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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IMMIGRANTS PREPARE FOR NEXT STEP
The Washington Post
September 14, 2006

Advocates working on behalf of illegal immigrants said they learned a lesson from the immigrant rights marches that fizzled over the Labor Day holiday: It's time to start driving.

During the recently concluded National Latino Congreso in Los Angeles, organizers decided to focus on voter registration drives for documented immigrants and citizenship drives for immigrants who qualify.

Antonio González, president of the Los Angeles-based Southwest Voter Registration Project, said 50 voter registration drives will be launched in California, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado, states with large Latino populations. In addition, 100 voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives will kick off in October, he said.

"The message from the community was to switch gears," González said. "Now is not the time for mass mobilization of immigrants who don't have the right to vote. There has been a massive amount of intimidation, and immigrants aren't stupid. They're trying to protect themselves as best they can. It's time to get the vote out."

U.S. IMMIGRANT MARCHES FAIL TO ATTRACT LARGE CROWDS
The Washington Post
September 11, 2006

WASHINGTON - Low attendance at immigrant rallies in U.S. cities last week showed that a movement which brought huge crowds on to the streets in the spring was unable to repeat its success.

"It's clear from the turnout last week that support in the Hispanic community was tissue paper thin, and they know that the protests as a tactic failed," said Steve Camarota, an analyst with the Center for Immigration Reform, which advocates cracking down on illegal immigration and reducing legal migration to the United States.

Activists had hoped to mobilize hundreds of thousands of marchers to pressure Congress to approve a bill offering many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country a path to U.S. citizenship.

But marches in Batavia, Illinois, and Phoenix attracted barely 4,000 protesters between them while rallies in Washington and Los Angeles, billed as the high points of a week of activism, also attracted just a few thousand protesters.

While organizers puzzled over the low turnout, some analysts said it revealed shrinking support for street activism as a tactic.

UN MEETING LOOKS AT IMPACT OF MIGRATION
The Washington Post
September 14, 2006

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - After a decade of failed attempts, delegates from some 140 nations on Thursday open a two-day ministerial meeting on migration, an issue many countries once restricted to domestic policy.

But with more and more people leaving home to escape poverty, repression and warfare, or seek adventure or opportunities elsewhere, world leaders are more receptive to discussions on the impact of migration, U.N. and other experts say.

Nearly 200 million people, about 3 percent of the world's population, no longer live in the country of their birth, double the number of 25 years ago, according to the U.N. Population Division.

Most come from poor nations or those marked by conflict in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Six out of 10 live in rich countries and one out of five lives in the United States. The rest flock to other developing countries.

But too often migrants find themselves in a life worse or as bad as the one they left, subject to abuse, exploitation or lured into prostitution in both rich and poor countries.

UN PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON MIGRATION'S ECONOMIC BENEFITS
The Washington Post
September 14, 2006

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged governments on Thursday to recognize the economic and social benefits of migrants even as many countries try to keep them off their soil.

"No one can deny that international migration has negative aspects -- trafficking, smuggling, social discontent -- or that it often arises from poverty or political strife," Annan said. But "governments are now beginning to see international migration through the prism of opportunity, rather than fear."

Last year immigrants sent some $167 billion back to their families -- many living in impoverished countries with few other sources of income -- and use their skills and know-how to transfer technology, capital and institutional knowledge to their host country, he said.

Annan spoke at the start of a two-day U.N. meeting on migration and development that has attracted senior officials from some 131 countries. Governments resisted holding such a meeting for decades, considering immigration only as a domestic problem, organizers said.

FIRMS VIE TO PROVIDE THE FUTURE OF BORDER SECURITY
The Washington Post
September 18, 2006

If Northrop Grumman Corp. gets the multibillion-dollar contract to secure America's borders, the sky above the Rio Grande would be thick with drones.

Cellphone maker Ericsson Inc. thinks drones are largely a waste and would focus instead on giving Border Patrol agents wireless devices capable of receiving live video.

Boeing Co. would build high-tech towers, lining the borders with 1,800 of them.

For Lockheed Martin Corp., blimps are a big part of the solution. And for Raytheon Co., the key is letting agents watch incidents unfold on Google Earth.

Those are the plans, anyway. The questions now are which company will win the rights to put its technology into play, and how well any of it will actually work in helping the United States gain control of its notoriously porous borders.

The Department of Homeland Security is expected within days to name a winner in a competition that could permanently change the way the United States conducts surveillance, apprehension and detention operations along its northern and southern boundaries. The choice promises to lend significant insight into how the government sees the future of border security, with firms offering rival visions of how that future looks.

IMMIGRATION’S LOST YEAR
The New York Times
September 19, 2006

Congressional leaders and President Bush insisted for months that they were serious about fixing the immigration system. They weren’t, and the more talk you hear about border security, about building walls and getting tough this time, the clearer it will be that hopes for effective immigration reform this year are past saving, pinned down by strong arms in the Republican-controlled House and kicked until dead.

The latest proposals are the product of a Republicans-only “forum” last week that distilled the bilge water of a summer’s worth of immigration “hearings,” which were actually badly disguised campaign events. The hearings — with titles like “How Does Illegal Immigration Impact American Taxpayers and Will the Reid-Kennedy Amnesty Worsen the Blow?” — were show trials put on to destroy comprehensive reform by any means necessary. “What I wanted was witnesses who agree with me, not disagree with me,” said Representative Charlie Norwood of Georgia, putting it perfectly.

POLÍTICA INTERNA
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LEFTIST’S BACKERS END BLOCKADE IN MEXICO CITY
The New Cork Times
September 15, 2006

MEXICO CITY, Sept. 14 — Supporters of a leftist candidate who narrowly lost the presidential election this summer were tearing down five miles of tents on Thursday that have blockaded this capital’s central avenues for six weeks.

“It’s an emotional situation,” Juan Gutiérrez Calva, 45, a street vendor, said as he packed up his tent. “I’m calm. I’m not sad or happy. It was always clear that we were not going to advance much toward a real democracy in this country.”

The move signaled a shift by their leader, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City, who says he was robbed of an election victory.

Having lost a legal battle for a full recount, and facing a steady defection of supporters, Mr. López Obrador is now striving to find a way to remain a political force over the coming six years, while Felipe Calderón, a conservative, serves as president.

Mr. López Obrador and his aides have organized a mass rally for Saturday, grandly calling it the “National Democratic Convention,” where supporters are expected to anoint Mr. López Obrador head of a movement still ill defined that will, among other things, press for a new Mexican constitution.

CUBANS WARY OF QUICK CHANGE
The Miami Herald
Sep. 14, 2006

Omar Martínez earns $11 a month as a government sailor, putting extra food on his family's table by preparing tamales that his wife sells door-to-door.

But while Martínez wishes he could earn more and have a better life, he says he's not ready for Cuba to abandon the island's communist system and its free education and healthcare to move toward a free-market economy.

"We don't earn a lot here, but the free stuff helps offset the low salaries," Martínez said. "We have a peaceful life here. I can walk around at night. The kids can play in the street. In the United States, you earn more, but you have to pay more for everything. It's a more stressful life."

After decades of government propaganda detailing the evils of capitalism and highlighting the achievements of communism, many Cubans like Martínez seem acutely aware of their system's profound shortcomings, yet remain wary of capitalism.

CASTRO STANDS IN NEW VIDEO, BUT STILL SKIPS SUMMIT MEETING
The New Cork Times
September 15, 2006

HAVANA, Sept. 14 — Fidel Castro was “walking and singing” on Thursday, and a rare video showed him standing for the first time since his recent illness, even though his absence from the summit meeting of nonaligned nations overshadowed the event.

It was unclear if he would make his first public appearance since his illness at the meeting of around 40 heads of state and government.
A short video broadcast on state television showed a gaunt-looking Mr. Castro, in robe and pajamas, standing briefly during a meeting with President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela at the summit meeting.

Mr. Chávez described him as “well enough to play baseball again, almost.” Many delegates traveled to the meeting — labeled a relic of the cold war by critics — to gather more firsthand information on the fate of Mr. Castro.

CÓMO SE EXPLICA LA PAZ EN MÉXICO
¿Podrá la naciente democracia mexicana manejar la oposición?
Por Marcela Sanchez
The Washington post
 September 15, 2006

Las noticias que vienen emanando de México son en parte extrañas, en parte sorprendentes. Los resultados de la elección presidencial del 2 de julio son impugnados y el popular candidato que quedó en segundo lugar se instala en la plaza central de la capital, levanta una carpa y promete empezar su propio gobierno.

Miles de partidarios se le unen y bloquean las principales avenidas de la segunda urbe más grande del planeta. El mal tráfico empeora y los negocios se perjudican, al tiempo que la vida y la política cotidiana se interrumpen. Por primera vez en la historia mexicana, el presidente ni siquiera puede subir al podio para dar su informe anual al Congreso. Por su parte, el presidente electo se ve en la necesidad de celebrar su victoria en la plaza de toros de la ciudad, un lugar pequeño que puede controlarse fácilmente.

De repente la nación que hace apenas seis años colectivamente rompió los grilletes de la dictadura de un partido único parece ahora profundamente polarizada y consternada por su experimento democrático. Más del 60 por ciento de los mexicanos encuestados la semana pasada por el diario Reforma cree que la situación política se pondrá más tensa y más de dos de tres temen que haya violencia, según encuesta de la firma de investigación GEA-ISA.

ONE MEXICAN JUDGE TAKES THE LEAD IN BEATING BACK GRAFT
The Christian Science Monitor
September 15, 2006

QUER ÉTARO, MEXICO – In a country where payouts and bribes have long supplemented salaries and simply been the way things get done, Judge Marcos Aguilar says not everyone was thrilled by his idea: to form a court that punishes public servants accused of corruption.
"Some people really resisted this tribunal," says Judge Aguilar, who presides over the 16-month-old Municipal Court of Administrative Responsibilities in Querétaro and has the power to fine, suspend, and even fire the 4,500 city officials in this colonial town north of Mexico City. "But most of us want to taste a different way to live."

Corruption has been one of Mexico's most vexing quandaries, finding fertile ground in the authoritarian rule of much of last century. According to one study, 12 percent of the country's gross domestic product is lost to corruption in the private and public sectors each year.

RAÚL'S WIFE BELIEVED TO BE VERY ILL
The Miami Herald
Sep. 16, 2006

As Raúl Castro rules Havana while his brother Fidel recovers from surgery, Cuba watchers say Raúl's longtime wife, Vilma Espín, is also believed to be seriously ill.

Although there's been no official word out of Cuba, reports of Espín's illness have been making the rounds in South Florida as the woman who often served as the island's first lady misses more and more important events.

Espín has been president of the Cuban Federation of Women for all of its 46 years, and for the first time last month missed its annual anniversary celebration.

The Holguín-based newspaper Ahora recently published a letter Espín wrote for last year's anniversary, suggesting that she was not even well enough to pen a statement this year.

Espín also did not attend the 13th Latin American congress on sexology and sexual education in Brazil, where she was to receive an award. And radio station CMHW in the central city of Santa Clara referred to her last month in the maudlin terms often reserved for the very sick or dead, saying she was the "eternal guide of the newborn motherland."

THRONG CALLS LOSER MEXICO’S ‘LEGITIMATE’ PRESIDENT
The New York Times
September 17, 2006

MEXICO CITY, Sept. 16 — More than 150,000 supporters of the losing leftist candidate for president flooded into the capital’s historic square on Saturday and declared him “the legitimate president” of Mexico.

As his supporters roared approval, the candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor, vowed to set up his own government and to fight against “a band of white-collar crooks and corrupt politicians” who he has said stole the election from him.

“I accept the responsibility of being president because I reject the imposition of their candidate and rupture of the constitutional order,” he said. “They can keep their pirated institutions and their phony president, but they cannot keep our fatherland and our national dignity.”

SUMMIT PROVIDES A LOOK AT RAÚL CASTRO AS CUBA'S ACTING LEADER
The Miami Herald
Sep. 17, 2006

HAVANA - Raúl takes center stage
Acting President Raúl Castro is giving Cubans and the world a preview of how he may lead if his brother Fidel does not return to power: efficiently and with little fanfare.

Addressing leaders from developing nations, Raúl Castro has diligently stood in for his iconic sibling at the Nonaligned Movement summit this weekend.

DILIGENT STAND-IN

Speaking with gravitas but with none of Fidel Castro's passionate gestures, he repeatedly exhorted them to unite against "imperialist" U.S. policies.

"With this summit the world has discovered more about who Raúl Castro is," Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque said.

Raúl Castro has been much more visible at the summit, his first real opportunity to appear as a statesman since his 80-year-old brother fell ill in late July.

AS MEXICO VOTE DISPUTE WINDS DOWN, OBRADOR GEARS UP
The Christian Science Monitor
September 18, 2006

MEXICO CITY – Having lost his bid for Mexico's presidency after the top electoral court threw out fraud allegations and a recount revealed a final margin of just half a percentage point, Andrés Manuel López Obrador is now calling for the creation of a "new republic" that addresses the stubborn gap between rich and poor.

The highly contested July 2 election and its aftermath revealed deep divisions in the country, fueling tensions with no apparent reconciliation in sight.

Yet if suspicion and rancor have marked this historic moment, just six years after Mexico emerged from beneath seven decades of authoritarian rule, violence has not.

"Of course, Mexico is at a crossroads," says John Ackerman, a law professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. "But modern Mexico is showing us we can have intense political conflict without violence."

FOX DOESN'T EXPECT LEFTIST OPPOSITION
The Miami Herald
Sep. 19, 2006

NEW YORK –Mexico's outgoing President Vicente Fox said Tuesday he does not expect the country's leftist opposition to militantly oppose his successor even though it has declared a parallel government.

Fox, in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly, also said Mexico is willing to extradite all drug lords in its custody who are wanted by the United States - his most sweeping commitment yet to send kingpins to face U.S. justice.

The Mexican leader said he did not expect the opposition's rejection of President-elect Felipe Calderon, a member of Fox's conservative party, to destabilize Mexico or hurt its economy.

Supporters of election loser Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador declared him president of their "parallel government" over the weekend. The declaration came at the end of seven weeks of intense protests with Lopez Obrador supporters camped out in the center of Mexico City, clogging the heart of the capital.

Calderon won by less than 234,000 votes, or 0.6 percent of total votes cast. Lopez Obrador's followers claimed election fraud and demanded a full vote recount.

BOLIVIAN LEADER DEFENDS HIS DRUG POLICY
The Miami Herald
Sep. 19, 2006

UNITED NATIONS - Bolivian president Evo Morales brandished a coca leaf on the floor of the United Nations Tuesday in a passionate rebuke of U.S. criticisms of the South American nation's anti-drug policies.

The State Department on Monday included Bolivia in its annual list of major drug-transit or drug-producing countries, singling out Morales' government for continuing to permit the legal harvest of coca, the principal ingredient in cocaine.

Morales, a former coca-grower elected in December as Bolivia's first indigenous president, surprised the U.N. General Assembly by pulling out the small leaf - banned in the United States - and holding it aloft.

"Coca is green, not white like cocaine," he said, to a smattering of applause. "Scientifically ... it has been demonstrated that the coca leaf does no harm to human health."

Morales has upped his government's enforcement efforts against cocaine production while continuing to promote coca's legal use in tea, medicines and other products.

ARGENTINE SENTENCED TO LIFE FOR ‘DIRTY WAR’ ROLE
The New York Times
September 20, 2006

BUENOS AIRES, Sept. 19 (Reuters) — A retired police commissioner was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for murder, torture and kidnappings during Argentina’s “dirty war,” in one of the first sentences since amnesty laws were scrapped last year.

Miguel Etchecolatz, 77, ran clandestine detention centers as provincial police commissioner for Buenos Aires during the military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, when an estimated 11,000 to 30,000 people were killed in a crackdown on leftists.

The reading of the sentence in a federal court in the provincial capital, La Plata, was interrupted when someone in the courthouse threw red paint on Mr. Etchecolatz, who kissed a crucifix.

Inside the courtroom dozens of family members of victims and human rights activists wept, applauded and jumped up and down. Outside, hundreds more cheered.

CALDERÓN MUST STAND ABOVE THE PARTISAN FRAY
Opinion
The Miami Herald
By Marifeli Perez-Stable
Sep. 14, 2006

Mexico's July 2 election is finally over. On Sept. 5, the Federal Electoral Tribunal named Felipe Calderón president-elect. A week earlier, the magistrates had ruled unfounded the charges of fraud that Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known as AMLO, had levied. Though judicially irrevocable, the tribunal's decisions do little to relieve the political impasse. That task falls squarely on the shoulders of Mexico's political class.

From the outset of his presidential bid, Calderón committed himself to forming a coalition government. Ongoing, discreet meetings with the opposition since July 2, which have now intensified, may make it a reality. An understanding between the National Action Party (PAN) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is emerging. Some cracks have appeared in the wall, raised by AMLO's Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) against a dialogue with a president-elect deemed "spurious." Effective governance during Calderón's six-year term will require a meaningful PAN-PRD dialogue.

Mexico is deeply polarized. Recently, Calderón applauded the victory of peace-loving Mexicans over those bent on violence. By the latter, he surely didn't mean the nearly 15 million AMLO voters, but that's what many heard. Calderón must stand above the partisan fray. At minimum, he needs to elicit a disposition to listen from these voters. Embracing the fight against poverty -- which AMLO put heart and center -- may well prompt them to lend him their ears.

LEFTISTS PLEDGE TO WAGE PEACEFUL RESISTANCE
The Miami Herald
Sep. 19, 2006

MEXICO CITY - Now that Mexican leftists have acclaimed defeated candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador president of a parallel government, the question is will they settle into the role of a normal democratic opposition or try to press their agenda through more militant resistance.

López Obrador, who lost the July 2 presidential election by 234,000 votes to conservative Felipe Calderón, led a massive protest for seven weeks with followers camped out in the center of Mexico City clogging the heart of the capital to demand a full vote recount.

The protest culminated in a self-styled convention of delegates who packed central Zocalo plaza Saturday night and voted by a show of hands to form a parallel government with a Cabinet and plans to swear in López Obrador as president on Nov. 20.

López Obrador, who championed the rights of the poor during his campaign, said Saturday the parallel government will work on proposals to rewrite Mexico's constitution to guarantee the right to food, work, healthcare, education and housing while overhauling "corrupt" public institutions.

REGIONAL
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DIPLOMATIC MATURITY
Opinion
The Miami Herald
By Juan G. Tokatlian
Sep. 16, 2006

The possibility of a new Latin American political embarrassment is looming around the U.N. headquarters. The struggle between Guatemala and Venezuela for a two-year seat at the Security Council may end up repeating one of the most bizarre and appalling diplomatic experiences in U.N. history.

At the end of the '70s and in the midst of a contentious, global Cold War, Cuba and Colombia competed for a seat at the Security Council. Cuba was, by 1979, the only likely candidate: There was a tacit regional acceptance of its proposed membership on the council. Suddenly, Colombia -- stimulated by the United States -- introduced its unexpected candidacy. After four months of balloting, which meant an unprecedented 154 rounds of futile voting, neither country was able to reach the two-thirds needed to gain access to the U.N. body. Finally, due to the intervention of the secretary general, both parties stepped down and Mexico was elected as the Latin American representative. Washington was able to obstruct Havana's ambition, and Latin America was unable to find a single, consensual alternative.

HEMISPHERIC LEADERS TOLD TO HEAL SPLITS, LOOK AHEAD
The Miami Herald
Sep. 15, 2006

Throughout 2006, Latin American voters have been going to the polls to choose presidents in often-divisive elections.

Now, the presidents have to figure out how to govern their divided nations, spurn populist temptations and bring security and prosperity to their poor, a parade of speakers told The Miami Herald's annual Americas Conference on Thursday.

The message came through loud and clear, from everyone from Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias to an architect of Mexican President-elect Felipe Calderón's victory.

In her keynote speech, Josefina Vásquez Mota, campaign manager for Calderón and now head of his transition team, attempted to smooth over the divisions left from his hair-thin victory over Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has called the vote rigged and refused to accept the results.

"Felipe Calderón is going to be the president of all Mexicans," Vásquez Mota said, adding that Calderón had promised to be the "president of job creation."

CHÁVEZ, IRAN TARGET U.S. OIL 'HEGEMONY'
The Miami Herald
Sep. 19, 2006

SANTOME, Venezuela - (AP) -- Venezuela and Iran are planning to help construct a petroleum refinery in Syria capable of processing 150,000 barrels a day, Venezuela's oil minister announced Monday.

"We're studying an oil refinery in Syria," said Rafael Ramírez, during an official visit to Venezuela by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Venezuela's relations with Iran and Syria have strengthened under President Hugo Chávez, who views the Middle Eastern nations as important allies in his efforts to build what he calls "a multipolar world" no longer dominated by the United States.

Venezuela -- the world's fifth largest oil exporter -- has reduced its refining assets in the United States while expanding operations throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

RELACIONES BILATERALES
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U.S.: ALLOW CUBANS TO VOTE ON RAÚL
The Miami Herald 
Sep. 15, 2006

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is proposing that the Organization of American States help arrange a referendum for Cubans to decide if they want to be ruled by Raúl Castro, U.S. officials say.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez will outline the idea in a speech today at The Miami Herald's Americas Conference being held at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables.

"Let the Cuban people determine their own destiny in a free and fair referendum, in which the OAS could be involved," an aide to Gutierrez said, requesting anonymity in keeping with his department's rules.

Gutierrez, a Cuban American, is expected to cite the example of Chile, which in 1988 held a yes-no referendum on whether Gen. Augusto Pinochet should stay in power. The dictator lost that vote.

Cuba's communist government is considered highly unlikely to accept any such referendum. It has never replied to a request for a referendum on democratic changes pushed by Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá and backed by thousands of signatures from other Cubans.

AN INVESTMENT IN CUBA'S FUTURE
OUR OPINION: OFFER OF MICROLOANS AND IDEAS ENCOURAGES CHANGE
Opinion
The Miami Herald
Sep. 14, 2006

The Cuban-American business leaders of the Cuba Study Group are putting their money where their hopes lie. The group has pledged $10 million as seed capital for a microloan program aimed at entrepreneurs inside of Cuba. That's not all. The nonprofit group proposes other ideas for jump-starting the moribund Cuban economy -- for whenever the Cuban government chooses to change direction.

Constructive approach

The ideas are compelling, as difficult as the obstacles to realizing them will be. Carlos A. Saladrigas, the group's co-chairman, argues that the process of change involves many little steps; the more options offered to the Cuban people, the easier and faster a transition may take place. The goal is to foster an economic-development model that creates and spreads wealth.

U.S. FIRMS REDRAW A CUBA WITHOUT CASTRO
The Miami Herald  
Sep. 14, 2006

While Cuban leader Fidel Castro's recent illness peaked the interest of major U.S. firms, which once had grandiose dreams of investing in a free Cuba, they are not rushing to return to the drawing board of the 1990s, a leading Cuba expert said earlier today.

Speaking at the Miami Herald's annual America's Conference, John Kavulich, senior policy advisor, U.S. Cuba Trade & Economic Council, said even if Castro were to die, life in Cuba would not change drastically thanks to the Cuban government's relationship with Venezuela.

"Venezuela is absolutely the key," Kavulich said during discussion moderated by Miami Herald Chief of Correspondents Juan Tamayo, who formerly covered Cuba. "Financially as long as (Chávez) backs Cuba, Cuba doesn't have to change."

DON'T FALL FOR REGIME'S MANIPULATION OF PUBLIC OPINION
Opinion
The Miami Heralsd
By Otto Reich
Sep. 15, 2006

If the reports of Fidel Castro's serious illness are true and he is close to his end, the Cuban government will try to use every possible trick to stay in power. Americans should not fall for one standard deception: rumors that the U.S. government has begun "secret talks" with the Castro (in this case Raúl) regime.

Like everything related to the Castro regime, official statements on the illness and transfer of power to Raúl cannot be accepted at face value. While they may be genuine, they may also not be. That is not to say that the illness is faked. But until Fidel's doctors release the results of a biopsy, or otherwise prove that he has a malignant tumor, for example, then the illness, as the transfer of power, may prove to be transient. It would not be the first effort by the Cuban government to use Fidel's failing health to create conflict within the Cuban-American community and between it and our government.

FAULT LINES OVER RADIO MARTÍ COVERAGE
OUR OPINION: OUR GOAL IS TO PROMOTE A FREE AND DEMOCRATIC CUBA
Opinion
The Miami Herald
Sep. 15, 2006

The business of publishing a daily newspaper is full of pitfalls, and sometimes unintended consequences. That should be obvious to all who have paid attention to stories in The Miami Herald about journalists who receive pay from the U.S.-government operated Radio and TV Martí. The stories have been controversial and, in some cases, every detail and decision point have been scrutinized to determine a perceived ulterior motive or intent.

We have never wavered

Yet, this discussion is a good and healthy process, the essence of how a free press and free speech work in a democracy. For the record, though, some assertions about this newspaper's positions -- on Cuba and Radio Martí, for example -- are wrong and should be set right.

RAÚL CASTRO SPEAKS OUT AGAINST U.S. AT SUMMIT TALKS
The New York Times
September 16, 2006

MEXICO CITY, Sept. 15 — Raúl Castro, who is standing in as Cuba’s leader while his brother, Fidel, recuperates from surgery, railed at the United States during a summit meeting in Havana of nonaligned nations on Friday, urging them to unite against “unacceptable acts of aggression essentially motivated by insatiable appetite for strategic resources.”

Mr. Castro’s first public speech since taking power in July was just as stridently anti-Washington as those offered by his elder brother. He spoke of the Bush administration’s “irrational pretensions for world dominance” and called “absurd” its aggressive military spending now that the cold war is over.

“With regard to international relations, we are not the decisive force that we could be,” Mr. Castro, 75, told members of the 118-member group of developing nations. “The Non-Aligned Movement now has to wage courageous battles against unilateralism, double standards and the impunity granted to those in power, for a fairer and more equal international order.”

LEADERS STRENGTHEN ALLIANCE AGAINST U.S.
The Miami Herald
Sep. 18, 2006

CUIDAD BOLIVAR, Venezuela - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez, his Venezuelan counterpart, visited a joint petroleum project Monday as they strengthened their alliance against U.S. influence.

The presidents shook hands with oil workers and questioned them on crude exploration at the inauguration of drilling rigs in Venezuela's Orinoco River basin.

"We are joining you so this massive petroleum reserve, the biggest any country has in the world, serves us for the development of our peoples," Chavez said following the ceremony in San Tome, about 225 miles southeast of Caracas.

Chavez and Ahmadinejad, both preparing to travel to New York for this week's U.N. General Assembly, accused Washington of trying to stifle the development of their nations while seeking to dominate international affairs.

"They want to govern the world," said Ahmadinejad, who is backing Venezuela's bid for a U.N. Security Council seat that would give Chavez a platform to battle U.S. efforts at sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

KEEP MEDIA INDEPENDENT OF THE GOVERNMENT
Opinion
The Miami Herald
By Sam Terilli
Sep. 19, 2006

The tempest over the journalists paid by TV and Radio Martí has been brewing for at least week, but the time has come to take a deep breath and smell, if you will, the coffee -- American or cubano, take your choice.

Let's start by defining what this controversy does or does not involve.

•  First, it is not about journalists opposing the Castro regime in Cuba or supporting the cause of a free Cuba. Journalists are entitled to their own opinions. No one is applying a litmus test.

•  Second, The Miami Herald Media Company terminated its relationships with a number of journalists paid by the agencies, and journalism experts have offered their criticism of the journalists. But neither The Miami Herald nor the experts have offered one word of support for Fidel Castro. This is not about Castro, at least not in that sense.

BOLIVIA DRUG FIGHT FAULTED
The Miami Herald
sep. 19, 2006

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said Monday it sees disturbing trends in Bolivia's dealings with efforts to combat illicit drugs. Bolivian officials, meanwhile, defended the government's record.

Concerns about contributions to the illegal drug trade by Bolivia came as the White House released the U.S. government's annual list of major drug-transit or drug-producing countries.

The list remained unchanged from a year ago, with 20 nations cited: Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela.

President Bush sent a report to Congress that also noted that Myanmar and Venezuela, for the second year in a row, were determined to have "failed demonstrably" to meet their obligations under international counternarcotics requirements.

BRAZIL'S LULA POISED TO EARN FOUR MORE YEARS AT THE HELM
The Christian Science Monitor
September 19, 2006

RIO DE JANEIRO – It is a sultry Friday night in Rio de Janeiro, and thousands of Brazil's evangelical Protestants have come to this suburban plaza for a political rally.

The main attraction is Marcelo Crivella, a fervent pastor and candidate for Rio governor. But President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is on stage with him sharing the adulation, and with Brazil's Oct. 1 presidential election fast approaching, Lula looks certain to remain in the spotlight for at least four more years.

Out in the plaza, Lula voters wave flags. Vera Lucia Andrade says she will vote for him because he has helped Brazil's poor. Gilson Amorim says he will vote for him because he has been a good president. And Fatima Gomes will vote for him because she can't remember the names of any other candidates.

Taken together, those reasons explain why Lula appears set to be reelected, in spite of a government that has been widely condemned for institutionalizing corruption and has failing to keep most of its promises to radically change Brazil.

MEXICO PLEDGES TO EXTRADITE DRUG LORDS
The Miami Herald
Sep. 19, 2006

NEW YORK - President Vicente Fox said Tuesday that Mexico is willing to extradite any drug lord in its custody wanted by the United States.

Fox said Mexico currently has 16 "big leaders" of drug gangs in jail along with 75,000 lower level members of various cartels.
"We are fighting hard and attaining very important results," Fox said of Mexico's fight against drug dealers. He was speaking at a news conference in New York where he was attending the United Nations General Assembly.

The U.S. is believed to have requested the extradition of at least three suspected drug kingpins: Benjamin Arellano Felix of the Arellano Felix smuggling syndicate; Osiel Cardenas, reputed head of the Gulf Cartel; and Hector "El Guero" Palma, a reputed leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel.

"We will extradite all of those who have pending matters with U.S. justice," Fox said.

It was the first time Mexico's president had made such a sweeping commitment to send wanted drug lords to face charges in the U.S.

Mexico extradited its first major drug lord - accused kingpin Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix - to the United States over the weekend. Before that, Mexico had often balked at sending drug kingpins, arguing they should face justice in Mexico and refusing to send anyone to the U.S. who would face the death penalty.

EL NUEVO HERALD DISMISSALS PROTESTED
The Miami Herald
Sep. 20, 2006

Some Cuban exiles, upset about the firing of two El Nuevo Herald reporters and a freelancer who received thousands of dollars in U.S. government pay as correspondents for Radio and TV Martí, protested the dismissals Tuesday and launched an Internet campaign.

"We reject the efforts of The Miami Herald to silence our voice in Cuba," Remedios Díaz-Oliver of the Cuban Liberty Council said at a news conference. "These journalists were professional and ethical."

Also Tuesday, the website www.fairplayforcubanamericans.info urged visitors to sign an online petition and download a letter addressed to Gary B. Pruitt, president and chief executive of McClatchy Co., parent company of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald. The letter requests that a panel be established to determine whether the Miami Herald Media Co. should have fired the three journalists.

"Without resorting to a bunker mentality, we, nevertheless, feel that this action is one of the most blatant and direct rejections . . . of our community and of our right to be represented by our own voices in the pages of the newspaper," the petition states.

SEGURIDAD
ver noticia(s)  

JUST WHAT LATIN AMERICA NEEDED -- A NEW ARMS RACE
The Miami Herald
Sep. 17, 2006

When key U.S. and Latin American policy makers met at The Miami Herald's Americas Conference last week, some of them raised eyebrows by raising an old issue they said is coming back -- a regional arms race.

"Latin America has begun a new arms race," Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias told the conference's opening night.

"It is shameful that governments of some of the poorest nations continue to hoard tanks, jeeps and guns to supposedly protect a population languishing in poverty and ignorance."

Arias' statement went against the conventional wisdom in recent years that Latin America is one of the world's regions with the lowest military spending, especially since the return of democracy to most of its countries in the 1980s.

According to the United Nations' World Economic Indicators, Latin America and the Caribbean spent only 1.3 percent of its gross domestic product in military expenditures in 2004, the last year accounted for. By comparison, the Middle East and North Africa spent 3.7 percent of its GDP, South Asia 2.5 percent, Europe and Central Asia 2.3 percent, and Sub-Saharan Africa 1.9 percent, the figures show.

DRUG-TRADE VIOLENCE GRIPS ACAPULCO  
The Christian Science Monitor
September 14, 2006

ACAPULCO, MEXICO – He took office as a charismatic, ballad-singing maverick who promised to contain crime in this coastal resort town.

But during his term, Acapulco, once known as the "Pearl of the Pacific," has seen its reputation - and its mayor, Félix Salgado - battered by the worst drug violence in the town's history. Mr. Salgado has lost 33 pounds in nine months and, when asked what his major accomplishment has been so far, answers deprecatingly: "that I'm alive."

"I've been dealt a very complicated situation, very hard," says Salgado, turning serious. In July he mourned the death of his city's security chief found suffocated in the back of a car.

Salgado's survival during a siege of violence mirrors the impact on Acapulco and beyond, as the drug war between two cartels has spread from the northern ganglands along the US-Mexican border toward the south - both startling, and horrifying, the nation.