PARAMILITARY LEADER SUBMITS TO JUSTICE
The Washington Post
December 20, 2006
MEDELLIN, Colombia, Dec. 19 -- Some came to the Palace of Justice on Tuesday with huge color
photographs of their loved ones strapped around their necks. Others wore T-shirts that read "Justice" and "Truth."
Maria Eugenia Cobaleda, whose two older brothers were kidnapped in 1998 and never seen again, summed up the
prevailing mood.
"We're waiting to have them tell us the real truth, no matter how much it hurts," she said.
They all came to press for answers from Salvatore Mancuso, the first commander from
Colombia's paramilitary organization to submit himself to justice.
The strapping commander, known as "Blondie" to his friends but as a mass murderer to human rights groups,
sat in a hearing room Tuesday, rattling off key events in his life while leaving out his complicity in the
more unpleasant chapters, according to victims who heard the testimony. The proceedings were closed to the
public.
MEXICO’S FEDERAL FORCES PULL OUT OF OAXACA
The New York Times
December 17, 2006
OAXACA, Mexico, Dec. 16 (Reuters) — The federal riot police ended their weeks-long
occupation of the Mexican tourist city Oaxaca’s center on Saturday, having weakened a protest movement trying
to oust a state governor.
Violent clashes between the masked activists and the riot police, and a string of shootings
of protesters, made Oaxaca one of President Felipe Calderón’s top problems as he began his term in office.
'But the arrest of several protest leaders has weakened the movement, and the frequency
and size of demonstrations has fallen.
The federal police boarded trucks and rolled out of the city before dawn, handing security to the state police. The
federal agents were headed for a nearby air base where they would remain until further notice, a state spokeswoman
said.
LIFE AS CASTRO'S DAUGHTER-IN-LAW
The Miami Herald
Dec. 17, 2006
BARCELONA, Spain - Idalmis Menéndez can't help but smile when she recalls meeting
her first husband.
Visiting an aunt on the outskirts of Havana, she was startled when a young man appeared
in the patio, smelling of fresh dough and tomato sauce. ''He told me he was a pizza maker,'' she giggles.
``And that he adored my hair. It was love at first sight.''
Menéndez quickly learned his name was Alex, but it took awhile before she found out he'd
been joking about the pizza. And a couple of weeks passed before she discovered his real identity.
''We were in his car,'' Menéndez recalls, 'and he said, `I'm Fidel Castro's son.' ''
POLICY ON MORNING-AFTER PILL UPSETS CHILE
The New York Times
December 17, 2006
SANTIAGO, Chile, Dec. 16 — President Michelle Bachelet of Chile is a feminist and physician
who used to practice pediatric medicine at public clinics in poor neighborhoods. So it was hardly surprising
that her government recently liberalized contraception policy by making the so-called morning-after pill
available free at state-run hospitals.
But since Chile is perhaps the most socially conservative country in South America, the measure
has generated complaints and challenges not only on the right, but even from some of her allies. Opponents of the
policy are furious because girls as young as 14 are being allowed to have access to the emergency contraception
without any requirement that their parents be notified.
CASTRO TO RECOVER BUT NOT RETURN, CUBANS SAY
The New York Times
December 18, 2006
Cuban officials told lawmakers from the United States House of Representatives visiting
Havana yesterday that President Fidel Castro did not have cancer or any terminal illness and that he would
be making a public appearance shortly, according to Rep. William Delahunt, one of the legislators.
But Mr. Delahunt, Democrat of Massachusetts, said he concluded from the delegation’s
discussions with senior Cuban officials and diplomats that Mr. Castro would not return to running Cuba
on a day-to-day basis.
Mr. Delahunt said he understood that government administration had been definitively passed
to Mr. Castro’s brother, Raúl. “The Cubans were emphatic, and I believe them, that Fidel does not have cancer,
and that the illness he does have is not terminal,” Mr. Delahunt said in a telephone interview last night
after he returned to Washington.
He said Cuban officials assured the delegation that Mr. Castro was planning to re-emerge
shortly. Mr. Castro, 80, who has controlled Cuba since he took power after a revolution in 1959, has not been
seen in public since July 26, and Cuba has guarded the details of his medical condition as a state secret.
Cuban officials announced that he underwent intestinal surgery in late July. He did not appear at celebrations
of his 80th birthday earlier this month, prompting a new rush of rumors that he had died.
PARAMILITARY TIES IMPLICATE COLOMBIA'S POLITICAL ELITE
The Washington Post
December 19, 2006
BOGOTA, Colombia, Dec. 18 -- In what has been heralded as a decisive moment in Colombia's
shadowy, decades-long conflict, a powerful paramilitary commander is to appear in a special court Tuesday
to account for crimes that include massacres and assassinations. Salvatore Mancuso's testimony will be the
first by a top death-squad leader in a Colombian courtroom, and it is being touted by the administration
of President Álvaro Uribe as evidence that the wheels of justice are turning.
Rather than rejoicing, however, the Uribe government has found itself in the awkward position
of being implicated in the wrongdoing. Over the past several weeks, Colombians have been gripped by revelations
of ties between paramilitary fighters and several congressmen close to the president, as well as some officials
in his administration. The scandal now threatens to unravel his authority.
FAKE MONEY PROMPTS ISSUANCE OF NEW BILLS IN CUBA
The Miami Herald
Dec. 19, 2006
In line at a Havana currency exchange house recently, 62-year-old Carlos suddenly saw
the customer in front of him dash out at top speed as he heard the teller shout, ``Stop, chico! This is a
fake!''
''The guy took off running,'' said Carlos, a newspaper vendor whose last name was
withheld by The Miami Herald for fear of reprisals. ``The guards went after him and probably wherever
he got the counterfeits from.
MEXICAN SOLDIERS, POLICE DESTROY 1,795 POT FIELDS
The Miami Herald
Dec. 19, 2006
MEXICO CITY - Soldiers and federal police sent to restore order in Michoacán state have
discovered 1,795 marijuana fields in the past week and seized or destroyed marijuana worth about $8.2 million,
security officials said Monday.
Officials estimate the raids cost the drug cartels as much as $626 million, counting not
only the value of the destroyed plants but also the drugs that could have been produced with opium poppies
and marijuana seeds seized in the raids, the army said.
Federal authorities on Sunday announced they had captured suspected drug cartel boss Elías
Valencia, the most significant arrest since President Felipe Calderón sent 7,000 military troops and federal
police last week to the western state terrorized by drug gangs that have carried out beheadings and other
brutal killings.
STUDENTS PROTEST VOTE FOR RECTOR OF BUENOS AIRES UNIVERSITY
The Miami Herald
Dec. 19, 2006
BUENOS AIRES - (AP) -- Leftist student demonstrators toppled metal security barriers
and pelted riot police with rocks Monday as Argentina's leading public university chose a new rector,
capping eight months of sporadic protests.
The nation's Congress allowed the assembly to meet inside its chambers as a security
measure because protesters broke up six earlier attempts to vote at other sites.
Extreme leftist students had repeatedly protested against a series of conservative candidates
for the job of leading Argentina's top university, frustrating several earlier attempts at a quorum.
BOLIVIA SET TO EXPAND LEGAL COCA GROWING
The Miami Herald
Dec. 20, 2006
LA PAZ, Bolivia - President Evo Morales says his government is ready to expand the
allowed production of coca, the basis of cocaine as well as of some legal products.
Morales told a gathering of coca growers late Monday that he had ''no problem'' with a
proposal to decree an expansion of legal coca production to 49,400 acres from the current 29,700.
The issue has caused friction with U.S. officials who have campaigned to wipe out coca
growing as part of their battle against international drug trafficking.
Morales, who rose to prominence as a coca growers' representative, has pledged to fight cocaine
trafficking while trying to expand the market for legal uses of coca, such as traditional herbal
teas. Morales said expanded production would be used for commercial projects such as coca tea bags.
It was not clear whether Morales could expand the coca area by decree or if he would have to ask for legislative
approval.
EX-PARAMILITARY LEADER TESTIFIES IN COLOMBIA
The Miami Herald
Dec. 20, 2006
BOGOTA - A former right-wing paramilitary leader accused of human rights violations
and trafficking drugs to the United States gave emotional testimony to a special court on Tuesday in what
many hope will start a historic process of reconciliation among Colombians but others fear could be only
a show.
He spoke in a tightly controlled session to prosecutors and a judge in the
northeastern city of Medellín, while victims and representatives of victims' organizations watched
on closed-circuit TV.
Those watching said Mancuso shed tears as he testified that he and his family had suffered
at the hands of the rebels, which led him to take up arms.
The sessions with Mancuso are expected to continue for several days.
HAVEN FOR THE LONG-LIVED IS PUT TO THE TEST
The Miami Herald
Dec. 20, 2006
VILCABAMBA, Ecuador - Interrupted during his morning walk, Manuel Picoita, 102, stopped
to answer the question every visitor to this remote corner of the Andes asks: How do he and other residents
live so long?
''I get along with my neighbors,'' Picoita said with a smile. ``There is tranquillity and
solidarity among us.''
For Josefa Ocampo, 104, who lives with her son up the road a bit from Picoita, the secret is drinking a glass
of goat's milk every morning, sometimes supplemented with a dose of her first morning urine. She says it keeps
her stomach settled and skin clear.
Aurora Maza, now half-blind and confined mostly to a chair, said working the fields until she
was 96 kept her fit. ''Then I fell and hurt myself and had to stop,'' the 102-year-old said.
PERU LEADER TOSSES IN SALAD AS A USE FOR COCA
The Miami Herald
Dec. 20, 2006
LIMA - (AP) -- Peruvian President Alán García on Tuesday suggested an unorthodox use for
the coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine: Why not toss it in a salad?
''I insist that it can be consumed directly and elegantly in salad,'' García told foreign
correspondents at the Government Palace. ``It has good nutritional value.''
García's comments put him in the company of leftist presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia and
Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, who have publicly promoted mixing the high-calcium, vitamin-rich leaf into everything
from toothpaste to soft drinks.
Coca has for centuries been considered a sacred medicinal and ceremonial plant in Andean culture, and García
said it should not be vilified as useful solely for producing the illegal narcotic.
García said Gaston Acurio, one of Peru's best known chefs, recently served several coca-based dishes for an
event at the Government Palace.
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