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COSTA RICA CRITICIZES TAIWAN AS STINGY
The Miami Herald
Jun. 07, 2007
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica --
Costa Rica's president criticized Taiwan on Thursday for being stingy with aid to its handful of allies, while other Latin American nations struggled with whether to remain loyal to the democratic island or strengthen ties with Taiwan's diplomatic rival, China.
Taiwan is lobbying to hang on to its 24 remaining diplomatic partners after Costa Rica announced Wednesday it was switching relations to China. Taiwan's allies, many of them poor countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, help bolster its claims of international legitimacy.
Self-governing Taiwan and Communist China split amid civil war in 1949 and China insists that the island remains a part of its territory.
In the battle for friends around the world, the two sides routinely offer generous grants and other inducements.
Taiwanese Foreign Minister James Huang accused China of offering Costa Rica "an astronomical figure" to ditch Taipei. He did not specify what it was.
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias acknowledged that the decision to go with Beijing was related to Costa Rica's desire to bolster its economy, and he criticized Taiwan for giving "insufficient" aid to its allies.
BRAZILIAN NUMBERS GAME TIES OFFICIALS TO MOBSTERS
The New York Times
June 7, 2007
RIO DE JANEIRO — The illegal lottery known as “the animal game” is as visible a part of the urban landscape here as Ipanema beach or Sugarloaf mountain. On thousands of street corners, vendors sit all day at little wooden booths, pads of paper in hand, taking money from bettors, who return later to check results posted on lampposts or walls.
The bosses of the billion-dollar industry known in Portuguese as the “jogo do bicho,” on the other hand, have long preferred to operate in the shadows. That was, at least, until a burgeoning corruption scandal suddenly thrust them into an uncomfortable national spotlight.
STUDENTS WALK OUT OF NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
The Miami Herald
Jun. 07, 2007
CARACAS --
University students who have led more than a week of street protests condemning President Hugo Chavez's decision not to renew the broadcast license of Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV, said they left the legislature because they did want to become part of a political spectacle.
''We didn't come here to play around,'' said Yon Goicochea, a student leader from the Andres Bello Catholic University who helped organize the protests.
Chavez forced RCTV off the air on May 27, defending the move as a means of democratizing the airwaves by turning over the signal to a state-funded public broadcasting station. Critics argue the president is trying to muzzle his opponents.
Pro-Chavez students, joined by National Assembly President Cilia Flores, railed against those who walked out of Thursday's congressional session, accusing them of staging demonstrations as part of a plan by radical government opponents to oust Chavez.
BOY IS NEW FACE OF COLOMBIA'S KIDNAPPED
The Miami Herald
Jun. 07, 2007
BOGOTA, Colombia --
Few people have seen the 3-year-old boy born in captivity to a Colombian politician kidnapped by Latin America's biggest guerrilla army five years ago.
Yet little Emmanuel is soon to become the face of Colombia's legions of kidnap victims, the centerpiece of an international campaign by President Alvaro Uribe to pressure their captors to free them.
Since his birth, Emmanuel has been raised by guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The group abducted his mother, Clara Rojas, and her boss, former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, in 2002.
Rojas and Betancourt are among some 60 hostages, including three U.S. defense contractors, who the guerrillas want to swap for hundreds of imprisoned comrades.
News of Emmanuel's birth and extraordinary upbringing have provoked soul-searching in Colombia.
"We can't keep living the way we are in this country, where a child is abused like this since birth, a child who has no type of rights," said Ivan Rojas, the child's uncle and Clara Rojas' brother.
THE TRUTH BEHIND CHAVEZ'S MEDIA OBSESSION
The Washington post
June 8, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has carried out his threat and refused to renew the broadcast license of dissident Radio Caracas Television (RCTV), silencing it for supporting the short-lived coup against him in 2002. While other privately held stations are still on the air, Chavez is well on his way to extending his hegemony over all of the country's media.
After the coup, Chavez demonized the country's largest private networks, calling Venevision, RCTV, Globovision and Televen the "four horsemen of the Apocalypse."
Now with RCTV out of the way, Globovision appears to be Chavez's next target, although it has several years left on its license.
Interestingly, Venevision and Televen now appear to have been spared Chavez's wrath. Media insiders claim that Chavez and the owners of these stations came to an agreement to stay out of each other's business. In fact, Venevision's license was renewed the same day that RCTV's was revoked.
COLOMBIA'S TOP PROSECUTOR GRINDS ON
The Christian Science Monitor
June 8, 2007
BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA - Whether he's scouring a legal text, arguing before a judge, or watching as experts unearth mass graves, Colombia's chief prosecutor Mario Iguarán is constantly aware of the crucial role he plays in the country's attempt to uncover – and move beyond – its grisly past.
Mr. Iguarán is overseeing a difficult process to prosecute the gruesome crimes of Colombia's right-wing paramilitary groups and the network of politicians and military officers that supported and collaborated with them.
"It is Colombia's moment of truth," says Iguarán, perched on the edge of a distressed leather chair in his office.
Iguarán is not just a coincidental player in this historic moment, he helped create it. As deputy minister for justice during President Álvaro Uribe's first term, Iguarán drafted the initial version of the "Peace and Justice" law in 2005 that offered demobilized paramilitaries reduced sentences for confessing their crimes and compensating their victims. Since then, more than 31,000 paramilitary fighters have demobilized.
MEXICO’S COURT LIMITS REACH OF BIG MEDIA
The New York Times
June 8, 2007
MEXICO CITY, June 7 — The Mexican Supreme Court overwhelmingly voted Thursday to declare parts of a new media law unconstitutional, a blow to the country’s two main broadcasters who had hoped to extend their dominance in television to the Internet and telephone service.
The decision confirmed several preliminary votes by the court’s members in the last two weeks as they went through the disputed parts of the law. In an unprecedented move, the hearings were televised and the court members heard experts speak for and against the law.
CHÁVEZ: STUDENT PROTESTERS ARE `PAWNS OF WASHINGTON'
The Miami Herald
Jun. 08, 2007
CARACAS --
(AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez derided students who have protested his decision to force an opposition TV station off the air as U.S. ''pawns,'' ridiculing them for walking out of a congressional debate Thursday on freedom of expression.
University students -- who have led more than a week of street protests condemning Chávez's decision not to renew the broadcast license of Radio Caracas Televisión, or RCTV -- walked out of a National Assembly debate saying they did not want to become part of a political spectacle.
''I had information that those youths were going to put on a show in the National Assembly,'' Chávez said during a nationally televised speech to pro-government students. ``They're nothing but pawns of the empire.''
Chávez defends the move to not renew RCTV's license, which expired May 27, as a means of democratizing the airwaves by turning over the signal to a state-funded public broadcasting station. Critics argue the president is trying to muzzle his opponents.
CHAVEZ CALLS PROTESTERS U.S. 'PAWNS'
The Miami Herald
Jun. 08, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela --
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez derided students who have protested his decision to force an opposition TV station off the air as U.S. "pawns," ridiculing them for walking out of a congressional debate Thursday on freedom of expression.
University students - who have led more than a week of street protests condemning Chavez's decision not to renew the broadcast license of Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV - walked out of a National Assembly debate saying they did not want to become part of a political spectacle.
"I had information that those youths were going to put on a show in the National Assembly," Chavez said during a nationally televised speech to pro-government students. "They're nothing but pawns of the empire."
Chavez defends the move to not renew RCTV's license, which expired May 27, as a means of democratizing the airwaves by turning over the signal to a state-funded public broadcasting station. Critics argue the president is trying to muzzle his opponents.
VENEZUELAN PROTESTS BRING A SUBTLE SHIFT
The Miami Herald
Jun. 09, 2007
CARACAS --
Two weeks into student protests over the government's closure of the popular -- and anti-government -- TV station RCTV, the political tussle between leftist President Hugo Chávez and the student leadership has turned to apparent stalemate, although some things may never be the same again.
The students admit they will eventually have to return to the classroom. ''But even if they go silent tomorrow,'' says Roberto de Vries, a psychologist who has studied the issue of leadership, the students ``have sown some very important seeds.''
According to de Vries, one of the key differences between the student leadership and previous movements that have stood up to Chávez is that they represent an appeal to consensus, in a society marked by polarization over Chávez's rule.
A CASTRO STRIVES TO OPEN CUBAN’S OPINIONS ON SEX
The New York Times
June 9, 2007
TWENTY or so transsexuals sat in a circle recently discussing their woes: harassment, boyfriend troubles, the challenge of removing hair from their legs. Empathizing with them was Mariela Castro Espín, Cuba’s premier sexologist.
“I know, I know,” she said, putting her hand on one of her own legs to show she could relate.
Then the conversation took an interesting turn. The transsexuals, who are receiving training as AIDS counselors at the National Center for Sexual Education, which Ms. Castro directs, brought up sexual liaisons some of them had had with soldiers. Maybe counseling in the barracks was needed, the transsexuals said.
Ms. Castro smiled, raised her eyebrows but did not dismiss the suggestion out of hand. Homosexuality is illegal in Cuba’s military. In fact, some Cubans have avoided military service altogether by claiming to be gay.
EVEN OFF AIR, VENEZUELA'S RCTV GOES ON
The Miami Herald
Jun. 10, 2007
The government of President Hugo Chávez may have yanked Radio Caracas Televisión off the air, but it has not been able to silence it.
RCTV, which officially folded on May 27 after the government turned over its license to a state-funded public channel, has not stopped producing telenovelas, comedies and newscasts and is slipping its signal through creative means -- in Caracas and in Miami.
The oldest TV channel in Venezuela is using the Internet, projections in public squares and housing complexes in Caracas and arrangements with former competitors to continue broadcasting.
COLOMBIA REOPENS ARMY ABUSE PROBES
The Miami Herald
Jun. 10, 2007
BOGOTA, Colombia --
The five soldiers who killed Maria Elena Rios in a hillside slum of the city of Medellin said she was a guerrilla who died in combat. After a swift investigation, the army closed the case.
But if Rios was a fighter, why was she wearing 3-inch platform shoes when soldiers shot the 25-year-old in the head and back?
That is one of many questions being raised three years later by the public prosecutor's office, which has reopened 131 disciplinary investigations of killings of civilians presented as deaths of leftist rebels in action.
Most of these were shelved after internal investigations by the U.S.-backed military that typically went no farther than gathering testimony from troops involved, said an official in the public prosecutor's office who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue's political sensitivity.
The renewed investigations come as the U.S. Congress refuses to ratify a bilateral trade pact over concerns about human rights in Colombia.
Increasingly, the opposition and rights groups abroad are accusing President Alvaro Uribe of ignoring collusion between his military commanders and right-wing militias blamed for some of the worst atrocities in the South American nation's half-century civil conflict.
AP INTERVIEW: CHAVEZ CONNECTS WITH POOR
The Miami Herald
Jun. 10, 2007
MANTECAL, Venezuela --
The Toyota 4Runner pulled to a stop on the country road and a tinted window rolled down. Passers-by gawked, then broke into a run, screaming "president!" when they realized Hugo Chavez was at the wheel. "I love you!" cried a middle-aged woman with tears in her eyes, thrusting a fistful of flowers into the car.
The president clasped hands and planted kisses on cheeks, heads and hands of the people who turned out in the pouring rain to see him - an emotional connection that he called the driving force behind the socialist revolution that has pitted him against Washington.
"What hurts me most is poverty, and that's what made me a rebel," Chavez said during six hours of conversations with The Associated Press on Saturday during a road trip across the southern plains, a helicopter flight and a visit to a cattle ranch.
Throughout the trip, as he sipped coffee and sang folk songs, he stopped to talk with poor men and women of all ages who crowded around his car. Many asked Chavez for help - to build a home, to arrange medical care - and Chavez barked out instructions to his aides, who jotted them down.
VENEZUELA SEIZES 2.5 TONS OF COCAINE
The Miami Herald
Jun. 10, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela --
Venezuelan authorities seized 2.5 tons of cocaine bound for Africa and arrested nine suspects including four federal police officers and a U.S. citizen, the military said Sunday.
Following an undercover operation, military intelligence agents seized the drugs Saturday at the airport on the tourist destination of Margarita Island, National Guard Cmdr. Marcos Rojas Figueroa said.
The alleged smugglers were preparing to load it onto a private plane bound for Sierra Leone, Rojas Figueroa told the state-run Bolivarian News Agency. He did not say how authorities knew the drugs were destined for the west African nation, a common way station for Colombian cocaine bound for Europe.
Four police officers who helped transport the cocaine to the airport tarmac were detained along with an airport security guard and four foreigners, including one U.S. citizen, two Mexicans and a Sierra Leone national, Rojas Figueroa said.
BOTH SIDES SAY PROJECT IS PIVOTAL ISSUE FOR BRAZIL
The New York Times
June 11, 2007
PORTO VELHO, Brazil — The eternal tension between Brazil’s need for economic growth and the damage that can cause to the environment are nowhere more visible than here in this corner of the western Amazon region.
More than one-quarter of this rugged frontier state, Rondônia, has been deforested, the highest rate in the Amazon. Over the years, ranchers, miners and loggers have routinely invaded nature reserves and Indian reservations.
Now a proposal to build an $11 billion hydroelectric project here on a river that may have the world’s most diverse fish stocks has set off a new controversy.
VENEZUELAN FILMMAKERS YELL 'CUT!' OVER FUNDS
The Miami Herald
Jun. 11, 2007
CARACAS --
Venezuelan filmmakers are up in arms over the government's investment of $18 million in Hollywood star Danny Glover's project for a movie about Haitian independence hero Toussaint L'Ouverture.
The actor and director, best known for his role in the Lethal Weapon movies, is a vocal supporter of Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chávez, and has visited the country several times.
But his counterparts here are outraged by the funding, which they say was illegally approved and amounts to as much as they have received from the government over the past five years.
MEXICAN TROOPS DETAIN ILLEGAL LOGGERS
The Miami Herald
Jun. 11, 2007
MEXICO CITY --
Mexican police and soldiers arrested three men Monday during an operation to fight illegal logging in a mountain region south of Mexico City where an environmentalist was killed last month.
More than 1,000 officers, soldiers and federal agents fanned out across the township of Ocuilan, whose residents have waged a six-year battle against loggers cutting down one of central Mexico's last big fir forests.
Police in Mexico state, which borders the area, said they detained Everardo Garcia Martinez, 52, Raul Flores Gonzalez, 50, and Eric Garcia Gallegos, 20, as they drove a truck packed with more than two tons of illegally taken dirt - a byproduct of logging.
The men were arrested for illegal logging. Authorities did not say whether they were connected to the shooting death of Aldo Zamora, 21, on a nearby road on May 15.
CUBANS GO TO STREET TO AUGMENT RATIONS
The Miami Herald
Jun. 12, 2007
HAVANA --
Cubans may not have McDonald's or Jack in the Box, but they do have pizza in a basket.
Customers shout orders to a terrace kitchen atop a 1930s-era two-story building and the pizza is lowered to the street in a rattan basket.
Pizza Celina is among the more inventive places that Cubans go for street food to augment government food rations. Elsewhere in Havana, self-employed street vendors hawk peanuts, popcorn and a snack known as "chicharrones de macarones" - macaroni pork rinds - made by boiling pasta, drying it the sun, then frying it.
Near the University of Havana, students line up at lunchtime outside a building with peeling pink paint to shout orders for pizza with tomato sauce and cheese for 8 pesos, which is about 38 cents. A little bit more buys a ham or sausage topping.
DRUG WARS ENDANGER MEXICAN PRESS
The Christian Science Monitor
June 12, 2007
NUEVO LAREDO, MEXICO - When gunmen hurled a grenade into a tiny newspaper office in this town on the US-Mexican border – an attack that left one reporter paralyzed for life – the daily El Manana quickly put up a bulletproof wall outside the entrance. From then on they sent teams covering crime out in threes – a reporter, a photographer, and an extra pair of eyes.
But the most significant change at the paper in Nuevo Laredo, the traditional epicenter of Mexico's increasingly violent drug wars, was a decision about how to cover the news itself: all local, drug-related news came off the front page and names of suspects came out altogether.
Since the grenade attack last February, the drug wars have continued to spread across the country – and attacks and threats to the press have multiplied in their wake.
Last month a local councilman's head was left outside a newspaper office in Tabasco State, in what's become a common intimidation tactic. A prominent journalist in Acapulco was shot dead in April after leaving his radio show. Two television reporters in the northern city of Monterrey have been missing since May.
VENEZUELA DANCES TO DEVILISH BEAT TO PROMOTE TOURISM
The New York Times
June 12, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO DE YARE, Venezuela, June 7 — Wearing blood-colored costumes and devilish papier-mâché masks that would make a gargoyle grimace, hundreds of worshipers disguised as demons danced through the streets here Thursday in one of Venezuela’s most exalted religious rituals.
An Afro-Venezuelan tradition in parishes near the country’s Caribbean coast since the late 18th century, the “Dancing Devils” have received support from President Hugo Chávez’s government as they seek to raise awareness about Venezuelan folklore and promote new forms of tourism.
This small town, founded in 1718 by slaveholders who controlled nearby cacao and sugarcane plantations, now attracts thousands of visitors each year on the Roman Catholic feast day of Corpus Christi. They watch the devils writhe to drumbeats in a ritual described by residents here as a dance of cultural resistance.
MEXICO CITY CONSIDERS LEGAL PROSTITUTION
The Miami Herald
Jun. 13, 2007
MEXICO CITY --
The leftist party that has already legalized gay unions and abortion in Mexico City said Wednesday it wants to make prostitution legal in the capital of this overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country.
Mexico City legislator Juan Bustos of the Democratic Revolution Party, who submitted the bill on Tuesday, said the move is necessary to protect prostitutes from abuse and regulate the sex industry.
Corrupt police frequently use the current law not to arrest sex workers but as a threat to shake them down for bribes or sexual favors.
"These are issues that we are going to bring forward as part of a political platform, because we feel it is part of our duty to society," Bustos said Wednesday.
However, he expects opposition. Spokesmen for the Roman Catholic church, which led marches against the abortion bill approved in April, were not immediately available for comment.
SALVADOR GUERRILLA BURIED IN HOMELAND
The Miami Herald
Jun. 13, 2007
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador --
The body of a Salvadoran guerrilla leader who was an integral part of the country's revolutionary movement has been buried in her homeland 24 years after her killing, her supporters said Wednesday.
Melida Anaya Montes, a school teacher who was known as "Comandante Ana Maria" of the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, was exhumed from her grave in Nicaragua and buried in El Salvador in a discreet ceremony Saturday.
Emma Julia Fabian, a congresswoman with the FMLN, which is now a political party, said Anaya Montes rose to become one of the FMLN's top leaders when it waged a powerful insurgency against U.S.-backed administrations.
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