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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IMMIGRATION MISSTEP
OUR OPINION: AGENCY SHOULD MAKE AMENDS FOR WORK-PERMIT ERROR
The Miami Herald
Sep. 21, 2006

Mistakes and errors are inevitable, but what matters more is how the problem is rectified. This is the point of a lawsuit involving Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) and hundreds of Cuban refugees who have not been issued work permits within the 90 days required by law.

While CIS apparently has fixed the glitch for people currently applying for permits, many of those who applied earlier still do not have their work documents. Others who received permits late will have only a few months to use them before having to pay another $180 to renew the permit for the next year.

In addition to repairing this glitch, CIS now should ensure that people still waiting for work permits get them promptly. Further, those delayed by the misstep should have their permit renewed for free next time. This is the least CIS should do considering that its mistake for months prevented more than 800 recently arrived Cubans, many struggling to begin new lives, from earning a living.

HELP TODAY'S IMMIGRANTS INTEGRATE: KEEP TOMORROW'S OUT
Opinion
The Christian Science Monitor
September 22, 2006

WASHINGTON – Do you want to get good and steamed up about illegal immigration? See "Border War." Do you want to get a better sense of what needs to be done to secure the homeland? See "Border War." Remarkably, this documentary is coming to a theater, or at least a screen, near you.

But first, a reminder about the stakes of the border war. Homeland security is an international concern; ask any Israeli who supports building a wall for self-protection.

Or ask John Howard, the prime minister of Australia, who also is taking stern measures to protect his people from foreign onslaught. Mr. Howard knows that hundreds of millions of Muslims, pouring out of nearby countries such as Indonesia, could overwhelm his lightly populated island nation.

In an opinion piece published earlier this month, Howard declared that "Australia has been greatly enriched by immigration, and most people who have come to this nation have happily integrated with the community." Note the "and" in the previous sentence, which connects "immigration" and "happily integrated." Which is to say, only those who integrate can enrich their new country. Those who don't integrate are a source not only of impoverishment but also of endangerment.

WANTED: EFFECTIVE, COMPREHENSIVE REFORM
OUR OPINION: REJECT PUNITIVE BILLS, POLITICAL GAMES
The Miami Herald
Sep. 24, 2006

Remember the anti-immigrant Sensenbrenner bill that inspired hundreds of thousands of Hispanics to protest nationwide last spring? It's back -- only slightly modified and broken into several measures just approved by the House. These bills contain dangerous provisions that would give unchecked power to immigration and law-enforcement authorities and would invite civil-rights abuses. Equally worrisome, their passage would undermine efforts to effectively reform our broken immigration system.

Risking voter backlash

The resurgence of these measures only confirms that the bipartisan push for comprehensive reforms, led by the Senate, is dead this year. What's left is a misguided move by Republican House leaders trying to maintain their majority. Their goal is to gain political capital in November elections by passing punitive immigration laws.

THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT
BORDER FENCE BILL A GRAND POLITICAL DECEPTION
The Miami Herald
Sep. 24, 2006

White House spin doctors are painting it differently, but it's becoming increasingly clear that President Bush's Republican Party, forced to choose between courting Hispanic voters or the xenophobic right in the race for the Nov. 7 congressional elections, has opted for the latter.

Last week, the Republican leadership in the Senate decided to shun Bush's previous proposal for a comprehensive immigration reform that was to contemplate both border controls and a path to citizenship for undocumented workers. Instead, the Senate leadership decided to put to a vote a much narrower bill that mirrors an insane proposal previously approved by the House to erect a 700-mile border fence along the border with Mexico.

The move came amid polls showing that Bush's party may lose one or both chambers of Congress in the November elections. A New York Times/CBS poll last week showed that only 25 percent of Americans approve of the GOP-controlled Congress.

CARTEL FORCES POSE THREAT ON U.S.-MEXICAN BORDER
The Miami Herald
Sep. 26, 2006

The Zetas have again become entrenched in Nuevo Laredo, and they practically control the movement of people through an intricate web of spies, checkpoints and skillful use of technology, provoking an extraordinary cross-border human exodus, U.S. and Mexican authorities say.

Last year, U.S. and Mexican authorities reported that the number of Zetas was falling rapidly, the result of both government pressure and ongoing warfare with rival cartels. But the shadowy group of elite former military officers, soldiers and others has now grown to more than 500 nationwide, with hundreds more in a support network throughout the country, U.S. officials said. Some of those networks are deepening their ties to Texas cities, including Houston and Dallas, with the help of Texas gang members.

14-YEAR-OLD STUDENT FLEES TO CUBA
The Miami Herald
Sep. 27, 2006

A 14-year-old West Miami-Dade boy ran away from home last week, boarded a plane and took a startling international flight alone -- to Havana, his father said Tuesday.

Alfredo Diaz, a 10th-grader at G. Holmes Braddock Senior High, cleared an American Airlines security check and boarded a Miami-to-Nassau flight on Thursday, even though the carrier requires escorts for anyone under 15.

"I can't believe my son was able to go through all that security and no one stopped him or asked him about being so young and traveling alone," said the father, who is also named Alfredo Diaz. "My son is just under five feet tall and he's a young-looking 14."

Alfredo may have been caught up in some typical teenage angst. He had met a special girl during a visit to Cuba this summer, his father said. And in school, he was accused of cheating to try to win the class presidency.
"I can't tell you how frustrating this is; I still can't really believe this has happened," the elder Diaz said.

POLÍTICA INTERNA
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QUÉ TIENE LULA QUE PERDER
The Washington Post
 September 22, 2006

Es casi una certeza que el Presidente brasileño Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva será reelegido en octubre. Si su segundo mandato no se asegura en la primera ronda de votación, deberá ocurrir semanas después en una segunda vuelta.

La popularidad de Lula se debe en gran medida al optimismo acerca de la economía brasileña. De cada cinco brasileños por lo menos cuatro tienen la esperanza de que el 2007 sea un año bueno o muy bueno, según una encuesta emitida la semana pasada por la firma encuestadora Ibope. Ochenta y dos por ciento expresaron confianza en que su ingreso personal aumentará o por lo menos continuará igual en los próximos seis meses y más de la mitad aprobó la manera en que Lula está combatiendo la inflación -- lo que significa mucho para un país que luchó por años con la hiperinflación.

Incluso aquellos que hace cuatro años temieron que Lula fuera a deshacer muchas de las reformas de mercado de su predecesor están cautelosamente optimistas. El gobierno de Lula sorprendió a muchos al mantener una política fiscal austera y un superávit presupuestario y al cancelar la totalidad de sus obligaciones pendientes con el Fondo Monetario Internacional. Esto es lo que Lisa M. Schineller, principal analista de Brasil para la firma calificadora Standard & Poor's, describe como una "convergencia de los principales partidos políticos a favor de una política macroeconómica en general prudente".

DAYS BEFORE BRAZIL VOTES, NEW SCANDAL FOR LEADER
The New York Times
September 22, 2006

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 21 — Just when President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva thought he was past the worst of the scandals that have plagued his government for the past 18 months, a new, especially damaging one has surfaced. And the timing could not be worse for him: barely a week before Brazil’s 126 million voters cast their ballots in a presidential election.

The focus of the new scandal is a dossier that officials in Mr. da Silva’s party and campaign had hoped would incriminate his opponent in the 2002 election, former Minister of Health José Serra, in an overbilling scheme involving the sale of ambulances. Mr. Serra is now a candidate for governor of São Paulo, the country’s most populous state, and is running far ahead of one of Mr. da Silva’s allies.

RAÚL CASTRO SAYS BROTHER IS IMPROVING
The Miami Herald
Sep. 24, 2006

HAVANA - Cuba's acting president Raúl Castro said his older brother Fidel is walking more frequently and his health is steadily improving after intestinal surgery, state-run media reported Saturday.

He also said the elder Castro is paying close attention to Cuba's current battle against dengue fever, the Communist Party daily newspaper Granma reported in a front-page article about the younger Castro's participation in a meeting of provincial political leaders Friday.

"At the mention [of Fidel], he also took the opportunity to say that he is getting better and walking more and more every day," the newspaper said.

ARGENTINE LAND FIGHT DIVIDES ENVIRONMENTALISTS, RIGHTS ADVOCATES
The Washington Post
September 24, 2006

CONCEPCIÓN, Argentina -- From a flat patch of tree-studded savannah, the gaze stretches for miles: across a small pond where a marsh deer stops to drink, and over swampy wetlands where herons gingerly high-step.

Above it all, a small airplane drones. At the controls is Douglas Tompkins, an American who owns everything underneath him, paid for from the millions he earned as the founder of the North Face and Esprit clothing lines.

"It's an amazing piece of land," Tompkins said shortly after landing. "Extremely rich with biological diversity."

Now, many Argentine officials and social activists want to confiscate the property he says he bought to create an ecological preserve. They think that he and other wealthy foreigners who have bought enormous swaths of the Argentine and Chilean countryside are trying to wrest control of a continent under the guise of environmental preservation.

AS BRAZIL PREPARES TO VOTE, SCANDAL’S TAINT SEEMS TO FADE
The New York Times
September 25, 2006
Correction Appended: For the Record

CARUARU, Brazil — A year ago, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was on the ropes, his support and legitimacy sapped by the biggest corruption scandal in Brazil’s modern history. But with Brazilians scheduled to vote Oct. 1, he now seems likely to cruise to a landslide re-election victory anyway.

The turnaround is a result of several factors, political analysts say, like generous patronage and social programs that have buoyed the president’s standing. Simple voter weariness with hearing about corruption day after day has also clearly played a part.

But at least as important is the bedrock of support for Mr. da Silva, 60, the country’s first elected left-wing president, among the nation’s poor, like those here in the northeast. He was born in the region into a peasant family, one of eight children.

BOLIVIAN LEADERS FIND THEIR PROMISES ARE HARD TO KEEP
The York Times
September 26, 2006

LA PAZ, Bolivia, Sept. 24 — Vice President Álvaro García Linera could not have been more explicit in a fiery speech last week calling on Bolivia’s indigenous groups to defend the government “with your chest, with your hand, with your Mauser.”

Mr. García Linera, an urbane sociologist normally known for his moderating influence, promptly apologized and said his comments had been misinterpreted. But his remarks underlined the heightening tension that is once again threatening to tip this Andean nation into turmoil.

Many Bolivians had hoped that the election last year of Evo Morales as president would put an end to the instability marked by seven presidents in six years and angry protests by the country’s indigenous majority, who had been sidelined from power since Spanish rule began in the 16th century.

BRAZIL LAUNCHES PROPERTY RIGHTS PROGRAM
The Miami Herald
Sep. 26, 2006

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Rio will spend $1 million to map two sprawling shantytowns as the first step toward granting land titles to residents who otherwise have no property rights in the sprawling slums, officials said.

Minister of Cities Marcio Fortes Almeida announced Monday that the government would survey the Rocinha and Vidigal shantytowns, which drape two mountainsides overlooking some of the city's most famous beaches.

Without title, residents cannot finance home repairs, get credit or mail, or sell their property. They can also be evicted without legal recourse - a real fear in a city where entire slums - known as favelas - have been removed to make way for commercial developments.

Since 2003, 272,000 families nationwide have received titles to property in favelas and another 450,000 families are in the process of getting them, Almeida said.

MORALES' U.N. ADDRESS GIVES HIS PEOPLE A VOICE
The Miami Herald
Sep. 26, 2006

NEW YORK - Bolivian President Evo Morales, an Aymara indigenous leader, stood before delegates representing 192 United Nations member states a week ago and snapped the dreariness of the day's proceedings with a moment of drama.
After thanking the "fellow brother and sister presidents" gathered for the 61st U.N. General Assembly, Morales drew on the oratory skills honed from his days as cocalero union leader to remind listeners of the injustices committed against his people.

Raising his index finger as if to underscore a point, he said: "I have arrived to repair the historic damage, the damage caused over 500 years."

Then, as if it were a small trophy, he held up a small coca leaf, the banned plant from which cocaine is made but Andean indigenous people use for legitimate purposes.

PRISON RAID KILLS 7 IN GUATEMALA
The Miami Herald
Sep. 26, 2006

FRAIJANES, Guatemala - More than 3,000 police and soldiers stormed a prison housing many of Guatemala's most-feared criminals on Monday, touching off a fierce battle in which seven inmates died.

Prisoners responded to the raid by lobbing at least six grenades and opening fire with automatic rifles smuggled inside the Pavón prison. They also attacked authorities with homemade bombs and knives.

Prison authorities originally reported that eight prisoners had been shot dead, but investigators later said seven died while an eighth was treated for gunshot wounds.

Police and the military needed hours to take control of the facility, which they say has been run for years by the convicted murderers, kidnappers, street-gang members and drug and weapons smugglers inside.

U.N. EXPERT CITES CUBAN CENSORSHIP
The Miami Herald
Sep. 27, 2006

GENEVA - Cuba has failed to improve its human rights record, a U.N. expert said Tuesday, citing censorship, the imprisonment of political activists, and restrictions on rights campaigners as particular concerns.

"The situation doesn't seem today to be anything that could be described as improved, and I'm putting it mildly," Christine Chanet told the 47-nation U.N. Human Rights Council.

Cuba immediately slammed the report as libelous, and accused Chanet of double standards, selectivity and political manipulation.

Chanet, a French lawyer who reports to the council on a mandate carried over from the discontinued Human Rights Commission, said she had been hampered in her work by Cuban authorities' refusal to cooperate with her.

'DIRTY WAR' WITNESS DISAPPEARS AFTER TRIAL
The Miami Herald
Sep. 27, 2006

On a cold winter morning last June, Jorge Julio López sat on the witness bench in a courtroom in La Plata, 35 miles south of Buenos Aires, and pointed to a former high-ranking police officer as the man who 30 years ago had ordered him tortured and had executed a fellow political prisoner.

López's testimony helped lead to the Sept. 19 sentence of life in prison for Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz in connection with the disappearance of six people during Argentina's "Dirty War" against political dissent. Etchecolatz was second in command of police in Buenos Aires province, where a third of Argentina's "disappeared" are believed to have been killed in the 1970s.

CHALLENGER LAGS IN POLLS TO UNSEAT LULA DA SILVA
The Miami Herald
Sep. 27, 2006

RIO DE JANEIRO - With just days left before Brazilians choose another government, presidential candidate Geraldo Alckmin is crisscrossing this giant South American country in an uphill bid to win several million more votes.

He has until Sunday to force what's been a lackluster race into a runoff with incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has always led in the polls. The president, known as Lula, needs to win more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a second round.

It's a tough spot for Alckmin, the former governor of the country's biggest state, after his Brazilian Social Democratic Party thought it could take advantage of political scandals involving Lula da Silva's government and retake the presidency.

Alckmin has failed to ignite voters' enthusiasm so far, and many are predicting that Lula da Silva will win reelection outright.

MEXICAN PRESIDENT-ELECT DECRIES VIOLENCE
The Miami Herald
Sep. 27, 2006

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's president-elect says murder and mayhem fueled by drug smuggling have overwhelmed the governments of the nation's capital and key states across the country.

Felipe Calderon said the wave of bloodshed is ravaging state governments controlled by each of Mexico's three major parties. He singled out Mexico City, the northern states of Sinaloa and Tamaulipas, the southern state of Guerrero and his home state of Michoacan, as being especially hard-hit.

"It seems to me that drug violence has overwhelmed the governments," Calderon said Monday in a radio interview.
Calderon called for legislative and law enforcement efforts to curb drug violence across party lines "in a very coordinated way."

Calderon takes office Dec. 1.

REGIONAL
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FIERY CHÁVEZ AIMS FOR A GLOBAL ROLE
The Washington Post
September 23, 2006

BOGOTA, Colombia, Sept. 22 -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's blistering attack on President Bush at the United Nations this week marked a striking crescendo in a campaign to project Venezuela as a country with the global reach to counter American initiatives.

Swimming in wealth from an oil bonanza, Venezuela has bestowed billions of dollars in aid and preferential deals across Latin America, burnishing Chávez's image as heir apparent to President Fidel Castro of Cuba, his mentor and close friend.

But in recent months, Chávez has been traveling the world -- not just seeking the economic deals his internationalist government has always wanted, but also pressing for influence in affairs far from Latin America, political analysts say. His immediate goal is to obtain enough backing to secure a two-year spot on the 15-member U.N. Security Council, a campaign the Bush administration is vigorously opposing by backing tiny Guatemala for the seat. But his long-term goal appears to be more far-reaching.

CASTRO RIPS U.S. OVER VENEZUELA
The Miami Herald
Sep. 25, 2006

WASHINGTON - Cuban leader Fidel Castro issued his first statement on international affairs since he ceded power eight weeks ago on a subject close to his heart: Venezuela.

The statement, issued late Saturday and reported by The Associated Press, said the Cuban leader reacted "with indignation" upon hearing that Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro was briefly detained at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on his way back from the United Nations General Assembly.

Castro "extends his most vigorous protest of this vulgar provocation, which could take place again against any member of the Movement" of Nonaligned Nations, that Cuba heads, the statement said.

CHÁVEZ: CASTRO IS FEELING BETTER, THANKS TO GOD
The Miami Herald
Sep. 23, 2006

NEW YORK - (AP) -- President Hugo Chávez reiterated that his close friend and ally Fidel Castro is improving after intestinal surgery and that he is even wearing his olive green uniform again.

Chávez offered warm words for the 80-year-old Cuban leader during his visit to New York this week, saying in a speech Thursday at a Harlem church, that Castro has enjoyed divine help in his recuperation.

"Fidel is continuing to recover, thanks to God," Chávez said.

NEWS ANALYSIS
VOICES OF DISCONTENT: ANTI-U.S. LEADERS SEEK ALLIES
The New York Times
September 23, 2006

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 22 — The podium of the General Assembly has long been a platform for the world’s strongmen to prove their anti-American credentials.

Fidel Castro did it in 1960, as did Idi Amin in 1975. And this week Hugo Ch ávez, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Omar Hassan al-Bashir — of Venezuela, Iran and Sudan, respectively — took up the mantle left by their predecessors, presenting themselves as Davids of the third world seeking to slay the American Goliath.

American officials were quick to dismiss the speeches as chest thumping, noting that all three men were from countries with vast oil reserves and other resources, well able to thumb their noses at Washington but hardly representative of the poorer countries that rely on American aid.

CHILDREN IN THE HANDS OF GOD
The Miami Herald
Sep. 23, 2006

Simonette, Haiti - In A tiny island nation with thousands of orphans, the young are a symbol of tragedy and hope.

On a balmy summer night, as a group of armed thugs paddled a boat toward this fishing village, 26 orphans slept through an ordeal that would make their already tragic lives more difficult.

In the morning, as the sun heated the sand, one of the children noticed a shattered window at the home of the director of the orphanage, a man they regard as a father and fondly call "Tytoo."

"There was a rock through the window. We called out for him twice, but he didn't respond," recalled Lorca Masenat, 19, who has lived at the orphanage for five years. "When we went inside the house . . . Tytoo was gone."

Ed Hughes, a Canadian who runs the Tytoo Gardens orphanage, had been abducted by kidnappers operating from across the water in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. For more than a month, children as young as 1 would have to rely on each other -- children caring for children in a country with the highest rate of orphans in the Western Hemisphere.

CHILDREN OF THE AMERICAS
The Miami Herald 23-09-06
Sep. 23, 2006

When news reports out of Haiti this summer revealed that the director of an orphanage had been kidnapped, they prompted the question: What happened to the children?

On a trip to the troubled Caribbean nation, The Miami Herald visited the orphanage in the village of Simonette and discovered that the children of the Tytoo Gardens orphanage had been left alone for more than a month. They did not go hungry, thanks to another nearby orphanage, which ensured the delivery of food. But with no adult supervision, Tytoo Gardens was in disarray, even as the children did their best to take care of each other.

Although Haiti has the highest rate of orphans in the Western Hemisphere, it is not alone in failing to meet the needs of the region's most vulnerable population: its children.

RELACIONES BILATERALES
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CHÁVEZ BASHES BUSH ON U.N. STAGE
The Miami Herald
Sep. 21, 2006

NEW YORK - Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez seized the world stage on Wednesday to launch a blistering attack on President Bush and decry Washington's "hegemonistic" intentions.

"The devil was here yesterday," Chávez told the delegates of 192 nations gathered for the 61st U.N. General Assembly. "It still smells of sulfur around here," he added, drawing chuckles from the startled diplomats.

Later, he repeated the sulfur comment as he made the sign of the cross.

Chávez, casting himself as a Third World leader determined to stop U.S. hegemony, vowed to confront "the empire" and called for far-reaching reforms to make the United Nations more democratic.

Asked about Chávez's speech, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the remarks were "not becoming" of a head of state.

CHILE SEEKS U.S. FILES ON 1976 ASSASSINATION
The New York Times
September 21, 2006

SANTIAGO, Chile — Thirty years after a Chilean-organized hit squad assassinated former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and an American colleague on the streets of Washington, investigators here are drawing closer to implicating this country’s former dictator, Gen. Augusto Pinochet, in the killings.

But they say their efforts are being hindered by a parallel investigation in the United States that has been stalled since President Bush took office and that is withholding potentially important documents.

Mr. Letelier, one of the most visible leaders of the opposition to the Pinochet dictatorship, and Ronni Karpen Moffitt were killed on Sept. 21, 1976, when a bomb planted under his car exploded as they were riding to work.

IRAN WHO? VENEZUELA TAKES THE LEAD IN A BATTLE OF ANTI-U.S. SOUND BITES
The New York Times
September 21, 2006

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 20 — In the end, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran lost the much-hyped war of words waged against President Bush at the General Assembly. A stealth opponent swooped in and took the prize.

Speaking on Wednesday from the same lectern Mr. Bush had occupied the day before, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela announced, to gasps and even giggles: “The devil came here yesterday, right here.

“It smells of sulfur still today, this table that I am now standing in front of,” he said.

Just hours before, Mr. Ahmadinejad took issue with the great Satan, too. But what a difference. Where Mr. Chávez was Khrushchevian, waving around books and stopping just short of shoe-banging, Mr. Ahmadinejad was flowery, almost Socratic in his description of behavior that only the devil would condone.

VENEZUELAN LEADER DEMONIZES BUSH
The Washington Post
September 21, 2006

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 20 -- President Hugo Chavez, the combative Venezuelan leader, denounced President Bush in a U.N. speech Wednesday as a racist, imperialist "devil" who has devoted six years in office to military aggression and the oppression of the world's poorest people.

Speaking from the lectern where Bush spoke a day earlier, Chavez said he could still smell the sulfur -- a reference to the scent of Satan. Even by U.N. standards, where the United States is frequently criticized as the world's superpower, Chavez's remarks were exceptionally inflammatory. They were also received with a warm round of applause.

Chavez's address followed a series of strident speeches by U.S. adversaries, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Together, they represent an emboldened alliance of oil-rich states that defy U.S. demands to change their policies on a range of issues, including the development of nuclear technology and the role of U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur.

TV MARTÍ DIRECTOR: ETHICS DEBATE IS NEEDED
The Miami Herald
Sep. 22, 2006

CRITICAL OF MIAMI HERALD: Pedro Roig, who oversees TV and Radio Marti, says his agency's goal is to promote open debate on the island about Cuba's future.

Office of Cuba Broadcasting Director Pedro Roig, who oversees TV and Radio Martí, said Thursday that he runs his operation ethically and wants to start a national debate on whether journalists who work for news companies and also freelance for the government have a conflict of interest.

Referring to The Miami Herald's Sept. 8 report that named several local journalists who had also been receiving payments from the U.S. government for their work at TV and Radio Martí, Roig said his entity has nothing to hide because its very goal is to promote open debate on the island about Cuba's future.

"I believe in the right that all human beings have to criticize their government without fear of repression," he said. "In the end there's one message, for Cubans to understand that in a free society, different problems and themes are discussed, passionately, but at the end of the day, no one is imprisoned, and no one is going to get an act of repudiation done against them. . . . We have the right to make mistakes, like The Herald has a right to make a mistake."

A SCHOLAR IS ALIVE, ACTUALLY, AND HUNGRY FOR DEBATE
The New York Times
September 22, 2006

At a news conference after his spirited address to the United Nations on Wednesday, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela expressed one regret: not having met that icon of the American left, the linguist Noam Chomsky, before his death.

Yesterday, a call to Mr. Chomsky ’s house found him very much alive. In fact, he was struggling through “10,000 e-mails” he had received since the remarks by Mr. Chávez, who urged Americans to read one of Mr. Chomsky’s books instead of watching Superman and Batman movies, which he said “make people stupid.”

At 77, Mr. Chomsky has joined the exclusive club of luminaries, like the actor Abe Vigoda and Mark Twain, who were reported dead before their time, only to contradict the reports by continuing to breathe.

“I continue to work and write,” he said, speaking from his house in Lexington, Mass.

PUSH TO FREE CONVICTED CUBAN SPIES REACHES D.C.
The Miami Herald   
Sep. 22, 2006

WASHINGTON - A quest to see five Cuban men convicted in 2001 of spying on the United States freed from prison made it to the nation's capital Thursday, with advocates arguing the men were in this country to fight terrorism directed at Cuba.

"These five men had come to the [United States] . . . to infiltrate these terrorist right-wing groups that have threatened us in Miami for decades," said Andrés Gómez, of the Antonio Maceo Brigade, at a news conference.

He spoke in advance of a planned protest march Saturday, where supporters of the so-called Cuban Five plan to push for their release -- and for the United States to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, whom they accused of fostering anti-Cuba terrorism.

AIDE DETAINED AT AIRPORT EN ROUTE TO VENEZUELA
The New York Times
September 24, 2006

Venezuela’s foreign minister was detained at John F. Kennedy Airport yesterday while trying to fly home after the United Nations General Assembly meeting, prompting an apology from the State Department.

The minister, Nicolas Maduro, was returning to Caracas, Venezuela, when he was prevented from boarding his plane, said Joanne Moore, a duty officer at the State Department.

“The State Department regrets this incident. The United States government apologized to Foreign Minister Maduro and the Venezuelan government,” Gonzo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement.

BOLIVIA REACHES FOR A SLICE OF THE COAST THAT GOT AWAY
The New York Times
September 24, 2006

LA PAZ, Bolivia, Sept. 23 — From his penthouse office in a tightly guarded nine-story building here, where architects designed the watchtowers to look like small lighthouses, Vice Adm. José Alba Arnez oversees a military force with more than 5,000 sailors, cadets and officers.

The New York Times
Bolivia lost its coast after an 1879 war. It hopes to get back a bit of it.

His waiting room has oil paintings depicting men-of-war in choppy waters, an old wooden ship’s wheel made by John Hastie & Company of Scotland and waiters clad in bow ties who serve coca tea on fine china.

All that is lacking for Admiral Alba, the commander general of the Bolivian Navy, is a sea.

“We’ve been in this unfortunate condition since the late 19th century,” he said in an interview, gesturing toward a map on the wall from 1859 showing Bolivia with almost twice its current territory and a swath of Pacific coastline.

Today’s maps show that coast as part of Chile, thanks to the 1879 conflict known as the War of the Pacific, or the Saltpeter War, which helped cement Chile as a regional power and, some here say, put Bolivia on the path to becoming South America’s poorest nation.

U.S. DETENTION OF VENEZUELAN AT J.F.K. AIRPORT RAISES TENSIONS
The New York Times
September 25, 2006

CARACAS, Venezuela, Sept. 24 — With political relations between the United States and Venezuela already very tense, the brief detention of the Venezuelan foreign minister over the weekend in New York worsened matters here on Sunday.

Demonstrators allied with President Hugo Chávez protested the treatment of Nicolás Maduro, the foreign minister, who was detained Saturday for about an hour at Kennedy International Airport while trying to fly home after the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York last week.

Ismael García, secretary general of the pro-government party Podemos, told the local news media that if Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had been subjected to 20 percent of what Mr. Maduro went through, Venezuela would be under siege by the United States Marines.

Even political opponents of Mr. Chávez criticized the detention of Mr. Maduro, which drew a rare apology from the State Department.

VENEZUELA TO ISSUE DIPLOMATIC PROTEST
The Miami Herald
Sep. 26, 2006

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday that Venezuela will summon the U.S. ambassador to issue a diplomatic protest because the foreign minister was temporarily detained by authorities at a New York airport. Chavez warned Venezuela could take similar measures if it happens again.

Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro says authorities at John F. Kennedy International Airport attempted to frisk and handcuff him Saturday as he tried to catch a flight after attending the U.N. General Assembly session.

"We're going to put out a protest note, and the U.S. ambassador in Venezuela will be called," Chavez told reporters. "And in that protest note, it says 'If that happens again, we would be obligated to give at least equal treatment to whomever.'"

BOLTON DERIDES PROTEST BY VENEZUELAN MINISTER
The Miami Herald
Sep. 26, 2006

UNITED NATIONS - U.S. Ambassador John Bolton on Monday derided the Venezuelan foreign minister's protest over being detained at a New York airport as "street theater" and propaganda.

Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro claimed officials tried to frisk and handcuff him at John F. Kennedy International Airport as he left the annual U.N. General Assembly session Saturday. Screeners grew suspicious when Maduro used cash to purchase a one-way ticket to Miami shortly before the flight was to leave.

The incident capped a visit that further exacerbated ill will between the United States and Venezuela. During a speech to the General Assembly, President Hugo Chávez called President Bush "the devil" and a "spokesman of imperialism."

The U.S. State Department has apologized for Maduro's treatment, but Bolton was less conciliatory.

ECUADOR FRONT-RUNNER: CHÁVEZ IS A FRIEND
The Miami Herald
Sep. 26, 2006

QUITO - A tough-talking leftist economist and presidential candidate, who has rattled foreign investors by leading polls ahead of next month's election, said Monday he is proud to call Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez his friend.

"I am honored by the friendship. I don't see what the problem is," Rafael Correa said of Chávez, Latin America's leading anti-U.S. crusader, who last week called President Bush "the devil" at the U.N.

'If I am a friend of Chávez, `What a mistake!' If I were a friend of George Bush, they would have elected me man of the year," Correa, 43, told foreign correspondents.

But Correa denied accusations from conservative political rivals that Chávez is financing his presidential run in a field of 13 candidates ahead of the Oct. 15 election.

HUGO CHÁVEZ IS NOT GOING AWAY SOON
Opinion
The Christian Science Monitor
September 26, 2006

OXFORD, OHIO – Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's recent proclamations that President Bush is the devil and that he could still smell the sulfur from Mr. Bush's visit to the UN the day before have largely been covered by the media as laughable and absurd.

But if you found yourself guffawing or rolling your eyes - perhaps the way that many rolled their eyes at Bush's "axis of evil" speech - you'd be missing the underlying strategy of Latin America's most powerful and problematic leader. What's more, you're probably not who Mr. Chávez is talking to, anyway.

Beyond the glittering generalities and name calling is an expertly crafted appeal to Latin America's masses. For many Latin Americans, to see Hugo Chávez step up to the podium of the United Nations and berate the leader of the United States in front of, quite literally, the whole world was more gratifying than winning the World Cup during Mardi Gras.

CHÁVEZ OIL RECIPIENTS HAVING 2ND THOUGHTS
The Miami Herald
Sep. 27, 2006

BOSTON - For 42 years, Agnes Crosson has lived in the same three-bedroom house in Quincy, Mass., where she is often visited by her 14 grandchildren. Heating her high-ceiling home has become increasingly expensive for the former social worker.

Enter Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

Last winter, Crosson enrolled in a heating oil program backed by Venezuelan government-controlled Citgo Petroleum to fill her 250-gallon heating oil tank. She saved $200 on the purchase.

Despite the savings, Crosson is having second thoughts about reenrolling this year after reading about Chávez's speech last week at the U.N. General Assembly. Chávez called President Bush "the devil" and U.S. policies "genocidal."

"I'm not a Bush person, believe me," said the trim, 75-year-old widow, "but I really resented that."

Many beneficiaries of the Citgo discounted heating oil program in Boston -- where it was launched last year -- were unaware of the long-running verbal feud between Caracas and Washington until the Chávez U.N. remarks.

CARTEL LEADERS PLEAD GUILTY
The Miami Herald
Sep. 27, 2006

The Colombian kingpins who revolutionized the global cocaine trade appeared as mere mortals in Miami federal court on Tuesday in pleading guilty to smuggling-conspiracy charges and apologizing for their life of crime.

Gilberto and Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela stood in dark businesses suits before U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno as he sentenced the Cali cartel founders to 30 years in prison and ordered them to forfeit $2.1 billion in assets from their once-powerful empire.

"I am willingly submitting myself to American justice," Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, 67, who was shackled at the ankles, told the judge.

Said Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela, 63, who was also cuffed: "I want to apologize to my family and ask for forgiveness for any suffering I may have caused them. . . . I'm doing this fully convinced it will bring something better."

THE WAR ON DRUGS: AMBUSHED IN JAMUNDÍ
The Christian Science Monitor
September 27, 2006

JAMUNDÍ, COLOMBIA – Arcesio Morales Buitrago is in charge of the keys at Mi Casita. A soft-spoken man diagnosed as schizophrenic, he is the doyen of the patients at the leafy psychiatric home.

On May 22, right after the Monday afternoon bingo game, three cars skidded to a halt on the road that dead ends at Mi Casita. Ten men in blue jeans and police vests and one man in a ski mask piled out.

"Judicial police! Open up!" they shouted.

Mr. Morales, as the one responsible for the keys, hurried down the path to comply.

As he reached the green iron gate, however, Sergio Berrio, the administrator of the home, leaned out from the balcony above and screeched: "Stay back! Don't open!"

Morales froze. That's when the shooting started: a torrent of bullets and grenades rained down on the police from the nearby forest. "The war came here," Morales recalls incredulously, "...all the way here."

What followed in the next 45 minutes was the calculated massacre of one of Colombia's best counternarcotics police teams - all hand-picked and trained by the US. None survived.

A CAREER SEASONED WITH CIGAR SMOKE AND REVOLUTION
The New York Times
September 27, 2006

ESTELÍ, Nicaragua, Sept. 22 — José Orlando Padrón, who believes that cigar smoke brings him luck, has puffed his way through some challenging situations over the years.

As a young man he smoked his way from Cuba, where his family grew tobacco in the prime Pinar del Río region, to a life in exile in Miami. Most of the land where his grandfather began growing tobacco in the late 1800’s, and where his father continued the tradition, was nationalized by Fidel Castro’s government shortly after the revolution that brought it to power in 1959.

In Miami, Mr. Padrón smoked through a series of odd jobs, raising enough money to start a small cigar company of his own. Padrón Cigars, in the city’s Little Havana, began in 1964 with a single employee rolling cigars. Back then Mr. Padrón would sell the day’s production for about 30 cents apiece to fellow Cuban exiles longing for the flavorful smokes from back home.

U.S. PUSHES ANTI-CASTRO TV, BUT IS ANYONE WATCHING?
The New York Times
September 27, 2006

MIAMI, Sept. 26 — Soon after Fidel Castro announced his mysterious illness in July, the Bush administration stepped up its anti-Castro television broadcasts to Cuba with a new $10 million system.

For the last two months, a twin-engine plane has beamed the signal of the American broadcast, called TV Martí, toward the island from over the Straits of Florida for four hours a day, six days a week, up from four hours of transmission from an Air Force plane on Saturdays. Because the plane flies at 20,000 feet, administration officials say, the Cuban government cannot jam the signal as easily as in the past, when a blimp tethered 10,000 feet over the Florida Keys did the transmitting.

But in interviews in the past two weeks, many Cubans said they still saw just snowy interference where the TV Martí broadcasts should be. About a dozen people in Havana said they still had never glimpsed the station even after the expanded airborne broadcasts began, raising questions about the usefulness of the $10 million expenditure.