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NICARAGUA JUDGES DEBATE ORTEGA COUNCILS
The Miami Herald
Dec. 06, 2007
MANAGUA, Nicaragua --
Six judges on Nicaragua's Supreme Court have thrown out a law meant to block neighborhood councils that will report directly to President Daniel Ortega. But other judges call the ruling itself illegal.
Ortega established the councils last week, ignoring opponents who argue they are a return to Cuban-inspired citizen groups that Ortega used as his eyes and ears when he was president two decades ago while battling U.S.-backed Contra rebels.
Backers say the groups are an expression of local democracy, distributing subsidized food, helping police keep the peace and participating in making local policy decisions.
OLD HAVANA GETS A LIFT, BUT CUBANS DON’T BENEFIT
The New York Times
December 6, 2007
HAVANA — These days, when Eusebio Leal Spengler walks the streets of Old Havana, people treat him like a rock star. Ladies kiss him on the cheek and whisper that they love him. Children point at him.
A view of a building in Old Havana renovated by Eusebio Leal Spengler, the city's official historian.
He pumps the hand of a tour guide he knows and, on discovering the tourists are from Ireland, he recommends that they visit the Calle O’Reilly, named for an Irish-born general in the Spanish Army who revamped the city’s defenses in 1763 and married a Cuban heiress.
CUBAN ACTIVIST: DISSIDENTS PLAN ACTION
The Miami Herald
Dec. 06, 2007
HAVANA --
Recent detentions of dissidents, including a roundup on church grounds in eastern Cuba, appear aimed at deflating opposition plans for a march and other activities next week, a veteran human rights activist said Monday.
Elizardo Sanchez of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and Reconciliation told a news conference he believes "there is a campaign of preventive repression to detain any dissident act on December 10," which is International Human Rights Day.
Cuba's government has not commented publicly on the recent detentions, or opposition plans for Human Rights Day.
VENEZUELA'S CHÁVEZ DEFIANT, DESPITE DEFEAT
The Christian Science Monitor
December 6, 2007
Caracas, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez says the time has come for "profound reflection" following his first electoral defeat in nine years at the helm Sunday night.
"Did I make a mistake in choosing the strategic moment to present [the proposal for sweeping Constitutional changes]?" Mr. Chávez asked on state television Monday. "It could be. We still aren't mature enough to adopt an openly socialist project."
But Chávez's acceptance of the results has strengthened his democratic credentials, and analysts say he'll use that to push his socialist "revolution" just as fervently as he has been.
CHAVEZ' EX-WIFE PROPOSES REDUCING TERM
The Miami Herald
Dec. 06, 2007
BARQUISIMETO, Venezuela --
Hugo Chavez's ex-wife said Thursday she is proposing a constitutional amendment to shorten presidential terms, saying the president has been in office long enough.
Marisabel Rodriguez said she believes terms should be reduced from six to four years, and allow presidents only one opportunity for re-election.
"Four years and re-election ... it gives you enough time," said Rodriguez. "This can be done through an amendment."
CHÁVEZ TURNS BITTER OVER HIS DEFEAT IN REFERENDUM
The Washington Post
December 6, 2007
BOGOTA, Colombia, Dec. 5 -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on Wednesday used a four-letter expletive to dismiss the opposition victory in Sunday's referendum and pledged to press forward with plans to approve constitutional changes that would expand his power in one of the world's leading oil producing-countries.
Chávez's remarks, made on television programs broadcast in Venezuela, represent a sharp turn from his magnanimous comments Monday after voters narrowly blocked 69 constitutional changes in a national vote. It was the opposition's first electoral victory since Chávez first won office in a landslide election in 1998.
"I think the opposition has nothing to celebrate," Chávez said. "We didn't lose anything. Prepare yourself because a new offensive will come with a proposed reform -- that one, or transformed, or simplified."
ARGENTINE LEADER GIVES RARE TV INTERVIEW
The Miami Herald
Dec. 06, 2007
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina --
President Nestor Kirchner, credited with leading Argentina out of an economic meltdown after his 2003 election, said Wednesday in a rare television interview that his president-elect wife would have a "much better" administration than his.
Speaking on the Todo Noticias network, Kirchner said he looked forward to handing the presidential sash to wife Cristina Fernandez, who won October's presidential election, when she starts her own four-year term on Monday as Argentina's first elected woman leader.
He told two Argentine journalists that he would not interfere with his wife's decision-making.
ARGENTINA
NEW PRESIDENT'S CHALLENGES
Opinion
The Miami Herald
Dec. 07, 2007
By PETER HAKIM
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who will become president of Argentina on Monday, owes her landslide electoral victory to the extraordinary political and economic success that her husband -- outgoing President Néstor Kirchner -- enjoyed over the past four years. And most voters want her to follow in Kirchner's footsteps. But, to sustain his successful trajectory, Fer- nández, ironically, will have to change course dramatically, reversing some of her spouse's most popular and effective policies.
Kirchner has a lot to boast about. His record of accomplishment is impressive by almost any standard. He was elected at a time of political turmoil with less than 22 percent of the vote. His main opponent, the deeply discredited former President Carlos Ménem, actually got more votes but withdrew from the second round that he was sure to lose. Subsequently, Kirchner managed to raise his approval rating to a high of 80 percent; today it hovers near 55 percent -- a high number for any Latin American president. No one can challenge him politically.
BOLIVIA'S 9 GOVERNORS AGREE TO PRESIDENT'S REFERENDUM
The Washington Post
December 7, 2007
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia, Dec. 6 -- Evo Morales has always maintained that the cornerstone of his presidency would be a new constitution that fundamentally alters the country's social order.
But that cornerstone has become a sharp wedge between Morales and his opponents, who accuse him of trying to consolidate power and weaken dissent. Now, both Morales and political opposition leaders say they are ready to break their paralyzing impasse by betting their jobs: They'll let voters decide who among them stays in office.
Morales said Thursday that he delivered a bill to the Bolivian Congress calling for a series of popular votes -- one to decide whether he will remain president, and others to determine the fates of each of the country's nine governors, six of whom are among the president's harshest critics.
COLOMBIA PROPOSES HOSTAGE TALKS
The Miami Herald
Dec. 07, 2007
BOGOTA, Colombia --
President Alvaro Uribe offered Friday to have government officials meet with unarmed leftist rebels in a rural area absent of government forces for talks aimed at freeing dozens of rebel-held hostages, including three Americans and a former presidential candidate.
Uribe's proposal for a meeting with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, comes amid mounting international pressure, especially from France, for a deal to swap 45 rebel-held hostages for hundreds of jailed rebels.
The rebels have long insisted that their negotiators not disarm for any such talks and it was unclear how they might respond to Uribe's offer.
FRENCH LEADER URGES GUERRILLA TO FREE WOMAN
The New York Times
December 7, 2007
PARIS, Dec. 6 — It was an unusual message from a president to a guerrilla. But the televised appeal by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France to the Colombian rebel leader Manuel Marulanda to release a woman who has been held hostage for nearly six years was only the latest episode in a tale of human endurance.
“Monsieur Marulanda, you know I don’t share your ideas and I condemn your methods,” Mr. Sarkozy said in a video recorded from his ornate office and broadcast on Latin American channels late Wednesday and in France early Thursday. “But I solemnly ask you to release Ingrid Betancourt.”
“I have a dream: to see Ingrid with her family at Christmas,” the president added. “Monsieur Manuel Marulanda, you can make this dream come true. You can save this woman. You can show the world that the FARC understand humanitarian imperatives.”
MEXICO RAIDS MILLS NEAR MONARCH RESERVE
The Miami Herald
Dec. 07, 2007
MEXICO CITY --
Police conducted the biggest anti-logging raid in the nation's history at clandestine sawmills that cut timber on a threatened nature reserve where Monarch butterflies nest in the winter, the government said Thursday.
Illegal deforestation in and around the reserves threatens the butterflies, which rely on the forest cover to protect them from the cold, high-altitude winds. Huge numbers of Monarchs died during a cold snap in 2002.
Agents seized the equivalent of about 600 heavy truckloads of wood, the attorney general's office said, calling the Wednesday raid "the largest seizure of illegally logged wood in the country's history."
COLOMBIA'S LEADER OFFERS NEUTRAL AREA FOR HOSTAGE TALKS
The Washington Post
December 8, 2007
BOGOTA, Colombia, Dec. 7 -- President Alvaro Uribe said Friday that his government was willing to meet with Marxist rebels in a specially demarcated swath of rural Colombia in a bid to win the release of high-profile hostages. The captives include a French-Colombian politician and three Pentagon contractors.
The announcement generated hope among hostages' families, and some analysts saw it as a reversal of the president's long-held pledge never to cede territory for talks with the rebels. But the offer fell short of a long-standing guerrilla demand calling for the demilitarization of two towns near the southern city of Cali.
Uribe has been under growing pressure from the relatives of hostages, the French government and opposition figures to reach an accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Two weeks ago, Uribe cut off negotiations being brokered by Venezuelan President Hugo Ch¿vez. Last week, the Colombian army seized a letter in which Ingrid Betancourt, whose liberation has become a priority for France, described the despair of her nearly six years in captivity.
STUBBORN REBELS FIGHT ON IN COLOMBIA
The Miami Herald
Dec. 08, 2007
LA JULIA, Colombia --
Colombia's defense minister helicoptered into this leftist rebel stronghold with a clutch of U.S. Embassy officials and heavily armed American soldiers to assert emphatically that Latin America's most enduring guerrilla army is on the run.
"The state has arrived to stay, and never again will the guerrillas control this territory," Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos proclaimed in October while inaugurating the first police post ever in this former hub of the cocaine trade.
But just weeks later, an Associated Press news team had to talk its way past testy rebels just to reach the dirt-street town, from which hundreds of people have fled since police and soldiers moved in.
EX-WIFE TAKES ON CHAVEZ'S SOCIALIST PUSH
The Miami Herald
Dec. 08, 2007
BARQUISIMETO, Venezuela --
A new voice has emerged to challenge Hugo Chavez's push to turn Venezuela into a socialist society, someone with rare insight into the president's passions and vulnerabilities: his ex-wife.
Marisabel Rodriguez says her return to the public spotlight is not a personal vendetta.
"This fight is not against a single person," she said in an interview at her home with The Associated Press. "This struggle is against the danger posed by leaving a person in power for a long time."
ARUBA SUSPECT FREED AFTER JUDGE'S RULING
The Miami Herald
Dec. 08, 2007
ORANJESTAD, Aruba --
A judge Friday ordered the release of the last of three suspects re-arrested last month in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, ruling the evidence was not strong enough to continue holding him.
Joran van der Sloot was arrested Nov. 21 along with two other suspects, Surinamese brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, who were released from jail Dec. 1 following a similar ruling.
ARUBA CONSIDERS CLOSING HOLLOWAY CASE
The Miami Herald
Dec. 08, 2007
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico --
Aruba's chief prosecutor said he will close the case of missing American teenager Natalee Holloway by the end of the month unless his office finds that there is enough evidence to charge someone with a major crime.
The prosecutor, Hans Mos, said he would not comment about the kind of evidence his office is reviewing but that he does not anticipate finding Holloway's remains and prosecuting a case without them would be "very hard."
"We promised the suspects that after Dec. 31, we will not pursue the case," Mos told The Associated Press Friday. "This investigation should end at a certain point."
AMAZON STILL FACES THREATS OLD AND NEW
The Miami Herald
Dec. 08, 2007
MANAUS, Brazil --
In the 1980s, scientists sounded the alarm: The Amazon was burning and would be gone by the end of the century.
Two decades later, the dire predictions have not come to pass. Around 80 percent of the world's largest remaining tropical wilderness is still standing - a vast carpet of green crisscrossed by the Amazon river and its 1,100 tributaries.
But scientists warn that the destruction only has slowed, and a Connecticut-sized chunk disappears every year for ranching, farming, and logging.
FRENCH PM HONORS SLAIN NUNS IN ARGENTINA
The Miami Herald
Dec. 09, 2007
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina --
France's prime minister paid tribute Saturday to two French nuns abducted and killed during Argentina's military dictatorship 30 years ago.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon laid red roses on the grave of Leonie Duquet in the garden of a Roman Catholic church, pausing to reflect before her black granite tombstone.
Duquet was abducted on Dec. 8, 1977, in what lawyers say was a commando-style operation by state security agents. The other French nun, Alice Domon, was also abducted that month, but her remains were never recovered.
THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT
CHÁVEZ COULD BE THE COMEBACK KID IN '08
The Miami Herald
Dec. 09, 2007
While Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez suffered a huge defeat in the Dec. 2 referendum -- independent election monitors say he lost by a wider margin than officially announced and only accepted his loss under pressure -- he may still make a significant comeback in 2008.
Internationally, Chávez could add new countries to his petrodollar-fueled ''anti-imperialist'' bloc and regain some regional stature as early as next year. There will be elections in Paraguay and the Dominican Republic in 2008, followed by elections in El Salvador in 2009.
It is not farfetched to think that -- for a small fraction of what he spent financing presidential campaigns in other countries -- he could add Paraguay, and later El Salvador, to his ''Bolivarian Alternative of the Peoples'' alliance.
VENEZUELA'S CHAVEZ PROMISES BELARUS OIL
The Miami Herald
Dec. 09, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela --
President Hugo Chavez promised to supply the oil needs of Belarus for years to come Saturday and dismissed Western accusations that former Soviet republic's leader is a dictator.
Concluding his first visit to Venezuela, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko promised to help the South American country beef up its military.
Chavez said both he and his counterpart are wrongly labeled "dictators" by their critics.
"The international media dictatorship ... calls him 'Europe's last dictator,' and me the last dictator of Latin America. Here we are, the last dictators," Chavez said, laughing. "They demonize us ... (because) we're leading a process of liberating our nations, uniting our nations."
UN REPRESENTATIVE HELD HOSTAGE IN BRAZIL
The Miami Herald
Dec. 10, 2007
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil --
A U.N. representative and three other people have been taken hostage by Indians, and federal officials were flying to the jungle on Monday to negotiate their release.
The Cinta Larga Indians invited David Martins Castro, a representative of the U.N. the High Commission for Human Rights, to a meeting Sunday on their reservation. Martins came with a federal prosecutor and two other people. The Indians prevented all four from leaving.
"Right now the situation is calm, the hostages are being well treated. We are only waiting" for Federal Indian Bureau President Marcio Meira to negotiate, police inspector Rodrigo Carvalho said by phone from the state capital of Rondonia.
FERNANDEZ BECOMES ARGENTINA'S PRESIDENT
The Miami Herald
Dec. 10, 2007
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina --
Cristina Fernandez was sworn in Monday as Argentina's first elected female president, completing a rare husband-wife transfer of power that the nation hopes will ensure continued recovery from an economic meltdown.
Fernandez, whose husband Nestor Kirchner is credited with leading Argentina out of its 2001-2002 economic meltdown, vowed to increase his center-left economic programs, create jobs and reduce high poverty levels.
During her hour-long inaugural speech, Fernandez's voice rose in anger as she demanded faster progress from dozens of slow-moving court investigations of human rights abuses of the country's 1976-83 dictatorship.
ARGENTINA'S FERNANDEZ SUCCEEDS HUSBAND AS PRESIDENT
The Washington Post
December 10, 2007
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner took office as Argentina's first elected female president on Monday in a rare husband-to-wife handover Argentines hope will sustain an historic economic boom.
Fernandez, a former first lady and senator, began a 4-year term promising to continue the policies of her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, who presided over a dramatic recovery in South America's second-biggest economy.
Lawmakers in Congress, where the Kirchners' Peronist party holds a majority, cheered as Kirchner placed the light-blue and white striped presidential sash on his teary-eyed wife and tightly hugged her.
BOLIVIAN ASSEMBLY ENDORSES NEW CHARTER
The Washington Post
December 10, 2007
ORURO, Bolivia, Dec. 9 -- Defying an opposition boycott, Bolivia's constitutional assembly approved a new charter Sunday that would empower the poor South American nation's indigenous majority and let President Evo Morales run for reelection indefinitely.
The new constitution must now be approved by Bolivians in a national referendum. No date has been set for the vote.
Opposition leaders vowed to launch protests and legal challenges, saying the document does not represent all Bolivians.
AFTER SETBACK, CHÁVEZ MAKES THE CLOCKS FALL BEHIND
The New York Times
December 10, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela, Dec. 9 — Venezuelans turned their clocks back half an hour on Sunday, putting them in the company of people in other nations that offset time in half-hour increments from Greenwich Mean Time, like Afghanistan, India, Iran and Myanmar.
“This is a public health measure that benefits the health of Venezuelan men and women and, above all, boys and girls,” the government’s official news agency said.
The time change, which will remain in effect year-round, was initially announced in August, but confusion ensued as to whether clocks would be moved ahead or behind. Senior officials here recently confirmed that clocks would be turned back 30 minutes, arguing that exposing citizens to more sunlight would improve their metabolism.
VENEZUELA
OPPOSITION'S WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY
Opinión
The Miami Herald
Dec. 10, 2007
By Marifeli Perez-Stable
“A photo finish,” Chávez said after Venezuelans rejected his constitutional reforms. He’s right, of course, only the No –which few really thought would win– is resounding a lot louder than 51-49. The president, after all, thought he’d get indefinite reelection and even more personal power. Instead, he’s facing a Venezuela of opportunities that the Sí would have preempted.
After conceding defeat, Chávez has reverted to his old self. Last Wednesday, he railed against the opposition using a profanity to disqualify the No, while promising to put a simpler version of the reforms back on the agenda. Whether or not the Constitution allows him that option, the fact that he’s raising it is telling. If only he’d explained the reforms better and given the people more time, the Sí would have won. What else could account for his first reversal in nine years?
ECUADOR TO DRILL PARK UNLESS WORLD PAYS
The Miami Herald
Dec. 10, 2007
QUITO, Ecuador --
Ecuador will open bidding for a major oil project in a jungle nature reserve in June if the poor Andean country does not receive international funding to abandon the proposal, the oil minister said Monday.
The government is seeking a minimum of $350 million a year from the international community for 10 years not to drill in the Ishpingo-Tiputini-Tambococha fields located in Yasuni National Park, in Ecuador's northeastern jungle. The money is to compensate Ecuador for income it would have generated by drilling for oil at the site.
The jungle area, which holds close to 1 billion barrels of crude, is part of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Some environmentalists say the reserve has more varieties of plant life than the United States and Canada combined.
HUMAN RIGHTS MARCH INTERRUPTED
The Miami Herald
Dec. 10, 2007
HAVANA --
Cuba said Monday it would sign an international agreement on civil and political rights while a few blocks away government supporters shoved and shouted down activists calling for improved human rights on the communist-run island.
Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque marked International Human Rights Day with word his country would "soon" sign the accords. Meanwhile, dissidents marching nearby were mobbed, insulted and forced into unmarked sedans.
There were no reports of injuries, and it was not clear whether marchers taken away had been arrested. A few international journalists were roughed up by counter- protesters, but did not require medical attention.
CRUISE, CARGO SHIPS COLLIDE OFF URUGUAY
The Miami Herald
Dec. 10, 2007
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay --
A cruise ship carrying some 1,700 passengers collided with a cargo vessel Monday in a Uruguayan port, but no injuries were reported.
The Norwegian Dream, a Bahamas-flagged cruise ship, received damages described as "not serious" above its waterline and remained in harbor as authorities temporarily closed the Montevideo port, Uruguay's navy said in a statement.
The cargo vessel also suffered unspecified damages and at least five containers and some vehicles tumbled into the shallow River Plate estuary, naval authorities said. The ship remained afloat.
JUDGE ON PINOCHET KIN TRIALS STEPS DOWN
The Miami Herald
Dec. 10, 2007
SANTIAGO, Chile --
The judge handling the embezzlement trials of relatives and aides of the late Gen. Augusto Pinochet submitted his resignation from the case on Monday after defense lawyers accused him of bias against the former dictator.
The Santiago Court of Appeals said in a communique it will soon decide whether to accept Judge Carlos Cerda's resignation from the case, which stems from the multi-million-dollar secret accounts owned by Pinochet at banks in the United States and elsewhere.
Cerda acted after Luis Pacull, a lawyer for Pinochet's youngest son, Marco Antonio, accused him of bias against the former dictator and his family.
PERU'S FUJIMORI GOES ON TRIAL
The Washington Post
December 10, 2007
LIMA, Peru -- Waving his arms in outrage and shouting that he is innocent, Alberto Fujimori went on trial Monday on charges of using a death squad to kill leftist guerrillas and collaborators.
It is the first time in Peru's history that a former president faces a trial for crimes committed during his administration _ and one of the few cases of a Latin American leader being tried after leaving office. The case is stirring mixed emotions in a country where many still admire Fujimori for defeating a bloody insurgency.
Fujimori faces charges he authorized the 1992 death-squad slayings of nine students and a professor at La Cantuta University, and the 1991 killings of 15 people in a tenement in Lima's Barrios Altos neighborhood. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison.
EX-PRESIDENT STANDS TRIAL IN EDGY PERU
The New York Times
December 10, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela, Dec. 9 — The Supreme Court in Peru will start its trial of former President Alberto K. Fujimori on Monday, making him the country’s first former head of state to be tried on human rights violations, including murder and kidnapping.
Preparations for the trial have already stirred considerable unease as Peruvians grapple with revelations of the counterinsurgency methods used by Mr. Fujimori’s government during his 10-year presidency, from 1990 to 2000, to combat two rebel groups, Shining Path and the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement.
“I want him to be judged severely because he ordered to kill,” said Raida Condor, 65, who lost her son Armando in a massacre of nine students and a professor from La Cantuta University in 1992. “For 15 years, I have searched for justice and to know why my son died the way he died.”
PERU AMBIVALENT AS EX-LEADER FACES TRIAL FOR MASSACRES
The Washington Post
December 10, 2007
LIMA, Peru, Dec. 9 -- When Alberto Fujimori was president of Peru in the 1990s, his authoritarian methods forced the country to debate how far a leader should go in the pursuit of terrorists.
Now, as he faces a trial that could send him to prison for life, the debate for many here has shifted: How far should Peru go in pursuit of Fujimori?
An awkward sort of ambivalence is defining the trial even before it starts on Monday. Although a majority of Peruvians say they believe Fujimori is guilty of human rights abuses and corruption, he remains near the top of the list of the country's most admired political figures. According to a survey conducted recently by the University of Lima, he is more popular than Alan García, whom Peruvians returned to the presidency last year. Nearly 55 percent said they view Fujimori's 1990-2000 presidency favorably.
MURDER TRIAL OPENS FOR PERU'S FUJIMORI
The Miami Herald
Dec. 10, 2007
LIMA, Peru --
Former President Alberto Fujimori went on trial Monday on charges of using a death squad to kill leftist guerrillas and collaborators - a case stirring mixed emotions in a country where many admire him for defeating a bloody insurgency.
It is the first time in Peru's history that a former president faces a public trial for crimes committed during his administration - and one of the few cases of a Latin American leader being tried after leaving office.
Fujimori is charged with authorizing a death squad to kill nine students and a professor at La Cantuta University in 1992, and 15 people in a tenement in Lima's Barrios Altos neighborhood in 1991. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine of some $33 million.
PERU'S FUJIMORI SAYS INNOCENT OF MURDER CHARGES
The Washington Post
December 10, 2007
LIMA (Reuters) - Former President Alberto Fujimori angrily denied ordering death squads to kill suspected leftists in Peru's civil war as he went on trial on Monday, and said he saved the country from the threat of communism.
"I reject the charges entirely. I'm innocent," Fujimori shouted angrily while pointing at a panel of three Supreme Court judges.
Fujimori, 69, is accused of sending a military death squad to carry out the La Cantuta massacre, in which 10 people were snatched from a university, murdered and buried in a shallow grave in 1992 for allegedly collaborating with left-wing guerrillas.
PERU'S FUJIMORI ASSERTS HIS INNOCENCE
The Washington Post
December 11, 2007
LIMA, Peru, Dec. 10 -- Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori on Monday erupted in anger during the first day of his trial on human rights charges, shouting that he had rescued a country on the verge of collapse in the 1990s and never ordered "any detestable acts."
"I reject the charges, totally!" exclaimed Fujimori, thrusting his index fingers into the air, after judges allowed him a brief statement. "I am innocent!"
Before the outburst, Fujimori had listened calmly as prosecutors accused him of ordering two massacres, in which 25 people were killed, and two kidnappings.
FUJIMORI SENTENCED FOR ABUSE OF POWER
The Miami Herald
Dec. 11, 2007
LIMA, Peru --
Former President Alberto Fujimori was convicted of abuse of authority and sentenced to six years in prison Tuesday at the end of the first in a series of trials on charges that include murder, kidnapping and corruption.
Supreme Court Justice Pedro Guillermo Urbina declared Fujimori guilty of abusing his power for ordering an illegal search as his government imploded in scandal seven years ago. He also fined Fujimori the equivalent of $134,900.
The former president was convicted of having a military aide pose as a prosecutor and search without a warrant the luxury apartment of the wife of his spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos in November 2000.
PERU'S FUJIMORI DEFIANT AS TRIAL BEGINS
The Miami Herald
Dec. 11, 2007
LIMA --
Former President Alberto Fujimori went on trial Monday on charges of approving a death squad. He energetically rejected the allegations and said he saved Peru from disaster by crushing leftist insurgencies in the 1990s.
Fujimori is accused of approving the actions of a death squad known as the Colina Group which, among other crimes, killed 15 people at a party in Lima's Barrios Altos neighborhood in 1991 and nine students and a professor at La Cantuta teachers college, also in Lima, the following year.
Another case involves the abduction and torture of a journalist and a businessman at an Army intelligence office.
CHÁVEZ'S DEFEAT A WIN FOR DEMOCRACY
Opinión
The Miami Herald
Dec. 11, 2007
By Carlos Alberto Montaner
First, the king told him to shut up. Now, the Venezuelan people have done the same. In addition, the two phenomena are related. When Spanish King Juan Carlos enjoined Hugo Chávez to be silent, he unwittingly created the most formidable slogan
against the dictator's
apprentice and gave the
opposition the momentum
the university students needed
to overcome apathy and lead the people to the polls once again.
NEW GUATEMALA ADOPTION LAW APPROVED
The Miami Herald
Dec. 11, 2007
GUATEMALA CITY --
Guatemalan legislators approved a new law Tuesday that tightens adoptions, while allowing pending cases - mostly involving U.S. couples - to go through without meeting stricter requirements.
The new law will enable Guatemala to comply with the Hague Convention, an international agreement designed to protect adopted children from human trafficking. The Central American country sent 4,135 children to the U.S. last year, making it the largest source of babies for American families after China.
Many adoptive parents, some of whom invest their life savings to bring home a Guatemalan baby, feared the changes would leave in limbo about 3,700 children already matched with prospective parents. The State Department had pressured Guatemala to make an exception for pending adoptions in the new law, and President Oscar Berger is expected to sign it.
ROLES SWAP IN ARGENTINA’S PALACE AS FIRST LADY TAKES OVER
The New York Times
December 11, 2007
BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 10 — Néstor Kirchner, Argentina’s most popular president in decades, draped the light-blue-and-white sash over the shoulder of his wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, on Monday, officially passing power to the first woman to be elected Argentina’s leader in its 191-year history.
The transfer of power was sealed with an emphatic, crowd-pleasing hug that seemed to make Mrs. Kirchner blush. She repeatedly stroked her husband’s back during the embrace.
No modern-day couple in a democracy has carried out a comparable transfer of power, and certainly not in Latin America. In their four and a half years in the presidential palace, the couple, affectionately known as “the penguins” — a reference to Mr. Kirchner’s Patagonian home state of Santa Cruz — have evolved into Latin America’s Dynamic Duo, power brokers who hold sway over their country of 40 million people.
BRAZIL
RIO POLICE CALLED BRUTAL, CORRUPT
The Miami Herald
Dec. 12, 2007
RIO DE JANEIRO --
Although he knew the risks he was running, Jorge da Silva Siqueira Neto, a father of six, refused to keep his mouth shut when police officers from a nearby battalion overran the slum where he lived and began terrorizing his neighbors.
Siqueira, 35, who headed the slum's residents association, sought out journalists, prosecutors and anyone else who would listen as he told horrific tales of extortion, torture and executions waged by out-of-control police.
Then on Sept. 7, he disappeared.
CHILEAN JUDGE MAKES PRIEST RECITE PSALMS
The Miami Herald
Dec. 12, 2007
SANTIAGO, Chile --
A judge in southern Chile has sentenced a Catholic priest to recite seven psalms daily during three months as punishment for illegal parking.
Judge Manuel Perez said he issued the unusual sentence after the Rev. Jose Cornejo said he could not afford the $100 fine that would have been the regular sanction for illegal parking in the city of Puerto Montt.
"He will have to recite seven psalms," Judge Perez told the Santiago daily La Tercera.
FRANCE HONORS BRAZILIAN ARCHITECT
The Miami Herald
Dec. 12, 2007
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil --
France honored Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer with the Legion of Honor Wednesday, days before his 100th birthday.
French ambassador Antoine Pouillieute presented the medal with the rank of commander to Niemeyer in his Copacabana office.
"I am very pleased to be receiving this honor from France, a people from whom I received so many favors, so much," Niemeyer said upon receiving the award.
FUJIMORI OUTBURST SETS TONE FOR PERU HUMAN RIGHTS TRIALS
The Christian Science Monitor
December 12, 2007
Lima, Peru - The multiple human rights and corruption trials of Peru's Alberto Fujimori got off to a colorful start this week when the former president launched into a tirade denying the charges against him and taking credit for the country's current economic boom.
Mr. Fujimori, who ruled Peru from 1990-2000, began facing a three-judge panel Monday on charges that he approved the death-squad murders of 15 people in 1991 and nine students and a professor the following year. The trial also includes the charge of authorizing the kidnapping and torture of a journalist and a businessman, also in 1992.
He also may face a seven-year sentence in a separate trial on abuse of authority charges.
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.
Alberto K. Fujimori, in court for sentencing Tuesday in Lima, Peru, also is charged with murder and forced disappearance.
The conviction stunned Peru, which Mr. Fujimori ruled from 1990 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.
GLIDE, SWOOSH, SPLAT: MEXICO TRIES OUT AN ICE-SKATING RINK
The New York Times
December 12, 2007
MEXICO CITY — Ice-skating ranks low on the list of sports in Mexico, somewhere far below bullfighting and slightly above croquet. So it was with some bemusement, wonder and trepidation that residents of this capital have been flocking this month to an enormous ice rink that Mayor Marcelo Ebrard has constructed in the historic central square.
Most people, unused to cold climes, tried the winter sport and came off the ice beaming.
Forty-six miles of tubes run to 10 chilling machines under the rink, each capable of freezing a small rink itself.
MEXICO'S VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE CELEBRATED
The Miami Herald
Dec. 12, 2007
MEXICO CITY --
Hundreds of thousands of people, some crawling on hands and knees, others carrying her image to be blessed, gathered Wednesday to honor the Mexico's beloved patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Celebrants set off fireworks, sang and prayed inside the packed Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe to celebrate the 476th anniversary of the dark-skinned virgin's apparition to the Indian Juan Diego.
Her image on Juan Diego's cloak helped draw Mexico's Indian population to the Catholic faith shortly after it was introduced by invading Spaniards. The church eventually declared her patron saint of all the Americas.
RAPE OF GIRL, 15, EXPOSES ABUSES IN BRAZIL PRISON SYSTEM
The New York Times
December 12, 2007
BRASÍLIA — The police jail at Abaetetuba could not be torn down soon enough for Márcia Soares, a lawyer and federal human rights official here. To her, the jail has come to symbolize everything that is wrong with Brazil’s efforts to safeguard women and children from violence.
It was at Abaetetuba, in the northeastern state of Para on the fringes of the Amazon, that a 15-year-old girl arrested on suspicion of petty theft was illegally placed among 34 male inmates in late October. For 26 days they treated her as their plaything, raping and torturing her repeatedly. Sometimes she traded sex for food; other times, she was simply raped, federal investigators here said.
The police in the jail did more than turn their backs on the violence. They shaved her head with a knife to make her look more like a boy, investigators said, and now are blaming her for lying about her age.
US PAIR FACE SEX ABUSE CHARGES IN BRAZIL
The Miami Herald
Dec. 12, 2007
SAO PAULO, Brazil --
The U.S. couple suspected of sexually abusing minors in a nudist colony in southern Brazil ran an organization that gave free English lessons to local children, authorities said Wednesday.
Police were investigating whether the group, called New Face, was being used as a front to attract youngsters, police inspector Juliano Ferreira said by telephone.
Police said they arrested Frederick Calvin Louderback, 63, and his girlfriend Barbara Anner, 54. Louderback is suspected of sexually abusing at least 10 boys between the ages of 6 and 14, all from poor neighborhoods near the colony, police said. Anner was accused of luring the boys with promises of gifts, food and trips. |
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