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
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IN ATTACK MODE, A RIGHTIST SURGES IN MEXICO
THE NEW YORK TIMES
May 23, 2006

TUXTLA GUTIÉRREZ, Mexico, May 19 — Felipe Calderón loves to make allusions to Mexican folk songs. These days, the conservative candidate for president is particularly fond of recalling a song about a nag named Relámpago who upsets a glistening champion, Moro, in a race.

"I was not the favorite," he boomed over loudspeakers to a crowd of farmers, fishermen and business owners in the town of Tonalá on a swing in Chiapas on Thursday. "I was not the one who was up in the polls, but do you know what I did, gentlemen? I went to work. I set about telling Mexicans what each candidate really stands for."

After six months in second place, Mr. Calderón has surged past the front-runner, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, with a stream of attack advertisements portraying him as a dangerous and violent leftist who will bankrupt the country.

Now, a month before the vote, the race is a contest between Mr. Calderón, a free-trade advocate backed by business leaders, and Mr. López Obrador, a leftist who draws most of his support from poor people who feel that free-trade policies have failed to help them.

BOLIVIA PLANS TO REDISTRIBUTE IDLE FARMLAND
WASHINGTON POST
MAY 18, 2006

SAO PAULO, Brazil, May 17 -- Two weeks after claiming control of the natural gas and oil under Bolivia's soil, the government of President Evo Morales has turned its attention above ground, launching a plan to redistribute parcels of idle farmland to the poor.

Officials announced Tuesday that they would start by redistributing about 12 million acres of state-owned land to indigenous rural workers. But officials say that amount could eventually triple if more privately held lands are declared unproductive, a prospect that some fear could inflame the divisions between rich and poor that have contributed to conflicts between Bolivia's east and west.

Morales sailed to victory in elections in December denouncing the inequality of Bolivia's economy, saying that money and resources flow downhill from the western highlands, populated largely by indigenous groups, and settle in the relatively wealthy lowlands of the east. Morales described his energy nationalization plan as an attempt to distribute income from national resources more equitably; the land reform plan is a continuation of that strategy.

Officials do not plan to confiscate property from "anyone who has legally obtained the land and who works on it every day and makes it productive," Hugo Salvatierra, the minister for rural development, told reporters Tuesday.

COURT OVERRULES PARTS OF LAW SHIELDING COLOMBIA'S WARLORDS
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MAY 20, 2006

BOGOTÁ, Colombia, May 19 — Colombia's highest court on Thursday struck down crucial provisions in a law governing the disarming of death squad fighters, ending generous concessions that have shielded warlords from serious punishment for their crimes.

Announced Thursday night, the ruling drew a swift, threatening response on Friday from the paramilitary leaders, who live on ranches in northern Colombia. The paramilitary groups, financed by landowners and from the profits of drug trafficking, have killed thousands in their war against Marxist rebels, leftist politicians and union members.

"This is a mortal blow to reconciliation in this country," Iván Roberto Duque, a paramilitary commander, told RCN radio.
The court's decision also raised the specter that the groups might stop cooperating with a government program that has disarmed more than 30,000 fighters.

BOLIVIA-HANDING-OUT-LAND STORY
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 21, 2006

ASUBI, Bolivia (AP) - Victor Valverde has farmed other people's land since he was 8. Now 49, he dreams of having just enough of his own to feed his family.

Valverde might get it under an ambitious effort proposed by President Evo Morales, who says he will make good on more than 50 years of land reform promises by successive Bolivian leaders.

By month's end, his government hopes to start redistributing as much as 54,000 square miles of unfarmed land to the poor. The plots, many of them unused state land and most in the fertile eastern lowlands, add up to nearly 8 percent of this nation that is nearly eight times bigger than New York state.

Arable land that isn't being used productively has been subject to redistribution for more than a decade under Bolivian law. But relatively few poor have benefited, largely because the inefficient justice system hasn't been able to untangle title disputes often muddied by corrupt deals made by Bolivian dictators.

PERU EX-SPY CHIEF SAYS CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT AIDED HIS ESCAPE
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MAY 21, 2006

LIMA, Peru, May 20 (AP) — The disgraced former spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, told a court on Friday that Ollanta Humala, a presidential candidate in next month's runoff, helped him escape from the country six years ago by staging a fake military rebellion.

Mr. Montesinos, the intelligence chief under former President Alberto Fujimori, made the statement in court during one of his many corruption trials. He is serving a prison sentence outside of Lima.

An audio tape of his statement was replayed on nightly television and radio newscasts.

Mr. Humala, a retired army lieutenant colonel, burst onto the political scene when he led a short-lived military uprising in Oct. 29, 2000, against Mr. Fujimori, whose government collapsed a month later engulfed by corruption scandals centered on Mr. Montesinos.

HAITIAN PRESIDENT NOMINATES ALLY FOR POST
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 22, 2006

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Moving quickly to form a new government, President Rene Preval said Monday he has nominated former Cabinet member and close ally Jacques Edouard Alexis as prime minister.

If confirmed by parliament, Alexis would succeed outgoing interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, who was appointed to lead this impoverished Caribbean nation after an uprising ousted former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004.

Alexis, who served as prime minister and education minister during Preval's 1996-2001 presidency, is considered an able broker with the clout needed to hold sway in Haiti's splintered parliament, which is made up of members from 16 different parties.

"Alexis is going to do the Haitian people's work," Preval, who took power eight days ago, told reporters after meeting with legislators. "He is trustworthy and knows what he is doing."

PEACE DEAL WITH COLOMBIAN GUNMEN ON TRACK
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 22, 2006

BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombia's peace process with far-right paramilitary gunmen was back on track Monday, following days of tensions caused by a court ruling that tossed out part of a peace pact, Interior Minister Sabas Pretelt said.

The constitutional court last week overturned elements of a law dealing with peace talks. Interior Minister Sabas Pretelt said misunderstandings arose because the decision was poorly explained.

In explaining its ruling, the court initially appeared to suggest those paramilitaries who had been convicted in absentia before the peace process started would have to serve their entire sentences, which would mean decades in prison for some commanders.
Paramilitary leaders called it a serious blow to the peace process.

FORMER PREMIER BACK IN FAMILIAR ROLE IN HAITI
MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 23, 2006

Haitian President René Préval Monday nominated Jacques Edouard Alexis, a trusted ally who served as prime minister during Préval's first term in the presidency, to help him govern the troubled country again as his new prime minister.

Préval ended weeks of speculation by sending letters to the presidents of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies nominating Alexis, 57, to run the day-to-day affairs of the government.

Alexis, who was one of the main architects of Préval's February election victory and has been coordinating his transition team -- the president was inaugurated May 14 -- said he expects his nomination will be approved by parliament.

INDIAN TRIBE CLASHES WITH ILLEGAL LOGGERS
The Miami Herald
May. 23, 2006

COCA, Ecuador - Illegal loggers have once again clashed with members of an indigenous tribe in Ecuador's Amazon River basin, leaving one man dead and another wounded.

The two loggers were working along the Cononaco Chico River within the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO-designated protected wilderness, when they were attacked by Taromenani indians wielding 12-foot wooden spears, the survivor has said.
ISOLATED TRIBE

The Taromenani are one of the world's last tribes living with few contacts with the outside world. Estimated at less than 150 people, the Taromenani reside in a swath of dense jungle inside the reserve known as the Untouchable Zone.

Andrés Moreira said he and fellow logger William Angulo were logging valuable hardwoods in the area on April 12 when dozens of Taromenani men and women appeared, according to Moreira,

POLICE EXECUTIONS ALLEGED
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 23, 2006

RIO DE JANEIRO - Police are under heavy criticism for not identifying the more than 100 people they killed in alleged confrontations with criminals during a series of gang attacks that terrorized Sao Paulo, South America's largest city.

Human rights groups suspect that many of the dead were executed and have accused the police and Sao Paulo state officials of using the violence to hide the executions. On Monday, Brazil's Public Ministry, a federal watchdog agency, ordered the police to release within 72 hours the names of the 107 people killed. Police also must release the incident report of each killing.

State police officials, who had said they were trying to protect the privacy of the families of the dead gang members, refused to comment Monday.

"There is a lot of evidence showing the police did kill innocent people," said Ariel de Castro Alves, director of the Brazilian nonprofit group National Movement of Human Rights. "Every day we're reading about people killed as they were returning from school or from work. The police are constitutionally required to reveal these names."

KILLINGS OF COLOMBIA POLICE PROBED
THE MIAMI HERALD
May. 23, 2006

BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombia authorities were investigating Tuesday why soldiers killed 10 elite anti-drug police and their civilian informant, an incident the army described as a tragic mistake.

Attorney General Mario Iguaran traveled Tuesday to the site of the killings, Jamundi, 195 miles southwest of Bogota. He called Monday's incident "serious and regrettable."

Acting on a tip from the informant about a large stash of drugs, the members of an elite unit of the judicial police, known as the DIJIN, were traveling to a safe house when they stumbled across a military patrol. A clash ensued and all the police, who apparently did not have time to react, were killed along with the informant.

The police, while not in uniform, were clearly identifiable by their caps and jackets, said the head of the DIJIN, Gen. Oscar Naranjo. The attack occurred in daylight at around 6 p.m.

GANG LEADER'S LAWYER DENIES VIOLENCE LINK
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 23, 2006

SAO PAULO, Brazil - A sobbing attorney told lawmakers Tuesday she had not given gang members advance word of a police crackdown that prompted a wave of violence that left 172 people dead in one week.

The attorney Maria Cristina Rachado represents Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho, the leader of Sao Paulo's First Capital Command gang, which launched attacks on May 12 against police in and around the city.

Speaking before a congressional hearing in the capital Brasilia, she denied breaking the law by acquiring a tape of a supposedly secret May 10 congressional meeting in which police detailed plans to isolate jailed gang members.

Rachado told lawmakers she went with a sound technician to copy the tape but never heard its contents and gave it to another lawyer for the gang, Sergio Wesley da Cunha.

FRONT-RUNNER URIBE IS PASSIONATE AND POLARIZING
MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 24, 2006

BOGOTA - At a recent forum with Bogotá university students, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe answered a question in a way that revealed much about the man almost certain to win a second term Sunday.

Before the student had even finished posing his question on the president's alleged mishandling of protected lands in the Amazon jungle and a controversial free-trade agreement with the United States, Uribe cut him off.

"These discussions are what are polarizing this country," the president snapped. "Whoever has taught this student that the free-trade agreement has sold off the Amazon doesn't deserve to be a professor."

The exchange illustrated the passion that has helped the diminutive, bespectacled 53-year-old president maintain approval ratings near 70 percent through four years in office, and it drew some cheers from the audience. It also showed his disdain for those who criticize him or his government.

Despite his popularity, Uribe is seen by some as a polarizing figure in this war-ravaged country of 45 million people. For every point in his favor, there seems to be a counterpoint against him.

COLOMBIA PRESS SILENCED BY SELF-CENSORSHIP
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 24, 2006

BOGOTA, Colombia - It was the sort of scoop any ambitious journalist would jump on. But reporting it could have cost Jorge Quintero his life.

With the help of local officials, a bank manager in the small southwestern Colombian town of Florencia allegedly funneled $11 million in public funds into the foreign bank account of a convicted drug trafficker.
Despite sitting on a pile of incriminating documents, Quintero wrote nothing.

"I wanted to do something but I was afraid," said Quintero, correspondent in Florencia for Colombia's largest daily, El Tiempo. "You know in this town who to mess with and who not."

A year later, when Colombia's slow wheels of justice acted and the criminal ring was dismantled, the story was front-page news.
Journalists across Colombia share Quintero's dilemma. The biggest gag on the country's media often comes from journalists who fear for their lives, especially in far-flung provinces, where the government presence is weak.

ARISTIDE ACCUSER ARRESTED
MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 24, 2006

The head of Haiti's financial crimes investigative unit, who has been probing money laundering and corruption in ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government has been arrested.

Investigative Judge Jean Peres Paul issued an arrest warrant and Jean-Yves Nol was picked up at 4:45 p.m. Monday in his office in Port-au-Prince. He is being held at the city's penitentiary.

Peres told The Miami Herald that he issued the warrant for Nol's arrest because he failed to show up for a May 3 hearing. Peres launched an investigation of Nol in November after a court processor accused Nol of ordering his bodyguards -- Haitian National Police officers -- to hold him captive in his car for about an hour outside of the Banque Populaire Haitienne in Port-au-Prince.

MIGRACIÓN
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FOX ON IMMIGRATION: 'FENCES' WON'T SOLVE ISSUE
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 24, 2006

WEST VALLEY, Utah -- Mexican President Vicente Fox kicked off a four-day U.S. visit by decrying Congressional proposals to build a wall to keep undocumented immigrants in Mexico, saying "we won't resolve this problem with fences, but hand in hand, working together."

Fox told a cheering crowd of 1,000 Mexicans and Mexican Americans -- some of whom had come from as far as Montana to hear him -- that they helped keep the U.S. economy running and displayed the hard work and honesty that made their native country proud.

"Even though you are far from Mexico, you are an integral part of Mexico," Fox said. "We will never forget you. We love you."

Fox's visit, which takes him to Washington state today and to meetings with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in Sacramento and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in Los Angeles later in the week, comes on the heels of President Bush's proposal to station 6,000 National Guard troops at the border and amid growing frustration over illegal immigration.

DESPITE SECURITY AND DANGERS, BORDER CROSSERS FIND WAY NORTH
WASHINGTON POST
MAY 18, 2006

YUMA, Ariz. -- The Border Patrol radio crackled: "Four men rolling boulders at mile 11." Agent Chris Van Wagenen sped along an irrigation levee toward the rock pile, used to block smugglers and illegal immigrants from sneaking across the border.

The four men watched him coming, calmly tossing a few more boulders off the pile before sauntering through the sagebrush and crossing the Colorado River back into Mexico. By the time the agent had sprinted from his Ford Bronco toward the men, they had wrapped their faces in their shirts, and one of them shouted, "I'll be back."

Van Wagenen, panting, replied, "Of that, I'm sure. If it's a fence, a sensor, a camera, they'll find a way to defeat it."

Here, in this far southwestern corner of Arizona, which President Bush is to visit Thursday, the signs of the unintended consequences of a decade's worth of efforts to crack down on illegal crossings of the 2,000-mile border are clear.

Apprehensions of illegal immigrants are about the same as a decade ago. Mexicans and others continue to pour into the United States though it is now far more expensive and far more dangerous for them than ever. And once here, they are staying, turning border communities such as Yuma into boomtowns fueled by their cheap labor.

AN UP-THE-HILL BATTLE
WASHINGTON POST
MAY 18, 2006

Seven a.m., and she's selling tamales on the Baltimore streets. By 10:30, she's lobbying her congressman on Capitol Hill.

Is Alicia Villalva, who stole across the border to make money and send it home to Mexico, properly a constituent? She has been living here for nearly 20 years, without a Social Security number, without citizenship. She has never cast a vote for Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), yet here the big man is.

They are seated face to face in his inner sanctum. He says, "I think where I am [on immigration] is where you want me to be. . . . The fact you're here in Washington today shows you're reaching out and want to tell your story."

Villalva has just finished telling four of his senior staffers her story, words in Spanish and English, tears spilling down her cheeks. How she left home at 15 because her family was starving. Survived the desert to "help my dad," whom she didn't see again for nine years. Now, married, she has three children, who are Americans.

IMMIGRANT ADVOCATES TAKE THEIR CASE TO CAPITOL HILL
WASHINGTON POST
MAY 18, 2006

Trading placards for handshakes and T-shirts for ties, immigrant rights activists who have recently staged huge rallies across the country took their campaign to the halls of Congress yesterday as hundreds of people met with elected officials or their aides to lobby for immigration reform.

About 400 church, union and civic leaders from 20 states swarmed the U.S. Capitol to press for legalization of all immigrants and express opposition to current proposals, including President Bush's plan to use the National Guard to shield the nation's southern border, according to organizers.

"For us, no law is better than a bad law," Jaime Contreras, chairman of the National Capital Immigration Coalition, said in Spanish to Alejandro Perez, an aide to Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), during a meeting that was held in a hallway because the lobbying contingent -- more than 30 activists from Maryland and the District -- could not fit in the congressman's office.

Washington area advocates met in person with five members of Congress from Maryland -- all Democrats considered sympathetic to the immigrant rights campaign, including Sens. Barbara A. Mikulski and Paul S. Sarbanes. But in many cases, activists made their cases to congressional staffers. Most meetings were held behind closed doors, and many aides referred questions to their offices' press secretaries.

SENATE BACKS FENCE, GUEST-WORKER CURBS
WASHINGTON POST
MAY 18, 2006

The Senate voted yesterday to build 370 miles of triple-layered fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border and to block access to a new guest-worker program by lawbreaking illegal immigrants, even those guilty of misdemeanors or ignoring a deportation order.

On a 83 to 16 vote, the Senate backed an amendment by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to fortify 70 miles of existing fences near San Diego and parts of Arizona and to build 300 miles of additional fencing through the Arizona desert. The amendment would also order the immediate construction of 500 miles of vehicle barriers along frontier lands identified as prime entry points for smugglers and illegal immigrants.

Senators approved another provision, 50 to 48, declaring that illegal immigrants seeking a guest-worker permit could not petition for legalization on their own, and instead must be sponsored by an employer.

The votes on the fence and the guest-worker restrictions gave new momentum to the Senate bill among conservatives, but they may further strain a coalition of immigrant rights and civil rights groups that have given Democrats political cover to back the Senate measure. Until yesterday, a broad bipartisan group of senators had beaten back conservative amendments, fearing they would upset the delicate coalition. Yesterday's votes showed how fluid the immigration issue has become.

SENATE VOTES TO SET ENGLISH AS NATIONAL LANGUAGE
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MAY 19, 2006

WASHINGTON, May 18 — The Senate voted on Thursday to designate English as the national language. In a charged debate, Republican backers of the proposal, which was added to the Senate's immigration measure on a 63-to-34 vote, said that it was equivalent to establishing a formal national anthem or motto and that it would simply affirm the pre-eminence of English without overturning laws or rules on bilingualism.

"We're free to say what we want, speak what we want, but it is our national language," said Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee. The amendment was proposed by Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma.

It is not clear, though, that the measure will be included in any final bill after negotiations with the House. Shortly after the Inhofe amendment was approved, the Senate also approved a weaker, less-binding alternative declaring English the "common and unifying" language of the nation, on a 58-to-39 vote. The question of which version survives would be decided in negotiations with the House.

The second amendment was proposed by Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado, one of several Democrats who said the Inhofe measure was needlessly divisive and would reduce multilingual government programs.

MEXICO TO PROTEST U.S. BORDER PLAN
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MAY 19, 2006

MEXICO CITY, May 18 — Mexico will formally complain to the United States about plans to build security fences and deploy National Guard troops on the border to curb illegal immigration, Mexico's foreign minister, Luis Ernesto Derbez, said Thursday.

"There are 12 million Mexicans on the other side, 12 million people who live every day in anguish about the need for a reform to let them live peacefully," Mr. Derbez said. He said Mexico would send a diplomatic note to the United States about American plans for the border.

Such notes are often sent as a form of protest when nations are at odds with each other.

Mexico wants the United States to make it easier for immigrants to attain legal status, and supports a guest-worker program rather than a tightening of the border.

BUSH NOW FAVORS SOME FENCING ALONG BORDER
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MAY 19, 2006

YUMA, Ariz., May 18 — President Bush traveled on Thursday to a blistering stretch of scrub land surrounding the nation's busiest Border Patrol station and declared that he supported fencing some but not all of America's 1,950-mile border with Mexico.

"It makes sense to use fencing along the border in key locations in order to do our job," Mr. Bush said in a speech at the headquarters of the Yuma Sector Border Patrol. "We're in the process of making our border the most technologically advanced border in the world."

Mr. Bush has in the past indicated he is opposed to fencing, and White House officials were kept busy on Thursday trying to explain the change in his position. Tony Snow, the new White House press secretary, told reporters on Air Force One that the White House supported a Senate amendment, passed on Wednesday, that would build 370 miles of fence in areas most often used by smugglers and illegal workers.

"We don't think you fence off the entire border," Mr. Snow said. But, he added, "there are places when fences are appropriate."

BORDER REOPENS AFTER AGENTS KILL DRIVER
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MAY 20, 2006

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- The Mexican government called for an investigation Friday into a shooting by two federal agents that left one person dead at the world's busiest border crossing. A union representing the Border Patrol agent involved in the shooting defended the officer's conduct.

The shooting took place Thursday afternoon after U.S. agents surrounded a sport utility vehicle that was under surveillance on suspicion of immigrant smuggling, police said.

The driver refused to get out, and when agents smashed the vehicle's window with a baton, he accelerated in the direction of five U.S. agents blocking his path and "nearly pinned an agent standing next to the vehicle," said San Diego police Lt. Jeff Sferra.

A Border Patrol agent and a U.S. customs agent opened fire. The Border Patrol agent's shots proved fatal, police said. The driver, identified by the Mexican Consulate as Oscar Abraham Garcia, 22, of Tijuana, Mexico, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Five male passengers, all illegal Mexican immigrants, were taken into custody. Some of the passengers told investigators that Garcia and a 17-year-old boy in the vehicle were both immigrant smugglers, said Alberto Lozano, spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in San Diego. Police said one person had been arrested on immigrant-smuggling charges.

HOW TO HELP U.S. RETIREES -- AND MEXICO, TOO
THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT
MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 21, 2006

Here's a proposal that would allow the United States to solve its immigration crisis, control sky-high healthcare costs and rebuild ties with Latin America in one stroke: Make it easier for millions of Americans to retire in style and pay lower medical bills south of the border.

Over the next 30 years, more than 100 million U.S. citizens will reach retirement age, and very few of them will be able to afford good housing, top-of-the-line medical services or -- much less -- personal care. Mexico, Central and South America could offer all of that and much more. Doing so would catapult their economies and reduce their people's need to emigrate.

Before we get into why this -- or other plans to reduce the U.S.-Latin America income gap -- is much more likely to solve the immigration crisis than the $1.9 billion President Bush wants to spend on a 370-mile fence along the border and to deploy 6,000 National Guard troops, let's take a closer look at the alternative retirement option.

MEXICAN MIGRANTS HEADING NORTH
THE MIAMI HERALD
May. 23, 2006

TIJUANA, Mexico - Before Israel Morales boarded a plane from Mexico City to Tijuana, his mother slipped a tiny plastic bag containing a coin, lentils and an image of Christ into his pocket, so he wouldn't be without money, food or faith.

Then his 10-year-old son wrapped his arms around him and wouldn't let go.

"The hardest part is leaving your family behind, hearing your child cry as you walk away, even if you're leaving so he can have a better life," said Morales, a truck driver who was planning to jump the metal fence dividing Mexico and the United States.

"For children this is hard to understand."

Migration to the United States has long been a fact of life for many Mexicans. In some villages, mariachi music and feasts are customary sendoffs for those heading north. But tighter border security is now keeping many migrants away from their homes for longer stretches, making their last moments in Mexico more somber occasions.

MEXICAN PRESIDENT VICENTE FOX VISITS U.S.
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 23, 2006

MEXICO CITY - Mexican President Vicente Fox is taking his five-year battle for immigration reform to the front lines with a trip this week to California, Utah and Washington.

But some say the visit may do more harm than good.

Fox wants the U.S. Congress to approve a guest worker program and a path for citizenship for some of the 6 million undocumented Mexicans in the country.

But his visit could be seen as meddling in U.S. politics and strengthen support for hard-liners who want to tighten immigration laws.

"This trip has all the makings of a boomerang," said George Grayson, a Mexico expert at the College of William and Mary. "It is going to be virtually impossible to be critical enough to keep his political support back home, while not looking like he is interfering in U.S. affairs."

During the five-day trip which starts Tuesday in Utah, Fox plans to meet with state governors and legislators, business leaders and Mexican migrants.

POLÍTICA BILATERAL
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U.S. SHOULD CLOSE PRISON IN CUBA, U.N. PANEL SAYS
THE NEW YORK TIMES
May 20, 2006

UNITED NATIONS, May 19 — An important United Nations panel roundly criticized the United States on Friday for its treatment of terrorism suspects, and called for shutting down the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The panel's criticism came as military officials at Guant ánamo disclosed the most serious disturbances by prisoners there since the camp opened four years ago, and reported new suicide attempts that had left two detainees hospitalized and unconscious.

The disturbances, which took place on Thursday, included a violent attack on guards that was put down by antiriot soldiers firing shotgun blasts and pepper spray, and an episode involving two other groups of detainees who tore apart their quarters and attacked guards in a showcase unit for the camp's most compliant inmates.

Military officials said the prisoners' actions were apparently aimed at raising political pressure on the Bush administration over its detention policy. Pressure was also ratcheted up by the report issued in Geneva by the United Nations Committee Against Torture.

U.S. REPORT ON CUBA DELAYED BY DETAILS
MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 19, 2006

WASHINGTON - A long-awaited update from the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, a keystone of President Bush's policies on the island, will not be delivered to the White House as scheduled on Cuban independence day Saturday, but should be in Bush's hands by month's end, U.S. officials say.

The commission's initial report in 2004 led to a severe curtailing of travel and remittances by Cuban Americans to the island, a detailed plan for the kinds of aid that Washington could offer Cuba after Fidel Castro leaves power and increased funding for pro-
democracy programs.

U.S. officials have declined to comment on what changes the commission might recommend in its new report, although some Cuba-watchers in Washington have been speculating that the panel will recommend even tighter restrictions on trips by U.S. academic and religious groups.

After a lengthy review of United States policies, the committee dismissed several basic legal arguments the Bush administration had offered to justify such practices as the incommunicado detention of prisoners overseas and the secret transfer, or "rendition," of suspects for interrogation by other governments.

CASTRO'S WEALTH DEBATED
MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 22, 2006

It's been almost 10 years since Forbes magazine started publishing a list of world leaders flush with fortune, and for that decade, Cuban leader Fidel Castro's wealth has been a moving target.

This year's $900 million estimate so angered the communist ruler that during a 30-minute televised address last week he vowed to resign if anyone proves he's stockpiling cash. Castro's heated tirade also raised a question that Forbes editors were not willing to answer in much detail: How can the magazine know how much the 79-year-old is worth?

Forbes' May 5 issue lists Castro as the world's seventh richest leader. That put him a far shot from the king of Saudi Arabia's $21 billion, but above Queen Elizabeth II.

CHAVEZ DISMISSES US CONCERNS ON DEMOCRACY
THE MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 24, 2006

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez dismissed U.S. concerns over democracy in Venezuela, saying President Bush is "demolishing" his own country's democracy by spying on fellow Americans and violating the rights of immigrants in the war on terror.

Speaking a day after Bush said he was "concerned about the erosion of democracy" in Venezuela and Bolivia, Chavez also accused Bush on Tuesday of posing a threat to world peace.

"Democracy and the fundamental principles of that country, which were held up by Abraham Lincoln among others, are being demolished," said Chavez, citing a domestic spying program that many Americans have criticized as a violation of civil liberties.

GROUP THINKS CIA HAD VIGILANTE TIES
MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 24, 2006

BOGOTA - A Washington-based think tank filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to force the Central Intelligence Agency to search its archives for documents that may help reveal the CIA's links to a vigilante group here that helped Colombian and U.S. authorities track down drug lord Pablo Escobar.

In its suit, the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and the law firm of Brian Gaffney said CIA actions "discourage the Plaintiff, its members and other members of the public from obtaining public records from the United States government."

IPS, one of Washington's oldest think tanks, has been requesting documents on the case via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) since 2004.

REGIONAL
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DISUNITY NEW RULER OF REGION
MIAMI  HERALD.
MAY. 23, 2006

WASHINGTON - Not too long ago, Latin America's politics were focused on the domestic: internal upheavals in countries like Ecuador, Bolivia and Haiti, and elections that ushered in one left-wing government after another.

Not anymore.

The aggressively confrontational policies of Presidents Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Bolivia's Evo Morales have Latin America more divided than at any time since the end of the Cold War, analysts and diplomats say, opening the possibilities of dramatic shifts that could have profound implications for the Bush administration's relations with the region.

The trade bloc uniting Andean nations is in shambles after Venezuela deserted it. Brazil is angry with Morales' nationalization of his natural gas industry, hurting a Brazilian state oil company. Mexico and Peru don't even have ambassadors in Caracas. And diplomats regularly bicker at the Organization of American States over everything from texts on the rights of poor people to counterterrorism collaboration.

"We have big concerns that the crises of governments have been replaced by crises between governments," said OAS chief José Miguel Insulza, who recently issued a statement urging Latin American leaders to "do everything necessary to preserve peace and democracy."

PRESIDENTE BOLIVIANO MORALES BUSCA EXPANDIR EL USO DE LA COCA
WASHINGTON POST.
MAY 19, 2006

Si el Presidente boliviano Evo Morales se sale con la suya, usted podría pronto pedir que le sirvan una tasa de mate de coca en vez de capuchino de su café preferido.

Morales quiere darle a miles de cocaleros bolivianos acceso a nuevos mercados. Se imagina un uso ampliado de la coca como ingrediente en bebidas, goma de mascar, pasta dental y aderezos para alimentos. Tradicionalmente la hoja ha sido usada en la región andina para combatir el hambre, el frío y la fatiga al igual que en prácticas medicinales y sagradas. Ya para los 80, traficantes ilegales de droga habían convertido a Bolivia en uno de los principales proveedores de coca para el lucrativo mercado de la cocaína.

El plan de Morales es el segundo de dos pilares que conforman su estrategia de lucha contra las drogas. El primero es la continuación de los métodos convencionales de interdicción de cocaína y lucha contra narcotraficantes, lavado de activos y la importación de precursores químicos usados para la producción del estupefaciente. Funcionarios bolivianos aseguran que algunos de dichos esfuerzos convencionales ya han brindado resultados mejores que en años pasados.

SEEKING UNITED LATIN AMERICA, VENEZUELA'S CHÁVEZ IS A DIVIDER
THE NEW YORK TIMES
May 20, 2006

BOGOTÁ, Colombia, May 19 — As Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, insinuates himself deeper in the politics of his region, something of a backlash is building among his neighbors.
Mr. Chávez — stridently anti-American, leftist and never short on words — has cast himself as spokesman for a united Latin America free of Washington's influence. He has backed Bolivia's recent gas nationalization, set up his own Socialist trade bloc and jumped into the middle of disputes between his neighbors, even when no one has asked.

Some nations are beginning to take umbrage. The mere association with Mr. Chávez has helped reverse the leads of presidential candidates in Mexico and Peru. Officials from Mexico to Nicaragua, Peru and Brazil have expressed rising impatience at what they see as Mr. Chávez's meddling and grandstanding, often at their expense.

Diplomatic sparring has broken into the open. Last month, after very public sniping between Mr. Chávez and Peru's president, Alejandro Toledo, the country withdrew its ambassador from Caracas, citing "flagrant interference" in its affairs.

IN WORD FEUD WITH 'HITLER,"SATAN' DRAWS LINE IN SAND
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MAY 20, 2006

WASHINGTON, May 19 — Bernardo Álvarez, the Venezuelan ambassador to Washington, says Cuba and Iran are close allies of his country, but he still cannot understand why the United States listed Venezuela this week as a nation that is not cooperating on terrorism.

"We want to cooperate with the United States," he averred during a meeting with reporters on Thursday.

In Tripoli, Libya, however, Mr. Álvarez's boss, President Hugo Chávez, on Thursday urged "the whole world to unite against the hegemony of the United States."

Relations between the United States and Venezuela have been steadily deteriorating since the United States recognized the leaders of a coup that briefly unseated Mr. Chávez in 2002, but they lurched backward on Monday when the Bush administration announced that the United States would sell no more military equipment to Venezuela because of what it said was Venezuela's failure to cooperate on terrorism investigations.

CANDIDATE ACCUSES CHÁVEZ, CASTRO OF 'MEDDLING' IN RACE
MIAMI HERALD
MAY. 23, 2006

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro are meddling in Nicaragua's upcoming elections by orchestrating fertilizer giveaways and deeply discounted oil deals for leftist politicians, a leading presidential candidate charged Monday.

Speaking in Coral Gables at a function arranged by the University of Miami's Center for Hemispheric Policy, presidential candidate Eduardo Montealegre said Chávez and Castro are looking to help Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista party.

"Castro has always had his hands in Nicaragua over the years. What he hasn't had in many years is a lot of money," Montealegre said. "Now he's found himself with Chávez's oil, which he is using like an open checkbook to support Daniel Ortega."

Montealegre, a former finance minister, will face off against the Sandinista Ortega in a November election packed with three other candidates. Ortega served as president throughout the 1980s but has lost the past three presidential elections.