|
ARGENTINA’S PRESIDENT STEPS ASIDE TO SUPPORT WIFE AS HIS SUCCESSOR
The New York Times
July 3, 2007
BUENOS AIRES, July 2 — Néstor Kirchner announced Monday that he would not seek a second term as president of Argentina but would instead support his wife, Senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, as the candidate of the Peronist movement in October’s presidential election.
“Why not finally a woman to be the one to deepen change and transformation?” Mr. Kirchner, with his wife at his side, asked during an afternoon event at the presidential palace. Argentina needs “to renew and generate new ideas,” he said, and “all of us profoundly believe in the capacity to excel that Cristina is going to offer.”
Mr. Kirchner’s decision to step aside in favor of his wife is seen as a maneuver meant to allow the couple to take turns running the country for a dozen years or more. Presidents in Argentina are restricted to two consecutive four-year terms, but can run again after a term on the sidelines.
GETTING MEXICO ON TRACK
Opinion
The Christian Science Monitor
By Lawrence E. Harrison and Luis Rubio
July 2, 2007
VINEYARD HAVEN, MASS.; AND MEXICO CITY - Mexico has not been able to find its way to development because Mexicans lack confidence in themselves. How could that change?
A few years ago, Mexico was able to push for a dramatic change in attitudes toward the United States and was able to help create the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). However, its hang-ups, both cultural and institutional, made it impossible for the country to take advantage of such an exceptional opportunity. Mexico needs appropriate institutions, such as essential checks and balances to protect and advance the interests of citizens, but both its political culture and the interests that its current institutions protect create endless – and vicious – circles.
Mexico's dilemmas are not unique. Many underdeveloped nations face similar conundrums. An extreme case is Iraq, where the paramount question is how (or even whether) a democracy can be built. A democratic culture is certainly critical to make development possible, but it is equally true that for democracy to take root, all relevant groups in a society must feel that democracy serves their interests. Otherwise, there is no incentive to work toward a common future.
MEXICO OVERHAULS POLICE CHIEFS' TRAINING
The Miami Herald
Jun. 28, 2007
MEXICO CITY --
Mexico announced it would overhaul training of all state and federal police chiefs Thursday as the government seeks international help to fight organized crime.
Authorities recently removed the nation's top federal police officers and are forcing them to prove they will not be corrupted by organized crime.
Now, more than 1,000 high-ranking state and federal officers will be required to complete a yearlong course in crisis control, law enforcement techniques and the English language - as Mexico aims to work closely with U.S. and European police - said Genaro Garcia Luna, secretary of public safety.
The courses begin Aug. 13 and will be taught partly by experts from the United States, Canada, Germany, France and Spain.
FUJIMORI PLAYS POLITICS IN 2 NATIONS
The Miami Herald
Jun. 28, 2007
SANTIAGO, Chile --
Alberto Fujimori speaks of returning to the presidency in Peru and he's running for Senate in Japan. But his hopes of staying out of prison depend on a court in Chile.
In an interview with The Associated Press late Wednesday, the former Peruvian leader confirmed he had accepted a small party's offer to run for parliament in Japan "because we do not have a presidential election in Peru soon.
"I still have my followers in Peru, and many of them are happy because a political party in such an important country as Japan has called on me to run. This is something very important for them," said Fujimori, who holds both Peruvian and Japanese citizenship.
COLOMBIA ACCUSES FARC IN HOSTAGE DEATHS
The Miami Herald
Jun. 28, 2007
BOGOTA, Colombia --
Colombia's president accused guerrillas of murdering 11 state lawmakers in cold blood, making a live television broadcast Thursday to dispute a rebel claim that the hostages died in crossfire during a military attack.
President Alvaro Uribe denied a rescue attempt was made for the hostages. He said there were no such military operations in areas where the hostages are thought to have been held on June 18, the date that the FARC rebel movement said the attack occurred.
The news highlighted the precarious state of more than 3,000 people being held by various Colombian armed factions, including three American defense contractors seized four years ago by FARC, the Western Hemisphere's oldest and most potent insurgency.
RIO POLICE PROMISE WAR ON DRUG GANGS
The Miami Herald
Jun. 28, 2007
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil --
Police trained assault rifles on residents of a gang-infested shantytown as they went back to school and work Thursday, pledging a war on drug gangs after a raid that killed 19 suspected criminals.
More than 1,300 heavily armed officers exchanged gunfire with gangs for hours in one of Rio's most dangerous slums on Wednesday, and Rio state security secretary Jose Mariano Beltrame promised more police incursions to oust the gangs that rule over most of the city's 600 slums.
He said Thursday that the heavy show of force - which wounded bystanders caught in the crossfire - marked the end to an unofficial "silent nonaggression pact" between officers and drug gangs over turf in the slums.
BRAZIL POLICE KILL 19 IN RIO SLUM SIEGE
The Miami Herald
Jun. 28, 2007
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil --
Police backed by helicopters raided a notorious Rio shantytown and killed 19 suspected drug traffickers in pitched gunbattles.
Police recovered 13 bodies and six more were left, apparently by the drug gangs, inside a van parked outside a police station near the scene of Wednesday's fighting.
The assault led to the worst urban combat in a two-month siege of the Alemao shantytown, where fighting has killed at least 40 people and injured more than 80 since May.
Authorities sent 1,350 officers and elite federal police to the slum long ruled by gangs. They were met with grenades and fusillades from automatic weapons.
REMEMBER LENIN'S LESSONS, CHÁVEZ TELLS RUSSIANS
The Miami Herald
Jun. 28, 2007
MOSCOW --
Russia may have turned its back on Vladimir Lenin's revolutionary ideology, but Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on Thursday told Russians they should revere and revive the ideas of the Soviet Union's founder.
''We should remember Vladimir Lenin and come back to his ideas, especially when it comes to anti-imperialism,'' Chávez told the audience at the opening of a Moscow cultural center named for the South American revolutionary hero Simon Bolivar.
The rhetoric was vintage Chávez -- mainly aimed at portraying Venezuela as a bastion of defiance of the United States. Chávez's comments emphasized Venezuela's solidarity with the Kremlin leadership, which frequently complains of Washington's alleged dominance of global affairs.
''We must defeat imperial hegemony that is imposed on us or we head toward barbarism; we either defeat imperialism or imperialism destroys the world,'' Chávez said. ``The empire must understand that it cannot dominate the world.''
CHÁVEZ WANTS MORE RUSSIAN INVESTMENT
The Miami Herald
Jun. 29, 2007
MOSCOW --
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Friday called on Russian business leaders to boost their investment in his country, criticizing U.S. companies as ''vampires'' and inviting Russians to help develop a massive oil deposit.
The firebrand leader and vehement U.S. critic also reportedly confirmed that his country would be negotiating with Russia about purchasing submarines. Russian media have speculated that one of Chávez's key goals during his trip to Moscow was to arrange new major purchase of Russian weaponry.
At a meeting with Russian lawmakers, Chávez again suggested that the United States had threatened Venezuela and was categorically opposed to Venezuela's buying submarines, according to Russian news agencies.
VENEZUELA CALLS FOR BELARUS PARTNERSHIP
The Miami Herald
Jun. 29, 2007
MINSK, Belarus --
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called for a strategic partnership with Belarus Friday, calling his Belarusian counterpart a "brother-in-arms" and lamenting the pressure he said the United States was putting on Minsk and Caracas.
Chavez traveled to Belarus to meet with President Alexander Lukashenko after wrapping up two days of meetings in Moscow, where Russian media speculated that Chavez was trying to arrange a major new purchase of Russian weaponry.
In Minsk, Chavez told Lukashenko that economic and military ties between the two countries were developing, and he referred to the United States as "the Empire."
COLOMBIA REBELS TO HAND OVER 11 BODIES
The Miami Herald
Jun. 29, 2007
BOGOTA, Colombia --
Leftist Colombian rebels said Friday they will hand over the bodies of 11 hostages - purportedly killed in a botched rescue attempt - only when fighting in the area calms down.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, said Thursday the 11 state lawmakers where killed in a J110une 18 shootout after an "unidentified military group" attacked a rebel camp. The lawmakers had been held hostage by the guerrillas for more than five years.
"In coordination with the central command, we will do all we can for a quick handover of the remains to those grieving," FARC spokesman Raul Reyes said in a letter addressed a widow of one of the lawmakers. But, he added, the handover "depends on a letup in the fighting in the zone where the events happened."
BOLIVIA TARGETS OPPOSITION LEADER'S LAND
The Miami Herald
Jun. 29, 2007
LA PAZ, Bolivia --
The Bolivian government on Thursday began legal proceedings to seize the vast landholdings of a prominent opposition leader, saying the property was fraudulently obtained and should be given to a local Indian tribe.
Soybean oil magnate Branko Marinkovic, an outspoken critic of President Evo Morales, says the 64,250 acres targeted by the government were obtained legally and are being used productively for ranching and agriculture - and that the fraud allegations are merely a political attack.
Morales pushed through a sweeping land reform bill in November granting his government power to seize idle or ill-gotten land. He has pledged to redistribute 77,000 square miles - an area slightly smaller than Nebraska - among the country's long-oppressed Indian majority during the next five years.
COLOMBIAN REBELS BLAMED FOR HOSTAGE DEATHS
The Christian Science Monitor
June 29, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela, June 28 — President Álvaro Uribe of Colombia lashed out at the country’s largest guerrilla group on Thursday, accusing it of killing 11 kidnapped lawmakers after the guerrillas said the hostages died in cross-fire during a military attack this month.
The guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, said Thursday that the killings took place June 18 at an undisclosed camp. The report complicates recent efforts to thaw relations between the rebels and Colombia’s government, which have fought for four decades.
“This unfortunate reminder shows that the war is still very much alive,” said Carlos Eduardo Jaramillo, a former negotiator for Colombia’s government with rebel groups. “Blame for the killings will be allotted to the FARC, as well as the government for its reluctance to cede to the guerrillas’ demands.”
Mr. Uribe said no rescue attempt had been made, despite the rebels’ claim that the lawmakers were killed during an attack by an “unidentified military group.” He has previously called on the army to rescue the dozens of prominent captives held for many years by the rebels.
COLOMBIAN LEADER SAYS REBELS KILLED 11 CIVILIAN HOSTAGES
The Washington Post
June 29, 2007
BOGOTA, Colombia, June 28 -- President Álvaro Uribe on Thursday accused Colombia's largest rebel group of killing 11 civilian hostages, just hours after the guerrillas implied that a botched military rescue operation was to blame for the deaths.
The reported deaths of the civilians, all of them Colombian lawmakers from Valle del Cauca state, could not be confirmed. Still, the news -- widely regarded as true -- touched off a day of mourning across this Andean country and shook the relatives of other hostages, some of whom live as far away as the United States and France. Those families, as well as several European governments, led by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, have recently pressured Colombia to reach an accord with guerrilla commanders that would lead to the release of dozens of captives.
"When I heard this, all I could do was cry," said Jo Rosano, mother of Marc Gonsalves, one of three U.S. Defense Department contractors held by the rebels since 2003. "I put myself in the families' shoes -- oh, dear God. I cry along with them, that's what I do."
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which seized the politicians in 2002 in Valle del Cauca's provincial capitol building in Cali, said in a statement earlier Thursday that the 11 politicians had died on June 18. It said the deaths took place when "an unidentified military group" attacked the jungle camp where they were being held. But the FARC, as the rebel group is known, did not reveal the location of the camp or exactly how the deaths occurred.
POLICE IN BRAZIL PROMISE MORE RAIDS ON DRUG GANGS
The Christian Science Monitor
June 29, 2007
RIO DE JANEIRO, June 28 (AP) — Police trained assault rifles on residents of a gang-infested shantytown as they went back to school and work Thursday, pledging a war on drug gangs after a raid that killed 19 suspected criminals on Wednesday.
More than 1,300 heavily armed officers exchanged gunfire with gangs for hours in one of Rio’s most dangerous slums on Wednesday, and José Mariano Beltrame, Rio’s state security secretary, promised more incursions to oust the gangs that rule over most of the city’s 600 slums.
He said Thursday that the heavy show of force — which had also wounded bystanders who were caught in the cross-fire — signaled the end to an unofficial “silent nonaggression pact” between officers and drug gangs.
MEXICAN LEFTIST CALLS MASS RALLY
The Miami Herald
Jul. 01, 2007
MEXICO CITY --
The leftist who barely lost Mexico's presidential election criticized President Felipe Calderon's oil policies, promising unspecified consequences during a mass rally Sunday aimed at re-igniting his government-in-resistance.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador threatened to rouse the masses if Calderon tries to privatize the state-owned oil industry or open it to foreign investment.
"Zero negotiation. I repeat, zero negotiation with those who carry out policies against the people, and hand over the nation's sovereignty to foreigners," he told the rally, which drew hundreds of thousands of people.
Lopez Obrador has blamed his defeat on fraud and refused to recognize Calderon - who won the five-way election by a margin of about 230,000 votes - and has mounted his own parallel government with himself as "legitimate president."
HONDURANS RIDE WINDS OF CHANGE BLOWN IN BY MITCH
The Washington Post
July 1, 2007
CHOLUTECA, Honduras -- When Hurricane Mitch tore into this sleepy Pacific coastal province of dairy farms and cane fields in October 1998, its torrential rains and winds swept away an entire way of life -- and opened up unexpected new vistas of change.
Nearly a decade later, the devastated landscape is being transformed.
Cracked roads and bridges have been rebuilt with sturdy new designs. Flooded warrens of adobe huts have been replaced by hillside lots of orderly concrete bungalows. Cow pastures are being bulldozed to build textile factories; fallow fields are dotted with candy-colored motels; and air-conditioned American fast-food outlets have eclipsed the steamy sidewalk comedores of yore.
Choluteca is still an impoverished rural region, where illiterate peasants gather firewood on bicycles and clear brush with machetes. But it is also strategically situated near a semi-developed seaport, a major highway and two foreign borders. Now, a group of wealthy native sons are betting they can turn it into the next modern, international trade center in Latin America.
ARGENTINA'S FIRST LADY TO RUN FOR PRESIDENCY
The Washington Post
July 2, 2007
BUENOS AIRES, July 1 -- Argentine President Néstor Kirchner will not run for reelection in October, but his wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, will run for the office, government officials announced Sunday.
Kirchner's cabinet chief, Alberto Fernández, confirmed news reports published Sunda
y announcing that Cristina Kirchner, a senator representing Buenos Aires province, will formally launch her candidacy at a July 19 rally.
The announcement ended more than a year of speculation about which of the Kirchners would be the candidate of their Victory Front party in this year's election, scheduled for Oct. 28.
The Kirchners have not publicly discussed why the president -- who would be easily reelected, according to most opinion polls -- would not seek a second term. But he has experienced several setbacks in recent weeks, watching endorsed allies lose elections for Buenos Aires mayor and provincial governorships. Energy shortages and inflation have also eroded his popularity, according to polls.
DRUG SUSPECT ACCUSES MEXICAN OFFICIAL
The Miami Herald
Jul. 02, 2007
MEXICO CITY --
A Chinese-Mexican businessman charged in the largest drug-related cash seizure in history accused a top Mexican official of forcing him to stash millions in illicit campaign funds in the walls and closets of his Mexico City mansion.
In the first major accusation linking the administration of President Felipe Calderon to Mexico's drug underworld, Zhenli Ye Gon claims Javier Lozano Alarcon, now Mexico's labor secretary, threatened to kill him unless he stored duffel bags stuffed with at least $150 million.
But key details in his version of events seem contradictory, unclear or unverifiable, and a senior U.S. anti-drug official said he knew of no evidence that the Calderon administration - which has sent troops into the streets to fight drug cartels - has any links to organized crime.
LIVING ON CUBAN FOOD RATION ISN'T EASY
The Miami Herald
Jul. 02, 2007
HAVANA --
No one on this communist-run island dies from starvation, but every month Cubans on the "universal ration" must use ingenuity and organization to ensure everyone gets enough to eat.
For 30 days, I lived on a similar program. I spent less than $17 for a month's sustenance, dropped nine pounds and learned - like Cubans - to budget carefully, plan meals ahead, buy only what was necessary and never throw food away.
Most importantly, I realized that like most Americans, I take food for granted, assuming I'll always get what I want when I want it.
Cuba's ration system began in 1962, to guarantee a low-priced basket of basic foods just as the U.S. cut off trade with the island, sparking food shortages. Initially characterized as temporary, the program remained as Cuba struggled to feed its people, turning to the Eastern bloc for most of its food.
SCARCITY OF GOODS FRUSTRATES ARGENTINES
The Miami Herald
Jul. 02, 2007
BUENOS AIRES --
At the height of rush hour, Luis Ibanez parked his taxi in the middle of the busiest intersection of this city, got out of the car and stood cross-armed in the street as traffic jammed around him.
Dozens of other cabdrivers joined him, protesting a national shortage of compressed natural gas -- the primary fuel for the vast majority of taxis here. As winter approached in the Southern Hemisphere, the Argentine government cut natural gas supplies to service stations and industrial users in mid June. It was a temporary measure to ensure that there would be sufficient fuel available to heat Argentine homes later that month.
Falling temperatures have exposed weak points in an Argentine economy that boasts 9 percent annual growth, lowered unemployment and rising salaries. In addition to the shortage of natural gas, Argentina recently has faced shortages of some agricultural goods, including milk and other dairy products. Now, many economists -- and a growing number of people in the streets -- are questioning the inflation-control policies of President Néstor Kirchner.
A YEAR LATER, A MEXICAN LEFTIST’S TONE IS SUBDUED
The New York Times
July 2, 2007
MEXICO CITY, July 1 — It has been a year since the leftist leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador stood before hundreds of thousands of supporters and declared that the country’s presidential election had been stolen from him. On Sunday he repeated the performance, but the crowds were smaller and quieter, while their leader has begun to sound less like a firebrand.
The rally in the capital’s central square was widely seen here as an attempt by Mr. López Obrador to reinvigorate his flagging antiestablishment movement and as a test of his political strength. It coincides with the publication of his book, “The Mafia Robbed Us of the Presidency.”
About 80,000 people showed up, many of them bused in for the event with financing from the Democratic Revolution Party, which Mr. López Obrador leads. The mood was subdued compared with the electrified atmosphere of last year, when he vowed to begin protests and to stop his conservative rival, Felipe Calderón, from taking office.
ARGENTINE FIRST LADY TO SEEK PRESIDENCY
The Miami Herald
Jul. 03, 2007
BUENOS AIRES --
Argentina's ruling left-leaning coalition has chosen the nation's first lady, a senator who draws comparisons to Hillary Clinton, as its candidate for the October presidential elections.
Campaign billboards bearing a photograph of the smiling Cristina Fernández de Kirchner appeared in Buenos Aires on Monday with the slogan ''The change is just beginning'' -- hours after the government announced President Néstor Kirchner will not seek a second term.
Kirchner kept the country in suspense for months over whether he would seek reelection.
But instead, the president will step aside in favor of his wife, a move that also brings Fernández inevitable comparisons to Eva ''Evita'' Peron, the charismatic former first lady and second wife of late caudillo Juan Domingo Peron. The Perons were Argentina's dominant power couple in the 1940s and '50s.
REPORT: COLOMBIA LABOR LEADERS AT RISK
The Miami Herald
Jul. 03, 2007
Despite the demobilization of Colombia's illegal paramilitary groups -- deemed terrorist groups by the U.S. government -- labor leaders continue to be killed, disappeared or threatened in Colombia, the human rights group Amnesty International reported Tuesday.
In its report, titled Killings, Arbitrary Detentions and Death Threats -- The Reality of Trade Unionism in Colombia, Amnesty International describes a pattern of systematic attacks against trade unionists involved in labor disputes, campaigns against privatization or in support of workers' rights in some areas where mining, gas and oil industries operate.
''Amnesty International considers that a coordinated military-paramilitary strategy designed to undermine the work of trade unionists continues to be pursued both through their physical elimination and by seeking to discredit the legitimacy of trade union work,'' the report said.
VENEZUELA AGREES TO SELL GASOLINE TO IRAN
The Miami herald
Jul. 03, 2007
TEHRAN, Iran --
(AP) -- Venezuela has agreed to sell gasoline to Iran, the South American county's energy minister said in comments published Tuesday, a week after the Islamic country imposed a fuel rationing program that has sparked violence.
''Yes, Iranians have asked to buy gasoline from us and we have accepted this demand,'' Rafael Ramírez told the Iranian daily newspaper Shargh. The reformist daily said Ramirez declined to elaborate on the deal.
During a visit to Iran this week, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez called the two nations ''strategic partners.'' Ramírez accompanied Chávez on the visit.
Last week, the Iranian government began rationing fuel, causing angry Iranians to smash shop windows and set fire to dozens of gas stations in the capital Tehran and several other cities.
BRAZIL STAGES RAID AGAINST DEBT SLAVERY
The Miami Herald
Jul. 03, 2007
BRASILIA, Brazil --
Brazilian authorities said they raided an Amazon plantation where more than 1,000 laborers were found working 14-hour days in horrendous conditions cutting sugar cane for ethanol production.
Authorities said the raid was Brazil's biggest to date against debt slavery, a practice that lures poor laborers to remote spots, where they rack up debts to plantation owners who charge exorbitant prices for everything from food to transportation.
But the Amazon plantation's owner - the biggest ethanol producer in the northeastern state of Para - vigorously denied the charges Tuesday and said the workers make good money by Brazilian standards.
The raid was in the remote town of Ulianopolis, the government-run Agencia Brasil news agency said late Monday. The company running the plantation said the government action started Friday and lasted three days.
RELATIVES OF DEAD CUBAN DISSIDENT CALL FOR INQUIRY
The Miami Herald
Jul. 03, 2007
HAVANA --
Relatives and a Cuban human rights group called Monday for an investigation into how a government critic died while in police custody last month.
Manuel Acosta, a 47-year-old former boxer and member of a dissident group known as Democracy Movement, was arrested June 21 in the town of Aguada de Pasajeros on vague charges of criminality, according to a letter signed by his cousin, Pedro Larena.
Police held Acosta at a municipal station where he was found dead three days later, according to the letter distributed to international journalists by a dissident human rights group. Authorities told Acosta's relatives that he hanged himself in his cell, and that an autopsy confirmed suicide.
ARGENTINA’S PRESIDENT STEPS ASIDE TO SUPPORT WIFE AS HIS SUCCESSOR
The New York Times
July 3, 2007
BUENOS AIRES, July 2 — Néstor Kirchner announced Monday that he would not seek a second term as president of Argentina but would instead support his wife, Senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, as the candidate of the Peronist movement in October’s presidential election.
“Why not finally a woman to be the one to deepen change and transformation?” Mr. Kirchner, with his wife at his side, asked during an afternoon event at the presidential palace. Argentina needs “to renew and generate new ideas,” he said, and “all of us profoundly believe in the capacity to excel that Cristina is going to offer.”
Mr. Kirchner’s decision to step aside in favor of his wife is seen as a maneuver meant to allow the couple to take turns running the country for a dozen years or more. Presidents in Argentina are restricted to two consecutive four-year terms, but can run again after a term on the sidelines.
CHÁVEZ THREATENS TO WITHDRAW MERCOSUR BID
The Miami Herald
Jul. 03, 2007
CARACAS --
President Hugo Chávez said Tuesday that Venezuela will withdraw its bid to join South America's trading bloc if Brazilian and Paraguayan lawmakers do not approve his country's membership before September.
Chávez -- a self-described socialist -- sees Mercosur as a means for South American nations to unite against U.S. economic and political influence in the region. But he said Mercosur member countries appear unwilling to break with U.S.-style capitalism.
''We are not desperate to enter Mercosur and much less so when we feel that there's little willingness within Mercosur for change,'' said Chávez in a nationally televised speech.
Brazilian lawmakers have demanded Venezuela apologize for recent statements in which Chávez compared them to a ''pirate's parrot,'' suggesting they were echoing U.S. criticism of his government's decision last month not to renew the license of an opposition-aligned TV station.
''Venezuela does not have to present an apology,'' Chávez said.
NOTORIOUS PINOCHET SECURITY AGENT DIES
The Miami Herald
Jul. 04, 2007
SANTIAGO, Chile --
Osvaldo Romo, a security agent who became a symbol of torture and repression under Gen. Augusto Pinochet's former military dictatorship, died in prison Wednesday, authorities said. He was 70.
Romo died of heart and respiratory problems, the tional Corrections Service said.
He was serving two prison terms totaling 15 years for the killing of three dissidents during Pinochet's 1973-90 regime. He faced several other trials on human rights cases.
Scores of court testimonies detailed Romo's participation in dozens of cases of torture.
As a civilian in Pinochet's feared Dina security service, Romo was even more prominent than some high-ranking officers who gave orders for repression. He was a field operative openly involved in repressive actions, some of which he later even boasted about.
MEXICAN TROOPS CATCH ZETA HIT MAN
The Miami Herald
Jul. 04, 2007
MEXICO CITY --
Luis Reyes Enríquez was lying on the bed of a $13-per-night hotel room in a provincial town when federal troops came for him. Reyes, a leader in Mexico City of the infamous band of hit men known as the Zetas, was caught off guard: He was hung over from a wedding party the night before.
The arrest of the man known as ''Zeta 12'' and ''El Rex'' on June 24 was the latest in a recent series of blows to the Zetas, an organization born in the late 1990s when the Gulf cartel of drug traffickers began recruiting Mexican army deserters.
Reyes, 39, is himself an army deserter, and a former federal police officer who once was assigned to work in the attorney general's office. A well-trained gunman with an official pedigree, he is precisely the kind of man who helped build the Zetas' reputation as a paramilitary army at the service of drug traffickers.
Since taking office in December, President Felipe Calderón has declared an aggressive war on drugs and has deployed thousands of federal troops throughout several Mexican states.
FARC VIDEO SHOWS KIDNAPPED SOLDIERS
The Miami Herald
Jul. 04, 2007
BOGOTA, Colombia --
Colombian rebels released a video showing seven kidnapped police officers and soldiers - some of whom have spent nearly a decade in captivity - pleading for the government and rebels to negotiate their freedom.
The video was made by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and given to the news channel Al-Jazeera, according to Colombia's RCN news, which played clips Tuesday night.
In the video, soldier Giovanni Dominguez was able to shed more light on the conditions of Colombia's most famous hostage, former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, abducted five years ago with her campaign manager, Clara Rojas.
"In the camps, I have met with many prisoners of war and some detained politicians like Ingrid Betancourt and Mrs. Clara Rojas and a little boy that goes everywhere with them," Dominguez said. He was almost certainly referring to 3-year-old Emmanuel, a child Rojas is believed to have had with one of her captors.
"When Mrs. Clara gets tired of carrying the child, a guerrilla kindly offers to help her, which (the boy) loves because he likes to play horsey," said Dominguez, who like the others gives an individual message straight to camera.
BUSINESSMAN IN MEXICO SAYS TOP OFFICIALS HID MILLIONS
The New Yorki Times
July 4, 2007
MEXICO CITY, July 3 — The Mexican government vigorously denied this week the accusations of a Chinese-Mexican businessman who is wanted on drug charges here but who asserts that $150 million found hidden in his mansion came from members of President Felipe Calderón’s party, including the secretary of labor.
Zhenli Ye Gon, a naturalized Mexican citizen who owns a pharmaceutical company, rocked the political world here recently by suggesting, through his lawyer in New York City, that the labor secretary, Javier Lozano Alarcón, had threatened to kill him last year unless he agreed to hide duffel bags stuffed with tens of millions of dollars in his house.
On Tuesday, Mr. Lozano Alarcón issued a statement calling the charges “false, absurd, untrue, crooked and perverse.” A spokesman for Mr. Calderón, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the president had yet to make an official statement, said Mr. Zhenli appeared to be making false accusations as part of a strategy to broker a deal with prosecutors here.
CHÁVEZ THREATENS PRIVATE HEALTHCARE
The Miami Herald
Jul. 04, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela --
(AP) -- President Hugo Chávez said Tuesday his government will nationalize Venezuela's privately owned hospitals and clinics if they fail to reduce healthcare costs.
''If the owners of the private clinics don't want to obey the laws, then the private clinics will be nationalized,'' Chávez said in a nationally televised speech.
Venezuela has a two-tiered health system in which wealthier, insured patients often can afford prompter, better treatment at private hospitals.
''This is the evil of capitalism,'' Chávez said of the healthcare costs at private clinics. ``We have to regulate this progressively, transforming the savage capitalist market into a market of solidarity.''
|
![[ space ]](home/relleno.gif){kind=small}
![[ space ]](home/img_sub_flacso.gif)