WHEN CASTRO DIES, THE PARTY'S ON
The Miami Herald
Jan. 29, 2007
One day, very possibly one day soon, ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro will die -- and a nascent committee sponsored by the city of Miami wants to be ready.
So it's planning a party.
The event, still in the very early planning stage, would be held in Little Havana's Orange Bowl stadium -- and might include commemorative T-shirts, a catchy slogan and bands that will make your hips shake.
The stadium is a bittersweet landmark in South Florida's Cuban-American experience. After the 1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco, more than 35,000 exiles gathered there to hear President John F. Kennedy promise a free Cuba.
Decades later, the bowl served as a camp for Mariel refugees.
WHAT WILL CASTRO'S DEATH BRING TO CUBA?
Opinion
The Miami Herald
Jan. 24, 2007
By Nina Khrushcheva*
The death watch for Fidel Castro is something that only Gabriel García Márquez could get right. The author's novel Autumn of the Patriarch captures perfectly the moral squalor, political paralysis and savage ennui that enshrouds a society awaiting the death of a long-term dictator. Comandante Fidel's departure from power, of course, will be solely a matter of biology, and the few pictures of him that have emerged since he took ill last year clearly show biology at work.
When the end comes, change in Cuba could be as vast as any that greeted the end of the last century's great dictators. Stalin, Franco, Tito, Mao: All were mostly alike in their means and methods, but how they passed from the scene was very different, and these differences can shape societies for years and decades to come.
ECUADOR MINISTER IS KILLED
The New York Times
January 25, 2007
QUITO, Ecuador, Jan. 24 (AP) — Ecuador’s new defense minister, Guadalupe Larriva, and one of her children were killed Wednesday when their helicopter collided with another near a military base in southern Ecuador, officials said.
The crash, near Manta, 150 miles southeast of Quito, the capital, also killed two pilots, though it was unclear whether both were on the minister’s helicopter, a government spokeswoman, Monica Chuji, said.
No other details were available. Ms. Larriva, 50, took office with President Rafael Correa nine days ago.
REACH A COMPROMISE
Opinion
The Miami Herald
Jan. 25, 2007
By Mark l. Schneider*
LA PAZ -- Bolivia faces a serious threat that recent civil unrest, which already has cost two lives and injured dozens, could spiral into widespread violence even as President Evo Morales, the nation's first indigenous president, this month celebrates the first anniversary of his inauguration.
Sitting in the central plaza of this two-mile-high capital city recently, after Morales had urged his followers to surround the Congress to force recalcitrant senators to support a land-reform bill, I marveled at the changes occurring in this Andean nation.
After some 500 years of political exclusion, a 70 percent indigenous majority -- largely Aymara and Quechua peoples -- had used the ballot box to catapult Morales and his Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) Party into the presidential palace. Morales had campaigned on revolutionary steps -- for Bolivia -- to end ethnic and class inequalities. After three years of instability and stalemate, he won on the first-round with support from some voters even beyond his indigenous and cocalero base.
VENEZUELA'S MOTOTAXIS PUSH COMMUTING TO THE EDGE
The Miami Herald
Jan. 25, 2007
CARACAS - The motorcycle is headed for an impossibly narrow crack between two diesel-spewing buses, and to the untrained eyes it seems it's not going to make it.
But moments later it has emerged on the other side unscathed, the passenger's right knee only lightly grazing one of the buses.
Caracas, Venezuela's teeming, dissonant capital, is at its most authentic from the back of a ``mototaxi.''
Weaving through traffic on two wheels can be hair-raising, but also exhilarating -- offering a portrait of the quirks, charms and thrills of living in Caracas.
William Espinoza, a mototaxi driver, began riding motorcycles without a license at age 11.
SALVADORAN’S DEATH IN IRAQ LEAVES HIS MOTHER FUMING
The New York Times
January 26, 2007
SAN SALVADOR, Jan. 21 — From her hillside home in western El Salvador, Herminia Ramos sobbed and sobbed the other day as she recalled her fallen son.
In some ways, Ms. Ramos is like the thousands of other Salvadoran mothers who lost children in the 12-year civil war here that ended in 1992. But Ms. Ramos’ grief is fresher than the rest, the result of a more recent conflict.
El Salvador is the only country in Latin America with troops in Iraq, a point of pride for President Antonio Saca, who is a gung-ho supporter of the Bush administration, but extremely unpopular among the war-weary population.
News Analysis
MEXICO’S LATEST WAR ON DRUG GANGS IS OFF TO A RAPID START
The New York Times
January 27, 2007
MEXICO CITY, Jan. 25 — If any image can sum up President Felipe Calderón’s first eight weeks in office, it would be the sight of him dressed in military fatigues addressing troops he had sent into the state of Michoacán to corral narcotics traffickers.
It has been a hundred years since a Mexican president appeared in military garb, and the choice seemed no accident to most people here. Even if the fatigues seemed a poor fit for the bespectacled, bookish head of state, the new president was sending a clear message when he donned them on Jan. 3. He was declaring war on drug trafficking.
Since he took office on Dec. 1, Mr. Calderón has moved against the drug cartels with a speed that has amazed officials in Mexico and the United States alike. He has sent thousands of federal police officers and soldiers to six states, flooding cities like Tijuana, Acapulco and Morelia with heavily armed men.
THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT
WHEN LOOKING AT NEWS EVENTS, REMEMBER THE 'HUMAN FACTOR'
The Miami Herald
Jan. 28, 2007
The news that former Panamanian strongman Manuel A. Noriega will be released from his Miami prison Sept. 9 reminded me of the most important journalistic lesson I learned while covering his downfall in the late 1980s: When analyzing political events, never forget the human factor.
Indeed, when we talk about world events -- whether it's the war in Iraq or Venezuela's narcissist-Leninist leader -- we in the media tend to assume that everything is motivated by ideological clashes. But, very often, events are triggered by religious revelations, personal hatreds or business clashes that have little to do with politics. It's the human factor.
The events that led to Noriega's political demise and the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama are a case in point. They were triggered by religious-mystical revelations by the then No. 2 official in Panama's Defense Forces, Col. Roberto Díaz Herrera. At the time, he was a devout follower of Sai Baba, an Indian guru who produced magical ashes by circling his index finger in the air.
CHÁVEZ: PROPERTY WON'T BE SEIZED
The Miami Herald
Jan. 29, 2007
CARACAS - President Hugo Chávez denied Sunday that his left-leaning government would seize private property -- such as second homes or expensive cars -- from the wealthy and called on Venezuelans not to fear his accelerated push toward socialism.
''Nobody should allow themselves to be imbued with fear. If anybody should be scared, we should be scared of capitalism, which destroys society, people and the planet,'' said Chávez, speaking during his weekly television and radio program Hello President.
But Chávez also warned political opponents that ''nothing would stop'' the progress of what he calls ''21st-century socialism,'' saying a majority of Venezuelans want to gradually move away from capitalism.
Many wealthy and middle-class Venezuelans opposed to Chávez fear the former paratroop commander could seize second homes, yachts or other assets as he advances his Bolivarian Revolution -- a political movement named after South American independence hero Simón Bolívar.
FORMER SALVADORAN FOES SHARE DOUBTS ON WAR
The Washington Post
January 29, 2007
SAN MIGUEL, El Salvador -- José Wilfredo Salgado says he collected baby skulls as trophies in the 1980s, when he fought as a government soldier in El Salvador's civil war. They worked well as candleholders, he recalls, and better as good-luck charms.
In the most barbaric chapters of a conflict that cost more than 75,000 lives, he enthusiastically embraced the scorched-earth tactics of his army bosses, even massacres of children, the elderly, the sick -- entire villages.
It was all in the name of beating back communism, Salgado, now the mayor of San Miguel, said he remembers being told.
But as El Salvador commemorates the 15th anniversary of the war's end this month, Salgado is haunted by doubts about what he saw, what he did and even why he fought. A 12-year U.S.-backed war that was defined at the time as a battle over communism is now seen by former government soldiers such as Salgado, and by former guerrillas, as less a conflict about ideology and more a battle over poverty and basic human rights.
CHÁVEZ LIMITS PRIVATE MEDIA WHILE BOLSTERING PUBLIC MEDIA
The Miami Herald
Jan. 29, 2007
CARACAS - On a typical night on Venezolana de Televisión, the government's principal TV channel, viewers can catch interviews of a Cabinet minister and a pro-government community leader as well as a late-night talkshow host taking rhetorical jabs at the opposition. In between, there's a constant barrage of pro-government ads, one of which proclaims VTV is ``the channel of all Venezuelans.''
For many Venezuelans, VTV, as it's known, is the preferred alternative to private channels they consider poisoned by political and business interests whose sole aim is to topple President Hugo Chávez. For others, VTV is propaganda, more befitting of the old Soviet Union than modern Latin America. For all, VTV may be the future.
Since 2002, Chávez's government has steadily expanded its reach into the country's media, all the while curbing private outlets via stricter laws on programming, tightening controls on government-issued licenses and even brokering backroom deals with media moguls to silence them.
IN BOLIVIA, SPEAKING UP FOR NATIVE LANGUAGES
The Washington Post
January 30, 2007
LA PAZ, Bolivia -- Andrea Mamani stood in front of her students the other day and started the afternoon lesson by pointing to her head.
The 22 students, aspiring public heath-care professionals in white lab coats, responded in ragged unison: "P'iqi."
She pointed to her arm. "Ampara," they answered.
Mamani was teaching them Aymara, an indigenous language spoken mainly in the rural highlands of Bolivia and Peru. The students in her class, most of them urbanites, had scant previous knowledge of the language. But they are pioneers in a training program that President Evo Morales -- the country's first indigenous president -- hopes will become standard for all government employees.
ALLEGED ARGENTINE ABDUCTION RAISES QUESTIONS
The Miami Herald
Jan. 30, 2007
BUENOS AIRES - A kidnapping or a political stunt?
The question is reverberating here in the mysterious case of Luis Gerez, a witness in a human rights trial who went missing last month and reappeared two days later, shirtless and in shock, saying he had been kidnapped, tied up, beaten and burned with cigarettes.
The case has raised troubling questions in a nation still torn by memories of a brutal military dictatorship that ended almost a quarter of a century ago, leaving as many as 30,000 people dead or ``disappeared.''
Many had hoped that kidnappings as a means of political coercion were a thing of the past.
In a nation inured to political skulduggery, denial and disinformation, the disappearance and reemergence of Gerez has spawned sinister theories. Most center on the actions of President Néstor Kirchner, who has made punishing past military abusers a focus of his administration, and who intervened directly in the case.
MEXICO STEPS UP FIGHT AGAINST DRUG KINGPINS
OUR OPINION: EXTRADITION SENDS SIGNAL OF SERIOUSNESS IN WAR ON DRUGS
Opinion
The Miami Herald
Jan. 30, 2007
The opportunity to celebrate a victory in the unending war against drugs doesn't come along very often, which is why Mexico's extradition of 15 drug traffickers to the United States recently is a reason to crow. U.S. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales rightly hailed this action as unprecedented ``in scope and importance.''
Energy, effectiveness
In office a scant eight weeks, President Felipe Calderón has sent the strongest possible signal that Mexico at long last is serious about confronting the drug cartels that have unleashed so much violence in parts of the country. The move is likely to give Mr. Calderón a measure of credibility that Mexico badly needs if it wants to win both domestic support and international cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking.
BRUTAL DICTATOR WILL REAP WHAT HE SOWS
OUR OPINION: CASTRO'S DEATH NO TIME FOR OFFICIAL CELEBRATION
Opinion
The Miami Herald
Jan. 31, 2007
South Florida can expect the death of Fidel Castro to send masses of people into Miami streets. It also is a good idea for local government to plan for safety and crowd control. People who have suffered at the tyrant's hands naturally will be relieved, some will even be pleased by news of Castro's passing. They may celebrate privately or publicly, and with good reason. Castro's death will create hope of a better future for Cuba.
So it is reassuring that that city of Miami insisted yesterday that it is not organizing any event that celebrates Castro's death. If anything, the dictator's demise will present an opportunity to remind a worldwide audience how much pain he inflicted on Cuba's people and why his regime must be buried, too.
Commissioner Tomás Regalado initially proposed having an event after Castro's death at the Orange Bowl, in Little Havana. He told the Miami Herald's Editorial Board that if bands were invited, they would play, for example, protest and patriotic songs -- not dance music. Commissioner Regalado said that the city's official position is that this would be an ''event'' -- not a party. Yet he also declared that, ``The city has a moral responsibility to help people celebrate.''
RAÚL CASTRO'S INNER CIRCLE HINTS AT THE FUTURE CUBA
The Miami Herald
Jan. 31, 2007
The latest leader to emerge in Cuba is a pediatrician and economic reformer who's known for biking to work.
Vice President Carlos Lage, a 55-year-old who once served on a medical mission to Ethiopia, became the nation's economic czar in the early 1990s. And now Lage has become one of the few Cuban politicians to stand out as a rising confidant of interim leader Raúl Castro.
Lage's rise -- and the perceived slide of hard-liners close to Fidel Castro, such as Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque -- has marked the six months since Castro ceded power to his brother following surgery for a still undisclosed ailment.
As old-time communist stalwarts and young up-and-comers close ranks in Havana to consolidate power in a not quite post-Fidel Cuba, experts agree that Lage's heightened profile is a sign of a Cuba to come: one under Raúl, where an economic overhaul could be welcomed.
Once on the edges of the Cuban limelight, Lage has represented Cuba at most international gatherings, from presidential summits to inaugurations, and recently headed a top-level delegation to Caracas to sign a string of agreements with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Cuba's top ally and financial backer.
WEAK CASTRO IN NEW VIDEO
The MiamiHerald
Jan. 31, 2007
Cuban state television on Tuesday broadcast a brief new video of ailing leader Fidel Castro. He looked heavier than in his last video, issued three months ago, but remained weak, mumbling and short of breath.
Cuban TV said the video was shot during a previously unannounced visit by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who in the closing moments said he was speaking at 3 p.m. Monday after meeting Castro for two hours.
The images were the first of Castro, 80, since late October, and only the third video of him made public since July 31, when he ceded power to his brother Raúl after ''complicated'' surgery for intestinal bleeding. Today is exactly six months after that announcement.
Havana has labeled Castro's medical status a ''state secret,'' but published reports have said he suffered complications and infections following the surgery that left the man who ruled Cuba for 47 years with a ``very grave prognosis.''
Monday's video was apparently designed to show that he was improving, though the images left many questions unanswered. Only about three minutes of the six-minute video included Castro, while the rest focused on Chávez's arrival, his comments and some still photos of his meeting with Fidel.
|
![[ space ]](home/relleno.gif){kind=small}
![[ space ]](home/img_sub_flacso.gif)