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 INTERNA
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LONG HISTORY OF VOTE FRAUD LINGERS IN THE MEXICAN PSYCHE
The New York Times
September 7, 2006

MEXICO CITY, Sept. 6 — Felipe Calderón was named the next president of Mexico on Tuesday by a tribunal that confirmed that the vote was basically free and fair. Yet a significant slice of the voting public still believes that the election was marred by fraud and that the country’s electoral institutions are corrupt.

To some extent that is because his leftist rival, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has waged a fiery campaign to persuade his supporters that his narrow loss on July 2 was part of a broad conspiracy between President Vicente Fox and business leaders to deny him victory.

But why do between a quarter and a third of voters, according to recent opinion polls, agree with him?

One reason is history. After decades of one-party rule sustained by fraudulent elections, many Mexicans still deeply distrust their institutions and courts. But it is also because Mexicans have a very different notion of electoral fraud than voters in the United States, a notion that goes beyond stuffing ballot boxes.

MEXICO'S NEXT PRESIDENT AS BRIDGE BUILDER
The Monitor's View
September 07, 2006

After two months of postelection tumult in Mexico, Felipe Calderón is now officially the president-elect. But even though he won the vote (barely), he now needs to win legitimacy. Otherwise, the torn fabric of Mexico's young democracy may further fray.

Mr. Calderón, a Harvard-educated conservative who was once energy minister, must show the 3 out of 5 Mexicans who did not vote for him on July 2 that he can represent their interests.

He can do that with a unity cabinet made up of different party leaders - and with policies that reflect both poor and rich, north and south. He already backs a program that rewards rural parents with welfare if they keep their children in school.

IN BRAZIL, FORMER ALLY MAY SPOIL RACE FOR THE PRESIDENT
The New York Times
September 7, 2006

SÃO JOAQUIM DO MONTE, Brazil, Sept. 3 — At first glance, she seems fragile, affable and soft-spoken, hardly the stuff of which presidential candidates are normally made. But when Heloísa Helena Lima de Moraes starts to talk, her words are harsh and accusatory, filled with fire and brimstone, especially as regards her former comrade-in-arms, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

With Brazilians scheduled to go to the polls on Oct. 1 to elect a president, Ms. de Moraes has become the wild card in what was initially expected to be a two-man race. Polls show Mr. da Silva falling just short of the 50 percent of the vote he needs for a first-round victory, with his main opponent, Geraldo Alckmin, of the center-left Brazilian Social Democratic Party, lagging far behind, with less than 30 percent.

CASTRO LIKELY WON'T HOST SUMMIT DINNER
The Miami Herald
Sep. 11, 2006

HAVANA - Cuba's foreign minister said Sunday it was not certain that Fidel Castro will host a dinner for visiting leaders as noted in a schedule, raising doubts over whether the ailing leader would make his first public appearance since undergoing surgery.

A dinner hosted by Castro for dignitaries attending this week's Nonaligned Movement summit was mentioned in a schedule sent Sunday by the government to international media.

But Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque said he could not confirm the leader's participation in the Friday event. "Fidel is recovering satisfactorily, the worst has been left behind," he said at a news conference.

"I cannot yet confirm his presence at the dinner," Pérez Roque said. "I can confirm that the head of the Cuban delegation at that moment will be offering those dignitaries that dinner."

HAITIAN GANG MEMBERS SURRENDER GUNS
The Miami Herald
Sep. 11, 2006

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Three gang members surrendered their guns Monday in the first handover of weapons in a U.N.-led effort to disarm hundreds of Haitian criminals.

The men held the guns above their heads as they approached Brazilian peacekeepers to the cheers of supporters during the handover ceremony in the gritty Port-au-Prince slum of Solino. They agreed to disarm after peacekeepers promised they would not be arrested.

Haiti's government and U.N. peacekeepers are trying to persuade up to 1,000 gang members to lay down their arms with offers of money, food and job training.

The impromptu ceremony marked the start of what officials acknowledge will likely be a lengthy campaign to disarm the gangs, which are blamed for a recent wave of kidnappings and shootings in the capital, Port-au-Prince. A U.N. spokesman declined to comment on the weapon handover.

BRAZIL MAKES HEADWAY IN BID FOR 'ZERO HUNGER'
The Christian Science Monitor
September 11, 2006

BRASILIA – In the sprawling shantytown of Estructural, Norberia Brito holds her newborn daughter in one arm, while with the other she stirs her feijao, a lunch of black beans and rice. It's one of the few dishes the young mother of three can afford on the 95 reals ($44) she gets monthly from the government.

That's just enough to buy food, and cover water and utility bills. "This program has helped me so much," she says. "Before, I just didn't have enough money to eat."

Norberia belongs to the Bolsa Familia (Family Grant) program - the flagship of Brazil's Zero Hunger Initiative. Zero Hunger was the first program President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva launched when he took the helm in 2003.

FILMS EXPOSE DARK ERA OF DICTATORSHIP IN CHILE
The Miami Herald
Sep. 12, 2006

SANTIAGO, Chile - Films expose dark era of dictatorship

Sixteen years after the end of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship, emboldened Chilean filmmakers are shrugging off the cloak of silence to release documentaries detailing hidden stories of his reign's dark years.

Chileans stayed quiet after the 17-year dictatorship ended in 1990, fearing a backlash while Pinochet was still army commander.

But today the 90-year-old Pinochet is a shadow of his brutal old self, suffering from dementia, diabetes and arthritis. Even conservatives have turned against him since his indictment for tax evasion through multimillion-dollar foreign bank accounts.

The films' delayed arrival results from a convergence of factors: Chile's snaillike pace in resolving the dictatorship's legacy, subtle media control and a public split between those who wish to forget the past and those still hoping for justice.

IDEOLOGICAL CLASHES DELAY PROGRESS ON BOLIVIAN CONSTITUTION
The Miami Herald
Sep. 12, 2006

LA PAZ - Since it convened a month ago, Bolivia's Constituent Assembly has been plagued by conflict, with scuffles on the floor, boycotts by minority parties and general strikes by opponents of President Evo Morales.

Such polarization threatens the ability of the 255-member Assembly to rewrite the country's constitution and could further weaken the stability of a country that has seen four presidents since 2003.

"The assembly is like having . . . a patient on the operating table with 255 surgeons standing around, waiting to cut in," said Eduardo Rodríguez Veltze, a former head of the Supreme Court who served briefly as president until Morales was inaugurated in January.

IN CHILE, FREE MORNING-AFTER PILLS TO TEENS
The Christian Science Monitor
September 12, 2006

SANTIAGO, CHILE – This month, Chile began to combat the problem of high teen-pregnancy rates by distributing free morning-after pills to girls as young as 14 years old.

Government support of emergency contraception is not unusual in Latin America or in Europe. Last month, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the over-the-counter sale of morning-after pills (known as Plan B), for women over 18. Girls age 17 and under must have a doctor's note.

But the Chilean government, by giving away the pills to such young girls, is igniting a storm of opposition from critics who say it undermines parents and is tantamount to abortion.

On Sept. 2, Chile's health minister, Maria Soledad Barria, announced the distribution of morning-after pills in public health clinics as part of a broader set of new regulations on fertility. Since then, the outcry has been building from religious groups, the political right, and even some of the government's own coalition partners in Congress. Many are up in arms about the measure, which they say encourages early sexual activity.

WILL CASTRO APPEAR AT HAVANA SUMMIT?
The Miami Herald
Sep. 12, 2006

KEY ROLES: Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque speaks as the summit opens.

Cuba this week is hosting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syria's Bashar Assad and Venezuela's Hugo Chávez among about 50 heads of state for a summit in which it hopes to breathe new life into a relic of the Cold War.

But as the foreign leaders began heading for Havana for the 14th summit of the Nonaligned Movement, a coalition of 116 mostly developing nations, it remained to be seen whether the host will make an appearance.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro is still convalescing from a July 31 intestinal operation that forced him to cede power to his younger brother and long-designated successor, Raúl -- for the first time in 47 years.

"I think you'll see Fidel Castro, if he's feeling up to it, using this to boost his image," said Robert T. McLean of the Center for Security Policy. "He'll do his best to attend. This is his moment in the spotlight. This is the role he relishes.
"It brings him back to the old days."

RAÚL CASTRO MAY HAVE TO LIGHTEN UP
The Miami Herald
Sep. 13, 2006

HAVANA - For an engineer named Ismael, Cuban leader Fidel Castro is "charismatic and super-intelligent." But he doesn't feel the same way about Fidel's brother and designated successor, Raúl Castro.

"He's too hard-line," said Ismael, in the kind of comment about Raúl made repeatedly by Cubans approached on the streets of Havana. "He's surrounded by hard-liners. I met him once. He seemed very serious."

Raúl's lack of affection among Cubans, after 47 years of playing the tough cop for his older brother, may well hamper his ability to govern and could force him to open up the communist-ruled island's economy after Fidel dies, said several analysts who have followed his career.

"Raúl has to establish a new basis of legitimacy," Frank Mora, a professor of national security strategy at the U.S. National War College in Washington said by telephone. "He can't govern like Fidel. Fidel has a unique, personal and charismatic style that no one else can match.

CUBANS RELIVE JOURNEY TO FREEDOM
The Miami Herald
Sep. 13, 2006

The Highlands at Kendall is about 8,000 miles from the capital of Zimbabwe.

The two-story, suburban house with the shimmering pool, granite kitchen and new sports car in the driveway may as well be on another planet.

And though it has been six years since the two Cubans who live there were dragged from their beds by Zimbabwean soldiers and jailed for 32 days, Noris Peña and Leonel Córdova still relive the nights on a cold floor in a dark prison cell in Africa.

As they build their own version of the American Dream in a West Kendall community of comfortable cookie-cutter homes, the dentist and the doctor -- who recently got a job with Baptist Hospital's urgent care center network -- still sometimes fear they will wake up back in the living nightmare in Harare.

SAVE BALLOTS, MEXICO'S CALDERÓN SAYS
The Miami Herald
Sep. 13, 2006

MEXICO CITY - The two rivals in Mexico's disputed presidential election agree on one thing: Ballots from the closest race ever shouldn't be destroyed, despite laws calling for them to be burned. But it's unclear whether electoral officials can ignore the law and save the closely scrutinized paper votes.

President-elect Felipe Calderón, who was declared the winner by a margin of less than 0.6 percent last week, asked electoral officials Tuesday not to destroy the ballots from the disputed July 2 election.

In a letter to the Federal Electoral Institute's chairman, Luis Carlos Ugalde, Calderón wrote that saving the ballots would guarantee "citizen certainty and confidence in Mexican institutions."

Mexican law requires the ballots to be destroyed before Calderón replaces President Vicente Fox on Dec. 1, but the institute's governing council could decide to postpone the destruction.

VIOLENCE ERUPTS IN CHILE ON ANNIVERSARY OF COUP
The Miami Herald
Sep. 13, 2006

SANTIAGO, Chile - (AP) -- Police early Tuesday worked to contain violence that broke out after dark as Chile was marking the 33rd anniversary of the military coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

In Santiago and three other cities, scores were injured and arrested during protests that authorities said were not politically motivated.

"One can clearly see that these people are criminals whose aim is to cause damage and steal," Deputy Interior Minister Felipe Harboe said.

Authorities said 50 people were injured, including a 6-year-old girl who was hit in the head by a stray bullet while in her home in Puente Alto, a city southeast of Santiago. Around the country, 237 people were arrested and 40 officers were injured.

REGIONAL
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AFRICA IS PERFORMING BETTER THAN LATIN AMERICA
The Miami Herald   
Sep. 10, 2006

Just when Latin America is waking up to the fact that China, India and Central Europe have surpassed it in the global race for investments and economic growth, they may soon have to add a new region to the list -- Africa.

Only months after United Nations figures showed that Africa's economy grew faster than Latin America's last year, a new report from the World Bank shows that Africa -- while still behind in overall business friendliness -- has overtaken Latin America in a ranking of world regions that have shown the most progress in creating a good business environment.

The report, "Doing Business 2007," coauthored by the International Finance Corp., measures among other things the pace of business-friendly reforms in 175 countries. It shows that -- with few exceptions, such as Chile and Mexico -- most Latin American countries are advancing at a much slower pace than the rest of the emerging world.

URUGUAY AT CENTER OF LIVELY U.S.-VENEZUELA CHESS GAME
The New York Times
September 12, 2006

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Long taken for granted by its much larger neighbors, Uruguay suddenly finds itself one of the main fronts in the struggle between the United States and Venezuela for dominance in South America. The Bush administration and President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela are jockeying for position here, each trying to undercut the other by winning over Uruguay’s left-wing government.

Washington is offering a free-trade agreement that would pull Uruguay into the United States ’ orbit and weaken Mercosur, the regional trade group to which Uruguay and Venezuela belong. Mr. Chávez has countered with attention-getting investments, subsidized oil, acts of charity and a growing alliance with left-wing factions of the ruling Broad Front.

Pablo da Silveira, a professor of political philosophy at Catholic University of Uruguay and a political commentator, likens what is happening to “a geopolitical chess game, in which Venezuela is playing the black pieces, in other words, oil” in an effort to gain influence. In this small, strategically situated place, he added, “Chávez and the United States are seeking the same thing, and for the same reason: to make Uruguay a test case” for their widely varying visions of the region.

EXILE GROUP PLANS PROTEST OFF CUBA'S COAST
The Miami Herald
Sep. 13, 2006

A Miami exile leader on Tuesday announced plans for a symbolic demonstration in the waters off Cuba this weekend.
The reason: to have the group's call for democracy on the island heard by foreign leaders representing as many as 116 nations that comprise the Nonaligned Movement, which is holding a weeklong summit in Havana.

"We are asking for free elections in Cuba, not a succession of power from brother to brother as if Cuba were a dynasty," said Rámon Saúl Sánchez, head of the Democracy Movement, referring to Fidel Castro temporarily handing over power to his brother, Raúl.

The summit in Cuba is being held two months after it was announced that President Fidel Castro, 80, had undergone emergency surgery for an undisclosed intestinal ailment and had provisionally handed over power to his younger brother, Defense Minister Raúl Castro.

CHAVEZ-CASTRO FRIENDSHIP TRICKY FOR U.S.
The Miami Herald
Sep. 13, 2006

CARACAS, Venezuela - One is a Cold War icon who has defied the United States for nearly a half-century. The other is a charismatic ex-military man who could be Washington's biggest Latin American nemesis for years to come.

Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez have put their close relationship on display with frequent visits by the Venezuelan president as the 80-year-old Cuban leader recovers from recent intestinal surgery. The two are expected to take the spotlight again this week as Havana hosts dozens of leaders at a summit of the Nonaligned Movement.

Chavez and his mentor Castro have markedly different styles, but their friendship ensures Cuba critical economic support with a bonanza of Venezuelan oil and credit.

Some who know the 52-year-old Venezuelan predict he will continue to promote Castro's beliefs, challenging U.S. hopes that the Cuban leader's illness will spur democratic change in the communist country.

RELACIONES BILATERALES
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U.S. CREATES FIVE GROUPS TO MONITOR CUBA
The Miami Herald
Sep. 13, 2006

WASHINGTON - Convinced that Fidel Castro will never regain the power he once wielded, the Bush administration has created five interagency working groups to monitor Cuba and carry out U.S. policies.

The groups, some of which operate in a war-room-like setting, were quietly set up after the July 31 announcement that the ailing Cuban leader had temporarily ceded power to a collective leadership headed by his brother Raúl, U.S. officials have told The Miami Herald.

Their composition reflects both the administration's Cuban policy priorities as well as the belief that the 80-year-old Castro's status as the island's undisputed leader is finished, regardless of the nature of his still-mysterious ailment.

LATORTUE'S DISTURBING LEGACY
Opinion
The Miami Herald
Sep. 07, 2006
By Ira Kurzban

On Feb. 29, 2004, former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forcibly removed from Haiti by the Bush administration. Several days later, Gerard Latortue was airlifted into Haiti and named the prime minister with barely a fig-leaf as a process. Latortue was a radio announcer in Boca Raton.

His major qualification, as with many Iraqi advisors to the Bush administration, was his strong ties to the U.S. intelligence community and neoconservatives in the White House. Having fed the administration what it wanted to hear about how unpopular and dictatorial Aristide was in Haiti -- similar to the disinformation campaign waged by Ahmed Chalabi regarding Iraq -- the unqualified Latortue was rewarded by being anointed prime minister.

CLOSE MIAMI OFFICE, U.S. TELLS VENEZUELA
The Miami Herald
Sep. 08, 2006

WASHINGTON - Taking another jab at Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, the State Department has ordered his country's air force to close its purchasing office in Miami.

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry reacted furiously Thursday, calling the decision, relayed in a diplomatic note on Tuesday, "aggressive" and "imperialist."

The Miami operation has about a dozen Venezuelan officers who oversee the purchase of military equipment and other supplies for all the Venezuelan armed forces. They have until Sept. 30 to comply with the U.S. order.

The State Department also ordered the closure of another Venezuelan purchasing office at the Wright-Patterson Air Force base near Dayton, Ohio. But Venezuelan officials say they voluntarily closed that office earlier this month.

'WAR' AGAINST U.S. FINDS NO ALLY IN CHINA
Opinion
The Miami Herald
Sep. 09, 2006
By William Ratliff

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's world tour landed him in China recently for the fourth time during his presidency. One of his main objectives there was to try to draw China into his global "guerrilla war" against the United States. The former paratrooper was elected president in 1998 and, buttressed by petrodollars, has proclaimed himself the anti-American revolutionary successor to his mentor, Cuba's Fidel Castro.

Chávez, who arrived in China praising the Middle Kingdom as the world's alternative to American capitalism, has long lauded Mao Zedong as a brilliant guerrilla strategist. Mao theorized about what Chávez is trying to do: coordinate a series of unconventional attacks on the United States that will chip away at the seemingly invincible enemy and prove it to be a "paper tiger."

U.S. PAID 10 JOURNALISTS FOR ANTI-CASTRO REPORTS
The New York Times
September 9, 2006

MIAMI, Sept. 8 — The Bush administration’s Office of Cuba Broadcasting paid 10 journalists here to provide commentary on Radio and TV Martí, which transmit to Cuba government broadcasts critical of Fidel Castro, a spokesman for the office said Friday.

The group included three journalists at El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language sister newspaper of The Miami Herald, which fired them Thursday after learning of the relationship. Pablo Alfonso, who reports on Cuba for El Nuevo Herald, received the largest payment, almost $175,000 since 2001.

Other journalists have been found to accept money from the Bush administration, including Armstrong Williams, a commentator and talk-show host who received $240,000 to promote its education initiatives. But while the Castro regime has long alleged that some Cuban-American reporters in Miami were paid by the government, the revelation on Friday, reported in The Miami Herald, was the first evidence of that.

BOLIVIA'S MORALES TO BYPASS WASHINGTON
The Miami Herald
Sep. 11, 2006

LA PAZ, Bolivia - President Evo Morales said Monday that his first trip to the United States since taking office will not include a stop in Washington.

The Bolivian leader leaves Wednesday for a three-nation tour that includes a visit to Guatemala and a three-day stop in Cuba for a summit of the global Nonaligned Movement. He is then scheduled to fly to New York on Sept. 17 for the United Nations' annual meeting.

Morales told a news conference he plans to meet with world leaders while there, but will not visit the U.S. capital or meet with President Bush.

Elected in December as Bolivia's first indigenous president, Morales has been a frequent critic of Bush and U.S. foreign and economic policies.

"Though I have not requested a meeting (with Bush), I would do so with pleasure," Morales said. "I would like to tell him some truths about human rights, about social problems, about economic problems, to tell him that sometimes aggression only creates rebellion."

2 ANTI-CASTRO ACTIVISTS PLEAD GUILTY IN WEAPONS CASE
The Miami Herald
Sep. 12, 2006
2 plead guilty in weapons case

Two anti-Castro activists in their 60s pleaded guilty Monday to a weapons-conspiracy charge on the eve of their high-stakes trial in Fort Lauderdale federal court -- a jury proceeding that could have ended with imprisonment for the rest of their lives.
Instead of running that risk, Cuban exiles Santiago Alvarez and Osvaldo Mitat cut plea deals on one count of conspiring to possess illegal weapons, which carries a five-year maximum prison penalty. The men, who remain in custody, face sentencing Nov. 14.

Alvarez, 65, and his friend Mitat, 64, avoided the distinct possibility of going to trial today before a Fort Lauderdale jury and being convicted of possessing illegal weapons, too. Those charges, coupled with the conspiracy charge in the original indictment, carried a maximum of 20 years in prison.

POSADA SHOULD BE RELEASED, MAGISTRATE TELLS JUDGE
The Miami Herald 
Sep. 12, 2006

Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles should be released from immigration custody because the attorney general has not classified him as a terrorist and his continued detention runs counter to a 2001 Supreme Court ruling barring indefinite detention for foreign nationals who cannot be deported, a federal magistrate ruled Monday.

In a 24-page decision, U.S. Magistrate Norbert Garney in El Paso, Texas, wrote that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement should put Posada under supervised release because the federal government had failed to find a country willing to take the 78-year-old exile, who has Venezuelan citizenship.

"The court recommends that petitioner's request for habeas relief be granted and that petitioner be released subject to the terms and conditions of supervised release," Garney wrote.

CHÁVEZ SAYS 9/11 POSSIBLY STAGED
The Miami Herald
Sep. 13, 2006

CARACAS - (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said Tuesday that it's plausible the U.S. government was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Chávez did not specifically accuse the U.S. government of having a hand in the Sept. 11 attacks, but rather suggested that theories of U.S. involvement bear examination.

The Venezuelan leader, an outspoken critic of President Bush, was reacting to a television report investigating a theory the twin towers were brought down with explosives after hijacked airplanes were crashed into them in 2001.

"The hypothesis is not absurd . . . that those towers could have been dynamited," Chávez said in a speech to supporters