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COLOMBIA'S LOW-TECH COCA ASSAULT
The Washington Post
July 7, 2007
EL MIRADOR, Colombia -- The latest shift in Colombia's war on drugs is evident on a green hilltop in this town, as weather-beaten men in gray jumpsuits -- government-paid eradicators -- use hoes and muscle to rip out bushes of coca. Policemen carrying M-16 assault rifles and land-mine detectors stand sentry, while a radio operator listens in on the crackling conversation between two Marxist guerrilla units.
The operation here in the southern state of Caqueta is tedious, hard and dangerous, since destroying coca is a financial blow to the guerrillas, who draw much of their funding from the crop that is used to make cocaine. But Colombian officials say uprooting by hand is the future -- a strategy at odds with U.S. reliance on aerial fumigation.
Three years ago, almost all coca eradication efforts in Colombia were carried out through aerial spraying. By last year, however, more than 100,000 acres of the crop were destroyed by hand, accounting for almost 25 percent of the coca eradicated. The Defense Ministry said it is designing a plan to uproot 172,000 acres by hand this year.
"We are convinced of the advantages of manual eradication over spraying, and that's why we want to give more importance to manual eradication," Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said in an interview, echoing the views of other officials.
MEDIA MOGUL LEARNS TO LIVE WITH CHÁVEZ
The New York Times
July 5, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela, July 4 — Three years ago, the media mogul Gustavo A. Cisneros was a leader of Venezuela’s opposition and his television network, Venevisión, regularly lambasted President Hugo Chávez.
So antagonistic were relations that Mr. Chávez accused him of conspiring to topple him. Government agents raided Mr. Cisneros’s ranch, fishing camp and offices.
The tensions were resolved only after former President Jimmy Carter, a longtime friend of Mr. Cisneros, brokered a meeting between the men in 2004 before a referendum to determine whether President Chávez should be recalled from office.
Today, as more details of that encounter emerge, Mr. Cisneros, who sits at the helm of a family fortune estimated at $6 billion, has become a target of the same opposition he once championed. Venevisión, critics say, is now positioned to benefit from Mr. Chávez’s recent decision to push the station’s main rival, RCTV, off the public airwaves.
GROUP: FEWER POLITICAL PRISONERS IN CUBA
The Miami Herald
Jul. 05, 2007
HAVANA --
The number of political prisoners in Cuba has dropped by more than 20 percent since Raul Castro took over from his ailing elder brother, but widespread repression has continued, a leading independent human rights group said Thursday.
"Still in force is a police state whose nature is reflected in almost every aspect of national life," the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation said in a report.
Raul Castro, the 76-year-old defense minister, has led the country since his 80-year-old brother Fidel temporarily stepped aside in July 2006 following intestinal surgery. Since then, Cuba has seen no major political or economic changes.
The commission, whose reports are regularly used by international groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, said 246 political prisoners were being held as of June 30, compared with 283 at the beginning of 2007 and 316 a year ago.
The commission operates independently of the government and without its approval, but has been largely tolerated. Even during a government crackdown on the opposition in March 2003, the commission continued to operate, providing information to international news media and human rights groups about the arrests and trials.
MINERS ACROSS MEXICO STRIKE FOR SAFETY
The Miami Herald
Jul. 05, 2007
MEXICO CITY --
Mine workers across Mexico waged a 24-hour strike Thursday, hoping to achieve better safety standards and to improve collective labor's footing in the industry, a union official said.
Carlos Pavon, spokesman for the National Mining and Metal Workers Union, said the organization started planning the walkout about a week ago.
With the majority of the union's 34,000 members engaged in the strike, Pavon said it will affect all of Mexico's mining companies, including Grupo Mexico SAB, a major copper producer, and Industrias Penoles SA, the world's top silver producer. The union also includes workers of steel plants owned by Arcelor Mittal in the Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas.
Safety at Mexican mines has come under increased scrutiny after 63 miners were killed last year in an underground explosion in a northern mine.
Industrias Penoles spokesman Luis Rey Delgado said the strikes have caused two of the company's 10 operations in Mexico to stop, but only partially.
Penoles' workers so far have respected the company's request to keep running its machinery, which requires maintenance that cannot be put on hold for 24 hours, he said.
EX-POLICE CHAPLAIN ON TRIAL IN ARGENTINA
The Miami Herald
Jul. 05, 2007
LA PLATA, Argentina --
A former police chaplain went on trial Thursday, the first Roman Catholic cleric to be prosecuted on charges of complicity in deaths and disappearances during Argentina's 1976-83 military dictatorship.
Christian Von Wernich, 69, wore a bulletproof vest and a priest's collar as he appeared behind a reinforced glass shield in a federal courthouse in the provincial capital La Plata.
Shouts of "assassin!" from 200 protesters outside could be heard in the chamber as a clerk read charges accusing Von Wernich of collaborating with state security agents and covering up crimes in seven deaths, 31 cases of torture and 42 cases of illegal imprisonment.
Von Wernich, who was arrested in 2003, declined to make an opening statement on the advice of his lawyer, who vehemently rejected the charges and promised a vigorous defense.
Nearly 13,000 people are officially listed as killed or missing in the dictatorship's crackdown on dissent, known as the dirty war. Human rights groups say the toll is closer to 30,000.
The prosecution said it would call witnesses to testify that Von Wernich collaborated with police torturers and provided security agents with information he obtained from prisoners while giving "spiritual assistance" at secret detention centers.
COLOMBIANS MARCH TO PROTEST KIDNAPPINGS
The Miami Herald
Jul. 05, 2007
BOGOTA, Colombia --
More than a million people marched through Colombia's major cities Thursday and drivers honked horns in unison in a mass protest to demand the immediate liberation of the country's kidnap victims.
In all, some 3,000 Colombians are being held by kidnappers, according to the anti-abduction citizens' group Pais Libre. Those being held include former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. defense contractors in the hands of leftist rebels.
Thursday's protest was organized after leftist rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, said last week that 11 state lawmakers the rebels had held for more than five years were killed in a "crossfire."
Called by the government and the church, marches and "human chains" were staged at noon in different cities from the Amazon jungle outpost of Leticia to the Caribbean city of Cartagena.
Wearing white T-shirts and waving flags, thousands marched on Bogota's main plaza. Leading the march was President Alvaro Uribe, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "Unconditional freedom now!"
Police said their preliminary estimate was that more than a million people marched nationwide. The demonstrations were the largest since October 1999, when an estimated five million Colombians joined in a nationwide protest against violence and kidnappings.
ECUADOR MOVES TO CUT INTEREST RATES FOR POOR
The Christian Science Monitor
July 6, 2007
QUITO, ECUADOR - Ecuador's new leftist president, Rafael Correa, is wasting no time forging his own path toward the "21st-century socialism" championed by Venezuela's anti-US leader, Hugo Chávez.
In April, three months after taking office on promises to wrest control of the country from the hands of a corrupt elite, Mr. Correa kicked out the representative to the World Bank. He blames the financial institution for forced privatization programs that have failed to benefit the poor, he says.
Now he's pushing through a controversial "financial justice" bill to increase state control of the banking sector.
The bill, which is expected to pass into law this week or next, paves the way for a complete overhaul of an abusive financial system, say government officials. It's also the latest example of a populist movement strengthening throughout Latin America.
LIMA RESTAURANT SHUT FOR DISCRIMINATION
The Miami Herald
Jul. 06, 2007
LIMA, Peru --
Human rights activists cheered a rare decision by a Peruvian consumer protection agency Friday to close a popular restaurant and impose a stiff fine for repeatedly turning away dark-skinned people.
The upscale suburb of Miraflores complied with the agency's request to close Cafe del Mar for 60 days. The restaurant also was fined $76,000 for its "discriminatory" entrance policy.
"This is monumental," said Wilfredo Ardito of the rights group APRODEH, which has campaigned against Peru's deep economic and racial segregation. "Before people would say that reporting (discrimination) was of no use, but of course it is."
Three other Lima clubs have been fined for allegations of discrimination, but this is the first time one has been shut, according to Edwin Aldana, the agency's legal coordinator. "We consider this a message" to other establishments to stop their discriminatory practices, he told The Associated Press.
Peru's white elite has held onto wealth and power for centuries in the capital despite the Andean nation having a large Indian and mestizo majority. The government only began imposing fines for discriminatory practices in 2004.
LAN HOLDER FINED FOR INSIDER TRADING
The Miami Herald
Jul. 06, 2007
SANTIAGO, Chile --
Chile's securities regulator on Friday fined a leading right-wing politician and former presidential candidate for insider trading of LAN Airlines SA stock.
The SVS, Chile's securities regulator, said it fined Sebastian Pinera $680,000, saying he bought airline stock a few days before LAN issued its first-half earnings in 2006.
Considered one of Chile's richest men, Pinera was a member of LAN's board when he bought the stock and had advance knowledge of the company's upcoming earnings report, the SVS said.
The SVS did not detail the amount of the purchase.
Pinera who now owns about 28 percent of LAN, bought 3 million local shares of the company in July 2006, equivalent to about 1 percent of the company's outstanding shares, according to the local stock market.
Pinera "knew in detail the financial situation of the company, although it was not publicly known," SVS said.
Pinera denied any wrongdoing, saying that the fine was politically motivated because he is "a person with political expectations, with an important political situation."
PERU TEACHERS STRIKE TO PROTEST TESTING
The Miami Herald
Jul. 06, 2007
LIMA, Peru --
Peruvian public school teachers walked off the job Thursday to protest an education reform proposal that would require them to pass periodic competency exams.
February test results showed almost half of public school teachers cannot solve basic math problems and one-third are deficient in reading comprehension.
Congress began debating a bill Thursday that would fire teachers who fail the test three times, a move the teachers' union, Sutep, says will lead to "arbitrary" firings.
Protesting teachers surrounded the regional education building in the central Junin department, and threw stones, burned tires and blocked roads, state news agency Andina reported.
CHAVEZ'S PLANS WORRY CATHOLIC LEADERS
The Miami Herald
Jul. 07, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela --
Roman Catholic leaders said Saturday they are worried about President Hugo Chavez's plans to rewrite the constitution, and said he has no right to insult priests who publicly disagree with him.
Chavez has proposed doing away with presidential term limits as part of constitutional reforms, which would allow him to run again in 2012 and beyond. He says any constitutional changes would have to be approved in a popular vote.
But the Venezuelan Bishops' Conference has complained that reform proposals are being drafted without public involvement by a committee that Chavez appointed.
The process raises "serious doubts about the democratic appearance of the constitutional reform," the church leaders said Saturday.
Interior Minister Pedro Carreno called the comments "one more broadside of insults" from the Catholic leadership.
Insisting the public will have ample input in the reforms, Carreno said the vast majority of Venezuelans are with Chavez, and that church leaders are defending "the interests of the oligarchy."
CALDERÓN'S OFFENSIVE AGAINST DRUG CARTELS
The Washington Post
July 8, 2007
MEXICO CITY -- Every Monday morning, President Felipe Calderón settles in at the head of the table in the presidential library at Los Pinos, Mexico's fortresslike chief executive's compound.
Calderón presides over strategy sessions with the leaders of Mexico's army and navy, key players in the centerpiece initiative of his seven-month-old presidency: a military assault against drug cartels. No Mexican president in recent history has convened his security council with such regularity, but few of his modern-day predecessors have faced such a daunting security crisis.
Calderón is betting his presidency on a surge of Mexican troops -- one of the country's largest deployments of the military in a crime-fighting role -- to wage street-by-street battles with drug cartels that are blamed for more than 3,000 execution-style killings in the past year and a half. Sending more than 20,000 federal troops and police officers to nine Mexican states has made Calderón extremely popular; his latest approval ratings hit 65 percent.
But as the campaign drags into its eighth month and the death toll mounts, Calderón is facing a growing cadre of critics, including the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights representative in Mexico, who opposes the use of the military in policing. Calderón is also contending with foes in Mexico's Congress who want to strip him of the authority to dispatch troops without congressional approval. The Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights organization, has faulted him as quick to use the military but slow to reform Mexico's corrupt police.
SMUGGLERS, POVERTY FUEL HAITI EXODUS
The Miami Herald
Jul. 08, 2007
CAP-HAITIEN --
For decades, Haitians have boarded rickety boats and fled the country -- some coming ashore in South Florida -- to escape political turmoil.
After a lull following the election last year of President René Préval, Haitians have resumed risking their lives at sea -- but this time, politicians and others say, the country's moribund economy and more-aggressive smugglers are behind the surge.
In recent months, after scores of migrants drowned near the Turks and Caicos Islands, Haitian officials have scrambled to curtail the flight. Police have become more vigilant in patrolling the coast and cracking down on smugglers. And some lawmakers have held town hall meetings and produced radio ads in the north, from where most boats leave, in the hope of deterring others by describing the dangers of the voyage.
Marc Antoine Franc¸ois, a member of parliament from Ile de la Tortue, who is behind the campaign, acknowledged in a recent interview that he faces a daunting task in a country where few people have jobs.
BRAZIL'S AMAZON DAM PROJECT MOVES AHEAD
The Miami Herald
Jul. 09, 2007
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil --
Regulators granted preliminary approval Monday to a massive Amazon dam project praised by business leaders as a way to prevent possible energy shortages but criticized by environmentalists as a potential environmental disaster.
The approval by the Ibama national environmental protection agency means companies can soon begin bidding to construct the project, which would generate electricity and allow barges to navigate 2,600 miles to upstream tributaries in Peru and Bolivia.
Other permits must also be obtained before the multiple dam project gets under way, but Monday's move was a key regulatory step and is sure to prompt big construction companies to line up to participate in the project expected to cost 20 billion to 28 billion reals ($10 billion to $14.7 billion).
Ibama imposed a series of 33 restrictions designed to reduce the dams' impact on the environment and to help relocate Brazilians living in the area whose homes would be swamped, according to the government's Agencia Brasil news agency.
The government hopes to complete the Santo Antonio and Jirau dams on the Madeira River, a major Amazon tributary, by 2012 to generate electricity for Latin America's largest nation and economy. When finished, they are expected to produce 6,450 megawatts, or 8 percent of Brazil's current electricity demand.
BRAZIL PRESIDENT DEFENDS ETHANOL BOOM
The Miami Herald
Jul. 09, 2007
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil --
Brazil's president said Monday that his nation's booming ethanol business won't hurt the Amazon rain forest, dismissing criticism that increased production of the alternate fuel could lead to deforestation.
Silva, referring to concerns raised during his European visit last week, said it is unjustified to think that increased production of sugar cane for ethanol could prompt more jungle clearing.
He said that Amazon weather conditions aren't favorable for the sugar cane used to produce ethanol and suggested critics are trying to prevent Brazil from advancing economically by taking advantage of rising demand for biofuels.
"The Portuguese discovered a long time ago that the Amazon isn't a place to plant cane," Silva said, and added, "The cartel of the world's powerful is trying to prevent Brazil from developing, trying to prevent Brazil from being transformed into a great nation."
While there are few sugarcane-ethanol plantations in the Amazon, environmentalists have voiced concerns that a global ethanol boom could accelerate rain forest destruction if trees are cleared to make room for crops.
MEXICO'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH TO LOBBY
The Miami Herald
Jul. 09, 2007
MEXICO CITY --
Fresh from a bruising battle over abortion, Mexico's Roman Catholic Church is drawing up a proposal to loosen restrictions on its participation in political debate.
The president of Mexico's Catholic Lawyers College, Armando Martinez, told The Associated Press on Monday that the proposed changes would include "total" freedom of expression in political affairs and allowing public schools to offer religious education.
Mexican law forbids clerics from "forming associations for political ends" and bars them from partisan politics or holding political meetings at churches. It also outlaws religious teachings at public schools.
The Mexican government has kept the church on the political sidelines for the last century, fearing a return to the days when priests controlled much of the nation's public life.
But the debate over the church's role was renewed this spring when several priests spoke out publicly against Mexico City's eventual legalization of abortion in the first trimester. The church mobilized thousands against the measure.
Mexico's conservative National Action Party, which holds the presidency and is often allied with the church, has not stated its position publicly about the proposal.
BRAZIL'S AMAZON DAM PROJECT MOVES AHEAD
The Miami Herald
Jul. 09, 2007
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil --
Regulators granted preliminary approval Monday to a massive Amazon dam project praised by business leaders as a way to prevent possible energy shortages but criticized by environmentalists as a potential environmental disaster.
The approval by the Ibama national environmental protection agency means companies can soon begin bidding to construct the project, which would generate electricity and allow barges to navigate 2,600 miles to upstream tributaries in Peru and Bolivia.
Other permits must also be obtained before the multiple dam project gets under way, but Monday's move was a key regulatory step and is sure to prompt big construction companies to line up to participate in the project expected to cost 20 billion to 28 billion reals ($10 billion to $14.7 billion).
Ibama imposed a series of 33 restrictions designed to reduce the dams' impact on the environment and to help relocate Brazilians living in the area whose homes would be swamped, according to the government's Agencia Brasil news agency.
NORIEGA'S SUPPORTERS RALLIED BY HIS POSSIBLE RETURN TO PANAMA
The Miami Herald
Jul. 09, 2007
One paragraph hints of a once passionate friendship torn apart by prison. It is too intimate, she says, to be reproduced in a newspaper. The letter ends with the words ''subliminal kisses.'' It is signed ``Mantonor.''
That would be Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, the former Panamanian dictator captured in a 1989 invasion by U.S. troops and now serving a 30-year sentence in Miami-Dade County on drug charges.
Noriega, 70, is set to be paroled Sept. 9 after serving nearly 18 years of his sentence. He qualified for early release because he was automatically eligible for parole and he earned time for good behavior.
What happens afterward is unclear. The Panamanian and French governments each want him to serve prison sentences for other crimes.
But Gayle de Best, 55, who kept her friendship with Noriega a secret for almost two decades, and a small group of other Noriega supporters are now speaking out on his behalf and saying they hope to greet Noriega with flowers, not handcuffs.
ARGENTINE LEADER’S WIFE MAY INHERIT HIS TROUBLES
The New Cork Times
July 10, 2007
BUENOS AIRES, July 8 — Néstor Kirchner’s decision not to seek a second term as president of Argentina and instead step aside in favor of his wife’s candidacy has been described both as an act of generosity and canny political calculation. But his wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, faces several traps, mostly of her husband’s making, during the campaign that lies ahead, and even more if, as expected, she wins the October election.
After four years, Mr. Kirchner, 57, enjoys a level of job approval and popularity here that are unusual for someone in office that long. But his numbers have been slipping in recent months, the result of problems and controversies that have emerged in both the political and economic realms.
“The horizon holds some clouds for her,” said Graciela Romer, a leading poll taker and political analyst here. “In the short term, everything seems sunny. But the forecast has to be that of a high probability of storm clouds, especially if the economic situation stagnates.”
AMERICAN ABDUCTED IN COLOMBIA DOING WELL
The Miami Herald
Jul. 10, 2007
BOGOTA, Colombia --
The mother of a kidnapped U.S. contractor in Colombia said her son has made friends with his captors, learned to speak Spanish and is generally holding up well after more than four years as a hostage.
Yet Jo Rosano was also told that the camp where her son Marc Gonsalves is being held is rigged with explosives to prevent any attempted military rescue.
Rosano met Friday with a Colombian policeman who shared some time in the same rebel camp with Gonsalves.
Before his escape in April, Jhon Pinchao endured nearly nine years as a hostage of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the FARC, the nation's largest rebel group.
"He enlightened me on their routine," said Rosano in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, describing her meeting with Pinchao in Florida. "My son is making the best of his situation, and that helped me to hear, because I feared he may be moping around."
COLOMBIA CHALLENGES REBELS WITH A NEW WEAPON
The Washington Post
July 10, 2007
SAN VICENTE DEL CAGUAN, Colombia -- Marxist rebels once ran a visitors center in this town in southern Colombia, the office staffed by a young, amiable female guerrilla and the walls decorated with huge posters of famed fighters. Rebels ran a court, built bridges and taxed locals, including the farmers who grew coca in such abundance that the region became ground zero for the war on drugs.
Those were the days when the government had ceded this town to guerrillas for disarmament negotiations, simply making official the absence of a state presence to which residents had long been accustomed.
Now, in an ambitious government program here and in 52 other towns nationwide, a multi-agency task force operated out of Bogota has built schools and roads and introduced public institutions such as courts. In essence, President Álvaro Uribe's administration is trying to create a functioning state, essential if the government is ever to erode the power of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the country's biggest rebel group.
If expanded, the program would amount to what Colombian officials describe as a logical second phase of a U.S.-backed campaign, called Plan Colombia, that combines military offensives with aggressive aerial fumigation of coca and opium poppy crops to weaken rebels. With the U.S. Congress now in the hands of Democrats, who have promised to shift more aid from the military to social and economic programs, Colombia may be better positioned to secure funds for nation-building in regions practically devoid of any government presence.
FARC LEADER CONVICTED IN TAKING OF 3 U.S. HOSTAGES
The Washington Post
July 10, 2007
Colombian rebel leader Ricardo Palmera was convicted yesterday in federal court of helping hold three Americans hostage for years in jungle prison camps. He is the only person ever found responsible for their capture.
Better known by his nom de guerre, Simon Trinidad, Palmera is the most senior commander ever captured from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, Latin America's largest rebel group. He was extradited to the United States in 2004 and charged with hostage and terrorism charges.
FARC's force of about 12,000 fighters has battled the Colombian government for four decades, and the U.S. government considers it to be a terrorist organization and a drug cartel.
While D.C. District Court jurors found Palmera guilty of conspiracy to commit hostage-taking, they were split over whether to convict him of supporting terrorism. A federal judge sent them back to keep deliberating that charge and three counts of actual hostage-taking.
The three Americans -- Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell -- were civilian Pentagon contractors flying a surveillance mission over the Colombian jungle when their plane crashed in 2003 in a rebel stronghold. They were taken hostage and were most recently seen in late April.
FILM INDUSTRY SOARS WITHIN HAITI'S BLEAK ECONOMY
The Miami Herald
Jul. 10, 2007
ARIANA CUBILLOS/AP
Haitian actors Nice Simon, left, and Antonio Cherammy film 'I Love You Anne' in Port-au-Prince in June. Haiti has seen its film industry boom recently.
PORT-AU-PRINCE --
Even in hard times, Haitians go to the movies. Now they're also making them in record numbers -- about 10 feature films a year -- rivaling Cuba as the Caribbean's biggest movie producer and often outselling better-financed imports.
The ultimate dream? To transform the impoverished, politically volatile country of 8 million into a cinema powerhouse -- Haitiwood -- following the lead of India and Nigeria.
While most Haitian industries are stagnant, show business is booming, driven by plunging production costs and an appetite among Haitians at home and abroad for movies shot in their own Creole language.
''Movies are becoming Haiti's most popular art form after music,'' said Arnold Antonin, a director and president of the Haitian Filmmakers Association.
ESCAPEE GIVES GLIMPSE OF CAPTIVES' HARSH LIVES
The Miami Herald
Jul. 11, 2007
U.S. captives in Colombia
• Marc Gonsalves, 35: Lived in Big Pine Key, Fla., originally from Bristol, Conn. He has one teenage daughter.
• Keith Stansell, 43: A Georgia native, he has twin boys born in Colombia after he was captured. He has two teenage children in the United States.
• Thomas Howes, 54: Grew up in Cape Cod, Mass., has a young son.
WASHINGTON --
Every night for 12 hours, the three U.S. civilian Pentagon contractors leftist Colombian guerrillas have held since 2003 are chained by their necks to each other or to a tree.
If the Americans behave, their captors remove the chains during the day. If they don't, the chains remain, sometimes for weeks. And if government troops approach, they're forced into long marches to flee the area, according to a Colombian who once shared their jungle prisons.
Police officer Jhon Frank Pinchao was held by guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known as FARC, for more than eight years. He escaped in April, and has been providing a rare glimpse into the harsh lives of Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes.
In an interview with The Miami Herald, plus other media accounts and court transcripts, Pinchao told of the monotony of a tightly regimented routine made slightly less intolerable by the camaraderie among the FARC's captives, some sports activities and occasional messages from loved ones.
CASTRO LAMENTS `IRRITATING INEQUALITIES'
The Miami Herald
Jul. 11, 2007
HAVANA --
(AP) -- Fidel Castro leveled his harshest criticism of Cuban society since falling ill, saying Wednesday that a flood of foreign currency has created ''irritating inequalities'' within the communist system.
In an essay published in state newspapers, the 80-year-old Castro wrote ''we are not a consumer society,'' but bemoaned some Cubans who use foreign currency sent from relatives abroad to set up illegal sources of profit. This while they continue to enjoy ration cards, free housing and healthcare and other social services.
''Not everyone receives convertible currency from abroad, something which is not illegal but which at times creates irritating inequalities and privileges in a country that does its utmost to supply vital services free of charge to the entire population,'' Castro wrote in the treatise titled Self-criticism of Cuba.
''The real and visible lack of equality and the lack of pertinent information gives way to critical opinions, especially in the neediest sectors,'' he wrote in the treatise, which was the latest in a string of ''Reflections of the Commander In Chief'' Castro has begun penning every few days.
The U.S. dollar was widely used in Cuba until 2004, when the government took steps to remove it from circulation and promote the convertible peso -- which now trades at an official rate 8 percent higher than the American greenback. The moves sought to strengthen the island's regular peso, which is used for state salaries and most government goods and services but worth about 25 times less than a convertible peso.
BRAZIL: $540M FOR NUCLEAR PROGRAM
The Miami Herald
Jul. 11, 2007
SAO PAULO, Brazil --
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that Brazil will budget about $540 million over eight years to complete its nuclear program, including uranium enrichment and possibly building a nuclear-powered submarine.
"I believe that this project could be the embryo for all we need from the point of view of nuclear energy and from the point of view of energy production," Silva told reporters Tuesday after visiting a navy research center in Sao Paulo state.
The country says its nuclear program is peaceful and it has no intention of pursuing nuclear weapons.
In 2004, the Brazilian government drew attention when it refused unrestricted inspections by the International Atomic Energy Association, arguing that full access to its centrifuges would put it at risk of industrial espionage.
Inspectors said they were satisfied after monitoring the uranium that comes in and out of the centrifuges.
"Brazil can give itself the luxury of being one of the few countries in the world to control all the technology of the uranium enrichment cycle," Silva added. "Why not dream big, and say we want to arrive at the possibility of having a nuclear submarine?"
The navy's nuclear program, begun in 1979, has already mastered part of the enrichment process. But it lags in developing and constructing a reactor entirely from Brazilian technology, navy Adm. Julio Soares de Moura Neto said.
MEXICAN GAS EXPLOSIONS FORCE SHUTDOWNS
The Miami Herald
Jul. 11, 2007
MEXICO CITY --
Honda, Hershey's and other multinational companies temporarily shut down their factories in western Mexico on Wednesday after rebels attacked a key natural gas pipeline.
The small, left-wing guerrilla group that claimed responsibility for the explosions issued a statement late Tuesday vowing to continue the attacks, while the Mexican government scrambled to increase security at "strategic installations" across Mexico.
At least a dozen companies including Honda Motor Co., Kellogg Co.'s, The Hershey Co., Nissan Motor Co., and Grupo Modelo SA were forced to suspend or scale back operations because of the lack of natural gas, the daily newspaper Excelsior reported. They said they faced millions of dollars in losses.
Vitro SAB, a Mexican company that makes glass containers, said the shutdown of two plants would cost it about $800,000 a day. Vitro said in a statement that it was increasing production at other plants in Mexico to minimize effects on customers.
Total business losses were being estimated at more than 70 million pesos ($6.4 million) a day, Excelsior reported, citing unidentified sources. The association representing Mexican industry said Wednesday it was looking into the extent of the explosions' financial impact.
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