Jueves 31 de Mayo 2007. Año II, No. SETENTA Y DOS

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 correspondientes a la semana del 25 al 31 de mayo 2007 han sido clasificadas bajo las categorías de:

COMERCIO
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GETTING TO A COLOMBIA TRADE DEAL
The New Cork Times
May 29, 2007

Free trade agreements with Peru and Panama now seem headed toward Congressional approval, after the Bush administration agreed to incorporate the basic labor standards long insisted upon by House Democrats. But a separate trade pact with Colombia rightly remains in legislative limbo over a much starker labor problem. Colombia leads the world in the killing of labor activists.

Under pressure from Congress, President Álvaro Uribe’s government has finally begun acknowledging the problem. But it has yet to demonstrate that it means to take effective steps to protect endangered workers and punish those who terrorize them. While the number of killings has declined somewhat over the past few years, it is still unacceptably high. Last year, an average of six union activists were murdered per month. And until now, far too few of these crimes have been energetically prosecuted. Of the 2,100 labor murders recorded since 1991, there have been convictions in only 37 cases.

Before Congress approves the Colombia trade agreement, the Uribe government must expand its investigative efforts, improve its conviction rate and send a clear message that this form of terrorism will no longer be tolerated.

U.S. LAWMAKERS IN CUBA FOR LOOK AT TRADE OPPORTUNITIES
The Miami Herald
May. 29, 2007

HAVANA -- Five U.S. lawmakers made an unannounced visit to Havana on Monday to explore agricultural trade opportunities at a gathering officials hope will lead to contracts to sell up to $150 million in American goods to Cuba.

The U.S. delegation, headed by Connecticut Democrat Rosa De Lauro, plans to meet with at least one top Cuban official before returning to the United States, said Sarah Stephens, director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas, which opposes the U.S. embargo toward Cuba and helped organize the trip.

''We are a diverse group geographically and in our politics toward Cuba,'' DeLauro said. ``But we view this as an opportunity to learn, to create dialogue about issues of mutual concern.''

Also in Cuba were Democratic Reps. Marion Berry of Arkansas and Bob Etheridge of North Carolina, as well as Republican lawmakers Rodney Alexander of Louisiana and Jack Kingston of Georgia. All were making their first trips to the island, except Berry, who was here in 2000.

DeLauro, Berry and Etheridge have all supported legislation to ease U.S. trade restrictions toward Cuba in the past, while Kingston has supported the embargo.

MIGRACIÓN
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THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT
MIGRANT PLAN STACKS DECK AGAINST LATINS
The Miami Herald
May 24, 2007

Here's some little-noticed potential fallout of the immigration reform package being debated in the U.S. Congress: Its merit-based admissions criteria may favor Asian immigrants over Latin Americans.

Under the bipartisan immigration overhaul bill, foreigners seeking legal status in the United States would be selected through a point system based on their levels of education, proficiency in English and occupation. Which means that we would roll out a red carpet for Indian engineers, while making it harder for Mexican gardeners to achieve the American dream. Until now, the immigration system has been largely based on family-reunification requests and employers' sponsorships. But, by introducing a point system that would make it easier for well-educated, English-speaking foreigners to become permanent immigrants, the new admissions process would smack of racial and intellectual engineering.

It would also hurt Latin American economies -- creating even greater immigration pressures in the future -- and may lead to a shortage of low-skilled workers in the United States.

GRAFT MARS THE RECRUITMENT OF MEXICAN GUEST WORKERS
The New York Times
May 24, 2007

TAMPAMOLÓN CORONA, Mexico — Cástulo Benavides, a union organizer, came to this forgotten mountain town to tell its men how to get legal jobs in the tobacco fields of North Carolina. .

But this year he introduced them to a change in a longstanding practice: the men will not have to pay anyone to get those jobs.

“That’s something that we won with the union,” Mr. Benavides explained to the workers in the sweltering municipal auditorium here. “We are stepping on some people’s toes, and we’re doing it hard.”

The response, if that is what it is, has been brutal. In April, Mr. Benavides’s co-worker Santiago Rafael Cruz was bound and beaten to death at the union’s office in Monterrey, in northern Mexico.

IMMIGRATION AGREEMENT A MOVE FORWARD, BUT HOW FAR?
The Washington Post
May 25, 2007

WASHINGTON -- There is no shortage of critics of the bipartisan immigration agreement now being debated in the Senate. I refuse to join those who show no willingness to compromise. Even with its flaws, the agreement is a commendable step toward fixing a system of how people can come to live and work in the United States. .

Yet as Congress works to reshape immigration with the future of the economy in mind, it would be useful for lawmakers to consider the broader impact of immigrants who not only do jobs that no American wants, but who also create businesses that no American creates.

As it stands now, the Senate proposal would shift future immigration from a system promoting family reunification to one that would favor those with more education and skills. It would attract the "best and brightest" from around the world but grant only temporary stays to low-skilled, uneducated workers -- and no chance for them to make the United States their home.

THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT
IMMIGRATION BILL COULD SPARK BRAIN DRAIN
The Miami Herald
May. 27, 2007

. The massive immigration reform bill being debated in Congress would make it easier for foreign doctors, engineers and other professionals to become permanent U.S. residents. The bad news is that it will also worsen the brain drain from the developing world.

Under the White House-backed bipartisan immigration bill, which could be approved by the Senate in early June, most of the 12 million undocumented workers in the United States would be considered for permanent residency. But the highly educated ones would enjoy a head start.

The bill establishes a merit-based evaluation system, under which immigrants seeking permanent residency would be judged according to their score on a 100-point scale. Immigrants with advanced degrees who speak English would get by far the most points.

While foreign medical doctors, scientists and other professionals with post-graduate degrees would automatically earn 28 points, immigrants without high school diplomas would get only five points. In addition, English-speaking foreigners would automatically earn 15 points, while those who pass a basic English test would get only six points

MONTERREY, Mexico -- Standing in the baking sun outside the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, hundreds of Mexicans wait anxiously for temporary work visas. But even before they were fingerprinted and interviewed for the permit, many had already paid recruiters thousands of dollars in hopes of easing the way.

Supplying the U.S. guestworker program is a complex and sometimes criminal network of foreign recruiters who extort money from poor migrants and then keep them on the job by forcing them into debt or threatening their families back home.

Employers also are often at the recruiters' mercy, forced to accept workers who could be desperately in debt or simply wrong for the job.

And when their brief glimpse of the American dream becomes a nightmare, some legal guest workers simply disappear, melting into the growing U.S. population of illegal immigrants.

Miguel and Gerardo Gomez window-shopped in Little Havana dressed exactly the same -- Cuban identical twins separated by 14 years of exile and reunited a little more than a week ago.

Their casual jaunt at Flagler boutiques Thursday framed the best and worst that Cubans have to face under U.S. immigration policy. Their unique immigration status, defined by the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act but punctuated by family separation and yet an easy path to citizenship, can give Cuban Americans a different perspective on the issue.

It took 14 years for Miguel Gomez, 63, to see his twin, Gerardo. Like other immigrants, Cubans who make it to America usually must wait years to bring family members.

''I don't understand this country,'' Miguel Gomez said. ``This is a country of immigrants, yet they hunt down immigrants and kick them out of here like that.''

His twin, still awed by the American abundance surrounding him, said he would stay in this country and never return to Cuba. It's a right he has as a Cuban who touches U.S. soil regardless of how he arrived -- legally through a U.S. immigration lottery system that sets aside 20,000 visas a year or illegally, smuggled in by sea.

MONTERREY, Mexico -- Standing in the baking sun outside the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, hundreds of Mexicans waited anxiously for temporary work visas. But even before they were fingerprinted and interviewed for the permit, many had already paid recruiters thousands of dollars in hopes of easing the way.

Supplying the U.S. guest worker program is a complex and sometimes criminal network of foreign recruiters who extort money from poor migrants and then keep them on the job by forcing them into debt or threatening their families back home.

Employers also are often at the recruiters' mercy, forced to accept workers who could be desperately in debt or simply wrong for the job.

And when their brief glimpse of the American dream becomes a nightmare, some legal guest workers simply disappear, melting into the growing U.S. population of illegal immigrants.

''Everyone has the same complaint. Everyone you see here is in debt,'' said Gilberto Escalante, a 41-year-old fisherman who swept his arm past a crowd of migrant hopefuls waiting for visas outside the consulate in Monterrey. ``But there aren't any other options. The company calls the recruiter direct, and the recruiter has all the power.''

SALCAJA, Guatemala -- Working and going to school have become optional in this highland Guatemalan town, thanks to a flood of U.S. dollars sent home by migrants living in the United States.

The family-run mills that produce brightly colored, hand-woven traditional fabrics have fallen quiet as their potential work force - mostly young men - hang out at the town's pool halls or video game salons, living off remittances and waiting to make their own journeys north.

"Kids have easy money, and the only thing they know how to do is spend it on video games," complained Salcaja Mayor Miguel Ovalle. "In this town, school attendance has fallen in part because many go to the U.S., and also because those who stay don't want to go to school."

Some 48,000 Guatemalans left between 2005-2006, almost all to the U.S., according to the Geneva-based International Immigration Organization, which also found that more than 1 million Guatemalans between the ages of 10 and 20 years old were getting U.S. remittances last year.

The immigration deal that the Senate produced recently is far from perfect, and its critics, left and right, make many valid points. But much of the criticism misses the forest for the trees. Left out of the debate: the historic scope and significance of the deal -- its ambition to deliver an immigration system that grapples with globalization and the choices it poses for America.

As usual, those yelling ''amnesty'' are the loudest voices. But they are increasingly out of sync with the public on immigration. Poll after poll in the past year shows 60 to 85 percent of voters in favor of an overhaul that would allow illegal immigrants to earn their way to citizenship by meeting certain requirements -- generally far less stringent requirements than those in the Senate compromise, which includes a $5,000 fine, at least a 13-year wait and a trip back to the immigrant's country of origin.

More striking still, even many voters who consider earned citizenship ''amnesty'' so badly want the immigration problem solved that they no longer care about the label.

POLÍTICA INTERNA
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CASTRO, IN FIRST DETAILS OF HEALTH CRISIS, SAYS HE IS BACK ON SOLID FOOD
The New York Times
May 24, 2007

HAVANA, May 23 (Reuters) — Fidel Castro said Wednesday that he was eating enough solid food to recover from several intestinal operations that had not been successful at first.

In his first detailed account of his health crisis since handing over power as Cuba’s leader 10 months ago, Mr. Castro said he had spent months being fed intravenously. “It wasn’t just one operation, but various. Initially there was no success and this led to a prolonged recuperation,” Mr. Castro said in an article distributed by the Cuban government by e-mail.

“For many months I depended on IVs and catheters through which I received an important part of my nourishment,” he wrote. “Today I receive orally everything my recovery requires.”

Mr. Castro, 80, has not appeared in public since emergency surgery forced him to relinquish power temporarily on July 31 to his brother Raul for the first time since his 1959 revolution.

He is thought to have suffered from diverticulitis or inflamed bulging of the large intestine.

RISING CENSORSHIP AMONG WORLD'S OIL POWERS
The Christian Science Monitor
May 24, 2007

MEXICO CITY - More than two-thirds of the Venezuelan population approve of President Hugo Chávez as a visionary leader for Latin America's poor.

But on Radio Caracas Television (RCTV), a different portrait emerges. In the daily morning show "The Interview," the Venezuelan leader is ridiculed as "that guy" who should be "thrown out" before he becomes a dictator.

Now, after more than 50 years on the air, Mr. Chávez is pulling the plug on RCTV. The government won't renew its broadcast license, which expires Sunday.

To Chávez supporters, closing the station rids the nation of a source of lies and political manipulation. But the move is also generating massive street protests and worldwide claims of censorship. For Chávez critics, it represents a move toward authoritarianism they say is playing out across the globe. Democratically elected leaders – particularly "petroleum populists" in Venezuela, Russia, and Iran – attack dissent by targeting independent media and civil society groups, say analysts.

The crackdowns are spurred by fears of Western governments or outside groups meddling in domestic politics or undermining security. They span countries rich and poor. But several years of high oil prices are particularly emboldening the leaders in some countries.

MEXICO CRITICIZED FOR OAXACA UNREST
The Miami Herald
May. 24, 2007

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's National Human Rights Commission blamed both authorities and protesters Thursday for "excesses" during a months of unrest last year in Oaxaca, and urged the government to investigate its finding that federal police tortured detainees.

In its final report on the unrest in the southern colonial city, the independent governmental commission found that 12 people were killed in the conflict, mostly protesters shot by gunmen. The report also slammed the federal government for not intervening sooner after state authorities were overwhelmed.

What began as a teachers' strike in May 2006 quickly turned into a broader protest in which a coalition of leftist groups occupied the city center for nearly five months to demand the ouster of the Oaxaca state governor.

Shortly after the shooting death of Bradley Roland Will, a 36-year-old journalist-activist from New York who was killed while filming a clash between demonstrators and gunmen, then-President Vicente Fox sent federal troops to evict protesters from the city center.

POSSIBLE AZTEC OFFERINGS FOUND IN MEXICO
The Miami Herald
May. 25, 2007

MEXICO CITY -- Archaeologists diving into a lake in the crater of a snowcapped volcano found wooden scepters shaped like lightning bolts that match 500-year-old descriptions by Spanish priests and conquerors writing about offerings to the Aztec rain god.

The lightning bolts - along with cones of copal incense and obsidian knives - were found during scuba-diving expeditions in one of the twin lakes of the extinct Nevado de Toluca volcano, at more than 13,800 feet above sea level.

Scientists must still conduct tests to determine the age of the findings, but the writings after the Spanish conquest in 1521 have led them to believe the offerings were left in the frigid lake west of Mexico City more than 500 years ago.

Lightning bolt scepters "were used by Aztec priests when they were doing rites associated with the god Tlaloc," said Johan Reinhard, an anthropologist and explorer-in-residence for National Geographic Society who took part in more dives Thursday at the Lake of the Moon. "We think it is pretty clear that the Aztecs considered this one of the more important places of Tlaloc."

VENEZUELANS PROTEST CHAVEZ'S TV MOVE
The Miami Herald
May. 26, 2007

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Tens of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets Saturday chanting "Freedom, Freedom!" to protest President Hugo Chavez's decision not to renew the broadcast license of the country's most-watched TV station, an outlet for the opposition.

Police lined a Caracas avenue while the protesters paraded past, some holding signs reading "No to silence," while others placed tape over their mouths.

Radio Caracas Television, the sole opposition-aligned TV station with nationwide reach, is due to go off the air at midnight Sunday. Protesters say that by not renewing RCTV's license, Chavez is attempting to silence critics of his leftist government.

REPORT: BRAZIL SENATE HEAD TOOK
The Miami Herald
May. 26, 2007

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- The leader of Brazil's senate accepted payoffs from a leading construction company, a major newsweekly said in a report that widens a corruption scandal reaching into the inner circle of Brazil's government.

Senate president Renan Calheiros vehemently denied the allegations published in the latest edition of the newsweekly Veja, which reported that the construction company paid rent on an apartment for Calheiros in the capital Brasilia, as well as a nearly $6,000 monthly stipend for his 3-year-old daughter.

Mendes Junior, one of Brazil's largest construction companies, also rented a room for Calheiros in a Brasilia hotel and contributed to his campaign and family expenses, Veja said. The magazine did not cite the sources for its report, saying only the payments were made by a Mendes Junior lobbyist.

COSTA RICA SEIZES CONTAMINATED TOOTHPASTE IMPORTED FROM CHINA
The New York Times
May 26, 2007

SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica, May 25 (Reuters) — The Costa Rican authorities seized 300 boxes of a Chinese toothpaste tainted with a toxic chemical on Friday, after raids on distributors in other countries.

Thousands of tubes of the Mr. Cool brand, along with another Chinese-made toothpaste, Excel, have been pulled from store shelves in Panama and the Dominican Republic.

The United States said this week that it was checking all toothpaste shipments from China.

The contaminated brands contain high levels of diethylene glycol, which killed at least 100 people last year in Panama, where it was used in government-made cough syrups.

LAWMAKERS IN COLOMBIA URGE FIRING OF MEDIATOR
The New York Times
May 26, 2007

CARACAS, Venezuela, May 25 — When allegations emerged this month that outlawed Colombian paramilitaries had thrown whiskey-soaked parties with prostitutes in an area set aside for peace talks, Colombia’s Congress expressed shock.

Lawmakers have now called for President Álvaro Uribe to dismiss the foreign diplomat who helped oversee the peace mission as a representative of the Organization of American States.

In a terse resolution approved Thursday, Colombia’s lower house accused the diplomat, Sergio Caramagna, of Argentina, of “incompetence in his mission.” It remains unclear if Mr. Caramagna knew about the parties.

Mr. Caramagna declined to comment. The O.A.S. in Washington released a statement on Friday saying that the Colombian government had rejected the lawmakers’ resolution.

CARACAS POLICE HALT TV SHUTDOWN PROTEST
The Miami Herald
May. 27, 2007

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Police broke up an opposition protest using a water cannon and tear gas after thousands took to the streets on Sunday condemning a decision by President Hugo Chavez to force Venezuela's most widely watched channel off the air.

Soaked protesters scattered while the stream of water swept the street, then sang the national anthem as they returned to face a column of riot police and National Guard troops outside the state telecommunications commission.

Radio Caracas Television, the sole opposition-aligned TV station with nationwide reach, was due to go off the air at midnight because Chavez refused to renew its broadcast license.

Police said some of the protesters threw rocks and bottles, prompting them to respond with the water cannon. Police said at least four officers were lightly injured.

CHÁVEZ’S MOVE AGAINST CRITIC HIGHLIGHTS SHIFT IN MEDIA
The New York Times
May 27, 2007

CARACAS, Venezuela, May 26 — Arturo Sarmiento speaks upper-crust English polished at Sandhurst, Britain’s aristocratic military school. He made fortunes trading oil and importing whiskey. Now Mr. Sarmiento, just 35 and a staunch supporter of President Hugo Chávez, owns an expanding television network here.

As tempers flare around Mr. Chávez’s decision not to renew the license of RCTV, the nation’s oldest broadcaster and a vocal critic, effectively shutting it down on Sunday, a new media elite is emerging. It is made up of ideological devotees to Mr. Chávez, senior government officials and tycoons like Mr. Sarmiento.

That is a marked contrast with the state of the news media when Mr. Chávez’s rule began in 1999. Then, the industry was largely privately owned by moneyed interests hostile to Mr. Chávez. His supporters say that old guard — as partisan as newspapers in the early United States — sought to derail his actions during much of his presidency.

“With the polarization that’s befallen Venezuela, media organizations have been used to cause political change,” Mr. Sarmiento said in a recent interview. He says his ambitions for TeleCaribe, a private broadcaster he bought last year, are different: to provide programming tailored to regional audiences in Venezuela. “Media vehicles should not be engaged in politics,” he said.

MEXICAN POLICE HOLD SUSPECT IN KILLING
The New York Times
May 28, 2007

MEXICO CITY, May 27 — The police in the northern state of Nuevo León have detained a suspect in the killing of an organizer for an American union that represents Mexican guest workers in the United States. But the union said Sunday that it did not believe the police account of the killing.

The police said Santiago Rafael Cruz was beaten to death in Monterrey on April 9 by the suspect, Jaime Martínez Amador, and two other men in a drunken argument over $4,500 the men had paid him to arrange legal guest worker visas.

The union, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, has said that Mr. Rafael Cruz was killed in retaliation for the union’s work in reforming the way workers are recruited in Mexico for guest worker jobs in the United States. Recruiters often charge workers — many of whom are desperately poor — at least several hundred dollars to get a job and a temporary visa , the union and other experts on the guest worker program say.

The union has gotten some American growers to pay the recruiting fees and says the change may alarm recruiters for other employers because they fear they will not be able to charge nearly as much.

VILLAGERS FIGHT TO CONSERVE RESOURCES
The Miami Herald
May. 28, 2007

GURUPA, Brazil -- A boat ride along the upper Amazon River is replete with the telltale signs of a forest in crisis: the drone of wood-cutting machines, the flatbed trucks piled high with logs, cow pastures where trees once grew.

But when one reaches Gurupá, a riverfront municipality of 25,000 people about 2,200 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro, the landscape becomes suddenly green. Skinny palms stretch out of tree clusters, and vines tangle so thickly that not a drop of daylight leaks through.

Gurupá is one of a small but increasing number of poor Amazonian communities -- a couple of hundred, perhaps -- that have taken it upon themselves to fight the loggers, soy farmers and cattle ranchers who destroy their livelihoods and force them to migrate to urban slums.

Its people have spent the past seven years designing and voting on ''use plans'' that govern how much of each local resource can be extracted and when.

MAFIA DRIVER'S DEATH UNNOTICED IN CUBA
The Miami Herald
May. 28, 2007

HAVANA -- The man who was Meyer Lansky's driver and bodyguard during the Mafia's heyday in pre-Revolutionary Cuba died earlier this year, a curious footnote in a communist-run country whose past as a gambling mecca for vacationing Americans is all but forgotten.

There was no story in the Communist Party daily Granma about the Feb. 12 death of Armando Jaime Casielles, at age 75, from lung cancer. No mention on Cuban state television either, despite the decades he spent promoting Afro-Cuban dance and music in his post-Mafia years.

Casielles' close friend, Enrique Cirules, got the news through word of mouth.

"He liked his cigars, he liked his whiskey, never stopped working," Cirules told The Associated Press. "He was a very respected man."

VENEZUELA POLICE REPEL PROTESTS OVER TV NETWORK’S CLOSING
The New York Times
May 28, 2007

CARACAS, Venezuela, May 27 — With little more than an hour to go late Sunday until this country’s oldest television network was to be taken off the air after 53 years of broadcasting, the police dispersed thousands of protesters by firing tear gas into demonstrations against the measure.

The police said that shots were fired in their direction and that protesters hurling rocks had injured 11 officers. Local television showed images of policemen with guns drawn patrolling a highway that had been closed near one demonstration. Protesters in other areas of the city burned tires, apparently eliciting the police reaction.

Groups that support President Hugo Chávez also flooded a central area of Caracas to celebrate his decision not to renew the broadcasting license of Radio Caracas Televisión, or RCTV, which has been one of his most vocal critics.

RCTV’s signal will be transferred to a new state broadcasting company, part of a growing array of state and private media ventures that are supportive of Mr. Chávez.

VENEZUELA'S CHAVEZ DEFENDS TV DECISION
The Miami Herald May. 29, 2007

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez defended his decision not to renew the license of a popular opposition-aligned television network and warned Tuesday he might crack down on another TV station, accusing it of trying to incite attempts on his life.

Chavez said his refusal to renew the license of Radio Caracas Television, which went off the air at midnight Sunday, is "a sovereign, legitimate decision."

He said another station Globovision - one of the few channels that is still harshly anti-government - had encouraged attempts on his life and could also face sanctions.

"I recommend (Globovision) take a tranquilizer, that they slow down, because if not, I'm going to slow them down," Chavez said in a speech.

Chavez did not elaborate, but said some broadcasters and newspapers are conspiring to spark unrest and warned that radio stations should not be inciting violence by "manipulating" public sentiment.

BRAZIL SENATE LEADER VOWS TO STAY ON
The Miami Herald
May. 29, 2007

BRASILIA, Brazil -- Brazilian Senate President Renan Calheiros said Tuesday that he won't resign over accusations he accepted payoffs from one of the country's top construction companies.

Calheiros vowed to stay on the job a day after he denied the allegations in an address to the Senate, and he said he has provided enough evidence to clear his name.

"I've turned in all my documents, my income tax returns, absolutely everything," he said. "Nothing is missing."

Calheiros, an ally of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and third in line of succession for the presidency, again denied a report by the respected Veja magazine that he accepted more than $8,000 monthly from the Mendes Junior construction company to help it get public works contracts.

FIDEL: MY IDEAS WILL LIVE ON
The Miami Herald
May 29, 2007

HAVANA -- (AP) -- Fidel Castro said in a statement published Tuesday that U.S. President George W. Bush is waiting for him to die but that the American leader cannot kill his ideas.

The latest in a series of essays by the 80-year-old Castro, who has not been seen in public since becoming ill more than 10 months ago, was published on the front page of the Communist Party daily Granma.

The Cuban leader said that Bush, asked recently about his Cuba policy, replied: ``I'm a hard-line president and I'm only waiting for Castro to die.''

''I'm not the first, nor will I be the last, who Bush has ordered to be deprived of life,'' said Castro, who offered no details of the alleged conversation.

American law now prohibits the U.S. government from ordering the assassination of foreign leaders, but declassified U.S. documents show that the CIA made numerous attempts to kill Castro in the early years after the 1959 Cuban revolution.

VENEZUELAN STATION OFF THE AIR; PROTESTERS AGAIN CLASH WITH POLICE
The Miami Herald
May. 29, 2007

CARACAS -- Riot police clashed with thousands of demonstrators in the Venezuelan capital for a second consecutive day Monday, leaving several people injured, as protests continued over the closure by President Hugo Chávez of the country's most popular television station, Radio Caracas Televisión, (RCTV).

International condemnation of the shutdown also continued, with criticism coming from the European Union and the press freedom body Reporters Without Borders.

Robert Ménard, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, said in Caracas that the decision not to renew the station's license was ''political.'' Chávez has accused RCTV of being part of a conspiracy to destabilize his 8-year-old government.

VENEZUELA'S CHAVEZ DEFENDS TV DECISION
The Miami Herald
May. 29, 2007

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez defended his decision not to renew the license of a popular opposition-aligned television network and warned Tuesday he might crack down on another TV station, accusing it of trying to incite attempts on his life.

Chavez said his refusal to renew the license of Radio Caracas Television, which went off the air at midnight Sunday, is "a sovereign, legitimate decision."

He said another station Globovision - one of the few channels that is still harshly anti-government - had encouraged attempts on his life and could also face sanctions.

"I recommend (Globovision) take a tranquilizer, that they slow down, because if not, I'm going to slow them down," Chavez said in a speech.

CHÁVEZ WARNS CABLE TV NEWS STATION
The Miami Herald
May. 30, 2007

CARACAS -- President Hugo Chávez's government Tuesday began legal action against a private TV station for allegedly inciting people to kill him, even as protesters against his weekend shutdown of the RCTV station continued to clash sporadically with police.

Venezuelan Communications Minister Willian Lara asked prosecutors to open a case against the 24-hour cable news station Globovisión after it broadcast images of the attempted murder of Pope John Paul II in 1981, accompanied by a popular salsa song titled This Does Not Stop Here.

Addressing the country on a government-mandated nationwide TV and radio broadcast, Chávez called Globovisión an ''enemy of the motherland'' and accused the channel of ''inciting'' people to kill him.

''Gentlemen of Globovisión . . . I recommend that you take a tranquilizer, that you take it easy, because if not, I'm going to make you take it easy,'' he said before a group of elderly supporters dressed in Chávez's signature red.

REGIONAL
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MEDIA UNDER ASSAULT IN THE AMERICAS
OUR OPINION: SILENCING CRITICAL VOICES PUTS DEMOCRACY AT RISK
Opinion
The Miami Herald
May. 30, 2007

The Venezuelan government's shut-down of Radio Caracas Television on Sunday marks a low point for free speech in the Americas. President Hugo Chávez replaced a fierce critic of his administration with a state-owned TV station that spouts government propaganda.

As disturbing as is this latest move to chill freedom of speech, the regional trend is just as troubling. In some countries, politically motivated governments attack media in an attempt to silence opposition voices. In other countries, journalists are being killed with impunity in the absence of effective law enforcement. Recent examples include:

Ecuador, where President Rafael Correa has filed a criminal-defamation complaint against the La Hora newspaper's editorial-board chairman, Francisco Vivanco Riofrío. Mr. Vivanco faces up to six months in jail for an editorial that criticized the government for trying ''to govern with disturbances, rocks and sticks.'' President Correa used an antiquated law against insulting the president to punish the paper. This charge could be levied against newspapers in any democratic country with free speech.

RELACIONES BILATERALES
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HAVANA: U.S. FUGITIVES ARE NO LONGER WELCOME
The Miami Herald
May. 30, 2007

WASHINGTON -- A little-noticed passage in two State Department reports says Havana has stated that it will no longer provide safe haven to U.S. fugitives who enter Cuba -- a promise the Castro government has met twice since September.

The promise and deportations amount to a rare sign of cooperation by Havana. Some 70 U.S. fugitives are believed to be living in Cuba, including Joanne Chesimard, convicted in the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state trooper.

Cuba has refused to return them, generally arguing that the U.S. charges against them are ''political.'' The refusals were among the reasons the State Department used for including Cuba in its list of nations that support international terrorism.

But a brief passage in the State Department's voluminous 2005 and 2006 Country Reports on Terrorism -- the 2006 report was released April 30 -- that went largely unnoticed until now said Cuba ``has stated that it will no longer provide safe haven to new U.S. fugitives who may enter Cuba.''

COLOMBIA PLANS TO HONOR BILL CLINTON
The Miami Herald
May. 24, 2007

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia will honor former President Clinton for his efforts to reverse the country's image for violence and drugs at a gala event next month in New York City.

The June 8 event may become a political lightning rod for Democrats who are increasingly scrutinizing the human rights record of Washington's closest ally in Latin America.

President Alvaro Uribe, whom event organizers say is expected to present Clinton with the "Colombia is Passion" award, has recently been the focus of some controversy.

Last month, former Vice President Al Gore backed out of an environmental conference in Miami to avoid appearing alongside Uribe, who has struggled to defend himself against charges that members of his family and government supporters collaborated with murderous right-wing militias.

The 250 invited guests at the New York gala include high-powered businessmen, fashion designer Oscar de la Renta and hip-shaking Colombian pop star Shakira, according to Angela Montoya, organizer of the event for the "Colombia is passion" branding campaign.

CASTRO BLASTS BUSH ABOUT IRAQ WAR FUNDS
The Miami Herald
May. 26, 2007

HAVANA -- Cuban leader Fidel Castro lashed out at President Bush Friday, hours after the American leader approved legislation paying for military operations in Iraq without setting a timetable for troop withdrawal.

In his latest comments as he convalesces from intestinal surgery, the 80-year-old Cuban leader accused Bush of waging a war that was causing conditions in the region to deteriorate.

"Just yesterday, Bush bragged about having won the battle over his adversaries in Congress," he wrote in a four-page statement released to the media. "He has $100 billion, all the money he needs to duplicate, however he wishes, the sending of American troops to Iraq and continue the slaughter."

In signing the measure Friday, Bush said it would provide a roadmap to help the Iraqis secure their country and strengthen their young democracy.

"Rather than mandate arbitrary timetables for troop withdrawals or micromanage our military commanders, this legislation enables our servicemen and women to follow the judgment of commanders on the ground," he said.

The statement was the 12th by Castro in recent weeks, using the forum to comment on a number of subjects that included an attack on U.S.-backed plans to use food crops for biofuels.

CASTRO LAMBASTS BUSH ON G-8 AGENDA ITEM
The Miami Herald
May. 30, 2007

HAVANA -- Convalescing Fidel Castro lambasted President Bush on Tuesday for opposing the European Union's goal for an agreement on carbon emissions at next week's Group of Eight summit.

In the latest in what are becoming almost daily opinion pieces called "Reflections of the Commander in Chief," Castro said Bush would be wise to listen to his ally, outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has made global warming a primary focus of his last weeks in office.

The ailing 80-year-old Cuban leader also criticized both Britain and the United States for heavy military expenditures.

"Perhaps someone with one of the new computer programs by Bill Gates could figure out how much the war expenditures have deprived humanity of education, health and culture," the essay read.

"George should say what he really thinks at the G-8 meeting, including the subject of the dangers threatening peace and food for human beings," Castro added. "Someone should ask him. And he should not try to escape from the counsel of his friend Blair."