DAYS OF VIOLENCE IN BRAZIL
THE MIAMI HERALD
May. 15, 2006

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Prison riots and attacks on police by a criminal gang extended into Monday, raising the reported death toll to 70 in four days of violence that has started to choke normal life in South America's largest city.

Brazilian media reported that the federal government was preparing to send troops to enforce control of Sao Paulo.

Officials said Sunday the death toll had reached at least 52 after at least 100 separate attacks since Friday, but the Globo TV network reported that additional overnight attacks had raised the toll to more than 70.

Most of those dead were reported to be police officers targeted by a powerful criminal gang protesting the prison transfer of some of its leaders. Officials said they had arrested at least 72 suspects.

Attacks on public buses prompted many companies to halt service, stranding thousands of people trying to reach work Monday.

RENÉ PRÉVAL IS INAUGURATED AS PRESIDENT IN UNEASY HAITI
THE NEW YORK TIMES
 MAY 15, 2006

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, May 14 (Reuters) — President René Préval took office and appealed for peace in Haiti on Sunday as his troubled Caribbean nation inaugurated its first democratically elected leader since Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled more than two years ago.

Scores of people chanted for Mr. Aristide's return from exile in South Africa as Mr. Préval took the oath of office.

Shortly before the ceremony, the police and United Nations peacekeepers fired tear gas at the nearby National Penitentiary to quell a riot.

Mr. Préval, a 63-year-old agronomist who was president of Haiti from 1996 to 2001, takes the place of a United States-backed interim administration appointed after Mr. Aristide left Haiti in February 2004 in the face of a rebellion and under pressure from Washington and Paris to quit.

Mr. Préval appealed for peace in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas. Haiti is struggling to establish a stable democracy after decades of dictatorship and military rule and recent political violence that took hundreds of lives.

VIOLENCE IN BRAZIL KILLS MORE THAN 80
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 15, 2006

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Masked men attacked bars, banks and police stations with machine guns. Gangs set buses on fire. And inmates at dozens of prisons took guards hostage in an unprecedented four-day wave of violence around South America's largest city that left more than 80 dead by Monday.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva prepared to send in 4,000 federal troops, and officials worried the violence could spread 220 miles northeast to Rio de Janeiro, where police were put on high alert and extra patrols were dispatched to slums where drug gang leaders live.

"What happened in Sao Paulo was a provocation, a show of force by organized crime," Silva said. He said the gangs' "tentacles are spread around the world and we must use a lot of intelligence" to quell the chaos their attacks caused.

The violence was triggered by an attempt to isolate gang leaders, who control many of Sao Paulo's teeming, notoriously corrupt prisons, by transferring eight of them Thursday to a high-security facility hundreds of miles away from this city of 18 million people.

The leaders of the First Capital Command gang, or PCC, reportedly used cell phones to order the attacks. Gang members began riddling police cars with bullets, hurling grenades at police stations and attacking officers in their homes and afterwork hangouts.

REPORT OF HIS WEALTH IS 'RUBBISH,' CASTRO SAYS
THE MIAMI HERALD
May. 16, 2006

HAVANA - Fidel Castro said Monday that this month's Forbes magazine report calling him one of the world's wealthiest rulers was ''rubbish'' as he made a special television appearance devoted to knocking down the story.

Castro spoke live on the island's daily public affairs program Mesa Redonda, or Round Table, which served as an official rebuttal of the Forbes report by the Cuban president and several top officials.

''I've been listening to this wickedness for nearly half a century -- I don't pay much attention,'' Castro said. ``Neither lies nor slander are worth anything.''

In its May 5 article, Forbes included Castro in a group of 10 leaders with ''lofty positions and vast fortunes.'' The magazine estimated Castro's personal fortune to be $900 million -- nearly double that of the $500 million of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and just under Prince Albert II of Monaco's estimated $1 billion.

The article also refers to rumors of Castro's ``large stashes in Swiss bank accounts.''

''Why should I defend myself against this rubbish?'' Castro said he asked himself before the appearance.

PROTESTER KILLED DURING COLOMBIA PROTESTS
MIAMI HERALD
May. 16, 2006

BOGOTA, Colombia - Farmers and members of indigenous tribes clashed on Tuesday with police during protests against a free-trade agreement with the U.S. and the re-election of President Alvaro Uribe, and protest leaders said an Indian farmer was killed.

Some 30 more were injured, five of them seriously, in the violence in the village of Piendamo, 210 miles southwest of the capital of Bogota.

Protesters complained of police brutality, while authorities accused leftist rebels of organizing the demonstrations to disrupt May 28 presidential elections.

"It's serious here, the security forces keep hurting the people," said Vicente Otero, a spokesman for a regional indigenous council.

Otero said Pedro Poscue, a farmer, was shot to death by police who fired from a helicopter to disband the protest, which he said involved 15,000 people. Authorities estimated the number of protesters at 6,000.

Cauca Gov. Jose Chaux, alleged that the protests were "financed, organized and sponsored by terrorism," referring to the country's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Protest organizers denied any link to the FARC rebels.

BRAZIL COPS KILL 33 SUSPECTED GANG MEMBERS
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 16, 2006

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Police struck back Tuesday at gangs that rampaged through South America's largest city, killing 33 suspected gang members in less than 24 hours and frisking motorists at roadblocks while reporting only one death of their own.

At least 133 people - including 40 police officers - have been killed since Friday night, when a prison transfer of gang leaders sparked attacks on police stations, courts, city buses and other symbols of government authority.

But while gang attacks fell off sharply in Sao Paulo on Tuesday, the death toll within their ranks rose dramatically.

Officers "acted within the law, but that doesn't mean we have to let them humiliate us," Marco Antonio Desgualdo, a top Sao Paulo state law enforcement official, told reporters. He did not give specifics about the killings.

CASTRO DENIES FORBES REPORT ON HIS WEALTH
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 16, 2006

HAVANA - Cuban President Fidel Castro denounced a Forbes magazine report naming him one of the world's wealthiest rulers, putting in a special television appearance on Monday to rebut the story he called "rubbish."

In its May 5 article, "Fortunes Of Kings, Queens And Dictators," Forbes put Castro in 7th place in a group of 10 world leaders with "lofty positions and vast fortunes." The magazine estimated Castro's personal wealth to be $900 million - nearly double that of the $500 million of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and just under Prince Albert II of Monaco's estimated $1 billion.

The article also referred to rumors of Castro having "large stashes in Swiss bank accounts."

"All this makes me sick," Castro responded Monday on the communist government's daily public affairs program Mesa Redonda, or "Round Table." "Why should I defend myself against this rubbish?"

Later on the program, Castro pounded the table, saying, "If they can prove I have an account abroad ... containing even one dollar I will resign my post."

Castro also gave the floor to several top officials, including Central Bank President Francisco Soberon, to deny the claims and defend his integrity.

BRAZIL GANG TAKES ON STATE
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
MAY 16, 2006

RIO DE JANEIRO – The unprecedented series of attacks on law enforcement that has left as many as 74 people dead and more than 40 prisons under the control of rioting inmates marks the dramatic resurgence of a criminal gang in São Paulo. It also signals a new power struggle between police and organized crime in Brazil's biggest state, warn analysts and human rights experts.

The weekend attacks were carried out by the First Capital Command (PCC), a gang formed in the 1990s in São Paulo's notorious prison system to demand better conditions. But the PCC's audacious and ongoing attacks beyond the prison walls show they have the means to confront the state, says Renato Simoes, a human rights expert who has followed the rise of the group.

It's a power struggle," says Mr. Simoes, reached by phone. The São Paulo congressman serves on the state's Human Rights Commission. "The PCC feels emboldened because it senses the government is weak."

The attacks began Thursday and continued into Monday, with bandits burning more than 60 buses. On Sunday, the violence spread to inmates rebelling at jails in the neighboring states of Parana and Mato Grosso do Sul.

BRAZIL DEATH TOLL RISES AS COPS TARGET GANGS
THE MIAMI HERALD
May. 17, 2006

SAO PAULO - Police struck back Tuesday at gangs that rampaged through South America's largest city, killing 33 suspected gang members in less than 24 hours and frisking motorists at roadblocks while reporting only one death of their own.

At least 133 people -- including 40 police officers -- had been killed since Friday night, when a prison transfer of gang leaders sparked attacks on police stations, courts, city buses and other symbols of government authority.

But while gang attacks fell off sharply Tuesday, the death toll rose dramatically. Chief among them were the 33 new deaths of suspected criminals announced by authorities, bringing the total number of suspected gang members killed since Friday to 71.

BRAZILIAN CRIME GROUP DEFIES POLICE
THE MIAMI HERALD
May. 17, 2006

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Less than a year ago, a top Sao Paulo law enforcement officer boasted that police had all but destroyed one of Brazil's most notorious crime groups.

"The PCC's days are numbered," Godofredo Bittencourt, head of the Sao Paulo police's organized crime unit, said in July after announcing the arrest of 11 members of the group widely known by the initials.

But this week, the PCC proved him deadly wrong, unleashing an unprecedented four-day crime wave that has left at least 100 people dead, among them 40 police officers.

From inside the Sao Paulo state penitentiaries, the PCC used cell phones to order its "soldiers" to attack bars, banks and police stations with machine guns, grenades and molotov cocktails and set buses on fire. The gang also orchestrated uprisings in more than 70 prisons across the state.

The violence came in response to the transfer of eight imprisoned PCC leaders to a high security facility in an attempt to sever their ties to gang members on the outside. But the attacks were also the PCC's way of "baring its claws to intimidate authorities and society," said Guaracy Mingardi, a former Sao Paulo police inspector and current U.N. adviser on crime.

DAYS OF VIOLENCE BY GANGS IN SÃO PAULO LEAVES 115 DEAD BEFORE SUBSIDING
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MAY 17, 2006

SÃO PAULO, Brazil, May 16 — Widespread violence eased Tuesday after five days of attacks on police headquarters, buses and public buildings that paralyzed this city, South America's largest, and left 115 people dead.

The news media here said the violence ceased after the overwhelmed police authorities met Sunday with the leader of the powerful organized crime group that orchestrated the onslaught, who was reported to have ordered a truce by cellphone from his prison cell.

But both sides later denied striking any deal. "The government did not submit to any demands or requests," Marco Antônio Desgualdo, director general of the state's civil police force, said in an interview on Tuesday. "The police did not negotiate."

Government officials also dismissed local news reports that the police had used the crisis to kill suspects they had previously singled out as gang members. A police crackdown during the battles led to the arrest of more than 100 suspected gang members and the killing of 71. While most of the dead were suspected of being criminals, some 40 police officers were also killed, and the scale of the fighting has prompted many to question an already shaky faith in Brazil's public security forces.

ISLANDS' CHIEF JUSTICE AT CENTER OF SCANDAL
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 17, 2006

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago - A magistrate's complaint that Trinidad and Tobago's chief justice tried to influence his ruling on the trial of a former prime minister has sparked a burgeoning scandal here and exacerbated the country's racial divisions.

Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma, who is of Indian descent, went to court against current Prime Minister Patrick Manning after Manning announced an investigation into the allegations against Sharma. Manning canceled a trip to Europe to deal with the crisis at home.

The week-old scandal has sharpened tensions between this two-island Caribbean nation's East Indian and black communities and increased distrust in the justice system, which is already viewed as subject to political interference and favoring the wealthy.

The scandal revolves around Basdeo Panday, a former prime minister of Indian descent who was convicted last month of failing to report substantial deposits he held in a United Kingdom bank account, as required by law.

MEXICO VOTERS FEAR NATION ON EDGE OF CHAOS
THE MIAMI HERALD
May. 17, 2006

MEXICO CITY - Police enraged by the kidnapping of six officers club unarmed detainees. A bloody battle between steelworkers and police leaves two miners dead. Drug lords post the heads of decapitated police on a fence to show who's in charge.

Less than two months before Mexicans elect their next president, many fear the country is teetering on the edge of chaos - a perception that could hurt the ruling National Action Party's chances of keeping the presidency and benefit Mexico's once-powerful Institutional Revolutionary Party, whose candidate has been trailing badly.

Some blame President Vicente Fox for a weak government. Others say rivals are instigating the violence to create that impression, hoping to hurt National Action candidate Felipe Calderon, who has a slight lead in recent polls.

A poll published Friday in Excelsior newspaper found 50 percent of respondents feared the government was on the brink of losing control. The polling company Parametria conducted face-to-face interviews at 1,000 homes across Mexico. The poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

RULING AGAINST JOURNALIST OVERTURNED
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 17, 2006

MEXICO CITY - The Supreme Court on Tuesday overruled a judge who ordered an Argentine journalist and a Mexican news magazine to pay $178,000 to Mexican first lady Marta Sahagún, and ordered the case to be reopened.

The court found that Judge Carlos Miguel Jiménez did not review all the evidence before finding that journalist Olga Wornat's article in the February 2005 edition of Proceso invaded Sahagún's privacy and sought to personally damage her, said Salvador Corro, the magazine's assistant director of information.

Corro said the court has ordered Jiménez to review the case again.

Court officials confirmed that the judge's order was overturned but did not provide details. Sahagún, the wife of President Vicente Fox, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The Proceso article, about the annulment of Sahagún's first marriage, was accompanied by a copy of the annulment.

Jiménez ruled earlier this month that the publication of the document constituted ''a legitimate intrusion into the intimate life of the complainant'' because it revealed intimate details of the marriage.

The ruling did not find fault with Wornat's facts.

VENEZUELA CONSIDERS SELLING F-16S TO IRAN
THE MIAMI HERALD
May. 17, 2006

CARACAS - (AP) -- Venezuela's military is considering selling its fleet of U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets to another country, possibly Iran, in response to a U.S. ban on arms sales to President Hugo Chávez's government, a Venezuelan military official said Tuesday.

Gen. Alberto Muller, a senior advisor to Chávez, said he had recommended to the defense minister that Venezuela consider selling the 21 jets to another country. Muller said he thought it was worthwhile to consider ``the feasibility of a negotiation with Iran for the sale of those planes.''

The Iranian Embassy in Caracas, however, said no such deal has been formally proposed.

''We don't have plans to buy planes,'' said Hojjatollah Soltani, second secretary at the Iranian diplomatic mission.

The U.S. State Department warned that Washington would have to sign off on any sale of the F-16s -- a possibility that spokesman Sean McCormack suggested was highly unlikely.

''Without the written consent of the United States, you can't transfer these defense articles, and in this case F-16s, to a third country,'' McCormack said in Washington.

Even before the United States announced the ban on arms sales Monday, Washington had stopped selling Venezuela sensitive upgrades for the F-16s.

VOTERS CHART PRESIDENT'S FUTURE
THE MIAMI HERALD
May. 17, 2006

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - President Leonel Fernández, who took power two years ago amid financial and political turmoil, is banking on the nation's economic rebound to help his party gain more seats as Dominicans elected a new legislature on Tuesday.
Twenty-two parties from across the political spectrum fielded candidates in the first nationwide vote since Fernández replaced Hipólito Mejía, whose administration was dogged by corruption scandals, skyrocketing inflation and the devaluation of the Dominican peso.

About 80 observers with the Organization of American States found no irregularities in early voting and there were no reports of violence, said Ruben Perina, head of mission. It was too early to estimate the turnout, he said.

Reporters for The Associated Press saw varied turnout in Santo Domingo: Voters jammed schools in working-class neighborhoods, but a polling place in a wealthier district was nearly empty by midmorning.

With 28 representatives added this year, 210 legislative seats and 151 mayoral spots are up for grabs. Parties have urged Dominican expatriates to return and vote in the elections. About 5.4 million people in the country of nine million were registered to vote.

MIGRACIÓN
ver noticia(s)

IN SPEECH, A BALANCING ACT OF POLICY AND POLITICS
WASHINGTON POST
MAY 16, 2006

President Bush once saw the immigration issue as an opportunity to expand the Republican Party by attracting more Hispanic voters with a message of tolerance and inclusion. His nationally televised speech last night was an admission that the issue has now become a problem that, if not managed carefully, could quickly become a historic liability for his party.

The immigration debate that reopened in the Senate yesterday offers Republicans an unpalatable political trade-off. Disappointing conservative, anti-illegal-immigration forces could demoralize a crucial constituency and depress turnout in the November elections at a time when every vote appears important to the GOP. Energizing only those conservatives risks destroying the president's long-sought goal of building a durable Republican majority by normalizing his party's relations with the rapidly growing Latino community.

BACKLOG AT BORDERS, CRACKS IN THE SYSTEM
WASHINGTON POST
MAY 14, 2006

Beefed-up enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border since Sept. 11, 2001, has substantially increased the number of arrests of illegal immigrants, but tens of thousands of captured non-Mexicans continue to be released into the United States because there is no place to hold them, according to experts and immigration officials.

The vast majority simply slip away inside the country after being issued "Notices to Appear" for a deportation hearing -- documents known to Border Patrol agents as "Notices to Disappear." The success of border crossers who stay in the United States through this "catch-and-release" process has encouraged others who hope to enter the country the same way.

In a dozen speeches since October, President Bush has vowed to replace catch-and-release with the "catch-and-return" of 150,000 "other than Mexican" (OTM) immigrants arrested each year. The goal is to deny court hearings to all but asylum-seekers, speed deportations and make the most of limited detention space in jails, prisons and immigration centers.

MONEY EARNED IN U.S. PUSHES UP PRICES IN EL SALVADOR
Washington Post
May 14, 2006

LA UNION, El Salvador -- It is hard to overstate how much this tiny Central American nation has benefited from the estimated $2.8 billion that Salvadoran immigrants in the United States send back to their relatives each year.

Without it, the portion of families who live in extreme poverty would jump from 6 percent to 37 percent, according to a recent study by the United Nations Development Program.

Yet economists have become increasingly concerned that the flood of U.S. dollars may also be driving up the cost of living in El Salvador, forcing ever-larger numbers of Salvadorans to leave for the United States -- where their presence, along with that of other illegal immigrants, has already triggered a fierce debate.

"You've basically got this vicious circle going on, and it's only going to get worse," said Katharine Andrade-Eekhoff, one of the El Salvador-based authors of the U.N. study.

Estimates of the overall Salvadoran population in the United States, including legal immigrants, vary from 1 million to more than double that. Salvadorans are the largest immigrant group in the Washington area.

MEXICANS SAY GUARD WON'T SLOW MIGRANTS
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 15, 2006

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - Looking for someone to help him cross into the United States, Jorge Gutierrez said Monday it will take a lot more than U.S. National Guard troops to keep him and other migrants out.

Most Mexicans believe the plan, to be announced Monday night by President Bush, will do little to stop the flow north. President Vicente Fox called Bush this weekend to say he didn't believe sending soldiers to the border was the answer.

The countries have rarely seen eye-to-eye since Bush and Fox agreed to work toward immigration reform five years ago at a meeting at Fox's ranch in Mexico. Fox wants the Bush administration to give amnesty to millions of migrants living in the U.S. and allow more to seek jobs legally from outside the country.

Bush rejected the idea of an amnesty and instead proposed allowing people with job offers to enter the United States and work legally for three years. The topic has generated fierce debate in Congress, where members are divided between those who want to see more security at the border and those who want immigration reform.

Bush is expected to propose sending National Guard troops to the border as a stopgap measure while the Border Patrol builds up its resources to more effectively secure the 2,000-mile line between the U.S. and Mexico.

IMMIGRANT SUPPORTERS TO COUNTER BUSH SPEECH
WASHINGTON POST
MAY 15, 2006

As President Bush prepares to address the nation tonight about immigration, a newly formed network of groups that organized demonstrations for illegal immigrants is conference calling, brainstorming and consolidating its forces so that it can respond to the government with a unified voice.

The We Are America Alliance of 41 immigrant resource groups, unions, churches, day laborers and Spanish-language disc jockeys opposes House legislation that would criminalize illegal immigrants, but it will lobby Congress and compromise to realize its goal of obtaining legal residency for many of the 11 million people who live in the shadows.

But like the president, whose proposal for a guest-worker program is opposed by many in his own party, the alliance does not speak for all. It is being criticized by a small but influential faction of Latino activists in Los Angeles who say the alliance's compromise strategy could slow the momentum created by the protests.

MEXICO WARY OF BUSH'S NATIONAL GUARD PLAN
Washington post
May 15, 2006;

President Bush's announcement that he will deploy National Guard troops to fortify the U.S.-Mexican border triggered a phone call from Mexican President Vicente Fox and an outburst of concern from the Mexican online media.

In its lead editorial today, El Universal, one of Mexico City's leading news sites, welcomed Bush's statement that he was not militarizing the border and that he regards Mexico as a friendly nation. But the newspaper, generally centrist in political outlook, said Bush's sentiment needed to be expressed in the daily dealings between the two nations.

The editors quoted historian John Womack who said many Americans want migrants, "but only as workers who don't have the right to protest, organize in unions or resist."

"We Mexicans want something else," says El Universal (in Spanish). "The migrant workers are a reality and it is necessary to regularize their situation for the common good, out of respect for human rights legality, justice and equality."

Julio Hernández López, columnnist for the leftist daily La Jornada (in Spanish), said Bush had another motive: to pressure Mexican voters who go to polls July 2.

REMITTANCES HELP KEEP KIDS IN SCHOOL - AND IN MEXICO
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
MAY 15, 2006

INDAPARAPEO, MEXICO – The lifeline being tossed to this small town of about 16,000 inhabitants in the rural state of Michoacán, with its low -paying brickmaking industry and thinning corn crops, is not easy to spot.

In a rare effort, a tightly knit group of Indaparapeo immigrants living in the US is sending money back to fuel a university scholarship program. Typically, migrants who cobble together remittances choose to build publicly viewable bridges, roads, or soccer parks. But with towns increasingly emptying because of migration, this project is investing in less-visible human capital, creating incentives to stop people from going to the US in the first place.

"We won't stop migration, but we figure that education is one way to offer people more choices," says Horacio Tovar, an engineer who helps run the program from here. As a teen, Mr. Tovar saw his family leave for the US, first his father and then his five brothers.

"I was studying here in Mexico and had good job offers after university," says Tovar. "I saw a future for myself in Mexico. Perhaps other young people here will feel the same."

In its third year, the Indaparapeo project currently sponsors 40 university students from the town, up from 25 in 2003. Each student receives a $150 monthly stipend until they complete their studies. Students are selected based on their grades, their income level - the average scholarship student's family depends on a monthly income of about $300 - and their willingness to participate in community services.

Scholarship funding comes from migrants living in both Chicago and northern California, where large groups of people from Indaparapeo and other parts of Michoacán have settled (the migrants estimate that at least 1,000 people from Indaparapeo live in or around Napa Valley, Calif.). Fundraisers, which range from dinner-dances to soccer tournaments, can draw up to 500 people. "We're now seeing the same crowds at our events," says Luis Tovar. "Most people who come have some connection to Michoacán."

BRINGING IN GUARD RAISES CONCERNS OF MILITARIZATION
WASHINGTON POST
MAY 16, 2006

LAREDO, Tex., May 15 -- For years, Mayor Elizabeth G. Flores has been asking Washington for more help in controlling not only illegal immigration but also drug trafficking here at the nation's second-busiest border crossing. More Border Patrol. Better technology. More federal resources.

But militarize the border with National Guardsmen? That is where she draws the line.

"We have over 300 Border Patrol officers from here serving in Iraq. Why doesn't [President Bush] bring them home to do the job they were trained to do?" said Flores as she walked inside City Hall, which overlooks Texas and U.S. flags out front and the Mexican flag about a quarter-mile away at the border. This seat of government sits in one of "los dos Laredos," the two Laredos, as locals say -- Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, through which 4.4 million pedestrians, 6.3 million vehicles and 1.4 million trucks pass yearly.

"The National Guard is trained to protect us from deadly people," said Flores, a Democrat who has been in office 8 1/2 years. "People crossing over here to work are not our deadly enemy. . . . I think this is all about discrimination and nothing else."

ON IMMIGRATION, BUSH SEEKS 'MIDDLE GROUND'
WASHINGTON POST
MAY 16, 2006

President Bush said last night that he will dispatch 6,000 National Guard troops starting next month to help secure the porous U.S.-Mexican border, calling on a divided Congress and country to find "a rational middle ground" on immigration that includes providing millions of illegal workers a new route to citizenship.

In a rare prime-time speech from the Oval Office, Bush said the nation must move immediately to stanch the flow of illegal immigrants from its southern border by sending in the National Guard to free up U.S. Border Patrol agents in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. The Guard troops will provide intelligence, surveillance and logistical assistance over the next two years -- not armed law enforcement.

"We do not yet have full control of the border, and I am determined to change that," Bush said. He also called on Congress to end the U.S. practice of releasing into the country tens of thousands of people caught illegally crossing the southern border because officials lack the jail space or legal authority to detain them or send them home. He said every foreign worker should be required to hold a high-tech, tamper-proof identification card so U.S. companies could determine whether their employees are legal.

BRIDGE MIGRANTS WAIT FOR APPROVAL TO LEAVE
THE MIAMI HERALD
May. 16, 2006

HAVANA - Cuban migrants sent home after reaching an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys said Monday they are becoming frustrated waiting for final Cuban government approval to leave for good.

Members of the group were traveling from the central province of Matanzas, where they live, to Havana, where they will seek an appointment early today at the U.S. Interests Section, migrant Ernesto Hernández said by telephone.

''It has been 48 days -- we have the U.S. visa, we have passports,'' said Hernández. He said all they lack now is the ''white card,'' the exit permit that Cubans must get from the communist-run government to leave the island.

The 14 members of the group applied for the exit permits about six weeks ago at Cuba's migration office in Matanzas Province. Hernández said the approval process generally takes 15 days.

IMMIGRATION SPEECH NEARLY UPSTAGED BY CLAMOR PRECEDING IT
THE WASHINGTON POST
May 16, 2006

"Tonight I will make it clear where I stand," George W. Bush said early in his 19-minute speech last night on immigration problems, conceding with almost absurd understatement that "we do not yet have full control of the border" between the United States and Mexico.
Although he was, in fact, seated, not standing, at his desk in the Oval Office, Bush did make fairly clear his positions. On the matter of amnesty for all illegal aliens (a term he avoided) already in the country, for instance, Bush said succinctly, "I oppose it."

Neither the president, in his customary pale blue tie, nor the network commentators, for the most part, answered other questions that hung in the air if not on the airwaves: Was the speech really prompted by the urgency of the immigration issue, or by the severity of Bush's low ratings in popularity polls? Was the real purpose to spur debate on immigration, or to push Iraq out of the spotlight for the next few days, while pundits ponder immigration on op-ed pages and cable news networks?

The White House made certain it was Immigration Day in Washington and the nation yesterday by leaking the major points of the speech very early, so early that it dominated virtually all the day's newscasts. The speech itself was like an anticlimax, a mere technicality positioned amid the clatter and clamor that preceded and followed it -- and will continue to follow it perhaps for the entire week.

FOX TRIES TO DEFUSE MEXICANS' CONCERNS OVER MOVING TROOPS TO BORDER
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MAY 16, 2006

MEXICO CITY, May 15 — A spokesman for President Vicente Fox tried to defuse concerns on Monday about Washington's plans to send thousands of National Guard troops to reinforce border security by playing down the move as a logistical and administrative effort, rather than a military one.

Mexico and the United States remain friends, the spokesman said, adding that the dispatching National Guard troops is not militarization.

Mr. Fox and Mr. Bush continue to agree that strengthening security unilaterally was not enough to stop the surging flow of illegal immigrants.

The spokesman held out hope that Mr. Bush would press Congress to follow up with changes to expand immigrants' opportunities to seek work legally in the United States.

"There is an agreement between the presidents that the problem can only be resolved in a dynamic way," the spokesman, Rubén Aguilar, said at a news conference.

Referring to a telephone conversation by the presidents on Sunday, Mr. Aguilar said, "President Bush said to President Fox that the United States considers Mexico a friend and that he hopes that the problems of the border can be resolved in a joint way."

MEXICO THREATENS SUITS OVER GUARD PATROLS
THE MIAMI HERALD
May. 17, 2006

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico - A U.S.-Mexico border that's impossible to sneak across could devastate impoverished Mexican and Central American communities that depend on the millions of dollars that undocumented migrants send home to loved ones.

But those trying to slip into the United States say they aren't worried about President Bush's latest plan to help stem the tide of illegal immigrants - the deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops to the border.

The guardsmen could be deployed as early as next month, but will only provide surveillance and support to the Border Patrol, which would remain responsible for catching illegal immigrants.

More troops won't stop Antonio Urquieta from trying to cross the Rio Grande - again.

"They are only going to be supporting the Border Patrol. They won't be detaining anyone," said Urquieta, a 44-year-old carpenter from Chile who was hospitalized after falling from a railroad bridge while trying to sneak across the river.

Urquieta, who was recuperating at a shelter for immigrants waiting to jump the border in Nuevo Laredo, a sweaty city of 330,000 across from Laredo, Texas, said he would try to make it over the same bridge in coming days.

IMMIGRATION PROPOSALS PASS TEST IN SENATE
Washington Post
May 17, 2006

A fragile Senate coalition backing a broad overhaul of the nation's immigration laws survived its first legislative test yesterday, beating back efforts to gut provisions to grant millions of illegal immigrants a path to citizenship and hundreds of thousands of foreigners a new guest-worker permit.

But President Bush's efforts to win House conservatives to his immigration proposals still faced an uphill climb. A day after a prime-time televised address to the nation, Bush continued to make his case yesterday that immigration legislation must be comprehensive -- tightening control of the borders, offering a new temporary guest-worker visa to foreign workers, and offering most illegal immigrants a path to lawful employment and citizenship.

"In order for us to solve the problem of an immigration system that's not working, it's really important for Congress to understand . . . that the elements I described all go hand in hand," Bush said in a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

BUSH FACES RESISTANCE ON IMMIGRATION
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: May 17, 2006

WASHINGTON, May 16 — President Bush pushed ahead on Tuesday with his effort to bring Republicans in the House and the Senate together on a plan to reduce illegal immigration. But he ran into renewed resistance from conservatives who said they were not swayed by the case he made Monday to give many illegal workers a chance to become citizens.

The administration began an effort to build support for the president's approach, including putting Vice President Dick Cheney on Rush Limbaugh's syndicated radio program to try to mollify conservatives. Mr. Bush's plan combines a pledge of enhanced border security, backed by the deployment of up to 6,000 National Guard troops, with the creation of a temporary guest worker program and an opportunity for illegal immigrants who meet certain standards to gain legal status.

Mr. Bush spoke by telephone with the House speaker, J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, and the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist of Tennessee, to press his argument, while other administration officials reached out to other lawmakers.

POLÍTICA BILATERAL
ver noticia(s)

BRAZIL-BOLIVIA RELATIONS CONTINUE SOUTH
THE MIAMI HERALD
May. 12, 2006

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Relations between Brazil and Bolivia sank to their lowest point in a century Friday, as the two sparred over Bolivia's nationalization of its energy sector and threats to seize Bolivian land held by Brazilian farmers.

The escalating rhetoric between the South American neighbors marks a level of tension not seen since the two countries almost clashed over a huge swath of land in the Amazon that Bolivia eventually sold to Brazil in 1903, said David Fleischer, a political scientist at the University of Brasilia.

"That was the only time the two countries have ever had great difficulties," he said. "It was almost to the point where Brazilian troops were going to be sent in."

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Friday he could not rule out the option of his government pulling its ambassador from La Paz if Bolivia seizes assets from Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, without compensation as part of its energy-sector nationalization.

BRAZILIAN FARMERS IN BOLIVIA FEAR REFORMS
THE MIAMI HERALD
May. 12, 2006

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Well-heeled Brazilian farmers tilling rich soil on the fringes of the Amazon rain forest fear their holdings could be targeted in a land reform push by the Bolivian president, who just nationalized his nation's natural gas industry.

President Evo Morales has said his leftist government is eyeing large Brazilian-owned farms in Bolivia's eastern Santa Cruz province - the country's wealthiest - as it gears up to confiscate unproductive land and redistribute it to poor Bolivian farmers and Indians.

Under the land plan, holdings that aren't being actively used for farming or grazing could face confiscation. However, the plan is at an early stage and few people, if any, know how its rules will be defined, raising concern among large Brazilian farmers that even their productive holdings could be confiscated.

The government plans to redistribute 54,000 square miles of land - an area roughly the size of Alabama - mostly in Bolivia's vast eastern lowlands.

Speaking from Vienna, Austria, ahead of a summit of Latin American and European leaders, Morales said he respects Brazilian farmers operating in Bolivia, but that "some Brazilian companies are illegally operating in our territory."

BOLIVIA, BRAZIL PATCH UP DIFFERENCES
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 13, 2006

VIENNA, Austria - The presidents of Brazil and Bolivia said they patched things up Saturday after days of accusations and threats that marked a low point in a century of close relations between the South American neighbors.

But they gave no indication about how the two countries will resolve their spat over Bolivia's nationalization of its natural gas industry.

"We are great allies - as countries, as presidents, as governments, and given that, no one can ever pit us against each other," Bolivian President Evo Morales proclaimed as they emerged from two hours of hastily arranged talks. As he left the closed-door meeting at a Vienna hotel, Morales described their discussion as "cordial."

Both leaders were in Vienna for a summit of EU, Latin American and Caribbean leaders.

U.S. GOVERNMENT BANS WEAPONS SALES TO VENEZUELA
Miami Herald
May. 15, 2006

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has banned all U.S. weapons sales to Venezuela because President Hugo Chávez has allegedly stopped cooperating on counter-terrorism programs, maintained close ties with Cuba and Iran and done too little against Colombian guerrilla groups that operate within its borders.

''This a step we undertake with enormous reluctance,'' Thomas Shannon, the assistant secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, said Monday. He added that the decision came after ''years'' of failed attempts to develop better ties in areas like energy and counter-drug and terrorism activities.

Speaking at George Washington University, Shannon said the U.S. government made the determination because ``Venezuela has a relationship with Cuba and Iran, two state sponsors of terrorism that we find worrisome, especially in terms of intelligence liaison relationships.''

Those ties ''limited our ability to conduct certain actions in the region focusing on terrorist organizations,'' Shannon noted, without giving further details.

The ban includes U.S. sales and licenses for export of defense articles and services to the oil-rich nation, State Department officials said, including arms that are produced by other nations but that contain U.S. technology.

U.S. BARS ARMS TO CHÁVEZ
Miami Herald
May. 16, 2006

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has banned arms sales to Venezuela -- which has been on a buying spree to prepare for an alleged U.S. invasion -- accusing President Hugo Chávez of failing to cooperate in the war on terrorism and maintaining close ties to Cuba and Iran.

The decision announced Monday may be largely symbolic because Chávez has been buying the bulk of his weapons, including attack and transport helicopters, patrol boats and military transport airplanes, from Russia and Spain.

The first batch of 33 Russian helicopters arrived in Venezuela last month, and 33,000 of the 100,000 Russian Kalashnikov assault rifles that Chávez bought are expected this month. Caracas is also finalizing a deal with Spain to purchase eight military patrol boats and 10 military transport planes, and ramping up the training of a 2.5-million-member militia to fight a ''war of resistance'' against any U.S. invaders.

But the U.S. ban underlined Washington's increasingly sour view of Chávez as a ruler who has been undermining democracy in his oil-exporting country, regularly attacking the Bush administration and trying to export his leftist-populist ideology to his Latin American neighbors.

REGIONAL
ver noticia(s)

POWERFUL BRAZIL IS BECOMING AN ENCIRCLED GIANT
By Andres Oppenheimer
MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 14, 2006

SAO PAULO -- Latin America's biggest country is in shock: Almost overnight, it has gone from being an undisputed regional leader to becoming a nation on the defensive, increasingly vulnerable to hostile measures by populist neighbors such as Venezuela and Bolivia.

Call it an encircled giant, if you want. While Venezuela is increasingly upstaging Brazil on the regional scene, Bolivia's leftist President Evo Morales' recent decision to nationalize its gas industry, which supplies about half of Brazil's gas consumption, has stunned Brazilians.

Brazil's state-owned Petrobras oil company had invested $1.5 billion in Bolivia and was by far the largest foreign investor in that country. And, judging from what I saw during a visit here last week, people are increasingly worried that an interruption of Bolivia's gas supplies -- or the 60 percent price hikes that Bolivia demands for keeping the gas flowing -- will hurt them badly.

Many Brazilian motorists and taxi drivers who have installed natural gas tanks in their cars in recent years to replace gasoline-fueled engines fear that their natural gas bills will soon soar.

Former Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Lafer told me that he hasn't seen such an outcry over a foreign policy issue ''in many decades.'' The issue goes beyond money, he says.

U.S. AID CAN'T WIN BOLIVIA'S LOVE AS NEW SUITORS EMERGE
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MAY 14, 2006

EL PALOMAR, Bolivia, May 7 — For decades, the United States has given hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Bolivia, spending on everything from roads to rural health care. But these days, to Washington's dismay, it is Cuba and Venezuela that Bolivians in places like this small farming community are embracing because of new assistance programs from those countries.

Aid from Havana and Caracas has been flowing into Bolivia since a Socialist union leader, Evo Morales, became president in January, and it signals a deepening partnership with the Bush administration's most prominent regional antagonists.

It also highlights Washington's seeming inability, despite its formidable spending, to win over Bolivians. Many Bolivians have come to associate American aid almost exclusively with a generation-old anti-drug policy to wipe out coca, the raw material for cocaine, which has led to years of political unrest here.

"The United States just subordinates Latin America and Bolivia, and it bothers me, it really bothers me," said Enrique de la Cruz, 25, a medical student who was waiting for a bus in El Palomar, where many people live in simple adobe homes. "The alliances with Venezuela and Cuba are super."

Development aid from the United States to Bolivia still amounts to about $100 million annually, far more than from any other country. In addition to paying for big infrastructure projects like roads and pushing international lenders to forgive Bolivia's debt — assistance that for years gave Washington unchallenged influence with governments here — the aid from the United States has helped Bolivians in more direct ways, too, building clinics and helping

ECUADOR CANCELS AN OIL DEAL WITH OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MAY 17, 2006

QUITO, Ecuador, May 16 (Reuters) — Ecuador began to take over operations of the United States oil giant Occidental Petroleum on Tuesday, the latest move in Latin America against foreign energy producers after nationalization in Bolivia and state intervention in Venezuela.

Ecuador revoked Occidental's contract Monday after accusing it of transferring part of an oil field without authorization. Occidental says it has complied with its obligations and still hopes to settle.

Occidental shares fell by 2.2 percent Tuesday, to $96.97.

President Alfredo Palacio has been under pressure from Indian groups in the oil-rich Amazon to expel Occidental. The Indians accuse the company of exploiting natural resources with no benefit for Ecuadoreans.

The surprise contract cancellation came a little more than two weeks after President Evo Morales, a leftist who is Bolivia's first indigenous president, nationalized the industry and ordered the military to occupy natural gas fields.