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:
 

MIGRACIÓN
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NEW TROOPS AT US BORDER, BUT THE TASK IS VAST
The Christian Science Monitor
July 27, 2006

SAN DIEGO AND ALTAR, MEXICO – Spc. Anthony Maielli of the National Guard is posted in the back of a pickup truck, parked on a San Diego hill called Arnie's Point. He points the lens of a giant infrared scope, which will allow him to see when darkness falls, south over the US-Mexican border.

"We're here to be another set of eyes and ears for the border patrol," says the guardsman. He is one of 4,500 reinforcements who have arrived since mid-May to help seal the 1,920-mile swath of the land stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. His role: Spot illegal border-crossers and alert the border patrol.

Four hundred miles east and 150 miles south into Mexico, the former mayor of Altar - a dusty nexus for northern-bound migrants from Mexico, Central America, and South America - sums up his view of the US buildup with a shrug.

"If they stood shoulder to shoulder, we would fight our way through the gap between them," says Francisco Garcia Arten, now a migrant activist, his tone more matter-of-fact than defiant. "And if they built a wall 50-feet high, we would bring ladders that were 51 feet."

POLÍTICA INTERNA
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DETAILS ABOUT CASTRO’S HEALTH REMAIN SECRET
The New York Times
August 2, 2006

MEXICO CITY, Aug. 2 — While state-run newspapers and media continued to convey a sense of stability in Cuba today, details about Fidel Castro’s health remained secret after the Communist government said that its longtime ruler had survived surgery after delegating his power.

Mr. Castro handed power temporarily to his brother, Raúl, to undergo the surgery to repair intestinal bleeding, according to a statement read Monday night on Cuban television.

The uncertainty that followed the announcement has been little alleviated since then.

Today, newspapers and television did not expand on a second statement, delivered Tuesday night and attributed to Mr. Castro, which was meant to convey a message of stability in a country that has for the first time begun to grapple with the possibility of a future, even a temporary one, without the man who ruled the country for 47 years.

Granma, the state run newspaper, today ran the president’s message at the top of the front page. The only other story on the front page was one that explained how widely respected Mr. Castro is by reporting that he received many messages of good wishes from presidents around the world.

MEXICO'S LÓPEZ OBRADOR CRITICIZES ELECTORAL BODY
The Washington Post
Friday, July 28, 2006

MEXICO CITY, July 27 -- Mexico's leftist presidential candidate said Thursday that the country's electoral agency has abandoned its autonomous role and become a tool of the ruling party, and he promised to send campaign advisers abroad to lobby foreign governments for support in his battle for the presidency.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador said in an interview that he has lost faith in the respected Federal Electoral Institute, or IFE, and doesn't want it overseeing the national recount he demands.

"You can't take IFE people seriously," he said. "They don't act according to the law."

An IFE spokesman declined to respond to López Obrador's accusations, but electoral officials and most international observers have said the election was largely fair.

The interview came as López Obrador's supporters released dozens of chickens outside the IFE building, then barged into a council meeting, dumped white carnations on the tables and remained peacefully watching the council go about its business.

An official count by IFE gave conservative Felipe Calderón an advantage of less than 0.6 percent in the July 2 elections. López Obrador is disputing the lead in Mexico's top electoral court, which has until Sept. 6 to declare a winner or annul the race.

JAILED FORMER HAITIAN PRIME MINISTER SPEAKS OUT
The Miami Herald
Jul. 27, 2006

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune was freed Thursday afternoon, just hours after vowing that he remained as determined as ever to fight a "machine of injustice" that kept him jailed for two years without trial.

"The machine of injustice must stop reproducing itself," a barefoot Neptune had told a small group of reporters Wednesday in the barren bedroom that served as his cell. "This is not something that concerns just me. It is something that concerns all the Haitian people who don't have the means to face the machine of injustice."

Neptune's 20-minute talk with reporters came as human rights activists try to persuade him to end his on-and-off hunger strikes, even though they agree with his contention that his arrest was politically motivated. Neptune spoke barely above a whisper as he lay on a cushion set on the floor with his head propped up by three thin pillows.

"People understand the injustice they are doing to Neptune and other prisoners," said Ronald St. Jean, head of the Defense of Political Prisoners, a group that has collected about 1,500 signatures in Haiti and abroad appealing for a resolution in the case.

"Neptune also understands the significance of his message," St. Jean said. "We hope that he will give up his hunger strike and be set free."

ARISTIDE'S PREMIER IS NOW A FREE MAN
The Miami Herald
Jul. 28, 2006

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, looking frail in the wake of his on-and-off hunger strike, was freed Thursday after two years in prison and ferried away by an ambulance escorted by heavy security.

Neptune won his freedom one day after he spoke to the media for the first time since his arrest and vowed to fight what he called the "machine of injustice" responsible for his prolonged imprisonment without trial.

"The machine of injustice must stop," the barefoot Neptune told a small group of reporters in the barren bedroom that served as his cell. "This is not something that concerns just me. It is something that concerns all the Haitian people who don't have the means to face the machine of injustice."

Neptune's release brought a small measure of respect and goodwill toward the 2-month old government of President René Préval, who has called for national reconciliation in the aftermath of a revolt that toppled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. Neptune served as prime minister for Aristide.

Human rights activists hailed the new government's decision to free a man they had long considered as a political prisoner jailed by the U.S.-backed interim government that preceded Préval.

DEAL APPROVED TO SEND RUSSIAN JETS AND HELICOPTERS TO VENEZUELA
The New York Times
July 28, 2006

MOSCOW, July 27 — Venezuela and Russia announced a final agreement on a $3 billion deal that would send dozens of advanced jet fighters and helicopters to Venezuela, despite pressure from the United States.

The agreement was announced after a meeting here between President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and President Vladimir V. Putin in which the two leaders focused on Russian energy investment in Venezuela, as well as closer military ties. “There has been extraordinary progress in our military technology cooperation,” Mr. Chávez said. “I want to thank President Putin for his strong support.”

Under the deal, which finalized a series of agreements negotiated over the past year and a half, Russia would send 24 Su-30 fighter jets and 53 helicopters, among other equipment and assistance, according to Sergei Chemezov, the head of Russia’s arms export agency.

THE 'INDIANA JONES' OF A SHRINKING REALM
The Washington Post
July 29, 2006

SICUANI, Peru -- The local official raised the coca leaf to his forehead with two hands and chanted a mantra beseeching the gods of the leaf to bless this scientist's efforts. Lonnie Thompson smiled amiably. It wasn't the first ceremony to seek divine oversight for his work: Once he had to sacrifice a blindfolded alpaca to the gods before he could go up a mountain.

While the theories of global warming spill out in the dry academic language of scientific journals and reports, Thompson and scientists like him are doing the tough work of collecting the evidence of what is happening to the planet.

He has led 50 expeditions to glaciers around the world, enduring often brutal conditions to drill deep into the ice and extract ice core samples.

"Lonnie Thompson is one of the true scientific heroes of our age," said Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist with NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Harvard geochemist Daniel Schrag has called Thompson "the closest living thing to Indiana Jones."

Thompson, 58, has none of the adventurer's swagger. He prefers to talk about science rather than physical exploits. But pressed, he acknowledges the allure of being first.

SO MUCH GOLD, BUT ANDEAN FARMERS SEE BIG RISKS, TOO
The New York Times
July 30, 2006

ALTO DEL CARMEN, Chile — There is gold in these hills — at least $11.5 billion worth at last count, in a wind-swept area studded with glaciers, more than 15,000 feet up in the Andes. The world’s biggest gold company wants to mine it, but is finding that a harsh terrain is not the only obstacle in its path.

Though the Chilean government has tentatively approved the $1.5 billion mining project, called Pascua-Lama, opposition here in Huasco Province is intense and growing.

Local environmental and civic groups contend that the proposed mine will allow the Barrick Gold Corporation of Canada, which has recently become the world’s largest gold company, to harm the local water supply, destroy agriculture and walk away without paying taxes or royalties.

IN MEXICO'S 'MISERY BELT,' AN ANNUAL STRIKE BECOMES MUCH MORE
The Washington Post
July 30, 2006

OAXACA DE JUAREZ, Mexico -- Gonzalo Toledo Cruz tries to teach math in a dark, sweltering classroom that has no electricity. During morning flag-raising ceremonies, he said, some of his students pass out from lack of nutrition, "like trees dropping in a forest." Others saunter into class with loaded pistols.

Toledo Cruz's classroom in Juchitan de Zaragoza, a small, rugged town in what is known as "the Misery Belt" east of Oaxaca de Juarez, has become his private hell. But he knows that to curry favor with his bosses and get the transfer he so desperately wants, he must make a big show of union support.

So each May, Toledo Cruz joins nearly 70,000 teachers, administrators, school doctors, food-service workers and janitors in this picturesque colonial city. Their gathering -- now in its 26th year -- has become one of Mexico's longest-running serial protests and a forum for complaints about low wages, poorly equipped schools and unfair treatment of indigenous peoples.

Most years, the school workers peacefully chant and march for a week or two, win some minor concessions and pack up. But this year, the protest has turned into a tense, occasionally bloody standoff that has scared off tourists and is now stretching into its third month, with no end in sight.

TEXT OF CASTRO'S LETTER CEDING AUTHORITY
The Washington Post
August 1, 2006

Full text of the letter from Fidel Castro read on state television by his secretary, Carlos Valenciaga:
Because of the enormous effort involved in visiting the Argentine city to attend the Mercosur meeting, at the closing of the Summit of the Peoples in the historic University of Cordoba and the visit to Alta Gracia, the city where Che (Guevara) lived in his childhood and immediately afterward attending the commemoration of the 53rd anniversary of the attack on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes barracks, the 26th of July of 1953, in the provinces of Granma and Holguin, days and nights of continuous work with hardly any sleep, have caused my health, which has withstood all tests, to fall victim to extreme stress and to be ruined.

A QUIET, LOYAL BROTHER AND SUCCESSOR
The New York Times
August 1, 2006

Raúl Castro, No. 2 in Cuba’s political hierarchy, is President Fidel Castro’s designated successor, although he is seen as lacking his older brother’s charisma and political flair. The Cuban leader had surgery on Monday for intestinal bleeding and delegated power provisionally to Raúl.

Raúl Castro, 75, heads the Cuban armed forces as minister of defense and is first vice president of the Council of State, constitutionally first in line to take over from the president in case of incapacitating illness or death.

A low-key figure without the oratorical verve of his brother, Raúl also wields political influence in Castro’s shadow as second secretary of the governing Communist Party.

Since the guerrilla days of the Moncada assault, the Sierra Maestra hills and the triumph of their 1959 revolution, Raúl Castro has always been his brother’s most trusted right-hand man.

AILING CASTRO TEMPORARILY GIVES UP POWER
The New York Times
August 1, 2006

HAVANA, July 31 (AP) — Fidel Castro, who took control of Cuba in 1959, rebuffed repeated attempts by the United States to oust him and survived Communism’s demise almost everywhere else, temporarily relinquished power to his brother Raúl on Monday night because of surgery.

The Cuban leader said he had undergone surgery after suffering gastrointestinal bleeding, apparently as a result of stress from recent public appearances in Argentina and Cuba, according to the letter read live on television by his secretary, Carlos Valenciaga.

“The operation obligates me to undertake several weeks of rest,” the letter read, adding that extreme stress “had provoked in me a sharp intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding that obligated me to undergo a complicated surgical procedure.”

Mr. Castro said he was temporarily relinquishing the presidency to his younger brother and successor, Raúl Castro, the defense minister, but said the move was of “a provisional character.”

OBRADOR TAKES RISK WITH MEXICO PROTESTS
The Christian Science Monitor
August 02, 2006

MEXICO CITY – No one was surprised that Andrés Manuel López Obrador contested Mexico's July 2 election - the closest in the nation's history - by calling mass street protests and submitting numerous documents alleging fraud.

When he declared himself president to a US-based television network last week, some eyebrows went up. Now he is orchestrating permanent protest camps along a main thoroughfare of the traffic-choked capital in a bid to sway an electoral court to grant a full recount.

Some are wondering: Has he gone too far? The civil resistance campaign, which is causing major disruptions and which some likened to "hostage taking," is dividing a polarized country and could ultimately cost the leftist candidate those supporters who feel he has crossed the line and worry about how far he is willing to go.

"There are a lot of people supporting him in a recount of the votes. But in blocking [the center of the city], he is going to lose a lot of people who have been backing him all along," says Rafael Fernández de Castro, chairman of the international studies program at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM) who backs neither candidate. "Why take this city hostage? It seems to me in the end this will backfire."

CUBAN EXILES EYE CHANGE IN CUBA
The Christian Science Monitor
August 02, 2006  

MIAMI – The provisional transfer of power in Cuba from Fidel Castro to his brother, Raul, is not expected to result in any immediate easing of communist control of the island nation.

But it has accelerated planning by Cuban exiles and others for a post-Castro Cuba. And it is raising concerns about whether the emerging transition in Cuba will remain peaceful or turn violent.

The announcement on Cuban television that Mr. Castro was about to undergo surgery and had temporarily turned over control of the government to Defense Minister Raul Castro sparked jubilant celebrations in Miami. Hundreds of Cuban-Americans took to the streets in Hialeah and Little Havana Monday and Tuesday, waving Cuban flags, cheering, and dancing. They included three generations of Cuban-Americans, the original exiles from the early 1960s, their children, and their grandchildren.

BUILD-UP TO CASTRO'S FALL LEAVES SOME EMPTY
The Miami Herald
Aug. 02, 2006

For so long, Cuban exiles played it out as a fantasy with all the fireworks: Fidel would be dead, Cuba would be free and the champagne corks would fly as the celebrations raged in Miami and on the island.

Reality has proven a letdown. For all the pot-banging and horn-honking in Little Havana, Hialeah and elsewhere in Miami, Monday's news that Castro had ceded power and might be on the brink of death has mostly been met with restraint -- and disillusionment.

On Tuesday morning, streets where hundreds had danced the night before were back to normal. Exiles went to work. Cuban radio stations returned to regular programming. There is a sense of expectancy, but for many exiles, no elation.
"It feels like when I was a kid and used to lean over the edge of tall buildings just to get that sinking feeling in my stomach," said Rafael Lima, a University of Miami professor of filmmaking who left Cuba when he was 9. "It feels like we're on the edge of something, that we can't go back from here. But it feels like a false ending. It's something I tell my screenwriting students not to do. It feels like we just stumbled to the end."

Exiles may have spent 47 years dreaming of cathartic celebrations. But for every flag waver and rumba stepper on the streets Monday night, there are dozens more who speak in flat tones, emotions on ice as they wait for true confirmation of Castro's end.

FOES REPORT SIGNS OF TROOP MOVEMENT
The Miami Herald
Aug. 02, 2006

Most Cubans reported normalcy on the island Tuesday after Fidel Castro shocked the world by temporarily surrendering power to his brother, but some reported unusual troop movements in Havana and the often roiled eastern end of Cuba.

Government opponents in the eastern city of Guantánamo said armed forces units were seen rounding up reservists as state security agents paid unfriendly visits to dissidents.

"We know the military is mobilized: they have us corralled," Guantánamo dissident Mariela Castro Fernández told The Miami Herald in a telephone interview. "There is a terrible silence outside."

Fidel Castro issued a statement saying his health was a state secret and his spirits were fine. Assembly speaker Ricardo Alarcón told Prensa Latina news service that demonstrations in Miami were enough to make him throw up.

SPECULATION SWIRLS IN MIAMI, HAVANA
The Miami Herald
Aug. 02, 2006

An ambiguous, somewhat cryptic statement issued Tuesday night in Fidel Castro's name said his health was "stable" and "my spirit is perfectly fine." But it also contained clues that a complete recovery might not be certain.

"A real evolution of the state of one's health requires the passing of time," the statement said. "The most I could say is that the situation will remain stable for many days before a verdict can be delivered."

That left Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits still in limbo today, seeking answers to two basic yet monumental questions:

Can Castro stage a full recovery from the unspecified intestinal bleeding that required an emergency operation? Is Cuba finally on the cusp of change after 47 years of repression?

National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcón said the "final moment is still very far away." U.S. officials said they believed Castro is still alive.

DOCTORS DON'T BUY 'STRESS' STORY
The Miami Herald
Aug. 02, 2006

Cuba's official explanation that stress caused Fidel Castro's intestinal bleeding is flat-out wrong, medical experts said Tuesday.
"Stress is not playing a role here as far as I'm concerned," said Jeffrey B. Raskin, the Unversity of Miami's interim chief of gastroenterology.

Seven gastroenterologists from South Florida and around the country said they didn't accept the explanation in the purported letter from Castro, released Monday night, that said weeks of hard work and travel created "extreme stress" that "provoked an acute intestinal crisis, with sustained bleeding, that obliged me to face a complicated surgical operation."

Experts said stress might exacerbate an existing medical problem but wouldn't by itself cause "sustained bleeding."

All the gastroenterologists interviewed said the statement did not include enough information to determine the cause of the bleeding.

CASTRO IS ‘STABLE,’ BUT HIS ILLNESS PRESENTS PUZZLE
The New York times
August 2, 2006

MEXICO CITY, Aug. 1 — Cuba was wrapped in uncertainty on Tuesday, as the Communist government released a statement suggesting that its longtime ruler, Fidel Castro, had survived intestinal surgery but giving few details of his condition.
After a long day of speculation and rumor, an announcer on state-run television and radio said he had spoken to Mr. Castro and read a statement that he said had been written by the Cuban leader, who will be 80 on Aug. 13. In the statement, Mr. Castro said that his condition was stable but that the full extent of his illness would not be known for several days.

“The most I can say is that the situation will remain stable for many days before a verdict can be given,” the statement said. “In spirits, I find myself perfectly fine. The important thing is that the country is running perfectly well. The country is prepared for its defense by the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the people. Our compatriots will know everything at the appropriate time.”

State-run television showed no pictures of Mr. Castro, nor did it broadcast his voice. It remained unknown where the surgery took place or where he was recuperating.

On Monday night, he handed power temporarily to his brother, Raúl, to undergo surgery to repair intestinal bleeding, according to a statement read on Cuban television.

REGIONAL
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U.N. VOTE BECOMES REFERENDUM ON U.S. POLICY IN LATIN AMERICA
The New York Times
July 29, 2006

UNITED NATIONS, July 28 — Venezuela has set its sights on a seat on the Security Council and the United States has set out to block it, converting a normal Council rotation into a showdown with the country’s Washington-baiting president, Hugo Chávez.

The United States has had strained relations with Venezuela since Mr. Chávez took power in 1998, and even appeared to support a coup attempt against him in 2002. Mr. Chávez regularly rails against American foreign policy, and has called President Bush an idiot. Making fast friends with Washington’s adversaries, he went last week to Belarus, which has cracked down on dissenters after an election widely believed to be rigged. This weekend he is set to visit Iran, and he says he wants to go to North Korea.

John R. Bolton, the American ambassador to the United Nations, said Venezuela would be “disruptive” as a Council member.
“I remember when Cuba was a member of the Security Council and it was just a disruptive influence,” he said. “We’d rather have a responsible government on the Council.”

LATIN AMERICANS HAIL, DECRY CASTRO
The Miami Herald
Aug. 02, 2006

LIMA - Latin Americans generally sympathized with Fidel Castro Tuesday, with reports that the Cuban leader had stepped aside to undergo surgery leading news coverage throughout the day.

In a region where Castro tried -- but failed -- during the 1960s to export his Communist revolution, the Cuban leader is generally seen as an affectionate wise elder, especially at a time when President Bush is so widely disliked in the region.

The strongest expressions of concern not surprisingly came from Castro's two closest Latin American allies, Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and Bolivia's Evo Morales.

"With all our heart, we hope that President Fidel Castro gets well as quickly as possible," Chávez said from Vietnam, where he is leading a trade delegation. "You can imagine how one feels upon waking up in the morning and hearing this news. Long live Fidel Castro!"

Chávez appeared with Castro before tens of thousands of supporters at a local university during last month's Mercosur trade summit in Córdoba, Argentina, where the two men visited the boyhood home of Castro's comrade in arms, Che Guevara.

Argentina's Clarín newspaper reported that at one point, addressing concerns about his age and health, Castro referred to the biblical figure and said, "Mathusaleh lived to be 800 years old. Why worry about me? I haven't even gotten to 10 percent of that."

BEGINNING OF THE END OF TYRANNY?
OUR OPINION: SURPRISE POWER SHIFT RAISES HOPE FOR A FREE CUBA
The Miami Herald
Aug. 02, 2006

The world heard the cheer of Miami Cubans at Versailles on Monday night. But Cuba's dictator-for-life isn't dead yet -- as far as we know. The sudden news that Fidel Castro had transferred power to his brother Raúl, even temporarily, raised hopes that the tyranny in Cuba is nearing an end. Forty-seven years of pent-up frustration and desire burst out at the first sign that a free Cuba might be in sight.

Yet we don't really know Fidel Castro's true condition. Speculation is rampant. Some say he is fine, and the illness is a ploy to see how Cubans react to Raúl's succession. Others say he is dead, but the death is being kept secret to buy time to secure Raúl's rule.

The scenario could be exactly as announced on Cuban television. Fidel Castro has undergone a "complicated surgery" for an "intestinal crisis" and will be incapacitated for "several weeks." In the interim, the dictator transferred power to Raúl Castro and control over various functions to other loyalists. He also postponed planned celebrations of his 80th birthday on Aug. 13, a huge event.

We know certainly that this is the first time in nearly five decades of strong-arm rule that Fidel Castro publicly has ceded any power. For a megalomanic, that's significant.

The coming days will be a test run for his designated successor, Raúl Castro, who will be closely watched for any signs of policy change or weakness. Raúl is reputed to be a better administrator -- and more ruthless than his brother, without the charisma. He also is 75 years old, which doesn't suggest good health or long years ahead. Many Cuba analysts say that his rule will be inherently unstable.

RELACIONES BILATERALES
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U.S. SAYS IT IS PREPARED FOR TRANSITION IN CUBA
The New York Times
August 2, 2006

After waiting nearly half a century for Fidel Castro to relinquish power, Washington is warily monitoring the provisional transition in Havana, confident it has plans in place to assist pro-democracy groups in Cuba and to head off any mass exodus from the island.

As the 10th administration to square off against Mr. Castro, the Bush administration has made no secret of its contempt for the Cuban leader, establishing the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba in 2003 and then ratcheting up the pressure last year by creating the Office of Cuban Transition within the State Department.

The White House made it clear yesterday that it did not see Mr. Castro’s brother Raúl, 75, to whom he handed off much of his power, as very likely to improve conditions on the island or relations with the United States. There were no plans to negotiate with him.

“The one thing that this president has talked about from the very beginning is his hope for the Cuban people finally to enjoy the fruits of freedom and democracy,” the White House spokesman, Tony Snow, told reporters during a briefing. “And for the dictator, Fidel Castro, to hand off power to his brother, who’s been the prison keeper, is not a change in that status.”

CHÁVEZ, RUSSIA SCOFF AT U.S.
The Miami herald
Jul. 27, 2006

MOSCOW - Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said Wednesday that his oil-rich nation will sign major arms deals in Moscow to acquire Russian fighter jets and produce Kalashnikov assault rifles, as Russia shrugged off U.S. criticism of the weapons sales.

On a visit to the city of Izhevsk, where Kalashnikovs are made, Chávez said contracts to buy Su-30 jets and set up Kalashnikov rifle and ammunition plants in Venezuela would be signed in Moscow today, the Interfax news agency reported.
"We are breaking the U.S. blockade that was aimed at disarming Venezuela," Chávez said in separate comments broadcast on state-run television in Venezuela.

"We are not going to attack anyone, but nobody should make a mistake with us, especially the U.S. empire that wants to dominate the world with cannons and bombs," he said.

Chávez, who has become a thorn in Washington's side with his anti-U.S. policies, is to sign a more than $1 billion deal for about 30 Su-30 fighter jets and 30 helicopters, the Russian defense minister said last week.

The United States underlined its opposition to the sale Tuesday and urged Moscow to reconsider the contracts.

U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the arms purchases exceeded Venezuela's defensive needs and "are not helpful in terms of regional stability."

CHÁVEZ FINDS ALLY IN IRAN
The Miami herald
Jul. 30, 2006

TEHRAN, Iran - Anti-U.S. leaders Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met in Tehran on Saturday, pledging mutual support for one another, state media reported.

Chávez's two-day visit came as Iran faces renewed international criticism for its nuclear program and as a backer of Hezbollah guerrillas engaged in fighting with Israel since they captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12.

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council on Friday reached a deal on a resolution that would give Iran until the end of August to suspend uranium enrichment or face the threat of economic and diplomatic sanctions.

Following talks, Chávez pledged that his country would "stay by Iran at any time and under any condition," state television reported.

Ahmadinejad said he saw in Chávez a kindred spirit.

"I feel I have met a brother and trench mate after meeting Chávez," Ahmadinejad was quoted by state-run television as saying. "We think Iran and Venezuela should share all experiences of each other, stay by each other, and they have to be supporters of each other."

The Venezuelan leader has been on a trip that included a visit to Belarus, where he met with authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is dubbed "Europe's last dictator" by Washington and shares Chávez's strong anti-U.S. views.

SENATOR MARTINEZ HOLDS A NEWS CONFERENCE ON CUBA
The Washington Post
August 1, 2006

SPEAKER: U.S. SENATOR MEL MARTINEZ (R-FL)

MARTINEZ: Good morning, everybody.

What I would like to do is make a brief statement in English, then make a brief statement in Spanish, which will be the same thing, hopefully, and then take some questions, and try to do it in English and then in Spanish, as well. So for the Spanish media, just know that I'll be doing that as well.

For, I guess, over 47 years, many of us have waited for a day when the people of Cuba would have a day without Fidel Castro, and I guess at the moment, at least on a temporary basis, that seems to be right now.

I can remember as a young child hoping that I would not have to leave Cuba and that, in fact, the nightmare of this tyranny would be over for the Cuban people. And then later I remember hoping that I could be reunited with my parents back in Cuba, and waiting for a moment when that could happen. But never to be.

MARTINEZ: And over the years knowing of the desire of the Cuban people to be free and live in freedom and then hoping that as the Berlin Wall came tumbling down and the end of the Soviet Union and the end of communism in Eastern Europe that then there would be the day freedom would come for Cuba as well.

HAVANA DELIVERS A TV HIT TO MIAMI
The  Miami Herald
Aug. 02, 2006

One of the highest-rated TV shows in Miami on Tuesday night, at least in the Cuban-American community, was not one of the Nielsen regulars.

With the news from a day earlier that Fidel Castro had ceded power to his brother after surgery to stop intestinal bleeding, many Cubans in Miami tuned in to the Cuban government's top-rated evening news program, Mesa Redonda, or Round Table, which was simulcast live by two Spanish-language channels in South Florida.

Missing from the panel-style show: Castro himself, who makes occasional appearances. Instead, the program -- created during the international custody battle over Elián González -- was dedicated to the Cuban leader's surgery. But people who expected doctors with diagrams -- the show often goes into explicit detail about minute things -- were likely disappointed as the program basically repeated the same update and the messages received from leaders around the world.

For the show, a group of Cuban journalists make up a panel that dissects issues of national importance. Sometimes they invite government officials to explain policies or new initiatives or state-run campaigns. Sometimes they air interviews with Cuban exile leaders recorded in the United States and usually followed by the panel dissecting every word.

U.S. ISOLATION POLICY LEAVES FEW OPTIONS
The Miami Herald.
Aug. 02, 2006

WASHINGTON - Although the Bush administration has been planning for years for a post-Fidel Castro Cuba, his decision to temporarily surrender power sparked some criticisms Tuesday that U.S. policies allow little leeway for U.S. reactions.

President Bush has twice convened the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, a multiagency effort that sets the broad outlines of Cuba policy. It issued its first report in 2004 and a follow-up was unveiled last month, recommending $80 million to support Cuba's opposition and help break Cuba's censorship of the media and the Internet and deploying U.S. aid promptly once a transition government is in place.

At an afternoon briefing at the White House, spokesman Tony Snow said Castro's decision to turn over power to his brother while he recuperates from surgery won't mean any changes in the U.S.-Cuba relationship, for the moment.

"There are no plans to reach out," Snow said. He said Bush is committed to winning democracy in Cuba and called Castro's brother his "prison keeper."

Supporters of U.S. policy on Cuba said the administration needed to stay the course.

'Our community will remain focused on its `pro-democracy' agenda until a genuine transition -- not simply a succession of absolute power -- takes place," said Mauricio Claver-Carone, who heads a U.S.-Cuba Democracy Political Action Committee.

CHANGE IN CUBA?
Fidel Castro's surrender of power may not be permanent, but his successors are more than ready.
The Washington Post
August 2, 2006

WE DON'T know yet whether Fidel Castro's unprecedented delegation of power to his brother and would-be successor, Raul Castro, on Monday heralds the end of his 47 years of dictatorship in Cuba or is merely a brief interregnum while he recuperates from intestinal surgery. One of his sidekicks said yesterday that the 79-year-old tyrant's "last moment is very far away." If so, unfortunate Cubans will have to go on waiting for the opportunity to move beyond a failed communist regime that is as gray, unkempt and anachronistic as the old man's beard.

Either way, there are plenty of people in and outside of Cuba waiting to jump into the vacuum Fidel Castro will leave -- one that is unlikely to be filled for very long by his dissolute 75-year-old brother. Most conspicuous these days is Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, a budding autocrat who has been propping up the Cuban regime with as much as $1 billion a year in oil deliveries and other subsidies, and who aspires to inherit Mr. Castro's role as symbol and cheerleader for all who despise the United States. Mr. Chávez was unable to be at Mr. Castro's side yesterday because the apparently sudden medical emergency came up while he was beating his anti-Yanqui drum in Hanoi.

BEGINNING OF THE END IN CUBA
The New York Times
August 2, 2006

Cuba is preparing, Miami is celebrating, and Washington is dusting off its plans. News from Havana speaks only of a temporary transfer of power to 75-year-old Raúl Castro while his 79-year-old brother, Fidel, recuperates from gastrointestinal surgery. But a historic passage of power has plainly begun.

America’s overriding interest is in a peaceful transition to the democratic and economically dynamic society that Cubans have dreamed of for decades. Given Cuba’s educated population, the energy and skills of its people, and its advantageous location, that is not at all a utopian fantasy. But it may not happen immediately. Washington should be planning to establish contacts with Fidel and Raúl Castro’s successors even if they have roots in the dictatorship, and attempt to play the most constructive role it can in the island’s evolution. An early easing of the economic embargo could strengthen Cuba’s battered middle class and help it play a more active role in the coming political transition.

The United States needs to plan now to deal with possible huge flows of temporary refugees if government control in Havana should become destabilized. It should prepare for extending special temporary refugee status for those fleeing political uncertainty. And it must certainly discourage Cuban-Americans from prematurely rushing home to claim property or political office.

TIME TO REBUILD RELATIONSHIPS, FOR CUBA'S SAKE
BY ANA MENENDEZ
The Miami Herald
Aug. 02, 2006

Not the exploding cigar or the hallucinogenic aerosol, not snipers, mafia assassins or contaminated diving suits, not four decades of embargo, travel bans, threats, bluster, bullying or wishful thinking. Not plots, but time's relentless plodding has nudged Fidel Castro closer to the history he hoped would absolve him.

A bleeding stomach. In the end, removing Castro from power was easier than imagined. All it took was a serious case of common mortality.

"Acute intestinal crisis," is how Castro described his usurper in a note to the nation Monday. And not 24 hours later, Miami crackled with speculation that the message was delivered from beyond the grave.

Fidel might be dead, incapacitated or just testing the Styx's waters. But after years of failed predictions and premature announcements, he is -- by his own admission -- no longer in power.

We are at the beginning of the end, the moment Fidel himself unconsciously described when he said that revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.

EXILES' PLANS DEPENDENT ON CUBANS, RAÚL'S OUSTER
The Miami Herald
Aug. 02, 2006

South Florida's Cuban exile organizations, after waiting nearly a half-century hoping for a change in leadership in Cuba, reacted Tuesday with a mixture of wait-and-see optimism and no-holds-barred plans for firing up Cubans on the island.

One mantra became increasingly clear throughout the day, however: No succession of power -- with Fidel Castro ceding control of the country to his brother, Raúl -- would be acceptable as real change.

Some Cuban activists vowed they would head to Cuba and join dissidents who might seize the moment to try to bring real change to the island.

"We are preparing our boats and our planes to possibly send a contingency to Cuba, to unite with the internal movement," said Ramón Saúl Sánchez, the leader of the Democracy Movement, which has staged flotillas off the Cuban coast for more than 10 years.

He is also concerned about dissidents on the island and has repeatedly asked that the foreign media keep an eye on them.

"The big danger here is that Raúl Castro tries to squash the dissident movement to send a clear message that there is no negotiating with him."

SOME ASK OTHERWORLDLY AID FOR CUBA
The Miami Herald
Aug. 02, 2006

From botanicas to churches to rap music airwaves, many South Floridians expressed their hopes that Fidel Castro's regime was headed for its last days.

In their haste to see el jefe pass on to the great beyond, some Cubans were banking on otherwordly assistance.

"Fidel, para el c-----!" shouted 61-year-old Zoila Morales, raising her voice above the din of clucking poultry at the Riviera Botanica at 1750 Northwest 17th Ave.

Loosely translated: Fidel, go to hell.

Promising to do her brujería -- or witchcraft -- Morales plunked down a $100 bill in exchange for a half-dozen roosters and chickens tucked neatly in individual, ventilated paper bags.

"I'm going to kill them in thanks for Fidel dying," she said, as clerk Rosario Pijuan helped her assemble the odds and ends needed for offerings to the Santería gods, the Afro-Cuban religion that mandates ritual animal sacrifice.

TRANSFER SHOWS CASTRO'S HAND IS IN EVERYTHING
The Miami Herald
Aug. 02, 2006

WASHINGTON - If there was ever any doubt about Fidel Castro's single-handed control of Cuba, his proclamation temporarily handing over his governmental, political and financial powers should put that to rest.

Castro delegated to his brother and officially designated successor Raúl his top-ruler functions as first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, commander in chief of the armed forces, and president of the Council of State and Government.

But perhaps more tellingly, he also passed on his control of the island's "national and international" health, education and energy programs -- and specifically passed his power over the purse strings to those programs, keystones of Cuba's domestic and foreign policies.

Cuba has tens of thousands of medical personnel working abroad -- an estimated 20,000 in Venezuela alone -- and receives energy subsidies from President Hugo Chávez estimated by the U.S. State Department at $1 billion.

He passed on to Health Minister José Ramón Balaguer his functions as "principal promoter of the national and international program of public health."

Similarly, he delegated to José Ramón Machado and Esteban Lazo Hernández, both members of the Communist Party's ruling Political Bureau, his role as "principal promoter of the national and international program of education."

COMPANIES TAKE WAIT-AND-SEE APPROACH TO CUBA
The Miami Herald
Aug. 02, 2006

All eyes on the island

Just hours after Cuba announced that Fidel Castro turned over the government to his younger brother Raúl, Nicolás Gutierrez's phone started ringing.

Almost 24 hours later it was still going.

'Everybody is kind of calling and saying `What's going on?"' said the Miami lawyer, a long-time advocate for businesses that lost property during the Cuban revolution. "The easy answer is nothing. . . . But we can be guardedly optimistic as long as we're patient."

News that Castro was ceding power for the first time since he became leader in 1959 sent revelers into the streets of Little Havana. But beneath the din was the more subtle sound of U.S. companies, banks and law firms dusting off contingency plans for doing business on the island.

Most are taking a wait-and-see attitude, predicting a long road before Cuba opens to private enterprise and the U.S. embargo is lifted. But some companies are watching events especially closely, in part because Raúl is viewed in some corners as more willing to consider reform and open up the island's tightly state-controlled economy.

"Most of my clients who have met with the government came away with the impression that once Fidel is gone, there is a lot more possible on the business side," said Augusto E. Maxwell, a lawyer at Akerman Senterfitt in Miami. "There is a thought that if Raúl can hold onto power that this could be an opportunity."

FOR CUBAN EXILES, A DAY FILLED WITH CELEBRATIONS,
RUMORS AND THE WAIT FOR NEWS
The New  York Times
August 2, 2006

MIAMI, Aug. 1 — One exile group spent Tuesday afternoon replacing parts on aging boats its members hoped to sail soon to Cuba. Another met all night, debating how to help dissidents on the island thwart Fidel Castro’s plan for his brother Raúl to succeed him. And in Little Havana in 92-degree heat, one confident crowd wagered that Mr. Castro was not ailing but dead, singing, “Na na na na, na na na na, Fidel, goodbye.”

Though the delirious first response to the announcement of Mr. Castro temporarily ceding power dampened as myriad questions went unanswered, anticipation remained palpable here on Tuesday. Throughout the day hundreds of thousands of Cubans in South Florida awaited updates from the island they fled, mostly to escape Mr. Castro’s authoritarian rule and harsh economic conditions, and officials watched for signs of unrest on land and sea.

Mayor Carlos Alvarez of Miami-Dade County said that the county’s emergency operations center had opened in case developments in Cuba stirred chaos here, and added that a rumor-control hot line, operating around the clock since Monday night, had received 500 calls.

Mr. Alvarez, who begged people not to block traffic if they reveled outdoors, said that things had remained surprisingly orderly but that Miamians were bursting with questions about this turn of events they had dreamed of for years.

IN LATIN AMERICA, A WARM SPOTLIGHT FOR SOCIALIST ICON
The Washington Post
August 2, 2006

LA PAZ, Bolivia, Aug. 1 -- Patients with bandaged eyes sat in the waiting room of an ophthalmological clinic here on Tuesday, watching reports about Fidel Castro's health on an overhead television and expressing a level of concern that might not have existed here just a year ago.

That was before Bolivians elected Evo Morales as president and gave the Cuban leader another reliable ally in South America, and before Castro began dispatching doctors to Bolivian neighborhoods like this one to perform surgeries for the poor.

"Castro's image is a lot different here now, because before -- to us, at least -- he didn't even have an image," said Paula Casas, 27, who was visiting the Cuban-staffed clinic with her husband and two daughters.

The 79-year-old socialist icon has been basking in his warmest spotlight in decades in South America. With the help of promotion by regional leaders such as Morales and President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela -- where Cuban teachers and doctors have also been dispatched -- Castro has cultivated an image of the grandfatherly benefactor.

SEGURIDAD
ver noticia(s)  

COLOMBIA CRACKS DOWN ON CASH SMUGGLING
The Christian Science Monitor
July 27, 2006

BOGOTá – For Colombian police, detecting travelers smuggling drugs to the United States and Europe has become routine.
But now they are turning their attention to travelers coming into Colombia, not with drugs but with hundreds of thousands of dollars and euros, believed to be profits from the illegal drug trade.

Last week, police at Bogotá's international airport nabbed a man arriving on a flight from Mexico who had strapped $748,000 in crisp $100 bills to his body inside a form-fitting Lycra girdle.

It's part of a new trend known as bulk cash smuggling, and may signal growing difficulties drug traffickers have in laundering their proceeds from the US and Europe, where regulatory agencies have tightened controls on large-scale money transfers, according to the US embassy in Bogotá. Colombia, too, has in recent years imposed strict regulations on cash remittances from Colombians abroad, which last year totaled $4.1 billion, according to the Inter-American Development Bank.

"With increased scrutiny of wire transfers from bank to bank, [wiring illegal drug proceeds] appears to be a less preferable method than in prior years," said a US embassy official on condition of anonymity. "Based on [the number of bulk cash] seizures outside of Colombia, we would expect to see increased seizures both within and outside Colombia's borders as organizations continue to smuggle large quantities of cash."