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)

PERU'S HUMALA CONCEDES ELECTION TO GARCIA
THE WASHINGTON POST
JUNE 4, 2006

LIMA, Peru - Former President Alan Garcia beat a fiery ex-army nationalist in Peru's runoff election Sunday, staging a political comeback after his 1980s government ended in economic ruin, rebel violence and accusations of rights abuses.

The result is a blow for Venezuela's President Hugh Chavez, who sparked a diplomatic spat with Peru after trying to take advantage of a populist anti-U.S. tide in Latin America by supporting Ollanta Humala, a former army commander.

With 77 percent of the ballots counted, Garcia, who portrays himself as a left-of-center democrat, won about 55 percent of the vote and Humala, who spooked many middle-class Peruvians with calls for a revolution against the rich, had some 45 percent of votes.

Humala conceded defeat but vowed to battle for his nationalist revolution to help half the Peruvians who are poor.

RACE IS WILD CARD IN PERU RUNOFF
WASHINGTON POST
JUNE 3, 2006

LIMA, Peru, June 2 -- Isaac Humala says he values the diversity of ideas. So he immersed his children in an ideology he created, known as "ethno-nationalism," which argues that a Peruvian "copper race," the Incan descendants, should have political supremacy in a region stolen away by lighter-skinned outsiders.

Now that one of his children, Ollanta Humala, is vying for Peru's presidency in Sunday's election, facing former president Alan Garcia, many are trying to figure out exactly which ideas might have been passed from father to son. In a melting pot of a country where racial tensions are often considered omnipresent but understated, the 75-year-old patriarch's teachings have all the subtlety of a poke in the eye.

"We are racists, certainly," he said during a morning commute this week to the downtown office of his Peruvian Nationalist Movement, the political organization which he created. "We advocate saving the copper race from extinction, disintegration and degeneration. Everyone is a racist, because nationalism is something that is in the blood, just like it is with the Japanese in Japan and the Germans in Germany."

PERU'S VOTERS MAY TURN TO A TESTED, AND FAILED, LEADER
THE NEW YORK TIMES
JUNE 3, 2006

LIMA, Peru, June 2 — In his quest for the presidency, Alan García, the front-runner going into the runoff election on Sunday, disparages his opponent's supposed authoritarian streak, his military upbringing and his ties to President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.

But mostly Mr. García is running against the past, namely his own record as president in the 1980's, when his populist policies and inflationary economic program left Peru teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and unchecked terrorist violence.

A shrewd politician and gifted orator, Mr. García, 57, has managed to recast himself as a changed man, a responsible statesman who will guide Peru to prosperity, working with the same multinational lenders and American officials he once excoriated.

With his lead over Ollanta Humala, 43, a nationalist former army lieutenant colonel, ranging between 6 and 12 points in three opinion polls, Mr. García may be positioned for what would be one of Latin America's most startling political resurrections.

PRODDED BY THE LEFT, MEXICO'S RICHEST MAN TALKS EQUITY
THE NEW YORK TIMES
JUNE 3, 2006

MOST everyone is familiar with the occupants of the first and second spots on Forbes' list of the world's wealthy — Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. But the planet's third-richest man — Carlos Slim of Mexico — is known to far fewer people. And that is the way he has always liked it, until now.

As a wave of leftist populism spreads across Latin America, Mr. Slim's empire, which includes telephones, cigarettes and parts for crude oil platforms, faces fierce challenges, and he has suddenly emerged from a shield of secrecy to conduct a very public campaign for greater social and economic equity.

In recent months, Mr. Slim, 66, whose fortune is estimated at $30 billion to $40 billion, has traveled across the region to build and consolidate relationships with the growing number of left-leaning leaders whose politics have cast a harsh light on the economic divide between the region's poor masses and tiny group of elites. In Mexico, the heat has been turned up by a more independent Congress beginning to exercise the powers of real democracy, and where violent protests by union workers and the frustrations of the poor are played out live on TV in clashes with the police.

A CONVERSATION WITH ALAN GARCIA
Interview by Michael Shifter, Inter-American Dialogue
THE WASHINGTON POST
JUNE 4, 2006

Alan Garcia was dubbed the Latin American Kennedy when he was elected president of Peru in 1985, promising to reform a stagnant country and improve the lot of the poor. Yet when he left in 1990, Peru's economy was in ruins, a Maoist insurgency was terrorizing the country and Garcia's popularity had plummeted. Now, the charismatic Garcia is running for president again; he goes into today's runoff a slight favorite over anti-U.S. nationalist Ollanta Humala. Garcia recently spoke in Lima about his second act in politics with the Inter-American Dialogue's Michael Shifter.

ARGENTINE LEADER'S BID TO REIN IN MILITARY CAUSES CLASH
THE NEW YORK  TIMES
JUNE 4, 2006

BUENOS AIRES, June 3 — From the moment Néstor Kirchner became president of Argentina three years ago, sectors of the military have chafed under his criticism and tough human rights policy. But as the president moves ahead with plans to overhaul the armed forces and reduce their authority, those tensions are breaking into the open.

At an Army Day ceremony here on Monday, a few officers turned their backs on Mr. Kirchner and another walked offstage as he delivered a speech attacking the armed forces for their past associations with "state terrorism" and for a recent case in which military intelligence was found to be spying on politicians and reporters. The wife of a recently dismissed officer even stood and publicly challenged Mr. Kirchner's version of the military's history.

"As president of the nation, I have no fear," Mr. Kirchner told the crowd at one point. "I'm not afraid of you." He then left the ceremony without reviewing the troops that had been assembled for him.

IN PERU, A POLITICAL MAKEOVER AIDS EX-LEADER'S ELECTION BID
WASHINGTON POST
JUNE 4, 2006

LIMA, Peru, June 3 -- To overcome a political first act remembered by nearly all who saw it as an execrable horror show, Alan García needed a plot twist, a character transformation and a new villain.

He got all three this year, and García hopes they will be enough to hand him a victory over nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala in runoff elections Sunday and regain Peru's presidency, after he steered the country into economic ruin as president from 1985 to 1990.

The plot twist came in April, when García, 57, surprised pollsters by finishing second in national elections, allowing him to claim a spot in a runoff against Humala, the leading vote-getter. García has campaigned on the premise that he is a changed man, that he won't repeat the mistakes of his first term. In the campaign's waning days, García clearly defined his adversary not simply as a nationalist who promises more government control over the nation's economy, but also as an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is leading an overall trend in Latin America toward populism.

"Go with Chavez, or with Peru," García told reporters this week. "That is the decision."

MANY TRANSPLANTED PERUVIANS FIND LITTLE TO LIKE IN CANDIDATES
WASHINGTON POST
JUNE 4, 2006

When Arnaldo Garro votes in his native Peru's presidential runoff election at a high school in Falls Church today, it will be like "voting for the lesser evil," he said.

Only, he added quickly, "We don't know enough about who is less evil."

Is it the ex-president who once left his homeland nearly bankrupt and plagued with terrorist attacks? Or is it the former military man whose leftist nationalist leanings, Garro worries, could weaken Peru's ties with his adopted homeland, the United States?

"We are in a situation where we really don't like any of the candidates," said Ana Maria Ore, who lives in Brookville.

Today, thousands of Peruvian immigrants across the Washington region will vote on the future political direction of their homeland, continuing their strong connection with the Latin American nation that many left decades ago.

THE POPULIST AT THE BORDER
THE NEW YORK TIMES
JUNE 4, 2006

In the richer neighborhoods of Mexico City, armored S.U.V.'s and sedans have become almost commonplace. A decade ago, the only people driving around the city in armored passenger cars were members of Mexico's established business oligarchy — families like the Slims and the Azcárragas, who have long played a leading role in the country's politics as well as its economy. But now the custom has percolated down from the superrich to the merely well heeled. And with good reason: in recent years Mexico's sprawling capital has become one of the most dangerous cities in the world for the poor and the prosperous alike. "People here lead gated lives" was the way one acquaintance recently put it to me.

CHILEAN PROMISED A NEW DEAL; NOW STRIKING YOUTH DEMAND IT
THE NEW YORK TIMES
JUNE 5, 2006

SANTIAGO, Chile, June 4 — Less than three months after she took office promising to lead a government that welcomed greater citizen participation, President Michelle Bachelet is facing her first domestic crisis. To the surprise of many here, the challenge comes not from the right but from a group expected to be sympathetic to her center-left coalition: high school students.

In protests that began in mid-May, more than 700,000 teenagers have walked out of classes at public high schools, demanding the overhaul of an education system they say is inferior and discriminatory. They have occupied several hundred schools, sleeping there overnight with sympathetic parents bringing them meals, and last week thousands marched in the streets of the capital here and in other cities in this nation of 16 million.

Ms. Bachelet, a 54-year-old pediatrician and a survivor of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship, took office March 11 as the first woman to be elected president of Chile and as a symbol of its reconciliation with its dark past. She campaigned on the promise of more tolerant and nurturing leadership, and the students — teenagers with no memories of the Pinochet era and its political repression — seem to have taken her at her word.

EX-PRESIDENT WINS IN PERU IN STUNNING COMEBACK
THE NEW YORK TIMES
JUNE 5, 2006

LIMA, Peru, June 4 — Sixteen years after his presidency ended in economic collapse and heightened guerrilla violence, Alan García was elected president again on Sunday, completing one of Latin America's most astonishing political resurrections.

With 77 percent of the vote tabulated, electoral authorities said Mr. García had captured more than 55 percent of the vote versus 44 percent for his opponent, Ollanta Humala, an upstart nationalist who promised to redistribute the country's wealth.

Mr. García, 57, who once faced corruption charges and ended his first presidency in disgrace, sounded a note of contrition during a spellbinding victory speech before a throng of supporters.

"A new path to victory and responsibility has been open to the Apristas as a result of the generosity of the people and the will of God," he said, referring to his party, the APRA. "No one can reach power if you do not accept and open your heart before God and admit the errors that you are guilty of."
He added, "I do not want an ephemeral victory."

GARCÍA DEFEATS NATIONALIST IN PERU VOTE TO RECLAIM PRESIDENCY
WASHINGTON POST
JUNE 5, 2006

LIMA, Peru, June 4 -- Former president Alan García defeated nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala in Sunday's runoff election, earning a second chance to lead the country he steered to economic devastation in the 1980s.

García campaigned to protect Peru's free-trade economy from what he portrayed as the false promise of Latin American populism, arguing that Humala's plan to exert more state control over Peru's mining and energy sectors would isolate the country economically and discourage private investment.

Humala conceded defeat late Sunday after García led 55 percent to 45 percent with 77 percent of the votes counted.

García cast the election as a referendum to determine where Peru would position itself on South America's political map: with moderate, left-leaning leaders such as Chile's Michelle Bachelet or with populists like Venezuela's Hugo Chávez.

PRESIDENCY MAY HINGE ON TV DEBATE
MIAMI HERALD
JUN. 06, 2006

MEXICO CITY - After a year that saw hundreds of thousands of people march in the streets, record spending on searing TV ads and endless political intrigue, Mexico's presidential campaign probably will turn on what happens in a television studio tonight.

For two hours, the contenders will debate the issues that voters face: more jobs, less crime and a better future. It'll be the first time that all the presidential candidates will be on the same stage.

But with less than a month to go before the vote July 2, the questions are really just three: Which of the two leading contenders, pro-business Felipe Calderón or populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador, will come out ahead? Will the country's former political old guard survive an election in which its candidate is running a distant third? And how will the public react to what could be an incredibly close finish?

What's known is that whoever wins will set a six-year course for the country that could be as important to the United States as it is to Mexico. Issues that include what to do about migration to the United States, what foreign policy to pursue and whether to open the economy to more foreign investment face the next president.

GARCÍA'S CHALLENGE: BRINGING ECONOMIC BENEFITS TO PERU'S POOR
MIAMIHERALD
JUN. 06, 2006

LIMA - The major task facing President-elect Alan García is extending the benefits of Peru's export boom to the impoverished south, which voted heavily for retired Lt. Col. Ollanta Humala and his soak-the-rich message, analysts said Monday.

Investors in and out of Peru heaved a sigh of relief that García won the runoff ballot Sunday, with election officials Monday putting his advantage at 53 percent to Humala's 46.9 percent with 93 percent of the vote counted.

''A lot of people were celebrating last night,'' Iván García, a Miami businessman and past president of the Peruvian-American Chamber of Commerce of Florida, said by telephone.

One of those who wasn't celebrating was Humala, who offered only half-hearted congratulations to García late Sunday. But he will remain a political factor since his party won 45 seats in the 120-member unicameral Congress on April 9, compared to 36 for García's American Popular Revolutionary Alliance, or APRA.

Humala's defeat prevented leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez from gaining another political ally in Latin America, a fact that García trumpeted in his victory speech late Sunday.

HONEYMOON MAY BE OVER FOR CHILE PRESIDENT
MIAMI HERALD
Jun. 06, 2006

SANTIAGO, Chile - Michelle Bachelet will be celebrated in Washington this week by fellow free-trader George Bush and a who's who of powerful women. But critics at home say their new president has struggled in her first leadership test, giving in too easily to violent student protests.

Her response to the demonstrations was a new turn for a Latin America known for tough male leaders: Tenderly addressing students on live TV, she declared their grievances "fully legitimate" and promised costly reforms.

Bachelet showed such empathy that one newspaper dubbed her tactics the "mommy" approach.

Supporters say the president struck exactly the right tone in dealing with angry protesters demanding financial help for poor students and federal cash to even out regional differences in spending on schools.

But critics think Bachelet waited too long to get involved and then conceded too easily in offering programs that will cost an additional $200 million through next year. They say her actions encouraged students to escalate a strike that has shut down schools for three weeks and brought stone-throwing clashes, tear gas and water cannons to the streets.

The protests have continued despite her conciliatory TV appearance Thursday and a harsher declaration Monday from Bachelet, who said "the truth is that a strike isn't necessary." Her finance minister, Andres Velasco, said no further concessions would be granted.

MEXICO TO HOLD FINAL PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
MIAMI HERALD
JUN. 06, 2006

MEXICO CITY - Former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador skipped Mexico's first presidential debate in April - and it cost him. The race's front-runner saw his once comfortable lead in opinion polls evaporate in a matter of weeks.

Now Lopez Obrador is running neck-and-neck with Felipe Calderon of outgoing President Vicente Fox's conservative National Action Party, making Tuesday night's second and final debate all the more important.

"The race is so tight that the debate has to have a major impact," said pollster Jorge Buendia of Ipsos Bimsa. "All eyes will be on Lopez Obrador. The test will be whether he can keep his calm and persuade voters he is not too radical."

Lopez Obrador, running with the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, said he skipped the first debate because he preferred to speak face-to-face with voters rather than spar with his rivals on national television.

In his absence, Calderon was forced to defend himself against a barrage of attacks from the race's third major candidate, Roberto Madrazo, but also managed to speak about some of his key proposals for the country. He was seen by many as the evening's winner.

STUDENTS CLASH WITH POLICE IN CHIL
MIAMI HERALD
JUN. 06, 2006

SANTIAGO, Chile - Protesters clashed with police Monday in Chile's capital as students stepped up demands for reforms to the country's educational system, saying new government concessions didn't go far enough.

Masked demonstrators threw rocks at police and looted stores in the protests, which security forces broke up with tear gas and powerful sprays from water cannons.

Police said 262 people were detained and 23 police officers and five journalists were injured. None of the injuries were believed to be life-threatening.

Chile's public high schools have been paralyzed for three weeks by protests by students who also want financial breaks for poor students and federal intervention to balance out regional differences in educational spending.

The initial government concessions came after violent street protests last week left some 20 people injured, more than 700 arrested and millions of dollars of property damage.
Most students Monday remained in their schools for a "day of reflection."

CIRCUS ARTS LIFT CHILE'S TROUBLED YOUTHS
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
JUNE 07, 2006

SANTIAGO, CHILE – In the north end of Chile's sprawling capital, Santiago, the graffiti-covered neighborhood of Quinta Normal is considered one of the most "vulnerable" inner-city communities for youth. The Lo Franco Elementary School has long struggled to inoculate its preteens against the temptations of drugs and other social ills. But they've started making inroads, with an unusual approach.

Inside the school gymnasium, a dozen kids face each other in two parallel lines and take turns rolling up make-believe balls of energy and throwing them at each other - and the more noise, body language, and facial expressions they make, the better. It's one of the exercises in their first week of "circus class" - a groundbreaking social program that uses juggling, acrobatics, and a lot of clowning around to help 500 at-risk youths per year, mainly in Santiago.

COALITION CABINET UNVEILED
MIAMI HERALD
JUN. 07, 2006

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Haiti's president appointed a coalition government Tuesday in an effort to unite the nation two years after a bloody revolt toppled the previous elected administration.
The new government includes members of six political parties, underscoring President René Préval's need to bring together Haiti's bitterly divided political factions. Haiti's Parliament must approve the Cabinet in a vote due to be completed today.

Haiti's powerful business community and large network of popular organizations offered no immediate reaction to the new government, which was announced after days of intense negotiations with Parliament, where no party holds a majority.

Prime Minister JacquesEdouard Alexis said the government would embark on a 25-year development plan, including boosting access to basic services for Haiti's poor, reinforcing the country's brittle state institutions and attracting private investment.

MEXICAN CANDIDATES BATTLE IN TV DEBATE
MIAMI HERALD
JUN. 07, 2006

MEXICO CITY - The front-runners in Mexico's tight presidential race tried to break ahead Tuesday in the second and final televised debate before elections, trading personal jabs and promising to bring jobs to Mexico so that millions won't have to seek better lives in the United States.

Known for his fiery and off-the-cuff remarks, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador remained almost timid in the face of repeated attacks by conservative Felipe Calderon of President Vicente Fox's National Action Party. But he closed the debate by accusing Calderon's brother-in-law of getting contracts in the energy sector while Calderon served as energy secretary under Fox.

"My proposal is for three things: Not to lie. Not to rob. Not to betray the people," he said.

Calderon denied Lopez Obrador's accusation, saying: "You aren't going to win with lies."

Calderon and Lopez Obrador are running neck-and-neck ahead of the July 2 vote, and analysts have said the debate could help decide the next president.

MEXICO: SHOOTING SHAKES PRESIDENTIAL RACE
THE NEW YORK TIMES
JUNE 7, 2006

An armored car carrying a woman who had threatened to release videotapes said to show aides of the former Mexico City mayor and presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador taking bribes was fired on by gunmen, the authorities said. Three of her children were also in the car, but no one was injured. Coming on the day of the last presidential debate, the attack set off a storm of speculation about who was behind it and how it might influence the race. The woman, Celia Gurza, is the wife of Carlos Ahumada, who is in prison on charges that he paid bribes to Mexico City officials. In 2004, he released a videotape that appeared to show a close ally of Mr. López Obrador accepting a bribe. From prison this week, he said his wife would release tapes to reporters showing other bribe-taking, but after yesterday's gun attack, she canceled her news conference.

MIGRACIÓN
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AP: MILLIONS OF VISA OVERSTAYS OVERLOOKED
MIAMI HERALD
JUN. 05, 2006

MEXICO CITY - Millions of illegal immigrants in the United States never jumped the U.S.-Mexico border where Congress wants to erect impenetrable walls and President Bush is sending National Guard troops to patrol. They never sneaked in at all.

The little-acknowledged reality is that nearly half the estimated 12 million undocumented foreigners in the United States entered on bona fide U.S. visas - and simply never left. Authorities call them "overstays" who have been largely overlooked in the vitriolic debate on immigration.

"The southwestern border gets all the attention, but it's staggering the number of people who come and overstay their visa," said Dean Boyd, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington. "It's a very large-scale problem."

A study by the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center last month indicated that 45 percent of the undocumented migrants in the United States overstayed legal visas.

Confirming those findings or knowing the home country of those who overstay their visas is tricky because U.S. authorities don't track the problem. Immigration authorities also generally don't compare entry and exit information to see who should have left the country.

THE MIGRANTS' MAYOR
WASHINGTON POST
JUNE 2, 2006

CARA SUCIA, El Salvador -- Narciso Ramírez strode through the throng of supplicants waiting outside the mayor's office on a recent morning with the expansive smile of a man who had just been elected by a landslide.

A middle school dropout with no experience in government, Ramírez had taken on a three-term incumbent belonging to the region's most successful political party.

But the 45-year-old rancher, widely known by his nickname, "Don Chicho," offered a credential far more persuasive in these parts. By his own account, Ramírez has helped about 200 residents sneak into the United States over the years by lending them money for their journeys and providing a list of friendly contacts along the route. According to Salvadoran officials, Ramírez's role went further. In 2002, they charged him with heading an international network of at least 50 smugglers.

He was acquitted of the charges, but many residents of this far western town say Ramírez was the area's top coyote, or people smuggler, for much of the 1990s, personally guiding groups of 150 to 200 at a time up through Mexico into the United States.

MEXICAN PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS VOW TO SEEK IMMIGRATION PACT
WASHINGTON POST
JUNE 7, 2006

MEXICO CITY, June 6 -- Mexico's three major presidential candidates each pledged Tuesday during a nationally televised debate to seek an immigration accord with the United States.
Immigration has grown in importance in the campaign since this spring's massive immigration rallies in U.S. cities and President Bush's decision to send National Guard troops to support U.S. Border Patrol agents.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, candidate of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, or PRD, who is popular among the poor, said Mexicans have to convince U.S. officials that "nothing can be resolved with walls . . . or with the militarization of the border."

López Obrador, who skipped the first debate and was under pressure to stop his slide in opinion polls with a resounding win Tuesday, is tied in the polls with Felipe Calderón, the candidate from President Vicente Fox's National Action Party, or PAN.

Calderón, a former energy secretary, said he would push for an agreement that would award U.S. legal status to Mexicans who have lived illegally in the United States for "five or six years" -- a far shorter period than has been proposed by some immigration advocates in the United States.

REGIONAL
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LATIN AMERICA'S GROWTH TO SLOW DOWN IN '07
MIAMI HERALD
JUN. 04, 2006

The party is coming to an end. After three years of healthy economic growth, Latin American economies -- including Venezuela and Argentina -- will start losing steam in 2007, according to new projections from the World Bank, the United Nations and Wall Street economists.

The new figures seem to confirm what many have long suspected: Latin America's recent export-led growth was largely due to external factors -- such as high commodity prices, low interest rates and a growing world economy -- and that this environment would not last forever.

A new World Bank study says there will be a moderate decline in world commodity prices over the next two years, which will affect some Latin American countries' exports. In addition, populist policies may scare away much-needed investments. Among the key findings of the World Bank's 205-page Global Development Finance 2006 study:

* Latin American economies will grow by 4.6 percent this year, 4 percent in 2007 and 3.7 percent in 2008, ''reflecting a significant slowing in Argentina and Venezuela,'' the two countries that reported the highest growth rates in the region last year.

* Countries that rely heavily on agricultural exports, such as Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, will be affected by a slowdown in agricultural price increases over the next two years. And countries that rely heavily on metal exports, such as Chile and Peru, will be hurt by a similar slowdown in metal price increase

CASTRO'S STANDING TIED TO LEFTISTS' RISE
MIAMI HERALD
JUN. 04, 2006

Where did new Haitian President René Préval go on his first trip abroad? Cuba.

With whom did Bolivian President Evo Morales meet the day before he nationalized his country's natural-gas industry? Cuban President Fidel Castro.

And which country did a high-level St. Vincent official recently describe as a ''stabilizing force'' in the region? Cuba.

As Latin America elects more and more presidents who lean to the left and the Bush administration's standing in the region slumps, experts say Castro is enjoying his warmest relations with his hemispheric neighbors in decades.

And as long as his friend Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is flush with cash and oil, the two-man leftist team is bound to gain legitimacy and recognition in a region where many complain that they have long been ignored by the United States, experts add.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT CHÁVEZ DOMINATE OAS
MIAMI HERALD
JUN. 06, 2006

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - An annual Organization of American States gathering was marked Monday not by gentle diplomacy but by a sharp exchange between Peru and Venezuela over President Hugo Chávez's outspoken ways.

Complaints about Chávez meddling in neighbors' affairs erupted into an unusually public clash at the OAS General Assembly after Peru, with U.S. backing, forcefully demanded the OAS issue a statement condemning Venezuela for taking sides in Peru's presidential election.

U.S. officials also used the three-day meeting of foreign ministers from the 34-nation bloc to urge members to support Guatemala over Venezuela in the race for a seat on the U.N. Security Council. With an eye on Cuba, Washington also secured a condemnation of Internet censorship, U.S. officials said.

PERU FAILS TO WIN CONDEMNATION OF VENEZUELA
MIAMI HERALD
JUN. 06, 2006

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - The Organization of American States is wrapping up its annual General Assembly of 34 nations today as Peru backed down from its efforts to secure a condemnation of President Hugo Chávez's alleged intervention in its electoral affairs, diplomats said.

Although the initiative had enthusiastic U.S. backing, few other Latin American nations wanted to snarl the OAS's General Assembly of foreign ministers with an intensely controversial issue that many feel needs to be worked out bilaterally.

''The declaration to condemn Venezuela has failed,'' Venezuela's envoy to the OAS, Jorge Valero, told The Miami Herald. ``It didn't proceed because it was based on false allegations.''

Peru demanded an OAS statement condemning foreign meddling after Chávez, who says he is leading a socialist revolution in favor of the poor, blasted Peru's President-elect Alán García and current President Alejandro Toledo.

OAS SIDESTEPS CONFRONTATION WITH CHÁVEZ
MIAMIHERALD
JUN. 07, 2006

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - Diplomatically skirting complaints of meddling by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, the Organization of American States wrapped up its annual gathering of foreign ministers on Tuesday by sticking to its innocuous official agenda: technology and good governance.

''Sometimes multilateral processes, because they have to represent all their members, have to be a little bit more indirect and circuitous,'' said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who represented Washington.

The event-ending Declaration of Santo Domingo asked nations to ''work intensely'' to ensure that every person in the 34-nation bloc participates in the benefits of a knowledge-based society.

But the main flash point at the three-day General Assembly was Peru's demand Monday that the OAS condemn Chávez for his outspoken support for the losing candidate in Sunday's Peruvian presidential election, nationalist Ollanta Humala.

POLÍTICA BILATERAL
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GARCÍA'S WIN IN PERU IS A LOSS FOR CHÁVEZ
WASHINGTON POST
JUNE 6, 2006

LIMA, PERU – Peruvian voters elected leftist leader Alan García to a five-year term on Sunday, returning the former president to office 16 years after his first stint.
It is a tough defeat for Ollanta Humala, the populist candidate who won the first round less than two months ago. But it is also a blow to Venezuelan leader and US nemesis Hugo Chávez, who openly backed Mr. Humala.

In his election-night address, Mr. García said the result is "a defeat for the expansionist efforts of [Mr. Chávez]. Peru's democracy said 'no' to him."
García's "rhetorical challenges to Hugo Chávez are very welcome to a US government that would very much like allies in the region against Chávez," says Cynthia McClintock, a professor at George Washington University in Washington and specialist on Peru.

In his final campaign swing, García offered to lead a regional alliance to contain Chávez, saying that it is time for the region to stand up to his "petrodollars and imperialism." He envisions a center-left bloc with the leaders of Brazil, Chile, and other nations as a response to a more radical left-wing option pushed by Chávez and Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Chávez's brand of left-wing populism has won over newly elected Bolivian Presi- dent Evo Morales, who recently moved to nationalize his country's gas industry, and is rolling out plans for land reform similar to those Chávez has implemented in Venezuela. Hoping for a similar result in Peru, Chávez backed Humala.

PREPARING FOR LIFE AFTER CASTRO'S DEATH
A new South Florida plan to prepare for the day Cuban leader Fidel Castro dies is the most comprehensive yet, according to officials.
MIAMI HERALD
JUN. 02, 2006

Sometime in the future, word will hit the streets in Miami: Cuban leader Fidel Castro is dead.

Yes, parties will erupt spontaneously in many neighborhoods. Yes, tears will flow and rum bottles stashed in cupboards for that ''special occasion'' will be opened.

But, as is typical in an area accustomed to preparing for emergencies such as hurricanes and mass migrations from Cuba or Haiti, plans are being drawn at the highest levels of business and government in Miami-Dade County to deal with the potential mayhem that may erupt the day Castro dies, as well as the weeks and months that will follow.

The University of Miami -- in coordination with the American Red Cross of Greater Miami and the Keys and a slew of nonprofit groups and local, state and federal agencies -- has completed what officials say is the most comprehensive plan ever put together in Miami to prepare for the critical days following the death of Cuba's communist leader, who will turn 80 this year.

The greatest fear among the planning organizations is another mass migration along the lines of the Mariel boatlift in 1980 or the 1994 balsero crisis. Much of the report is dedicated to planning for such an event, such as assigning a county official as the point person and assigning specific tasks to deal with migrants.

CUBANS JAILED IN U.S. AS SPIES ARE HAILED AT HOME AS HEROES
WASHINGTON POST
JUNE 3, 2006

HAVANA -- European tourists here send home postcards with stamps bearing the images of five faces, known simply as los muchachos (the young men) or los cinco (the five). The faces, usually surrounded by billowing Cuban flags, stare out, larger than life, from factory walls, apartment buildings, billboards.

The five are heroes in Cuba, but villains to exiles in the United States, where they are serving long prison terms for espionage-related convictions in 2001.

Their case, once cheekily cast in the Miami news media as a "spy-vs.-spy," Cold War-era throwback, illuminates the resilience of the complicated, decades-long standoff entangling Cuba, the U.S. government and Cuban exile groups based in Florida. It is now also raising nettlesome questions about the nuances of terrorism and international espionage.

American officials tend to paint Cuban agents as infiltrators bent on undermining U.S. national security. But the Cuban government asserts they are men of courage, sent to the United States to ferret out terrorism plots by Cuban exile groups waging war against President Fidel Castro.

PERU ELECTION WON'T END CHAVEZ'S INFLUENCE
MIAMI HERALD
JUN. 05, 2006

LIMA, Peru - President-elect Alan Garcia says Peru's voters sent a clear message to Hugo Chavez: Stay out.

But with the Venezuelan president's ally Ollanta Humala controlling the largest faction in Peru's Congress, Chavez's confrontational, leftist brand of politics may be here to stay.

A majority of Peru's voters effectively anointed a regional rival to Chavez by returning Garcia, 57, to the presidency he left in disgrace 16 years ago. Garcia drove home that point in his victory speech when he denounced the growing influence of oil-rich Venezuela in Latin America.

"Our homeland's independent destiny was at stake here, threatened by total domination and imperialism," Garcia told supporters Sunday night. "Imperialism does not come only from great powers but also from nearby domination, by those who seek to subordinate and steer us because they have wealth."

A moderate leftist, Garcia held an insurmountable lead of 53.2 percent against 46.8 percent for Humala with 92.5 percent of the vote counted, the national electoral authority said Monday.

IN CHÁVEZ COUNTRY, US AMBASSADOR TRIES BASEBALL DIPLOMACY
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
JUNE 07, 2006

BARINAS, VENEZUELA – He's been warned against such provocations.

But William Brownfield, the US ambassador to Venezuela, wearing his trademark red suspenders, boarded a morning flight recently to President Hugo Chávez's hometown. It would probably infuriate his host government. But a team of little leaguers was waiting.

As the increasingly hostile Bush and Chávez governments continue to one-up each other in the geopolitical big leagues, here, on the ground, a grittier game of tit-for-tat is unfolding - featuring Washington's relentlessly ebullient ambassador giving out free baseballs, and Chávistas lobbing insults and a chef's-salad worth of projectiles at him in response.

In Barinas on May 18, Ambassador Brownfield was not bombarded with vegetables or eggs. This time, his convoy wasn't hounded by thugs on motorcycles, and he didn't have to barricade himself in to avoid angry demonstrators. This was a good trip. On seven other occasions in the past 10 months, he has not been so fortunate.

His trials here reflect the fact that relations between the US and Venezuela, in a tailspin for more than six years, have never been worse. The Bush administration calls Chávez a threat to democracy in Latin America. The popular Venezuelan leader says US forces are preparing to invade his country.

Brownfield has met Chávez only twice, once formally to present his credentials upon arrival in December 2004, and a second time at a holiday celebration where they spoke for 35 seconds. "Next time, I hope to break that record and last for 36," Brownfield quips.