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:
 

MEDIO AMBIENTE
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AS STORM PASSES, CUBA, HAITI BEGIN CLEANING UP
The Miami Herald
Aug. 29, 2006

Clean-ups began in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic Tuesday as a weakened Tropical Storm Ernesto left those Caribbean nations with some flooding and wind damage but no serious damages.

Ernesto moved over open seas after drenching eastern Cuba and began strengthening on a northbound track. It was expected to hit South Florida with intermittent heavy rain and blustery wind conditions through Wednesday.

"Ernesto Has Left," Granma, Cuba's Communist Party daily, said in a front page headline Tuesday morning.

All tropical storm warnings for the island were lifted by early morning and no major damage was documented. However, flooding was a problem in some cities along the eastern part of the island. The southeastern province of Guantánamo was soaked with nearly eight inches of rain.

MOUNTAINS BUFFER CUBA FROM BIG BLOW
The Miami Herald
Aug. 29, 2006

Tropical storm Ernesto dumped heavy rains, but weakened considerably as it barreled across eastern Cuba Monday, causing minimal damage before it returned to the open sea. It was expected to regain strength and head toward South Florida.

But at least two storm-related deaths were confirmed in Haiti and hundreds of homes were flooded in neighboring Dominican Republic. The mountain range on the island of Hispaniola, shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, helped buffer a more serious blow to Cuba.

"The mountains of Haiti and the interaction with the mountains in the eastern region [of Cuba] have prevented it from developing," José Rubiera, Cuba's chief meteorologist, told reporters in Havana. "The only important factor about this tropical storm is the rain."

The weakened and poorly defined Ernesto made landfall in Cuba Monday morning about 20 miles west of the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay, with sustained winds of 75 mph.

MIGRACIÓN
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YOUNG MIGRANTS RISK ALL TO REACH U.S.
The Washington Post
Monday, August 28, 2006

QUETZALTENANGO, Guatemala -- Across Central America, growing numbers of impoverished children appear to be setting out for the United States on their own, risking robbery, rape and death as they try to sneak illegally through Mexico and across the U.S. border.

Last year, 6,460 underage illegal immigrants from Central America were detained in the United States while traveling without their parents and sent to government shelters, a 35 percent increase over the previous year. Many others likely slipped in undetected.

The higher detention figures may reflect stepped-up enforcement by Mexican and U.S. authorities. But social workers who help such child migrants say the stricter enforcement might actually be causing more children to travel alone. They note that many have parents who are already in the United States illegally and are unwilling to fetch them now that the chances of getting caught have increased.

Many of the youths never make it to the border. Mexico reported deporting 3,772 unaccompanied Central American minors bound for the United States in 2005, compared with fewer than 700 in 2003.

A PRODUCTIVE LIFE IN IMMIGRATION LIMBO
Opinion
The Miami Herald
Aug. 29, 2006

After 12 years of productively working and building a family in this country, Julio Rosell should be entitled to legal status. In fact, as a Cuban national who was paroled into this country, he should be eligible for U.S. residency. That's what his lawyer and other immigration experts argue. Yet U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says he is not eligible. Ultimately this CIS decision could be tested in immigration court. But on its face, it makes no sense.

Worked on freighter

Mr. Rosell's story begins 12 years ago when he fled from Cuba after being seen talking to a dissident. At the time, he worked on a Cuban freighter. Afraid that the regime might jail him, he jumped to a U.S. ship that was docked in Brazil. Nearly three weeks later, he was found famished and hiding in the engine room when the ship returned to the United States.

POLÍTICA INTERNA
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MEXICO CANDIDATE REJECTS COURT DECISION
The Miami Herald
Aug. 29, 2006

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's leftist presidential hopeful rejected a court decision to uphold his rival's slim lead and urged his supporters not to recognize a government that will likely be led by the ruling party candidate.

President Vicente Fox's spokesman said Tuesday that the call by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had "no validity."

The Federal Electoral Tribunal's partial recount reduced Felipe Calderon's 240,000-vote lead over Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador by slightly more than 4,000 votes.

The court stopped short of declaring a winner in the race, saying it must still take an official tally, and decide whether the entire election was legitimate. Both must be done by Sept. 6.

Lopez Obrador compared the decision to a political coup, arguing that the judges were representing the interests of Mexico's ruling elite. His party lacks the seats in Congress to block legislation, but he vowed he would either wage an ongoing resistance or create an "alternative" government, which his supporters have said could collect taxes and offer services to people neglected by the ruling party.

VIOLENT CIVIL UNREST TIGHTENS HOLD ON A MEXICAN CITY
The New York Times
August 24, 2006
Correction Appended

OAXACA, Mexico, Aug. 23 — For three months, civil unrest has gripped this lovely colonial city like a hound with a rabbit, leaving two people dead, crippling the tourist industry and shuttering schools.

The original cause of the strife — a teachers’ strike for better pay — has become lost in the escalating violence and the revolutionary demands of the protesters, who now demand that Gov. Ulises Ruiz step down.

The teachers’ union has been joined by scores of social organizations, some of them with leftist philosophies.

They have shut down highways, taken over five radio stations, burned more than a dozen buses, blocked off the city’s historic square, seized government offices, destroyed the stage for an annual cultural fair and barricaded tourists in their hotels. The state government has lost control of the center of the city, including its own offices, and is working out of improvised quarters with cellphones. Though each side has asked for federal intervention, President Vicente Fox has refused to send in troops. He has dispatched negotiators from the Interior and Labor Ministries, who have been unsuccessful in resolving the conflict.

HER SON KIDNAPPED, A MEXICAN MOTHER TURNS VOCAL SLEUTH
The Christian Science Monitor
August 24, 2006

MEXICO CITY – In the past year, Maria Isabel Miranda, a former teacher who used to spend free time reading and listening to music, has staked out homes in disguise, escaped from gunpoint, and plastered the faces of those who she believed kidnapped her son last July on billboards across Mexico City. The risks she takes, which she says are driven by police apathy, have helped lead to the capture and arrest of four of the alleged kidnappers, but not to the remains of her son, Hugo Alberto Wallace.

"Some of my friends and even family have told me to give up, that I'm putting myself in too much danger," says Ms. Miranda, who has received two dozen death threats and now has two full-time body guards. "But I won't stop until I find him. Part of me is out there."

BACKSTORY: HITCHHIKING MY WAY AROUND CUBA
The Christian Science Monitor
August 24, 2006

TRINIDAD, CUBA – In perhaps a moment of lapsed judgment, I recently decided to travel around Cuba the way most Cubans do - by thumb. And so, on a cloying Caribbean day, I found myself standing under palm trees on a road outside Trinidad with an off-duty policeman and his family. We were waiting for passing cars to stop. We were hitchhiking.

These days, wherever you travel, someone - usually your mother - will warn you that hitchhiking is not advisable. But in Cuba it's a way of life. "Here, your car is your brother's car," Araceli, a grandmother in Trinidad, explained to me. "That's the essence of Cuba."

JAIL WOULD BE BETTER THAN HARASSMENT, DISSIDENT SAYS
The Miami Herald
Aug. 24, 2006

HAVANA - Activist Martha Beatriz Roque has an unusual request for the Cuban government: stop the harassment or send her back to jail.

The former political prisoner, who has opposed leader Fidel Castro for 17 years, says she can no longer endure the threats and insults by government supporters, who yell at her when she walks down the street and slip menacing notes under her door. Last weekend, they banged a pistol against her window in the middle of the night.

"This life has become just about impossible," Roque, one of Cuba's most high-profile dissidents, told The Associated Press in her small Havana apartment Tuesday. "I would rather be behind bars than dealing with this constant harassment."

ARGENTINA’S FORMER ECONOMY CZAR WEIGHS RUN FOR PRESIDENT
The New York Times
August 26, 2006

BUENOS AIRES, Aug. 25 — If any one person can claim to be the architect of Argentina’s remarkable economic recovery, it is Roberto Lavagna, who was finance minister from 2002 until late last year. But now the government he once served has made him one of its main antagonists — and has transformed him into an opposition rallying point and a likely presidential candidate.
With elections scheduled for late next year, President Néstor Kirchner has a support level of more than 60 percent, according to recent polls. Much of that popularity stems from three consecutive years of 8 percent growth, a result of policies that Mr. Lavagna largely devised but which are now being derided as “neo-liberal,” almost an insult here.

“It’s like an inheritance,” Mr. Lavagna said in an interview, referring to economic indicators that at the time of his departure were Argentina’s strongest in a century. “That’s a phenomenal base on which to build,” he added.

NO RUSH TO JUDGMENT
Opinion
The Miami Herald
Aug. 28, 2006

Revived interest in claims for property confiscated in Cuba is understandable given the renewed hope for ending Cuba's tyranny. People whose firms and holdings were expropriated may have meritorious claims. Yet any remedy for such claims will be a long time coming. Ultimately the rules for property claims and compensation will be determined by a future democratic Cuban government.

More important now is to lay the groundwork for an orderly transition to such a Cuban government. One critical step is to counter the propaganda drilled into Cubans on the island for decades: the fear that exiles will return to kick people out of homes. The truth is that most Cuban Americans wouldn't dream of taking anything from people who already have suffered so much under communism.

To make a property claim, there has to be some kind of transition government in place -- and there's no sign of one yet. The recent report by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba emphasized that the U.S. priority will be to provide humanitarian assistance, such as food and medicine, once a transition government requests help. The United States would also "reassure the Cuban people" that the U.S. government will not support any arbitrary effort to evict them from their homes. 

HEAD OF BOLIVIAN STATE OIL COMPANY QUITS
The Miami Herald
Aug. 28, 2006

LA PAZ, Bolivia - The president of Bolivia's state oil company, Jorge Alvarado, resigned on Monday amid a probe into a contract with a Brazilian company, marking a setback in the drive to nationalize the country's hydrocarbons industry.

In his letter of resignation, read at a press conference in La Paz, Alvarado wrote that the accusations against him were "an attack by the oligarchy and the reactionary right-wing" aimed at halting the nationalization process.

He said he was resigning "to avoid committing any further harm to the great ideas for change in our country."

Alvarado was one of the key figures in leftist President Evo Morales' drive to nationalize the South American nation's hydrocarbons industry, but his leadership of Yacimientos Petroleos Fiscales Bolivianos, or YPFB, has come under increased scrutiny as nationalization has run into troubles.

IN MEXICO, THE CARDINAL AND THE 'CRAZIES'
The Washington Post
Monday, August 28, 2006

MEXICO CITY -- It was an intrusion onto sacred ground.

At the height of Catholic Mass in the baroque Metropolitan Cathedral, a man interrupted the service by brandishing a political protest sign at the country's most respected religious figure. Outside, demonstrators chanted, "Norberto Rivera, hell awaits you."

Rivera, a cardinal, oversees the world's largest archdiocese here in Mexico City, the center of religious life in a country where nine in 10 people are Catholic. He had been considered a leading contender to succeed Pope John Paul II after the pontiff's death last year.

But Rivera is now immersed in a nasty political tussle that illuminates the hair-trigger sensitivity here about mixing religion and politics.

MEXICO’S RECOUNT
Editorial
The New  York Times
August 29, 2006

For eight weeks, Andrés Manuel López Obrador has made his claim of electoral fraud the basis for what threatens to become a permanent protest of Mexico’s presidential election. Yesterday, Mexico’s electoral tribunal kicked away the foundations of his claim. In a recount of 9 percent of polling places, the judges found no evidence of widespread fraud and too few errors to change the results.

The electoral tribunal has not yet declared that Felipe Calderón, of the ruling National Action Party, is Mexico’s next president. It has until Sept. 6 to rule on whether President Vicente Fox and business groups interfered illegally in the election. No one should ask Mr. López Obrador to concede before this ruling. But it is time for him to end the protests and pledge to respect the tribunal’s final decision.

Mr. López Obrador, who trails Mr. Calderón by less than 0.6 percent of the vote, claims he really won and vows to make the country ungovernable until his claim is recognized. His supporters have set up squatter camps that have paralyzed parts of Mexico City. Mr. López Obrador argues that only a full recount would have settled the question. In a country where electoral fraud used to be routine, a full recount would indeed have been best.

CALDERÓN NEARS VICTORY IN MEXICAN ELECTION
The Miami Herald
Aug. 29, 2006

MEXICO CITY - Fraud claims rejected;

Calderón likely winner

Mexico's electoral tribunal, rejecting claims of massive fraud in the July presidential election, all but handed victory Monday to conservative candidate Felipe Calderón.

The panel of seven judges stopped short of declaring Calderón president-elect, but there were signs that the announcement would happen any day now. The panel has until Sept. 6 to announce a winner.

Populist firebrand Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who trails Calderón in the election by a little more than half of 1 percent of the votes cast, has alleged that a cabal of conservative partisans and their corporate backers stole the election from him.

But the court rejected most of his challenges, including his call to reopen all the ballot boxes. The panel found its recount of disputed ballots, representing about 9 percent of the vote, shaved Calderón's lead by about 4,000 votes but left him clinging to his razor-thin lead in the July 2 election.

COURT REJECTS CHALLENGES TO MEXICO PRESIDENTIAL VOTE
The New York Times
August 29, 2006

MEXICO CITY, Aug. 28 — Felipe Calderón seemed virtually assured of being designated president of Mexico next week after the country’s highest electoral tribunal on Monday threw out legal challenges from his leftist opponent, who claims that widespread fraud warped the results of last month’s national election.

The seven-member tribunal stopped short of officially designating Mr. Calder ón, a conservative, president elect. But it ruled unanimously that the opponent, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, had failed to prove that irregularities in many polling places stemmed from fraud, nor had he proven that the errors affected him more than his opponent.

The judges said in open court on Monday that they had ordered the votes from scores of polling places annulled for irregularities found in a partial recount, but that the final result would not change. They also made it clear they found no evidence of fraud.

VOTERS BRAVE HEAVY RAINS IN GUYANA
The Miami Herald
Aug. 29, 2006

4 line cut for 29guyan

New parliament chosen

Voters in Guyana braved heavy rains, long lines and concerns about Election Day violence Monday to cast ballots for president and parliament.

Nearly a half-million Guyanese were eligible to vote, and except for a few glitches, no major irregularities were reported.

"We are satisfied things went very smoothly," Vishnu Persaud, a spokesman with the Guyanese Elections Commission, told The Miami Herald by telephone after the polls closed.

Persaud said voter turnout at the nearly 2,000 polling stations across the country is not yet known.

MEXICO EDGES CLOSER TO GETTING A PRESIDENT
Opinion
The Miami Herald
Aug. 30, 2006

For nearly two months, presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador has stubbornly refused to acknowledge the accumulating evidence of his defeat in Mexico's July 2 election. He has mounted a campaign of civil disobedience, tied up Mexico City in knots with political demonstrations and street closings and openly pressured electoral authorities to cave in to his demands.

This week, however, the Federal Electoral Tribunal declared that after a painstaking review of all the evidence presented by Mr. López Obrador, it would uphold the victory of Felipe Calderón of the National Action Party. Politically and legally, this pulls the rug out from under Mr. López Obrador. The electoral authorities have listened to every reasonable argument and specific challenge his lawyers have submitted and reviewed every bit of evidence. The finding: He doesn't have a case.

MEXICO EDGES CLOSER TO PRESIDENTIAL RULING
The Christian Science Monitor
August 30, 2006  

MEXICO CITY – In the days following Mexico's July 2 presidential election, Mexicans of all political parties marveled at the democracy on display, including mass demonstrations calling for a recount of the still-disputed race, the closest in the nation's history.

But now that Mexico's top electoral court rejected allegations of massive fraud by leftist leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador - and Mr. Obrador has refused to accept the ruling that will probably hand conservative Felipe Calderón the presidency - many say they are concerned about the dispute's impact on democratic dialogue in a country that emerged from one-party authoritarian rule just six years ago.

Obrador, who has said the election was stolen, has compared a Calderón victory to a "coup d'etat," and has called for a national convention Sept. 16, Mexico's Independence Day. He says on that day, he will ask supporters whether he should be declared the "alternative" president-elect of the country.

GUYANA RULING PARTY LEADS ELECTION
The Miami Herald
Aug. 30, 2006

GEORGETOWN, Guyana - Guyana's ruling party surged ahead of its nearest rival in Guyana's presidential and parliamentary elections, authorities said late Tuesday as they gathered ballots from the South American country's jungle interior.

With 65 percent of the votes counted, President Bharrat Jagdeo's People's Progressive Party, dominated by Guyanese of East Indian descent, had a lead of about 25,000 votes over the largest opposition party, chief elections officer Gocool Bodhoo told a news conference.

The two parties had been running neck-and-neck until returns came in from a heavily populated region outside the capital of Georgetown that boosted Jagdeo's party.

Final results from Monday's election were not expected until Thursday. Ballots were still arriving in Georgetown from remote areas near Guyana's borders with Suriname, Venezuela and Brazil.

MORALES' POLICIES WIDEN RIFTS
The Miami Herald
Aug. 30, 2006

SANTA CRUZ DE LA SIERRA, Bolivia -- When peasant leader Evo Morales won Bolivia's presidency last December, many in the country's booming, business-friendly eastern provinces hoped for the best -- but feared the worst.
Now, many say their fears have come true.

Morales' confrontational socialist policies, civic leaders say, have scared off the kind of foreign investment that had helped Bolivia's eastern provinces prosper while the rest of the country stagnated.

Government plans to seize and redistribute idle farmland, mostly in the east, have thousands of landowners worrying that they will be kicked off their land. Many have organized armed defenses to protect their property.

RAÚL CASTRO TAKES SUMMIT LEADER'S ROLE
The Miami Herald
Aug. 30, 2006

HAVANA - (AP) -- Cuba's acting leader, Raúl Castro, received a Syrian delegation, state media said Tuesday, as the brother of ailing Fidel Castro began taking on a leadership role for the summit of nonaligned nations to be hosted by Cuba next month.

The younger Castro met Sunday with the delegation led by Syrian Information Minister Mouhsen Bilal, who confirmed President Bashar Assad will attend the midSeptember gathering in Havana, the Communist Party daily Granma said.

The group gave Raúl Castro a message from Assad wishing his older brother a speedy recovery and affirming Syria's solidarity with the island nation amid "a toughening of threats and aggressions by the Bush administration toward Cuba," the newspaper said.

RIGHTS SUSPENDED DURING DRUG CRACKDOWN
The Miami Herald
Aug. 30, 2006

GUATEMALA CITY - (AP) -- The Guatemalan government announced Tuesday that it has partially suspended constitutional rights in five cities along Mexico's border as it cracks down on drug growers and traffickers in the remote region.

Under the 15-day order, authorities have suspended the rights to carry firearms and hold meetings without authorization, and will be allowed to randomly search motor vehicles.

"We are trying to fight drug trafficking and organized crime," Interior Minister Carlos Vielman told reporters.

The order also warns the news media "to not incite rebellion, because on previous occasions radio stations have urged people to resist the destruction of drug crops."

REGIONAL
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CHINA BACKS CHÁVEZ FOR U.N. BID
The Miami Herald
Aug. 25, 2006

BEIJING - Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said Thursday that China has thrown its support behind his nation's bid for a seat on the U.N. Security Council as the two countries signed deals to develop Venezuela's vast oil resources.

Chinese President Hu Jintao warmly welcomed Chávez, who has proposed an ambitious plan for his country -- the world's No. 5 oil exporter -- to almost quadruple sales to fuel-hungry China to one million barrels per day in the next decade.

'I believe that, through your visit, the two countries' cooperation in all aspects can be promoted," Hu told Chávez at the Great Hall of the People, the seat of China's parliament.

Chávez responded by saying that "mutual trust between our two countries has been deepening, and the economic and cultural exchanges have been strengthening."

THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT
LATIN POLITICAL MAP COULD GET SCRAMBLED YET AGAIN
The Miami Herald
Aug. 27, 2006

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador -- Latin America's political map is likely to change over the next three months, after the upcoming elections in Ecuador and Nicaragua: It will either show a newly expanded radical leftist bloc led by oil-rich Venezuela or a new critical mass of free-market democracies.

Consider these three possible scenarios:

• Scenario One:
  
  After a string of recent electoral setbacks in Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Costa Rica, leftist candidates win the Oct. 15 Ecuadorean elections and the Nov. 5 Nicaraguan elections.
  
  Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's recently signed Venezuela-Cuba-Bolivia "People's Trade Agreement" gets a major boost by adding two strategically located countries. The five-country bloc becomes a serious political force in the region, backed with various degrees of enthusiasm by Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
  
  This scenario is entirely possible: In Nicaragua, former President Daniel Ortega, the one-time guerrilla leader who led the Cuban-backed Sandinista regime in the 1980s, is running first in the polls. A survey by the M&R polling firm released last week shows Ortega would get 32 percent of likely voters' ballots, followed by former foreign minister and banker Eduardo Montealegre with 25 percent and Sandinista dissident Edmundo Jarquin with 20 percent.

CHAVEZ SAYS SYRIA, VENEZUELA UNITED
The Miami Herald
Aug. 30, 2006

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday that his government is united with Syria in strong opposition to the U.S. government's "imperialistic" aggression in the Middle East.

"We are here in Damascus to call for peace," Chavez told Venezuela's state television by phone shortly after arriving in Syria late Tuesday. "These two countries are strongly united against the imperialistic aggression and hegemonic pretensions of the U.S. empire."

Syrian President Bashar Assad greeted Chavez at the airport and thanked him for his support for Middle Eastern nations.

"We appreciate your sincere feelings toward the peoples who have their rights and are under occupation, as well as your sincere humanitarian and moral sentiments," Assad was quoted as saying through an interpreter.

Chavez has built close ties with Iran, Syria and other Mideast countries while his relations have grown tense with the U.S. and Israel.

CHÁVEZ MAY BE BUYING CUBA'S FUTURE WITH OIL
The Miami Herald
Aug. 30, 2006

As Cuban leader Fidel Castro convalesces in Havana and brother Raúl rules temporarily, experts say another man may hold Cuba's future in his hands: Hugo Chávez.

The Venezuelan president is propping up the Cuban economy by giving it nearly 100,000 barrels of oil a day virtually for free, according to experts. At today's prices, the subsidy could exceed $2 billion this year, nearly half the $4 billion to $6 billion that Moscow once pumped into Cuba per year.

But Venezuela's contributions to the Cuban economy don't end there. It has bought nearly half of the island's aging Cienfuegos refinery and is reportedly providing $300 million to $500 million in credit for a number of projects that range from housing to electricity. Venezuela also has opened a shipyard with Cuba.

• Acuerdo entre la República de Cuba y la República Bolivariana de Venezuela (.pdf)
• Declaración Final de la Primera Reunión Cuba-Venezuela para la aplicación de la Alternativa  Bolivariana para las Américas (.pdf)

ISRAEL'S DIPLOMATIC EXODUS
The Miami Herald
Aug. 30, 2006

JERUSALEM - Down a cramped alleyway, inside an unremarkable apartment building in a neighborhood that once separated Jerusalem's Jewish west from its Arab east, sits the Embassy of El Salvador, the last ambassadorial holdout in Israel's long struggle to secure global acceptance of this disputed holy city as its capital.

And now El Salvador is leaving. On Friday, El Salvador officially notified Israel's Foreign Office that its embassy would be packing off for Tel Aviv. Once it does, no country that has diplomatic relations with Israel will have an ambassador in Jerusalem.

El Salvador said it had decided to make the 40-mile trip to Tel Aviv after "analyzing with Israel the current situation in the Middle East," especially in light of the recent U.N. Security Council resolution coordinating a cease-fire in neighboring Lebanon, "which seeks to promote security and greater stability."

RELACIONES BILATERALES
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U.S.: DEMOCRACY COULD END EMBARGO
The Miami Herald
Aug. 24, 2006

WASHINGTON - Just days after Cuba's acting president, Raúl Castro, gave a blistering attack on the United States but at the same time hinted he's willing to negotiate, the State Department offered a response: Free your prisoners and elect your leaders. Only then will we lift the trade embargo.

Assistant Secretary of State Tom Shannon held a news conference about U.S. Cuba policy Wednesday for the foreign press, in which he reiterated Washington's terms for lifting the United States' decades-old trade embargo against Cuba.

Shannon said the administration would work with Congress to lift the embargo "and begin a deeper engagement with the Cuban state" if the government frees its more than 300 political prisoners, respects human rights, allows independent political parties and creates "a pathway towards elections."

They are the same terms Cuba has rejected for years.

ALLEGED CUBAN AGENT: FBI OFFERED IMMUNITY
The Miami Herald
Aug. 25, 2006

A college professor charged with being an illegal Cuban agent testified Thursday that he only divulged details about his past with the Havana government because he believed FBI agents had promised he would not be prosecuted.

"I did consider it as a promise," said Carlos Alvarez, who was indicted along with his wife, Elsa, on charges of being longtime Cuban intelligence operatives. "Otherwise, why would I have said the things I said about my past life? I said a lot. I said everything, basically."

Alvarez, a psychology professor at Florida International University, testified in federal court in Miami during a hearing on his motion to throw out his purported confession as evidence. The motion contends that the FBI agents made promises of immunity from prosecution and that he also had no real choice in deciding whether to speak with them.

U.S. PROTESTS SEIZURE OF ENVOY'S BELONGINGS IN VENEZUELA
The Miami Herald
Aug. 25, 2006

CARACAS - Venezuelan National Guard troops seized the belongings of a U.S diplomat Thursday en route to the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, an embassy official said.

Brian Penn told the local Globovisión television news channel he believed that National Guardsmen took the container where the diplomat was bringing his household property into the country at or near the international airport about 18 miles south of Caracas earlier Thursday and had not yet returned it to U.S. embassy officials.

"The embassy of the United States has protested this move by the security forces of the Venezuelan government," said Penn, noting that embassy officials had informed the U.S. State Department of the incident.

U.S. embassy officials could not immediately be reached for additional comment.

U.S. AND VENEZUELA AT ODDS, AND SEIZED CARGO IS JUST THE HALF OF IT
The New York Times
August 27, 2006

CARACAS, Venezuela, Aug. 26 — Government officials from the United States and this country are intensifying their verbal sparring after Venezuelan customs authorities this week seized diplomatic baggage from the United States that contained military hardware.

In what analysts say may be a prelude to worsening relations, Venezuela’s attorney general began an investigation on Friday into whether the American Embassy violated customs law when it brought 20 diplomatic bags into the country.

The cargo, delivered by a C-17 military transport plane, included ejector seats apparently intended for Venezuelan combat jets, explosive charges and about 180 pounds of chicken that did not pass through sanitary inspection, Interior Minister Jesse Chacón Escamillo said Friday night. 

U.S. OFFICIALS SAY VENEZUELA KNEW MILITARY
EQUIPMENT WAS IN SEIZED CARGO
The New York Times
August 28, 2006

CARACAS, Venezuela, Aug. 27 — Venezuelan military and customs officials were notified of the military equipment contained in diplomatic baggage at the center of a dispute between Venezuela and the United States before its delivery here last week, officials at the American Embassy said Sunday.

Venezuelan authorities’ seizure of the baggage, which included replacement fuses intended for ejector seats ordered by Venezuela’s air force, set off accusations from Caracas and Washington that international law governing diplomatic baggage had been violated.

At the heart of the dispute are fears frequently expressed by Venezuelan officials that the United States is trying to foment opposition to the administration of President Hugo Chávez.

Interior Minister Jesse Chacón Escamillo said Friday that the diplomatic shipment had been stopped because it had been smuggled past customs officials, and that it contained military equipment including detonators and rocket motors.

CHAVEZ: VENEZUELA, SYRIA UNITED VS. U.S.
The Miami Herald
Aug. 30, 2006

DAMASCUS, Syria - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said in Damascus on Wednesday that he and Syrian President Bashar Assad shared a "decisive and firm" stance against U.S. "imperialism" and "domination."

Chavez's visit was the latest in a series of international stops where he has trumpeted his opposition to Washington's global influence and advanced what he calls a "multipolar" vision of world affairs. His trips also coincide with Venezuela's push to win a rotating seat on the U.N. Security Council, over U.S. opposition.

Venezuela, the United States' fifth-largest source of oil, has built close ties with Iran, Syria and other Mideast countries while its relations have grown tense with the U.S. and Israel. The U.S., meanwhile, has heavily criticized Syria for its involvement in Lebanon and cooperation with Hezbollah guerillas there.