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LATEST NEWS OF NOVEMBER 2010 |
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cuba to release last of black spring
POLITICAL PRISONERS, cardinal
jaimeortega says in spain
madrid,
spain--Cuba
will release the final batch of
dissidents jailed in the so-called Black
Spring of 2003, Cuban Cardinal
Jaime Ortega said Monday during a visit
to Spain. Forty of the 52 dissidents
who had remained in prison from the
initial group of 75 jailed in the Black
Spring have arrived in Spain so far,
along with other released Cuban
prisoners. One of the 52 stayed in Cuba
after being set free.
The 11 who are still in their dungeons,
in danger and mistreated, have rejected
Spain's offer to accept them. Cardinal
Ortega said he had a 'clear promise'
that they would be released, though he
could not say when. The 11 political
prisoners still held since the “Black
Spring” crackdown of March 2003 are:
Oscar Elias Biscet,,Angel Moya, Guido
Sigler, Félix Navarro, Librado
Linares, Eduardo Fleitas. Héctor Maceda,
Pedro Argüelles, José Daniel Ferrer,
Iván Hernández Carrillo and Diosdado
González Marrero. Some of them might
choose to travel to the United States,
Ortega said.
Ortega, who has mediated in attempts to persuade Havana
to free dissidents, met with some of the
dissidents now living in Spain.
Following weeks of negotiations, the
Roman Catholic Church and the Cuban
government made a deal in early July,
for the release of the 52 dissidents
jailed in the Black Spring. A total of
75 dissidents were then handed prison
terms of up to 28 years on charges such
as being 'mercenaries' in the service of
the United States. |
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secretary of state hillary clinton: u.s.
'deeply regrets' wikileaks disclosures
washington,
d.c.--Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton
condemned the release of more than
250,000 classified State Department
documents on Monday, saying the U.S. was
taking aggressive steps to hold
responsible those who "stole" the
information. In her first public
comments since the weekend release of
the classified State Department cables,
Clinton said online whistleblower
Wikileaks acted illegally in posting the
material. She said the Obama
administration was "aggressively
pursuing" those responsible for the
leak.
Clinton's comments come as the Obama
administration moved into damage control
mode, trying to contain fallout from
unflattering assessments of world
leaders and revelations about backstage
U.S. diplomacy. She said the document
leaks "tear at the fabric" of
responsible government and that the U.S.
"deeply regrets" the disclosures. While
maintaining that the leaks erode trust
between nations, Clinton also said she
was "confident" that U.S. partnerships
would withstand the challenges posed by
the latest revelations.
The publication of the secret cables on Sunday
amplified widespread global alarm about
Iran's nuclear ambitions and unveiled
occasional U.S. pressure tactics aimed
at hot spots in Afghanistan, Pakistan
and North Korea. The leaks also
disclosed bluntly candid impressions
from both diplomats and other world
leaders about America's allies and foes
. According to the vast cache of
diplomatic cables, Saudi Arabia's King
Abdullah has repeatedly urged the United
States to attack Iran's nuclear program
and China directed cyber attacks on the
United States. Bristling over the
unauthorized release, President Barack
Obama on Monday ordered a
government-wide review of how agencies
safeguard sensitive information. |
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seoul waRNs: 'dear
price' if north korea attacks again
seoul,
south korea--
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak
warned Monday that North Korea will face
severe consequences if it launches
another military attack across its
southern border. "If the North commits
any additional provocations against the
South, we will make sure that it pays a
dear price without fail," he said in a
nationally televised address. "We are
aware of the historic lesson that a
disgraceful peace achieved through
intimidation only brings about greater
harm in the end." South Korea has
reportedly deployed more long-range
artillery and rocket launchers on
Yeonpyeong Island, a border island
struck by a North Korean shelling last
week, according to military officials.
The officials' remarks were reported
Monday by the Yonhap news agency in
Seoul.
The report comes as joint military
exercises between South Korea and the
United States continue in the Yellow Sea
and tensions with North Korea continue
to brew. Lee said Monday that South
Korea "cannot remain patient" in the
face of continued hostility from
Pyongyang. "Fellow citizens, at this
point, actions are more important than
words," Lee said in a televised address.
"Please have trust in the government and
the military and support us." The
divided peninsula -- tense at the best
of times -- has been near the boiling
point since Tuesday, when four people
died in a North Korean artillery barrage
that targeted Yeonpyeong Island. Lee
called the attack an "inhuman crime"
that followed decades of previous
attacks from North Korea, including the
sinking of the South Korean warship
Cheonan in March.
North Korea has consistently denied
responsibility for the sinking of the
Cheonan, which killed 46 South Korean
sailors. "It is difficult at this point
to expect North Korea to abandon its
nuclear weapons or military
adventurism," Lee said. "We are now
clearly aware that we cannot stay
patient and be generous. That will only
give rise to bigger provocations."
Lee's address came a day after South
Korean and U.S. forces started joint
military exercises Sunday, prompting a
furious response from North Korea. The
aircraft carrier USS George Washington
joined South Korea's forces near the
coasts of China and North Korea for the
four-day drill, which the North called
"no more than an attempt to find a
pretext for aggression and ignite a war
at any cost," according to the official
Korean Central News Agency. |
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venezuelan dictator hugo chavez promotes
POLEMIC general criticized by opposition
caracas,
venezuela--venezuelan
dictator
Hugo Chavez on Saturday promoted
a general who sparked controversy by
suggesting the military would not accept
an electoral return to power by
government opponents. Chavez granted
Gen. Henry Rangel Silva the rank of
general-in-chief, calling him a "humble
and great soldier" and saying he had
been unfairly criticized by Venezuela's
political opposition and the U.S.
government. In a recent interview, the
Venezuelan newspaper Ultimas Noticias
quoted Rangel as saying neither the
military nor the public would accept an
opposition victory in the country's 2012
presidential election. The general also
told the newspaper that officers are
loyal to Chavez's socialist political
project.
Rangel's comments unleashed criticism
from opponents, who object to Chavez's
efforts to inject politics into the
military - including the salute that the
president repeated with gusto Saturday
to troops who stood at the outdoor
ceremony: "Socialist fatherland or
death!" Rangel was also singled out in
2008 by the U.S. Treasury Department,
which accused him and two other members
of Chavez's inner circle of helping
leftist Colombian rebels by supplying
arms and aiding drug trafficking
operations. Chavez dismissed those
accusations as politically motivated.
Addressing Rangel, Chavez said his opponents "get
furious when you go out and say... that
the armed forces are married with this
national project, married forever."
Chavez added: "Let them keep hating ...
general-in-chief." Rangel, the
military's strategic operational
commander, defended his comments in a
speech, saying soldiers have an
obligation to "Bolivarian military
thought" - a reference to Chavez's
Bolivarian Revolution movement, named
after independence hero Simon Bolivar.
Diego Arria, a prominent Chavez
opponent, condemned Rangel's promotion
and said on Twitter that Chavez is
sending a "shameful message." |
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brazilian poliCE OCCUPY RIO SLUM AND
START HUNT FOR TRAFFICKERS
RIO
DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL--Police
and troops occupied a Rio de Janeiro
slum on Sunday and were
conducting a house-to-house search for
drug traffickers behind a crime wave in
the beachside city last week that killed
at least 46. The security forces have
been in pursuit of the gangs entrenched
in the city's slums after they burned
cars and buses last week, and view it as
part of a crack down on crime necessary
as Rio prepares to host the 2016 Olympic
Games. Police seized weapons and large
quantities of drugs as they swept
through the deserted streets of the
Alemao slum in search of traffickers.
The gangs initially fired on police as
they advanced before hiding as the armed
forces fanned out. "All houses will be
inspected ... Residents know we came to
liberate them and bring peace to this
region," Rio's chief of the military
police, Sergio Duarte, said. Among the
traffickers being hunted in Alemao were
some who had fled from the Vila Cruzeiro
slum after police invaded last week and
have occupied it since. At least 46
people, most of them suspected
traffickers, were killed in gun battles
to take control there. The occupation of
the two slums could mark a turning point
in the years-old battle between the
authorities and the city's drug lords.
Police regularly invade Rio's
crime-infested favelas in search of
traffickers but the large number of
troops involved in these operations and
their occupation of the zones was
unusual.
Armored trucks and tanks moved into the Alemao hillside
slum, or favela, around 0800 (1000 GMT)
as helicopters hovered overhead and
police and troops took up strategic
positions. Duarte said the security
forces would remain on their guard as
they began the search of thousands of
ramshackle brick homes, despite having
occupied the favela without clashes.
Large numbers of poor live in Rio's
sprawling hillside favelas, making it
harder for police to hunt down the
gangs. Many innocent slum-dwellers have
been killed over the years in the
crossfire of gun battles between gangs
and police. The latest wave of violence
has cast some doubts over whether the
city is safe enough to host the 2014
soccer World Cup and the 2016 Olympics,
even though sports authorities have said
they trust the government's security
measures. |
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DICTATOR CHAVEZ'S
IMAGES DECORATE UNFINISHED VENEZUELAN
PUBLIC WORKS
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--THE
IMAGE OF THE DICTATOR is in schools,
freeways, public offices, unfinished
constructions, his loyal followers'
windows, along the banks of river Guaire;
he is everywhere, even in Colonia Tovar
village. The image of dictator Hugo
Chávez is omnipresent in the capital
city. Judging by the billboards which
decorate the city, thanks to him, the
Caracas subway included the wagons of
dignity; still more, thanks to Chávez
there is a projected Line 5 or tram in
Petare, a low-income barrio eastern
Caracas, no matter the small progress
made by such infrastructure works.
But now, as set forth in decree 7,836,
published in the Official Gazette No.
39,556, the name, image and figure of
the President of the Republic may be
used only with his prior consent.
Sociologist Amalio Belmonte does think
that Venezuela is a country
characterized by presidential modesty.
Anyhow, the fight for the first place in
this presidential contest for the
personality cult is led, according to
Belmonte, by Antonio Guzmán Blanco and
the current president.
"Chávez's speech has been always based on himself. We do not
know the real reason for taking such a
measure to limit the use of his image;
it is clear though that he is not
interested in being associated to
government inefficacy, to all those
works that started and are halfway," the
sociologist reasoned. Sure enough, the
president's name decorates a still
polluted river Guaire, canalization of a
ravine in Los Llanos going nowhere, or a
market of street vendors in downtown
Caracas which was not completed, among
others. Such actions are not taken just
like that, sociologist Antonio Cova
said. What he cannot understand is how
such a decision was made in a context
which speaks of and shows the government
radicalization. "Something is happening
and we do not know what is." |
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CUBA APPROVED EXIT VISA FOR ORLANDO
ZAPATA'S MOTHER AND HER FAMILY AFTER HIS
REMAINS ARE CREMATED
HAVANA,
CUBA--Reina
Luisa Tamayo, whose son Orlando Zapata
Tamayo starved himself to death in
prison, said Friday that the
Cuban government has authorized her to
exhume his remains, cremate them and
bring them to the United States, where
she can stay permanently. In a phone
call Tamayo said she was visited by Dr.
Jorge González Pérez, who, on behalf of
the Health Ministry, told her she and
her family could leave Cuba for Miami
right after the cremation takes place in
Havana. Tamayo, 62, lives in the city of
Banes, in the eastern province of
Holguín. Interviewed by phone by the
Spanish daily ABC, she said that the
cremation and departure might occur next
Monday and that 15 of her relatives will
accompany her to the U.S.
Orlando Zapata, 42, died Feb. 23 after a
long hunger strike he staged to protest
conditions at the prison in Camagüey
province where he was serving a sentence
for public disorder, contempt and
disobedience. Cuban dictatorship has
agreed to turnover the remains of the
martyred prisoner of conscience to his
mother on the condition that she and
her family immediately leave the island.
Facing harassment, beatings, and
oppression from government led mobs
camped outside her house on a daily
basis, the 62-year-old Reina Luisa
Tamayo has been left with no other
choice but to leave the island or risk
her own murder or the murder of another
one of her children. "I don't want to
leave Cuba," she said, "but I have to go
where my children go because I do not
want to suffer another loss."
After the assassination of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, the
Cuban dictatorship has found itself with
a public relations nightmare. It has
tried to relieve the pressure by
deporting prisoners of conscience into
forced exile, a ruse developed by the
regime with the help of the Spanish
government and the Catholic Church. But
the memory of Zapata Tamayo and his
message of liberty and freedom has
become stronger since his murder, and
now the regime is forced to exile his
remains. "They are doing this because
the Cuban government is in a hurry to
get us out of the country because of
everything my son symbolizes," Reina
Luisa said in an interview. So it has
come to this in Cuba, where even the
dead must be banished and exiled in
order for the regime to remain in power.
The fear the Castro dictatorship has of
the memory of Orlando Zapata Tamayo
speaks not only to the power of the
martyred hero's message, but also to the
weakness of their murderous and corrupt
regime. |
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CHINA PROTESTS US-SOUTH KOREA MILITARY
EXERCISES
SEOUL,
SOUTH KOREA-As
TODAYS’s US-South Korea military
exercises BEGIN, China lodged its
first official protest yesterday—but
left the door open for the exercises to
continue. Beijing is balancing its
support of North Korea with its fears,
expressed only privately, that the
country is going too far, the Wall
Street Journal reports. Thus, China’s
statement suggests that it will only
take further action if the exercises
infringe on China’s “exclusive economic
zone.” Other parts of the Yellow Sea
fall outside the zone and near South
Korea.
China’s stance has softened since July,
when officials opposed military
exercises anywhere in the Yellow Sea.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton added
her voice to the throng asking China to
intervene with North Korea and send a
message that its “behavior is
unacceptable,” says a spokesperson.
Meanwhile, North Korea blamed South
Korea for the civilian deaths that
occurred in Tuesday’s attacks. The state
news agency accused South Korea of
“creating a 'human shield' by deploying
civilians around artillery positions,”
the AP reports.
US-South Korea war games got under
way in the Sea of Japan today as a
flotilla of 20 US and South Korean ships
conducted the first of four days of
military exercises as North Korea
threatened nuclear deterrence. The
aircraft carrier USS George Washington
departs Busan, South Korea on Sunday.
The nuclear-powered U.S. supercarrier
led an armada of warships in exercises
off the Korean peninsula Sunday that
North Korea has vowed to physically
block and says could escalate into
nuclear war. |
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MEXICAN AND
COLOMBIAN DRUG TRAFFICKERS FREELY
OPERATE IN VENEZUELA
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--A
UN report (2010) on world drug traffic,
where an analysis is made of the problem
at the end of the first decade of the
21st century, notes that from Venezuela
left most of the drug shipments seized
in European international waters. In the
report, released in the first half of
this year, it is stated that 54 percent
of the drug shipments interdicted in
European seas comes from Venezuela. This
means that Venezuela has become a
secure bridge of drug traffic in South
America. It is a serious situation and
requires stronger institutions, because
Plan Colombia and the Mexican project on
security move transnational crime to
other countries with weaker institutions
and perhaps Venezuela, for this reason
and because of its geographical
location, is an ideal site for drug
traffic.
Venezuela has almost certainly been
reached already by international drug
traffic. This can be checked on the
website of the ONA (Venezuela's National
Counternarcotics Office), where a large
amount of Mexicans and Colombians have
been deported over the past five years
for crimes related to drug traffic or
they are serving a sentence in the
country for the same reason. They are in
Venezuela and operate in Venezuela, as
shown by those detainees and drug
seizures. It is also known that
detentions and drug seizures are a tiny
percentage relative to the number of
people and the amount of drugs which go
undetected.
According to the international standards, high-tech
countries, such as the United States,
are seizing 30 percent of the drugs
running throughout their territory. That
is with sound, efficient and streamlined
institutions. The drugs seized by
Venezuelans, in a very conservative
estimate, do not exceed 20 percent.
Lately, it has been noted increasing
seizures and this shows, in turn, that
there is a larger amount of drugs going
around national territory. Based on
that, the activity is obviously moving
to Venezuela, where the fight is
slacker. Venezuela is replacing
Colombia as the most violent country in
the Western Hemisphere. In this regard,
it has already displaced Colombia and
Mexico. As for drug traffic, according
to the UN (United Nations), Venezuela
is the favorite country for drug
traffic and worldwide distribution.
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DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ ACCUSED THE US OF
HARBORING FUGITIVE TV EXECUTIVE
GUILLERMO ZULOAGA
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--Venezuelan
dictator Hugo Chavez accused the
United States on Wednesday of harboring
a fugitive opposition leader, saying the
CIA let him enter U.S. territory to help
bolster a plan for removing Venezuela's
leader. "The United States is giving
protection to a criminal," Chavez said
during a televised address, talking
about television station owner Guillermo
Zuloaga. "This man is saying whatever
the CIA wants him to say."
Chavez, who describes himself as a
socialist and is a longtime critic of
U.S. influence in Latin America, claims
Zuloaga is involved in a plot to
assassinate him. The president claimed
last week, without offering any details,
that he has intelligence that some of
his opponents have offered $100 million
for his assassination. Zuloaga "is one
of them," he charged. Zuloaga, the
president and majority owner of the
opposition-aligned Globovision TV
channel, has denied offering money for
Chavez's assassination. Chavez's
comments came after Zuloaga criticized
the president's order for the government
to pursue legal measures against
Globovision. "You know that any legal
action that is tried against Globovision
will be an attack for the company and
its workers," he said in remarks
broadcast by the station Monday.
Zuloaga, who has recently been in the United States,
fled Venezuela in June after a court
ordered him jailed on charges of usury
and conspiracy. He says he does not
intend to return to face the charges
because he wouldn't receive a fair trial
because Chavez holds sway over
Venezuela's justice system. Chavez has
waged a long-running battle with
Globovision and has threatened the news
channel before. Globovision has been the
only opposition channel on the air in
Venezuela since another one, RCTV, was
forced off cable and satellite TV last
January. RCTV had been booted off the
open airwaves in 2007. |
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A TOTAL OF 234 COMPANIES SEIZED SO FAR
THIS YEAR BY THE VENEZUELAN DICTATOR
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--
Alarms are ringing loud in the business
sector. According to the
Venezuelan Confederation of Industries (Conindustria),
234 companies have been expropriated so
far this year. "The private sector is
seriously deteriorated, public policies
implemented in the last few years have
been steadily destroying jobs," said
Carlos Larrazábal, president of
Conindustria. The data do not include
government's seizures in the
agricultural sector. However, these
figures confirm the intensification of
the expropriation policy in the past two
years. According to estimates released
by Conindustria, the State took over 56
companies between 2002 and 2008; in 2009
it seized 131 firms, and expropriations
have doubled in 2010.
In this sense, Larrazábal said that the
radicalization of economic policies, as
announced by dictator Hugo Chávez, will
worsen the economy. "The radicalization
of the process, as some have threatened,
is going to complicate the investment
climate and at the end of the day
Venezuelans will continue to pay the
consequences." Fernando Morgado, the
President of the Venezuelan Council of
Trade and Services (Consecomercio)
agreed with Larrazábal and said that
there are no signs of recovery, in the
short term. "Nothing suggests that
things will improve. We are totally
convinced that uncertainty will continue
to limit investments," Morgado said in
the framework of the World Trade Day,
organized by Consecomercio.
The businessman added that
Venezuela's economy since 1999 to date
can be described as a "lost decade."
Millions of acres have been "unduly
seized"; the manufacturing sector has
"fallen on hard times" and basic
industries have been brought to a
"standstill." These aspects have shaped
a "hopeless" outlook. The business
leader urged the authorities to take
steps to reverse the economic downturn,
such as easing controls, encouraging
production, and the elimination of
exchange controls, as well as respect
for private property. "The challenge is
to defend economic freedoms... we should
be ready for the worst," Morgado said.
Noel Álvarez, the president of the
Federation of Trade and Industry
Chambers (Fedecámaras), said that the
government is "harassing" the business
sector and stated that the Constitution
is violated whenever the government
expropriates a company. |
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regulation of ngos
SHOULD BE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE
CONSTITUTION AND HUMAN RIGHTS AGREEMENTS
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--The
decision of the National Assembly
to dust off the International
Cooperation Bill in reply to President
Hugo Chávez's appeal "to prevent the
Yankee's financing" of political parties
and non governmental organizations has
raised the alarm. NGOs cautioned
lawmakers that any regulation on the
right to partnership should be in
accordance with the "limits set both in
the Constitution and international legal
instruments on human rights" executed by
Venezuela.
In a communiqué, the pool of human
rights advocates under Foro por la Vida
(Forum for Life) and social development
under Sinergia (Synergy) said that the
National Assembly "is not free to set
any limit or restriction" to the
potential organization of citizens to
monitor the status of fundamental rights
and civil liberties or to solve any
problem. "Furtherance and protection of
human rights are a constitutional right
and duty of every person," they
recalled, as set forth in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights Advocates.
In addition, article 13 of the
Declaration sets as a right the
possibility of receiving foreign funds,
provided that such funds will be used
for peaceful purposes.
The spokespersons regretted the government attempts at
raising "doubts and suspicions" about
the NGOs' work. "It is not by taking the
wrong way to establish a system of
unacceptable restrictions in a
democratic society how the Venezuelan
State will manage to encourage and
ensure the society's right to
participation. More and better democracy
will be feasible only by allowing
expression, organization and social
action." Government authorities have
charged human rights advocates with
conspiracy. For their part, domestic
NGOs have claimed to be victim of
harassment and threats. Just last year,
three human rights advocates were
killed. Foro por la Vida and Synergy
also requested the lawmakers who
encouraged the inclusion in the
Constitution of the so-called citizen's
initiated audit to enforce it. Finally,
the claimed that the NGOs operating in
Venezuela abide by laws; they are
properly recorded at Notary Public
Offices, pay taxes and their accounts
are regularly reviewed by the tax
authority, among others. |
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GLOBOVISION PRESIDENT, GUILLERMO ZULOAGA,
REQUESTS U.S. POLITICAL ASYLUM
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--Guillermo
Zuloaga, principal owner of
Venezuela's opposition television
network Globovision, said he has
requested political asylum in the U.S,
according to an interview broadcast on
CNN en Espanol. Zuloaga, who is wanted
in Venezuela on usury charges, said the
process for requesting asylum was
nearing conclusion. Zuloaga said that he
is a victim of "political persecution"
and confirmed on Wednesday that he
requested political asylum in the United
States.
Zuloaga said the asylum process was
nearing conclusion. "I would not like to
be in this situation; I would like to be
in Venezuela, but there is an
authoritarian government (in my country)
that manipulates judicial bodies to
create fear and intimidate," Zuloaga
said. He said he has asked for
political asylum in the United States
because he “cannot go back to
Venezuela,” where he was briefly
detained in March for criticizing the
government of dictator Hugo Chávez. Zuloaga
emphasized, “For the time being I am
not returning to Venezuela. US
government officials, as well as
attorneys, have recommended that I
request political asylum.”
In June, the government ordered Zuloaga’s arrest on charges
that he and his son hoarded automobiles,
allegations he denies. Last week,
Zuloaga left Venezuela and went to
Washington where he met with officials
of the Organization of American States
to explain his case and the situation of
freedom of the press in Venezuela. As a
result, Chavez demanded that authorities
including the attorney general and the
Supreme Court take action in a pending
criminal case against Zuloaga.
"Something must be done," Chavez said on
state television. If Zuloaga does not
return to face justice, Chavez said,
"something must be done in relation to
this channel and the properties this man
has here." "I don't care what they say
about me," Chavez said. "But how is it
there's a television channel here whose
owner is a fugitive of justice, and not
only is he a fugitive, but he also has
the nerve to go ... rail against his
country, against this government,
against this president?" |
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STATEMENT FROM GLOBOVISION WORKERS
BROADCASTED TO THE VENEZUELAN PEOPLE
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--Here
we are again, the Globovision workers
said. Holding head high and
proud of what we are. Standing firms
in our values, aligned with democratic
principles and with our cameras and
microphones providing faces and voices
to the realities of a country that
placed us where we are today. It was an
unusual moment in television news
broadcasting: a worried journalist
grilling his fugitive boss about whether
Globovision's 500 staff would still be
paid after the latest crackdown in
Venezuela. Authorities in the OPEC
nation have turned up the heat on
Globovision, the last major broadcaster
to stick to its editorial stance
opposing socialist President Hugo
Chavez.
Critics say Chavez is taking the Latin
American country down an increasingly
authoritarian route, stifling dissent
and nationalizing much of the economy.
Supporters say he is the victim of
propaganda and a U.S.-led campaign of
vilification. Globovision staff have
thrown themselves into their work but
the mood in the newsroom is grim. "I am
very affected, personally very worried.
This is my only income, and my husband
also works here," said 35-year-old
economic journalist Adriana Salazar.
Globovision co-founder Nelson Mezerhane,
who ran Banco Federal until the
government takeover, is overseas. Known
for its partisan coverage, Globovision
has provided an important platform for
political opponents of Chavez, who has
substantially increased the number of
pro-government newspapers and
broadcasters since he took power 11
years ago. His supporters say he is only
countering private media companies, many
of which have been openly hostile to
him.
Zuloaga said in a phone call to the
station from an undisclosed location on
Monday he was the victim of a political
witch hunt by Chavez, who wanted to
silence his critics, and that he had no
plans to turn himself in. Chavez says he
will not tolerate illegal incitement in
the media, and has accused opponents of
waging a propaganda campaign against him
ahead of September's ballot. Workers at
Globovision, however, believe they are
the targets of a state campaign to
stifle attempts by the channel to expose
cases of official corruption and
incompetence. "We are willing to
continue working here everyday, and
harder every day," Lisber Ramos Sol, a
member of the station's board of
directors, told Reuters. "We don't
depend on the voice of one person," she
said, while adding that she was sure
Zuloaga would stay in his job. We are
united by the same principles and
values, the same vocation of liberty and
the love for this country: Venezuela,
where we want to be. |
|
south korea
defense minister resigns as his response
to north korean shelling is HARSHLY
CRITICIZED
seoul,
south korea--South
Korean defence minister, Kim Tae-Young,
today resigned amid scathing
criticism of the military response to
the North Korean artillery bombardment
in which two soldiers and two civilians
were killed. Even politicians from the
ruling party had demanded the departure
of Kim Tae-young and other officials,
angered by what they saw as a slow and
ineffective response to the shelling of
Yeonpyeong island on Tuesday. News of
the resignation came after the South
Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, ordered
the country's military to strengthen its
troop presence on islands near its
disputed maritime border with North
Korea and Pyongyang warned of
retaliation for any "reckless military
provocations".
A US aircraft carrier and other warships
were on their way to the Yellow Sea for
joint military drills with the South,
due to begin on Sunday. The shelling
increased international concerns about
the stability of the peninsula, already
heightened by last week's reports that
North Korea was operating a new uranium
enrichment facility. Seoul had promised
it would be ready to respond strongly to
further attacks following the sinking of
a warship this spring, which it blamed
on North Korea. Kim offered to stand
down following that incident, in which
46 sailors died. The presidential chief
of staff, Yim Tae-hee, told reporters
today that Lee's decision to accept the
resignation was meant to hold Kim
responsible for recent accidents
involving troops and freshen up the
troubled military.
"Let me say a word about those bastards at the Blue
House [presidential palace] who advised
the president to say the situation
should be managed to avoid a full-blown
war," Hong Sa-duk, of the ruling Grand
National party, had earlier told the
Korea Joongang Daily. "They must all be
fired for advising the president to have
such a weak response." Park Jie-won, the
floor leader of the opposition
Democratic party, accused the government
of a "belated response and lax defence
posture". Lee pledged to reinforce
troops during an emergency meeting to
assess the security and economic
implications of the clash. The
government had been planning to scale
down the military presence. "We should
not let our guard down in preparation
for another possible North Korean
provocation," he was quoted as saying by
the Yonhap news agency. The government
has also said it will redraw the rules
of engagement, which currently focus on
avoiding escalation when there is a
conflict and do not cover the
involvement of civilians. A statement
issued by the North Korean military
warned that it would carry out "strong
physical retaliations without hesitation
IF South Korean warmongers carry
out reckless military provocations". |
|
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: NORTH KOREA 'A
SERIOUS THREAT'
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--president
barack Obama told ABC News that
North Korea was "a serious and ongoing
threat that needs to be dealt with".
President Obama described South Korea as
an important ally and "a cornerstone of
US security in the Pacific region".
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama
pledged the United States would stand
"shoulder to shoulder" with South Korea
after what the White House branded a
provocative, outrageous attack by North
Korea on its neighbor. "South Korea is
our ally. It has been since the Korean
war," Obama said in his first comments
about the North Korean shelling of a
South Korean island early Tuesday.
The president, speaking to ABC News,
would not speculate when asked about
military options. He said: "We
strongly affirm our commitment to defend
South Korea as part of that alliance.
"We want to make sure all the parties in
the region recognise that this is a
serious and ongoing threat that needs to
be dealt with." He called on North
Korea's ally China to communicate to
Pyongyang "that there are a set of
international rules they need to abide
by". In a telephone conversation, Mr
Obama and South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak agreed to hold combined
military exercises in the days ahead to
underscore the strength of their
alliance, the White House said in a
statement. The US has 28,000 troops
stationed in the South.
South Korea's military had been
carrying out an exercise near Yeonpyeong,
but it denies opening hostilities by
firing towards the North. Two South
Korean marines died when dozens of
artillery shells landed on the island -
most of them hitting a military base.
Both soldiers and civilians were wounded
The South fired back some 80 shells.
Casualties on the northern side are
unknown. South Korea's stock market
opened sharply lower on Wednesday, with
the benchmark index falling 3.3% in the
opening minutes of trading. United
Nations spokesman Farhan Haq said
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was
"deeply concerned by the escalation of
tension on the Korean peninsula". "The
secretary general condemns the attack
and calls for immediate restraint," he
added. |
|
US, south korea reply to north korea
attack with new military exercises
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--The
U.S. and South Korean presidents
have agreed to a new round of joint
military exercises in response to a
North Korean artillery attack that
killed two South Korean marines.
Officials say the show of force will
start Sunday with a long-delayed drill
that will bring the aircraft carrier USS
George Washington into strategically
sensitive waters between the Korean
peninsula and China. The White House
announced the new exercises late Tuesday
following a telephone conversation
between Presidents Barack Obama and Lee
Myung-bak. It said Mr. Obama also
pledged to stand “shoulder-to-shoulder”
with South Korea and to work with other
nations to organize international
condemnation of the North Korean attack
on a South Korean island Tuesday.
Earlier in South Korea, the U.S.
military officer who heads the United
Nations Command on the peninsula said
the command will conduct an
investigation of the incident. Tensions
remain high between the two Koreas, with
each side threatening a massive military
response to any further provocation. The
White House announcement said the United
States remains “firmly and fully
committed” to the defense of South Korea
after Tuesday’s attack, in which North
Korea launched more than 100 artillery
shells at a South Korean island near the
two countries’ disputed maritime border.
The South returned fire with about 80
shells in one of the most dramatic
military confrontations between the two
since the Korean War ended in 1953.
Eighteen people including three
civilians were wounded on the South
Korean side. Seoul officials said they
believe the orth also suffered
casualties. The White House said the new
exercises are intended to “underscore
the strength” of the U.S.-South Korean
alliance but did not provide details.
However a U.S. Forces spokesman in Seoul
((David Oten)) said the USS George
Washington will lead a U.S. strike group
in a four-day exercise beginning Sunday
in the Yellow Sea. |
|
el UNIVERSAL
AWARD-WINNING IN SPAIN FOR DEFENSE OF
FREEDOM
MADRID,
SPAIN--The
9th Edition of the International
Journalism Prizes acknowledged on
Tuesday the work of Venezuelan daily
newspaper El Universal by awarding the
prize "Columnists of the World,"
recognition shared with El Nacional,
another Venezuelan daily newspaper with
nationwide readership. The prizes,
hosted and awarded by Spanish daily
newspaper El Mundo, are intended to
attract attention to troubles to
practice freedom of speech in many Latin
American countries, particularly
Venezuela and Mexico.
"The courageous work" of Mexican
reporters Sandra Rodríguez and Luz Sosa
was also acknowledged with the prize
"Reporters of the World." According to a
press release from the organizers, "with
different editorial lines, yet united
before Hugo Chávez's government, El
Nacional and El Universal were awarded
the "Columnists' Prize" for their
"advocacy of freedom of speech in the
face of government pressure."
In receiving the prize on behalf of El Universal, the
Head of the Information Section, Taisa
Medina, thanked for the recognition and
took it on as a commitment in the name
of the newspaper and its editor Andrés
Mata Osorio. Medina related how the
Venezuelan government uses courts and
enforces laws to threaten the media,
journalists and independent thinkers and
cause self-censorship or openly repress.
However, she noted that El Universal
regards itself as multiplatform. "It is
different as it democratically supports
the right to freedom of speech and
access to information, as well as free
initiative in every aspect of the human
activity." |
|
NORTH KOREA BOMBARDS SOUTH KOREAN ISLAND
KILLING TWO SOUTHERN MARINES, WOUNDING
20
SEOUL,
SOUTH KOREA--North
Korea fired more than 100 artillery
shells onto a South Korean border island
today, killing two southern marines and
wounding 20 others in a brazen
attack that prompted the South to return
fire and put its military on its highest
alert. South Korea's president said he
would unleash "enormous retaliation"
should the North strike again.
President Barack Obama was awoken
around 4 a.m. with news of the clash,
and is phoning South Korea's president,
the BBC reported. The U.N. Security
Council plans to hold an emergency
meeting today or Wednesday to discuss
the attack, a French diplomat told
Reuters.
Fires burned out of control on
Yeonpyeong Island, one of South Korea's
closest territories to the communist
north, which houses a South Korean
military base alongside the homes of
about 1,700 civilians. At least three
civilians and 15 South Korean troops
were among those wounded, a defense
official told The New York Times. "I
ran outside my house when my windows
shattered from the blasts," resident Lee
Jong-sik told the JoongAng Daily
newspaper. She said blasts rang out
across the island every five minutes. It
was the first time in 50 years the
island has suffered any attacks, she
said. Home to a sleepy fishing village
famous more for a local crab delicacy
than for politics or violence,
Yeonpyeong (pronounced yuhn-pyuhng) lies
close to the Northern Limit Line, an
invisible disputed boundary between the
Koreas. It's the same area where a South
Korean naval vessel, the Cheonan, sank
in March -- an act blamed on North
Korean torpedoes, though Pyongyang
denies that. Forty-six sailors died.
"Houses and mountains are on fire, and
people are evacuating," an unidentified
resident told YTN television. "You can't
see very well because of plumes of
smoke. ... People are frightened to
death." Today's exchange of fire marks
one of the peninsula's most serious
clashes since the Korean War ended
without a peace treaty in 1953. South
Korea acknowledged that it had been
conducting what it called regular
military drills off the peninsula's west
coast -- something its military does
frequently -- when today's violence
broke out. But it said its drills
weren't aimed at the North. "We were
conducting usual military drills and our
test shots were aimed toward the west,
not the north," a South Korean military
official told Australia's ABC News.
|
|
US CONDEMNS NORTH KOREAN ATTACK ON SOUTH
KOREA
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--The
White House on Tuesday condemned North
Korea's artillery attack against the
South Korean island of Yeonpyeong,
the latest in a series of provocations
that have reawakened concerns about the
threat posed by the communist country
and its reclusive leadership. In a
statement released before dawn, Press
Secretary Robert Gibbs called on North
Korea to "to halt its belligerent action
and to fully abide by the terms of the
armistice agreement," the 1953 pact that
ended the Korean War. North Korea fired
barrages of artillery onto a South
Korean island near their disputed
western border Tuesday, setting
buildings ablaze and killing at least
two marines after warning the South to
halt military drills in the area, South
Korean officials said.
Gibbs said the White House "is in close
and continuing contact" with the South
Korean government. "The United States is
firmly committed to the defense of our
ally, the Republic of Korea, and to the
maintenance of regional peace and
stability," he said. The White House was
likely to release a statement from the
president Tuesday, though Obama was not
expected to comment publicly. The
president, who was traveling to Indiana
Tuesday to speak on the economy, was
also expected to call South Korea's
President Lee Myung-bak. Pentagon
spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said the U.S.
has not moved any additional U.S. assets
to the area as a result of the shelling
and declined to say whether forces there
had been put on any heightened alert. He
said it was "premature" to say whether
the U.S. is considering any action in
response to the incident or whether to
increase the deterrent there.
Congressional Republicans and
Democrats joined the administration in
condemning the attack. "As the people of
the Republic of Korea question what new
belligerent action may come from the
North, they should not have any question
that the people and forces of the United
States stand ready as a devoted ally
committed to the defense of their
nation," Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement.
"I join the president in his strong
condemnation of what is sadly just the
latest in a long string of hostile
actions. North Korea's neighbors should
unite in condemning this attack." House
Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike
Skelton, D-Mo., called the artillery
attacks "reprehensible" and said it was
"in direct violation of the Armistice
Agreement." "The North Korean regime is
more dangerous than most people realize.
I join the administration in strongly
condemning North Korea for its artillery
attack against South Korea," Skelton
said in a statement. |
|
WORLD CONDEMNS
DEADLY NORTH KOREAN ARTILLERY ATTACK
washington,
d.c--
Nations reacted swiftly Tuesday in
condemning a North Korean artillery
attack that South Korea said
killed two marines and wounded 15
soldiers and civilians. The strongest
reaction came from South Korean
President Lee Myung-bak, who ordered his
military to punish North Korea "through
action," not just words, the official
Yonhap news agency said. "The
provocation this time can be regarded as
an invasion of South Korean territory,"
Lee said during a visit to the
headquarters of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff in central Seoul. "In particular,
indiscriminate attacks on civilians are
a grave matter." The United States also
offered quick comment, with the White
House saying it "strongly condemns" the
"belligerent action" by North Korea.
Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said
Defense Secretary Robert Gates was
scheduled to speak with his South Korean
counterpart Tuesday morning. "Obviously
we're in close contact with U.S. forces,
Korea and our allies there in monitoring
the situation," Lapan said. U.S. forces
in the area have taken no additional
measures, he said. "Right now it is too
soon," Lapan said, adding, "At this
point it is premature to say we are
considering any action on this. "Any
incidents like this we view with
concern. They certainly increase
tensions on the (Korean) Peninsula."
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan's
Cabinet is to meet Tuesday night to
discuss the regional situation. "The
artillery attack carried out by North
Korea today was unpardonable and the
Japanese government strongly condemns
North Korea," Chief Cabinet Secretary
Yoshito Sengoku said in a statement.
"This provocation by North Korea
compromises the peace and security of
not only South Korea, but also the
entire region of North East Asia,
including Japan," the official said.
"Japan demands North Korea to stop such
action immediately. Based on prime
minister's orders, Japan will take
appropriate measures in close
coordination with [the] U.S. and South
Korea, as well as other related
countries." Indonesian Foreign Minister
R.M. Marty M. Natalegawa also expressed
his nation's "deep concern." "Indonesia
calls on both sides to immediately cease
hostilities, exercise maximum restraint
and avoid further escalation of
tension," Natalegawa said. Chinese
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said
China had taken note and expressed its
concern. "Relevant facts need to be
verified and we hope both parties make
more contributions to the stability of
the peninsula," he said. Russia's
Interfax news agency said Russia
condemned North Korea's artillery
shelling, pointing out that "those who
initiated the attack on a South Korean
island in the northern part of the
inter-Korean maritime border line
assumed enormous responsibility." |
|
|
|
NORTH KOREA CLAIMS IT IS ENRICHING
URANIUM AT NEW PLANT
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--A
State Department team is traveling to
South Korea on Sunday after a
U.S. scientist reported that North Korea
has a new uranium enrichment facility.
North Korean officials said the facility
is operating and producing low-enriched
uranium, according to Stanford
University professor Siegfried S. Hecker.
The scientist posted a report of his
November 12 visit to the Yongbyon, North
Korea, facility on the university's
website Saturday. The enrichment
facility is comprised of 2,000
centrifuges, according to Hecker's
report.
They appear to be designed for nuclear
power production, "not to boost North
Korea's military capability," Hecker
says. "Nevertheless, the uranium
enrichment facilities could be readily
converted to produce highly-enriched
uranium (HEU) bomb fuel," he adds. Adm.
Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S.
Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CNN on
Sunday that the report "confirms or
validates the concern we've had for
years about their enriching uranium,
which they've denied routinely." The new
nuclear facility violates U.N. Security
Council resolutions on North Korea's
nuclear program, Mullen said, adding
that North Korea is "a country that
routinely we are unable to believe that
they would do what they say."
Mullen cited the latest report, as
well as the sinking of a South Korean
ship earlier this year blamed on North
Korea, as "belligerent behavior." "I've
been concerned for a long time about
instability in that region. Quite
frankly, North Korea's been at the
center of that," Mullen said. "We've
worked hard with other countries to try
to bring pressure on them to have them
comply. They haven't done that."
Earlier, a senior official in President
Barack Obama's administration said that
the enrichment program claim is "yet
another provocative act of defiance and,
if true, contradicts its own pledges and
commitments." |
|
BOLIVIAN PRESIDENT EVO MORALES LECTURES
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ROBERT GATES ABOUT
US BEHAVIOR
SANTA
CRUZ, BOLIVIA--
Bolivian President Evo Morales
had a blunt message for the visiting
U.S. Pentagon chief on Monday: Latin
American nations will pick their own
friends and business partners, including
Iran, regardless of U.S. opinion. The
colorful leftist leader delivered an
hourlong welcome to delegates at a
regional defense conference that
included U.S. Defense Secretary Robert
Gates. Morales never mentioned Gates by
name. But most of the speech, and all of
the applause lines, were clearly
directed at the Pentagon chief and
former head of the CIA.
Bolivia is more democratic and
representative than the United States,
Morales said, and democracy would
improve in the entire region if the
United States stopped interfering.
Bolivia receives $70 million in U.S. aid
annually, much of it for popular
nutrition and health programs. He
mentioned the spread of Iranian and
Russian business and other ties in Latin
America, and said it is not the U.S.
place to complain. "Bolivia under my
government will have an agreement, an
alliance, to anyone in the world,"
Morales said. "Nobody will forbid us,"
he said to applause.
Morales has allied Bolivia with Venezuela, Cuba and
Iran, and drawn criticism from the U.S.
for the Tehran ties. Last month Bolivia
said it is interested in buying
Iranian-made airplanes and helicopters
for military training and
transportation. Bolivia also wants to
team up with Iran to build a nuclear
power plant and establish a joint
development bank. Venezuela is teaming
with Russia on a civilian nuclear
plant. Gates didn't seem fazed by the
one-hour monologue. A day earlier he had
warned that countries doing business
with Iran should remember that Iran is
under international sanctions over its
nuclear program. He also questioned
whether Iran has the technical
capability to help another nations
develop civilian nuclear power. "As a
sovereign state Bolivia obviously can
have relationships with any country in
the world that it wishes to," Gates said
Sunday. "I think Bolivia needs to be
mindful of the number of United Nations
Security Council resolutions that have
been passed with respect to Iran's
behavior." |
|
BOGOTA SAYS IT
WILL MAKE WALID MAKLED AVAILABLE TO US
AUTHORITIES BEFORE EXTRADITION TO
CARACAS
BOGOTA,
COLOMBIA--Gabriel
Silva, Colombia's Ambassador to the
United States, said that alleged
drug kingpin Walid Makled will be at the
disposal of US authorities while he is
extradited to Venezuela, as promised by
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.
Silva said in an interview published by
Colombian newspaper El Tiempo that due
to "reasons related to proceedings and
commitments made by" Santos, the
Colombian Head of State decided to
extradite Makled to Venezuela rather
than to the US, news agency AFP
reported. "The judicial and
intelligence cooperation with the US
began many decades ago. Colombia is the
country that has extradited more
national and foreign people to the
United States. All of them, including
this guy, are at the disposal of the
US," the Colombian envoy said.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez said that
Washington has requested the drug lord's
extradition to smear his government with
scandals. "Washington wants to use him
so he vomits all kinds of accusations
against the Bolivarian Revolution,
against its political and military
leadership," the Venezuelan dictator
wrote in his weekly column. |
|
US DEFENSE SECRETARY GATES TO ATTEND IX
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF DEFENSE
MINISTERS IN BOLIVIA
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--US
Defense Secretary Robert Gates
will attend a defence ministers meeting
that will bring him face-to-face with
his counterparts from Venezuela and
Bolivia, two countries often critical of
US policy. But Gates is not expecting
fireworks at the meeting of American
defence ministers in Bolivia, a US
official said, even though the group is
working on an agreement to promote
transparency in arms sales at a time
when some are concerned about an arms
race in Latin America.
“We’re not expecting strong speeches,”
said the official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity. “I think we’re
expecting a positive constructive
dialogue like all the other conferences
have been.” Gates travels to Chile today
for bilateral talks aimed at promoting
deeper cooperation between the US and
Chilean militaries, especially on
improving the military response to
disasters like the 8.8 magnitude
earthquake that hit Chile in February.
Gates will then fly to Bolivia on
Sunday for the ninth Conference of the
Defence Ministers of the Americas, a
gathering that takes place every 18
months and is aimed at improving
cooperation among the militaries. The
defence ministers will discuss issues
like openness in defence budgeting,
women in the military, disaster response
and transparency in arms sales and
purchases, the official said.
The first Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas (CMDA)
was held in 1995 in Williamsburg,
Virginia, in the United States and the
last one was held in Banff, in the
province of Alberta, Canada, in 2008.
The developed topics recognize a great
progress on democracy, defense and
cooperation ambits. Furthermore, the
CMDA constitutes a propitious forum that
allows ministers of defense move toward
regional, sub regional and bilateral
issues. Bolivia is the host of the IX
Americas’ Defense Ministers Conference,
and has the main goal of propitiating
debate and exchange of ideas &
experience, emphasizing democratic
processes and social cohesion. |
|
US CONGRESS TO PUT MORE PRESSURE ON
VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ AND
ALLIES
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--A
group of Republican lawmakers
pledged to increase pressure on
Venezuela and its allies in the new US
Congress which begins in early January,
during an event held in Washington that
included leading opposition leaders from
both countries. "I hope that now, when
we have a new majority, we will confront
Hugo Chávez", said Congressman (Florida)
Connie Mack, who is the main candidate
to lead the Western Hemisphere
Subcommittee.
The reaction of Bernardo Álvarez, the US
ambassador to Washington, was immediate.
He rejected "the position of far-right
sectors" that participated in an event
held in Washington called "Danger in the
Andes-Threats to Democracy, Human Rights
and Inter-American Security."
Álvarez said that "a group of coup-plotters, such as
Lucio Gutiérrez (former Ecuadorian
President), who has been linked to a
coup d'état in Ecuador; Otto Reich, who
was involved in the Venezuelan coup
d'état and Roger Noriega, who has been
linked to several destabilizing cases,
in addition to Bolivian agents who tried
to sabotage President Evo Morales,"
participated in the forum. The
Venezuelan diplomat made some comments
related to the support that these
alleged far-right groups are receiving
in the United States. "These far-right
groups are being supported by political
sectors in this country (United States.) |
|
COLOMBIAN
PRESIDENT SANTOS: TOP FARC LEADER MAY
HAVE BEEN KILLED DURING BOMBING
BOGOTA,
COLOMBIA--A
top leader of a leftist guerrilla group
in Colombia may have been killed
during a bombing of a rebel camp,
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos
said Saturday. Several items that are
believed to belong to Fabian Ramirez
were discovered in the aftermath of the
attack, the president said, including
weapons, computers and a backpack.
"I say apparently because it is not
confirmed," said Santos, adding: "Most
likely, he's dead." Ramirez is a
commander in the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish
acronym FARC. His given name is Jose
Benito Cabrera Cuevas, CNN affiliate
Caracol TV reported.
He is believed to have died along with four or five
other guerrillas in an early morning
raid on a jungle camp near San Vicente
del Caguan, located in the southern
Caqueta department, the president said.
Authorities are working to identify the
dead, Santos added. The FARC leader is
wanted in the United States on
drug-trafficking charges. In 2002,
Ramirez claimed responsibSantos anuncia
posible muerte de alto jefe de las FARC |
|
OAS FOREIGN MINISTERS WILL ANALYZE
NICARAGUA-COSTA RICA CONFLICT
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--The
Permanent Council of the Organization of
American States said it would
hold a meeting of its foreign ministers
to discuss the conflict unleashed by
Costa Rica against Nicaragua, a decision
that could turn against the OAS. By
majority vote on Thursday in Washington,
the OAS approved San Jose's request to
call the OAS foreign ministers' meeting
for December 7, in a new escalation of
the Costa Rican diplomatic offensive
against Managua.
Everything would seem to indicate that
the government of President Laura
Chinchilla hopes the OAS adopts measures
against Nicaragua for not stopping its
dredging of the San Juan River, which
separates the two countries, and
maintaining troops on Nicaraguan
territory near the border. Nicaragua
insists on maintaining army forces in
that zone to combat drug traffickers who
use it for shipping drugs into the
United States, the world's biggest
market for narcotics. Nicaragua also
defends its right to dredge the river,
which is part of its territory, to make
it navigable, and denies that it causes
environmental damage to Costa Rica.
During an OAS Permanent Council meeting on Thursday, in
which the Nicaraguan representatives did
not participate, the organization's
inability to reach a consensus became
evident, and it was necessary to go to a
vote to approve the Costa Rican request.
According to local reports on the
debate, representatives from several
countries lamented the organization has
been unable to foster dialogue between
the two Central American countries to
solve the conflict. |
|
VEneZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ DENOUNCES
PLOT TO KILL HIM FOR $100 MILLION
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--
Venezuela's DICTATOR Hugo Chavez
accused a fugitive TV tycoon on Saturday
of being involved in a $100 million
reward offer for his assassination.
Idolized by supporters among Venezuela's
poor but loathed by many in the business
class, former soldier Chavez, 56, has
frequently alleged plans to kill him
during his more than 11 years at the
helm of the South American oil-producer.
"As I understand it from very
trustworthy information, they say they
have $100 million to give the person who
kills me," Chavez said, talking of his
political foes in general.
He accused the fugitive boss of
pro-opposition TV station Globovision,
Guillermo Zuloaga, of being one of those
behind the plan. Zuloaga fled to the
United States earlier this year after
being charged with fraud over his car
dealership. "He's one of them and he's
the owner of a station that is
transmitting right now in Venezuela,"
Chavez said in comments to reporters at
a "socialist" fair in Caracas to offer
cheap food and Christmas presents. "He's
going around conspiring against the
government, and they're all collecting
money to pay the person who kills me,"
Chavez said, urging action against
Zuloaga.
He did not give any more details of
the alleged plot. Detractors say the
leftist firebrand, who has become
Washington's leading critic in Latin
America, exaggerates talk of
assassination plots and launches
constant tirades against the United
States as a way to bolster support at
home. But his supporters are convinced
there is a real risk of his being killed
due to the depth of hatred for him by
Venezuela's former ruling elite and
others. |
|
FIDEL'S SON WANTS
CUBAN BASEBALL PLAYERS TO BE ABLE TO
PLAY ABROAD
HAvana,
cuba--Antonio
Castro, Vice President of the Cuban
Baseball Federation and son of
former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, has
made a proposal to allow Cuban baseball
players to play in professional leagues
in other countries. According to his
proposal, Cuban players would be allowed
to keep 60% of their earnings while the
Cuban government would garnish a 40%
cut. The countries that players will be
permitted to play in are: Japan, South
Korea, Mexico, Chinese Taipei/Taiwan,
Italy, Venezuela and Mexico. Players
will not be permitted to play in the US
Major Leagues.
After receiving consensus amond the
members of the Cuban Baseball
Federation, Castro brought his proposal
to current dictator Raul Castro and his
father Fidel. No word yet on how it was
received by the 2 Castro brothers. In
other news, Cuban baseball superstar
Frederich Cepeda was left off the Sancti
Spiritus roster for the upcoming 50th
Cuban National Series. Cepeda is one of
the best players in Cuban baseball, so
it has raised more than a few eyebrows
that he has been excluded from the
roster.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Cepeda said
that he did not commit any misconduct
and he was not aware that he was being
punished. Cepeda, a 30 year old
switch-hitter, batted .500 and hit three
homers in the second iteration of the
World Baseball Classic in 2009. He
received praise from former President
Fidel Castro, who wrote then, “we have a
model in our team: the incredible Cepeda.
Great serenity and security, to whom I
pay tribute in this discussion, for his
prowess. ” Usually in these types of
situations it is because a player has
attempted to defect and has been
caught. Cepeda says that this is not
the case, “I would never betray my
country.” But really, what else is he
going to say? |
|
former dictator fidel castro SAYS TEA
PARTY LEADING U.S. TO "FASCISM"
HAVANA,
CUBA--Speaking
to a group of students visiting Havana,
former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro
accused the Tea Party of leading the
United States towards "fascism.
In his comments, Castro chided the
United States as a "ruined nation" and
derided the Tea Party as "extreme
right." Castro also announced that
health concerns had forced him to step
down from his position as head of the
Cuban Communist Party. Castro's
exchange with the students was published
in Granma, the state-run newspaper. "I
got sick and did what I had to do --
delegate my powers." Granma reported.
Castro ceded the Presidency of Cuba in 2006 after 46
years in power. He was replaced by his
younger brother Raúl. Under both
brothers, Cuba has been isolated from
the international community, criticized
for its lack of democratic elections and
for its systematic abuse of human
rights. |
|
cuban dissidents reported a corruption
scandal in the nickel industry
havana,
cuba--A
corruption scandal in a Cuban nickel
processing plant -- one of the
island's key sources of income -- has
led to the detentions of at least 10 of
its executives, according to two
dissidents in Cuba. The case involves
the disappearance of vehicles and spare
motors that had been stockpiled for an
expansion of the Pedro Soto Alba plant
in the city of Moa, the dissidents
reported. Some of the executives, they
added, were also receiving
extraordinarily high salaries -- $1,500
to $2,000 a month in a country where the
official average monthly wage stands at
about $20. There was no way to
independently verify the reports by
dissident journalist Luis Felipe Rojas
and Omar Wilson Estévez, a member of the
National Civic Resistance Movement Pedro
Luis Boitel. Both live in Moa.
The Soto Alba plant is a joint venture
by state-owned Cubaniquel and
Canada-based Sherritt International. El
Nuevo Herald calls to Sherritt
headquarters in Toronto were not
returned as of Tuesday evening. But the
dissidents' reports follow the recent
dismissal of Basic Industry Minister
Yadira Garcia, who supervised the nickel
sector, and Havana residents said rumors
of the scandal have been around for
days. A government announcement in
September said García was replaced for a
``shortage of leadership, reflected
specially in the weak control over
resources destined for the capital
investment and production process.''
Cuba has been rocked by several scandals this
year, including one involving the state
airline, Cubana de Aviación, and alleged
off-the-books flights whose profits were
pocketed by officials. The Berlin-based
Transparency International, which
monitors corruption around the world,
ranked Cuba in 69th place in its annual
report this year, eight places worse
than in 2009. Rojas and Wilson said they
obtained their information from current
and former workers in the Soto Alba
plant as well relatives and neighbors of
the executives detained. They did not
identify their sources, fearing
reprisals. |
|
costa rica files
international court complaint against
nicaragua over border dispute
The
hague, netherlands--Costa
Rica has asked the International Court
of Justice to order Nicaragua to
withdraw its troops from disputed land
on the two nations' border, the world
court said Friday. In its complaint to
the United Nations' highest court, Costa
Rica accused Nicaraguan troops of
illegally setting up camp on its
territory "in outright breach of the
established boundary regime between the
two states." Nicaragua denies violating
Costa Rican territory.
Foreign Minister Rene Castro said
Thursday Costa Rica filed the case after
Nicaragua decided to disregard an
Organization of American States
resolution that it withdraw troops from
disputed territory along the San Juan
border river. The court has not yet set
a date for hearings, but will likely
move quickly to deal with the case
because of Costa Rica's request for
emergency interim measures to remove the
Nicaraguan troops. The river has been a
source of disputes for nearly two
centuries. In July last year, the
International Court of Justice set
travel rules for the San Juan, affirming
freedom for Costa Rican craft to
navigate the waterway while upholding
Nicaragua's right to regulate traffic.
The latest argument stems from a
Nicaraguan dredging project. Costa Rica
objected to the plan when it was
announced last year.
Earlier this month the dispute even drew in Google when
the Nicaraguan official in charge of the
dredging project said in an interview
with the Costa Rican newspaper La Nacion
that he used Google's map system to
decide where the work should be done.
The court said Friday Costa Rica also
has asked for five other emergency
orders including for Nicaragua to halt
dredging, the construction of a canal
and felling of trees in the disputed
region. Nicaraguan President Daniel
Ortega also has said the world court in
The Hague should be the one to settle
the dispute. |
|
CONGRESSWOMAN ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN
CRITICIZES DEMOCRATIC "DECLINE" IN
VENEZUELA AND ALLIES
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--The
United States must cooperate with
its partners in the region to fight "the
decline of democratic freedoms and human
rights," led by the governments of
Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and
Ecuador, said on Wednesday Republican
Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
"The United States should work closely
with our partners responsible for
fighting this scourge," said
Ros-Lehtinen in a statement. The
Republican Representative is expected to
lead the influential US House Foreign
Affairs Committee. The "dangerous
behavior" of the presidents of
Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia and
Ecuador shows "an undeniable link
between decline of democratic freedoms
and human rights and the increase of
tangible risks to the security of our
region," said Congresswoman Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fl), a Cuban-American
legislator.
The leaders of the Bolivarian
Alliance for the Peoples of Our America
(ALBA), headed by Venezuela's Hugo
Chávez, "have manipulated the democratic
systems of their countries to serve
their own autocrat purposes,"
Ros-Lehtinen said. The statement of the
Florida Congresswoman was read out at an
event on the "dangers" for democracy in
the Andean region organized by several
conservative think-tanks in the US
Congress, AFP reported. |
|
SPANISH "ROOKIE" FOREIGN MINISTER
TRINIDAD JIMENEZ INSISTS THAT THERE ARE
NO POLITICAL PRISONERS IN VENEZUELA
MADRID,
SPAIN--A
week after the "ROOKIE" Spanish Foreign
Minister Trinidad Jiménez stirred
a controversy after she claimed that
there are no political prisoners in
Venezuela, the Spanish top diplomat
reasserted her opinion. "Facts are
facts," Jiménez said during a hearing at
the Spanish Senate.
In the session, Ińaki Anasagasti, a
Basque senator born in Venezuela and
member of the parliamentary group of the
Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) asked
Jiménez to clarify whether the
administration of Prime Minister José
Luis Rodríguez Zapatero considers that
there are people detained for political
reasons in the South American country.
"The Spanish government can not judge the lists of political
prisoners prepared by different
organizations," Jiménez said. Anasagasti
told the Spanish minister that the
information he had was different.
Anasagasti read part of an Amnesty
International report, in which the human
rights watchdog stated that there have
been "politically motivated arrests and
reports of false charges in Venezuela."
Meanwhile, attorneys of former
Venezuelan Defense Minister Raul Baduel
and arrested judge María Lourdes Afiuni
said that there have been irregularities
in their cases. |
|
IRAN SAYS IT HAS
SUCCESSFULLY TESTE ITS OWN MODEL OF
RUSSIAN S-300 MISSILE
TEHRAN,
IRAN--Iran
has successfully tested its own version
of a missile system that Russia
declined to supply amid concerns Tehran
might be seeking nuclear weapons, a
military official was quoted as saying
on Thursday. Russia infuriated Iran in
September when it canceled the S-300
missile order after heavy lobbying from
the United States and Israel, which said
the system could be used to help Iran
shield its nuclear facilities from
possible future air strikes.
State-run Press TV quoted a commander of
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards as
saying Tehran had adapted another
Russian-made missile system to perform
like the more sophisticated S-300. "We
have developed the system by upgrading
systems like the S-200 and we have
tested it successfully," Brigadier
General Mohammad Hassan Mansourian said,
according to Press TV's website. Some
Western analysts doubt Iran's ability to
replicate the S-300, a precision,
mobile, long-range air defense system
that can detect, track and destroy
ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and
low-flying aircraft. However, some
Western officials suspect Iran's
development of more sophisticated
missiles could serve the goal of
attaining a deliverable nuclear weapon.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev banned delivery of the
S-300s in September, saying it would
violate expanded U.N. sanctions over
Iran's refusal to curb a nuclear
programme many countries fear is aimed
at making a bomb, a charge it denies.
Medvedev was due to meet Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad later on
Thursday at a summit of Caspian Sea
states in Azerbaijan where the issue of
reopening nuclear talks was likely to be
raised. Iran, which says it is seeking
nuclear technology for solely peaceful
ends, has agreed in principle to return
to talks -- on ice for more than a year
-- with Russia, the United States,
China, Britain, France and Germany,
possibly on December 5. |
|
Cilia flores, an president, very pleased
at president santos' decision to SEND
walid markled to venezuela
caracas,
venezuela--National
Assembly (AN) president, Cilia Flores
said she is very pleased at Colombian
President Juan Manuel Santos's decision
to extradite alleged narco-trafficker
and money-launderer, Walid Makled to
Venezuela. Flores has congratulated
Santos for keeping his word on the
matter, even though the final decision
lay ultimately in the hands of
Colombia's Supreme Court of Justice. The
AN president confirmed that Venezuela
had been investigating Makled's case for
a year and she insisted that she does
not want to see impunity win the day.
Venezuela had been awaiting a decision
from Colombia's Supreme Court of Justice
over the matter since the USA had also
requested extradition. The Makled case
has similarities with the infamous
Montesinos case in Venezuela several
years in as much as the main personality
had hired protection from politicians
and military/police chiefs and had kept
an archive on contacts and payments.
Makled has identified several military
officers and politicians he had
"helped."
Venezuelan opposition figures had been hoping that the
accused would be extradited to the USA
where he would "sing to his heart's
content" incriminating top military
officers, such as General-in-Chief,
Henry Rangel Silva and even dictator
Chavez himself … as a prelude to a
Manuel Noriega finale. Much will depend
on how the Venezuelan government handles
the extradition and much will depend on
the honesty of foreign anti-drugs
agencies from the UK, the Netherlands
and Spain in collaborating with
Venezuelan justice system and officials,
even though it must be added that the
Anti-Drugs Czar, Nestor Reverol has been
named by Makled. According to one
source, the government could avoid
negative feedback, if it pursues an
"honesty is the best policy" approach. |
|
iran says foreign planes violated its
airspace
tehran,
iran--
Iran said Wednesday that
unidentified foreign planes violated its
airspace six times as the country kicked
off its biggest ever air defense drill
but that the intruders were intercepted
and forced back by Iranian jets. he
remarks by Gen. Hamid Arjangi, a
spokesman for the exercise, were the
first Iranian claim of an intrusion.
Initially, he had only said that foreign
reconnaissance planes had approached
Iran's air space. There was no way to
verify Iran's claims. The spokesman did
not specify whether the aircraft were
warplanes or pilotless surveillance
drones that might have been sent up to
monitor the drill.
A spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th
Fleet, based just across the Persian
Gulf in the island kingdom of Bahrain,
said he had no information on the
purported airspace intrusion. Arjangi
said Iran's radar stations and
observation posts picked up on the
planes entering Iranian airspace during
the five-day drill, which started
Tuesday. "There were six cases of
intrusion by unidentified planes into
the country," Arjangi was quoted as
saying by the official IRNA news agency.
"In all six cases, air force jet
fighters took off and carried out
interception operations ... artillery
systems were alerted, targets were
identified and necessary warnings were
given." The Iranian exercise is meant to
showcase the country's capabilities in
defending its nuclear facilities from
possible attack.
Arjangi said thousands of surveillance outposts have
been stationed along 4,400 miles (7,000
kilometers) of Iran's border and are
equipped with sophisticated
communication systems capable of
countering enemy jamming to transfer
data to control command centers. He did
not specify whether the stations were on
the section of border along the Persian
Gulf. Gen. Ahmad Mighani, head of an air
force branch in charge of responding to
threats to Iran's airspace, said Tuesday
the war games seek to "upgrade the
combat preparedness" of the country's
air defense system. The United States
and its European allies accuse Iran of
embarking on a nuclear weapons program.
Iran denies the charge and insists the
program is only for peaceful purposes.
Israel has not ruled out military action
to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear
weapons. Iran, in turn, has said Israel
would face a "devastating retaliation"
if it attacked the Islamic Republic. |
|
venezuela
criticizes us counter-terrorism policies
united
nations, new york--Jorge
Valero, Venezuela’s Ambassador to the
United Nations (UN) requested
again the US government the extradition
or prosecution of Luis Posada Carriles
for blowing up a Cuban plane in 1976.
The Venezuelan government strongly
criticized "some governments that like
to draw up lists of countries that
allegedly cooperate with terrorism,
while harboring within their own
territory dangerous international
terrorists."
Valero also reminded the UN Security
Council's resolutions 1,373 (2001) and
1,624 (2005) that demand member States
not to provide shelter to terrorists and
not to claim political motivations to
refuse requests for the extradition of
alleged terrorists, "but in the case of
international terrorist Luis Posada
Carriles, and other tried and convicted
criminals in Venezuela for actions of
this type, do not have any effect," said
a statement issued by the Venezuelan
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Ambassador Jorge Valero, the Permanent Representative of
Venezuela to the United Nations,
recalled once again on Monday, in the
context of the discussion on the Reports
of the presidents of the Subsidiary
Bodies of the Security Council, that
"Luis Posada Carriles, the person
responsible for the terrorist attack
that killed 73 innocent civilians 34
years ago, for blowing up a Cubana de
Aviación airplane off the coasts of
Barbados, is free and active in the
United States." The Venezuelan envoy
reiterated the US government its request
to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, or,
at least, "try him for the terrorist
acts he has admitted being involved
with." |
|
COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT JUAN MANUEL SANTOS
TO EXTRADITE WALID MAKLED TO VENEZUELA
BOGOTA,
COLOMBIA--Colombia's
President Juan Manuel Santos
informed on Tuesday that his government
would extradite Syrian-born businessman
Walid Makled to Venezuela. Makled has
been accused of drug trafficking.
During the presentation of his report entitled "100
Days in Office," Santos said that he had
made that commitment to Venezuelan
dictator Hugo Chávez. "I gave my word
and after the required legal
proceedings, he will be extradited to
Venezuela. I am a man of my word,"
Santos said, as reported by the TV news
channel Telesur.
"We will await the ruling of the Supreme Court of
Justice and when we have its approval we
will extradite him," the Colombian
president said. Santos added that the
legal proceeding takes between six and
18 months, AFP reported. "When we
captured (Makled), Venezuela's request
for extradition came long before the US'
request. Venezuela's petition is not
only related to drug trafficking but
also to other crimes." |
|
socialist international rejects general
rangel silva's statements
paris,
france--In
the context of the meetings held on
November 15 and 16, the political
parties which are members of Socialist
International (SI) agreed that with his
statements, General Rangel Silva
“violates democratic principles and the
political rights of citizens”
Socialist International, a worldwide
organization of social democratic,
socialist and labor parties, which met
in Paris on November 15 and 16, declared
that the statements made by Major
General Henry Rangel Silva, the head of
Venezuela's Strategic Operational
Command (SOC), saying that "the National
Armed Forces would not recognize an
eventual opposition victory in the
elections" are unacceptable.
This report was provided by the
Venezuelan opposition leader Felipe
Mújica. He said that under the
resolution adopted by Socialist
International, Rangel Silva's remarks
"violate democratic principles and the
political rights of citizens." The
organization composed of over 160
parties from all continents, supported
the release of four arrested members of
parliament: Biagio Pilieri, José Sánchez
"Mazuco," Richard Blanco and Hernán
Alemán. |
|
following the
example of venezuelan dictator
hugo chavez, bolivia's army declares
itself socialist, ANTI-IMPERIALIST AND
ANTI-CAPITALIST
la
paz. bolivia--Bolivia’s
army, which celebrated its bicentennial
over the weekend, declared itself
“socialist, anti-imperialist and
anti-capitalist,” as President Evo
Morales had asked it to do several
times. The constitution adopted in
2009 “clears the way for the army to
develop as a socialist, communal
institution,” army chief Gen. Antonio
Cueto said. “We declare ourselves to be
anti-imperialist, because in Bolivia no
external power should ever impose its
will on us...we must act with
sovereignty and live in dignity. We also
declare ourselves anti-capitalist
because that system is destroying mother
earth,” Cueto said in a ceremony on
Sunday. The army observes 1810 as the
year of its founding, the year when the
wars of independence against the Spanish
crown began on what is now Bolivian
territory.
Cueto criticized Bolivia’s
“neoliberal governments” that “made
pacts with the capitalist system,
seeking the destruction of the nation’s
armed forces with plans that
progressively diminished its operational
capability.” The Bolivian state “is
pacifist,” but it also reserves “the
legitimate right to defend” its
territory, Cueto said, adding that the
military “will not allow under any
circumstances the installation of
foreign bases” on its territory. Morales
asked the army to be “prepared” to
defend Bolivia’s sovereignty in the
event that “some empire” attempt a
military intervention in the country, as
it did 200 years ago to “combat Spanish
domination.”
“History shows that the army was
born as an anti-imperialist force
because it fought the European empire
from the year 1810,” Morales said,
adding that the “military nationalism”
of the armed forces was neither
“imported nor imposed,” but was born of
the 1932-1935 Chaco War against
Paraguay. Morales reappeared in public
Sunday using crutches after a week
recovering in a private clinic in the
central city of Cochabamba, where he had
his left knee operated. Sunday’s
ceremony was attended by the commanders
of the armies de Chile, Juan Miguel
Fuente-Alba, and of Ecuador, Patricio
Caceres, as well as military delegations
from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru. |
|
YES WE CAN!
|
|
BRAND-NEW GENERAL-IN-CHIEF HAS BEEN
ACCUSED OF DRUG TRAFFICKING
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--After
some controversial statements, according
to which Major General Henry Rangel
Silva, the head of the Strategic
Operational Command (SOC), said that the
Venezuelan armed forces would not allow
an opposition government in Venezuela,
"The Venezuelan Devil," dictator Hugo
Chávez ordered the Ministry of Defense
to promote him to General-in-Chief, the
top military rank in Venezuela.
General Rangel Silva has stirred up
controversy, particularly since 2005,
when he was the director of the
Directorate for Intelligence, Security
and Prevention (Disip), the Venezuelan
intelligence police. In 2008, the new
General-in-Chief, was described as "Tier
II Kingpin" by the US Treasury's Office
of Foreign Assets Control for his
alleged links to drug trafficking.
"Rangel Silva has materially assisted
the narcotics trafficking activities of
the FARC," said the US agency, which
ordered to freeze the accounts or assets
that the Venezuelan general could have
in the United States.
Additionally, Major General Henry Rangel Silva
allegedly offered help to Venezuelan-US
businessman Guido Antonini Wilson, who
tried to smuggle USD 800,000 in a
suitcase into Argentina. The cash
apparently came from state-run oil
holding Petróleos de Venezuela (Pvdsa)
to finance the presidential campaign of
then candidate Cristina de Kirchner. |
|
cholera deaths in haiti has reached more
than 900
port-au-prince,
haiti--The
death toll in Haiti’s cholera epidemic
has reached more than 900, the
government reported Sunday, as aid
groups rushed soap and clean water to a
disaster-wracked population to fight the
disease. The Ministry of Health
reported that as of Friday, there had
been 917 deaths and more than 14,600
were hospitalized with cholera-like
symptoms. That is up from the 724 deaths
and 11,125 hospitalizations reported a
few days before. The disease has been
found in 6 of Haiti’s 10 provinces,
known as departments, and is most severe
where it originated, in Artibonite,
which accounts for nearly two-thirds of
the deaths.
Several epidemiologists have said the
disease has not peaked and will likely
worsen and break out in other regions of
the country, with United Nations health
officials estimating about 270,000 may
be sickened in the coming years. Several
new cholera treatment centers are
springing up in the capital and other
areas. “The trend is increasing and it
is propagating from department to
department,” Roc Magloire, the Ministry
of Health’s epidemiologist, said in a
telephone interview on Sunday. He
referred questions to the ministry’s
director general, Gabriel Timothee, who
could not be reached. Hospitals in
Port-au-Prince, where more than one
million earthquake refugees live in
congested, squalid tent encampments, are
overflowing with patients exhibiting
cholera symptoms, and the death toll
there has reached 27. The disease was
first reported in the capital on Nov. 8.
President René Préval, at a conference on the disease
on Sunday in Port-au-Prince, urged
people to wash their hands frequently
and drink only potable water, The
Associated Press reported. But even
before the earthquake, most of the
population lacked access to clean water
and sanitation. Cholera, a bacteria
that thrives in feces-contaminated
water, causes severe diarrhea and
vomiting that can dehydrate and kill its
victims in hours without treatment. The
rate of severe cases, about 30 to 40
percent, is far higher in Haiti than the
25 percent in a typical outbreak because
of extreme poverty, unsanitary
conditions and the fact that cholera has
not been there for 40 years. “When we
go around and give advice about hygiene,
they say, ‘Let me have soap, I can’t
afford it,’ ” said Leonard Doyle, a
spokesman for the International
Organization for Migration, an agency
that is distributing water purification
tablets and cleaning supplies. On
Friday, the United Nations requested
$164 million from humanitarian agencies
and donors to put in place a strategy to
help the government respond to the
disease. The largest piece of the plan
is $89 million for clean water,
sanitation and hygiene. |
|
33 arrested in
venezuela for protests against poor
service in the caracas metro
caracas,
venezuela--Venezuelan
police arrested 33 users of the
Caracas Metro accused of “sabotage” and
of “hijacking” trains, while some of
them said they were only protesting
against the poor service. The ostensible
protesters hijacked trains at the
Propatria station, the transport
ministry said. “Since it was impossible
to achieve through dialogue that they
stop the hijacking, the Bolivarian
National Police proceeded to arrest 33
people for their suspected
responsibility in this act of sabotage,”
the ministry said in a statement.
The Metro passengers were handcuffed and
taken to police headquarters. Gathering
at the police facility were dozens of
relatives of the prisoners, several of
whom said that those in custody were on
their way to work when they were
surprised by the protest, and that they
are being advised by a self-proclaimed
Metro-Users Committee.
Attorney Elenis Rodriguez, who identified herself as
the committee’s legal adviser, said on
Globovision TV that its president, whom
she did not identify by name, was hit
several times at police headquarters
when he tried to verify reports that the
prisoners had been attacked by the cops.
In an RCTV television video of the
arrest, several of those in custody are
heard complaining of mistreatment. “We
urge the almost 2 million people who
travel every day on the four lines of
the Caracas Metro...not to be influenced
by those who seek to block our efforts
to build an inclusive society and a
transport system for everyone,” for its
part the note from the transport
ministry said. EFE |
|
n
them” We will take care of the rest. |
|
ARNALDO RAMOS, A
cuban POLITICAL PRISONER WHO REFUSED
EXILE IS FREE
havana,
cuba--Cuba
has freed one of 13 political prisoners
who refused to go into exile and will
let him stay on the island, in a
signal that all may be released soon.
Arnaldo Ramos told Reuters on Sunday
that he was in good shape after more
than seven years in prison and planned
to resume his opposition to the
communist-led government. "I am in
perfectly good condition and very happy
to be home," said the 68-year-old
economist, who was released and allowed
to return to his Havana home on Saturday
night. "I'm going to return to the same
activities I did before.
Ramos would begin on Sunday by attending
the weekly protest march of the
dissident group Ladies in White, he
said. He was one of 75 dissidents
arrested in a 2003 crackdown on
government opponents and one of the last
remaining in jail, serving an 18-year
prison sentence. In a deal brokered by
the Catholic Church, Cuban President
Raul Castro agreed in July to free the
52 who were then still behind bars. But
the government also wanted the jailed
dissidents to leave the country and
tried to convince them to go to exile in
Spain in exchange for their freedom.
Spain has agreed to accept the former
prisoners. Of the 52, 39 accepted the
offer, but the remaining 13, including
Ramos, refused to leave their country.
His release was a concession by the
government and likely signals it has
given up on getting the rest to go to
Spain.
Ramos said he would continue to push for change
in Cuba by writing articles and
criticizing government policies. Havana
views the dissidents as traitors working
for its longtime ideological foe, the
United States. Ramos and others jailed
in 2003 were accused of getting U.S.
money and support. The church said on
Saturday another of the 13 prisoners,
Luis Enrique Ferrer, will be freed soon
but will go to Spain. Ferrer agreed to
go into exile after reaching a deal with
the communist government to give his
home to family members remaining in
Cuba, said Elizardo Sanchez of the
independent Cuban Commission of Human
Rights. Another prisoner who has
insisted on staying in Cuba, Diosdado
Gonzalez, has been told he will be freed
soon, dissidents said. Castro promised
to release the dissidents to quell
international criticism after the
February death of imprisoned dissident
Orlando Zapata Tamayo after 85 days on a
hunger strike. |
|
COSTA RICA CALLS OAS BORDER RESOLUTION A
'DIPLOMATIC VICTORY'
SAN
JOSE, COSTA RICA--Costa
Rica boasted Saturday of a "diplomatic
victory" in its border spat with
Nicaragua after the Organization of
American States approved a resolution
calling for removal of soldiers and
security forces from a disputed area
along the San Juan River.
"This is the first time in many years
that the OAS permanent council has
submitted a matter to a vote and only
two countries voted against it," Costa
Rican President Laura Chinchilla's
office said in a statement. The OAS
council normally seeks consensus.
Nicaragua and Venezuela were the only
dissenters in a 22-2 vote approving the
resolution Friday. Nicaragua sent
about 50 soldiers to the disputed area
in October. It claims the land as its
own and has already said it will not
withdraw the troops. Costa Rica
describes the moves as an "invasion."
The OAS resolution also calls on the two
countries to continue talks on the
issue. Nicaraguan President Daniel
Ortega said his government is
considering withdrawing from the OAS and
he called the permanent council's vote
"manipulated" and "a conspiracy." "We
have been in it due to inertia because
the OAS should have disappeared a while
ago," Ortega said. In San Jose, the
Costa Rican capital, unknown assailants
in a vehicle tossed a gasoline bomb at
the building that houses the Nicaraguan
Embassy on Friday, but the device did
not catch fire and no injuries or damage
were reported. |
|
NICARAGUA
DISMISSEs OAS BORDER RESOLUTION
managua,
nicaragua--The
Organization of American States (OAS)
has approved a resolution calling on
Nicaragua and Costa Rica to remove
security forces from a disputed border
area. Costa Rica called the resolution
a "diplomatic victory" in the
territorial dispute with its northern
neighbor while Nicaraguan President
Daniel Ortega described the vote as
"manipulated" and "a conspiracy." Costa
Rica has no army but allegedly mobilised
police forces to the border and asked
the OAS to intervene in the conflict. A
Nicaraguan deputy foreign minister fired
back that the OAS did not have authority
to rule on border disputes. Nicaragua
claims it is operating in its territory
based off previous treaties and a 2009
decision by The Hague-based
International Court of Justice.
Nicaragua has dismissed the resolution
and says it will not withdraw its
forces. Costa Rican Foreign Minister
Rene Castro voiced hope that Nicaragua
would reconsider its decision, adding
that the OAS had sent a "clear message"
regarding the issue. Twenty-two
countries in the OAS voted to approve
the resolution, which is little more
than a toothless exhortation, while
Nicaragua and its close ally Venezuela
voted against, the hemispheric body said
in a statement on Saturday. “We hope
Nicaragua understands the message from
the international community,” Carlos
Roverssi, Costa Rica’s deputy foreign
minister, told Reuters.
Ortega also said his government was
considering a withdrawal from the OAS.
"We have been in it due to inertia
because the OAS should have disappeared
a while ago," Ortega was quoted as
saying by the Associated Press. The OAS
also called on both sides to immediately
resume talks on the dispute. Nicaragua
sent about 50 soldiers to the disputed
area along the San Juan River in a move
that was described as an "invasion" by
Costa Rica. On Friday, unknown
assailants tossed a gasoline bomb out of
a vehicle at the building that houses
the Nicaraguan Embassy in San Jose. The
explosive device, however, did not go
off and nobody was injured in the
assault. |
|
cuban catholic church says 13 political
prisoners will be freed soon
havana,
cuba--A
Cuban dissident leader has backed
off threats to step up protests
demanding the freedom of 13 political
prisoners, saying on Thursday she has
reason to believe they will be released
soon. Laura Pollan, head of the
opposition group "Ladies in White," told
Reuters one of the 13 was told by state
security agents he would be freed in 15
to 30 days. And she thinks all the
prisoners will be released in that time.
"We have received words of
encouragement," she said. "They have not
said at any time that the agreement is
broken, therefore the process of
releases is going to continue."
In a July deal brokered by the
Catholic Church, the Cuban government
agreed to free 52 prisoners held in
jail. Thirteen remain behind bars,
including Pollan's husband, Hector
Maseda. The releases were a response to
international criticism following the
February death of an imprisoned
dissident in an 85-day hunger strike for
improved prison conditions. On Sunday --
four months after the announcement --
the Ladies in White, wives and mothers
of the 52 prisoners, said the government
had missed its deadline and accused it
of deceiving the international
community. The group threatened to step
up pressure if the remaining prisoners
were not freed within three days, but
Pollan says they will wait a while
longer. She said European diplomats and
church officials had assured her in
meetings this week the Cuban government
had not backed out on its release pledge
and "to have confidence."
The women, dressed in white, have
marched every Sunday since the crackdown
demanding the release of their loved
ones. In March, they staged protests for
a week in the streets of Havana and were
harassed by government supporters. The
prisoner who was told he would be
released soon, Diosdado Gonzalez, began
a hunger strike this week, but dropped
it after receiving the good news, Pollan
said. So far, 39 of the 52 have been
released and sent to Spain, which has
agreed to take them in. Cuba wants the
dissidents to leave the country, but the
13 remaining behind bars, say they want
to stay in their homeland. In the
meantime, the government has freed or
agreed to free another 14 prisoners not
included in the original 52. |
|
colombian supreme court to decide on
walid makled extradition
bogota,
colombia--Colombia's
Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin
states the Supreme Court will decide
whether to extradite suspected drug
trafficker Walid Makled to Venezuela,
and that the neighboring country
requested the extradition before the
U.S. "The process is in court, when we
received the request of Venezuela's
government we took all the appropriate
measures, it's a decision which takes
several months in the court and we are
waiting for it to happen," Holguin said,
reports Caracol Radio. The decision is
likely to take several months, the
minister said.
"When we received the request from the Venezuela government
we did all the relevant paperwork.
However, the Court will make a decision
in a few months and we are still
waiting," Holguín told journalists, Efe
quoted. Makled, a Venezuelan born in
Syria, was arrested in Colombia with
support from the DEA, in August 2010.
U.S. and Venezuela have requested his
extradition. Colombia has close ties
with the U.S., and has a tradition of
extraditing criminals to stand trial
there, but is currently in the midst of
a delicate process of restoring
relations with neighboring Venezuela.
The alleged trafficker claims that officials in the
government of Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez are involved in drug trafficking,
and say he will reveal this information
to the U.S. if extradited there. On
Monday Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez
said he was waiting for Colombia to
proceed, and that he had been making
requests for the extradition for months.
The Venezuelan authorities have
requested the extradition of the
businessman who has been charged with
the murder of journalist Orel Sambrano
and veterinarian Francisco Larrazábal. |
|
venezuelan
dictator hugo chavez warns he could
nationalize banks
caracas,
venezuela--Venezuelan
dictator Hugo Chavez on Thursday
warned he would be willing to
nationalize any banks that refuse to
finance housing construction projects
promoted by his government.
Chavez urged the National Assembly, which is controlled
by his allies, to approve a measure
requiring private banks to provide
financing for housing construction. "Any
bank that doesn't comply with the law...
be nationalized," Chavez said in
televised remarks. Banks are currently
required by law in Venezuela to provide
nearly 10 percent of their lending
programs to finance home purchases and
construction projects.
The National Assembly on Thursday gave initial approval
to a bill that describes banking as a
"public service" and gives the
government the authority to declare
banks to be of "public utility." The
bill is expected to be up for final
approval after a second debate in the
coming days. In the past year, the
government has seized control of about a
dozen banks, citing financial problems
and violations of banking rules.
Chavez's government currently controls
about 28 percent of Venezuela's banking
sector. |
|
VENEZUELAN GENERAL'S CHAVEZ LOYALTY
REMARKS SPARK COUP CONCERN
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--Ever
since a Venezuelan general gave a
controversial interview over the weekend
-- in which he pledged the army's
loyalty to President Hugo Chávez -- the
opposition and the president's allies
have been fighting over its meaning.
The opposition claims the statement is
tantamount to saying the armed forces
would not recognize an opposition
victory in the 2012 presidential
elections. The ruling party said the
general's words have been taken out of
context to turn a local interview into
an international scandal.
On Wednesday, the general's statements
caught the attention of Organization of
American States General Secretary Jose
Insulza. In an interview with The Miami
Herald, Insulza said the OAS would not
remain silent as an armed corps
threatens ``insubordination against a
hypothetical future civilian
authority.'' That set off ruling-party
deputy Calixto García, who accused
Insulza of being an opposition puppet
bent on de-legitimizing Chávez. “They've
used Insulza as a useful idiot,'' García
told the state-run news agency Thursday.
``When he learns the truth and clears up
this mess, no one will publish it.''
During an interview with the Ultimas Noticias newspaper
Sunday, General Henry Rangel, the head
of the armed forces Strategic
Operational Command, was asked how the
armed forces would react if the
opposition won the 2012 presidential
election and began ousting officers
loyal to Chávez. Rangel said the armed
forces and the nation would reject any
such attempts. He went on to say he
doubted the opposition would win in 2012
because Chávez's 12-year administration
had brought social changes that previous
governments had failed to deliver. |
|
COSTA RICA PRESIDENT, LAURA CHINCHILLA,
CALLED NICARAGUA'S INVASION AN ACT OF
"AGGRESSION"
SAN
JOSE, COSTA RICA--An
aging border dispute over a jungle river
dividing Nicaragua and Costa Rica
has led to a standoff between heavily
armed state security forces on a remote
river island claimed by both nations.
Costa Rica claims that Nicaragua's
efforts to dredge the San Juan River, a
Nicaraguan waterway that parallels the
border between the two countries, has
``flagrantly'' crossed into Costa Rican
territory. It's a claim Nicaragua
categorically denies. In an address to
the nation, Costa Rican President Laura
Chinchilla accused the Nicaraguan Army
of occupying a swath of Costa Rican
territory called Isla Calero, a large
and uninhabited river island in a remote
area 18.6 miles inland from the
Caribbean Sea.
Chinchilla called Nicaragua's alleged
military incursion an act of
``aggression'' against a country without
an army and rapidly deployed Costa Rican
police armed with military-grade weapons
to the contested area. The president
claims Nicaraguan soldiers have build
field camps, felled trees, dumped river
silt and hoisted the Nicaraguan flag
over Costa Rican territory. ``This is a
serious violation of our sovereignty and
our territorial integrity,'' she said.
Nicaragua's Sandinista government,
meanwhile, claims Costa Rica has invaded
its territory. President Daniel Ortega,
in his own address to the nation this
week accused Costa Rica of threatening
Nicaragua with ``elite troops'' dressed
like ``Rambo.'' Though Costa Rica
officially has no military, its annual
defense budget is nearly three times
that of Nicaragua.
Costa Rica and Nicaragua both point to the same
historic documents -- the 1858 Cańas-Jerez
Treaty and a subsequent clarification of
that treaty from 1888 -- as evidence to
support their interpretations of where
the border lies. But the original
treaty describes the frontier in a
wordy, seven-page description of
landmarks and wandering coordinates --
all written in longhand. Ortega accused
Costa Rica of plotting to steal the
Nicaraguan river, much as Costa Rica
appropriated the former Nicaraguan
territories of Guanacaste and Nicoya 185
years ago. He insisted that a 2009
ruling by the International Court of
Justice at The Hague gives his country
the right to dredge the San Juan River
and restore its historic water flow to
the way it was in 1858. |
|
IRAN, VENEZUELA
PLAN TO BUILD RIVAL TO PANAMA CANAL
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--Analysts
say that the recent Nicaragua-Costa
Rica border incident was a trial
balloon by the creators of a plan to
build a new canal in Latin America. The
recent border dispute between Costa Rica
and Nicaragua is a sign of an ambitious
plan by Venezuela, Iran and Nicaragua to
create a "Nicaragua Canal" linking the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans that would
rival the existing Panama Canal.
Costa Rica says that last week
Nicaraguan troops entered its territory
along the San Juan River – the border
between the two nations. Nicaragua had
been conducting channel deepening work
on the river when the incident
occurred. Sources in Latin America say
that the border incident and the
military pressure on Costa Rica, a
country without an army, are the first
step in a plan formulated by Venezuelan
dictator Hugo Chavez and Nicaraguan
President Daniel Ortega, with funding
and assistance from Iran, to create a
substitute for the strategically and
economically important Panama Canal.
The plan has aroused concern in Washington, and the U.S. has
started behind the scenes efforts to
foil it. Panama is a country with a
distinctly pro-American orientation.
Since its construction was completed in
1914, the Panama Canal has served as an
irreplaceable link between the Atlantic
and Pacific oceans. More than 14,000
ships pass through the canal annually
and recently the one millionth ship
passed the canal since its opening. In
recent years, the government of Ortega,
a former Sandinista underground member,
has tried to gain control of the San
Juan River, which lies on the
Nicaragua-Costa Rica border. Costa Rica
brought the issue before the
international court in The Hague, which
after careful examination of historic
maps, past agreements and terrain
features, determined in July 2009 that
the river belonged to Nicaragua, and
that the border is located on the
southern bank of the river. The court
also ruled that Costa Rica had the right
of free passage on the river. However,
the results of this ruling are not
enough to allow for the implementation
of the plan formulated by Venezuela and
Nicaragua. In order to build a new canal
linking the two oceans, they would also
need to control the southern bank of the
river and the point where the river
meets the Atlantic Ocean. |
|
|
|
OAS' INSULZA STRONGLY REJECTS STATEMENTS
MADE BY VENEZUELAN GENERAL HENRY RANGEL
SILVA
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--Jose
Miguel Insulza, the Secretary General of
the Organization of American States
(OAS), labelled on Wednesday as
"unacceptable" the statements made by
General Henry Rangel Silva, head of the
Strategic Operational Command National,
who said that a hypothetical opposition
government "would amount to selling away
the country."
"I do not have a view about statements
made by senior government officials, but
in this case I make an exception,"
Insulza said in an interview with Andrés
Oppenheimer, a Miami Herald columnist.
"The fact that an army commander threatens with an a priori
insubordination is unacceptable.
Venezuela's ruling civilian authority
should correct that," Insulza said, as
reported by Oppenheimer. General Henry
Rangel Silva, head of the Strategic
Operational Command National said on
Monday that the national armed forces
are completely loyal to the government's
political project. |
|
SPANISH FOREIGN MINISTER, TRINIDAD
JIMENEZ, SAYS SHE TRUST VENEZUELA'S
COUNTERTERRORISM COOPERATION
LA
PAZ, BOLIVIA--Spain
expects to "maintain a cooperation" with
Venezuela "in the fight against
terrorism," at a time when the
Spanish justice requested the
extradition of the Spanish-Venezuelan
citizen Arturo Cubillas, who has been
accused of training members of the
Basque armed group ETA in Venezuela.
"We, as Spanish authorities, expect to
keep cooperation in the fight against
terrorism with Venezuelan authorities,"
Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad
Jiménez said in a news conference held
in La Paz, Bolivia. Jiménez is in an
official visit to the Bolivian capital.
Arturo Cubillas was deported to Caracas
in 1989 along with 10 other ETA members,
under an agreement entered into by and
between Venezuela and Spain. Cubillas is
currently a Venezuelan citizen and a
public servant at the Venezuelan
Ministry of Agriculture and Lands. "What
we have been doing is counting on the
Venezuelan government and with the
governments of many other countries to
achieve their cooperation in the fight
against terrorism," she said.
Jiménez was cautious in her reaction after an exchange of
strong statements between Spain and
Venezuela over the Cubillas issue.
Meanwhile, Marcelino Iglesias, the
"number 3" of the ruling Spanish
Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), said
that this political party "does not
share" the "more optimistic" view about
the complete cessation of violence by
ETA expressed by Jesús Eguiguren, the
president of the Basque socialist group. |
|
GUILLERMO ZULOAGA,
PRESIDENT OF GLOBOVISION TV, AWARDED
IAPA GRAND PRIZE FOR PRESS FREEDOM
Merida,
MEXICO --The
Inter American Press Association (IAPA)
announced today the winners of
the annual awards from the organization
to encourage excellence in journalism
and defense of freedom of expression
throughout the Americas. This year the
Grand Prize for Press Freedom is awarded
to Guillermo Zuloaga, president of the
Globovisión television network of
Venezuela. The information was provided
by Fabricio Altamirano, of the San
Salvador, El Salvador, newspaper El
Diario de De Hoy, chairman of the IAPA's
Awards Committee.
Winners in 11 categories will be
presented with their awards during the
IAPA's 66th General Assembly, to be held
in Mérida, Mexico, November 5-9 at the
Fiesta Americana Mérida Hotel. "We are
delighted to have received such a high
number of high quality entries,"
Altamirano said. "It was very difficult
to choose the final winners." The prizes
consist of $2,000 in cash as well as
plaques and certificates.
"The awarding of the IAPA Grand Prize to Venezuelan
journalist Guillermo Zuloaga honors
every individual in the Americas.
Zuloaga is a symbol in the defense of
press freedom, not only in Venezuela but
throughout the world," declared IAPA
President Alejandro Aguirre, of the
Miami, Florida, newspaper Diario Las
Américas. |
|
IAPA URGES VENEZUELA TO END HARASSMENT
CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE PRESS
MEXICO
CITY, MEXICO--The
Inter-American Press Association (IAPA)
closed on Tuesday its 66th General
Assembly urging Argentina, Bolivia,
Ecuador and Venezuela to end the
"harassment campaigns" against freedom
of expression and demanding Mexico and
Honduras to clarify the murders of
journalists.
In its conclusions on Venezuela, the IAPA - which includes
more than 1,200 media in the hemisphere
- considered that the "reiterated and
systematic violations of the
Constitution, the rule of law, freedom
of expression and the right to
information" have taken away legitimacy
from dictator Hugo Chávez's government,
AFP reported. "We are very concerned" by
the attempts of the governments of
Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador,
Nicaragua and Venezuela to "take control
of independent media," by using
"undemocratic tactics," Robert Rivard,
chairman of the IAPA's Committee on
Freedom of the Press and Information,
said.
The IAPA also expressed concern over the killing of 14
journalists in the first half of 2010,
seven of them in Mexico, five in
Honduras and two in Brazil. It warned
that a common threat is that the attacks
have gone unpunished. Therefore, "one of
the key priorities of the IAPA is to
work to end those crimes and impunity."
In the case of Mexico, the IAPA urged
Mexican Executive Office and Congress to
consider the killing of journalists,
most of them claimed by drug
traffickers, as serious crimes that must
be investigated by federal authorities. |
|
CUBA DENOUNCES NEW VIDEO GAME IN WHICH
PLAYERS TRY TO KILL VIRTUAL FIDEL CASTRO
HAVANA,
CUBA--Cuba
harshly criticized a new video game
in which U.S. special operations
soldiers try to kill a young Fidel
Castro, saying Wednesday that the
violent role-playing glorifies
assassination and will turn American
children into sociopaths. The island's
state-run media also took a dig at the
CIA's real-life efforts to do in the
island's revolutionary leader, who has
survived dozens, perhaps hundreds of
attempts on his life. "What the United
States couldn't accomplish in more than
50 years, they are now trying to do
virtually," said an article posted on
Cubadebate, a state-run news website.
The brouhaha surrounds one of the
most highly anticipated shoot-em-up
video games of the year, "Call of Duty:
Black Ops," which went on sale in the
United States on Tuesday. The game, from
California-based Activision Blizzard
Inc., takes players on secret missions
to American Cold War enemies such as the
Soviet Union, Cuba, Vietnam and Laos.
The Cuban operation is one of the first
challenges players face in the
ultra-realistic game. The mission takes
place with John F. Kennedy in the White
House in the months leading up to the
1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and the 1962
Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought the
world to the brink of nuclear
Armageddon.
Players must shoot their way through
the colonial streets of Havana on a
mission to assassinate Castro, then a
young revolutionary who had recently
overthrown dictator Fulgencio Batista.
In a twist, they end up killing a
body-double and are sent to prison in
Siberia. Cuba said the game attempts to
legitimize murder and assassination in
the name of entertainment "This new
video game is doubly perverse," the
Cubadebate article said. "On the one
hand, it glorifies the illegal
assassination attempts the United States
government planned against the Cuban
leader ... and on the other, it
stimulates sociopathic attitudes in
North American children and
adolescents." "Call of Duty: Black Ops"
is only for sale to players 17 years old
and older. It is not the first
military-style shooter game to generate
controversy this year. |
|
DESPITE OF DICTATOR CHAVEZ'S
EXPROPIATION THREATS, FOOD PRODUCER
POLAR TO INVEST IN YOGHURT MARKET
caracas,
venezuela--Venezuela's
biggest private company, food producer
Empresas Polar, said Tuesday that
it will team up with Spanish
conglomerate Grupo Leche Pascual to
invest about $100 million in a new
yogurt factory. The companies plan to
set up the plant in the north-central
Venezuelan city of Valencia and have
created a joint company, Pascual Andina,
to carry out the project. They plan to
invest more than 450 million Venezuelan
bolivars, or about $105 million, said
Pablo Baraybar, director of Alimentos
Polar, the Venezuelan corporation's food
division.
Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez threatened to "go
after" Polar earlier this year, calling
it a monopoly and accusing it of evading
government price controls on basic
foodstuffs. Polar has denied wrongdoing
and has sought to demonstrate its
commitment to doing business in the
country, while Chavez has recently
ordered the expropriation of other
companies including a subsidiary of
Owens-Illinois Inc. that manufactures
glass containers used by Polar. Tomas
Melendez, international director for
Grupo Leche Pascual, expressed
confidence about the investment plans
when asked about potential risk in
Venezuela due to Chavez's threats
against Polar. "We trust in the country,
we trust in the opportunities that
exist, we trust in free enterprise," he
said. "The solution for this country is
to invest, create work, new businesses,"
Baraybar said. "That's why we're in this
investment, totally confident that it's
going to be successful."
Empresas Polar dominates the food industry in Venezuela and
is the country's largest private
company, with about 30,000 employees. It
produces grains, sauces, cheese, canned
foods, jam, beer, animal food and other
products. Grupo Leche Pascual, based in
the northern Spanish city of Burgos,
produces dairy products, beverages and
tortillas, among other products.
Melendez said the investment in South
America is a first step for his company,
which is considering other investments
in the region. An initial $4.6 million
has been spent to buy an existing
factory and machinery, Baraybar said.
The companies plan to have the plant
completed in 16 months, and then plan to
buy and install thousands of
refrigerated cases to sell the yogurt in
stores. |
|
FORMER MINISTER OF DEFENSE, RAUL
SALAZAR: GENERAL RANGEL SILVA DOES NOT
REFLECT THE VENEZUELAN ARMY'S STANCE
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--According
to FORMER Minister of Defense Raúl
Salazar, the support to the
government of dictator Hugo Chávez
expressed by General Henry Rangel Silva,
the Head of the Strategic Operational
Command (SOC) is not necessarily what
happens inside the army. Reference was
made to the Gen. Rangel Silva's remarks
in an interview with a nationwide major
newspaper. On that occasion, the
official voiced that the army was
"married" to President Chávez's project,
it was loyal to the Head of State and
would not accept an eventual triumph of
the opposition in the presidential
election scheduled for 2012.
The army, Rangel Silva said, "has not
half loyalty but full loyalty to the
people, a life project and the commander
in chief. We are married to this country
project." Salazar thinks that the stance
taken by the SOC head is most serious
because he is the official entrusted
with the task of coordinating Plan
República, the electoral security and
protection operation. Omar Barboza,
deputy elect for Zulia state and a
member of opposition UNT party, acting
as spokesman of the opposition Unified
Democratic Panel (MUD), claimed that
Gen. Rangel Silva violated the National
Constitution.
In the opinion of Diego Arria, ex Venezuelan Ambassador to
the United Nations, "his (Rangel
Silva's) desperate attempt at
compromising and associating the
national armed forces to his
institutional deviation for personal
reasons will not bear fruit. His
comrades in arms are very well
acquainted with him and I am sure they
will refuse his remarks for which he
should be immediately removed." For NGO
Control Ciudadano (Citizen's Monitoring)
the comments made by the military
officer "are inadmissible, particularly
for coming from the second in command in
the national armed forces, which puts
the institution on the wrong side of the
Constitution." |
|
COLOMBIA TO GIVE PRIORITY TO VENEZUELAN
REQUEST FOR WALID MAKLED EXTRADITION
BOGOTA,
COLOMBIA--Diego
Arias, a Colombian political analyst,
said that the resumption of relations
between Colombia and Venezuela had not
been possible if dictator Hugo Chávez
had not promised to support Colombia’s
peace process. It is highly likely
that the alleged drug kingpin Walid
Makled can be extradited to Venezuela,
said Colombian political analyst Diego
Arias. The Colombian expert told
Venezuelan radio station Unión Radio
that in a scenario in which the United
States had first requested the
extradition, President Juan Manuel
Santos, in an effort to strengthen
relations with Venezuelan and in a
reciprocal move, could decide to "deport
him to Venezuela."
"Makled's extradition to Venezuela could
be approved because the Colombian
government is willing to do so and
Santos has operated with relative
independence in several issues,
including from the United States," Arias
said. Makled was arrested by Colombian
authorities on Wednesday, August 18 in
the border town of Cucuta. In the
interview, Makled implicated high-level
officials, from both civilian and
military branches of the government of
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez as being
complicit in the drug trade. "With what
I have, with what I have, I have enough
for them (the United States) to
intervene Venezuela... immediately"
Makled said. Makled has insisted that
upon his extradition to the United
States, he will reveal, "all he knows"
about alleged drug activity by officials
in the Chavez government.
Washington is very interested in the
extradition of Makled. In May of 2009,
the White House designated Makled as a
"Significant Foreign Narcotics
Trafficker" under the Foreign Narcotics
Kingpin Designation Act. On November 5,
2010 Makled was indicted by the US
Attorney for the southern district of
New York, for trafficking tons of
cocaine into the United States. "Makled
is behind bars awaiting extradition to
the United States for his crimes..."
said DEA agent Michele Leonhart. Santos
is undoubtedly under significant
pressure by the Chavez administration --
which could be worried about possible
fallout from evidence that would be made
public should Makled go to trial in New
York -- to extradite Makled instead to
Venezuela. President Santos might be
inclined to extradite Makled back to his
home country of Venezuela, in order to
extend the current thaw with the Chavez
administration. |
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PDVSA TO START SOON OIL DEVELOPMENT IN
CUBA
HAVANA,
CUBA--Venezuela's
dictator Hugo Chávez said on
Monday that Cuba has substantial oil
reserves in its exclusive area in the
Gulf of Mexico. He said that Venezuela
will be drilling "soon" its first oil
well on the island.
"We know that Cuba has a lot of oil and
we will be drilling soon our first oil
well," the Venezuelan president told his
Cuban counterpart Raúl Castro, during
the official celebration of the Tenth
Anniversary of the Comprehensive
Cuba-Venezuela agreement, which was held
in the Havana Convention Center, in
Cuba, AFP reported.
"The rig should be found quickly,
Rafael," Hugo Chávez told Rafael Ramírez,
his Minister of Energy and Petroleum and
president of the state-run oil company
Pdvsa. Chávez suggested that they could
use Brazilian technology. |
|
DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ SAID THAT DRUG
KINGPIN WALID MAKLED WILL BE EXTRADITED
TO VENEZUELA, NOT TO THE USA
HAVANA,
CUBA--Colombia
will extradite a businessman accused of
being a major drug kingpin back to his
native Venezuela to face justice,
not to the United States, Venezuelan
dictator Hugo Chavez said on Sunday on
Cuban television. Chavez said Colombian
President Juan Manuel Santos promised in
a recent meeting that Walid Makled,
known as "The Turk," would go to
Venezuela, not the United States, where
he is also wanted. Chavez fears that
the United States, with whom he has
frosty political relations, would use
Makled to try to discredit him.
Makled was captured in August in
Colombia in a joint operation with the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration,
and the head of Colombian police said at
the time he would be extradited to the
United States. He is accused of shipping
tons of cocaine each month to the United
States and Europe, in an alliance with
Colombian leftist rebels. Chavez said
Santos told him in a meeting on Tuesday
in Venezuela that "he was going to
fulfill that commitment to send this
bandit to Venezuelan justice and I'm
sure he will fulfill it." "I expect that
soon we will have this bandit in front
of Venezuelan courts," said Chavez, who
was in Havana to sign cooperation
agreements with Cuba, a close ally of
socialist Venezuela.
After their meeting, Santos and Chavez
said they agreed to improve relations
between their neighboring countries.
They had clashed last year over a
Colombian plan to allow U.S. troops more
access to its bases. They did not
disclose any accords on Makled, who has
said in a television inteview that he
poured $2 million into a 2007 Chavez
political campaign and in return got a
concession at Venezuela's Puerto
Cabello, his alleged shipping point for
drugs. Chavez said the United States
would get Makled to "vomit" accusations
against him and use them to justify
putting Venezuela on Washington's list
of countries that support drug
trafficking. "I am sure that the
Colombian government is not going to
take part in that game," he said. |
|
DICTATOR CHAVEZ SAYS THAT VENEZUELAN
OPPOSITION TREATS WARLID MAKLED AS A
"HERO"
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--The
state-run TV channel Venezolana de
Televisión broadcasted on Sunday
a special program instead of the weekly
radio and TV show "Hello, President."
The TV program was related to the real
estate "scam," which is a hot topic in
Venezuela. Suddenly, the Venezuelan
dictator made a phone call from Havana
and said "Walid Makled," although he had
no reason to mention the name of the
Venezuelan drug kingpin.
After accusing the opposition of
praising all the things that the
"enemies" of the country do, Chávez
referred to the alleged drug trafficker
Walid Makled, who was arrested in
Colombia. The same drug lord who claims
he has evidence of his relationships
with ministers, generals, admirals and
deputies of the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela.
Chavez
said he expects Colombian President Juan
Manuel Santos fulfills his promise and
extradites Markled
to Venezuela.
"Now, a drug trafficker who fled the
country is considered a hero. We almost
caught him; we captured most of his gang
members, but he fled and was captured in
Colombia. We are waiting for Colombia's
government to proceed and extradite him
to Venezuela," the Venezuelan president
said from the Cuban capital, where he
held a meeting with his counterpart Raúl
Castro to mark the tenth anniversary of
a comprehensive cooperation agreement
between the two countries. |
|
COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT JUAN MANUEL SANTOS
SAYS THAT DICTATOR CHAVEZ IS HIS "NEW
BEST FRIEND"
MEXICO
CITY, MEXICO--Colombian
President Juan Manuel Santos
called Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez
his "new best friend." Santos said these
words when he answered a question of one
of the delegates attending the 66th
Meeting of the Inter-American Press
Association (IAPA), held in Mexico.
"Do you want me to talk to you about my
new best friend? Santos queried.
"Everyone knows that Chávez was not a
member of my fan club and vice versa. We
had the worst relationship. Two
countries with such a large border,
without diplomatic relations, without
dialogue, without trade and facing the
best risk in the world, a war, a term
which is not in my dictionary," he said.
"Neither he expects me to think like him, nor do I
expect him to think like me. There are
big differences, but we did the right
thing. We are on the right track and the
region supports us," the Colombian
president added. Santos was the keynote
speaker at the IAPA Meeting. In his
speech, Santos stressed his commitment
to respect and promote freedom of the
press in the region. |
|
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA SAYS THAT
ALLIANCE WITH INDIA AND THE U.S. SETS
THE DIRECTION OF THE XXI CENTURY
DELHI,
INDIA--United
States and India will create "a defining
and indispensable alliance XXI century",
said yesterday Barack Obama to
relaunch in Mumbai very complex
bilateral relationship, subject to many
obstacles and uncertainties, but loaded
with exceptional possibilities as
corresponds to the major world power and
the nation's fastest growing economic,
technological and population. Obama has
already announced some early successes
of this partnership: the signing of
contracts for U.S. companies selling
products in India worth U.S. $ 10,000
million (7,100 million euros), which
will create over 54,000 jobs in the poor
American labor scene. In return, the
U.S. liberalized its market penetration
in some technology companies that
require such access for their growth.
More deals may be announced in the
future as a result of the business
conference that met in Bombay a half
thousand of some major U.S. and Indian
entrepreneurs. Transportation,
construction, heavy machinery, military
vehicles, appliances, fertilizers ...
India needs to almost anything and make
money to pay. The Indian market, with a
population of 1,200 million, an annual
economic growth around 9% and
accelerated flowering anxious middle
class consumer and lover of all things
American, has long been a priority of
United States . Obama is the sixth
American president to visit this country
and making it the third row.
Other policy priorities and strategic
needs of this region have so far
hindered the completion of the option
for India. In fact, the U.S. represents
less than 10% of imports from India:
sell less to the Asian giant to the
Netherlands, whose population is less
than tha of Bombay. Popularly, in
addition, India has earned a reputation
among Americans, not as a business
opportunity, but as the vampire who
steals their jobs. Obama now wants to
give new verve to this bet. Consume
three days in this country, more than
what has been before in any of his trips
abroad. "The fact that the president is
involved with their presence to enhance
cooperation and exchange of technology
can help a lot, and actually help,"
James McNerney said yesterday, the
chairman of Boeing, one of the brands in
the conference Bombay with improved
business expectations. |
|
VENEZUELAN UNITED PANEL EXPRESSES
"CONFUSION AND CONCERN FOR
DISINFORMATION" CONCERNING TRINIDAD
JIMENEZ'S REMARKS
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--Ramón
Guillermo Aveledo, Executive Secretary
of the Opposition Unified Panel,
sent a five-sheet letter to Spanish
Minister of Foreign Affairs Trinidad
Jiménez expressing "confusion and
concern for disinformation."
Reference was made to the Spanish
Foreign Minister, who said last November
2 in a hearing at the Spanish Parliament
that there are not political prisoners
in Venezuela. In addition to quoting
the opinions based on human rights
abuses and violation of due process from
several specialized global
organizations, Aveledo also reminded
Jiménez of a recent statement from the
plenary session of the Socialist
International, to which her party, PSOE,
is a member.
On that occasion, a report prepared by a special
mission heading for Venezuela was
approved. The paper reported on meetings
between the mission and family members
of "political prisoners." Venezuela,
Aveledo also told Jiménez, "never
hesitated to give shelter and protection
to the Spanish political refugees when
they were chased by the Franco's
dictatorship." |
|
VENEZUELAN POLITICAL PRISONERS URGE
SPANISH PRIME MINISTER RODRIGUEZ
ZAPATERO TO TAKE A STANCE ON TRINIDAD
JIMENEZ'S REMARKS
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--
Twenty-one accused and convicted
Venezuelans, the so-called political
prisoners, categorically rejected
in a lengthy communiqué the statements
made by Spanish Foreign Minister
Trinidad Jiménez. Previously, in a
Senate hearing the senior officer said,
among other things, that in all the
court cases, current regulations have
been enforced. Jiménez also said that
there are no political prisoners in
Venezuela.
The communiqué was signed by former
police officers Lázaro Forero, Henry
Vivas, Erasmo Bolívar, Luis Molina
Cerrada, Arube Pérez Salazar, Marco
Hurtado, Héctor Rovain, Julio Rodríguez,
Silvio Mérida Ortiz; Captain (Army) Otto
Gebauer; former police commissioners
Juan Bautista Guevara Pérez, Otoniel
José Guevara, Rolando Jesús Guevara,
General (National Guard) Felipe
Rodríguez, General (Army) Delfín Gómez
Parra, as well as businessman Gustavo
Arráiz; Asdrúbal Lugo, Mario Martínez,
John Pernia, Judge María Lourdes Afiuni,
and the opposition politician Alejandro
Peńa Esclusa.
The group recalled statements of international
organizations on the violation of due
process and urged Spanish Prime Minister
Rodríguez Zapatero to take a stance on
the issue. |
|
REPUTED DRUG KINGPIN KILLED IN MEXICO
SHOOTOUT
MEXICO
CITY, MEXICO--Mexican
marines killed a reputed Gulf cartel
leader and one of Mexico's most-wanted
drug lords in a spectacular,
hours-long gunbattle near the U.S.
border, the latest in a growing number
of hits on the country's drug kingpins.
Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, also
known as "Tony Tormenta" or "Tony the
Storm," was killed Friday along with
four of his gunmen and three marines in
the city of Matamoros, across from
Brownsville, Texas, the Mexican navy
said in a statement. A soldier and a
local reporter were also killed in
related mayhem that began Friday morning
and lasted into the evening. Across the
city, residents holed up in their homes
and offices to escape the violence,
communicating by Facebook and Twitter.
"Shelter, everyone! Don't leave your
houses please. Pass the word," read one
tweet.
Cardenas Guillen, 48, is believed to
have run the powerful cartel along with
Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez, moving
cocaine and marijuana into the United
States. He had been indicted on
drug-trafficking charges in the U.S.,
where authorities had offered a $5
million reward for information leading
to his arrest. Mexican authorities
offered a $2 million reward and had him
on their list of the nation's
most-wanted drug traffickers. He was
killed in a two-hour shootout in an
operation that included 150 marines,
three helicopters and 17 military
vehicles and that was the result of more
than six months of intelligence work,
the Mexican navy said in a statement.
The navy said troops showing up to
arrest Cardenas Guillen were met with
grenades and heavy weapon fire. Gun
battles had raged throughout the city
since the morning.
The Matamoros newspaper El Expreso said on its website that
reporter Carlos Guajardo was killed
covering one of the shootouts. Local
news media reported Guajardo was leaving
the area of the clash when his car was
hit by gunfire more than 20 times.
Reporters at nearby El Expreso huddled
in the newsroom and published nothing on
its website about the violence except
for their colleague's death. The gunfire
started as early as 11 a.m. at an
upscale residential area in Matamoros,
according to a resident who didn't want
to be named for fear of retaliation. The
deceased trafficker's brother Osiel
Cardenas Guillen led the Gulf cartel
until his arrest by Mexican authorities
in a similarly violent shootout in
Matamoros in 2003. Osiel was extradited
to the United States in 2007 and
sentenced to 25 years in prison by a
Texas court in February. Cardenas
Guillen's death is a major boost to
Calderon's war on drug cartels. |
|
VENEZUELAN VICE-PRESIDENT, ELIAS JAUA,
SUPPORTS NATIONALIZATION IMPOSED BY
DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA-Vice-President
Elías Jaua, on visit to dairy
maker Los Andes in western Lara state,
thinks that workers have guaranties only
in a state-owned company. Jaua
challenged the private sector, trade
unions and the whole opposition to go
face to face in the streets in order to
really know how many people favor or
take issue with nationalizations.
"Some trade unions in line with the
business leadership are over there,
fostering demonstrations against
nationalizations. I wish they do it for
them to see the mother of demonstrations
of workers and peasants. If we are going
to assess our strengths in the streets,
then we will do it, and the roar and
power of Venezuelan peasants and workers
will be felt," the Vice-President said.
He made the challenge in western Lara
state during a ceremony where credits
were granted to workers of dairy
manufacturer Los Andes.
The Vice-President also reported on seizure of carrier Aser
C.A., which will form part of Enlandes.
He said that the Venezuelan State had
previously seized the company, but
President Hugo Chávez just authorized
the payment for the procurement. |
|
INDUSTRIALISTS WARN AGAINST PLAN TO
DESTROY THE VENEZUELAN PRIVATE SECTOR
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--
The Venezuelan government is
taking steps to destroy the private
sector of the economy, said Carlos
Larrazábal, the president of the
Venezuelan Confederation of Industries (Conindustria).
"We are aware that the
socialist-oriented or rather the
communist-oriented policies implemented
by this government are not going to stop
until reaching their goal of destroying
the private sector of the economy,
according to the platform adopted by the
United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV),
which was approved in April 2010," said
the business leader in the event called
"2011 Outlook" hosted by Conindustria.
The consolidation of the
expropriation policy implemented by the
government is only attributable to the
president's efforts to implement an
ideological project rather than
achieving positive economic results. "It
has been abundantly demonstrated that a
country without economic and social
freedoms, without legal security and
independence of powers, without firm and
solid respect for the right to property,
and without a system that encourages
hard work and free enterprise will never
attain the desired goals of development
and eradication of poverty," Larrazábal
stressed. |
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ALL 68 ABOARD KILLED IN CUBAN PLANE
CRASH
HAVANA,
CUBA--Cuban
authorities say there are no
survivors after a state airliner
carrying 40 Cubans and 28 foreigners
crashed in a fireball on the island's
central mountains. AeroCaribbean Flight
883 was en route from the eastern city
of Santiago de Cuba to the capital city
of Havana when it lost contact with air
traffic controllers and went down
Thursday evening in mountains near the
village of Guasimal. State media said
the pilot issued an emergency call just
before contact was severed. Cuba's
civil aviation authority announced today
that there were no survivors. A
government website published a list of
the 61 passengers and seven crew members
who died. It lists the names of 28
foreigners, including nine Argentines,
seven Mexicans, three Dutch citizens,
two Germans, two Austrians, a Spaniard,
a Frenchman, an Italian, a Japanese
citizen and a Venezuelan. All seven crew
members were Cuban.
State media published photos of the
plane's wreckage on fire deep in a thick
forest, with Cuban officials in olive
military fatigues milling around it. The
jet's model number, CU-T15, can be seen
amid the flames. Another photo shows
workers operating a bulldozer cutting
through thick brush to reach the
disaster site. Reuters quoted witnesses
on the ground as telling state media
that the plane made "several brusque
movements before falling to the ground."
After the plane crashed at 5:42 p.m.
local time, medical facilities in the
area were put on alert for multiple
casualties. But by midnight they were
told to stand down once authorities
realized there were no survivors.
Flight 883 flies twice a week from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to
Havana, stopping in Santiago de Cuba. It
was due to land in the Cuban capital at
7:50 p.m., Al-Jazeera reported. The
plane was a Russian-made ATR-72-212
belonging to Cuba's state airline. The
plane was one of the last to take off
from Haiti ahead of Tropical Storm
Tomas, which is swirling in the
Caribbean and forecast to hit Haiti this
weekend. Cuban authorities say that the
cause of the crash is under
investigation, and that it's too soon to
tell if weather played a factor. This
is Cuba's worst plane crash since 1989,
when a Soviet-made Ilyushin-62M crashed
after takeoff from Havana, killing all
126 people aboard, according to Reuters. |
|
SPAIN VOICES "SERIOUS DISCOMFORT" OVER
VENEZUELAN CLAIMS
MADRID,
SPAIN--Spanish
National Court Judge Eloy Velasco,
who in the context of the
investigation into the links between
Basque group ETA and the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
suggested a likely cooperation between
Hugo Chávez’s government and the Basque
separatist organization, is prosecuting
Arturo Cubillas, an alleged member of
ETA who lives in Venezuela.
The government of Spanish Prime Minister
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is upset
about a communiqué issued by the
Venezuelan Foreign Ministry which
accused the Spanish political class of
"political cowardice" and of seeking to
justify "its failure" in the fight
against ETA by "trying to fob the
Venezuelan Government and its people off
with that scourge."
The Spanish First Vice President and Minister of the Interior
Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba described the
statement as "unacceptable and
unjustifiable," reported DPA. The
Spanish socialist government has already
communicated to Venezuela its "serious
discomfort" about the statements issued
by the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry on
Thursday, said Pérez Rubalcaba. Spanish
Minister of Foreign Affairs and
Cooperation Trinidad Jiménez conveyed
Madrid's message to Venezuelan
Ambassador to Spain Isaías Rodríguez.
Spanish National Court Judge Eloy
Velasco, who in the context of the
investigation into the links between
Basque group ETA and the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
suggested a likely cooperation between
Hugo Chávez's government and the Basque
separatist organization, is prosecuting
Arturo Cubillas, an alleged member of
ETA who lives in Venezuela. |
|
WORKERS OF FOOD GIANT EMPRESAS POLAR
BRING CHARGES AGAINST VENEZUELAN
DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--A
group of workers of Venezuela's biggest
beer producer, and food and drink
giant company Empresas Polar went to the
Attorney General office to bring charges
"against dictator Hugo Chávez for
psychological violence through
harassment and threats against the
company they work for" in his public
speeches.
Carmen Torrealba, the wife of a worker
in the food and beverage plant owned by
Grupo Polar, said that "we have been
victims of psychological abuse due to
the continuing threats from President
Chávez about a likely expropriation of
the company."
"We want to clarify that this is not
a political issue. We came here on our
own initiative", the spokeswoman of the
group said. "We have nothing to do with
Lorenzo Mendoza (CEO of Empresas
Polar)." She added that the document
submitted to the Attorney General Office
was supported by 1,300 signatures.
|
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VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ
ANNOUNCES SEIZURE OF VENEZUELA STEEL
MAKER (SIDETUR)
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--Venezuela's
DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ kept
people in suspense during at least two
hours of his weekly radio and TV show
"Hello, President!," as he said that he
would announce a new takeover. Chávez
suggested that he would seize cocoa
processing companies if they did not
join "a strategic agreement with the
State." Chávez recommended Lorenzo
Mendoza, the president of food giant
manufacturer and supplier Empresas
Polar, to stay calm because "for now" he
has no intentions to take any action
against his companies. Finally, a few
minutes before 5 p.m., President Chávez
announced the expropriation of the
country's largest privately owned
steelmaker Siderúrgica del Turbio (Sidetur).
"This is the steel division of
(Venezuelan steel producer) Sivensa (Siderúrgica
Venezolana), which manufactures steel
products for the construction industry.
Sidetur produces 40 percent of rebars in
the domestic market," said Chávez
reading the decree and then he said:
"They sell very expensive (products)."
Sidetur has six plants and 15 scrap recycling centers,
located in the cities of Caracas,
Guarenas, Valencia, Barquisimeto and
Puerto Ordaz. "All those properties will
go to people's hands," Chávez said.
"(Lorenzo) Mendoza, I hope that your
workers do not try to stop this (the
expropriation.). The National Guard must
mobilize immediately, without stifling
anybody. They just have to enforce my
orders." Chávez also mentioned the
support that workers of Empresas Polar
gave to their colleagues of the
Venezuelan unit of US bottle
manufacturer Owens Illinois. He
threatened the food and beverage giant.
"If Polar goes on strike, Chávez will
not be overthrown but maybe Mendoza (Polar's
CEO) could be toppled." He advised the
Venezuelan businessman to follow the
example of the President of the Cisneros
Group, who "decided not to mess with me
... Mendoza do not let yourself be
swayed by other crazy people."
At the beginning of his Sunday TV and radio program,
Chávez said: "I invite everyone to help
us to become again an important cocoa
producer," but a few minutes later he
said: "We will sign a decree. We do not
need a law to declare cocoa a strategic
product, all lands able to grow cocoa,
the public and private productive
sectors. I want you (Vice President
Elías Jaua) to call the private sector,
to establish a strategic agreement. If
they do no want it, that will be it," he
said. The Venezuelan President also
announced the expropriation of six
housing developments "in order to
complete their construction and award
the apartments ... and set penalties
amounting to 5,000 tax units."
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MORE THAN 20 TONS OF MARIjUANA FOUND IN
A MEXICO-U.S. TUNNEL
SAN
DIEGO, CALIFORNIA--Federal
authorities in San Diego have
made one of the largest marijuana
seizures in the United States,
confiscating more than 20 tons of
marijuana that was smuggled into the country
through an underground tunnel connecting
warehouses on either side of
California's border with Mexico,
officials said Wednesday. Mexican
authorities seized more than four tons
of pot from the warehouse on their side
of the border. The marijuana is worth
more than $20 million if sold on the
streets of San Diego, said U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Director John Morton. The bricks of pot
were packaged for sale. "This is
obviously the work of a cartel," said
Morton, who held a news conference
outside the warehouse in an industrial
park near the Otay Mesa truck crossing,
across from Tijuana.
Officials said the lightening-speed, 12-hour operation
started Tuesday night when U.S.
authorities watching a warehouse under
surveillance followed a tractor-trailer
as it left the building. ICE agents
called in the California Highway Patrol,
whose officers stopped the rig near
Temecula, Calif., about 60 miles way.
Authorities say they found 10 tons of
marijuana inside the tractor-trailer.
The driver, a U.S. citizen, and his
Mexican wife were arrested and will be
arraigned in San Diego on Thursday.
Authorities quickly obtained a federal
search warrant to enter the warehouse,
where they discovered 10 to 15 more tons
of marijuana, Morton said. They also
found the opening to the tunnel, which
ran the length of six football fields
under the border and ended at a
warehouse in Mexico, Morton said. The
tunnel had lighting, ventilation and a
rail system to send loads of illegal
drugs into California.
Officials said the seizure was the largest ever in
California and was believed to be the
second-largest in the U.S. The largest
amount of marijuana seized by Drug
Enforcement Administration agents was in
2008 in Oregon, where 33 tons were
found, DEA special agent Ralph W.
Partridge said. Officials have found 125
underground tunnels along the border
built by Mexican drug cartels to elude
detection since the early 1990s, ICE
officials said. Of those, 75 have been
found in the past four years. Many were
discovered before they were completed.
The majority were found along the
California and Arizona borders with
Mexico. Morton said such a rapid bust,
which came after a monthlong
investigation, was possible because of
cooperation between U.S. and Mexican
authorities. He said that cooperation is
better than ever, making it tougher for
Mexican drug traffickers to move their
loads and forcing their smuggling
businesses to move underground. |
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IOE DEMANDED THE VENEZUELAN GOVERNMENT
TO INVESTIGATE ATTACK AGAINST FEDECAMARAS
LEADERS
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--The
International Organization of Employers
(IOE) demanded the Venezuelan
authorities to investigate and punish
the perpetrators of an attack against
four executive of the Venezuelan
Federation of Trade and Industry
Chambers (Fedecámaras) last week.
"The IOE urged the Director General of the International
Labor Organization to ask the Committee
on Freedom of Association to examine
urgently this new attack against
Fedecámaras leaders and to demand the
Venezuelan authorities to conduct a
thorough investigation into its attack,
to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators
and put an end to the physical violence,
the confiscation of property and the
verbal violence with which it constantly
attacks Venezuelan businessmen and
Venezuelan private companies," the IOE
said in a statement.
The text added that the attack against the executives of
Fedecámaras sought to "remove" the
leaders of the business sector. "It
appears, based on the way the attack was
perpetrated, that the goal was to remove
the leaders of the business sector in
Venezuela, even though the group of
armed men faked a kidnapping." |
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cuba TO GET FIRST SEMINARY IN 50 YEARS
HAVANA,
CUBA--The
Catholic Church today opens its first
new seminary in Cuba in more than half a
century in a further sign of
improving relations with the island’s
communist-led government. Workers this
week put the final touches to the
salmon-coloured complex of buildings
organised around a chapel with
stained-glass windows, 15km south of
Havana. The seminary replaces a similar
complex expropriated by Cuba’s communist
authorities in 1966 and transformed
first into a military barracks, then a
police academy.
Catholic officials said Cuban president
Raul Castro was expected to attend the
inauguration, reflecting the more
cordial relations that now exist between
the church and the government. The two
institutions were at odds for a long
period following the 1959 revolution
that put Fidel Castro in power and
transformed the island into a communist
state. Since Raul Castro took over the
presidency in 2008 because of his elder
brother’s failing health, he has sought
better relations with what is one of the
country’s largest and most socially
influential institutions outside of
government. President Castro turned to
the church this year to serve as an
internal interlocutor as he faced
growing international pressure over
political prisoners and human rights.
Cuban church leader Cardinal Jaime Ortega negotiated with him
the ongoing release of more than 50
political prisoners and, according to
western diplomats, opened an unofficial
line of communication between Cuba and
the US, which still do not have full
formal diplomatic relations. The
seminary will be used to train new Cuban
Catholic priests, who have been in short
supply since the revolution. To help
celebrate the inauguration of the new
facility, bishops from the Vatican and
several countries are due to attend,
among them Thomas Wenski, the Archbishop
of Miami, who is at the heart of the
Cuban exile community in the US.
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cuban-american david rivera wins a
florida congressional seat
miami,
florida--Republican
David Rivera decisively staved off a
challenge to win a Florida congressional
seat Tuesday, as a conservative
current swept Florida GOP candidates
into office. Rivera, an eight-year state
representative who quickly rose to
prominence in Tallahassee, ran on his
experience as Florida House budget chief
to defeat Democrat Joe Garcia.
“Tonight, the people won, the voters who
wanted positive change -- real change --
won,'' an exultant Rivera said late
Tuesday during his campaign party at the
Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. ``The
residents wanted a campaign based on the
issues, on the economy.''
The high-profile contest, targeted by
both parties vying for the swing 25th
congressional district, was
characterized by mud-slinging between
the two candidates, both well-known
Cuban Americans with longtime ties to
local politics. Rivera's clear victory
-- despite a slew of character attacks
against him during the campaign --
reflected the national mood of an
electorate angry about the economy and
willing to overlook candidates'
questionable actions in the past if they
promised to stand up to Democrats in
Washington.
As with Republicans across the country, Rivera's message of
fiscal restraint proved popular with
voters in the GOP-leaning 25th, a
district almost evenly split among
Democrats, Republicans and independents
that reaches from western Miami-Dade to
eastern Collier County. The district has
always been represented by Republican
Mario Diaz-Balart, who helped draw the
seat for himself and is now moving to a
neighboring, more GOP-friendly seat
being vacated by his brother, Lincoln.
Mario Diaz-Balart was automatically
elected to the post when he drew no
opposition. Rivera, a hard-working movie
buff and baseball fan known for his
astute political eye, successfully tied
Garcia, a former Obama administration
official, to divisive Washington
policies and to now-ousted House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi. |
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spain foreign minister trinidad jimenez
IS ASSURED that in venezuela "there are
no political prisoners"
MADRID, SPAIN--There
are no political prisoners in Venezuela,
according to Trinidad Jiménez, the new
Spanish Foreign Minister. She said that
her government will continue to make
efforts for the release of people
imprisoned around the world for
dissenting from authorities.
Jiménez's comments on Venezuela came
during a Senate hearing in which a
representative of the Basque Nationalist
Party (PNV) asked her about the steps
that the government of José Luis
Rodríguez Zapatero would take to attain
the release of Venezuelans who have been
arrested for alleged political reasons.
Senator Ińaki Anasagasti cited as an
example the case of Judge María de
Lourdes Afiuni, who was the head of the
31st Control Court in Caracas.
Jiménez stressed that the defense of human rights is a
priority for the Spanish government. But
she denied that there are political
prisoners in Venezuela, based on the
data provided by Amnesty International
and Human Rights Watch. |
|
VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ AND
COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT JUAN MANUEL SANTOS
MEET IN CARACAS
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--Venezuela's
DICTATOR Hugo Chávez welcomed on Tuesday
morning Colombian PRESIDENT Juan
Manuel Santos in his first
official visit to Venezuela to
strengthen bilateral cooperation, after
the resumption of diplomatic relations
between the two countries. The first
item in the agenda was a ceremony where
the Colombian president laid a wreath on
the sarcophagus of Liberator Simón
Bolívar in the National Pantheon in
Caracas.
The symbolic act was part of the meeting
agenda that the Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez and his Colombian
counterpart Juan Manuel Santos scheduled
on August 10 in the Colombian town of
Santa Marta. Santos's visit is intended
to continue to draft agreements on
border security and strengthen economic
relations between the two South American
countries. During their brief
welcome and greeting speeches, the two
presidents stressed the importance of
maintaining stable bilateral relations
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos
was honored at the Palace of Miraflores,
the official seat of the Executive
branch of government in Venezuela. At
12:57 p.m., Venezuelan President Hugo
Chávez took the floor and warned that he
would be brief, because "there is much
work to do."
Santos recalled a non-aggression treaty
his uncle, former Colombian President
Eduardo Santos, signed with Venezuela 71
years ago. The treaty established the
diplomatic means to settle differences
between the two countries. "I would like
to ratify the treaty telling you that
the two countries must work together; (I
mean) you and me, because if we work
together our people will benefit and if
we fight each other our people will be
damaged," he said. Santos added that he
was accompanied by five members of his
ministerial cabinet and a big delegation
in order to ratify and assess the
progress of bilateral agreements. The
symbolic act was part of the meeting
agenda that Venezuelan President Hugo
Chávez and his Colombian counterpart
Juan Manuel Santos scheduled on August
10 in the Colombian town of Santa Marta.
After the ceremony, the two presidents
went to the Miraflores Palace, the seat
of the Venezuelan Executive Office.
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COSTA RICA DENOUNCES INCURSION INTO ITS
TERRITORY OF NICARAGUAN TROOPS
SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA--Costa
Rica on Monday asked the
Organization of American States to call
an urgent meeting to address an alleged
incursion by Nicaraguan troops onto
Costa Rican soil. Security Minister Jose
Tijerino said more police had been sent
to the northeastern border with
Nicaragua after authorities detected
Nicaraguan troops on Calero, an island
in the San Juan River claimed by Costa
Rica. "The police will be properly
equipped ... but we will avoid, as much
as we can, a confrontation that will
only aggravate the situation," Tijerina
said. The border river has been a source
of disputes between the Central American
neighbors for nearly two centuries.
Last year, the United Nations' highest
court set travel rules for the San Juan,
affirming freedom for Costa Rican boats
to navigate the waterway while upholding
Nicaragua's right to regulate traffic.
In their latest dispute, the two nations
have been squabbling over Nicaragua's
dredging in the river. Costa Rica
claimed the work was causing
environmental damage on its soil, a
charge Nicaragua denied. Costa Rica said
that after receiving reports of
Nicaraguan soliders on its soil, it
initially sent some 70 police
reinforcements to the border area Oct.
22. That was the day after Costa Rica
formally complained to Nicaragua's
ambassador about the dredging. The
Nicaraguan government denied Monday that
it has caused environmental damage, and
said its troops have not intruded on
Costa Rican territory.
Nicaragua's army chief of staff, Gen. Julio Aviles,
said the soldiers are on the Nicaraguan
side of the border as part of an
anti-drug operation. Aviles contended
the allegation about Nicaraguan troops
violating Costa Rican territory was made
by members of a Nicaraguan family living
in San Jose, Costa Rica's capital. He
alleged the family is involved in drug
trafficking and is trying to undermine
the Nicaraguan army's anti-drug fight.
"The army has always maintained a
constant guard on the San Juan River in
its fight against international drug
trafficking and at no time has violated
international norms and treaties, nor
has it invaded foreign territory,"
Aviles said. |
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SPAIN'S TOP DIPLOMAT DISCUSSES EUROPEAN
UNION, CUBA
MADRID, SPAIN--The
minister of Foreign Affairs and
Cooperation, Trinidad Jiménez,
said today that the accord reached in
the European Union regarding Cuba allows
the opening of "a new stage in the
relations" with the regime of brothers
Fidel and Raúl Castro. [Addressing the
Senate,] Jiménez said the accord [...]
is fruit of "a new consensus being
articulated around the positions that
Spain has traditionally maintained."
She stressed that "a change" is
occurring in Cuba that requires a
dialogue so the reforms may consolidate
and pointed out that the Spanish
Government has maintained "a prudent but
demanding and active diplomacy" toward
the Castro regime. Jiménez stated that
"the absence of dialogue never produces
results. Results are obtained with a
dialogue that leaves no issue untouched"
and added that it can now "be said with
legitimate satisfaction that the
dialogue with Cuba has been extensive."
The minister explained that the EU's new position
regarding Cuba, which establishes a
channel of direct communication between
both parties, will allow [the EU and
Cuba] "to overcome the unilateralism"
that has existed in their relationship
for years. She also referred to the
defense of human rights as a
"fundamental pillar" that always
predominates in the European Union's
relationship with any country in the
world, which led her to guarantee that
the accords made with the island in the
future will be linked to that issue. |
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BRAZIL PICKS A FORMER MARXIST GUERRILLA AS
PRESIDENT
BRASILIA,
BRAZIL--
Dilma Rousseff, a former
Marxist guerrilla turned economist and key
confidant to Brazilian President Luiz
Inácio Lula da Silva, was elected Sunday
to succeed him in a runoff vote against
Jose Serra, former governor of Sao Paulo
and minister to Fernando Henrique
Cardoso, Lula's predecessor Rousseff's
victory was widely seen as an
endorsement of Lula's policies, enacted
over eight years in office, and a desire
to continue them. Lula's stewardship of
the economy and social programs lifted
millions out of poverty and expanded the
middle class. Additionally, under Lula's
watch, Brazil became a global force,
being named host of the 2016 Olympics
and being credited for making
pharmaceuticals more affordable to
developing countries. Although Rousseff
started off here largely unknown, not
having held any previous elected office,
she campaigned on a platform of
continuity. Lula was often by her side
at events as well as in television
advertisements.
Rousseff, a 62-year-old reserved intellectual and opera
aficionado who enjoys attending concerts
at the Kennedy Center for Performing
Arts in Washington, also becomes
Brazil's first female president and
Latin America's fourth in recent years.
She won largely because Brazilians are
delighted with the state of their
country and with Lula, whose popularity
registered 82 percent this week. Not
only the poor but all classes have
benefited from the booming economy, and
Brazil has become a magnet for foreign
investors. “Lula is the genuine
popular leader,'' said Paulo Sotero,
director of the Brazil Institute at the
Woodrow Wilson Center. He said in
addition to his importance to the
working class, ``businesses are not
complaining. Bankers are not
complaining. And Rousseff is the
beneficiary of this.''
This was Serra's second attempt to become president. Though
he is well-respected as a manager, his
campaign had difficulty gaining
traction. He also was portrayed as
pro-privatization. This is the second
straight presidential election that his
party has lost because of that strategy,
according to Sergio Amaral, an informal
advisor and former communications
minister under Cardoso. Amaral said that
Serra really was in ``favor of a
stronger state,'' such that ``it
provides the right incentives for the
private sector.'' He cited President
Barack Obama's healthcare bill and
energy initiative as what Serra
considered as models. Rousseff earned
respect from Lula as his minister of
energy. In that role, she helped resolve
major electricity shortages. In 2005 she
became Lula's chief of staf during a
time when his administration was rocked
by corruption scandals and his
government came close to collapsing. In
this position, she was side by side with
Lula during his surprisingly warm
relations with former President George
W. Bush. |
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CUBAN DICTATOR RAUL CASTRO TO SEND 3
MORE POLITICAL PRISONERS TO EXILE IN
SPAIN
HAVANA, CUBA--Roman
Catholic officials on Monday
announced the names of three more Cuban
prisoners who have accepted exile in
Spain in return for freedom. One of the
men, Adrian Alvarez Arenciba, has been
in jail since 1985 for espionage and
other violations of state security.
Another, Ramon Fidel Basulto Garcia, was
convicted of hijacking in 1994. Both
were serving 30-year sentences. The
third man, Joel Torres Gonzalez, does
not appear on the most widely used list
of Cuban dissidents or political
prisoners.
The church issued a statement saying all three will
shortly be sent to Spain, along with
their families. Under an agreement
hammered out with the church in July,
dictator Raul Castro faces a Sunday
deadline to free the last 13 of 52
remaining prisoners of conscience
arrested in 2003. Thirty-nine have left
for Spain so far - along with 11 people
jailed separately, often for violent
offenses. None of the three named Monday
are part of the group of opposition
leaders, activists and intellectuals
rounded up in that 2003 crackdown,
however. When the deal was struck, there
was no mention of exile being a
condition for release, though all the
prisoners who have been freed so far
have accepted the arrangement. The
remaining 13 seem determined to stay in
Cuba, and several have said they will
continue fighting for democratic
political change once released. That is
a direct challenge for a government that
describes the opposition as mercenaries
paid by Washington to destabilize the
island's socialist system.
Cuba won praise in Europe when it agreed to release the
prisoners, but pressure is mounting to
finish the job. Guillermo Farinas, a
dissident who won Europe's Sakharov
human rights prize in October after
staging a 134-day hunger strike in
support of the prisoners, told The
Associated Press that he will stop
eating again Nov. 8 if the remaining
dissidents are not in their homes. The
Ladies in White, a group of wives and
mothers of the 2003 political prisoners,
have also vowed increased activity if
the government backs away from its
promise. Church officials have said
privately that they are waiting to see
if the government will keep its word.
Cuban officials have had no comment on
the deadline. |
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suicide bomber wounds 32 in istanbul's
main square
ISTANBUL, TURKEY--A
suicide bomber wounded 32 people in an
attack targeting Turkish police in
Istanbul's main square Sunday, an area
teaming with tourists and shoppers. No
organization has claimed responsibility,
officials said, though the city has been
targeted in the past by Kurdish
separatist militants and al Qaeda, as
well as militants from Turkey's
far-left. Istanbul police chief Huseyin
Capkin said a man had approached police
stationed at the square before blowing
himself up. Television footage
immediately after the explosion appeared
to show police firing warning shots and
people fleeing in panic.
Fifteen policemen and 17 civilians
were wounded in the attack at 10.40 a.m.
in Taksim Square, but only nine, mostly
police, were kept in hospital, Istanbul
Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu told
reporters. Taksim Square is a tourist
and transport hub surrounded by
restaurants, shops and hotels, at the
heart of modern Istanbul. The bomber
struck near police buses parked close to
a monument commemorating Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey,
and victory in the war of independence
in 1923. The police presence in Taksim
is raised around national holidays like
Republic Day, which was celebrated
Friday. Mobile phone footage taken just
after the explosion showed a woman lying
close to the monument bleeding heavily
from her leg, and a policeman also lying
with blood streaming from his head.
A taxi driver told CNN Turk news channel
he saw a 30 to 33-year-old man approach
the police to ask directions, at which
point the bomb detonated. Another
witness said he saw two men. According
to the governor, police seized plastic
explosives found with a detonator at the
scene, though it was unclear whether
they had been part of a second bomb.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was
visiting Mardin, in the mainly Kurdish
southeast, when the blast struck his
hometown. "Those who threaten Turkey's
peace, security and development will not
be tolerated," he said in a televised
speech. "These kinds of attacks will not
stop Turkey reaching its goals of peace,
brotherhood and development. We are
together, we are brothers." Istanbul is
the business and financial center of
Turkey, an overwhelmingly Muslim nation
of 75 million people that is hoping to
become a member of the European Union. |
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FORMER ARGENTINE PRESIDENT NESTOR
KIRCHNER BURIED IN SOUTHERN ARGENTINA
RIO
GALLEGOS, ARGENTINA--Former
Argentine president Nestor Kirchner was
buried late Friday in Rio Gallegos, the
Patagonian city of his birth.
Kirchner, who was president from
2003-07, died Wednesday at age 60 of a
massive heart attack in his home town El
Calafate. He was buried at the municipal
cemetery in an intimate ceremony in
which his widow, Argentine President
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, was
accompanied by Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez and a small group of relatives
and friends. Hundreds of thousands of
people paid their last respects to
Kirchner and comforted his widow during
a 26-hour wake at the government palace
in Buenos Aires. Several Latin American
leaders were also present.
In Buenos Aires, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva expressed his sadness over
Kirchner's death. Before boarding his
plane back to Brazil after the funeral,
Lula told reporters that Kirchner was 'a
comrade' for whom he had 'enormous
respect. 'He managed to get Argentina
out of the economic hole in which it
was. This has been the most important
legacy of president Kirchner,' Lula
said. The presidents of Bolivia, Chile,
Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and
Venezuela also travelled to Buenos Aires
to bid farewell to Kirchner.
Lula said Kirchner was 'more than just a president,' adding
that he was 'a comrade who helped build
a Latin America where we are not
alone.' 'I leave sad because Kirchner
is gone. But I leave happy because the
Argentine people are giving great
support to Cristina,' Lula said. In
pouring rain, Kirchner's remains were
escorted by hundreds of people to the
Jorge Newbery airport, and as the
funeral cortege inched forward, people
threw threw flowers and Argentine flags
at it. Kirchner's body was flown to Rio
Gallegos, in the Patagonian province of
Santa Cruz, some 2,600 kilometres
southwest of Buenos Aires. There,
another crowd gathered to escort the
body to the municipal cemetery. The
convoy took three hours to travel 8
kilometres from the airport to the
cemetery, where Kirchner was buried at a
family vault in a private ceremony.
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2 KOREAS HOLD REUNIONS FOR WAR-SPLIT
FAMILIES
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
Hundreds of Korean family members
separated for more than half a century
by the Korean War embraced each other in
tearful reunions Saturday, a day after
troops exchanged gunfire in the
Demilitarized Zone dividing the
countries. "I thought you were dead.
Mother missed you so much," 61-year-old
South Korean Lee Min-gwan told his
90-year-old North Korean father, Ri Jong
Ryol, according to pool reports by local
reporters. "I did not forget (you) every
single day for the past 60 years," Ri
replied to his son, who was 100 days old
when they were separated during the war.
Foreign media were not allowed to
cover the reunions. Lee was among 436
South Koreans who traveled by bus to
North Korea's Diamond Mountain resort
Saturday to take part in the three-day
reunions with about 100 North Korean
relatives. The event is the first in a
two-part series of reunions. On
Wednesday, about 200 North Koreans are
to begin similar three-day reunions with
their South Korean relatives at the same
resort. Millions of Korean families were
separated after the Korean peninsula's
division in 1945 and the 1950-53 Korean
War. The reunions are emotional for
Koreans, as most participants are
elderly and are eager to see loved ones
before they die. More than 20,800 family
members have had brief reunions in
face-to-face meetings or by video since
a landmark inter-Korean summit in 2000.
There are no mail, telephone or e-mail
exchanges between ordinary citizens
across the heavily fortified border.
The North Koreans told their South
Korean relatives that they have led a
"worthwhile life," saying all North
Koreans "have formed a big harmonious
family under the care of leader Kim Jong
Il," North Korea's official Korean
Central News Agency reported. North
Korea proposed the reunions -- the first
in more than a year -- in an apparent
conciliatory move after tensions flared
over the sinking of a South Korean
warship. An international investigation
concluded that a North Korean torpedo
sank the ship, killing 46 South Korean
sailors. North Korea, however, denies
involvement. North Korea has also freed
the crew of a South Korean fishing boat
seized in August. In an apparent
response to its overtures, South Korea
sent 5,000 tons of rice to North Korea
this past week as part of 10 billion won
($8.5 million) in pledged flood aid. |
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EVO MORALES PLANS NUCLEAR PLANT WITH
IRANIAN HELP
LA PAZ, BOLIVIA--President
Evo Morales confirmed Saturday
that Bolivia plans to build a nuclear
plant with Iran's help, stressing the
facility would be for peaceful purposes.
"There is nothing to lie about: one of
the things we are working on with Iran
is of course to have a nuclear plant, to
generate energy," Morales said.
"When we talk about a nuclear plant people will claim it is
linked to a nuclear bomb, but we are not
talking about nuclear bombs. Morales
said Bolivia has reserves of uranium,
the raw material it could export to
other countries with nuclear plants.
Bolivia has also been improving ties
with Iran, which earlier this year sent
a legislative committee to La Paz to
ratify a 1.2 billion dollar cooperation
agreement between the two countries. The
agreement includes funds for development
projects, including two cement
factories.
Israel suspects that the leftist governments in Bolivia and
Venezuela are supplying uranium for
Iran's controversial nuclear program,
according to an Israeli foreign ministry
document leaked to media on May 25. The
United States and its European allies
have pressed Iran to suspend its uranium
enrichment activities, which they fear
are a cover for building an atomic bomb.
Iran has pressed ahead with atomic work,
in defiance of UN sanctions, insisting
that the program is aimed at producing
civilian nuclear energy. |
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