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URIBE CAUTIOUS ON TALKS TO FREE CAPTIVES
The Miami Herald
Sep. 26, 2007
NEW YORK --
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said Wednesday he was grateful Venezuela's leader is seeking to win the release of three Americans and other hostages in Colombia, but seemed cautious about raising hopes on the negotiations with leftist rebels.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Uribe stressed that a meeting expected next month between President Hugo Chavez and rebel leaders would be only the latest of many efforts to free the captives. He was steadfast in refusing key rebel demands including a New York City-sized demilitarized zone and the release of two Colombian rebels imprisoned in the U.S.
"It's difficult because everyone wants the release of hostages," said Uribe, who was in New York for a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. "I hope the rebels free the hostages at President Chavez's request. But we will express all of our gratitude to President Chavez ... whether or not the effort proves successful."
Families of the kidnapped are optimistic Chavez could sway the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia because of the rebels' affinity for his leftist ideals. The Venezuelan president met Tuesday with relatives of three American defense contractors held by the FARC and the mother of former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian citizen.
EX-PRESIDENT FOX SHAKES UP MEXICO, AGAIN
The Christian Science Monitor
September 27, 2007
Reporter Sarah Miller Llana says that many Mexicans are not paying as much attention to former president Fox's upcoming memoirs as to accusations he may have been corrupt.
Mexico City - For more than seven decades, the game was simple: Mexican presidents got to rule as if they were monarchs, and then they were to disappear and let the new leader reign.
The former heads of state slinked silently away; those who had not yet had their fill of power were forced out, often by public scandal.
Then came Vicente Fox.
Mr. Fox changed the nation when, upon taking the helm of Mexico in 2000, he ended 71 years of authoritarian rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Now he's changing what it means to be a former president of Mexico.
ARGENTINE COURT OKS SEX CHANGE FOR TEEN
The Miami Herald
Sep. 27, 2007
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina --
A 17-year-old Argentine has won a court battle to undergo surgery to become a female, the first decision of its kind involving a minor in Argentina, news reports said Thursday.
Ending a three-year legal battle, a court in the central province of Cordoba authorized the surgery earlier this week.
In Argentina, the surgery requires court approval because of laws against mutilation.
A judge in 2004 initially ruled the teenager must wait until age 21, but the parents appealed and persuaded a court panel, the reports said.
Courts have withheld the name because the teenager is still a minor and the local media have not published the teen's identity.
In the U.S., no court permission is necessary but most doctors are hesitant to operate on minors, said Denise Leclair, executive director of the International Foundation for Gender Education in Waltham, Mass.
MEXICO'S MILITARY EXPANDS WOMEN'S ROLES
The Miami Herald
Sep. 28, 2007
MEXICO CITY --
Mexico's military is tapping a population its recruiters all but overlooked for decades: women. For the first time, Mexico is allowing females to train in elite military schools to become engineers, pilots and other careers that can rise to the rank of general.
The changes, ordered by President Felipe Calderon shortly after he took office in December, are profound for Mexico and its male-dominated, machismo society. Women still aren't allowed in combat roles, but the moves are the first expansion of military opportunities for women in 31 years.
Up before dawn at boot camp this month, Patricia Vela, 18, joined male cadets in marching, obstacle courses and basic weaponry training at a military camp in the central Mexican highlands. She's studying administration, a military career previously closed to women.
Although she won't be allowed to study weaponry as a career or take part in combat, like all female cadets, even those who came before her, she must learn to arm, fire and dismantle a gun.
FARC'S CHANCE TO DO RIGHT FOR COLOMBIA
The Washington Post
September 28, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Latin America's oldest guerrilla movement, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, couldn't ask for a better opportunity to do what is right. For 43 years the FARC has been waging war against the Colombian state and more recently profiting from drug trafficking and kidnappings. Now it is using 45 high-profile hostages, including a former presidential candidate and three U.S. citizens, as pawns to negotiate the release of hundreds of FARC members held in Colombian prisons.
The latest attempt at an exchange got a significant boost less than two months ago. On Aug. 15, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe eased off his usual hard-line rhetoric and named a political archrival, Sen. Piedad Cordoba, as facilitator for an exchange. Cordoba moved quickly to seek a humanitarian agreement with the FARC and reached out to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has agreed to mediate and even offered to host negotiations in Venezuela.
Chavez's involvement is the single most important element that makes this attempt the most promising in recent memory. Chavez is providing "a hope, a light that we hadn't seen for a long time," Mariana Howes, wife of one of Americans, said hours after meeting with Chavez in Caracas Tuesday night. The FARC seems to trust him, and his profile as champion of the left and Fidel Castro's symbolic successor give him cachet within the guerrilla movement.
HAITI: DUVALIER COULD FACE JUSTICE
The Miami Herald
Sep. 28, 2007
NEW YORK --
Haiti's president said Friday that former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier would have to face justice for his regime's corruption and abuses if he returns to the Caribbean country from exile.
Duvalier, whose rule came to an abrupt end in February 1986 when he fled during a popular uprising, ended years of silence over the weekend with a Haitian radio address in which he apologized for "wrongs" committed under his rule. He did not say whether he would return to Haiti, but his unexpected address came amid a quiet campaign by some of his hardcore supporters to bring him back from in France.
President Rene Preval, who earlier this week rejected Duvalier's apology, said he could not prevent the former dictator from returning because Haiti's constitution prohibits the forced exile of any citizen.
Asked if Duvalier would be brought to trial, Preval said his "dictatorship killed thousands of people" and stole millions of dollars.
"There is also the clamor of the people ... I think justice has to have its say," Preval told a news conference in New York, where he was attending the U.N. General Assembly.
LORENZO LASHES MEXICO'S COAST
The Miami Herald
Sep. 28, 2007
SAN RAFAEL, Mexico --
Hurricane Lorenzo crashed into Mexico's Gulf coast before dawn Friday, ripping apart shacks, sending billboards flying through the air and causing a landslide that claimed three lives.
The storm brought steady rain to much of central Mexico. In Puebla state, a saturated hillside collapsed, killing a woman and two children.
Following roughly the same path as deadly Hurricane Dean in August, Lorenzo quickly weakened to a tropical storm that moved inland and drenched Veracruz state's lush mountains. Rivers snaking through the countryside quickly filled with roaring water.
The storm battered a coastline populated with small fishing villages and beach hotels, knocking over electrical poles and leaving about 5,000 people in shelters scattered throughout the region.
In the farming town of San Rafael, residents were scooping water out of flooded homes and trying to keep their belongings dry as a nearby river threatened to overflow its banks. Many residents lost their banana, orange and lime crops to Hurricane Dean, and were still cleaning up from that storm when Lorenzo hit.
CAPTURING THE REVOLUTION ON FILM
The Washington Post
September 29, 2007
GUARENAS, Venezuela -- Intent on a cultural revolution, Venezuela's fiercely nationalistic government has required radio stations to play more Venezuelan music, promoted art infused with revolutionary zeal and published books extolling the country's transformation under President Hugo Ch¿vez.
Now, countering what Ch¿vez calls American "cultural imperialism" and the Hollywood movies that pervade here, the populist government is delving headfirst into the movie business. The Bolivarian government, named after its 19th-century namesake, is running a new state-of-the-art film studio here, developing scripts venerating the country's history and funding films designed to jump-start Venezuela's moribund filmmaking.
"For many years, we had low or no production, one or two films a year, at most," said Lorena Almarza, director of the state studios, Villa del Cine. "Then the Bolivarian government came in, and culture became a constitutional right, which didn't exist before."
A RIGHTS ADVOCATE’S WORK DIVIDES DOMINICANS
The New York Times
September 29, 2007
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic
WHEN Sonia Pierre won an international human rights award last fall, there were two diametrically opposite reactions here: “Way to go!” and “Oh, no!”
Ms. Pierre is the Dominican Republic’s most polarizing human rights advocate, a dark-skinned woman who says she can only dream of a country in which her color — and the skin tone of hundreds of thousands of other Dominicans like her who are of Haitian descent — is a non-issue.
Carlos Morales Troncoso, the Dominican foreign minister, was among those who were infuriated at the honor Ms. Pierre received from the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights. He fired off a letter to Mr. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel, labeling the award “ill advised” and “myopic.”
LORENZO KILLS 5 IN MEXICO
The Miami Herald
Sep. 29, 2007
VERACRUZ, Mexico --
Hurricane Lorenzo's pounding rains caused mudslides and floods that killed at least five people, slashed roads and drove tens of thousands from their homes in eastern Mexico.
Rivers that had swollen 21 feet above usual levels began to recede on Saturday, but officials said it might take weeks for all flooding to subside.
Lorenzo hit Mexico's Gulf coast on Friday and quickly faded into a potent rainstorm as it moved over the lush, ravine-cut mountains of east-central Mexico, dumping more than 13 inches of rain in some areas in less than a day.
In the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Karen faded into a tropical depression Saturday with winds of 35 mph. It was some 530 miles east of the Leeward Islands, and the National Hurricane Center in Miami said it was likely to dissipate soon.
A new tropical storm, Melissa, also formed early Saturday in the eastern Atlantic, but posed no immediate threat to land.
CIVIL WAR TALK STOKES BOLIVIAN FEARS
The Miami Herald
Sep. 30, 2007
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia --
Miguel Roda fires four shots into the palm trees and imagines a civil war.
"We will spill our last drop of blood, comrades!" he shouts to a few dozen supporters gathered in a city plaza. "We will defend Santa Cruz inch by inch, street by street and town by town!"
The enemy, to this black-bereted, revolver-toting Bolivian, is his leftist president, Evo Morales. Roda's dream: to revive the Bolivian Socialist Falange, an ultranationalist party that was strong in the 1950s and then dormant for decades.
Civil war may seem unthinkable, but in Santa Cruz, a lowland city and anti-Morales stronghold, the appearance of Roda's fringe group reflects the alarm gripping the white elite. Morales' reforms are popular among his fellow highland Indians, but take dead aim at the frontier capitalism practiced in Santa Cruz state.
Old regional and racial rivalries, many Bolivians believe, are deepening the split.
ECUADOR TO PICK CONSTITUTIONAL ASSEMBLY
The Miami Herald
Sep. 30, 2007
QUITO, Ecuador --
Ecuador's leftist president is betting on his popular support to win control of a constitutional assembly on Sunday that will write a new charter for this politically volatile nation.
Rafael Correa's government is following in the footsteps of fellow South American leftist governments in Venezuela and Bolivia, whose leaders ran successful presidential campaigns promising new charters.
Opponents say Correa is plotting a power grab through the assembly. But pre-election polls show Ecuadoreans, disillusioned with their political system, were prepared to give the president's movement the greatest number of seats in the 130-member body.
Still, it was unclear if Correa could obtain the majority needed to push through all of his proposed reforms, with more than a third of voters still undecided weeks before the Sunday vote.
CORREA CLAIMS VICTORY IN ECUADOR VOTE
The Miami Herald
Oct. 01, 2007
QUITO, Ecuador --
Official results haven't been released yet but that didn't stop Ecuador's president from claiming victory in an election to create an assembly to write a new constitution that could usher in a socialist model of government.
A quick count by a local citizens' group at thousands of polls indicated strong support for the president's party in Sunday's vote. But no official results were released to support President Rafael Correa's initial claim of triumph, and complete results are expected to take at least 20 days.
Correa seeks a 66-seat majority to firmly control the 130-seat assembly's agenda. The sampling showed Correa's party on course to win 15 out of 24 assembly seats reserved for national representatives.
The count by Participacion Ciudadana was conducted at 6,129 of the country's 37,656 voting centers. The sampling was equivalent to 82 percent of the votes registered at the centers.
THE EVERYMAN WHO EXPOSED TAINTED TOOTHPASTE
The New York Times
October 1, 2007
PANAMA — Eduardo Arias hardly fits the profile of someone capable of humbling one of the world’s most formidable economic powers.
A truck leaving the Colón Free Trade Zone in Panama. Some of the contaminated toothpaste from China that wound up on store shelves this year had been shipped through the trade zone.
A 51-year-old Kuna Indian, Mr. Arias grew up on a reservation paddling dugout canoes near his home on one of the San Blas islands off Panama’s Caribbean coast. He now lives in a small apartment above a food stand in Panama, the nation’s capital, also known as Panama City.
But one Saturday morning in May, Eduardo Arias did something that would reverberate across six continents. He read the label on a 59-cent tube of toothpaste. On it were two words that had been overlooked by government inspectors and health authorities in dozens of countries: diethylene glycol, the same sweet-tasting, poisonous ingredient in antifreeze that had been mixed into cold syrup here, killing or disabling at least 138 Panamanians last year.
URIBE DENIES LINKS TO LATE DRUG LORD ESCOBAR
The Miami Herald
Oct. 02, 2007
BOGOTA --
President Alvaro Uribe on Tuesday publicly denied accusations that he befriended and helped a world-renowned drug kingpin in the 1980s.
Uribe denied any connection to Pablo Escobar, who was killed in a police shootout in 1993, responding to a new tell-all book by a former television news anchor who was Escobar's lover.
In Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar, Virginia Vallejo claims that in the early 1980s Uribe, as head of the civil aviation authority, authorized flights and landing strips for members of Escobar's Medellín cartel and even allowed the drug boss to smuggle in exotic pets for his flamboyant Nápoles ranch.
Interviewed by Colombia's two main radio broadcasters, Uribe said that he met Vallejo briefly, on a flight from Bogotá to Medellín, the city where Escobar ran his billion-dollar cocaine smuggling ring at around the same time Uribe was getting his political start.
But the president insisted he had no dealings with Escobar.
TURNING BACK THE CLOCK IN VENEZUELA
The Miami Herald
Oct. 02, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela --
President Hugo Chavez is taking Venezuela back in time - by 30 minutes, to be exact.
His government's plan to turn back clocks by a half-hour has some Venezuelans pleased at the prospect of sleeping in. Others seem vexed that Chavez is making the entire nation change its daily rhythm. But while some bloggers suggest Chavez just wants to get out of Washington's "imperialist" time zone, it also must be noted the change will put Venezuela a half-hour apart from his Cuban allies.
"It seems crazy to me," says 38-year-old Maritza Mendoza, who sells orange juice from a sidewalk stand in downtown Caracas. "It's a whim, just like the change of the currency."
Venezuela's upcoming launch of the "strong bolivar" - eliminating three zeros and reducing bills to 2-, 5-, 10-, 20-, 50-, and 100-bolivar denominations - joins a growing list of changes promoted by Chavez. He's transformed the national seal, the national flag and even the country's name - now the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, after independence hero Simon Bolivar.
CUBANS URGED TO VENT VIEWS
The Miami Herald
Oct. 02, 2007
They are griping in Cuba these days about low salaries and high prices, poor bus services and the maddening dual currency system.
And for the first time in years, Cubans don't have to whisper.
Interim President Raúl Castro has called publicly for criticism, saying that the only way to fix the country's many problems is to air them.
So this month, local branches of organizations such as the Cuban Communist Party, the island's lone labor union, pro-government neighborhood watch groups and the University Student Federation are assembling around the country to debate shortcomings and suggest solutions.
The debate has raised hopes that Castro is on the verge of enacting significant reforms and permitting more freedom of expression. But skeptics say such a debate was held before, and was cut off when the onslaught of grievances was more than the government wished to discuss.
AFTER WIN, ECUADOR'S CORREA SEEKS CONGRESS' CLOSURE
The Miami Herald
Oct. 02, 2007
QUITO --
Ecuador's leftist president on Monday called for new elections and the closure of Congress, buoyed by a vote that apparently gave his supporters a majority in a special assembly to overhaul the constitution.
President Rafael Correa says the new constitution will take power away from Ecuador's traditional political elite and pave the way for socialism, though he has not detailed his plans.
Taking a page from the playbook of leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Correa asked the assembly to dissolve Congress and call elections for all offices, including his own. Chávez, Washington's most outspoken critic in Latin America, was first elected in 1998, and again in 2000 and 2006 under a new charter.
Correa, a 44-year-old former economy minister, won 72 of the 130 assembly's seats in Sunday's vote, according to a quick count by a local citizens' group. A simple majority would let his new political movement control the content of the draft constitution.
BRAZILIAN STARBUCKS CEO DIES IN CAR CRASH
The Miami Herald
Oct. 02, 2007
SAO PAULO --
The businesswoman who opened the first Starbucks stores in the world's top coffee-growing nation has died, the company said Tuesday. Brazilian news media said she was in a car crash.
Maria Luisa Rodenbeck, 49, died Monday in Rio de Janeiro after the taxi she was riding in collided with a bus, the O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reported.
Rodenbeck, the chief executive of Starbucks do Brasil, unveiled the first Starbucks in Brazil in a Sao Paulo shopping mall in December along with executives from Seattle, Wash.-based Starbucks Corp.
South America's largest city now has five Starbucks outlets, meaning Rodenbeck and Starbucks correctly gambled that the hip shops would be a hit among Brazilian coffee drinkers used to paying a pittance for super-strong espresso.
NICARAGUA'S ABORTION BAN PUTS WOMEN AT RISK, RIGHTS GROUP SAYS
The Miami Herald
Oct. 02, 2007
MANAGUA --
Nicaragua's recent ban on all abortions puts women's lives at risk because doctors are now unwilling to perform even legal health services and women are too afraid to seek them, a U.S. human rights group said Tuesday.
''This new law intentionally denies women access to health services essential to saving their lives,'' New York-based Human Right Watch said in a report released Tuesday.
The law, approved in November, bans abortion to save the mother's life, the only circumstance under which the procedure was previously allowed in Nicaragua. Before the new law, women in Nicaragua could receive a so-called therapeutic abortion if three doctors certified that their health was at risk.
In December, the Ministry of Health issued mandatory guidelines on still-legal treatments for women with obstetric emergencies. But it has failed to ensure medical care is offered, the group said.
BRAZILIAN AIR CONTROLLERS PARTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR CRASH, INQUIRY FINDS
The New York Times
October 3, 2007
RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 2 — A Brazilian military investigation into the causes of a fatal air crash above the Amazon rain forest last year has found that five officers who worked as air traffic controllers were among those responsible for the crash, according to a report that became public on Tuesday.
Brazil’s air traffic control system is run by the armed forces, and the internal military investigation indicates that “crimes were committed” by the five men, the inquiry stated. They could now face suspension, prison or discharge.
However, a military judge rejected those findings on Tuesday, calling them “inept” and saying the investigation did not specify which military norms had been violated.
COLOMBIAN LEADER DISPUTES CLAIM OF TIE TO COCAINE KINGPIN
The New York Times
October 3, 2007
BOGOTÁ, Colombia, Oct. 2 — President Álvaro Uribe of Colombia lashed out on Tuesday at claims in a new book that he had close ties to the cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar. He said he never aided Mr. Escobar’s drug dealings or benefited from his political patronage.
Mr. Uribe’s comments were in response to the book, “Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar,” by Virginia Vallejo, Mr. Escobar’s former mistress. Ms. Vallejo repeats claims that Mr. Uribe, as head of the civil aviation authority in the early 1980s, helped Mr. Escobar’s cartel secure licenses for landing strips used to transport cocaine.
“I had no political relations with Escobar, I had no business dealings with Escobar and I was not a friend of Virginia Vallejo,” Mr. Uribe said in comments broadcast on Caracol Radio. Ms. Vallejo, who is believed to be living outside Colombia, could not be reached for comment.
APPEASING THE CASTROS WILL BACKFIRE
Opinión
The Miami Herald
Oct. 03, 2007
By Frank Calzon*
The ''Stockholm syndrome'' describes the phenomenon of hostages who identify, cooperate with and, finally, defend their kidnappers. The longer they are held, the more victims are likely to be affected by the syndrome, because they are totally dependent on their abusers. The control over every aspect of life convinces the victim that he or she is alone, there will be no help from others; resistance is useless and only makes things worse.
That's the kind of control Fidel Castro, and now his brother Raúl, exercise in Cuba.
There, everything comes from Castro and his government. The regime wants the Cuban people to believe they have no other friends. And, alas, even foreign diplomats and their dependents stationed in Havana begin after time to feel this intimidating dependency and to become reluctant to protest outrages directed at them because ``it only results in more abuse.''
Castro's abuse -- his ability to order windows smashed or call out street demonstrations -- becomes ''revenge'' for inviting unapproved Cuban guests to the embassy, for reaching out to engage ordinary Cubans in ways not preapproved by Castro's government.
DRUG TRADE, ONCE PASSING BY, TAKES ROOT IN MEXICO
The New York Times
October 3, 2007
ZAMORA, Mexico — When she gets her high, Lupita Díaz says she enters a sweet illusion of peace, a respite from her pain and self-loathing. She lies on her back in a meadow on the edge of town here with other addicts, looks up at the stars and plays aimlessly on a battered blue harmonica.
Sunrise brings a crashing sensation. Her joints ache. Her mouth goes dry. She has cold sweats, jumps at shadows, hears voices in her head. She is willing, once again, to prostitute herself to get $5 for another hit of crack cocaine or crystal methamphetamine. She has been an addict for years, and her slight body is nearly worn out. She gave away her two children to others to raise.
“There is nothing nice about being here,” she said, slurring her words and covering her watery eyes with pink sunglasses. “It feels ugly not to be with your children. Feels awful. It’s not what I want. It’s not what I like. But when I have money, I want the drugs.”
Ms. Díaz’s story of addiction is common enough in most of America’s big cities, but until a few years ago it was rare in central Mexico. That has changed. Today, Mexico is no longer just a transit country for drugs bound for the United States. It is a country of drug users as well.
MEXICAN BOMBINGS RECALL 'DIRTY WAR' OF DECADES AGO
The Miami Herald
Oct. 03, 2007
OAXACA, Mexico --
The first time Gabriel Cruz Sánchez vanished, Mexican police ransacked the suspected guerrilla leader's house and threatened to kill his entire family unless they coughed up clues about his activities and whereabouts, a sister recalled.
That was more than 30 years ago.
When Cruz Sánchez disappeared a second time, in May of this year, all hell broke loose: Pipelines got bombed, Fortune 500 companies were shut down and the government was forced to acknowledge intelligence failures.
Cruz Sánchez and another man, Edmundo Reyes, are nowhere to be found, but their Marxist guerrilla group -- known by its Spanish initials EPR -- promises more attacks until they're returned alive. Their disappearance has revived talk of human rights abuses, government kidnappings and torture, all of which were prevalent in Mexico in the late 1960s and 1970s.
MYSTERY DISEASE STRIKES REMOTE AREA OF PANAMA
The Miami Herald
Oct. 03, 2007
PANAMA CITY, Panama --
Local officials are reporting that 42 people have died, almost all of them children, in an outbreak of a still unidentified disease in the remote Ñurum district of Panama's indigenous Ngobe-Bugle region.
The ailment begins with a runny nose, coughing and fever, and when it gets deadly the victims present symptoms that look like bronchial pneumonia, according to a statement by Panama's Health Ministry. The Health Ministry and the semi-automomous Gorgas Memorial Laboratory say they don't know the cause of the illness.
`WE'RE STUDYING IT'
''We're studying it, and the Gorgas Lab is working on it, but to say anything now would be speculation,'' said a ministry official who asked for anonymity because he lacked authorization to comment on the case.
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