Jueves 20 de Diciembre 2007. Año III, No. CIEN

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 20 al 26 de diciembre de 2007 han sido clasificadas bajo las categorías de:

COMERCIO
ver noticia(s)

COUNTERFEIT DRUGS’ PATH EASED BY FREE TRADE ZONES
The New York Times
December 17, 2007

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Along a seemingly endless row of identical gray warehouses, a lone guard stands watch over a shuttered storage area with a peeling green and yellow sign: Euro Gulf Trading.Three months ago, when the authorities announced that they had seized a large cache of counterfeit drugs from Euro Gulf’s warehouse deep inside a sprawling free trade zone here, they gave no hint of the raid’s global significance.
But an examination of the case reveals its link to a complex supply chain of fake drugs that ran from China through Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Britain and the Bahamas, ultimately leading to an Internet pharmacy whose American customers believed they were buying medicine from Canada, according to interviews with regulators and drug company investigators in six countries.
The seizure highlights how counterfeit drugs move in a global economy, and why they are so difficult to trace. And it underscores the role played by free trade zones — areas specially designated by a growing number of countries to encourage trade, where tariffs are waived and there is minimal regulatory oversight.

MIGRACIÓN
ver noticia(s)

THE IMMIGRATION SWAMP
Editorial
The Washington Post
December 13, 2007
THE IDEA that 12 million illegal residents of the United States can be induced to quit the country en masse within four months is absurd on its face -- a non-starter in logistical, humanitarian, political, diplomatic, commercial and economic terms that would leave an indelible stain on this country for years. Yet that is the wrathful centerpiece of Mike Huckabee's "Secure America Plan," which the Republican presidential candidate issued the other day in the course of his party's escalating enthusiasm for nastier-than-thou prescriptions to deal with illegal immigrants.
Never mind that Mr. Huckabee, when he was governor of Arkansas, actually pursued a pragmatic policy in regard to illegal aliens, urging that exemplary youngsters be eligible for scholarships to public universities even if they were undocumented because, as he put it, "we are a better country than to punish children for what their parents did." Having lately surged enough in the polls to sniff the sweet smell of success, he is not about to let experience, common sense or simple decency get in the way of short-term electoral advantage.

CROSSING FROM MEXICO THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY, POWERED BY FOREARMS
The Washington Post
December 14, 2007
GUSTAVO DIAZ ORDAZ, Mexico
The Rio Bravo makes a big, lazy turn through the cornfields, half its channel in Mexico, half in the United States. At the bend, the wind picks up speed and whips through the ebony trees, trees so hard and strong that their wood resembles polished stone.
It's quiet here at 8 a.m., just the wind and the giggly gurgle of the rapid current. A handful of cars sit idling nearby.
Miles away, in the urban clog of Reynosa, cars are lining up for blocks and hawkers are hawking and the border crossing into Texas is alive with noise. But here in Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, along the river also known as the Rio Grande, the daily commute across "la linea" is slow and calm.

FAMILIES PAY AS U.S. AGENTS UNDER ATTACK FIRE TEAR GAS INTO MEXICO
The New York Times
December 18, 2007
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Border Patrol agents are firing tear gas and powerful pepper-spray weapons across the border into Mexico to repel what the agency says are an increasing number of attacks by assailants hurling stones, bottles and bricks.
The counteroffensive has drawn complaints that innocent families are being caught in the cross-fire.
Esther Arias Medina, 41, fled her shanty in Tijuana with her 3-week-old grandson last week in the midst of an attack. The boy had begun coughing, Ms. Arias said, after smoke seeped through the walls of the three-room home, which she shares with six others.

POLÍTICA INTERNA
ver noticia(s)

PERU’S EX-PRESIDENT GETS 6 YEARS FOR ILLICIT SEARCH
The New York Times
December 12, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela — The Supreme Court of Peru sentenced former President Alberto K. Fujimori on Tuesday to six years in prison for ordering an illegal search as his government was collapsing in 2000, the first prison sentence for Mr. Fujimori as he stands trial on various other charges, including murder and forced disappearance.
The conviction stunned Peru, which Mr. Fujimori ruled from 11000 until 2000, when he fled into exile in Japan amid corruption scandals. Sitting quietly in a courtroom in Lima, Peru’s capital, Mr. Fujimori, 69, listened to the sentencing by Supreme Court Judge Pedro Guillermo Urbina, before saying he would appeal.

LULA LOSES AS BRAZIL FINANCIAL TAX NIXED
The Miami Herald
Dec. 13, 2007

SAO PAULO, Brazil --
Brazil's Senate on Thursday refused to renew a financial transaction tax that fills the government's coffers, handing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a political defeat that could threaten his social programs for the poor.
The vote held before dawn after months of contentious debate fell four votes shy of the 60 percent majority needed to extend the tax until 2011, meaning Silva's administration stands to lose about $22 billion in revenue per year.
The money is used to fund programs ranging from health care to the president's famed anti-hunger program aimed at lifting Brazilians out of misery.

COLOMBIAN BANDITS SET BUS AFIRE, 10 DIE
The Miami Herald
Dec. 13, 2007

BOGOTA, Colombia --
Highway bandits set fire to a bus during a botched robbery near Colombia's capital, burning to death 10 people, authorities said Thursday.
Gen. Luis Alberto Moore, head of Colombia's highway police, told local media that three young assailants tried to commandeer the bus late Wednesday while it was traveling on a highway near Sogamoso, 93 miles northeast of Bogota.
When the passengers resisted the robbery attempt, the thieves doused the interior of the bus with gasoline before setting it on fire. The blaze killed 10 people, including two of the assailants and the bus driver. The bandits were among the 22 passengers on the bus.

ALBERTO FUJIMORI'S DAY OF RECKONING
OUR OPINION: TRIAL OF FORMER LEADER HAS RESONANCE BEYOND PERU
Opinion
The Miami Herald
Dec. 13, 2007
The way former President Alberto Fujimori of Peru sees it, he should be considered a national hero. Mr. Fujimori waged a no-holds-barred campaign against the Shining Path and Tupac Amaru guerrillas in the 1990s that brought Peru back from the brink of disaster. A grateful nation should thank him, he believes, but instead it has put him on trial for abuse of power. No doubt, Mr. Fujimori deserves credit for thwarting Marxist insurgencies. But have no doubt about this, either: His trial fulfills the ends of justice.
This week, a judge sentenced Mr. Fujimori to six years in prison for ordering an illegal search -- without a court order -- at a time when his government was mired in a series of scandals. That's the least of it. He also faces charges of murder, kidnapping and corruption and could get a harsher sentence if convicted.

ALLEGED PLOT TO TAKE URIBE'S KIDS FOILED
The Miami Herald
Dec. 13, 2007

BOGOTA, Colombia --
Colombia's police chief said Thursday that his forces have foiled an alleged plot to kidnap President Alvaro Uribe's two adult children after monitoring the cell phone calls of jailed guerrillas.
Police received a tip from confidential sources and seven months ago began monitoring the phone conversations of three Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, leaders held in a maximum-security prison, said Gen. Oscar Naranjo, head of Colombia's police.
"In the perverse mafia logic of the FARC, I imagine they viewed (Uribe's children) as an extremely valuable booty," Naranjo said during a news conference.

US COUPLE DENY BRAZIL SEX ABUSE CHARGES
The Miami Herald
Dec. 13, 2007

SAO PAULO, Brazil --
A U.S. couple accused of sexually abusing minors at a nudist colony in southern Brazil deny the charges and don't understand why police arrested them earlier this week, one of their lawyers said Thursday.
"They are completely innocent," said Marcelo Peruchin, an attorney for Frederick Calvin Louderback, 63, and his girlfriend Barbara Anner, 54, who were detained on Tuesday.
Louderback is suspected of abusing at least 10 boys between the ages of 6 and 14, all from poor neighborhoods near the colony, according to police. Anner is alleged to have lured the boys with promises of gifts, food and trips.

DEFENDANT'S WIFE, KIDS HELD IN ARGENTINA
The Miami Herald
Dec. 14, 2007

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina --
Police detained the wife and two grown children of a former coast guard officer who died mysteriously in jail amid a dictatorship-era human rights trial, hours after an autopsy found cyanide in his blood, a judge said Friday.
Hector Febres, 66, was accused of kidnapping and torturing dissidents during Argentina's past military dictatorship. He was found dead in his cell at a navy brig on Monday, four days before an expected verdict in his high-profile case.
Official reports initially suggested Febres had died of natural causes, but autopsy results released midweek revealed a large quantity cyanide in his bloodstream - alarming human rights activists who feared he may have been poisoned to silence his testimony and prompting the court to swiftly open an investigation.

BOLIVIA LEADER IS MOBILIZING ARMED FORCES
The New York Times
December 14, 2007
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia — President Evo Morales put this nation’s armed forces on a state of alert on Thursday as four of Bolivia’s provinces prepared declarations seeking greater autonomy from the central government.
Elected officials and political activists here in this relatively prosperous city in the eastern lowlands chafed at reports that Mr. Morales had dispatched some 400 police officers in preparation for Saturday’s formal announcement of the autonomy proposal, even though Defense Minister Walker San Miguel said a state of emergency was not under consideration.
“We’re prepared to fight for our principles,” said Marcos Fernández, a biochemist who joined hundreds of other residents in the central plaza here to celebrate the approval by a 130-member assembly on Thursday afternoon of an “autonomy statute.” Local officials say a provincial referendum will determine whether the measure can take effect. “In Santa Cruz, we produce Bolivia’s soybeans, beef, timber and natural gas,” Mr. Fernández said. “Let us see if La Paz wants to confront us.”

CRACKUP IN BOLIVIA?
Editorial
The Washington Post
December 14, 2007
VENEZUELAN President Hugo Ch¿vez may have been forced to concede defeat in a constitutional referendum this month, but his eccentric project to accumulate power lives on. Mr. Ch¿vez, who according to multiple independent reports announced the vote against his "Bolivarian revolution" only under pressure from the Venezuelan military, has already said he will try again. Meanwhile, two of his populist followers, in Bolivia and Ecuador, are pressing ahead with copycat constitutional coups. Ecuador's Rafael Correa and Bolivia's Evo Morales both say their aim is to give more power and resources to poor and indigenous people. As with Mr. Ch¿vez, that translates in practice into the aggregation of presidential powers and the removal of current limits on their tenures in office.
The power grabs were breeding stiff resistance even before Venezuelans demonstrated that Mr. Ch¿vez's "21st-century socialism" could be rebuffed. Now the focus has shifted to Bolivia -- where Mr. Morales has provoked a provincial rebellion that some fear could lead to a civil war.

MORALES, OPPONENTS HEAD FOR A SHOWDOWN
OUR OPINION: BOLIVIA NEEDS DIALOGUE, NOT VIOLENT CONFRONTATION
Opinion
The Miami Herald
Dec. 14, 2007
When Evo Morales was elected president of Bolivia two years ago this month, his triumph was hailed as a great turning point for South America's poorest country. As the first indigenous leader of Bolivia in modern times, elected by the widest margin of any president since the restoration of civilian rule 25 years ago, he had a lot going for him, including the support of the international community. Alas, Mr. Morales has squandered this goodwill by resorting to heavy-handed political methods and exacerbating racial and economic tensions that could explode into violence this weekend.
Ostensibly, the protest in Santa Cruz, a stronghold of political opposition, is over the approval last weekend of a draft constitution that Mr. Morales has been seeking since the day he was elected. It gives him much greater power, establishes a unicameral legislature and gives him the right to reelection for another five-year term. It creates a ''plurinational state'' that gives autonomy to indigenous people but undercuts the political rights of Bolivia's traditional provinces.

SOME CHAVEZ ALLIES SLOW TO SHED LUXURIES
The Miami Herald
Dec. 14, 2007

CARACAS, Venezuela --
Hugo Chavez constantly urges his supporters to reject "savage capitalism," but allies of Venezuela's president have been slow to embrace his socialist values - and some are struggling to explain their consumption of luxury goods.
Justice Minister Pedro Carreno became the subject of widespread criticism and ridicule by local media this week, when a journalist asked if it wasn't contradictory to attack capitalism while sporting a $180 Louis Vuitton tie and $500 Gucci shoes.
Apparently caught off guard, Carreno stammered unintelligibly for a few seconds before responding: "It's not contradictory because I would like Venezuela to produce all this, that way I could purchase things produced here instead of 95 percent of what we consume being imported."

BOLIVIANS NOW HEAR OMINOUS TONES IN THE CALLS TO ARMS
The New York Times
December 15, 2007
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia — “Against narco-communism,” reads one line of graffiti in this city in the lowlands of Bolivia. “To arms, Cruceños,” reads another, calling on residents to fight the government of President Evo Morales, who put the armed forces on alert this week as four eastern provinces move toward greater autonomy.
Elsewhere in South America, such calls might be dismissed as mere bombast. But not in Bolivia, where fears of political violence are intensifying in Santa Cruz, a bastion of opposition to Mr. Morales, a former coca grower and the nation’s first indigenous president.
Those tensions may reach a crest on Saturday. That is when leaders of Santa Cruz province and three other provinces — Tarija, Beni and Pando — are expected to declare their autonomy before tens of thousands of antigovernment protesters. Santa Cruz’s assembly has already taken a step in that direction, passing a resolution on Thursday giving the province a bigger share of tax and petroleum revenues and allowing it to constitute its own police forces and create its own television network.

US WOMAN KILLED IN ROBBERY IN COLOMBIA
The Miami Herald
Dec. 16, 2007

BOGOTA, Colombia --
A U.S. woman was shot and killed as she vacationed with her Colombian husband in this South American country, in a robbery that netted $200 and a laptop computer, police said on Sunday.
Jean Oviedo, 37, arrived 10 days ago at the northeastern Colombian city of Bucaramanga with her three children and husband, said police Gen. Alvaro Enrique Miranda.
On Saturday night, two assailants burst into her husband's family home, shooting her in the neck during the course of the robbery. She died at a nearby hospital.

PROTESTERS IN BOLIVIA SEEK MORE AUTONOMY
The New York Times
December 16, 2007
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia — Tens of thousands of antigovernment demonstrators flooded the streets of this city and three other provincial capitals on Saturday as four of Bolivia’s wealthiest provinces celebrated efforts to seek greater autonomy from the central government.
Backers of President Evo Morales marched Saturday in support of a new charter that would expand indigenous rights.
The protests here in Bolivia’s most prosperous city, though they were a direct affront to President Evo Morales, had a festive spirit, as people waved green-and-white flags marked , “Now We Are Autonomous.” Many sipped beer or ate ice pops; hundreds danced in a park in the city’s center.

MEXICO CAPS DAMAGED GULF OIL WELL
The Miami Herald
Dec. 16, 2007

MEXICO CITY --
Oil workers have capped a damaged oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico that spilled crude and natural gas for almost two months after a deadly high-seas collision, Mexico's state-owned oil company announced on Sunday.
At least 21 employees were killed in the Oct. 23 collision with a drilling rig during a storm.
Petroleos Mexicanos workers injected concrete into the well after installing a new valve assembly - blocking the well "definitively," the company said.
"The control of the well was carried out without any injury to the workers, despite risky conditions that prevailed throughout the entire process," Pemex said in a news release.

MAGNITUDE-6.7 QUAKE HITS NORTHERN CHILE
The Miami Herald
Dec. 16, 2007

SANTIAGO, Chile --
A strong earthquake shook northern Chile early Sunday in the same region where a temblor killed at least two people last month, but authorities reported no new deaths or serious damage.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude-6.7 quake at 5:09 a.m. (3:09 a.m. EST) was centered 80 miles north-northeast of the port city of Antofagasta.
Electric power and telephone services were cut in several cities, but "we can say that there are no victims," said Hernan Vargas, director of the government's Emergency Bureau in the Antofagasta region. "In the city of Tocopilla, seven people were attended at a hospital, mainly for panic attacks."

MEXICAN 'SUBCOMANDANTE' TO WITHDRAW
The Miami Herald
Dec. 17, 2007

MEXICO CITY --
Mexico's famed masked rebel, Subcomandante Marcos, says he is withdrawing again to the shadows, ending nearly two years of public appearances meant to bolster a grass-roots leftist movement.
Marcos became the eloquent voice of the Zapatista National Liberation Army as it burst out of the jungles of southern Mexico on Jan. 1, 1994, to seize several cities in the name of socialism and Indian rights.
He has vanished before from public view for years, returning to barnstorm around Mexico to promote the Zapatista views.

MENCHU CRITICIZES GUATEMALAN HIGH COURT
The Miami Herald
Dec. 17, 2007

GUATEMALA CITY --
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu lashed out Monday against a Guatemalan high court decision not to arrest or extradite former military officers accused of genocide, torture and terrorism committed at the height of Guatemala's civil war.
Menchu, an Indian rights activist, filed charges in Spain against former officials allegedly involved in such abuses, including a 1980 raid that left her father and other protesters at Spain's embassy in Guatemala dead.
A Spanish Judge agreed to issue arrest and extradition warrants for former dictator Efrain Rios Montt and other ex-leaders, but Guatemala's high court on Dec. 12 declined to honor his order.

CHAVEZ WANTS BOLIVAR'S REMAINS EXAMINED
The Miami Herald
Dec. 17, 2007

CARACAS, Venezuela --
President Hugo Chavez said Monday that Venezuela should open the coffin of independence hero Simon Bolivar to examine the bones, saying there are sufficient doubts about his death in 1830 to warrant a full investigation.
Although history books maintain Bolivar died of tuberculosis, Chavez said doubts exist because some writings suggest it is possible the South American "Liberator" might have been murdered.
Chavez has raised this theory before, but went further during a speech on the anniversary of Bolivar's death.

ARGENTINE COAST GUARD CHIEF FIRED
The Miami Herald
Dec. 17, 2007

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina --
President Cristina Fernandez fired the coast guard chief on Monday after a suspect in a human rights trial died of cyanide poisoning at a military brig.
Coast guard chief Carlos Fernandez was ordered to retire after an investigation into the case of Hector Febres, who died Dec. 10 at a military detention center days before a verdict was expected in his trial, according to government news agency Telam.
A former coast guard officer, Febres was accused of kidnapping and torturing four dissidents during military rule from 1976 to 1983.

EXCERPTS: LETTER BY INGRID BETANCOURT
Analyst, Center for International Policy, Washington, D.C.
Monday, December 17, 2007; 3:35 PM
English translation of excerpts from a letter by Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian politician being held hostage by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Read excerpts from the letter in Spanish here.
Rainy morning, like my soul, jungles of Colombia, Wednesday, October 24, 8:34 AM
My adored and divine mother of my soul.
Every day I wake up thanking God that I have you.
Every day I open my eyes at 4:00 AM and prepare myself to be wide awake to hear your message on la cantera de las 5 [a radio program]. . . . Every day, you ask me how my life is. I know that [Jhon Frank] Pinchao [a police officer who escaped from the FARC in May, after 9 years of captivity] gave you many details, and I bless him and thank him for having told you everything. . . .

FUJIMORI: REJECTED WORD OF DEATH SQUAD
The Miami Herald
Dec. 17, 2007

LIMA, Peru --
Former President Alberto Fujimori testified Monday that he did not believe a dissident army general in 1993 when he revealed the existence of a military death squad, saying his top advisers told him the report was false.
Fujimori is on trial for murder and kidnapping allegedly carried out at his orders by the squadron. He said he believed his spy chief and his defense minister when they told him the report by Gen. Rodolfo Robles was untrue.
"They explicitly denied it in no uncertain terms," Fujimori said in response to questioning from prosecutors.

GUATEMALAN OFFICIALS DODGE GENOCIDE EXTRADITIONS
The Washington Post
December 17, 2007
GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - A Guatemalan ex-dictator and seven other former officials avoided extradition to Spain to face charges for genocide committed in the country's 36-year civil war, according to a court ruling made public on Monday.
The Guatemalan constitutional court refused to acknowledge that a Spanish court had jurisdiction to put retired Gen. Efrain Rios Montt and other government officials on trial after a Spanish judge issued arrest warrants for crimes against humanity last year.

US COUPLE ACCUSED OF ABUSE ARE HOPEFUL
The Miami Herald
Dec. 17, 2007

SAO PAULO, Brazil --
The U.S. couple accused of sexually abusing minors at a nudist colony in Brazil are hopeful they will be cleared and released, though Brazilian authorities were awarded more time to investigate them, their lawyer said Monday.
A judge extended the warrants for Frederic Calvin Louderback, 63, of San Diego and Barbara Anner, 72, from Georgia, until Wednesday after police requested more time to compile evidence against the couple.

WOMAN LEADS PRIMARY IN PARAGUAY
The Miami Herald
Dec. 17, 2007

ASUNCION, Paraguay --
A former education minister favored by Paraguay's president held a narrow lead in partial returns for the ruling party's presidential nomination Monday. If she is elected, South America would have three female leaders.
With 92 percent of party primary votes counted, Blanca Ovelar had 45.3 percent of the votes and former Vice President Luis Castiglioni had 44.2 percent. Two other candidates trailed far behind in the quest for the the Colorado Party nomination on the April 2008 presidential ballot.
Party elections chief Oscar Latorre noted that the results were not yet official and said the final, complete count that starts Wednesday probably would not be finished until early January.

FORMER URUGUAYAN DICTATOR DETAINED
The Miami Herald
Dec. 17, 2007

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay --
Uruguay's last military dictator, Gregorio Alvarez, was charged Monday with the forced disappearance of political prisoners, cheering human rights activists who have long campaigned for his prosecution.
Alvarez, now 82 and retired, was the army general who led Uruguay from 1982 until shortly before the country restored democracy in 1985.
Arrested without incident at his home on Monday, he was sent to a military prison to await trial in connection with the disappearance of some 40 Uruguayan political prisoners who were seized by military rulers in neighboring Argentina and secretly returned to Uruguay in 1977 and 1978, prosecutor Mirtha Guianze said.

MEXICO OPENS CANAL BLOCKED BY LANDSLIDE
The Miami Herald
Dec. 18, 2007

SAN JUAN DEL GRIJALVA, Mexico --
Mexican authorities on Tuesday cautiously opened a canal through an enormous landslide that blocked a major river in southern Mexico in November and swept away and entire community.
The Grijalva River, the second-largest by volume in Mexico, flowed without incident through an 875-yard-long canal, dug through the middle of an enormous mountain of earth that collapsed Nov. 4 during heavy rains.
The landslide buried the town of San Juan de Grijalva, blocked a section of the river and kicked up a huge wave of water, killing 19 people.

8 FORMER ARGENTINA OFFICERS CONVICTED
The Miami Herald
Dec. 18, 2007

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina --
Seven former army officers and an ex-police official were convicted Tuesday and sentenced to at least 20 years in prison for human rights abuses during Argentina's bloody dictatorship.
Judge Ariel Lijo issued the unexpected ruling just over a week after Argentina's new President Cristina Fernandez took power, vowing to push the justice system to speed scores of slow-moving human rights cases to conclusion.
"Justice has been served," said Eduardo Luis Duhalde, the nation's human rights minister, who praised the court's decision to punish officers for a "killing machine" he said they unleashed in a 1980 operation to quash leftist guerrillas.

CASTRO: I WON'T CLING TO POWER FOREVER
The Miami Herald
Dec. 18, 2007

HAVANA --
Ailing leader Fidel Castro says he doesn't intend to cling to power forever, saying in a letter read on state television that he does not want to stand in the way of a younger generation.
The 81-year-old Castro has not been seen in public since he temporarily ceded his powers to his younger brother Raul 16 months ago after undergoing emergency intestinal surgery. He has not said when - or even if - he will permanently step aside.
"My elemental duty is not to cling to positions, or even less to obstruct the path of younger people, but to share experiences and ideas whose modest worth comes from the exceptional era in which I lived," Castro wrote in the final paragraph of a lengthy letter Monday discussing the Bali summit on global warming.

CASTRO HINTS AT RETIREMENT _ OR NOT
The Miami Herald
Dec. 18, 2007                                                                                                                                          

HAVANA --
Fidel Castro says he won't stand in the way of younger people who can lead Cuba, but he also insists on being "of consequence" until the end of his life. So it goes with the ailing 81-year-old - eager to see others keep up the revolution but reluctant to let go of power.
The real question is not whether Castro will retire, but whether it will make much difference in Cuba.
The answer: probably not, as long as he's alive.
Despite much excitement this week over one ambiguous sentence in a letter about global warming in which Castro indicated he will not hold back Cuba's younger leadership, Castro already has settled into a kind of reflective semiretirement.

COLOMBIAN REBELS TO FREE 3 HOSTAGES
The Miami Herald
Dec. 18, 2007

BOGOTA, Colombia --
Colombian rebels will hand over three hostages to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, including an aide to former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and the woman's young son, according to a statement released Tuesday.
Chavez, at a summit in Uruguay, called the pledge by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a "nice Christmas present" but noted: "They are in the middle of the jungle and I can't go and receive them personally, even if I wanted to."
The FARC made the announcement in a statement e-mailed to the Bogota office of Cuba's Prensa Latina news agency Tuesday, saying it would free Betancourt aide Clara Rojas, Rojas' son Emmanuel, and Consuelo Gonzalez, a former congresswoman kidnapped in 2001.

CUBAN DISSIDENT BACKS POLITICAL AMNESTY
The Miami Herald
Dec. 18, 2007

HAVANA --
Dissident Oswaldo Paya asked Cuba's parliament on Tuesday to approve an amnesty for political prisoners and to allow Cubans to leave and visit the island without government visas.
Paya and another activist, Minervo Lazaro Chil, turned up at the National Assembly offices and hand-delivered "citizens' petitions" on both matters.
Legislative workers quietly registered the proposals according to protocol. Several men with walkie-talkies who routinely shadow Paya rushed inside the building at one point, but made no effort to stop the proceedings.

IN COLOMBIA, A MOTHER PRESSES FOR HER HOSTAGE DAUGHTER'S RELEASE
The Christian Science Monitor
December 18, 2007
Bogotá, Colombia - For anyone who knew Ingrid Betancourt as a fiery politician constantly challenging the status quo, a recent video of the French-Colombian hostage is disturbing. In the brief recording, she sits on a makeshift bench in a jungle setting, her eyes downcast, her hands in her lap. She is gaunt and listless. She never looks at the camera and she does not speak.
"Life here is not life," wrote Ms. Betancourt in a 12-page letter to her mother, Yolanda Pulecio. "I have lost my will. I don't want anything because here ... the only response to any request is 'No.' "
Betancourt was running for president when she was kidnapped in February 2002 by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which is holding at least 45 other high-profile hostages, including three Americans, as political pawns in their fight against the government.

IN COLOMBIA, HOSTAGE'S LETTER HITS HOME
The Washington Post
December 18, 2007
BOGOTA, Colombia -- It was a godsend, the 12-page letter that Ingrid Betancourt sent her mother. It confirmed that the best-known hostage in Colombia, one of hundreds, was alive, deep in a guerrilla encampment.
But the letter rang with such profound pain and despair that Betancourt's mother, Yolanda Pulecio, has still not stopped crying. In meticulous prose, Betancourt told her mother that she was "tired, tired of suffering" and that she sometimes thinks death would be a "sweet option."
"These almost six years of captivity have shown me that I'm not as resistant, nor as brave, nor as intelligent, nor as strong as I had thought," Betancourt, a prominent French-Colombian politician, wrote. "I have fought many battles, I have tried to escape on several opportunities, I have tried to maintain hope, as one does keeping head above water. But mamita, I have been defeated."

PENTECOSTALS FIND FERTILE GROUND IN BRAZIL
The Christian Science Monitor
December 18, 2007
After setting off from Rome this May on his first trip to Latin America, the world's most Roman Catholic region, Pope Benedict XVI made a top concern clear: These are "difficult times for the church," he told hundreds of bishops in Brazil, amid "aggressive proselytizing" by born-again Protestant congregations.
The times are particularly difficult in Brazil, which has seen a dramatic decline in Catholicism in urban areas, says Timothy Shah, adjunct senior fellow for religion and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
It is also a fascinating time, he says. Brazil can now claim to be both the world's largest Catholic country and one of the largest Pentecostal nations, he notes.

ON RIO'S MEAN STREETS, A RARE CREDIBILITY
The Christian Science Monitor
December 18, 2007
Rio de Janeiro - He felt weak physically. But spiritually, he had never felt stronger.
Alexandre dos Santos, a converted Pentecostal, fasted for two days in the favela, or slum, where he grew up, before getting on his knees to lead 18 others in prayer.
"God protect us," they chanted, before going to persuade a gang of drug traffickers in a violent struggle with the police to put down their arms and accept Jesus.
The group, named "Fishermen of the Night," had no idea what to expect that evening two years ago, Mr. dos Santos recalls. Since then, they have seen men killed. They have been threatened with death. But God has sent them as emissaries, they say, to stop the violence that is suffocating many of Brazil's poor communities.

TIMELINE IN NATALEE HOLLOWAY CASE
The Miami Herald
Dec. 18, 2007
Significant events in the investigation into the disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway:
- May 30, 2005: Natalee Holloway, an 18-year-old American on a high school graduation trip to Aruba, is last seen in public leaving a bar with three local men - hours before she is scheduled to board a plane back home to Alabama.
- June 6, 2005: Hundreds of volunteers, Aruban soldiers, police and FBI agents spread out across the island to search for the missing teen. Later efforts would include more volunteers, teams of divers, Dutch F-16 jets equipped with search equipment and specially trained dogs.

STATEMENT HINTS AT CASTRO’S RETIREMENT
The New York Times
December 18, 2007
MEXICO CITY — Fidel Castro indicated Monday in a statement read on state television that he was willing to hand over the reins of Cuba’s government to a younger generation of leaders. But his statement remained silent on whether he was speaking hypothetically or had a transition plan in mind.
“My basic duty is not to cling to office, nor even more so, to obstruct the rise of people much younger, but to pass on experiences and ideas whose modest value arises from the exceptional era in which I lived,” said the statement attributed to Mr. Castro, who is 81.
The ailing Mr. Castro, acting in a sort of emeritus role, has produced numerous commentaries in the 16 months since he had abdominal surgery and temporarily handed over power to his younger brother, Raúl, who is 76. But none of the statements until now have addressed the important question of Mr. Castro’s future as Cuba’s president, a position he has held for nearly five decades.

SONGS OF LOVE AND MURDER, SILENCED BY KILLINGS
The New York Times
December 18, 2007
MORELIA, Mexico — Mexico’s country music stars are being killed at an alarming rate — 13 in the past year and a half, three already in December — in a trend that has gone hand in hand with the surge in violence between drug gangs here.
None of the cases have been solved. All have borne the signs of Mexican underworld executions, sending a chill through the ranks of other grupero musicians, who sing to a country beat about love, violence and drugs in modern Mexico.
One of the most shocking attacks was the kidnapping of Sergio Gómez, the founder and lead singer of K-Paz de la Sierra, who was seized as he left a concert in his home state of Michoacán early on the morning of Dec. 2.

IN COLOMBIA, WOMEN USE NEW FAITH TO GAIN EQUALITY
The Christian Science Monitor
December 19, 2007
Sincelejo, Colombia - Adelina Zuñiga, a farmer's wife, said nothing when her husband called her worthless. Even after she became a Pentecostal – and prayed that he would stop drinking and sleeping around – she didn't object when he forced her to go dancing, though he knew secular dancing is against her beliefs. She was uneducated and dependent and she let him.
But not anymore. Today, she is the head pastor of the Remanso de Paz church and a point of reference for other peasants in her community who have been displaced by Colombia's decades-long armed conflict.
"We have to end this discrimination against women," she tells a group of women gathered in the palm-covered pavilion before a recent Wednesday night Bible class. "If I have an obligation to fix breakfast for my children in the morning, my husband has the exact same obligation."

3 HOSTAGES WILL BE FREED, COLOMBIAN GUERRILLAS INDICATE
The Miami Herald
Dec. 19, 2007

BOGOTA --
Leftist guerrillas have promised to free three kidnapping victims -- including a 3-year-old boy born in captivity and his mother -- to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez as a sign of goodwill toward a broader prisoner swap with the Colombian government.
The three were identified as Consuelo González, a former congresswoman kidnapped six years ago; Clara Rojas, an aide to former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, both kidnapped in 2002, and Rojas' young son Emanuel.
News of the offered release came in a report by Cuba's Prensa Latina news agency, saying it had received a seven-point communiqué from the leadership of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC.

COLOMBIA: 3 HOSTAGES MAY BE FREED SOON
The New York Times
December 19, 2007
President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela confirmed that he had received a statement from the Colombian rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, saying it would release three hostages to him or whomever he chooses. Earlier, Prensa Latina, a Cuban news agency, reported that the group had ordered the release of Clara Rojas, the running mate of Ingrid Betancourt, a presidential candidate when both were kidnapped in 2002. Also to be freed are Consuelo González, a congresswoman kidnapped in 2001, and Ms. Rojas’s young son, Emmanuel, whose father is one of the guerrillas who have been holding Ms. Rojas. The rebels’ statement, dated Dec. 9, did not indicate when they would be released.

COLOMBIAN REBELS SAY 3 HOSTAGES TO BE FREED
The Washington Post
December 19, 2007
BOGOTA, Colombia, Dec. 18 -- Colombian guerrillas said Tuesday that they would hand over three hostages to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, including an aide to French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt.
In a statement mailed to Cuba's Prensa Latina news agency, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, said it would free Clara Rojas, her son Emmanuel -- who was born in captivity -- and Consuelo Gonzalez, a former member of Congress kidnapped in 2001. Rojas was the vice presidential running mate of Betancourt, who was kidnapped during her 2002 presidential bid, along with Rojas, and whose captivity has generated international interest.
Traveling in Uruguay, Chávez confirmed that he had received the FARC's offer.

HOW ONE WOMAN FOUND RESPECT THROUGH FAITH
The Christian Science Monitor
December 19, 2007
Seven years ago, Nelly Tuiran, her partner, and her 11-year-old son fled their hometown when it became a battleground for leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries.
For years they struggled, until they could no longer sustain themselves financially. Earlier this year they relocated to the town of Sincelejo, where the number of displaced Colombians has grown 10-fold over the past decade.
Like many others, the first place Ms. Tuiran found was a tiny, palm-covered Pentecostal church called Remanso de Paz.

MEXICO REMEMBERS 1997 INDIAN MASSACRE
The Miami Herald
Dec. 19, 2007

MEXICO CITY --
It's been nearly a decade since pro-government villagers armed with guns and machetes slaughtered 45 men, women and children in the neighboring hamlet of Acteal - a massacre that remains emblematic of Mexico's human rights failures.
At the time - Dec. 22, 1997 - Chiapas was the battleground where Zapatista rebels were trying to build support for their armed insurrection against the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which had ruled Mexico for seven decades. The army and the ruling party's local governor were determined to hold them back.

NATALEE HOLLOWAY MOVED TO COLD CASE FILE
The Miami Herald
Dec. 19, 2007

ORANJESTAD, Aruba --
Prosecutors dismissed the case against the three main suspects in the disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway, saying they still believe they were involved in her death but can't prove it after 932 days of searching failed to turn up a body.

REGIONAL
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THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT
U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL IS LITTLE MORE THAN A BAD JOKE
The Miami Herald
Dec. 13, 2007
T here wasn't much to celebrate on International Human Rights Day earlier this week. There is growing evidence that a recently created United Nations Human Rights Council that many hoped would step up international scrutiny of rights abusers worldwide has turned out to be a fiasco.
So much so that, as I learned in a telephone interview with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Wednesday, most Democrats and Republicans -- who cannot agree on almost anything these days -- are supporting a bill that would withhold about $3 million in U.S. annual contributions to the United Nations to protest the council's performance.
''You shouldn't have human rights abusers on a human rights committee, and that's what we have, with countries such as Angola and Cuba,'' Reid told me. He added that ''we have a better than 50-50 chance'' to pass the bill that would cut U.S. funds for the council.

U.S. SAYS VENEZUELA TRIED TO GIVE $800,000 TO ARGENTINE
The Washington Post
December 13, 2007
LIMA, Peru, Dec. 12 -- The United States on Wednesday said it had evidence that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's government tried to secretly funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to the campaign of Argentina's new president.
In a criminal complaint, U.S. prosecutors accused four men arrested Wednesday in Miami -- three Venezuelans and a Uruguayan -- of involvement in a conspiracy to cover up an illegal campaign contribution on behalf of the Venezuelan government. The complaint offered the first evidence for an allegation often leveled against Chávez but never proved: that he uses his country's oil wealth to illegally meddle in the politics of his Latin American neighbors.
The allegations center on a Venezuelan businessman, Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson, who was detained in August at a Buenos Aires airport carrying nearly $800,000 in undeclared cash. He had arrived on a plane chartered by Argentina's state oil company.

U.S. LINKS SMUGGLED CASH TO VENEZUELA
The New York Times
December 13, 2007
BUENOS AIRES - A Miami man who brought $800,000 in a suitcase into Argentina was trying to deliver a campaign contribution from the Venezuelan government to the Argentine presidential candidate Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, American prosecutors said Wednesday.
Assistant United States Attorney Thomas J. Mulvihill said in court Wednesday that conversations recorded by the F.B.I. indicate that Mrs. Kirchner, who won the election and was sworn in on Monday here as Argentina’s president, was the intended recipient of the money, said Alicia Valle, special counsel to the U.S. Attorney in Miami.
The United States attorney’s office in Miami charged five men with acting and conspiring to act as agents of the Venezuelan government within the United States, without having notified the attorney general, in a scheme it said involved the highest levels of President Hugo Chávez’s government. According to prosecutors, Venezuelan agents tried to cover up the purpose of the cash and intimidated a witness in the case.

VENEZUELA ACCUSED IN ARGENTINA CAMPAIGN PROBE
The Miami Herald
Dec. 13, 2007
Federal prosecutors dropped a bombshell in a federal courtroom in Miami on Wednesday, alleging for the first time that the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez secretly tried to funnel nearly $1 million in cash to the presidential campaign of newly elected Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
The accusation came during a hasty hearing for four foreign nationals -- including two wealthy South Florida Venezuelans. Each is charged with being unregistered foreign agents for the Venezuelan government.
Their mission from the Chávez government, prosecutors say: to hush up a local Venezuelan man who was caught in August with a suitcase full of campaign cash as he arrived at a Buenos Aires airport with a high-ranking Argentine official. They pressured him not to reveal the source of the cash or its recipient.

OLGA SURVIVORS COMPLAIN OF LATE WARNING
The Miami Herald
Dec. 13, 2007

SANTIAGO, Dominican Republic --
Survivors of a devastating flood lashed out at authorities Thursday for not warning that a dam's floodgates were being opened during Tropical Storm Olga, unleashing a deadly wall of water that killed as many as 20 people.
President Leonel Fernandez, who promised aid while touring the area to view the destruction, did not comment on the decision to rapidly release the water. He blamed global warming for the rare December storm with torrential rains.
The death toll stood at 25 across the Caribbean, including two other deaths in the Dominican Republic, two in northern Haiti and one in Puerto Rico.

TO HELP HAITI RECOVER, CANCEL ITS DEBT
Opinion
The Miami Herald
Dec. 14, 2007
By Marlene Bastien                                                                                                              
In October, 79-year old minister David Duncombe broke a 46-day starvation fast at a prayer breakfast in Washington attended by members of Congress, African parliamentarians and religious leaders from Haiti and the United States. Duncombe led Jubilee USA's national fast urging debt cancellation for the world's most impoverished countries.
When asked why he would risk his life this way, Duncombe said he wanted lawmakers to see starvation first-hand and understand the devastating effect of debt on countries like Liberia and Haiti.
Today, the world's poorest countries spend more than $100 million each day to service debt often previously incurred by dictators -- money they can't spend on food, education, health services and other basic needs. In turn, the United States spends billions investing in health, education and other infrastructure in these countries because these burdensome interest payments prevent them from doing so themselves.

EL ROL DOBLE DE INSULZA
The Washington Post
December 14, 2007
Por muy extraño que parezca he decidido que mis buenos propósitos para el Nuevo Año requieran los esfuerzos de otro. Mi esperanza es que José Miguel Insulza, Secretario General de la Organización de Estados Americanos, actúe más como presidente de la institución vigilante de la democracia en las Américas y menos como candidato presidencial chileno.
Insulza no ha escondido su deseo de convertirse en el mandatario de Chile en 2009. Viaja a su país con frecuencia y es citado a menudo en la prensa chilena opinando sobre los desarrollos políticos de su país. Sus aspiraciones se han hecho tan obvias que algunos dentro de la organización aseguran que utiliza la página de internet de la OEA para montar su campaña. En una ocasión su oficina de prensa publicó un artículo sobre la visita de la Secretaria de Estado de Estados Unidos Condoleezza Rice con una foto en la que aparecía Insulza solo.

FOR GANGS, TATTOOS OUT; COLLEGE LOOK IN
The Washington Post
December 16, 2007
CHIMALTENANGO, Guatemala -- Tattoos, baggy pants and tank tops are out. Smart blazers and university recruits are in. It's an extreme makeover for Central America's gangs. Facing harsh crackdowns by government security forces and citizen vigilante groups, they are trying to lower their profile.
The Mara 18 and Mara Salvatrucha gangs are known throughout Central America and the U.S. for their brazen tactics, including beheading their enemies and covering entire buildings and even their bodies with gang symbols.
Now, according to anti-gang operatives, these traditionally uneducated and aimless youth have begun recruiting high school and college students, and are expanding their criminal repertoire from minor robbery to large-scale extortion, prostitution, car theft and kidnappings.

FOR GANGS, TATTOOS OUT; COLLEGE LOOK IN
The Miami Herald
Dec. 16, 2007

CHIMALTENANGO, Guatemala --
Tattoos, baggy pants and tank tops are out. Smart blazers and university recruits are in. It's an extreme makeover for Central America's gangs. Facing harsh crackdowns by government security forces and citizen vigilante groups, they are trying to lower their profile.
The Mara 18 and Mara Salvatrucha gangs are known throughout Central America and the U.S. for their brazen tactics, including beheading their enemies and covering entire buildings and even their bodies with gang symbols.
Now, according to anti-gang operatives, these traditionally uneducated and aimless youth have begun recruiting high school and college students, and are expanding their criminal repertoire from minor robbery to large-scale extortion, prostitution, car theft and kidnappings.

BEFORE IT DISAPPEARS
The New York Times
December 16, 2007
QUITO, Ecuador
DENNIS and STACIE WOODS, a married couple from Seattle, choose their vacation destinations based on what they fear is fated to destruction.
This month it was a camping and kayaking trip around the Galápagos Islands. Last year, it was a stay at a remote lodge in the Amazon, and before that, an ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro.
“We wanted to see the islands this year,” Mr. Woods, a lawyer, said last week in a hotel lobby here, “because we figured they’re only going to get worse.”

HOW PENTECOSTALS BROUGHT 'THE FIESTA SPIRIT' TO CHURCH IN LATIN AMERICA
The Christian Science Monitor
December 17, 2007
New Christian houses of worship are opening every day across the global south – from Africa to Asia to Latin America.
But most are not the traditional Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant sects that have dominated the Western world's religious-political affairs for centuries. The majority are Pentecostal.
Modern Pentecostalism, whose name comes from the biblical term Pentecost commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, grew out of the Holiness movement at the turn of the 20th century in the US.

WEALTH GOSPEL PROPELS POOR GUATEMALANS
The Christian Science Monitor
December 17, 2007
Guatemala City - Doris Cuxun will never forget the words that shook her out of a daze one Sunday morning during a service at Showers of Grace, a Neo-Pentecostal megachurch here. "Who here wants to own your own business? Lift your hand!" the pastor hollered.
"I want to, I want to," she whispered amid the dancing and chanting.
"Me? My own beauty parlor?" she thought to herself giddily, incredulously. Could a woman who had grown up in a house made of wood and tin sheeting somehow build a successful business?

VENEZUELA, ARGENTINA CONDEMN AMERICA
The Miami Herald
Dec. 18, 2007

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay --
The leaders of Argentina and Venezuela closed ranks against the United States Tuesday, rejecting U.S. court charges in a campaign cash scandal as one more example of Americans treating their nations like subservient colonies.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dismissed as "big lies" the allegations by U.S. prosecutors that his government had tried to cover up an attempt to deliver a suitcase stuffed with $800,000 to the campaign of Cristina Fernandez, who became Argentina's president this month.
And Fernandez - whose ascende1ncy Tuesday to the presidency of the Mercosur trading bloc was overshadowed by the suitcase scandal - described herself as the victim of "dirty operations and dirty politics."

FEDS: 2 LATIN NATIONS LED CASH COVERUP
The Miami Herald
Dec. 18, 2007
Venezuela and Argentina joined forces to cover up a political scandal sparked by a suitcase stuffed with almost $800,000 that was sent with a Key Biscayne ''bagman'' for the election campaign of Argentina's new president, a prosecutor in Miami said Monday.
Federal prosecutors learned of the alleged connection between the leftist governments after the alleged bagman, a Venezuelan businessman living in Key Biscayne, began cooperating with the FBI after he was accused of carrying the money in the suitcase in the summer and violating customs laws in Argentina. He traveled in a private plane with seven others from Caracas to Buenos Aires.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Mulvihill said the countries' links became apparent after Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson started wearing a wire to record his conversations with Venezuelan agents, who flew to South Florida to pressure him to keep his mouth shut about the source of the money.

VENEZUELANS TRIED TO BRIBE MIAMI MAN, U.S. SAYS
The New York Times
December 18, 2007
MIAMI — First came allegations of death threats and offers of financial support from Venezuela’s national oil company. Then on Monday, a new allegation: an attempt to bribe Guido Antonini Wilson, the man at the center of the international firestorm over a cash-stuffed suitcase.
A federal prosecutor said Monday that Mr. Wilson, the Miami man accused of taking $800,000 to Argentina as an illicit campaign contribution from the Venezuelan government to the since-elected Argentine president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, was offered $2 million by two Venezuelans arrested in the case to keep quiet about the source and intended recipient of the cash.
The prosecutor, Assistant United States Attorney Thomas J. Mulvihill, also confirmed for the first time that Mr. Wilson, 46, had been cooperating with the authorities in the United States.

VENEZUELA MAY HAVE SENT MORE CASH TO ARGENTINA
The Miami Herald
Dec. 19, 2007
The Venezuelan government allegedly sent other amounts of cash to the campaign of Argentina's president, Cristina Fernández de Kirschner, besides the almost $800,000 confiscated at the Buenos Aires airport from an accused Key Biscayne bagman, El Nuevo Herald reports.
The reference is found in a U.S. government transcript of the case in a Dec. 12 hearing in Miami federal court in which five suspects are accused of serving as unregistered agents of the Venezuelan government. Four have been arrested.
Tom Mulvihill, the U.S. prosecutor, noted that the alleged bagman, Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson, a dual Venezuelan and U.S. citizen, was told by two Venezuelan business partners and friends of his ``that additional funds had been provided in that campaign and that both the Venezuelan and the Argentine governments were interested in him basically agreeing to go along with keeping the role of Venezuela in that funding quiet.''

RELACIONES BILATERALES
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US FAMILIES RACE TO ADOPT FROM GUATEMALA
The Washington Post
December 12, 2007
PHILADELPHIA -- Meghan Wall's marathon effort to start a family has come down to a sprint at the finish line.
Like thousands of U.S. couples, Wall and her husband are racing to complete an adoption from Guatemala by year's end, when reforms are expected to slow or stop the exodus of that country's orphans.
"I don't want to get near that date," she said. "It's kind of like Y2K. No one really knows what's going to happen."
The 37-year-old Wall and her husband, Michael, 30, fell in love with the baby they met on a visit to Guatemala earlier this year. His birth mother named him Eddy, which they took as a sign she wanted him raised in the United States.

WORLD COURT UPHOLDS 1928 TREATY ON CARIBBEAN ISLANDS
The Washington Post
December 13, 2007
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The U.N.'s highest court ruled on Thursday that a 1928 treaty that awarded three isolated Caribbean islands to Colombia was still valid so it could not rule on a bid by Nicaragua for sovereignty over them.
However, the International Court of Justice said it did have jurisdiction to adjudicate on other islets and rocks in the archipelago and the maritime delimitation of the area.
Nicaragua had asked the court in The Hague to grant it sovereignty over the archipelago and to end a dispute which Colombia says started nearly 200 years ago.

ARGENTINE LEADER RILED BY U.S. CASH CHARGE
The Miami Herald
Dec. 13, 2007

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina --
Argentina's new president reacted furiously Thursday to accusations by U.S. prosecutors that an intercepted suitcase full of cash from Venezuela was meant to finance her election campaign, calling the charge "garbage in international politics."
Aides to President Cristina Fernandez accused Washington of using a "vile trick" to smear her government for its close ties to Venezuela's leftist leader, Hugo Chavez, who is campaigning to reduce U.S. influence in Latin America.
Fernandez, one of only two female heads of state in Latin America, suggested the charges might have been directed at her in part because of her gender.

ARGENTINE LEADER REBUKES U.S. OVER CASH
The Miami Herald
Dec. 13, 2007

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina --
Argentina's new president reacted angrily Thursday to U.S. charges that a suitcase full of Venezuelan cash seized by customs was intended to finance her campaign, calling it an example of "garbage in international politics."
President Cristina Fernandez also suggested that anyone who might think a female president is more easily influenced is wrong.
The disclosure came Wednesday in a Miami court hearing for a criminal complaint against four men arrested and charged with being illegal Venezuelan agents who attempted a cover-up.

ARGENTINE PRESIDENT: CASH CHARGE IS `GARBAGE'
The Miami Herald
Dec. 13, 2007

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina --
(AP) -- Argentina's president reacted angrily Thursday to U.S. charges that a suitcase full of Venezuelan cash was intended to finance her presidential campaign, calling it an example of ``garbage in international politics.''
President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner also suggested that anyone who might think a female president is more easily influenced is wrong.
The disclosure came Wednesday in a Miami court hearing for a criminal complaint against four men arrested and charged with being illegal Venezuelan agents who attempted a cover-up.

ARGENTINE LEADER FAULTS U.S. ON INQUIRY
The New York Times
December 14, 2007
BUENOS AIRES — Argentina’s new president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, lashed out at the United States on Thursday for meddling in Latin American affairs after American prosecutors in Miami alleged that a suitcase stuffed with $800,000 was intended to be a secret contribution to her campaign.
 “There is some garbage in international politics that holds back development and seriousness in international relationships,” Mrs. Kirchner said from the presidential palace here.
On Wednesday, just two days after Mrs. Kirchner was sworn in as Argentina’s first elected female president, American officials arrested three Venezuelans and one Uruguayan on charges of acting and conspiring to act as agents of a foreign government within the United States, without prior notification to the attorney general.

ARGENTINE LEADER SLAMS U.S. ALLEGATIONS
The Washington Post
December 14, 2007
LIMA, Peru, Dec. 13 -- Argentina's new president berated the United States on Thursday for alleging that the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez had tried to illegally funnel cash to her recent presidential campaign, labeling the accusations "garbage."
U.S. officials, though, said four men who were charged in Miami in connection with the case -- and who allegedly conspired to cover up the truth -- had close ties to the Venezuelan administration.
U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday said they had evidence that a suitcase containing nearly $800,000 seized by Argentine customs officials in August came from the Chávez administration and was destined for the campaign of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who was sworn in Monday as Argentina's president.

DISSIMILAR WAYS OF DEALING WITH OIL
The Miami Herald
Dec. 14, 2007
There has been an important change in the balance of power within Latin America. Specifically, Venezuela and its president, Hugo Chávez, have lost ground to Brazil and its president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The main reason is the recent announcement that the Tupi oil field off the coast of Sao Paulo may hold between five billion to eight billion barrels of oil.
Retrieving the oil will be difficult because it lies in very deep water and is covered by a layer of salt. Nevertheless, if the oil field can be successfully developed, which many experts believe is possible, Brazil's oil reserves would double, allowing it to reach a peak production of at least 500,000 barrels per day, surpassing that of Venezuela.
Until the Tupi discovery, the conventional wisdom was that Brazil was losing power in Latin America to oil-rich Venezuela. High oil prices were allowing Chávez to buy allies, neutralize potential opponents and support populist opposition candidates who shared his anti-U.S., anti-capitalist, anti-globalization and pro-socialist ideas.

THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT
ARGENTINA'S NEW PRESIDENT MAKES A MISSTEP
The Miami Herald
Dec. 16, 2007
Argentina's new president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, started her first week in office on the wrong foot: She needlessly moved closer to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and away from the United States.
Judging from what I heard from sources across the political spectrum in Washington, Fernández's knee-jerk reaction to a Miami court's indictment alleging that Venezuela contributed money to Argentina's 2007 presidential elections was a textbook case of political inexperience, bad advice, greater-than-expected ties to Venezuela's petro-populist government or all of the above.
Instead of applauding the U.S. investigation and stressing that it doesn't allege at any point that she or her closest aides were aware of the Venezuelan government campaign contributions, Fernández responded -- in tandem with the Chávez government -- by blaming the whole case on an alleged U.S. government conspiracy against her country.

BRAZIL, ARGENTINA LAUNCH SPACE ROCKET
The Miami Herald
Dec. 16, 2007

SAO PAULO, Brazil --
Brazil and Argentina successfully launched a rocket into space on Sunday in the first joint space mission by the two South American nations.
The VS30 rocket, which carried experiments from both countries, blasted off from Brazil's Barreira do Inferno launch center in northern Rio Grande do Norte state, Brazil's Space Agency said in a statement.
The rocket reached an altitude of 75 miles and its journey - which lasted 9 minutes, 25 seconds - was considered "perfect," the agency said.
Liftoff was delayed several times since Wednesday by bad weather.
The mission was the fruit of a 1998 accord between space agencies in Brazil, which has launched rockets into space before, and Argentina, which has relied on other nations to send up satellites.

US MAN IN NICARAGUA HOSPITAL UNDER GUARD
The Miami Herald
Dec. 18, 2007

MANAGUA, Nicaragua --
A U.S. man absolved of killing his Nicaraguan girlfriend was under guard at a police hospital Tuesday while struggling to obtain his release from custody, according to his lawyer.
A Nicaraguan appeals court on Monday overturned a 30-year sentence imposed on 28-year-old Eric Volz, of Nashville, Tenn., and ordered his immediate release.
Volz's lawyer, Fabbrith Gomez, accused officials of "a big delaying tactic" to keep him from being freed before prosecutors can appeal his freedom to the Supreme Court.

NICARAGUA REVERSES AMERICAN'S CONVICTION
The Washington Post
December 18, 2007

MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- A Nicaraguan appeals court on Monday overturned the conviction of a U.S. man sentenced to 30 years in prison in the killing of his Nicaraguan girlfriend, but he was not released and supporters said they feared for his safety.
The conviction of Eric Volz, of Nashville, Tenn., was overturned by an appeals court in the town of Granada, 25 miles east of the Nicaraguan capital of Managua. The court upheld the 30-year sentence of an alleged accomplice, Julio Martin Chamorro.

NICARAGUAN COURT VOIDS AMERICAN'S CONVICTION
The Washington Post
December 18, 2007
MEXICO CITY, Dec. 17 -- A Nicaraguan court on Monday ordered the release of an American magazine editor who became an international cause celebre after being convicted in the grisly murder of his ex-girlfriend.
The appeals court in Granada, a colonial-era magnet for expatriates, upheld an alleged conspirator's conviction but overturned Eric Volz's 30-year sentence after determining the trial judge was biased, Attorney General Julio Centeno G¿mez said in a phone interview from Managua.

ARGENTINA-VENEZUELA SCANDAL WORRIES DIPLOMATS, MEDIA
The Miami Herald
Dec. 19, 2007

BUENOS AIRES --
An unfolding international campaign contribution scandal involving the leaders of Argentina and Venezuela has two groups walking a tightrope: U.S. diplomats and Argentine newspaper editors.
For the diplomats, a U.S. prosecutor's allegation that Venezuela tried to secretly send $800,000 in cash to the electoral campaign of Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner earlier this year threatened to derail a delicately crafted effort to improve ties with Argentina and negotiate a long-simmering debt default, U.S. officials said.
Instead, Argentina has closed ranks with Venezuelan populist President Hugo Chávez, and both have condemned the affair as a plot by Washington to attack Chávez and his friends, including Fernández.

REPORT FINDS U.S. AGENCIES DISTRACTED BY FOCUS ON CUBA
The New York Times
December 19, 2007
Catching Americans who travel illegally to Cuba or who purchase cigars, rum or other products from the island may be distracting some American government agencies from higher-priority missions like fighting terrorism and combating narcotics trafficking, a government audit to be released Wednesday says.