April 30, 2010

JUAN MANUEL SANTOS: CHAVEZ WOULD HAVE PROBLEMS "EVEN WITH MOTHER TERESA"

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA--Colombian presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos said on Wednesday that no matter who wins the next presidential elections in Colombia, tensions with Venezuela will continue, as dictator Hugo Chávez would have problems "even with Mother Teresa of Calcutta."

     Santos, who is the candidate of the right-wing Social National Unity Party, the ruling party in Colombia, said that Chávez's frequent statements about elections in Colombia seek to affect his nomination. According to Santos, there is consensus among Colombian presidential candidates to reject Chávez's statements, as "it is unacceptable that a foreign leader wants to meddle in the elections." 

     The former Minister of Defense said that Chávez's seeks to "stop" his race for President. However, he said that whoever wins the next presidential elections in Colombia, the relations between Bogotá and Caracas will remain tense because the Venezuelan government "seeks the phantom of an international enemy."  "You can elect Mother Teresa of Calcutta as Colombian president and she will have troubles in her relations with Venezuela," Santos said.

CUBA SPIES COOPERATING WITH U.S. AUTHORITIES, OFFICIALS SAY

      WASHINGTON, D.C.--Admitted spies Walter and Gwendolyn Myers have met with federal officials 50 to 60 times to divulge details of their three decades of spying for Cuba, Justice Department officials said Tuesday. The Washington couple pleaded guilty in November to sending secrets to the United States' longtime antagonist, agreeing to cooperate with the federal government in a deal that offered Gwendolyn Myers a much lighter sentence than she might have faced otherwise. Walter Myers - a former State Department employee with top-secret clearance - agreed to a life sentence without parole. Gwendolyn Myers could have faced as much as 20 years in prison, but under the plea deal, she might serve six to seven-and-a-half years.

    U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton on Tuesday set a sentencing date for July 16. The couple have asked Walton to place them in prisons as close together as possible. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Michael Harvey told Walton that the government had expected the "debriefings" with the couple to take six months, and that investigators were "still on track" and expected to finish the talks in 30 to 40 days. The couple appeared in Walton's courtroom Tuesday for the first time in months. They were in seemingly good spirits, clad in dark blue jail jumpsuits and long-sleeved white shirts. They didn't address the court. They had said in November - through a lawyer - that they'd acted "not out of selfish motive or hope of personal gain, but out of conscience and personal commitment."

     They have agreed to pay the government about $1.7 million, the salary that Walter Myers earned while he worked at the State Department. They'll forfeit their Washington apartment, a 37-foot sailboat, a vehicle, and various bank and investment accounts. They were charged last June with wire fraud, serving as illegal agents for Cuba and conspiring to deliver classified information. Walter Myers pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage and two counts of wire fraud. The espionage charge could carry a death sentence, but prosecutors did not seek one.

VENEZUELA AMONG HOT TOPICS IN COLOMBIA'S ELECTORAL DEBATE

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA--Tense relations with Venezuela, the crisis facing the health system, high jobless rate and corruption were the major topics in a televised debate held on Tuesday night by Colombian presidential candidates, in a context of confusion due to the sharp rise of Green Party's candidate Antanas Mockus.

     During the debate, Mockus said that the relations with Venezuela must not be dependent on Colombia's relations with the United States, as a way to resolve the diplomatic crisis with the neighboring country. However, he considered that "there are reasons to favor our relations with the US."  According to the latest Ipsos-Napoleón Franco poll, Mockus would get 38 percent of votes, followed by Santos (29 percent) in the elections to be held on May 30. Meanwhile, the Green Party candidate would be the winner in a runoff to be held on June 20.

     Mockus, a mathematician and philosopher, who advocates the importance of law and education, made it clear that "the United States should not prevail in our relations with Venezuela and Venezuela should not prevail in our relations with the US."

April 29, 2010

GENERAL DOUGLAS FRASER: VENEZUELAN GOVERNMENT MAINTAINS LINKS TO COLOMBIA'S FARC REBELS

      WASHINGTON, D.C.-The government of Venezuelan DICTATOR Hugo Chavez maintains links to Colombia's FARC guerrillas, providing them with financial and logistics support, a top US general said Wednesday. General Douglas Fraser, the head of the Miami-based US Southern Command, said the relationship between the Chavez government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has been documented over a period of years.

    "It's financial support, it's enabling their capacity from a logistics standpoint," Fraser said at a news conference here. "My understanding is that that continues." But the general said he had no information that elements of FARC, Colombia's biggest leftist guerrilla group, were operating inside Venezuela. Fraser's statements contradicted his assertion to US lawmakers March 11 that he had no evidence of links between the Venezuelan government and the FARC.

    Those comments came after a Spanish judge alleged Venezuelan "governmental support" for plots by FARC and the Basque separatist group ETA to kill Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe and other Colombian politicians in Spain. In Wednesday's comments, Fraser reiterated that Iran has growing diplomatic and economic ties with Venezuela, but no military presence there. Still, he said he was concerned about Iran's longstanding relations with Hamas and Hezbollah and "the potential that that relationship can cause us to have a terrorist group that could enter into the Latin American region."

CUBA ALLOWING SOME TO BUILD THEIR OWN HOMES

      HAVANA, CUBA--The government OF DICTATOR RAUL CASTRO in April began granting licenses to people to build homes “with their own effort” on the island, an initiative approved last year by dictator Raul Castro. The granting of the permits was recently approved by the National Housing Institute for people who are the owners of land, homes or other areas included in the new resolution, state-run Radio Rebelde reported Tuesday. Before the new regulation, building permits had been awarded only in “selected” cases by the relevant local authorities, while now all interested parties that assemble the legal prerequisites may request a construction license.

    The permit includes the case of houses in bad condition and the possibility of adding to existing homes, while the government will institute mechanisms for the sale of construction materials. “A level in square meters corresponding to the nuclear family” will be designated during the application process and, after obtaining the permit, people may begin work, a source with the Housing Institute said. A year ago, Gen. Raul Castro said that the communist island’s industrial base must be developed so that hundreds of thousands of houses could be built, and he decided not to prohibit people from building or adding to homes by their “individual effort.”

    The lack of housing is one of the most serious problems in Cuba, where currently it is calculated that there exists a deficit of 600,000 houses in a country of 11.2 million residents, a situation that has developed, in part, due to the damage caused by three hurricanes that slammed the island in 2008. In recent years, state construction plans have not been able to be met although the number of new homes set as a target has been reduced from 150,000 to 50,000. In Cuba, construction work is generally done by construction brigades and by the citizens themselves, who have to confront and surmount numerous bureaucratic obstacles before they can get down to work, but even when those obstacles are overcome there is still a serious lack of building materials.

FEDS PURSUE CLAIMS OF US OIL BRIBES IN VENEZUELA

      DALLAS, TEXAS.--The federal government is suing a former U.S. oil executive and settled another case with a drilling company, both over alleged bribes involving lucrative oil contracts in Venezuela.  The Securities and Exchange Commission accuses Bobby Benton of concealing $384,000 in payments to Venezuelan oil officials to secure extensions of three drilling contracts from 2003-05 when he was a vice president for Houston-based Pride International Inc.

    The civil lawsuit filed in December in federal court in Houston also alleges that Benton knew of $35,000 in improper payments to Mexican customs officials to ensure delivery of drilling supplies to Latin America.  Benton faces anti-bribery violations and falsification of records claims under the federal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In a written response to the lawsuit, Benton invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination on most of the claims.

   According to the lawsuit, Benton redacted references to payments to the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, in response to an internal audit. The suit also claims Benton signed false certifications in connection with Pride's 2004 and 2005 financial reports. "But for Benson's false statements, Pride's management and internal and external auditors would have discovered the bribery schemes and the corresponding false books and records," the lawsuit said. Pride spokeswoman Kate Perez said the company couldn't comment on the lawsuit against Benton, who left in 2006. Pride is "engaged in discussion" with federal officials over claims of bribes, Perez said. Pride International Chief Executive Louis Raspino said in a regulatory filing that the company had set aside $56.2 million for a possible settlement.

April 28, 2010

GENERAL DOUGLAS FRASER: NO IRAN MILITARY PRESENCE IN VENEZUELA (THE GENERAL HAS BEEN WRONG BEFORE-- PLEASE, READ CAREFULLY BELOW THE  ERRONEOUS STATEMENT HE MADE BEFORE THE U.S. SENATE ON VENEZUELA-FARC LINKS)

      WASHINGTON, D.C.-EL GENERAL DOUGLAS FRASER played down any role of Iranian special forces in Venezuela on Tuesday, saying Tehran's activities there were diplomatic and commercial in nature -- and not military. His comments appeared to contrast with a Pentagon report sent to Congress earlier in April. The report said the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' elite Qods force had a growing Latin American presence, "particularly in Venezuela" -- a claim dictator Hugo Chavez has strongly denied.

    General Fraser, head of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees most of Latin America, told a group of defense reporters Iran did not have a military presence in Venezuela. "We see a growing Iranian interest and engagement with Venezuela. ... It's a diplomatic, it's a commercial presence. I haven't seen evidence of a military presence," Fraser said.  Asked whether he was contradicting the Pentagon report and earlier comments to the same effect by the director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, Fraser said: "I don't see it as a contradiction."   "I see an increasing presence of Iran in Latin America. ... I don't have all the details of what that means," he said.

    The United States has accused the Qods force of backing militants in Iraq and Lebanon. The U.S. military has also said the Qods force exerts an influence on Iranian diplomacy and the Pentagon report singled out Iran's incoming ambassador to Iraq as a Qods officer. Asked about Chavez's political staying power in Venezuela, Fraser said: "He continues to solidify his position in power and so from everything I see he is solidly in place and I don't see a capacity (within Venezuela) to oppose his position." Fraser said Southern Command was concerned about the Latin American presence of Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories. But he played down any military role by the organizations within the region. "Primarily all that we see right now is focused on supporting logistics support, financial support for parent organizations within the Mideast," he said.

march 20, 2010 (CAMCO ARCHIVE)

THE CHIEF OF U.S. SOUTHCOM, GENERAL DOUGLAS FRASER, ADMITS HIS MISTAKE AND NOW  SAYS THAT VENEZUELA IS DESTABILIZING LATIN AMERICA


      WASHINGTON, D.C.-- The chief of the U.S. military's Southern Command said on Thursday that Venezuela's socialist government is a "destabilizing force" in Latin America and continues to back leftist guerrillas in Colombia. General Douglas Fraser's comments in congressional testimony came a week after he told a U.S. Senate hearing that the Pentagon had no evidence of a "government-to-terrorist" connection between President Hugo Chavez's government and Colombian FARC rebels. Southern Command is responsible for U.S. military activities in much of Latin America.

    Fraser, testifying to the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, said Venezuela remains a threat to U.S. interests. "They continue to have a very anti-U.S. stance and look to try and restrict U.S. activity wherever they have the opportunity to do that," Fraser said. "They are continuing to engage with the region ... and continuing to pursue their socialism agenda. ... They remain a destabilizing force in the region," the general said. Fraser said Venezuela continues to provide the FARC a safe haven and "financial logistical support" based on information found on a laptop computer of a FARC commander seized by Colombian soldiers during a raid on a guerrilla camp in Ecuador in 2008.

     Venezuela's ambassador in Washington, Bernardo Alvarez, said the reversal of the general's position, to conform with statements by officials in the Obama administration, showed the United States has no proof of Venezuelan support for the FARC and the criticism was politically motivated. During a recent tour of Latin America, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stepped up criticism of Chavez, a populist leader who is the fiercest opponent of U.S. influence in the region even though his country is a major supplier of oil to the United States.  Venezuela is among the five main oil suppliers to the United States and is its second-leading trading partner in Latin America after Mexico.

march 13, 2010 (CAMCO ARCHIVE)


THE CHIEF OF SOUTHCOM, GENERAL DOUGLAS FRASER, SEES NO VENEZUELA-FARC TIES --  (SECRETARY OF STATE, HILLARY CLINTON, SHOULD SEND A MEMBER OF HER INTELLIGENCE STAFF TO SOUTHCOM TO KEEP THE GENERAL WELL INFORMED--IT APPEARS THAT HIS STAFF ARE  NOT DOING THEIR JOBS RIGHT)


      WASHINGTON, D.C.--The chief of the US military's Southern Command, General Douglas Fraser, said that he had not evidence of any links between Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez; the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Colombian guerrilla group; and the Basque separatist group ETA. It seems that neither General Fraser, nor his intelligence staff, had ever read the transcripts of Raul Reyes’  computer tapes that clearly shows the links between Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez and the FARC leadership.  On March 1, 2008, Reyes, the second-in-command of the FARC, was killed in a Colombian military operation in one of the FARC Ecuadorean camps.

                    However, he admitted that the US Southern Command is "watching very closely." He did not provide further details of the military monitoring operation in Venezuela, the state-run news agency Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias (ABN) reported.   "We have not seen any connections specifically that I can verify that there has been a direct government-to-terrorist connection," Fraser said. This was the description he used to refer to the groups which international media have insistently tried to link with the government of President for Hugo Chávez Frías, ABN said.

    Fraser's comments were made in a US Senate hearing. The general's assurance of Chavez's clean hands contradicts the statement made the day before by Arturo Valenzuela, the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere, who said to have "evidence" that there has been assistance provided to the FARC by Venezuela. A judge of the Spanish National Court commenced an investigation to establish alleged Venezuela's participation in the relation between the Colombian guerrillas and the Basque separatist group País Vasco y Libertad (ETA).

MANUEL NORIEGA EXTRADITED TO FRANCE ON OLD MONEY-LAUNDERING CHARGES

      PARIS, FRANCE--Manuel Noriega appeared before a French judge today as he was formally notified that he had been placed under arrest in France on charges of money laundering following his extradition from the US.  The former Panamanian dictator ousted by US troops in 1989 appeared ''very weak'' as the charge sheet was read out to him in the main courthouse in Paris, according to Maître Olivier Metzner, one of his lawyers. The 74-year-old suffers from hemiplegia, a condition of partial paralysis usually brought on by a stroke.

    At a second hearing later today, Noriega's defence team will seek to avoid jail for their client by having him placed under house arrest.  Maître Yves Leberquier, his second lawyer, said Noriega should be treated as a prisoner of war — a status he enjoyed in the US where he has been in jail for the past 21 years. ''He should have conditions worthy of a prisoner of war, which French jails can absolutely not provide,'' said Maître Leberquier.  Noriega was sentenced to ten years in prison and a fine of €11.4 million (£9.8 million) in his absence by a French court in 1999, when he was found guilty of transferring €2.3 million profits from drug trafficking into his French bank accounts. He used the funds to buy luxury flats in Paris, the court was told. 

    Under French law, prisoners sentenced in their absence must be re-tried upon their arrest.  Noriega was flown to Paris under the escort of French prison guards after Hillary Clinton, the US Secrertary of State, gave the go-ahead for his extradition. Noriega had a unique status in the American penitentiary system, where he was the first foreign head of state to be convicted and the only official prisoner of war.  He fought to avoid extradition to France, seeking instead a return to Panama even though he faces a 54-year jail sentence there for his role in the murder of political opponents during his time in power between 1981 and 1989.  But in January, the US Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal against extradition, paving the way for a trial in France.

VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ ACCUSES US PLANE OF 'ELECTRONIC WARFARE'

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA-- day after saying he hopes to eventually cool tensions with Colombia, DICTATOR  Hugo Chavez charged that his neighbor recently allowed a U.S. military plane to carry out "electronic warfare" operations against Venezuela. Chavez told a crowd of soldiers Monday that his intelligence services detected the American aircraft that he said took off from a Colombian base and flew along the border between the two South American nations, which have seen long tense relations worsen in recent months. Without giving details, he said Venezuela's military intelligence intercepted a conversation between the pilot and air traffic controllers in the northern Colombian city of Barranquilla. The aircraft conducted espionage operations, he said.

     "Through our strategic intelligence, we detected an RC-12 airplane belonging to the U.S. Air Force," Chavez said during a talk to an auditorium packed with military officers, rank-and-file soldiers and cadets. "It was a plane specialized for electronic war, and it was carrying out electronic war operations," he added. U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Robin Holzhauer would not directly respond to Chavez's accusation during a telephone interview on Monday, saying only that "the United States and Colombia engage in a number of bilateral activities," all of which "respect the sovereignty of other nations." No one was immediately available at U.S. Southern Command in Miami to comment.

     Chavez has made similar accusations in the past, saying in December that a U.S. military plane had entered Venezuelan airspace and was met by his military's F-16s and escorted out. The P-3 plane took off from the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao, he said. The U.S. Southern Command denied It. Chavez didn't elaborate on the alleged spying incident, but the former paratrooper accused Colombia's government of allowing the U.S. military to use its territory to mount what he called "an aggression" against Venezuela.   Chavez's comments came a few hours after Colombia's conservative president, Alvaro Uribe, accused the Venezuelan leader of meddling in Colombia's presidential election campaign by trying to influence the outcome of the vote.

April 27, 2010

CUBA'S 'LADIES IN WHITE' MARCHED, BLOCKED AGAIN

      HAVANA, CUBA--A small group of carefully choreographed government supporters shouted down an even smaller contingent of wives and mothers of jailed opposition activists Sunday, preventing their traditional march for the third straight week in another ugly confrontation that may be becoming a Cuban weekend tradition.  After seven years of peaceful protests following Mass in Havana's upscale Miramar neighborhood, Cuba has begun blocking the "Ladies in White" from marching since the group never obtained written permission to do so.

     Officials first broke up their demonstration on April 11, with a pro-government mob and buses that eventually gave the women a ride home. The following Sunday, counter-demonstrators surrounded the "Women in White," refused to let them march and shouted insults in an hourslong standoff that ended with the women again being driven home.  This time, six members - down from nine last week - left the Santa Rita de Casia Church and crossed swank Fifth Avenue to hold their demonstration on a sidewalk that runs down the middle of the boulevard. A state agent in a Che Guevara T-shirt said they couldn't march and Laura Pollan, one of the group's founders, tried to respond. But the agent turned and walked away and that cued two waiting groups of about 50 counter-protesters each who came up the sidewalk from both directions hoisting large Cuban flags.

    The women marched until they ran into one group, then retraced their steps until meeting the other. They shouted "Freedom!" and held skyward the pink gladiolas they always carry. The counter- protesters surrounded them and shouted "Fidel! Fidel!" Muscular state security agents with earpieces wedged themselves in between the dueling protests to prevent violence. Organizers in plainclothes moved through the counter-demonstrators suggesting chants. When they called for a song with a refrain "How Lovely is Cuba," the counter-demonstrators sang it repeatedly, jumping up and down. The "Ladies in White" were jostled off the sidewalk and pinned near the entrance to the church's front yard. Shoving ensued and pro-government demonstrators grabbed their gladiolas and tore them up. The women then moved to a nearby park, under trees that provided shade from the boiling sun. They remained there for hours, some of them holding only the green stubs of their flowers.

GUILLERMO FARINAS SLAMS CUBA LOCAL ELECTIONS AS "FARCE" AFTER 60 DAYS OF HUNGER STRIKE

      HAVANA, CUBA--Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas, who completed 60 days of his hunger strike on Saturday, called the local elections to be held Sunday on the island “a big farce,” and said that he will vote against “the Castro dynasty” if he is sent a ballot. “There’s no such thing as a free nomination. It has to be in your neighborhood with a show of hands (an allusion to the way candidates are designated), and nobody wants to be identified to this regime of terror,” said Fariñas in a telephone conversation from the intensive care unit where he is hospitalized in the central city of Santa Clara.

    The dissident recalled that Cuban electoral regulations state that ballots must be sent to sick people who are lucid, and said he was waiting to see what decision state security will take in his case. “If they bring me a ballot, what I’ll do is put: Down with the dynasty of the Castro brothers (Fidel and Raul), my signature and my ID number,” said Fariñas, who was admitted to hospital in mid-March after twice collapsing from hunger. “If they don’t dare bring it to me, I’ll just be one more of those who didn’t go to vote,” he said. About his health, Fariñas said that upon completing two months of fasting he feels “a little down, with headaches and joint pain,” but said that he will continue “the hunger strike to the last consequences.” “I think that with what is going on, we can’t do anything but keep up the hunger strike,” he said, adding that “without doing anything violent” he has managed to do “harm to the government.”

    “In these 60 days a phenomenon has taken place that we didn’t really expect, which is that international public opinion is once more studying and evaluating what is happening with human rights and inside jails in Cuba,” he said. The psychologist and journalist, 48, began his hunger strike in his home last Feb. 24 after the death of dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo following an 85-day fast demanding that Cuba’s president, Gen. Raul Castro, release 26 ailing members of the opposition. Fariñas said international reaction has included “political groups of the left,” which in his opinion has caused “tremendous grief to the Cuban government.” “I believe this is also a victory for the entire Cuban opposition and for Cubans in exile,” he said.

CUBA CHALLENGES HILLARY CLINTON ON EMBARGO REMARKS

      HAVANA, CUBA--Cuba challenged the United States Sunday to lift a decades-old trade embargo "even for a year" to test its contention that the island's leaders do not want the embargo lifted or normal relations with Washington. The challenge by National Assembly president Ricardo Alarcon was the first official response to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's April 9 charge that Fidel Castro and his brother President Raul Castro do not want a transition to democracy or the restoration of US relations severed in 1961.

     Clinton told a university audience in Kentucky that the Castros "do not want to see an end to the embargo and do not want to see normalization with the United States because they would then lose all their excuses for what hasn't happened in Cuba in the last 50 years."  Alarcon, speaking to reporters after casting his ballot in municipal elections here, said, "If she really thinks that the blockade benefits the Cuban government -- which she wants to undermine -- the solution is very simple: that they lift it even for a year to see whether it is in our interest or theirs." Alarcon said there were things Clinton could do "with a stroke of the pen" to improve relations, such as allowing visits by the wives of two of five Cubans serving prison sentences in the United States for espionage.

    President Barack Obama came into office seeking better relations with Cuba, but after an initial thaw, tensions have set in again, most recently over Cuba's treatment of dissidents. Havana has accused Washington of waging a campaign to destabilize the government. But it has come under fire internationally and from activists inside Cuba since the February 12 death of dissident Orlando Zapata in a prison hunger strike. A second dissident, Guillermo Farinas, took up the hunger strike after Zapata's death.

April 26, 2010

IRAN FIRES FIVE NEW SHORT-RANGE MISSILES IN GULF WAR GAMES

      TEHRAN, IRAN-Iran's state television says the country has fired a series of missiles as part of an ongoing large-scale military maneuvers in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz.   Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) have successfully deployed five new missiles during the closing phase of a large-scale military drill, local media reported. The indigenous coast-to-sea and sea- to-sea missiles were tested Sunday, the final day of military maneuvers in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

    A four-day military exercise dubbed the "Great Prophet 5" was held in connection with the 31st anniversary of the establishment of the elite Guards force. IRGC's air, naval and ground forces were conducting military exercises since Thursday in a waterway crucial for global oil supplies. In an explicit show of Iran's determined military strength, they successfully test-fired a domestically-made speed boat that carries rockets with powerful destructive capability. Iran claims that high-intensity rockets launched by remote-controlled Ya Mahdi vessels are able to destroy any targets on water surface.

    More than 300 vessels equipped with torpedo and guided-missiles were taking part in the large-scale naval maneuvers. Western nations anticipate an Iranian deployment of speed boats to disrupt "enemy operations" in the region, where about 40 percent of the world's traded oil transits. The Islamic state often announces advances in its military capabilities in an apparent bid to show its readiness for any attack by Israel or the United States.  Iran's latest military muscle-flexing comes a few days after the Pentagon said U.S. military action against Iran remained an option even as Washington pursues diplomacy and sanctions to halt the country's atomic activities. 

NORTH KOREA TORPEDO BLAST LIKELY SANK A SOUTH KOREA WARSHIP

      SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA--An explosion caused by a NORTH KOREA torpedo likely tore apart and sank a South Korean warship near the North border, Seoul's defense minister said Sunday, while declining to assign blame for the blast as suspicion increasingly falls on Pyongyang. Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said an underwater explosion appeared to have ripped apart the vessel, and a torpedo blast seemed the most likely cause. Investigators who examined salvaged wreckage separately announced Sunday that a close-range, external explosion likely sank it. "Basically, I think the bubble jet effect caused by a heavy torpedo is the most likely" cause, Kim told reporters. The bubble jet effect refers to the rapidly expanding bubble an underwater blast creates and the subsequent destructive column of water unleashed.

    Kim, however, did not speculate on who may have fired the weapon and said an investigation was ongoing and it's still too early to determine the cause. Soon after the disaster, Kim told lawmakers that a North Korean torpedo was one of the likely scenarios, but the government has been careful not to blame the North outright, and Pyongyang has denied its involvement. As investigations have pointed to an external explosion as the cause of the sinking, however, suspicion of the North has grown, given the country's history of provocation and attacks on the South.

     The Cheonan was on a routine patrol on March 26 when the unexplained explosion split it in two in one of South Korea's worst naval disasters. Forty bodies have been recovered so far, but six crew members are still unaccounted for and are presumed dead. The site of the sinking is near where the rival Koreas fought three times since 1999, most recently a November clash that left one North Korean soldier dead and three others wounded. The two Koreas are still technically at war because their 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Also Sunday, investigators said a preliminary investigation of the front part of the 1,200-ton ship — retrieved the day before — pointed to an external explosion. Chief investigator Yoon Duk-yong told reporters that an inspection of the hull pointed to an underwater explosion. He appeared to support the bubble jet effect theory, saying, "It is highly likely that a non-contact explosion was the case rather than a contact explosion."

SEVEN MEXICAN POLICE OFFICERS KILLED BY DRUG TRAFFICKERS IN CIUDAD JUAREZ

      CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO-- Gunmen ambushed two police vehicles at a busy intersection in this drug- and violence-plagued city, killing seven officers and a 17-year-old boy who was passing by, authorities said. Six of the police officers killed in Friday's attack were federal, and one was a local police woman, said Enrique Torres Valadez, a spokesman for the state of Chihuahua, where Ciudad Juarez is located. Two local police officers were in critical condition.

    Authorities said the police officers had stopped to talk to a street vendor who flagged them down for help when gunmen opened fire from behind their pickup patrol trucks. The assailants fled in three vehicles. Investigators said they don't know why the officers were shot, although they don't believe they were targeted because of any recent arrests they had made. No one has been arrested but police said they have recovered two of the three cars used in the shooting.

     Hours after the attack, a painted message directed to top federal police commanders and claiming responsibility for the attack appeared on a wall in downtown Ciudad Juarez. It was apparently signed by La Linea gang, the enforcement arm of the Juarez drug cartel. The Juarez cartel has been locked in a bloody turf battle with the Sinaloa cartel, led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.3 million across from El Paso, Texas, is one of the world's deadliest cities, and a two-year turf battle between drug cartels has left more than 5,000 people dead. Elsewhere, police in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero said they found the bodies of five men who had been shot to death lying on a dirt road near the state capital, Chilpancingo. Three of the men were brothers, all in their 20s.

April 25, 2010

VENEZUELAN CARDINAL UROSA: "MARXIST SOCIALISM ATTACKS THE COMMON GOOD"

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA--Venezuelan Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino said that the model proposed by Vladimir Lenin, the Communist leader and founder of the Soviet Union, "seriously attacks the common good. Therefore, it is not acceptable."

    These remarks came in a statement released on the occasion of the celebration of the Bicentennial of Venezuela's first step to independence on April 19, 1810. In the document, which was also signed by Caracas' five auxiliary bishops, Cardinal Urosa not only criticized the fact that the Venezuelan Executive branch of government is insisting on implementing a socialist model, although it was rejected in the constitutional referendum held in 2007.


     The Cardinal questioned "its exclusionary and violent totalitarian tendency," which according to the Cardinal is evident in initiatives such as the creation of the media guerrillas and the militias.  Cardinal Urosa referred to the controversial military militia by saying that "it looks like an armed political party" which "goes against the Constitution."

WASHINGTON: VENEZUELA IS AMONG THE COUNTRIES THAT CONCERN US

      WASHINGTON, D.C.-- "Venezuela is a good example of a group of countries in the region where we see attempts at intimidating democratic processes, an erosion of the government's ability to hold competitive elections and give ample space to civil society," said on Friday the State Department spokesman Philip Crowley.

    Another of these countries is Nicaragua, where "there is a democratic veneer, and an erosion of government institutions and balances and checks necessary in a democratic system," said Crowley.  The U.S. has ALSO reiterated its concerns over Venezuelan arms purchases from Russia, a U.S. State Department official has said.

     During his visit to Caracas, Putin will also oversee the delivery of the last four Russian Mi-17 Hip helicopters out of the total of 38 under a 2006 contract. "I think we've voiced our concerns, if you will, but our opinions about Venezuela's need for these kinds of defense systems previously from the podium," Acting Deputy Department Spokesman Mark Toner said. During his visit to Moscow in September, Chavez said Venezuela would buy 92 T-72 tanks and an unspecified number of Smerch multiple rocket launchers from Russia, among other military inventory.   Since 2005, Venezuela has bought $4 billion worth of Russian weaponry, including warplanes, helicopters, and Kalashnikov assault rifles.

IRAN CONTINUES ITS WAR GAMES IN PERSIAN GULF OIL ROUTE

      TEHRAN, IRAN-- Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard held war games Thursday in the strategic Persian Gulf oil route, the Hormuz Strait, a show of its military strength at a time when the country's leaders are depicting President Barack Obama's new nuclear policy as a threat. Ahead of the military maneuvers, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Washington of trying to dominate the world through its nuclear arsenal and vowed that Iran would not bend before what he called "implicit atomic threats."

    Iran's leaders have said in the past that if attacked, the country would respond by shutting off the Strait of Hormuz, the mouth of the Gulf through which around 40 percent of the world's oil and gas supplies pass, as well as by attacking American bases in the Gulf. The three-day war games brought in naval, air and ground units from the Revolutionary Guard, state television reported. In the past four years, the maneuvers were held in the summer, and there was no official explanation why they were brought forward this year. But it came after repeated denunciations by Iran's top leaders over the past week of the new U.S. nuclear policy.

     On Thursday, the military unveiled a new attack speedboat, describing it as an "ultra-speed and smart" vessel called "Ya Mahdi." Iran also said 313 smaller speedboats with the capability of firing rockets and missiles would participate. State television later showed video footage of a Ya Mahdi vessel firing rockets at a still target in the sea, while dozens of the small speedboats launched rocket-propelled grenades at an abandoned ship and troops boarded it in a simulated attack on an enemy warship. U.S. officials played down the significance of the war games. Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said "they don't seem out of the ordinary" from what Iran's military has done in the past. He also said Tehran often makes exaggerated claims about its weapons testing. The U.S. Navy said its expected "no significant impacts" to its operations in the area, where it has a number of ships, including the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower.

April 24, 2010

OPTION OF STRIKING IRAN NEVER OFF THE TABLE: PENTAGON

      WASHINGTON, D.C.-- U.S. military action against Iran remains an option even as the United States pursues diplomacy and sanctions to halt the country's nuclear program, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

    "We are not taking any options off the table as we pursue the pressure and engagement tracks," Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said. "The president always has at his disposal a full array of options, including use of the military ... It is clearly not our preferred course of action but it has never been, nor is it now, off the table."

    Morrell was responding to questions about comments by Michele Flournoy, U.S. under secretary of defense for policy, in Singapore. "The military option is an option of last resort. It is not a preferred option," Flournoy told reporters. "It is not on the table in the near term."

IRAN BEGINS MILITARY EXERCISES IN PERSIAN GULF

      TEHRAN, IRAN-- Iran began a massive air, land and sea exercise Thursday in the Persian Gulf aimed at showcasing the Islamic regime's military strength, state-run media reported. Dubbed the "Great Prophet 5," the military maneuvers conducted by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps fall on the 31st anniversary of the elite force and are designed to demonstrate new weapons systems.

    Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi told Press TV that Iran plans to produce missile defense systems similar to the Russian S-300, an advanced surface-to-air system that can defend against aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. "All parts of the system have been domestically produced," Vahidi said.

    A U.S. military official told CNN that the United States has observed in recent days Iran was "relocating surface and air assets" for what appeared to be a major exercise. The official did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. The drill is expected to last the next three days, Press TV said. Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, deputy chief of the Revolutionary Guard told Iranian media that the exercises are aimed at demonstrating Iran's "strength, will and national resolve to defend independence and territorial integrity." The United States will be watching to see if the exercises include the narrow Strait of Hormuz region -- a major transit point for world oil supplies.  The U.S. military official noted there have been several Iranian exercises in the past, but this one received attention because the Revolutionary Guard Corps discussed it publicly in advance.

FORMER ARGENTINE AMBASSADOR DENOUNCES BRIBES IN BUSINESS WITH VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ

      BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA--Eduardo Sadous, a former Argentine Ambassador in Venezuela, denounced in a court that Argentine businessmen who wanted to do business with Venezuela were supposed to pay a 20 percent bribe, reported on Friday local media.  The diplomat complained that a group of Argentine businessmen told him that they were asked for "commissions" to facilitate their business in the context of the agreements signed between former President Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007) and the Venezuelan Head of State, Hugo Chávez, Reuters reported.  In a statement before a court, Sadous said that businessmen had to pay a 15 to 20 percent bribe to officials of the Argentine Ministry of Planning.

     The Argentinean government on Friday voiced agreement with the potential investigation of a presumed corruption case involving the Ministry of Planning for alleged bribery of businessmen wishing to make business in Venezuela.  The ministry has bluntly denied that version.  "I do not know the reason, but always, in this kind of things, any claim should be investigated. In the meantime, speculating makes no sense," Minister Aníbal Fernández told Radio Continental.

    Three Buenos Aires daily newspapers echoed on Friday a complaint from ex Argentinean Ambassador to Caracas Eduardo Sadous. He testified that businessmen wishing to make business with the Venezuelan government under the administration of Argentinean President Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007) had to pay for it to officials of the Argentinean Ministry of Planning.  Judges "are the ones who must investigate accordingly," Fernández stressed.

April 23, 2010

DICTATORS HUGO CHAVEZ AND RAUL CASTRO DEEPEN THEIR ECONOMIC TIES

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA--"Cuba has a great potential: investments, technology, import substitution. There are many skilled people in the island. We are refining the supplementary economic and military agreement," said on Tuesday Venezuela's dictator Hugo Chávez, referring to issues addressed with Cuban President Raúl Castro  in the context of a bilateral plan "based on the ideals of Simón Bolívar and José Martí."

    Following his meeting with the Cuban ruler at the Miraflores Palace, downtown Caracas, Chávez said: "We are working on an integration plan. We are now preparing a more detailed map for economic complementation, in addition to social development. Our people have to offer thanks to the Cuban Revolution for many things."  He said that no pressure would untie the common destiny of Cuba and Venezuela in their goal to "break the imperial hegemony. What we have sown will be reaped in freedom as time passes by."

     According to the bilateral agenda, the two countries will hold quarterly meetings to follow up social development projects.  "I am leaving and we are fully satisfied. We have worked hard. I shall return, like I did the first time I came to Venezuela 57 years ago," said the Cuban dictator who looked tired and a little overweight.  The Cuban delegation led by Raúl Castro also included the Vice-President of the State Council and Vice-President of the Ministerial Council, Ramiro Valdés, among others.

SOUTH KOREA ACCUSED NORTH KOREA OF SINKING ONE OF ITS SHIPS

      SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA--The South Korean military points to intelligence gathered in a join investigation with the United States, marking the strongest accusations yet that North Korea was behind the March 26 incident. South Korea suspects a North Korean torpedo caused the mysterious sinking of one of its navy ships last month, Reuters reported, citing South Korea's Yonhap News. The South Korean military points to intelligence gathered in a joint investigation with the United States, marking the strongest accusations yet that North Korea was behind the March 26 incident.

    Fifty-eight of the ship's crew were rescued while the ship was sinking and 38 bodies have been found, most of them last week, when the stern was raised from the water. Eight crew members are still unaccounted for. Until now, South Korean officials had not openly blamed the North for one of its worst naval disasters, though investigators had said the explosion was most likely external. Last week, North Korea accused South Korea of spreading false rumors about the incident. North Korean officials have denied involvement in the blast that broke the 1,200-ton Cheonan into two pieces during a routine patrol near the countries' sea border.

     North Korea has suggested that the South seeks to blame North Korea in order to strengthen the ruling party's position in upcoming local elections and shore up international sanctions against the North. The U.N. Security Council slapped on tough new sanctions on North Korea following its second nuclear test last year. The divided peninsula remains technically at war, since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.

THE WORLD BANK: VENEZUELA'S GDP DECLINE IS PARTLY DUE TO CRUMBLING PRIVATE ACTIVITY

      WASHINGTON, D.C.--Venezuela's GDP fall in 2009 and the negative projections for 2010 are due to a collapse of private activity in the country, said on Wednesday Augusto de la Torre, the World Bank chief economist for Latin America and the Caribbean.  Venezuela's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will fall more than 2 percent in 2010, according to the World Bank in a research paper on the region, AFP reported.  "We are witnessing in Venezuela a phenomenon in which private activity, productivity, businesses, private production are falling," De la Torre told a group of journalists.  In its Country and Regional Perspective report published on Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that Venezuela's GDP would fall 2.6 percent this year.

    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that Venezuela's economic recovery is expected to be "delayed and weak" compared to other countries in the region which managed to weather the global downturn "comparatively well" and now are posting a strong recovery at "a robust pace."  According to the IMF, GDP in the Latin American and the Caribbean region will average a 4.0 growth in 2010 and in 2011, with some exceptions such as Venezuela, whose economy will contract in 2010.
   
     According to the IMF, Venezuela will remain the "black sheep" of the region as far as economic growth is concerned, as it will contract 2.6 percent this year, mainly due to ongoing power shortages that are adversely affecting the industry. The IMF expects that the Venezuelan economy will have a small rebound in 2011 with a 0.4 percent growth.  According to the semi-annual report entitled World Economic Outlook, April 2010, Venezuela will show a double-digit inflation, with rates of 29.7 percent in 2010 and 33 percent in 2011.

April 22, 2010

EL SECRETARIO GENERAL DE LA OEA, JOSE MIGUEL INSULZA, PIDE AL DICTADOR CUBANO RAUL CASTRO LA EXCARCELACION DE LOS PRESOS POLITICOS ENFERMOS

      MADRID, ESPAÑA -- El secretario general de la Organización de los Estados Americanos (OEA), José Miguel Insulza, pidió hoy al Gobierno de Cuba la excarcelación de los presos políticos enfermos, como exige el disidente Guillermo Fariñas con su huelga de hambre. “Hay una huelga de hambre, la del señor Fariñas, que es muy tremenda. Yo espero que eso se resuelva pronto'', declaró a Efe Insulza, tras intervenir en Madrid en un seminario sobre las relaciones entre la Unión Europea (UE) y América Latina.  Según el responsable de la OEA, la liberación de "os presos políticos que están enfermos'' sería "una muestra de buena voluntad que no debilitaría al régimen cubano''.  ''Lejos de debilitar -insistió Insulza-, creo que mejoraría su imagen (la del régimen cubano). Por tanto, mi preocupación en estos momentos es que se ponga en libertad a esa gente (los disidentes enfermos)''.

    ''La cosas están en manos del Gobierno de Cuba'', subrayó el que fuera ministro chileno de Relaciones Exteriores entre 1994 y 1999, quien considera que "dejar en libertad a los que estén enfermos'' ya sería un "gran avance''.  En su opinión, "eso podría hacerse perfectamente con la verificación de su estado de salud (el de los disidentes) por una comisión internacional y, sobre todo, con un conocimiento adecuado y verificado, y con pruebas de cuáles son los delitos que cometieron''.  ''Si son delitos de opinión, no tienen ninguna razón para estar presos'', remarcó Insulza, quien no percibe en estos momentos ningún signo de apertura del régimen de La Habana.

    Para el secretario general de la OEA, la muerte de Zapata ha supuesto un punto de inflexión en la percepción de la comunidad internacional sobre Cuba, ya que "fue un factor negativo'' para el régimen castrista.  Sobre el embargo comercial, económico y financiero que Estados Unidos mantiene contra de Cuba desde los años sesenta del pasado siglo, Insulza comentó: "Nunca he sido partidario del embargo. En los bloqueos y en los embargos no creo mucho''. Destacó que, "después de que la OEA levantara las sanciones (contra la isla caribeña) y planteara a Cuba la necesidad de un diálogo sobre los temas de la democracia y los derechos humanos, lo que debe seguir es una buena negociación entre Estados Unidos y Cuba''. ''Ojalá eso se produzca pronto. El Gobierno del presidente (de EEUU, Barack) Obama ha hecho gestos en esa dirección, pero no han sido todavía respondidos desgraciadamente'', agregó Insulza.

SIMPATIZANTES DEL GOBIERNO NICARAGUENSE BLOQUEAN EL CONGRESO Y ATACAN A OPOSITORS

      MANAGUA, NICARAGUA--Tres diputados opositores nicara-güenses resultaron heridos el martes por simpatizantes oficialistas, que buscaban impedir con una ley que un grupo de legisladores neutralizara un polémico decreto del presidente Daniel Ortega.  “Los diputados están estables, los están atendiendo nuestros médicos'', dijo el Partido Liberal Constitucionalista (PLC, derecha) en una nota que reprodujo la Agencia France Presse.

     Según Associated Press, simpatizantes del gobierno lanzaron el martes petardos y piedras contra un hotel que albergaba una reunión de 40 diputados de la oposición liberal que intentaban anular un decreto presidencial.  Los diputados sesionaban en el hotel, para tratar de derogar un decreto del presidente Daniel Ortega que prorroga el período en sus funciones a dos magistrados sandinistas a los que se les venció el período, pero cuyos sustitutos no han sido elegidos por el Congreso por falta de acuerdo entre las bancadas.

     La sesión se realizaba en el hotel Holiday Inn porque centenares de manifestantes sandinistas bloquearon el acceso al edificio de la Asamblea Nacional. La marcha sandinista la encabezaban los magistrados cuestionados, Rafael Solís, vicepresidente de la Corte y Armengol Cuadra. Al preguntársele sobre los daños que podría sufrir el hotel por el ataque, Solís dijo al Canal 63 de la televisión local que en todo caso ``los dueños están asegurados''. El diputado liberal Enrique Quiñónez dijo al Canal 12 de la televisión local que, a pesar de la protesta, lograron sesionar con la presencia de 47 colegas opositores y votaron para enviar a la comisión correspondiente una iniciativa de ley que anule el decreto de Ortega. La policía antimotines permanecía en las aceras del mismo expectantes. El diputado Freddy Torres dijo que los uniformados fueron cómplices de la agresión porque no hicieron nada para impedirla.

ESPECIALISTA EN CRIMINOLOGIA ASEGURA QUE VENEZUELA ES EL PAIS MAS VIOLENTO DEL HEMISFERIO

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA--  El especialista en Criminalística, Fermín Mármol García, asegura que Venezuela "se ha convertido en el país más violento de todo el continente americano", y que los delitos de homicidio y de secuestro aumentan a niveles incontrolables.

    "Tenemos una tasa de 52 homicidios x 100.000 habitantes, si lo comparamos con Colombia ellos tienen 34 homicidios por 100.000 habitantes y si lo comparamos con México ellos tiene 8 homicidios por 100.000 habitantes, lo que quiere decir que en Venezuela se asesina a un venezolano cada media hora y eso supera la barrera de 14 mil muertos al año víctimas por homicidios", dijo Mármol García en entrevista a Globovisión.

    Indicó que el secuestro, en los últimos 10 años, "aumentó 486% y sin duda es el delito mas rentable en la Venezuela de hoy, el que mayor crecimiento ha tenido en el país".  Explicó que Venezuela cayó en este nivel de violencia por varias razones: "en primer lugar, hay un problema social en el país que requiere soluciones sociales y en 10 años no han llegado a la medida que se desea. En segundo hay una impunidad reinante, lamentablemente es fácil cometer delito, no hay castigo ejemplarizante".  Agregó que "mas del 92% de los delitos quedan sin castigo. El mensaje es muy claro, el delito es una profesión que tiene poco riesgo en la Venezuela de hoy".

April 21, 2010

CUBA'S CATHOLIC CARDINAL JAIME ORTEGA URGES FREEDOM FOR POLITICAL PRISONERS AND CHANGES RATHER SOONER THAN LATER

      HAVANA, CUBA--Cuba's Roman Catholic cardinal, Jaime Ortega, says the country is in one of its worst crises in recent times, with its people demanding political and economic changes sooner rather than later. Ortega, the top Catholic cleric on the island, also called on Cuba and the United States to restart a meaningful dialogue to normalize relations, in an interview that appeared Monday in the church's official monthly magazine.  Ortega said Cubans are openly talking about the deficiencies of their socialist system, what he called a Stalinist-style bureaucracy and a grinding lack of worker productivity.

    "Our country finds itself in a very difficult situation," Ortega said in the interview with Palabra Nueva - New Word. "Certainly the most difficult times that we have lived in the 21st century." He said that many differ over how to solve the nation's woes, but that all agree on one thing: "that the necessary changes are made in Cuba quickly." "I think this feeling has become a form of national consensus, and its delay is producing impatience and unease among the people," Ortega said. Cuba is mired in what many consider its worst economic rut since the severe shortages of the so-called "special period" in the early 1990s that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. The island is dealing with the fallout from three devastating 2008 hurricanes, a downturn in world tourism and the global liquidity crisis.

     Dictador Raul Castro and other top Cuban officials have urged people to work harder and warned that many state subsidies will have to be scaled back. Cubans make tiny salaries of about $20 a month, but in return the state provides free or near-free health care, education, housing and services. In the interview, Ortega noted he joined other Roman Catholic clergymen in calling on the government to do whatever necessary to protect the lives of dissidents and political prisoners after a Cuban dissident died in February following a long hunger strike. The cardinal also criticized President Barack Obama for failing to restart a genuine dialogue with Cuba. Ortega said that the U.S. leader has fallen into the same pattern as his predecessors by demanding democratic reforms and an improvement in human rights as a prerequisite to end Washington's 48-year embargo, when those things should instead be the final goal of any talks. "Once again, the old (American) policy prevails: to begin at the end," Ortega said. "I am convinced that the first thing should be to meet, talk and advance a dialogue. ... That is the civilized way to confront any conflict."

DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ SAYS COLOMBIAN CANDIDATE JUAN MANUEL SANTOS WOULD POSE THREAT

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA--VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ is hurling harsh words at the leading presidential candidate in neighboring Colombia, saying he would pose a threat to Venezuela and its allies if he is elected. Chavez complained about the leading candidate to succeed Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Monday night while he denounced U.S. meddling in Latin America. Chavez was hosting a summit of allies ranging from Cuba's dictator Raul Castro to Bolivia's Evo Morales.

     Chavez warned that Colombia would become a serious threat to its neighbors if former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos wins the presidential elections. Voting will be held on May 30, and a second-round runoff is likely between the top two candidates.  "Now he wants to be president. This is a threat to all of us, especially for Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua," Chavez said. Chavez said he is convinced that Santos would be willing to launch cross-border raids or bombardments if Colombian authorities suspect rebel groups are seeking refuge in neighboring countries.

     Chavez warned Colombian leaders against trying anything similar, saying that "an aggression against any country" among his close allies "would be an aggression against Venezuela." Chavez also criticized Colombia's agreement for the U.S. military to use more bases there and said Santos and others "feel supported by the Yankees."  In Colombia, Santos told Radio Viva of Pasto on Tuesday that Chavez's remarks "clearly indicate that he wants to interfere in the election." Colombian leaders accuse Chavez of collaborating with the rebels and allowing them refuge in Venezuela, and have complained that Ecuador had done too little to deny them shelter before the 2008 raid.

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE JUAN MANUEL SANTOS ACCUSES DICTATOR CHAVEZ OF INTERFERING IN COLOMBIAN ELECTIONS

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA--Former Colombian Defense Minister and presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos said on Tuesday that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is trying to "interfere" in the elections to be held in Colombia next month. The Venezuelan president said on Monday that Santos statements related to Colombia's war against the guerrilla are a threat to Venezuela.

    Santos, who is the candidate of the Social National Unity Party (Party of the U), the ruling party in Colombia, said that other candidates supported Álvaro Uribe's decision to attack a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) camp in Ecuador, but Chávez only directed his criticism towards him.

     "Other candidates said they would actually bomb other countries if there are terrorist camps (deployed in their territories), but President Chávez directed his criticism towards me. This clearly indicates that he wants to interfere in the elections. Colombian people do not like President Chávez's meddling in our elections," Santos said.

April 20, 2010

LADIES IN WHITE HARASSED, SURROUNDED BY CUBAN GOVERNMENT SUPPORTERS

      HAVANA, CUBA--The Ladies in White, relatives of 75 Cuban dissidents jailed in 2003, were harassed Saturday by government supporters who gathered around the home of their leader, Laura Pollan, shouting slogans and insults. The women had one of their usual meetings this Saturday at Pollan’s home in downtown Havana and had not planned a march through the streets, but they came out to protest after an incident occurred when one of them was arriving. The harassment began immediately, said Berta Soler, one of the group’s spokeswomen.

    Soler said that starting Friday night state security forces organized an “operation” around the house, with plain-clothes agents and police blocking off several streets and detouring traffic. According to Soler, an unidentified man was aggressive to one of the members of the group on Saturday when she tried to get to the meeting, and after that incident, 25 women went into the street to protest to the agents surrounding the residence.  She said that suddenly dozens of people “appeared” with Cuban flags and forced them back into the house, which the hecklers surrounded shouting insulting slogans.

    Last week the Ladies in White, winners of the Sajarov Prize from the European Parliament, reported that police did not allow them to carry out their usual Sunday march after attending Mass at a Havana church, and forced them to return home.  The also said that a state security official told them that they could not march without a “permit” from the police. “The government is desperate. Things aren’t going to be easy, but we will continue marching,” said Soler.  The Ladies in White traditionally hold meetings, protests and marches in the streets of Havana to demand the release of their relatives, sentenced to as much as 28 years in prison.

FORMER CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO SAID THAT VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ IS A HEADACHE FOR THE US

      HAVANA, CUBA--Venezuela's dictator Hugo Chávez, is the "main source of concern" for the United States due to his capacity to influence and the oil resources of his country," said on Monday Cuban leader and Chávez's political mentor Fidel Castro. "Chávez is the main source of concern for the empire, due to his capacity to influence the masses and due to the huge natural resources of a country that have been pillaged mercilessly. He is the person they rigorously strike and in an attempt at taking away his authority," Castro wrote in one of his Reflections, which was published in the Cuban press.

    The former Cuban dictator, 83, said that Washington and its allies "run the risk again of underestimating Chávez and the Venezuelan people," but, he added, "I have not the slightest doubt that again they will be taught an unforgettable lesson." Castro described the US foreign policy as an "immense hypocrisy." He also said that in the case of Cuba the Caribbean island would never yield to "the media-inspired blackmail and terror." He referred to the criticisms made by the United States and Europe for Cuba's political prisoners and the situation of human rights in the island.

    "Chávez carries the dialectic within himself. Never, at any time, has any government done so much for its people for such a short time (...). On just a few occasions, perhaps never, have I known a person who has been capable of leading a real and profound Revolution for more than 10 years," he added.  Castro, who still retains the control of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC, a single party), said that is was a "privilege" to have spoken on April 15 during three hours with the Venezuelan dictator, who visited the island for a day.  The Cuban old dictator also congratulated the Venezuelan people for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of its independence, which coincides with the 49th anniversary of the victory against the anti-Castro invasion of Bay of Pigs (1961), funded by the United States. Fidel's brother and successor, Raúl Castro, is in Venezuela to participate in the celebration of the Bicentennial and the 9th Summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA).

IRAN'S SUPREME LEADER KHAMENEI BRANDS US 'NUCLEAR CRIMINAL' 

      TEHRAN, IRAN --Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has labelled the US an "atomic criminal" at a conference on nuclear disarmament in Tehran. He also said that the use of nuclear weapons was prohibited by religion.  Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said an independent body should be set up to oversee nuclear disarmament.  Iran has been angered by a recent US review of nuclear policy, which Tehran sees as a threat to use nuclear weapons against it, a BBC correspondent says.

    Iran's leadership has used this conference on nuclear disarmament to underline what it says is its moral opposition to nuclear weapons, says our Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne, reporting from London.  He says it is clearly meant as an answer to those who fear Iran is itself trying to develop its own nuclear arsenal.  Ayatollah Khamenei said in a message read out at the conference: "Only the US government has committed an atomic crime.  "The world's only atomic criminal lies and presents itself as being against nuclear weapons proliferation, while it has not taken any serious measures in this regard," he said.  He also told the conference that the use of nuclear weapons was "haram" - prohibited under Islam.

     President Ahmadinejad called for the US and all countries who possessed nuclear weapons to be suspended from the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.  He said there should be an independent international body set up to oversee nuclear disarmament.  Our correspondent says the debate will no doubt intensify as a conference approaches that will review the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, just at a time when Washington rallies support for new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme.  The US hosted a big international conference of 47 nations last week to discuss nuclear security.  Iran was not invited as the US fears Tehran is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

April 19, 2010

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, ROBERT GATES, SENDS "A WAKE-UP CALL" MEMORANDUM TO THE WHITE HOUSE ON IRAN'S NUKE

      WASHINGTON, D.C.--Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, has warned the White House the United States lacks an effective strategy to curb Iran's steady progress toward nuclear capability, The New York Times reported on Saturday, citing officials familiar with the document. Gates' secret memorandum was sent in January to President Barack Obama's national security adviser, General James Jones, and it touched off an intense effort inside the Pentagon, the White House and the U.S. intelligence agencies to develop new options for the president. Those options included a revised set of military alternatives, still under development, to be considered should diplomacy and sanctions fail to force Iran to change course.

    In that case, Iran could remain a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty while becoming what strategists call a "virtual" nuclear weapons state, the newspaper said, citing U.S. officials familiar with the document. Among his concerns, Gates included the lack of a response should Iran choose the course that many officials and analysts consider likely -- assembling all the major parts needed for a nuclear weapon, such as fuel, designs and detonators, but stopping just short of assembling a fully operational weapon. Officials familiar with the memo's contents described only portions dealing with strategy and policy and not sections that apparently dealt with secret operations against Iran, or how to deal with Persian Gulf allies, The Times said.

     One senior official described the document as "a wake-up call," the newspaper said, adding that White House officials disputed that view and insisted that for 15 months they had been conducting detailed planning for many possible outcomes regarding Iran's nuclear program. A senior administration official told The Times there was a line Iran would not be permitted to cross. The official said the United States would ensure that Iran would not "acquire a nuclear capability," a step Tehran could get to well before it developed a sophisticated weapon. Jones told The Times on Friday that the Obama administration did have a strategy on Iran. "The fact that we don't announce publicly our entire strategy for the world to see doesn't mean we don't have a strategy that anticipates the full range of contingencies," he said. "We do."

BILL CLINTON SAYS HE HAD NO REGRETS OVER SENDING ELIAN GONZALEZ BACK TO CUBA

      WASHINGTON, D.C.--Former President Bill Clinton said Saturday he had no regrets over sending Elián González back to live with his father in Cuba, and would order a federal raid on Little Havana all over again. “I did everything I could to try to have this resolved in a peaceful way,'' he said, even with the hindsight of a decade after the episode sparked an international crisis between Cuba and the United States. It also stoked tensions in Miami and roiled many in the Cuban-American exile community, who saw the Clinton administration decision to reunite the 6-year-old boy with his father from Cárdenas, Cuba, as tantamount to turning his future over to the Fidel Castro regime.

    But Clinton said both international and U.S. law made clear what he had to do about the boy who was found clinging to an inner tube off the Florida coast on Thanksgiving Day in 1999. His mother and some 10 other Cubans in his group perished while trying to reach the United States on a raft. Clinton made his remarks in response to an Associated Press reporter's question at the University of Miami's Coral Gables campus, where his Clinton Global Initiative has convened college students to encourage volunteerism and engagement.  “We had American children who had been kidnapped. They were in Iran. They were in Germany. They were in country after country after country,'' Clinton recalled. Had the United States refused to repatriate the boy, ``no other American president would have been able to say with a straight face, `You can't kidnap my child and keep him in Germany...'' Moreover, he noted, U.S. courts had decided the cross-Florida Straits custody issue in favor of the boy's father, who had said he wanted to raise the child in his native Cuba, and the White House could not ignore the law ``even if we don't like the result.''

    Federal agents descended on the Little Havana home of young Elián's uncle Lázaro, cousin Marisleysis and other kin on April 22, 2000, and seized the boy before dawn to resolve the crisis.  The Miami family continued to appeal the decision through the courts, at one point seeking to get the child an independent asylum hearing. When all avenues failed, father and son flew to their homeland in late June 2000. Clinton added that in his memoirs he noted that he had regretted some of the decisions of his presidency, ``several things I would do differently. But this isn't one of them.'' Elián is now 16 and was recently seen in photographs released in Cuba attending a Young Communist Union congress in Havana, holding a Cuban flag and wearing an olive-green military school uniform.

CUBAN WRITER CARLOS FRANQUI, AN OUTSPOKEN CRITIC OF FIDEL CASTRO, DIED 

      SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO--Cuban writer and political activist Carlos Franqui, an important figure in the Cuban revolution who later became one of the most outspoken critics of Fidel Castro, has died. He was 89. Franqui died late Thursday in Puerto Rico after a brief hospitalization for bronchial and heart problems, according to family friend Andres Candelario. The son of a poor farmer, Franqui entered leftist political movements as a youth, joined and left the Communist Party and became a journalist who eventually joined Castro's rebellion against dictator Fulgencio Batista.

    He edited the movement newspaper "Revolucion before and after Castro's insurgents defeated Batista, but increasingly clashed with hard-liners who were restricting cultural and political dissent. Franqui moved abroad in 1963 and openly broke with the communist government in 1968 when he denounced the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. "For him, the experience of having helped build a revolution that destroyed his country was extraordinarily bitter," Candelario said. "He was immensely affected by having forced a system that in the end he had to confront and fight against."

    In a 2006 interview with the Mexican magazine "Letras Libres," Franqui said he had rejected Fidel Castro's offer to be a military commander and later a minister. "What I wanted to create was a cultural revolution, not a bureaucratic one, and invite the whole world to get to know Cuba and its Revolution," he said. In the end, he said he decided that freedom of expression was incompatible with revolutionary thought: "Culture is liberty and the revolution is the negation of liberty." Before the break, Franqui had been entrusted with an abortive project to write an official biography of Castro — material he later used in one of his most high-profile books, "Family Portrait with Fidel." His "Diary of the Cuban Revolution," published in 1976, remains one of the most-quoted works on the history of that struggle.

April 18, 2010

THE CUBAN GOVERNMENT SAID CHILEAN EXECUTIVE DEATH WAS LINKED TO DRUGS AND ALCOHOL

      HAVANA, CUBA--The Cuban government Friday said a Chilean executive's death was linked to drugs and alcohol and confirmed it is probing a case of corruption -- described by one Havana economist as more dangerous for the Castro revolution than dissidents.  Roberto Baudrand, 59, died in Havana from an ``acute respiratory insufficiency linked to the presence of drugs in his stomach, combined with a concentration of alcohol in his blood,'' said an ``official note'' in the Granma newspaper.  The note added that the finding was based on an autopsy and ``preliminary investigations,'' but did not say whether the death was considered a suicide or accidental.

    Chilean Foreign Minister Alfredo Moreno said the investigation would continue ``until it clarifies exactly the causes of what has happened.'' Baudrand's death has focused attention on the growing corruption in Cuba, including a simmering scandal in the government-run airline Cubana de Aviacion that has landed two longtime Fidel Castro protégés in hot water.  “It's becoming evident that there are people in government . . . who are entrenching themselves financially for the time when the revolution falls,'' economist Esteban Morales wrote in an article published on the Web page of the official Union of Cuban Writers and Artists.

    Titled ``Corruption: The real counterrevolution,'' the article added that ``we can have no doubt that the counterrevolution, little by little, is gaining ground in some levels of the state and the government.'' Morales, a longtime Communist Party stalwart and researcher in the University of Havana's Center for Studies of the United States, described corruption as ``much more dangerous'' to the future of the Castro government than the dissident movement. He added that one risk of the graft and fraud, which generally involves Cuban officials in partnerships with foreigners, was that foreign intelligence agencies would recruit the crooked Cubans.

IACHR BLACKLISTS VENEZUELA FOR DISRESPECT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

      WASHINGTON, D.C.--Once again, the Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) put Venezuela in the "black list" of countries which do not meet the basic standards on human rights.

    The IACHR made reference to a report on Venezuela released in late February, stating that "intolerance" of political dissent, lack of independence of the judiciary, "restraints" on freedom of expression or "impunity" of human rights abuses "weakened" democracy in the country.

    Dictator  Hugo Chávez termed the report "rubbish" and threatened to evict the IACHR. However, no related step has been taken so far.  For their part, Venezuelan senior officials have complained over and over again of the IACHR "harassment."

BUSINESS GROUPS URGE DICTATOR CHAVEZ AND PRESIDENT URIBE TO RESUME BILATERAL TRADE

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA--Noel Álvarez, the President of the Venezuelan Federation of Trade and Industry Chambers (Fedecámaras), said that the step taken by the Colombian government to recommend its citizens to "be careful" if they decide to visit Venezuela may worsen bilateral trade.

     In the first quarter of the year, bilateral trade has declined by 73 percent compared with the same period of 2009. The business leader urged both governments to engage in "deep and widespread" talks. Meanwhile, the Venezuelan-Colombian Economic Integration Chamber (Cavecol) also regretted the statement issued by the Colombian Foreign Ministry.  Furthermore, Colombian businessmen considered that they will match the exports record established in 2008, as increased sales to the United States and Asia have offset the trade crisis with Venezuela, Reuters reported.

     "We believe that Colombian exports may reach a record high this year. Foreign sales could amount to USD 39 billion," Luis Villegas, the president of the National Association of Colombian Businessmen, said. "It is a fact that Colombia has replaced Venezuela as an export market. This does not mean that we are no longer interested in that market, but only when they pay their debts."

April 17, 2010

VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ: THE UNPATRIOTIC OLIGARCHY WILL NEVER RULE AGAIN

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA--The "unpatriotic oligarchy will never" rule again, Venezuela's DICTATOR Hugo Chávez said on Friday. He also accused Pedro Carmona Estanga, the former president of the Venezuelan Federation of Trade and Industry Chambers (Fedecámaras), who took office during the events of April 2002, of misusing the political asylum granted by Colombia.

     Chávez's remarks came a day after the release of Carmona's statements in a Spanish newspaper. The ex business leader regretted that his "main mistake" at the time was not having expelled Chávez out of the country.

    Chávez linked Carmona with the members of an "unpatriotic oligarchy that are killing each other" to get a seat at the National Assembly. He claimed to have evidence that Carmona ordered a group of military officials to kill him and make it look like an accident. "But we will not die; we will live and win," he said.

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ROBERT GATES: TRAVEL WARNING AGAINST VENEZUELA SHOWS COLOMBIA'S CONCERN

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA--The travel warning issued by Colombia to caution its citizens about heading for Venezuela "shows" the concern of the Colombian government, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday.

    "It is clearly an expression of concern by the Colombian government," Gates said in a press conference, during his visit to Bogotá to thank President Álvaro Uribe for his government counternarcotics and anti-guerrillas efforts.  The Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday cautioned Colombian citizens about the risks of visiting Venezuela, following the detention of some Colombians accused of spying by the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

    The US Defense Secretary, expected to stay less than 24 hours in Bogotá -the second stop of his tour including Peru and Barbados- said that in their meeting on Thursday morning, Uribe told him about the reasons for the warning.

VENEZUELAN CONSULATE IN PUERTO RICO ACCUSED OF FINANCING LEFTIST GROUP

      SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO--Roberto Arango, a Senator for the New Progressive Party, accused on Thursday night the Venezuelan Consulate in San Juan of financing left-wing groups in Puerto Rico, specifically the Caribbean Bolivarian Coordinating Committee.

    The conservative Senator told Efe that he has denounced the "irregular activities" of the Venezuelan diplomatic mission through letters sent to the US State Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).

    Arango stressed that he addressed a letter to Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez to inform him of the activities which, in his view, the Venezuelan diplomats are carrying out in the Puerto Rican capital. The leader of the party that favors Puerto Rico's integration to the US as the 51st state said that Chávez did not answer to his letter. "They use the diplomatic pouch -that has immunity from search or seizure- and other country resources, to finance left-wing groups," the politician said.

April 16, 2010

VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ VISITS CUBA TO MEET WITH RAUL AND FIDEL CASTRO

      MANAGUA, NICARAGUA--VENEZUELAN DICTATGOR Hugo Chávez Frías travelled to Cuba early on Thursday from the Augusto César Sandino International Airport in Managua, Nicaragua, to hold a meeting with his Cuban counterpart Raúl Castro.

    Following his working visit to the Nicaraguan capital, where President Chávez met with his counterpart Daniel Ortega, the Venezuelan ruler announced that he would visit Cuba to hold a meeting with the Cuban president.  The Venezuelan Head of State added that on Thursday noon he would meet with Fidel Castro, the leader of the Cuban revolution, Venezuelan state-run news agency ABN reported.

     The announcement was made official following the signing of several agreements in areas such as health, tourism and food between Venezuelan and the Sandinista government, aimed at strengthening bilateral links under the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA).

COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT ADVISES NATIONALS TO AVOID TRAVELING TO VENEZUELA

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA--Bogotá warned Colombians about the risks of traveling to Venezuela, following the arrest of a number of Colombians by Venezuelan authorities on charges of espionage, according to a statement released on Wednesday by the Colombian Foreign Ministry.

    "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs warns Colombians about the risks of traveling to Venezuela and advises citizens to be particularly careful when moving to that destination, following the recent incidents involving fellow countrymen," the statement says.  The communiqué added that the Colombian government is concerned about "unsolved murder of Colombians and about detentions where guarantees and due process are missing," AFP reported.

    Jaime Bermúdez, the Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs, said earlier that he was willing "to discuss these issues directly or through a facilitator." However, he instructed Colombian diplomats in the neighbor country to refrain from participating in social gatherings in Venezuela.

PERUVIAN DEFENSE MINISTER CRITICIZES VENEZUELAN POLICIES

      LIMA, PERU--Peruvian Defense Minister Rafael Rey said that Venezuelan public policies are wrong, following a meeting in Lima with his US counterpart Robert Gates.

     The government of President Hugo Chávez must understand that South American countries "want to live in peace and promote mutual cooperation," Rey said.

    "We understand that other countries believe that there is another road (to achieve development). But we believe that they took the wrong way. For example, you can see the results of policies implemented by dictator Chávez in his country," Rey said at a news conference with the US Secretary of Defense. The Peruvian official criticized "undue expropriations, food shortage and power outages in Venezuela."

April 15, 2010

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ROBERT GATES: IRAN DOESN'T HAVE THE CAPABILITY TO MAKE NUKES

      LIMA, PERU--US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday that Iran was not yet able to make a nuclear weapon and that its program was progressing slower than Tehran expected.

     "I'd just say, and it's our judgment here, they are not nuclear capable," Gates said in an interview. "Not yet." Speaking to NBC's "Meet the Press," Gates said that Iran was "continuing to make progress" in a nuclear program that Washington suspects is a clandestine effort to develop an atomic arsenal. "It's going slower... than they anticipated. But they are moving in that direction," he said.

    Asked to compare the danger posed by Iran armed with an atomic bomb or with the ability to produce one, Gates said: "How far have they gone? If their policy is to go (to) the threshold, but not assemble a nuclear weapon, how do you tell that they have not assembled? “We still have a very powerful nuclear arsenal,” Gates said.

CUBAN DICTATOR RAUL CASTRO URGES THE CUBAN PEOPLE TO SAVE WATER

      HAVANA, CUBA--THE GOVERNMENT OF CUBAN DICTATOR RAUL CASTRO on Tuesday urged Cubans to save water because the island is going through a very prolonged dry season that began at the end of 2008 and continues to this day. “During the last 15 months, large areas of the Cuban archipelago have suffered notable deficits in rainwater, which in not a few places are extreme,” Cuba’s Civil Defense agency said in a statement,

     Last year was one of the four driest years in Cuba since 1900, Civil Defense said. It said that the drought continued through the first quarter of 2010, which has caused “a considerable reduction in water volume in reservoirs,” besides reducing the availability of water from aquifers, which in all has affected more than 500,000 people.

     “The situation demands that people and enterprises step up control over water usage, making sure it is used in a rational, optimal way, and that they apply local solutions to mitigate the effects” of the drought, it said.  “Authorities are adopting the pertinent measures to guarantee the water supply to the people and organizations affected,” Civil Defense said, adding that it is observing “the impact of the rain deficit on sources of supply and its possible extent.”

CUBAN DICTATOR RAUL CASTRO LIBERALIZES BARBER SHOPS AND BEAUTY SALONS

      HAVANA, CUBA--Cuban dictator raul castro is turning over hundreds of state-run barber shops and beauty salons to employees in what may be the start of a long-expected privatization drive. All barbers and hairdressers in shops with three seats or fewer will be allowed to rent the space and pay taxes instead of getting a monthly wage. 

    The retail sector has long been derided for poor service and rampant theft.  The country's former dictator, Fidel Castro, nationalized all small businesses in 1968. Now his younger brother and successor is trying to modernize the system without jumping to full-scale capitalism.  Other communist countries such as China and Vietnam have long since pushed through market reforms while maintaining political control.  President Castro's first economic reforms involved giving unproductive state-owned land to private farmers.  Some taxi drivers are allowed to work for themselves.

    This is his first attempt to deal with shops in the retail and service sector. It is likely to be a gradual process, though.  These beauty salon changes have not been officially announced or mentioned in the state-controlled press.  In a recent speech to the Young Communist League, Raul Castro acknowledged that people were impatient for change but warned that he planned to move slowly and cautiously.

April 14, 2010

US ASKS VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ TO EXPLAIN TO THE REGION THE PURCHASE OF RUSSIAN WEAPONS

      WASHINGTON, D.C.--Frank Mora, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Western Hemisphere, urged Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez on Monday to explain to the rest of the region the reasons behind the recent purchase of Russian arms and military equipment.

     The US top official said in an interview with Colombian newspaper El Tiempo and Colombian radio station RCN, that the United States is concerned that the Venezuelan dictator could provoke an arms race in the Latin American region.

     Venezuela could purchase Russian military weapons worth over USD 5 billion, said Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, after a trip to Caracas, AFP reported.  Russia granted Venezuela a USD 2.2-billion loan for new weapon deals.

VENEZUELAN BISHOP: RULING OUT RECONCILIATION IS A CRIME

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA--Eight years after the most serious political confrontation in Venezuela in recent times, which left 19 Venezuelans dead and others injured, the former president of the Venezuelan Plenary Council, Monsignor Ovidio Pérez Morales said ruling out the possibility of reconciliation among Venezuelans is a crime.  The Archbishop Emeritus of Los Teques added that the statement made by dictator Hugo Chávez last Sunday means that Venezuela will divide, or that half of the country has to be deported or imprisoned for thinking differently.

    The Catholic Church leader told El Universal that "if there is no reconciliation, then the motto would be: 'Long live hatred! Long live divisions! Long live death!"  He stressed that Venezuelans deserve a different present and future, free from persecution and fear. In this context, he recalled that the dream of the Venezuelan heroes was to create a united and fraternal homeland.

     He regretted that Venezuela is so divided, and that some citizens have rights while others not. "This country can neither continue expelling people to other countries nor putting political prisoners in jail. The independence was made to have free people rather than slaves."  Monsignor Pérez Morales considers that it is a serious contradiction the way the government is celebrating the Bicentennial Year of Venezuela's independence. He said that in the early times of independence, Venezuela was a sovereign and united country, while now some people purport to divide the country and break the sense of fraternity.

CUBAN DICTATOR RAUL CASTRO DISCUSSES WITH VENEZUELAN MINISTER OF ENERGY BUSINESSES AND COOPERATION

      HAVANA, CUBA-Cuban DICTATOR Raúl Castro discussed with Venezuelan Energy and Petroleum Minister Rafael Ramírez several agreements to set up joint ventures and projects in areas such as science, technology and tourism, which were signed four months ago, reported on Monday the Cuban government in an official statement.

     The meeting, held on Sunday, "took place in line with superb bilateral relations and was the culmination of two days of exchanges between" Minister Ramírez and Ricardo Cabrisas, vice president of the Cuban Council of Ministers, according to a statement issued by Granma, the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, AFP reported.

     According to the newspaper, Cabrisas and Ramírez, who is also the president of state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa), discussed the implementation of the agreements adopted at the Tenth Session of the Intergovernmental Cuba-Venezuela Commission, held last December in Havana, which was attended by President Hugo Chávez.

April 13, 2010

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: SPAIN PRESSING CUBA ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS

      MADRID, SPAIN--Spain will continue to demand that Cuba respect human rights and release its political prisoners, Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said in an interview published Sunday by the Madrid daily El Pais.

     The Spanish government’s policy toward Cuba is one of “critical and demanding dialogue,” Fernandez de la Vega said.  “With firmness in the demand for respect for human rights, which carries with it the request for the immediate release of political prisoners,” the deputy prime minister said. The death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo made evident that “no advances” have been made but “we cannot stop demanding that human rights be complied with. We have offered the possibility for (Guillermo) Fariñas to come to Spain and we’re going to continue demanding that human rights be respected,” Fernandez de la Vega said. Zapata died on Feb. 23 after an 85-day hunger strike.

   Spain’s Socialist government has hoped to amend the European Union’s Common Position, which conditions relations with Cuba on improvements in human rights and moves toward democracy, during Madrid’s six-month term in the bloc’s rotating presidency, which ends June 30. The EU adopted the Common Position in 1996 at the urging of Spain’s then-prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar of the conservative Popular Party.

IAPA CALLS GLOBAL ORGANIZATIONS TO WATCH OVER PRESS FREEDOM IN VENEZUELA

      MIAMI, FLORIDA--The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) urged on Monday intergovernmental organizations to look out for press freedom in Venezuela and intercede for Guillermo Zuloaga, the CEO of the private TV news channel Globovisión, with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez

     The IAPA, based in Miami, submitted its request to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and to Irina Bokova, the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), Efe reported. It also made a petition in letters submitted in late March to José Miguel Insulza, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), and Santiago Cantón, the Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

     In the letters, signed by Alejandro Aguirre, the president of the Inter-American Press Association, and Robert Rivard, the Chairman of the IAPA's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information and editor of the San Antonio Express-News, the non-profit organization dedicated to defending freedom of expression and of the press throughout the Americas, expressed its concern about the recent arrest and subsequent release of Guillermo Zuloaga. According to IAPA, these facts "led to the widespread view that freedom of press and speech are rapidly deteriorating in the country."

VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ MAKES AN APPEAL FOR MEDIA GUERRILLAS AND MILITIAS

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA--In his TV and radio show “Aló, Presidente” (Hello, President!), Hugo Chávez urged people to squat in rambling houses and abandoned buildings.  As usual at this time since 2002, President Hugo Chávez devoted four hours, fifteen minutes of his TV and radio show "Aló, Presidente" on Sunday 11 to relate his version of the events of April 11-13. There, he remembered "the martyrs of Llaguno Bridge, unarmed people who exposed their chests to a rain of bullets."

    Lavish in details and anecdotes which made himself and the audience laugh at the courtyard of Miraflores presidential palace, Chávez did not mention at all General Raúl Isaías Baduel, nowadays behind bars and eight years ago publicly acknowledged as the author of Chávez's triumphant return to office after being temporarily ousted during a coup attempt. He also made reference to Henri Falcón, the governor of central Lara state, who pulled out of the ranks of the Socialist United Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and joined the PPT party.

     During the show, Deputy Darío Vivas reported on the creation on Monday of the "media guerrillas," composed of high-school students, as well as a rally of "34,000 militiamen" on Tuesday. The president complained again about slow house building. "Houses are for the people" and cannot be built "over there, top on those mountains," but downtown. "If you walk by Baralt Avenue, you will find rambling houses, warehouses, abandoned buildings, parking lots, tire deposits. Let's go for them! Let's go for those plots of land!"

April 12, 2010

POLISH PRESIDENT LECH KACZYNSKI'S BODY ARRIVES IN WARSAW 

      WARSAW. POLAND--   Millions of Poles paused Sunday to mourn the country's president and the dozens of other victims of Saturday's plane crash in Russia. A two-minute silence was held as Poland struggled to come to terms with the tragedy which killed President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and many other senior members of the country's elite. All 96 people on board were killed when the military plane crashed in thick fog near Smolensk in western Russia. Kaczynski's body arrived in Warsaw on Sunday for a special memorial service after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin saw it off at a short ceremony at Smolensk. His body was then due to be driven to the presidential palace before being placed on public view.

    Reports said the pilots ignored pleas from air traffic controllers to divert to another airport, as investigators confirmed Sunday there were no technical problems with the plane at the time of the accident. Some 88 of the dead were members of a Polish state delegation to the nearby Katyn forest, where 22,000 Poles were massacred by Soviet forces during WW2. A spokesman for the Polish parliament said elections will be called within two weeks.

     Tens of thousands of people, many in tears, turned out on the streets of Warsaw, placing candles and flowers at the presidential palace. "Nothing like this has ever happened in Poland," Foreign Ministry spokesman Piotr Paszkowski said. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the crash was the most tragic event of the country's post-World War II history. Among the dead was Solidarity activist Anna Walentynowicz, 80, whose firing in August 1980 from the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk sparked the workers' strike that spurred the creation of the freedom movement. President Kaczynski's wife Maria, army chief Franciszek Gagor, National Bank President Slawomir Skrzypek and Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer were also on board.  Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he would personally oversee the investigation into the crash.

VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ CONTINUES HIS PURCHASES OF RUSSIAN WEAPONS

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA--Since 2001, following a joint statement by then Russian President Vladimir Putin and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, cooperation between the two nations in the field of supply of military equipment has not stopped, and thus far, it amounts to USD 4.4 billion. A total of 24 Sukhoi fighters, 100 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 53 helicopters and mobile rocket launchers form an integral part of the enormous arsenal procured so far by the Venezuelan government.  But purchases do not stop there. Putin -now Prime Minister- said during his recent visit to Caracas that his country is prepared to continue providing Venezuela with military equipment.  In this connection, Russia granted Venezuela a USD 2.2-billion loan to buy more weapons.

    In September 2009, the Venezuelan president said that the cash would be spent in 92 T-72 tanks made in Russia and S-300, Antey-2500, Buk-M2 and S-125 Pechora anti-air missile systems.  Chávez said in early April that his country has not spent the facility, yet added that his government is ready to use it in order to nail down its "modest" arsenal.  In addition, the two countries have agreed on military technology transfer. One of the agreements executed by the two countries in early April provides for the establishment of a joint manufacturing plant of aeronautic equipment, where Venezuela holds 51 percent and Russia 49 percent. The purpose is to "refurbish the fleets in the country and elsewhere in Latin America."  They are also working on a manufacturing plant of rifles and ammunition in northern-central Aragua state.

    Russia and Venezuela are dealing with the supply of 50 airplanes, a source of the Russian delegation that joined Putin on visit to Caracas said, according to Russian news agency Ria Novosti. "Reference is made to AN 148 and BE 200 aircraft," the former is for passengers and the latter is an amphibious multirole twinjet aircraft for staff transportation and forest firefighting.  In the opinion of Russian Ambassador to Venezuela Vladmir Zaemskiy, the Venezuela-Russia military cooperation has increased because some countries are no more arms suppliers to Venezuela and the Venezuelan government shifted his concept of national defense. As a result, it needs different technologies.

CUBAN COMMUNIST ARTISTS PERFORM IN CONCERT AGAINST GOVERNMENT CRITICS

      HAVANA, CUBA--Cuban artists and musicians, among them singer-songwriter Silvio Rodriguez, participated in an event organized by the government called the "Concert for the Homeland" to repudiate the criticism of the United States, Europe, foreign media and dissidents over the human rights situation on the island. President Raul Castro's government staged two concerts simultaneously on Saturday, one in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba and the other in the "anti-imperialist" forum Cuba put up in 2000 as a venue for anti-American rallies outside the U.S. Interests Section.  Rodriguez, who had been announced by the state-run media as the artist who would kick off the Havana concert, took the stage to read a text he had written that had been disseminated over the Internet in recent days, but he did not sing.

     Before the hundreds of people who attended the concert, Rodriguez read his "Questions of a troubador who dreams," which last week sparked an open debate with Cuban exile writer and journalist Carlos Alberto Montaner.  Although the author of "Ojala" decided not to sing, his music was performed by several of the artists on the schedule, including well-known figures on the communist island such as salsa singer Paulo FG and singer-songwriters Amaury Perez, Vicente Feliu and Sara Gonzalez, among others.  In addition, assorted poems and texts were read by well-known actors and intellectuals, including the president of the government Writers and Artists Union, Miguel Barnet.

     During this past week, the state-controlled Cuban media insisted that the "Concert for the Homeland" was organized to "defend" the right of the island to "maintain its independence," and in response to the "ferocious political campaign against Cuba that the United States, the European Union and the information media at the service of media terrorism are orchestrating."  The government and the government-run media - there are no formal independent media in Cuba - have reacted virulently to the international criticism of the human rights situation on the island which broke out after the death in February of dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo after an 85-day prison hunger strike.  Castro said last Sunday that Cuba prefers "to disappear" before it will accept the "blackmail" by the United States, Europe and the dissidents to "manipulate" it in the human rights area. EFE

April 11, 2010

SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON SAYS THE CASTRO BROTHERS DON'T WANT TO NORMALIZE TIES WITH US

      WASHINGTON, D.C.--Cuba's leadership does not want to normalize ties with Washington because they would 'lose their excuses' for the country's lack of development and openness, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says. Despite US efforts to 'enhance cooperation', Raul Castro and his brother Fidel 'do not want to see an end to the embargo and do not want to see normalization with the United States because they would then lose all their excuses for what hasn't happened in Cuba in the last 50 years,' Clinton said. 'I find that very sad, because there should be an opportunity for a transition' to democracy in Cuba, the only country in the Americas run by a communist regime.

     'The people of Cuba should have democratically elected leaders and a chance to chart their own future. But unfortunately, I don't see that happening while the Castros are still in charge,' the top US diplomat said.  Raul Castro officially took office in 2008 after long-time leader Fidel was sidelined with serious health problems. Cubans, led by Fidel, launched a popular revolution on the island in the late 1950s to oust dictator Fulgencio Batista, and the regime hardened its Marxist outlook in 1961. One year later, US president John F Kennedy declared an economic embargo on Cuba that remains largely in place to this day.

     Clinton also pointed to what she said was a growing acknowledgment from the international community that Havana was cracking down on human rights. 'For the first time, a lot of countries that had done nothing but berate the United States for our failure to be more open to Cuba have now started criticising Cuba because they let people die,' she said. 'Many in the world are now seeing what we have seen for a long time, which is a very intransigent, entrenched regime that has stifled the opportunity for the Cuban people.'  A leading Cuban political prisoner, Orlando Zapata, died in hospital February 85 days into a hunger strike to protest against appalling conditions inside the country's gaols.

US WORRIED ABOUT VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ'S AGGRESSIVE STANCE, ARMS RACE

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA--US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela warned on in Bogotá that his country is concerned about the aggressive wording, arms race and alleged support to Colombian guerrillas by the Venezuelan government.

     "We cannot tolerate, at this point in time, warlike threats among (Latin American) countries, meddling of countries which could be supporting terrorist sectors," Valenzuela told a university audience in the Colombian capital city.  The diplomat talked about the White House policy for Latin America and concerns about the region in the second day of his official visit to Colombia, as part of a tour started on April 4 in Ecuador and ending next April 11 in Peru. 

    "There are reports that have proved the US concern about the issue of support to terrorist groups in Colombia," Valenzuela noted.  "And this is something we would reject," he added.  With respect to the recent purchase of Russian military equipment by the Venezuelan government, Valenzuela admitted, "It is a topic that goes beyond Venezuela; it is a general issue for all Latin America."

VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ REBUTS US CRITICISM OF RUSSIAN ARMS DEALS

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA-- Venezuela's DICTATOR Hugo Chávez dismissed on April 8 the criticism of US government spokespersons about recent reports on the purchase of Russian arms by Venezuela.

     "Yesterday the Secretary of State of the empire was in Bogotá, hurling his darts at Venezuela and some make it easer for the empire by saying that there are concerns in the United States because Venezuela is buying plenty of weapons," Chávez said.  The Head of State was referring to the remarks of US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela in Bogotá.

     "Don't be so stupid, Yankees, because this is all that remains to tell you; or perhaps they think we are stupid," Chávez added during the official reception ceremony of AB Guaicamacuto patrol boat.  Thus far, Russia has sold Venezuela defense equipment valued at USD 4.4 billion, including Sukhoi-30 jet fighters, helicopters and rifles.

April 10, 2010

ISRAEL PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU CANCELLED TRIP TO U.S. NUCLEAR SUMMIT IN WASHINGTON

      JERUSALEM, ISRAEL--Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has withdrawn from a nuclear security summit in Washington next week, fearing Muslim delegates will demand Israel give up its assumed atomic arsenal. Netanyahu, who plans to send a deputy and two senior advisers to the April 12-13 conference instead, canceled "after learning that some countries including Egypt and Turkey plan to say Israel must sign the NPT," an Israeli official said.

    Arab diplomats countered that they suspected Netanyahu had canceled mainly to avoid further confrontation with U.S. President Barack Obama over Jewish settlements, and denied having any plans to press Israel on atomic policy. Netanyahu's attendance at the 47-country summit would have been unprecedented. Israeli premiers long shunned such forums, hoping to dampen foreign scrutiny on their nuclear secrets. By staying outside the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Israel has not had to forswear nuclear arms nor admit international inspectors to its Dimona reactor, which experts believe has produced plutonium for between 80 and 200 warheads.

     Aides said Netanyahu had agreed to attend the summit after being assured it would focus on efforts to secure fissile materials and shun language challenging Israel's nuclear "ambiguity" policy. Such coordination between the allies has been clouded by rifts over stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. But two senior Arab officials accused Netanyahu of trying to evade questions on the Palestinian issue that has lately clouded Israel's ties with its largest U.S. ally. "We believe that Netanyahu withdrew from the summit because he did not want to face President Obama and is using Egypt and Turkey as an excuse," a senior Egyptian diplomat said. Another senior Arab diplomat intimately involved in the negotiations said Arab states had no plan to "politicize" the venue and raise the Israeli issue there. "We are surprised that the Israeli prime minister would use this as a pretext for not attending," the second diplomat told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

IRAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD UNVEILS MORE ADVANCED CENTRIFUGE MACHINES

      TEHRAN, IRAN--Iran unveiled a third generation of domestically built centrifuges Friday as the Islamic Republic accelerates a uranium enrichment program that has alarmed world powers fearful of the nuclear program's aims. The new machines are capable of much faster enrichment than those now being used in Iran's nuclear facilities, and Iranian officials praised the advancement as a step toward greater self-sufficiency in the face of international sanctions targeted at choking off the nuclear work. During a ceremony marking Iran's National Day of Nuclear Technology, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pulled back a white curtain to reveal one of the tall, cylindrical machines to a crowd of assembled dignitaries. The display capped months of announcements about the development of the new machines.

    Ahmadinejad declared there was no way back for Iran's nuclear work despite opposition from the United States and other world powers, though he insisted it had only peaceful aims like power generation. Iran would remain a nuclear state, he said, "whether enemies want it or not."  President Barack Obama's announcement on Tuesday of a new American nuclear policy enraged Iran's leaders because the guidelines classify Iran as a potential target for a nuclear attack. Obama's policy included pledges to reduce America's nuclear arsenal, refrain from nuclear tests and not use nuclear weapons against countries that do not have them.

    The new generation of centrifuges, which spin uranium gas at extremely high speeds to purify it, will allow Iran to produce fuel for as many as six nuclear power plants, the president said. The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, said the machines were 10 times more powerful than ones now in use and had passed all necessary mechanical tests. The machines are at the core of Iran's disputed nuclear program. Enrichment technology is of concern to the international community because it can be used to generate fuel for power stations or material for nuclear bombs. The United States and its allies suspect Iran's civilian work is a cover for developing a weapons capability. With more advanced centrifuges, Iran can more rapidly amass enriched material that could be turned into the fissile core of warheads, should Tehran choose to do so.

83 PERCENT OF VENEZUELANS REJECTS MEASURES LEADING TO COMMUNISM 

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA-- The popularity of DICTATOR Hugo Chávez has declined according to the latest opinion poll conducted by pollster Keller y Asociados. The probe into the way Venezuelans like or dislike President Chávez showed that 49 percent dislike him and 43 percent like the Venezuelan leader. This is the first time since 2003 that Chávez's popularity declines to such levels.

    According to the poll conducted in 61 cities and towns over 20,000 people that took into account 78.6 percent of the population, 63 percent of the respondents consider that Venezuela is going in the wrong direction, and most say that public services are worsening. The sample was conducted between February 26 and March 13 and had a confidence level of 95.5 percent, as reported by the TV news network Globovisión in an article posted in its website.

   According to the data provided in the survey, 79 percent of respondents feel that crime has worsened in 2009. Meanwhile, this percentage increased to 87 percent in 2010. Based on the poll, 70 percent considers that the government should not donate more power plants or oil to foreign countries. As for the future, 83 percent disagree with the fact that Venezuela could become a communist country,whereas 54 percent of respondents consider that communism and 21st Century socialism are the same thing.

April 09, 2010

PRESIDENT OBAMA AND RUSSIAN PRESIDENT MEDVEDEV SIGNED ARMS TREATY

      PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC--President BARACK Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday signed a major nuclear arms control agreement that reduces the nuclear stockpiles of both nations. The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty -- known by its acronym, START-- builds on a previous agreement that expired in December. The agreement cuts the number of nuclear weapons held by the United States and Russia by about a third. "This day demonstrates the determination of the United States and Russia -- the two nations that hold over 90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons -- to pursue responsible global leadership," Obama said after the signing.  "Together, we are keeping our commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which must be the foundation for global nonproliferation."

     "This agreement enhances strategic ability and, at the same time, allows us to rise to a higher level of cooperation between Russia and the United States," he said. The two leaders talked about a range of nuclear issues, including Iran, in their meeting before the signing ceremony. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said he hopes Congress will ratify the treaty with a large bipartisan majority, as it has with previous arms control treaties. "We are hopeful that reducing the threat of nuclear weapons remains a priority for both parties," Gibbs said. The full treaty and its protocols will be posted online at some point Thursday, Gibbs said. Brian McKeon, a senior adviser to the White House's National Security Council and deputy national security adviser to the vice president, will lead the administration's ratification effort, Gibbs said.

    The highlight of the two-day trip is the new treaty with Russia, which is another step in nuclear arms relations between the former Cold War adversaries. Its signing comes two days after the Obama administration announced a new U.S. nuclear weapons policy and four days before Obama convenes a summit of 47 nations on nuclear security issues. "It significantly reduces missiles and launchers," Obama said of the new treaty, which lasts for 10 years. "It puts in place a strong and effective verification regime. And it maintains the flexibility that we need to protect and advance our national security, and to guarantee our unwavering commitment to the security of our allies." Obama has made nuclear nonproliferation a major priority of his presidency, prompting criticism from conservatives who fear the president will weaken the U.S. nuclear deterrent against possible attack.

BRAZIL DEFENSE MINISTER: BRAZIL AND US TO SIGN DEFENSE AGREEMENT

      BRASILIA, BRAZIL--Brazil and the United States will sign a defense-cooperation agreement next week, Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said Wednesday. The pact, to be inked with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday in Washington, will make "defense-related businesses viable," Jobim told the Foreign Relations and Defense Committee of the lower house of congress. He did not elaborate.

    Earlier this week, a senior U.S. government official told The Associated Press that the agreement provides a broad framework for military cooperation but differs from military pacts Washington has with Colombia and its NATO partners. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.  "It deals with military exchanges, everything from comparing military equipment to the exchange of students and instructors at military academies," the official said. "There will be provisions for U.S. Navy ship visits and sharing lessons in peacekeeping."

    The Colombia agreement signed last year facilitates U.S. use of Colombian military bases and grants immunity from criminal prosecution for U.S. service personnel. There is no such immunity in the draft Brazil agreement and no stipulation for allowing U.S. troops to be stationed in Brazil. The U.S. would have to ask specific permission to send troops to Brazil for any period of time, even if just for joint peacekeeping exercises.

COLOMBIA NOT SEEKING A MILITARY CAPABILITY SIMILAR TO THAT OF VENEZUELA

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA-Jaime Bermúdez, Colombia's Foreign Affairs Minister, said on Tuesday that the goal of his official visit to Russia has nothing to do with the purchase of weapons in order to have a military capability similar to that of Venezuela, which plans to buy new Russian weapons worth over USD 5 billion.‎

    "Colombia will never buy military equipment that could be considered an offensive weapon against third countries. Our purpose is to destroy drug trafficking and terrorism. Nothing else!" Bermúdez told Colombian radio La Fm from Moscow, where he is paying a 3-day visit.

    Bermúdez added that he has discussed the issue with Russian authorities. He highlighted that Colombia just wants to be respected and expects the utmost consideration of its neighboring countries. However, he declined to interpret the reasons why Venezuela is purchasing weapons.

April 08, 2010

HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION CALLS FOR RELEASE OF FORMER VENEZUELAN GOVERNOR OSWALDO ALVAREZ PAZ 

      WASHINGTON, D.C.--The nonpartisan organization said that the opposition leader is a prisoner of conscience of his government  The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) joined numerous prominent individuals and international organizations calling for the immediate release of ex presidential candidate and former governor of the state of Zulia, Oswaldo Álvarez Paz.

    In a letter sent to Venezuela's dictator Hugo Chávez, the human rights watchdog declared Álvarez Paz a prisoner of conscience of his government.  Last week, playwright and former Czech President Vaclav Havel -who also heads the HRF's International Council- called for the immediate release of the Social Christian leader.  In a legal report on the Álvarez Paz case released on Monday, HRF warned that both the imprisonment of the opposition leader and the arrest of Guillermo Zuloaga, the chief executive officer of private TV news channel Globovisión, could have a devastating chilling effect on what is left of freedom of expression in Venezuela.

     "Venezuelans can speak their mind, but if their view offends the President, they only have one option left: go to prison," said Javier El-Hage, HRF's General Counsel.  The legal HRF's report determined that the actions taken against the Venezuelan politician violated the international human rights legal standard on freedom of expression, established in the American Convention on Human Rights, ratified by Venezuela.

IRANIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD MOCKS NEW U.S. NUCLEAR STRATEGY

      TEHRAN, IRAN--Iran's hard-line president on Wednesday ridiculed President Barack Obama's new nuclear strategy, which turns the U.S. focus away from the Cold War threats and instead aims to stop the spread of atomic weapons to rogue states or terrorists.

    Addressing thousands in the country's northwest, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad derided Obama over the plan. "American materialist politicians, whenever they are beaten by logic, immediately resort to their weapons like cowboys," Ahmadinejad said in a speech before a crowd of several thousand in northwestern Iran. "Mr. Obama, you are a newcomer (to politics). Wait until your sweat dries and get some experience. Be careful not to read just any paper put in front of you or repeat any statement recommended," Ahmadinejad said in the speech, aired live on state TV.

Ahmadinejad said Obama "is under the pressure of capitalists and the Zionists" and vowed Iran would not be pushed around. "(American officials) bigger than you, more bullying than you, couldn't do a damn thing, let alone you," he said, addressing Obama.
Obama on Tuesday announced the new strategy, including a vow not to use nuclear weapons against countries that do not have them. Iran, however, was a notable exception to that pledge, along with North Korea, because Washington accuses them of not cooperating with the international community on nonproliferation standards.

MORGAN STANLEY PREDICTS DOLLAR CRUNCH IN VENEZUELA

      NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK--In its latest report on Venezuela, dated March 29, investment bank giant Morgan Stanley estimates that the South American country will face a foreign exchange crunch and could be approaching a turning point where the oil wealth would not be sufficient to offset macroeconomic distortions.

     The US investment bank, one of the most important financial institutions in the global economy, uses a model that takes into account Venezuela's upward trend in imports, higher capital outflows, declining oil production and rising domestic consumption of fuel, as well as stable oil prices, to make estimates of supply and demand of US dollars. Considering both rends in these variables over the last three years and the Venezuelan government's estimates with regard to the positive impact of foreign investments in Carabobo block, Orinoco Oil Belt, Morgan Stanley predicted that Venezuela could face a cash crunch amounting to up to USD 7.9 billion in 2010 and up to USD 11.7 billion in 2011.

     In a second less critical scenario, Morgan Stanley predicted that Venezuela would have a foreign exchange surplus in 2010 and 2011, but it would have a dollar crunch in 2014 of at least USD 7.7 billion. The investment bank said that even if assuming that oil prices will remain at USD 80-85 per barrel, they are likely to fall short of offsetting declining in oil production, climbing capital outflow and the growing dependence on imports.

April 07, 2010

US HOPES THAT RUSSIAN WEAPONS BOUGHT BY VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ DO NOT GO SOMEWHERE ELSE

      WASHINGTON, D.C.--The main concern of the US government about a potential large sale of Russian arms to Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez is that the equipment may end up in third countries, US Department of State Spokesman Philip Crowley said on Monday.

     "But our primary concern is that if Venezuela's going to increase its military hardware, we certainly don't want to see this hardware migrate into other parts of the hemisphere," Crowley said in a press conference.  Venezuela could make a request for Russian military equipment for more than USD 5 billion, Russian Premier Vladimir Putin said on Monday after his visit to Caracas.

     The United States and its main Latin American ally, Colombia, have accused Venezuela several times of financial and logistic links with the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC).  Chávez has stubbornly denied such links with the Marxist guerrillas.  "We can probably think of better things that could be invested on behalf of the Venezuelan people," Crowley said.  The spokesman insisted on saying that the United States does not mind any relationship between Caracas and Moscow. However, he immediately added: "We're hard-pressed to see what legitimate defense needs Venezuela has for the equipment."  According to the high-ranking officer, Venezuela has a responsibility for transparency in its acquisitions.

TWO VENEZUELANS ACCUSED OF MONEY LAUNDERING RELEASED ON BAIL

      MIAMI, FLORIDA--A US judge set on Tuesday a bail amounting to USD 650,000 for two Venezuelan accused of scheming in money laundering allegedly coming from drug traffic through the Venezuelan parallel exchange market.

    Antoine Jean Melhem, 52, and Douglas Douglas Enrique Sánchez Soto, 51, were set a USD 500,000 bail and a USD 150,000 bail, respectively, as per the ruling issued by Judge Stephen Brown during a hearing held in a Miami court. The hearing for another defendant, Edgar Hadad Azraca, 49, was adjourned at the request of his defense lawyer to next April 15, Efe reported.

    Brown specified that the bails should be paid with funds which do not come from illegal activities and the passports of Melhem and Sánchez were to be seized to prevent them from fleeing the country. The three defendants are members of a group of 16 people accused last March by the Federal Prosecutor Office in Southern Florida District of presumably plotting money laundering of USD 7 million in the Venezuelan parallel exchange market.

ONLY 9 PERCENT OF VENEZUELANS SUPPORT AND AUTHORITARIAN GOVERNMENT

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA--Researchers at Centro Gumilla, a Jesuit research and social action center based in Caracas, conducted an opinion poll among 2,000 Venezuelans throughout the country, with the exception of the states of Amazonas and Delta Amacuro. They found that dialogue and compromise are possible in the South American country and that the polarization is "rather a feature of politicized elites."

     "Venezuelans support an agenda to develop a political platform based on consensus," following the heated debate that the country has experienced since 1988, found the study, conducted between September 14 and October 9, 2009.  José Virtuoso, director of Centro Gumilla, highlighted in the report containing the findings of the research that the goal was to know "the current political culture of Venezuelan and Latin American democracy which allows a better understanding of the contents, wishes and contradictions of the democratic ethos in Venezuela and the region."

     One of the most important findings of the study is that only 9 percent of respondents support an authoritarian government.  On the other hand, 64 percent of the respondents described themselves as Socialist Democrats; 31 percent are Socialist Democrats of the 21st Century, while 33 percent are moderate Socialist Democrats. The fourth block (Liberal Democrats) represents 27 percent of the sample.

April 06, 2010

CUBAN OFFICIALS PUNISHED FOR MISLEADING DISPLAY AT A STATE-RUN AGRICULTURAL MARKET

      HAVANA, CUBA--Three Cuban officials were punished for taking food to a state-run agricultural market to use as “props” for a visit by managers in the sector, only to remove it later to the frustration of members of the public who wanted to buy it, the official Juventud Rebelde newspaper reported Sunday. The incident occurred March 1 in Guaimaro, a town in the eastern province of Camaguey, and it was verified by the Agriculture Ministry when it received a complaint from one of the readers of the daily, the official newspaper of the youth wing of the Cuban Communist Party.

    The investigation verified that food was brought to the market in preparation for a visit by top-level officials, but “after the scene had been set and the public learned of the existence of the (food), it was removed ... leaving the public annoyed and with reason,” Juventud Rebelde said. The Agriculture Ministry’s representative in Guaimaro, Alberto Rodriguez, said that for using the food as “props” and then removing it the director of the state-run provisions company in the municipality, Luis Cespedes, was demoted to a lesser post and two other officials were “admonished.”

     The central government officials for whom the food had been brought in never even came to the market, Rodriguez said. Juventud Rebelde, for its part, is demanding an explanation about the matter. Cubans are suffering through a serious economic situation that includes a chronic shortage of foodstuffs, the result, among other things, of the international crisis, the communist island’s food production inefficiency and the long-standing U.S. trade and financial embargo

LAWMAKERS:  AFGHAN PRESIDENT HAMID KARZAI THREATENS TO JOIN TALIBAN 

      KABUL, AFGHANISTAN-Afghan President Hamid Karzai threatened over the weekend to quit the political process and join the Taliban if he continued to come under outside pressure to reform, several members of parliament said Monday.  Karzai made the unusual statement at a closed-door meeting Saturday with selected lawmakers -- just days after kicking up a diplomatic controversy with remarks alleging foreigners were behind fraud in last year's disputed elections.

    Lawmakers dismissed the latest comment as hyperbole, but it will add to the impression the president -- who relies on tens of thousands of U.S. and NATO forces to fight the insurgency and prop up his government -- is growing increasingly erratic and unable to exert authority without attacking his foreign backers.  ''He said that 'if I come under foreign pressure, I might join the Taliban','' said Farooq Marenai, who represents the eastern province of Nangarhar.  ''He said rebelling would change to resistance,'' Marenai said -- apparently suggesting that the militant movement would then be redefined as one of resistance against a foreign occupation rather than a rebellion against an elected government.

     Marenai said Karzai appeared nervous and repeatedly demanded to know why parliament last week had rejected legal reforms that would have strengthened the president's authority over the country's electoral institutions.  Two other lawmakers said Karzai twice raised the threat to join the insurgency.  The lawmakers, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of political repercussions, said Karzai also dismissed concerns over possible damage his comments had caused to relations with the United States. He told them he had already explained himself in a telephone conversation Saturday with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that came after the White House described his comments last week as troubling.

RUSSIAN ARMS TO VENEZUELA MAY BE $5B 

      MOSCOW, RUSSIA--Arms exports to Venezuela may reach as much as $5 billion, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Monday, a few days after he traveled to the country.

    Putin visited Venezuela late last week to meet with President Hugo Chavez and pledged to sell more weapons to the country but gave no concrete figures. "Our delegation has just returned from Venezuela, and the total volume of orders may exceed $5 billion," Putin said in televised remarks.

     Russia on Friday agreed to lend Venezuela up to $2.2 billion for the new arms deals. Hugo Chavez's government has already bought more than $4 billion in Russian weapons since 2005, including helicopters, fighter jets and 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles. The Venezuelan arms deals are one of the many irritants in U.S.-Russian relations. Putin said in Caracas on Friday that Russia appreciates its good relations with the United States, but if the United States does not want to sell arms to Venezuela, it's only good for Russia - which is willing to.

April 05, 2010

THE NEW YORK TIMES CRITICIZES VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ'S POLITICAL ARRESTS

      NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK--When Judge María Lourdes Afiuni issued a ruling in December that irked dictator Hugo Chávez, he did little to contain his outrage. The uler, contending on national television that she would have been put before a firing squad in earlier times, sent his secret intelligence police to arrest her.  Afiuni built a home shrine to her after she was jailed by President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, who was angered by a ruling.  Franklin Brito, who has protested the government’s handling of a land seizure, staged hunger strikes before and after his arrest.  Then the agents took her to the overcrowded women’s prison in this city of slums near Caracas. They put her in a cell near more than 20 inmates whom Judge Afiuni had sentenced on charges like murder and drug smuggling.

     “I’ve received threats from inmates telling me they will burn me alive because they see me as a symbol of the system that put them in prison,” said Judge Afiuni, 46, in her prison cell. “I’m in this hell because I had the temerity to do my job as a judge in a way that didn’t please Chávez.”  Since Judge Afiuni’s imprisonment, a dizzying sequence of other high-profile arrests has taken place, pointing to Mr. Chávez’s recent use of his security and intelligence apparatus to quash challenges to his grip on the country’s political institutions. The arrests come at a time of spreading public ire over an economy hobbled by electricity shortages and soaring inflation.

     Senior officials in Mr. Chávez’s government here, including Attorney General Luisa Ortega, say the most recent arrests were necessary to suppress conspiracies or to prosecute people whose comments were deemed offensive to Mr. Chávez. In Judge Afiuni’s case, Attorney General Ortega said the judge had illegally freed another high-profile prisoner, the businessman Eligio Cedeño.  In March, intelligence agents arrested Oswaldo Álvarez Paz, a former presidential candidate, charging him with conspiracy after he said in televised remarks that Venezuela had become a haven for drug trafficking; he also supported a Spanish indictment asserting that officials here had helped Basque separatists train on Venezuelan soil.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ACCUSES VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ OF DELIBERATELY TARGETING DISSENTER

      LONDON, ENGLAND.- Amnesty International (AI) accused the Venezuelan DICTATOR  of deliberately targeting national leaders and opposition supporters, and urged Venezuelan authorities to stop this practice, following "a number of politically motivated detentions."  In a statement, AI reported that at least three people considered opponents of Hugo Chavez was detained and prosecuted during the month of March.

    "The charges brought against critic people for political reasons are used to silence dissent and prevent others from speaking out," said Guadalupe Marengo, Deputy Director of Amnesty International program for the Americas.  "Chávez has to stop persecuting people who think differently or speak against his government," she added.  AI referred to the cases of Oswaldo Álvarez Paz, the former governor of Zulia state, opposition MP Wilmer Azuaje, and Guillermo Zuloaga, owner of TV channel Globovisión, Efe reported.

    These and other cases lead Amnesty International to believe that "the Venezuelan government seems to have established a pattern of drastic measures against dissidents with legislative and administrative methods, and harassment of critics."  "The laws are being used to justify what appear to be essentially politically motivated charges, which could indicate that the Venezuelan government has deliberately targeted opponents," he added.

RUSSIAN PRIME MINISTER VLADIMIR  PUTIN REJECTS CHARGES THAT DICTATOR CHAVEZ SUPPORTS TERRORISM

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA--Regarding the charges against Venezuela of supporting terrorism, Russian prime minister Vladimir putin says: “As you know, Russia has long led the fight against international terrorism and has repeatedly been targeted by terrorists, including quite recently.  We have a collected a considerable amount of information on terrorism, the sponsors of terrorism and so on, and we do not have and have never had any information that Venezuela is supporting terrorism in any way. If it were otherwise, I would not be here today, despite all the benefits of economic cooperation. Number one.”

    He added that he was  grateful to President Chavez for the sympathy he has expressed to Russian President Medvedev in connection with the recent tragic events in the Moscow metro and Dagestan. “We will strengthen our counterterrorism cooperation, in particular by increasing communication between our security services and law-enforcement bodies,” he said.

      Putin said that he would like to apologise to the journalist from Great Britain. At the end of his press conference, Putin emphasizes  “I have not answered one part of his question. He asked whether we see Russia's cooperation with Venezuela as a bridge for building relations with other countries in the region. Up to a point, yes. If, for example, one of our companies builds a modern production facility to make railway tracks, it does more than simply create additional jobs in Venezuela. We believe it could promote our products in Venezuela's neighbouring countries, especially in countries with which Venezuela is working to become further integrated, as President Chavez just mentioned. “

April 04, 2010

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL, CHERYL MILLS, MEETS WITH CUBAN FOREIGN MINISTER

      WASHINGTON, D.C.--U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff discussed with Cuba’s foreign minister the status of an American contractor detained in Cuba since December, the State Department said. The meeting took place Wednesday in New York at the U.N.-sponsored Haiti donors conference, at which Cheryl Mills and Bruno Rodriguez talked chiefly about the efforts of reconstruction in the impoverished Caribbean nation after the Jan. 12 earthquake, though they also discussed other subjects of “mutual interest,” a State Department source said.  At his daily press conference, department spokesman P.J. Crowley said that Mills and Rodriguez addressed the status of contractor Alan Gross, whom Cuba accuses of being a spy.

    Gross, 60, is an employee of Maryland-based Development Alternatives Inc., operating in Cuba under a contract with the U.S. Agency for International Development.b He was detained while distributing laptop computers, cellular phones and other communications equipment on the communist-ruled island.bIn January, Cuban parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon said Gross had been “hired by a firm (Development Alternatives Inc.) that has contracts with the U.S. secret services” as part of Washington’s “privatization of war.” Cuban dictator  Raul Castro said in a speech in December that the suspect had been “euphemistically” described by Washington as a government “contractor.” Castro also said then that Gross was engaged in “the illegal supply of sophisticated communications equipment” to elements that Washington hopes will subvert Cuban society. The U.S. government, however, has denied that Gross was associated with its intelligence services, while DAI says he was providing communications gear to Cuba’s tiny Jewish community, not to dissidents.

     The United States and Cuba has resumed talks about migration matters and the postal service, and after the Haiti earthquake there has been some bilateral cooperation with regard to emergency aid for that country.  Clinton has previously thanked Cuba for allowing U.S. aircraft to enter Cuban air space with flights to evacuate Haiti’s homeless and bring aid to the devastated island. Crowley said that Mills and Rodriguez concentrated on evaluating ways to make sure that U.S. and Cuban reconstruction efforts are carried out in line with the priorities established by the Haiti government and discussed the restoration of its health-care system.

BISHOPS' CONFERENCE: MARXISM IS A THREAT TO RELIGION IN VENEZUELA

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA--Leaders of the Catholic Church in Venezuela on Thursday criticized President Hugo Chavez's attempt to turn the country into a Marxist State, and urged political opponents to resolve their differences peacefully.  The Venezuelan Bishops' Conference (CEV) issued a statement voicing concern about the growing anti-religious spirit spread by Marxism, AP reported.  Chavez often asks Venezuelans to adopt Marxism and socialism, but insists that it is also compatible with Christianity. Further, he has referred to Jesus as "the major socialist in history." 

     The Venezuelan ruler often has verbal clashes with Catholic Church leaders, and accuses them of siding with the opposition. Once he called the Church "a cancer." In response, several representatives of the Church have condemned what they describe as increasing authoritarianism under Chávez.  Last week, Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino said that political motivations were leading some prosecutors to file questionable criminal charges against opponents of Chávez.

     The Catholic leaders, who are highly appreciated by the majority of citizens in Venezuela, also called on all Venezuelans to work for reconciliation and peace, apparently referring to the serious divisions between allies and critics of Chávez.  The bishops also sought divine intervention to help Venezuela deal with a long drought that has caused severe power cuts.  The CEV said in their statement that Easter is an appropriate time to pray to God to send rain to the most affected areas and put an end to the prolonged drought that has affected Venezuela so seriously.

ISRAEL UNVEILS TANK-DEFENSE SYSTEM OF THE FUTURE

      HAIFA, ISRAEL--On a dusty, wind-swept field overlooking the Mediterranean, a small team of researchers is putting the final touches on what Israel says is a major game changer in tank defense: a miniature anti-missile system that detects incoming projectiles and shoots them down before they reach the armored vehicles. If successful, the "Trophy" system could radically alter the balance of power if the country goes to war again against Hezbollah guerrillas in neighboring Lebanon or Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. Its performance could also have much wider implications as American troops and their Western allies battle insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    "I think people will be watching the Israelis roll this thing out and see if they can get the hang of it," said John Pike, director of the military information Web site GlobalSecurity.org in Alexandria, Virginia. "The future of the United States army is riding on the proposition that something like this can work."  The Trophy is believed to be the first of a series of so-called "active defense" systems to become operational. Such systems aim to neutralize threats before they strike the tank. In the past, tanks have relied on increasingly thick layers of armor or "reactive" technology that weakens an incoming rocket upon impact by setting off a small explosion.

     Israeli weapons maker Rafael, the developer of the Trophy, says the system has been in the works for years, but the bitter experience of Israel's 2006 war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon gave the project an extra push. Developers say the Trophy can stop any anti-tank rocket in the formidable Hezbollah arsenal, which struck dozens of Israeli tanks and killed at least 19 Israeli tank crewmen during their monthlong war. "We can cope with any threat in our neighborhood, and more," said Gil, the Trophy's program manager at Rafael. Citing security considerations, the company would not permit publication of his last name. Israeli analyst Yiftah Shapir said it is premature to tell whether the Trophy can make a major difference, however. He said the army must cope with the high costs of the system and determine exactly how it will be used. "When everyone knows that it works properly, it will change the battlefield," he said. Israeli media have said the cost is about $200,000 per tank. Rafael refused to divulge the price of the system, saying only that it's a "small fraction" of the cost of a tank.

April 03, 2010

US MOCKS VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ SPACE PLANS

      WASHINGTON, D.C.--The Obama administration on Friday dismissed Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez's suggestion that his country wants to set up a space program with Russian help.

     The State Department said that Venezuela and Russia are free to cooperate in any area they want but pointed out that the populist Chavez's government is dealing with potentially more pressing matters for its citizens than "space travel." "We would note that the government of Venezuela was largely closed this week due to energy shortages," spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters. "To the extent that Venezuela is going to expend resources on behalf of its people, perhaps the focus should be more terrestrial than extraterrestrial."

     Crowley made the quip in response to a question about a visit to Venezuela this week by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Ahead of Putin's arrival, Chavez announced that officials from the two countries would discuss the possibility of setting up a "satellite launcher and a factory." Chavez is a frequent critic of U.S. policies, which he says are aimed at dominating the Americas, and frequently uses harsh rhetoric to castigate Washington.

PERU CRITICIZES NEW LATIN AMERICAN BLOC

      LIMA, PERU--Nobody knows what does the new forum created by Latin American and the Caribbean countries consist of, said disapprovingly Peruvian Minister of Foreign Affairs José García Belaúnde, who ruled out the possibility that the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States might replace the Organization of American States (OAS).  "I do not know how it will work. I have no idea of what we did in Cancun," Belaúnde said during a debate at Inter-American Dialogue, a think tank based in Washington. 

     "Nobody knows what will be the mission of the forum; because we do not have a common vision," the Foreign Minister admitted. García identified a "sort of low-intensity Cold War in Latin America" due to the confrontation "between two models of development which sometimes exclude each other."  García added that in the Rio Group meeting held in February in the Mexican resort of Cancun, where the countries of the region created the new forum that seek to exclude explicitly the United States, "there were no concrete agreements."  The new forum, where "we were more disunited than ever," "cannot replace the OAS," according to the Peruvian diplomat.

     García said that talks between Washington and Latin America would have to take place between groups of countries and not between the regional bloc and the US, since the Latin American and Caribbean countries "have just a few things in common."  He regretted that Latin America has never "had a forum that can settle our conflicts and intraregional disputes" and rather it has proposed "forums versus third-countries."  García accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez of "been irresponsible," for having "demonized trade integration" while prioritizing politics. The Peruvian Minister said that this has adversely affected the progress of regional forums.

RELATIVES REPORT DETENTION OF EIGHT COLOMBIANS FOR SPYING IN VENEZUELA

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA-Eight Colombians who live and work in the Venezuelan city of Barinitas, southwestern Barinas state, were arrested by Venezuelan authorities, who accuse them of spying, reported their families according to an article published in Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.

    According to the report, Luis Cossio and Santiago Giraldo, who have been working in the last two years in a family-run ice cream factory, were detained at a customs checkpoint and when they were searched the Venezuelan authorities found a camera where there was a picture of a telecommunication antenna. The incident occurred on March 23. Two days later, six other Colombians were arrested after a raid in the house of the two detainees and in the ice cream factory. Among the arrested were Elva Giraldo, the wife of Cossio, who is also a Canadian citizen, said Hélida Giraldo (Elva's sister) in the city of Medellín, where she lives.

     When Venezuelan National Guard troops raided the house, they found a card showing that Elva worked in a medical center of the Fourth Brigade of the Colombian Army in Medellín, a position she held until 2005, a year before she moved to Venezuela, said Elva's sister. According to El Tiempo, the Venezuelan authorities found that Cossio served in the Colombian army as captain. Cossio had also worked in a medical center of the Army about eight years ago.  Luis Cossio and Santiago Giraldo were taken to a military garrison in Caracas, while the other six Colombians are still detained in Barinitas, the Colombian newspaper reported.

April 02, 2010

ANOTHER SETBACK FOR MORATINOS' POLICY OF APPEASEMENT TOWARDS CUBA'S DICTATOR RAUL CASTRO

      MADRID, SPAIN--Another setback for Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos’  policy of appeasement towards  Cuban  ditator RAUL CASTRO. A ministerial-level summit between the European Union and Cuba originally set for next week has been postponed, not cancelled, Spanish officials said on Wednesday. No firm date has been established, but the talks are likely to be held in late April, those officials said. Spain’s deputy minister, Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, who traveled to U.N. headquarters for a conference on aid to earthquake-stricken Haiti, told a press conference the summit was pushed back for “scheduling reasons.” She ruled out any connection between the postponement and the ongoing hunger strike by Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas, who declined an offer from Madrid to be flown to Spain for medical treatment. Spain will continue to work to make “human rights in Cuba a reality as soon as possible,” Fernandez de la Vega said.

     The EU was to be represented at the April 6 meeting by Moratinos, whose country currently holds the bloc’s rotating presidency. Moratinos and a delegation led by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez were supposed to discuss the issues of human rights and political prisoners on the communist-ruled island, Spanish diplomats said. EU-Cuba ties have been under strain since the Feb. 23 death of Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo after an 85-day hunger strike. The European Parliament passed a resolution deploring Zapata’s death and demanding that Cuba’s communist government free all political prisoners. But President Raul Castro’s government says there are no political prisoners on the island and dismisses most of the internal opposition as “mercenaries” in the service of the United States. Dissidents put the number of political detainees at roughly 200. About a quarter of that group, including the late Orlando Zapata, have been designated by Amnesty International as prisoners of conscience.

     Madrid is hoping to win some gestures from Havana on the issue of human rights so Spain can convince its EU partners to change the bloc’s so-called Common Position on Cuba. That position, established in 1996 on the initiative of then-Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, links dialogue with Cuban authorities to moves on their part in favor of a democratic opening. Spain’s current Socialist government says Common Position should be replaced by a Havana-Brussels accord that commits Cuba to respecting human rights and releasing political prisoners.

DEFECTION OF IRANIAN NUCLEAR SCIENTIST SHARAM AMIRI 'A CIA COUP' 

      WASHINGTON, D.C.--An Iranian nuclear scientist who disappeared while on pilgrimage to Mecca last year has defected to the United States and is living and working there for the CIA, it was reported yesterday.  Revelations about Shahram Amiri’s defection came as the US and five other world powers, including China, were said to have reached agreement on drawing up new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme in the next few days.  The report on ABC News described the defection as “an intelligence coup,” and claimed that information gleaned from debriefing Dr Amiri had added detail and confirmation to existing CIA intelligence assessments about the Iranian nuclear programme. It also increased the growing international pressure on Tehran.

    Dr Amiri, a nuclear scientist at Tehran’s Malek Ashtar University, went missing in June last year three days after arriving in Saudi Arabia for the annual haj. Details of his disappearance emerged months later when Iran accused the US of abducting him and lodged a formal protest against Washington with the United Nations.  Malek Ashtar University has been identified by the UN as a nuclear research facility overseen by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the guardians of its clandestine nuclear weapons programme.  Documents from within the programme obtained by The Times last year detailed the outsourcing of nuclear work to trusted university departments.  ABC reported that Dr Amiri’s defection was pat of a CIA operation to woo Iranian nuclear scientists with family contacts in the US. The CIA was said to have approached him through an intermediary in Iran who made the offer of resettlement in the US. A CIA spokesman refused to comment on the report.  

     The most senior Iranian believed to have defected is Ali Reza Asghari, a former Revolutionary Guard brigadier general and Deputy Defence Minister, who vanished on a trip to Turkey in 2007. His name also appeared with Dr Amiri’s on a list of Iranians allegedly kidnapped by the US submitted by Tehran to the UN.  The timing of Dr Amiri’s disappearance raised speculation that he provided the final jigsaw pieces required to confirm the clandestine construction of a second uranium enrichment plant, Fordow, near the holy city of Qom. Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about Fordow in September, days before Washington publicly revealed it.  Western intelligence sources said that Tehran only acted because it realised the secrecy surrounding Fordow had been compromised.

MONSIGNOR ROBERTO LUCKERT CALLS FOR RECONCILIATION IN VENEZUELA  

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA--Monsignor Roberto Luckert, Archbishop of Coro, northwestern Falcón state, on Wednesday called for reconciliation in Venezuela, on the occasion of Easter. He noted that this is a good time for the government to reflect about the situation facing people whom he described as persecuted and political prisoners.

    "The Church has called and will continue to call for reconciliation until somebody hears. I think this is our role, our obligation and our duty, until both rulers and Venezuelans understand that the only language we have to use at this time is reconciliation and unity. "  In his view, Venezuelans should not continue to live in confrontation, as this further deteriorates political and social climate in Venezuela.

    Monsignor Luckert described as political persecution the recent detention of Guillermo Zuloaga, the president of private TV channel Globovisión, and Oswaldo Álvarez Paz, a former governor of Zulia state and opposition leader.  "I think they (Zuloaga and Álvarez Paz) are certainly political prisoners. They are persecuted because they voiced their opinions. I believe this is a terrible political mistake of the government," he added.  "The central message of the Holy Week is reconciliation. The Lord Jesus came to die for all, for sinners, and to give salvation to all with his passion, death and resurrection."  In Luckert's view, Venezuelans have been faced with tension, violence and division for the last 11 years. "That is certainly not Christian. We are a Christian country, and I think it is time to call upon people -and here President Hugo Chávez should play a major role- to achieve reconciliation and peace."

April 01, 2010

OAS SECRETARY GENERAL ASKS CUBAN DICTATOR RAUL CASTRO TO FREE AILING POLITICAL PRISONERS

      SANTIAGO DE CHILE, CHILE--The secretary-general of the Organization of American States on Tuesday asked the Cuban dictator Raúl Castro to release 265 political prisoners whose fate has become an international cause celebre. “I formally ask the Cuban authorities to let the people who are sick leave (prison) and thereby provide a humanitarian solution to the crisis,” Jose Miguel Insulza said after meeting in Santiago with Chilean President Sebastian Piñera. Insulza said that he made his request “personally,” given that the OAS-sponsored Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has issued a statement about prisoners of conscience in Cuba.

    “I make the request in all humility that, please, you resolve this humanitarian situation because it has become very dramatic and that is not in anyone’s interests,” the former Chilean Cabinet minister said. Insulza expressed his concern over the situation of Guillermo Fariñas, who has been on a hunger strike for more than a month calling on Castro to release 26 imprisoned opposition members who are sick. He said that the case is getting to a “really crucial point,” and he asked Havana for “a gesture” so that Fariñas’ death could be avoided.

    “What is not in your interest, of course, is for this person to die like the previous one,” said Insulza, alluding to political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who died Feb. 23 after an 85-day fast. “Making a gesture of this type does not weaken anyone, it increases one’s stature to prevent people from dying. I hope that they listen to us and do many things in many similar areas because the situation is serious,” the OAS chief said. “People musn’t keep dying one by one without anything happening,” said Insulza, re-elected last week to a second five-year term as leader of the hemispheric body.

VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ SEALS ARMS-FOR-OIL AGREEMENT WITH 'EUROPE'S LAST DICTATOR'

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA--Since 1992, when America cut off the sale of arms and spare parts to Venezuela, DICTATOR Hugo Chavez has been cobbling together a military machine made up mainly of weapons from Russia and other non-Western suppliers. Last week, in an oil-for-arms deal with “Europe’s last dictator,” Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, Chavez was able to add a key element to his growing arsenal: advanced ground-to-air radar. While most experts say the deal itself doesn’t change the balance of arms in the region, they do concede that it represents a strengthening of Chavez’s military might. Moreover, they say the deal also cements an alliance between the respective bad boys of their continents and allows both some wiggle room in their relations with nearby dominant powers.

     For Chavez, that would be the United States, which has been weaning itself from Venezuelan oil. For Lukashenko, it is Russia, which has maintained a stranglehold over his nation’s energy supplies. Chavez's new radar system, called the Tor M-1 Missile Defense System, can detect aircraft and cruise missiles and can operate in “an environment of intense jamming,” according to public military profiles of the system. “It is something that has to be contended with,” said John Pike, director of Global Security.org, who said the military is the basis of Chavez’s authority and legitimacy. “To him a strong military equals a strong country,” he said, “and what is good for the military is good for the country” -- even if the actions sometimes seem senseless. “Sometimes he makes these moves irrationally, just to get attention,” Pike said.

    But Anna Gilmore, a military analyst with Jane’s Defense weekly, said the deal was done not only to upgrade Chavez’s military but to cement a relationship with Belarus as part of Venezuela's strategy to widen relations and commercial dealings with countries outside the Americas. “The new oil market takes up some of the slack American cutbacks have caused,” she said. The deal also aided both countries in a time of economic recession, she said. “Venezuela, which has no currency reserves left, gets to buy the radar with oil instead of hard currency. And Belarus gets 80,000 barrels of oil a month without having to dip into its currency reserves.” Asked if possessing a mix of arms from many different sources might cause Chavez problems, she said “the deal compliments the military equipment he has procured so far and strengthens his arsenal.”

ecuador's rafael correa FOLLOWS THE EXAMPLE OF HIS TEACHER, DICTATOR CHAVEZ, AND PERSECUTES HIS critics

      QUITO, ECUADOR--A journalist facing a 3-year prison sentence for defamation accused Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa on Tuesday of orchestrating his prosecution as a warning that critics of the government will be severely punished. Emilio Palacio, an editorial writer for the newspaper El Universo, claimed Correa was behind a judge's decision last week to convict him of breaking the law by insulting the head of the Ecuador's state-run National Financial Corp. "He's ordering them to destroy me," Palacio told The Associated Press. He argued Correa is using the case as an example of what can happen to journalists who criticize the government. "That's the message that he wants to send out."

     Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based group that campaigns for press freedoms, has condemned Palacio's sentence, saying it "seems disproportionate and inopportune." The Inter American Press Association has expressed concerns that Correa wants to muzzle critical media in much the same way as President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Correa vehemently disputes that he aims to silence his critics. Palacio denied he did anything illegal in writing an editorial that poked fun at agency head Camilo Saman for supposedly sending bodyguards to the newspaper to complain about a news story. While a group of people did show up objecting to the article, Saman's guards were not among them.

    Saman's lawyer, Gutemberg Vera, denied his client's accusations against Palacio were aimed at intimidating the media. "It's not against freedom of expression," Vera told the Ecuavisa television channel. He said Saman felt "insulted and offended" by Palacio's editorial last August. Saman, a close ally of Correa, had urged a maximum 6-year sentence for Palacio, saying the journalist has repeatedly slandered him. Palacio has appealed his conviction and is not in jail. Hernan Reyes, a professor at Ecuador's Universidad Andina, said both Correa and his critics are becoming increasingly aggressive amid tensions between the government and the nation's independent media. "There's an excessively hostile discourse from the president ... and there are abuses and lack of professionalism among journalists," Reyes said. "Many media outlets have turned into political actors."