January 31, 2011

CUBAN DISSIDENT GUILLERMO FARIÑAS RELEASED A THIRD TIME

     SANTA CLARA, CUBAZUELA--Cuban authorities released dissident Guillermo Farinas Friday, after his third detention in 48 hours. Farinas said he had been arrested along with other opposition figures for trying to prevent the eviction of a squatter family.  Farinas, the 2010 Sakharov rights prize winner, was released by security services after an emergency medical check-up undertaken after the detainee complained about chest pain, Alicia Hernandez, the activist's mother, said.   "His health is delicate, and doctors have recommended rest," Hernandez said in a telephone interview from her home in the city of Santa Clara.  She said prison doctors had been called after her son had suffered from a shortness of breath, fever and chest pains.

    Cuban authorities arrested Farinas earlier Friday along with "more than 20" other activists who had gone to lay flowers at a monument to national hero Jose Marti. The dissident had been also detained late Thursday with around 10 other political activists, hours after being released from his initial detention on Wednesday afternoon.  Some 105 political prisoners remain in the Caribbean nation -- down from 201 in January 2010, according to CCDHRN chief Elizardo Sanchez. Farinas, 49, was awarded the Sakharov prize in October after his latest hunger strike, his 23rd, following the February death of fellow dissident Orlando Zapata. The regime has released 41 of them so far; the 11 remaining have declined an offer to go into exile in Spain. The Cuban government, which skirts the issue in its official media outlets, still denies holding any political prisoners; it says they are mercenaries in the pay of the United States.

     CCDHRN, a group considered illegal but tolerated by the regime, said Cuba has the most prisoners of conscience in the Americas -- 19. The rights group recorded 2,074 arbitrary arrests for political motives last year, most of them lasting just hours or days, up from 870 in 2009. On December 15, an empty chair draped in a Cuban flag symbolized Havana's refusal to allow Farinas to pick up his prestigious Sakharov rights prize in Strasbourg. "I accept the prize... because I feel I am a tiny part of the rebellious spirit of this people I am proud to belong to," Farinas said in a recorded message to the European Parliament that gave him the award. He urged Europeans at the time to fight for the release of Cuba's political prisoners, help end anti-opposition attacks and call for the creation of opposition parties and trade unions. A former soldier and supporter of Fidel Castro's revolution, Farinas distanced himself from the regime in 1989 when he opposed the execution of general Arnaldo Ochoa, who was accused of drug trafficking. He had been jailed three times before Wednesday's arrest

EGYPT MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD SAYS 34 KEY MEMBERS ESCAPE PRISON

      CAIRO, EGYPT-- Thirty-four members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, including seven members of the leadership, walked out of prison on Sunday after relatives of prisoners overcame the guards, a Brotherhood official said.

     The relatives stormed the prison in Wadi el-Natroun, 120 km (80 miles) northwest of Cairo, and set free several thousand of the inmates, Brotherhood office manager Mohamed Osama told Reuters. No one was hurt, he added,

     The group includes seven members of the management of the organization. One of them, Essam El Erian, mostly common criminals, were able to overcome the guards, free and open doors to all other prisoners. The Muslim Brotherhood members were arrested last week, shortly after the organization first announced its support for the demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak.

FIRE, EXPLOSIONS AT VENEZUELA ARMS DEPOT; 1 WOMAN KILLED  AND SEVERAL WOUNDED

        MARACAY, VENECUBA-- A fire and a series of explosions tore through a military arms depot Sunday, killing one person and leading authorities to evacuate thousands of people. About 10,000 residents were removed to safety from areas up to several miles (kilometers) from the site as the burning ammunition produced powerful blasts, officials said. The cause of the pre-dawn fire was unclear. Hours after the initial explosions, faint booms could still be heard in the distance as clouds of white smoke rose from the area alongside hills in Maracay, 60 miles (100 kilometers) west of Caracas. "It's under control but there is still risk," President Hugo Chavez said as he visited firefighters and other officials in Maracay. He noted that the blasts hurled some explosives such as grenades long distances into surrounding communities, and urged caution.

    Officials were searching nearby neighborhoods for any stray explosives, Aragua state Gov. Rafael Isea told the state-run Venezuelan News Agency. Chavez praised officials for a swift response. "An event like this could have produced ... a much bigger tragedy," he said. Chavez wondered aloud what might have caused it, saying: "A fire there is odd, and at that hour." Vice President Elias Jaua said earlier on state television that authorities were investigating - and suggested they weren't ruling out sabotage. "We can't rule out any hypothesis since Venezuela is a country threatened by strong international powers," Jaua said. "We know of groups that act in a crazy manner within our territory, but it can't be determined yet if it was provoked or if it was an accident." He did not elaborate.

    One woman in a house was killed by a piece of shrapnel that wounded her in the abdomen, the Attorney General's Office said in a statement. Three people were injured in traffic accidents amid the chaos as people fled, Isea said. "It seemed like they were bombing us," said Yandry Rey, 30, whose lives with her husband, a military officer, and two children in housing adjacent to the munitions storage area. She said the explosions shook her house and woke her up, and that they fled with their children. Rey said she saw a "ball of fire" when she opened the door. Hours later, she and several other people who fled the military housing complex were resting on the edge of a ditch in the shade.  The fire burned four artillery-munitions storage sites out of 20 that Cavim maintains in Maracay, Gen. Cliver Alcala Cordones told the state news agency.

January 30, 2011

EGYPT'S PRESIDENT HOSNI MUBARAK NAMES VICE-PRESIDENT FOR FIRST TIME

     CAIRO, EGYPT-- With protests raging, President Hosni Mubarak named his intelligence chief, Omar Sulieman,  as his first-ever vice president on Saturday- setting the stage for a successor as demands for the longtime leader's ouster showed no sign of abating. The death toll rose from five days of anti-government protests rose sharply to 74. The capital descended further into chaos, with gangs of thugs setting fires and looting shops and homes. Residents and shopkeepers in affluent neighborhoods were boarding up their houses and stores against the looters roaming the streets with knives and sticks and gunfire was heard in some neighborhoods. Tanks and armored personnel carriers fanned out across the city of 18 million, guarding key government buildings. Egyptian television reported the army was deploying reinforcements to neighborhoods to try to control the lawlessness.

    The military was protecting major tourist and archaeological sites such as the Egyptian Museum, home to some of the country's most treasured antiquities, as well as the Cabinet building. The military closed the pyramids on the outskirts of Cairo - Egypt's premiere tourist site. Thousands of protesters defied the curfew for the second night, standing their ground in the main Tahrir Square in a resounding rejection of Mubarak's attempt to hang onto power with promises of reform and a new government. Police protecting the Interior Ministry near the site opened fire at a funeral procession for a dead protester as it was passing through the crowd, possibly because it came too close to the force. Clashes broke out and at least two people were killed.

    A 43-year-old teacher, Rafaat Mubarak, said the appointment of  Sulieman as vice president did not satisfy the protesters. "This is all nonsense. They will not fool us anymore. We want the head of the snake," he said in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. "If he is appointed by Mubarak, then he is just one more member of the gang. We are not speaking about a branch in a tree, we are talking about the roots." The protesters are unified in one overarching demand - Mubarak and his family must go. The movement is a culmination of years of simmering frustration over a government they see as corrupt, heavy-handed and neglectful of grinding poverty.

US PAID KEY WITNESS ABOUT $80,000 IN POSADA CARRILES CASE

      EL PASO, TEXAS--A key prosecution witness admitted Friday to receiving nearly $80,000 from the U.S. government for agreeing to testify against an elderly ex-CIA operative accused of perjury, and also said federal authorities helped him obtain U.S. citizenship. Gilberto Abascal has spent five days testifying that he was on a shrimp boat-turned-yacht that carried anti-communist militant Luis Posada Carriles from Mexico to Miami in 2005. Posada later sought U.S. citizenship and told federal authorities he had paid a people smuggler to drive him from Honduras to the Texas border, and on to Houston.

    Defense attorneys on Friday showed Abascal a list of government payments he had received since becoming a witness in the case in August 2005. It included three payments from the FBI for "services" totaling $8,800, and more than $70,700 in expenses that included housing for about 14 months and food for nearly a year. Abascal admitted receiving the money and also said he needed the government's help to obtain citizenship. Born in Cuba, Abascal came to the U.S. in 1999 but had been on federal disability after a construction accident. He would have lost those benefits had he not gone through naturalization after having been in the country over seven years. Abascal testified that he became a U.S. citizen last year, but ducked questions about a government document indicating that a Department of Homeland Security agent called immigration officials and helped ensure he was naturalized.

    The defense wants to discredit Abascal because he told the jury he was the mechanic aboard "The Santrina," the yacht that traveled to the Mexican resort of Isla Mujeres, allegedly picked up Posada and helped him slip ashore in Miami. Posada originally told immigration officials he wasn't in Isla Mujeres. He now says he made contact with the yacht only to pick up $10,000 from his friends in order to pay the people smuggler. Abascal said in court that - after a journey of hundreds of miles through the Caribbean - Posada came ashore at a restaurant where the city police chief happened to be lunching. He recalled a Posada associate who drove the speedboat to the dock telling him later, "Oh my God! The chief of the police was at the restaurant!"

cHOLERA CASES CLIMB TO 111 IN VENEZUELA

        CARACAS, VENECUBA--The number of cholera cases has jumped to 111 in Venezuela as more people tested positive after attending a wedding with contaminated food in the Dominican Republic, the country's health minister said Friday. The patients were all receiving treatment, and 27 were hospitalized, Health Minister Eugenia Sader told the Caracas-based television network Telesur. The number of cases rose swiftly on Friday. Venezuelan authorities had said a day earlier that 37 people had the virus in the country and that 12 others were hospitalized in the Dominican Republic.

    Dominican officials said wedding guests became infected when they ate tainted lobster at a wedding Jan. 22. Health Minister Bautista Rojas said lobsters for the lavish celebration were bought in Pedernales, a town bordering Haiti, where more than 3,000 people have died from a cholera epidemic. Many of the 452 guests were Venezuelans, and health officials hope to provide treatment to all of them to keep the illness from spreading, Sader said. She has said several who returned to Madrid, Mexico and Boston also have cholera. The Massachusetts health department said Friday that six state residents tested positive after attending the wedding, but all were released from local hospitals and officials were not concerned the disease could spread. Jose Rodriguez, a vice minister in the Dominican Health Department, said the wedding menu consisted of 25 dishes, so not everyone ate the lobster.

     Clemente Terrero, an infectious disease specialist and member of the Dominican Medical Association, questioned the reliability of government statistics on cholera. "It is not possible that so many people became infected with cholera at one party, and that only 300 cases have been reported in the Dominican Republic in three months," he said. Cholera fears have led to mass deportations of Haitian migrants since the beginning of the year. One death has been reported in the Dominican Republic. Cholera, which causes severe diarrhea that can lead to dehydration and death, is spread through fecal-contaminated water and food. It had been rare in the Americas recently, until the outbreak in Haiti. A large outbreak centered in Peru in 1991 spread to other countries and a total of 396,536 cases were reported throughout the Americas that year, according to the Pan American Health Organization. However a massive public health program subsequently helped all but eliminate the disease in the region, with just 13 known cases in 2006. Before this month, Venezuela had not reported any cholera cases since 2000.

January 29, 2011

EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT HOSNI MUBARAK ASKS HIS CABINET TO RESIGN BUT WANTS TO KEEP POWER

     CAIRO, EGYPT--In his first public appearance since mass anti-government protests, embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in a televised address that he would dissolve his government, but stay in power. Mubarak called for calm and said that he was aware of the suffering of his people and the desire for his government to combat unemployment, poverty and corruption. “I am fully aware of these level of aspirations of the Egyptian people. I'm also aware of the degree of suffering of the Egyptian people, and I'm always attached to that and I'm working day in and day out.

However, the problems facing us and the goals that we seek cannot be achieved through violence or chaos; it can only be done through a national dialogue and a conscious and considered genuine effort,” he said. He said that he will press ahead with social, economic and political reforms and called anti-government protests part of plot to destabilize Egypt and destroy the legitimacy of his regime. “Egypt  is looked upon to live up to the expectation and stay away from those who entice, incite chaos and looting of public property, knocking down everything that we have built.” Fox News correspondent Greg Palkot reported that people, upon hearing the news of the cabinet, said Mubarak's address was not enough.

     Protesters have seized the streets of Cairo, battling police with stones and firebombs, burning down the ruling party headquarters, and defying a night curfew enforced by a military deployment. President Obama urged Egyptian authorities to refrain from acts of violence against peaceful protesters and for Mubarak to "give meaning" to pledges of better democracy and economic opportunity. "Those protesting in the streets have the responsibility to protest peacefully," he said from the White House. "Violence and destruction will not lead to the reforms that they seek. The future of Egypt will be determined by the Egyptian people. I believe the people want the same things we all want: a better life for ourselves and our children.

egyptian military deploys TANKS in THE STREETS OF CAIRO

      caIro, egypt--Shots were heard in central Cairo on Friday after military units moved in to quell an "open revolt" against President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule by tens of thousands of protesters.   Demonstrators were trying to storm the foreign ministry and the state TV building in Cairo, The Associated Press reported. Violent clashes were also reported near the Egyptian parliament. Television images showed several buildings in Cairo, including the headquarters of the ruling party, ablaze. Flames also threatened the Egyptian National Museum, where Army units secured the building with spectacular  treasures such as the death mask of the boy king Tutankhamun. Friday saw demonstrations across the country, which continued despite a 13-hour military curfew which began at 6 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET). It initially covered the cities of Cairo, Suez and Alexandria, but was later extended to cover all cities. Demonstrators stayed on the streets in defiance of security forces, some mounting armored cars, cheering and waving flags.  The Al-Jazeera TV network said at least one person was killed, while Reuters reported at least five deaths. Neither could not be immediately verified.

     Some 870 protesters were wounded, medical sources said, more than doubling their previous estimate. Medical officials told Reuters 450 protesters were treated on the streets and not taken to hospital, while 420 others were hospitalized.  Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei was put under house arrest after he joined a march earlier in the day. He and scores of protesters were forced to seek refuge in a mosque after police used water cannons and tear gas.  There were also reports that protesters had taken control of central areas of Suez and Alexandria. Egypt's national carrier said it had also suspended its flights from Cairo for 12 hours. European airlines also modified their schedules for flights to and from Egypt, canceling some services, due to the curfew.

     The U.S. warned citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Egypt and urged Americans in the country to stay put.  Shortly after the curfew began, BBC News reported that tanks had moved in to Suez and Cairo. NBC News' Richard Engel said people were in "open revolt" on the streets of Cairo.  Engel said many people were praying in the streets, "daring" the police to move against them and enforce the curfew.  After the army moved in, Engel said the troops appeared to be taking "almost no action to stop these protests, to enforce this curfew." He said some demonstrators even greeted army personnel, urging them to join the protest. "A scene that could become iconic of the day is unfolding right below me. There's an army APC, an armored personnel carrier. Instead of firing on the protesters or pushing them back, it has been surrounded by protesters … one person is standing on top of it, waving an Egyptian flag," he told msnbc TV.   Engel said the demonstrators did not want to confront the army and realized the Tunisian government had fallen when its army refused to stop the protests.

cuban dissident guillermo farinas arrested again

     havana, cubazuela--Police have again arrested Cuban dissident Guillermo FariÑas, the 2010 Sakharov rights prize winner, one day after he was detained for seven hours, his mother told AFP. The high-profile dissident was detained with around 10 other political activists, his mother Alicia Hernandez said. "He's been detained," said Hernandez, 75, speaking by phone from the central city of Santa Clara, 280 kilometers (175 miles) east of Havana, where she lives with Farinas. "I sent him a coat and some medicine with his uncle. But I expect that, like yesterday, he will be released soon," she said.

    Fariñas went on a 135-day hunger strike last year to draw attention to the challenges faced by dissidents of the Americas' only one-party communist regime. The Sakharov prize winner was also detained Wednesday afternoon and released around midnight. He said police did not mistreat him. "The police wanted us to sign a statement recognizing that we presented a 'potentially criminal danger to society,' but we didn't do it. After three of these statements, they can take you to trial," Farinas said upon his release. His release came as the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation said it expected human rights to "deteriorate" this year in Cuba. The group said 2010 was "very adverse" despite the release of political prisoners. Farinas, now 49, was awarded the Sakharov prize in October after his latest hunger strike, his 23rd, following the February death of fellow dissident Orlando Zapata.

    He ended the protest when dictator Raul Castro authorized the release of 52 political prisoners -- out of a group of 75 arrested in 2003 -- on the heels of talks with senior Roman Catholic Church clerics in Havana. The regime has released 41 of them so far; the 11 remaining have declined an offer to go into exile in Spain. The Cuban government, which skirts the issue in its official media outlets, still denies holding any political prisoners; it says they are mercenaries in the pay of the United States. CCDHRN, a group considered illegal but tolerated by the regime, said Cuba has the most prisoners of conscience in the Americas -- 19. The rights group recorded 2,074 arbitrary arrests for political motives last year, most of them lasting just hours or days, up from 870 in 2009. "In the hands of a handful of octogenarian and erratic leaders who have always undervalued the crucial importance of civil rights, Cuba seems to be entering a new phase in its 'trip to nowhere,'" it added.

January 28, 2011

CUBAN DISSIDENT GUILLERMO FARIñAS RELEASED AFTER 7 HOURS DETENTION

      SANTA CLARA, CUBAZUELA--Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas, the 2010 Sakharov rights prize winner, said on Thursday he had been released after police held him for seven hours with about 20 other opponents of the regime. "We are free. We were arrested for 'disorderly conduct' because we helped a family they were trying to evict" from squatter housing, Fariñas told AFP by telephone from Santa Clara, a central city some 280 kilometers (170 miles) east of Havana. "The non-violent opposition must dedicate itself to these types of citizen protests." Farinas, a psychologist who went on a high-profile hunger strike last year for 135 days, was freed around midnight early Thursday.

    "The police wanted us to sign a statement recognizing that we presented a 'potentially criminal danger to society,' but we didn't do it. After three of these statements, they can take you to trial," Farinas said. The 48-year-old was awarded the prize in October after his high-profile hunger strike, his 23rd, following the February death of fellow dissident Orlando Zapata. He ended the protest when President Raul Castro authorized the release of 52 political prisoners -- out of a group of 75 arrested in 2003 -- on the heels of talks with senior Roman Catholic Church clerics in Havana. The regime has released 41 of them so far; the 11 remaining have declined an offer to go into exile in Spain. According to the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, even after all the 52 inmates are released, there will still be 115 political prisoners held in Cuba. The Cuban government, which skirts the issue in its official media outlets, still denies holding any political prisoners; it says they are mercenaries in the pay of the United States.

    On December 15, an empty chair draped in a Cuban flag symbolized Havana's refusal to allow Farinas to pick up his prestigious Sakharov rights prize in Strasbourg. In a recorded message to the European Parliament which gave him the award, left standing on the empty chair, Fariñas signed off as "a psychologist, librarian, independent journalist, three-time political prisoner." "I accept the prize," he said, "because I feel I am a tiny part of the rebellious spirit of this people I am proud to belong to." The statement brought the more than 700 members of the parliament to their feet in resounding applause. "This empty chair," said parliament president Jerzy Buzek, "demonstrates just how much this award was necessary." He was jailed three times before Wednesday's arrest.

HRF: THERE ARE POLITICAL PRISONERS AND POLITICAL PERSECUTION IN VENEZUELA

     PARIS, FRANCE--Human Rights Foundation (HRF), a non-profit organization founded in 2005 by Thor Halvorssen, sent a letter to Trinidad Jiménez, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, claiming that in Venezuela there are political prisoners and political persecution. The document rejects Jiménez's statements in November 2010.  "Minister Jiménez, your statements of November 2, which you re-affirmed on November 16, 2010, regarding the nonexistence of political prisoners in Venezuela suggest that you ignore the dire situation of human rights in that country. HRF believes your statements have the harmful effect of confusing public opinion in your country and in Latin America as to the human rights situation in Venezuela," added the letter signed by Thor Halvorssen, the president of HRF, in response to the statements made by the Spanish FM in November 2010 regarding the situation of human rights in Venezuela.

     The document referred to the case of Venezuelan union leader Rubén González, whom the non-profit organization based in New York described as a prisoner of conscience. HRF also highlighted, among others, the cases of former presidential candidate Oswaldo Álvarez Paz; retired general Francisco Usón; former student leader Yon Goicoechea; TV tycoon Alberto Federico Ravell; journalist Marta Colomina, and judge María Lourdes Afiuni, who are allegedly subject to political persecution.  "Regarding HRW and Amnesty International (AI), you (Jiménez) claimed before the Spanish Senate that these institutions 'have not categorized any of Venezuela's prisoners as political prisoners.' Although it seems to be true that neither of these organizations has identified any "prisoners of conscience" in Venezuela, both organizations have repeatedly published reports and press releases denouncing cases of persecution and imprisonment of individuals solely for exercising their human rights in a peaceful manner," stressed the letter.

      Further, HRF rejected Jiménez's statements in connection with judge María de Lourdes Afiuni, who has been imprisoned for more than a year, after she released Eligio Cedeño, a prominent Venezuelan banker. "Your claims regarding the case of Judge Afiuni are also incorrect. According to you, 'Ms. Afiuni ordered the release from custody of a person that was involved in the coup d'état, and this issue was resolved in accordance with Venezuelan law.' The fact is that Judge Afiuni was detained immediately after decreeing parole for Eligio Cedeño, a businessman accused of bank fraud, who had remained in preventive imprisonment for almost three years, while Venezuelan law established a two-year maximum. Judge Afiuni's decision followed the ruling of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, holding that Cedeño's detention was arbitrary. Moreover, this same group of human rights experts has already declared that Judge Afiuni's detention was arbitrary."

HEALTH MINISTER CONFIRMS 37 CASES OF CHOLERA IN VENEZUELA

     CARACAS, VENECUBA--Venezuela's health minister said Thursday that 37 people have been treated for cholera in the South American nation, state-run media said. The confirmed cases were among a group of 452 people who attended a family gathering in the Dominican Republic, said Eugenia Sader, Venezuela's minister of health. All 37 people were treated and are doing well, she said in a news conference carried on VTV. Others who attended the party were urged to get tested for the intestinal disease, which can prove fatal within hours if left untreated.

    Sader said the cholera patients were stable and were being discharged from the hospital.  Sader said in October, when the cholera outbreak erupted in Haiti, that the last case of cholera in Venezuela was reported in 1991. In addition to the 37 cases in Venezuela, 12 others who attended the family party are in the Dominican Republic; one in Mexico; two in Madrid, Spain; and one in Boston. Almost 4,000 people have died in Haiti from cholera and almost 200,000 have been sickened. The Dominican Republic has reported 244 cases, the first fatal one this week. A man of Haitian descent died Sunday in the province of Altagracia.

    Cholera, an intestinal infection caused by ingestion of bacteria-contaminated food or water, causes watery diarrhea and vomiting, which can quickly lead to severe dehydration and death if not treated promptly. About 80 percent of cases can be cured by rehydrating the patient, according to the World Health Organization. The disease is one of the leading causes of death in the world, particularly in developing countries. There are an estimated 3 million to 5 million cholera cases and 100,000 to 120,000 deaths every year worldwide, the health agency says. However, it is easily preventable and not considered a serious threat in nations with proper water and sanitation services.

January 27, 2011

U.S. WARNS AGAINST DICTATOR CHAVEZ'S ECONOMIC PRESSURES ON MEDIA

      WASHINGTON, D.C.--The United States considered that the Venezuelan DICTATOR Hugo Chávez is close to "his goal of domesticating or eliminating the remaining free and independent media in Venezuela," thanks to political and economic pressures exerted on them, according to US diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks and released on Monday.

    "Chávez continues to reduce the private media's ability to serve as a countervailing democratic force," reads a diplomatic cable issued in February 2010 by the US Embassy in Caracas and published by the Spanish newspaper El País.

    "With Globovision (the opposition private TV news channel) executives softening their tone, counting their remaining days, and major print media in apparently dire financial conditions, Chavez is close to his goal of "domesticating" or eliminating the remaining free and independent media in Venezuela," according to the text written by the then Ambassador Patrick Duddy, AFP reported. Duddy held separate meetings with several major private media editors who expressed their concerns.

RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT APPROVES ARMS PACT WITH U.S.

     MOSCOW, RUSSIA--Federation Council, Russia's upper parliament chamber, unanimously passed a bill required for ratification of the New START treaty, which Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev signed in April 2010. The treaty, approved by the U.S. Senate last month and by Russia's lower house of parliament on Tuesday, will commit the countries to ceilings of 1,550 deployed strategic warheads in seven years. It limits each side to 700 deployed long-range missiles and bombers and establishes verification rules, absent since the U.S.-Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) expired in 2009, enabling them to keep tabs on each other's arsenals.

    "The alternative is an uncontrolled arms race," the head of the Federation Council's defense committee, Viktor Ozerov, told fellow lawmakers before the vote. All 137 deputies present in the 186-seat chamber supported ratification. The warhead caps are up to 30 percent lower than those set by the 2002 Moscow Treaty and down nearly two-thirds from START I, signed in 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. The 10-year treaty will leave the nations with more than enough firepower to create a nuclear catastrophe, but it sets the stage for potential talks on further cuts that could eventually include other nuclear-armed nations.

     The upper house vote sends the ratification bill to Medvedev for his signature. The treaty will enter force with an exchange of ratification documents by U.S. and Russian officials, expected within weeks. Arms control experts say Russia's strategic nuclear arsenal is likely to be near or below the limits set by the treaty within half a decade. Russian lawmakers say the pact will save the country cash it needs for non-military purposes. The treaty "without a doubt answers to the interests of our country," said Mikhail Margelov, the chamber's foreign affairs committee chairman. It is crucial to the recent "reset" in long-strained Russian-American relations and "bears witness to trust between the two countries," he said. The treaty is a milestone in the presidency of Medvedev, who has embraced Obama's campaign to improves ties, which hit a low during Russia's war against pro-Western Georgia in 2008.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH ANNUAL REPORT COULD HARM VENEZUELA'S FOREIGN AFFAIRS

     WASHINGTON, D.C.--The annual report released by the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW), which criticized and condemned the "precarious" human rights situation and government actions against freedom of expression in Venezuela, will harm President Hugo Chávez's government relations with the international community.

    The report has an impact and could influence policy making of international organizations concerning Venezuela. It is also a source of information for decision makers that could affect the Venezuelan government, said Carlos Correa, executive director of Espacio Público.  Correa ruled out that countries or international organizations could impose a sanction or an embargo on Venezuela, because those measures are ineffective, as the embargo against Cuba has shown.

     Correa also said that the HRW's role is to monitor the situation of human rights in the world, and to provide reports to governments and international organizations which examine the countries' policies. However, the director of Espacio Público stated that "those reports are an obstacle to the goals that the Venezuelan government could have in international organizations." The restrictions established to Venezuela's entry into the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) serve as an example.

EL BEMBÉ DE ALAMINO
 

January 26, 2011

FLORIDA LAWMAKER SEEKS TO BLOCK CUBA OIL DRILLING

      MIAMI, FLORIDA-- Florida Republican congressman, vERN BUCHANAN, has sent a proposed bill to Congress seeking to block Cuba's plans to start its first full-scale offshore oil exploration with a deepwater rig located off the Florida Keys. If approved, the draft bill by Buchanan could deal a blow to Spanish oil giant Repsol YPF, which leads a consortium of international oil companies looking to drill for oil beneath the Caribbean island's part of the Gulf of Mexico.  "Cuba's plans to drill for oil in its sovereign waters off the Florida Keys poses a serious threat to our tourism industry and our environment," Buchanan said in a statement published on his website.

     The proposed legislation would give the U.S. Interior Secretary the authority to deny leases to companies that do business with any nation currently facing U.S. trade sanctions, such as communist-ruled Cuba. The exploration project is key for Cuba, which needs oil to sustain its fragile economy and end its dependence on oil-rich socialist ally Venezuela, which provides about 115,000 barrels per day on favorable terms.  Buchanan said Cuba's plans involve drilling in waters deeper than last year's massive BP Gulf spill and questioned whether Havana was capable of dealing with a potential oil spill.  "It would take just three days for oil to reach Florida's beaches if a spill occurred at the site," he said. Cuba is located 90 miles from the southernmost tip of the Florida.

     Repsol, along with Norway's Statoil and ONGC Videsh, a unit of India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp, have contracted a Chinese-built drilling rig to drill one or two exploratory wells near Cuba's northwestern coast. The rig was expected to arrive in Cuban waters in the first quarter of 2011 but has been delayed until mid-summer, industry sources said earlier this month. Buchanan said Repsol, which operates existing rigs in the Western Gulf of Mexico near Texas and Lousiana, scrapped plans several years ago for a gas development plant in Iran after coming under U.S. diplomatic pressure.

PRIME MINISTER VLADIMIR PUTIN VOWED "RETRIBUTION IS INEVITABLE"

     MOSCOW, RUSSIA--Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vowed "retribution is inevitable" for the suicide bombing that killed 35 people at Russia's busiest airport, while President Dmitry Medvedev demanded robust checks at all transport hubs and lashed out at the airport for lax security.  Putin has built much of his reputation on his harsh stance against terror, but he did not elaborate on what kind of retribution he had planned or for whom in his comments Tuesday during a government meeting.

    It’s unclear what levers Putin could push now if he aims to exact retribution. After the 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis that left more than 330 people dead, Putin pushed through changes to make regional governors appointed rather than elected. Still, further attempts at consolidating Kremlin control could provoke a backlash from an opposition movement that has grown in recent months. Aviation security experts have been warning since the Sept. 11 attacks that the crowds at many airports present a tempting target for suicide bombers. The latest bombing exposed the unprotected underbelly of airport security — the international arrivals area, packed with families, taxi drivers and businesspeople, all of whom do not go through airport security. Few airports in the world control the entrances to such areas.

    The Emergencies Ministry said the dead included one person each from Britain, Germany, Austria, Ukraine, Tajikistan. Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan; 16 were Russians and the remaining 12 had not been identified. A further 110 people, including nine foreigners, were hospitalized. The Russian president, often seen as submissive to Putin, appeared to be trying to assert his power Tuesday by suggesting that officials at both the Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service could be at fault. "I instruct the interior minister to suggest which ministry officials responsible for transport security could be dismissed or face other sanctions," he said, making similar instructions to the security service. He also called for "total examination" of passengers and baggage at key transport centers. "This will make it longer for passengers, but it's the only way," he said.

SEVEN DEAD IN MEXICO'S LATEST MASSACRE 

     CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO--The death toll from a weekend attack on youngsters playing soccer in this violent Mexican border city has risen to seven, the Chihuahua state Attorney General’s Office said Monday. Two other people, one of them a 12-year-old girl, remain in critical condition after the shooting at a public park in a poor neighborhood in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s murder capital.

    Gunmen entered the park and uttered threats before firing more than 100 rounds at kids playing soccer, authorities said. Three of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene and four others, including a boy of 11, died while being treated at a clinic in Juarez, located across the border from El Paso, Texas. The bloodbath brought to mind the two massacres last year in Juarez that left a total of 29 young people dead. Ciudad Juarez, where more than 7,000 people have been murdered since 2008, has been plagued by drug-related violence for years and the number of homicides topped 3,100 in 2010. The killing has not slowed this year, with more than 130 people murdered in the first three weeks of January.

     The violence is blamed on a war for control of the border city being waged by the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels. Juarez first gained notoriety in the early 1990s when young women began to disappear in the area. More than 500 women and girls have been killed here since 1993, with the majority of the cases going unsolved. More than 34,000 people have died in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon declared war on Mexico’s cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006.

January 25, 2011

CUBAN CAPITAL FACING "CRITICAL" WATER SHORTAGE

      hAvana, cubazuela-The supply of potable water in the Cuban capital has reached its most critical state in the last 50 years, with more than 100,000 people dependent on tanker trucks for water and with sources of supply ready to collapse, Communist Party daily Granma said Friday. The Havana water system loses 70 percent of the water pumped for consumers before it gets to them, the newspaper said.

    Almost half of Havana’s more than 2 million inhabitants have suffered from serious problems in the basic water-supply system, while some 110,000 people are wholly dependent on deliveries of water by tanker trucks, according to official data cited by Granma. The paper said that there has been a “notable drop” in accumulated volumes in aquifers and reservoirs due to the drought over the past two years and the poor functioning of an aqueduct “that has deteriorated over time.” “In a more subtle way than hurricanes, this hydrological drought, together with the poor state of some 2,194 kilometers (1,363 miles) of pipelines, almost 71 percent, and other infrastructure problems, is also damaging the nation’s economy,” Granma said.

     Once again the call was made to “stop the waste” in homes and businesses, and said that among the most wasteful were state institutions.  “Because of how serious the situation is, the possibility of cutting off service to those who consume more than planned is being evaluated,” Granma said. To ease the situation, the government plans to construct several pipelines to improve water delivery, install valves, drill wells, restore pipelines that are in a poor state of repair, and eliminate leaks in water pumps and large aqueducts.

north korea executed two men over propaganda leaflets

     SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA--North Korea this month publicly executed two of its citizens for handling propaganda leaflets floated across the border by South Korean groups, one of the activists said Monday. An army officer who pocketed dollar bills enclosed with the leaflets was shot along with a 45-year-old woman who concealed one of the flyers, said Choi Sung-Yong.

     He said the executions were carried out on January 3 at Sariwon, 45 kilometres (27 miles) south of Pyongyang, in front of 500 spectators following a special ideological session on the leaflets. Choi, citing a source in Sariwon, told AFP that six members of the victims' families had been sent to a camp for political prisoners. "North Korea apparently carried out the executions to teach a lesson to its people," Choi said. He said the regime appeared to have tightened ideological control as it grooms the youngest son of leader Kim Jong-Il as eventual successor to his father. Among those forced to watch the killings were about 50 relations of former South Korean prisoners of war and abductees, he said. Choi, whose own father was abducted by the North, runs an organisation which has arranged the escape of some former POWs and abductees.

    South Korea estimates that about 500 prisoners of war from the 1950-53 conflict were never sent home from the communist North. It also says 480 South Korean civilians were abducted to the North in the post-war years. The North denies holding any South Koreans against their will. South Korean activists, including Choi, have floated balloons carrying hundreds of thousands of anti-Pyongyang leaflets, DVDs and one-dollar bills across the heavily fortified frontier. The money is designed to encourage North Koreans to pick up the flyers despite the risk of severe punishment. The leaflets typically pour scorn on the North's regime and call for its overthrow. Pyongyang's military last September threatened to open fire on South Korean sites used for the leaflet launches unless the Seoul government halts the practice.

BRITISH GIRL, 3, DIES FROM BLOOD POISON IN THE CUBAN TOURIST ISLAND OF CAYO COCO

     HAVANA, CUBAZUELA--A three-year-old British girl died during a family holiday to Cuba, just hours after falling ill. Lavae DaSilva was playing happily with family and friends on the island of Cayo Coco in Cuba when she complained that she felt hot and had stomach pains.  Within 12 hours she had died of blood poisoning in a medical centre with mum Nicola at her side. Nicola, 39, of Lindale Avenue, New Moston, Manchester, told how Lavae mumbled ‘Mummy’ just before she died. Heartbroken Nicola said: 'I just held her and lay with her for hours.'  She added: 'I feel like my heart has stopped beating.

    'When I go to sleep and then wake up I think I can’t go through a whole day again. 'I’m devastated. I just feel empty.  'Lavae was a happy, outgoing, independent girl. She was very creative and she was very girly - she loved glitter and she loved anything pink.  'We all can’t believe what’s happened.'  Nicola, who has two sons, told how Lavae had been her usual self hours before the tragedy.  But in the early hours she began to feel unwell. She was then sick and, when her condition deteriorated, Nicola called a doctor.

    Lavae was given an anti-sickness injection but became lethargic and disorientated.  An ambulance was called to take her to a medical centre but she died later that day.  Lavae, who attended nursery at New Moston primary school, was flown home from Cuba following the New Year’s Day tragedy.  A post-mortem examination confirmed that septicaemia - or blood poisoning - was the cause of her death.  But experts at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London and Meningitis UK believe she may have had meningococcal septicaemia - a type of blood poisoning caused by the same type of bacteria that causes meningitis. Lavae's funeral is due to take place at St John Bosco church in Higher Blackley today.  Friends are raising money for ‘DNA into Diamonds’ which will take Lavae and Nicola’s DNA and turn it into a diamond pendant for a keepsake.

January 24, 2011

WIKILEAKS: CUBA, A NATION OF CORRUPTION

      PARIS, FRANCE--Corruption in Cuba is so widespread, from the street to a defense minister, that the island has become ``a nation on the take,'' according to a dispatch from U.S. diplomats in Havana. ``Because most Cubans work for the state, the entire system -- from petty officials to Castro's closest advisors -- is rife with corrupt practices,'' the 2006 cable says. ``Corruption and thievery have become one and the same. Corrupt practices also include bribery, misuse of state resources and accounting shenanigans,'' the dispatch noted before adding, ``Cuba has become a state on the take.''  Some Cuban government officials and supporters have warned in the past year that the spreading crookedness is a serious threat to the survival of the communist system, and one even called it the most dangerous ``counterrevolution.''

      Civil Aviation Institute President Rogelio Acevedo was fired last year amid an investigation into massive fraud at the state-owned airline Cubana de Aviacion. And Pedro Alvarez, former head of the state agency that handled billions of dollars in agricultural imports, was reported to have defected recently rather than face state corruption investigators. The dispatch, made available by WikiLeaks and first published by Spain's El Pais newspaper, gave a broad view of the corruption phenomenon but provided few hard examples. It was signed by Michael Parmley, then head of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana, though it was not clear whether he wrote it. Not everyone in Cuba is corrupt, the dispatch noted. Accidentally offering a bribe to ``a clean official -- or worse, a strident revolutionary -- could result in disaster.''

    But corruption was widespread and expanding in 2006, despite a crackdown by Cuban ruler Fidel Castro, because of the ``economic desperation combined with totalitarian control,'' according to the report. Bribes are common in getting around the controls, the cable noted, adding that several hundred dollars are usually required to grease the wheels on an illegal state deal. Bribes also get good jobs, with a position at a gasoline station worth thousands of dollars -- because of the access to gasoline that can be sold on the black market -- and a tourism job with access to hard currency tips going for hundreds. Police officers pull over drivers and ask for money for their ``sick child,'' and construction materials are regularly siphoned off government channels and sold on the black market. A Cuban man told a U.S. diplomat that the government ``can't build anything because it is simply impossible to collect enough supplies in one place,'' according to the cable.

CHINA'S NEW STEALTH FIGHTER MAY USES U.S. TECHNOLOGY

     BRUSSELS. BELGIUM--Chinese officials recently unveiled a new, high-tech stealth fighter that could pose a significant threat to American air superiority - and some of its technology, it turns out, may well have come from the U.S. itself. Balkan military officials and other experts have told The Associated Press that in all probability the Chinese gleaned some of their technological know-how from an American F-117 Nighthawk that was shot down over Serbia in 1999. Nighthawks were the world's first stealth fighters, planes that were very hard for radar to detect. But on March 27, 1999, during NATO's aerial bombing of Serbia in the Kosovo war, a Serbian anti-aircraft missile shot one of the Nighthawks down. The pilot ejected and was rescued.

     It was the first time one of the much-touted "invisible" fighters had ever been hit. The Pentagon believed a combination of clever tactics and sheer luck had allowed a Soviet-built SA-3 missile to bring down the jet. The wreckage was strewn over a wide area of flat farmlands, and civilians collected the parts - some the size of small cars - as souvenirs. "At the time, our intelligence reports told of Chinese agents crisscrossing the region where the F-117 disintegrated, buying up parts of the plane from local farmers," says Adm. Davor Domazet-Loso, Croatia's military chief of staff during the Kosovo war. "We believe the Chinese used those materials to gain an insight into secret stealth technologies ... and to reverse-engineer them," Domazet-Loso said in a telephone interview.

     A senior Serbian military official confirmed that pieces of the wreckage were removed by souvenir collectors, and that some ended up "in the hands of foreign military attaches." In Washington, an Air Force official said the service was unaware of any connection between the downed F-117 plane and development of Chinese stealth technology for the J-20. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the subject involves classified information. China's multi-role stealth fighter - known as the Chengdu J-20 - made its inaugural flight Jan. 11, revealing dramatic progress in the country's efforts to develop cutting-edge military technologies.  China rolled out the J-20 just days before a visit to Beijing by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, leading some analysts to speculate that the timing was intended to demonstrate the growing might of China's armed forces.

VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ FAILS TO MEET GOAL OF 120,000 HOUSING UNITS

     CARACAS, VENECUBA-- During his Annual Address to the National Assembly, DICTATOR Hugo Chávez referred to the housing deficit in Venezuela, but rather than announcing completion of housing units, he disclosed plans to build houses in the future.  Chávez disclosed an "ambitious" plan to build 150,000 housing units in 2011 and 200.000 housing units in 2012.

     The government made similar announcements in previous fiscal years, but has always failed to meet the goal. In 2005, Chávez said that his government would build 120,000 housing units throughout the period and in 2006. However, according to the Reports and Accounts of the Ministry of Housing, the government failed the target during those two years.

      In fact, the Reports and Accounts of the Ministry of Housing show that the government built 21,400 housing units in 2005, which is only 18 percent of the target (120,000 housing units.) Meanwhile, 40,340 housing units were built in 2006 (88 percent more than in the previous period), but only 34 percent of the initial goal of building 120,000 housing units.  The Venezuelan head of state and his ministers said in those two years that the construction of housing units should be speeded up and invited the private sector, cooperatives and communities to participate in the effort.  In 2011, the government will use part of a USD 20 billion loan signed with China for housing construction.

January 23, 2011

IRAN TALKS ON NUCLEAR PROGRAM FAIL, NO NEW DATE SET

      ISTANBUL, TURKEY--Talks meant to nudge Iran toward meeting U.N. Security Council demands to stop uranium enrichment collapsed Saturday, with Tehran shrugging off calls by six world powers to cease the activity that could be harnessed to make nuclear weapons. Announcing the failure of two days of negotiations, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said no new date for another meeting had been set. She blamed what the six consider unrealistic demands by Iran — an end to U.N. sanctions and agreement that Iran can continue to enrich — for the disappointing results. Proposals by the six for improved U.N. monitoring of Iran's nuclear activities were rejected by Tehran, as were attempts to kickstart dialogue by reviving discussions on Iran's shipping out a limited amount of its enriched uranium in exchange for fuel for its research reactor, Ashton said.

    "We had hoped to have a detailed and constructive discussion of those ideas," she said. "But it became clear that the Iranian side was not ready for this unless we agree to preconditions related to enrichment and sanctions. "Both these preconditions are not the way to proceed," she told reporters. While no new talks were planned, Ashton said "our proposals remain on the table. Our door remains open. Our telephone lines remain open." Iranian chief negotiator Saeed Jalili in turn suggested the six powers were the ones who had imposed preconditions, saying his negotiating team had gone "far and beyond what was expected of us" to reach agreement and accusing the other side of pushing not "dialogue but dictation."

    Tehran denies that it wants nuclear arms, insisting it wants only to provide peaceful nuclear energy for its rising population and noting that the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty allows for enrichment as a source of fuel. But international concerns have grown — because its uranium enrichment program could also make fissile warhead material, because of its nuclear secrecy and also because Iran refuses to cooperate with U.N. investigations of suspicions that it ran experiments related to making nuclear weapons. A senior U.S. administration official said Iranian negotiators had sought to split the six during "long and difficult" talks to extract concessions, but delegates from the world powers remained unified. A diplomat from a permanent member nation of the U.N. Security Council — one of the six powers at the talks — said no new U.N. sanctions were planned in response to Iran's defiance. Instead, he said there would be stricter enforcement of existing penalties. Both he and the U.S. official asked for anonymity because their information was confidential.

CUBA CANCELS MAIL SERVICES TO U.S. "UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE"

     HAVANA, CUBAZUELA--CUBA has suspended indefinitely all mail service to the United States, extending a ban announced in November and expanding it to cover letters as well as packages.  The move is a setback for relations between the two countries, enemies for more than half a century. It came just days after the Obama Administration announced it was easing travel restrictions on academics and church groups seeking to visit the island. "Until further notice, we cannot continue to accept any type of delivery," Cuba's mail service, Correos de Cuba, said on state television. The decision was made in response to the new security regulations imposed by the U.S. aviation authorities on all countries, the state-owned company said.

    Because of the new U.S. security regulations, all letters from Cuba to the United States, carried by airlines of third countries, have been returned to the island nation. The new development came after Cuba temporarily suspended on Christmas last year all U.S.-bound mails, except letters, after Washington took security measures against "air terror threats." Direct mailings between Cuba and the United States have been suspended since 1963 because of the U.S. embargo against Cuba. Mails and parcels between the two countries have to go through third countries such as Mexico and Canada and may take months to reach the receivers. About 1.5 million Cubans and their descendants live in the United States.

    Mail service was suspended in the 1960s, shortly after Fidel Castro came to power. Limited mail service routed through third countries resumed in 2009, following talks between US and Cuban officials. But deliveries were suspended in November following a US decision to increase security measures following last year's failed terror threat involving packages mailed from Yemen. The announcement extends that ban to cover all types of correspondence, including letters and postcards, according to the newscast. "I think it has to do with how countries, on a case-by-case basis, are working through new regulations that have been put into effect," State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said, a reference to the security measures put in place due to the Yemen incident.

WORK SET TO  BEGIN ON VENEZUELA-CUBA UNDERSEA CABLE

     CARACAS, VENECUBA-- A specialized ship has arrived in Venezuela carrying enough fiber-optic cable to connect the South American country to Cuba, and will soon begin laying the cable along the sea floor to establish a link expected to dramatically improve telephone and Internet service for Cubans. The French-flagged ship Ile de Batz was anchored on the Venezuelan coast and will begin rolling out the cable across the Caribbean Sea in the coming days, said Jose Ignacio Quintero, a manager for Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent SA, which is carrying out the project. He said in a telephone interview Tuesday that the ship brought the cable from the French port of Calais, and reached Venezuela on Sunday. He said the cable is scheduled to be functional in July, spanning about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) from Camuri in Venezuela to Siboney in eastern Cuba.

    Cuba is the only nation in the Western Hemisphere that is not linked to the outside world by optical fiber. Instead, it relies on slow, expensive satellite links because the U.S. government's embargo has prevented most trade between the island and the United States and has made companies in other countries shy away from doing business with Cuba. Venezuelan dictator  Hugo Chavez, a staunch supporter of Cuba's communist government, has said he plans to be there to inaugurate the project, which is one in a growing list of joint efforts by the two countries. In a speech on Saturday, Chavez called the telecommunications link a step toward greater independence, and he condemned the U.S. government's trade embargo against the island.

     Quintero said no U.S. entities or American citizens are participating in Alcatel-Lucent's project so that they would not be "exposed in any way to any type of sanction." While Alcatel-Lucent was formed by a 2006 merger involving Lucent Technologies of the United States, it is incorporated in France. President Barack Obama's administration loosened some embargo restrictions in 2009, opening possibilities for cooperation with Cuba in telecommunications. A Florida company called TeleCuba Communications Inc., founded by Cuban-American Luis Coello, wants to lay its own fiber-optic cable from Key West to Cuba. It would stretch about 110 miles (177 kilometers), much shorter and cheaper than the cable from Venezuela. However, the project is stalled because U.S. regulators have balked at the Cuban government's demand that companies connecting calls to Cuba pay the Cuban phone company 84 cents per minute. The U.S. government has approved a maximum of 60 cents per minute.

January 22, 2011

VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ SAYS HE WON'T GIVE UP ENABLING DECREE POWERS as he has promised

      CARACAS, VENECUBA-- DICTATOR  Hugo Chavez said Thursday he won't relinquish special legislative powers - a possibility he raised last week as a means of seeking reconciliation with Venezuela's opposition. Chavez's offer to reduce the period of time he has to enact laws by decree through the "Enabling Law" surprised opposition leaders, who welcomed his overture while expressing doubts regarding the president's call for mutual respect and dialogue between political rivals. "I'm not going to return the Enabling Law," said Chavez, speaking in a televised address. "I made a call to encourage courteous and respectful dialogue, but look at their response."

    Chavez first said that he needed special legislative powers for 18 months, which were approved by a lame-duck congress dominated by his allies in December, to swiftly approve disaster-relief measures after severe floods and mudslides that left thousands homeless last year. But last week, Chavez said lawmakers could reduce the period from a year and a half to 5 months. Critics have accused Chavez of using the "Enabling Law" to sidestep congressional controls by lawmakers in the new legislature, which was sworn in earlier this month.

    Opposition lawmakers note that Chavez's allies gave him authority to legislate in a wide range of areas including land-reform initiatives and Venezuela's economic system - not just measures aimed at helping Venezuelans displaced by the floods. Opposition lawmaker Jesus Paraqueima scoffed at Chavez's argument that he requires special powers to aid those affected by the floods. "It's not necessary," Paraqueima said in a telephone interview. "If he needs an increased budget to help the homeless, we'd gladly approve it." Chavez's ruling party has a strong majority in the assembly, but opponents gained ground in September congressional elections, winning 67 of the assembly's 165 seats. Their gains prevented Chavez allies from obtaining the two-thirds majority needed to pass some types of legislation.

BIN LADEN MESSAGE WARNS FRANCE TO PULL OUT OF AFGHANISTAN

     ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- A speaker claiming to be terrorism mastermind Osama bin Laden warned in an audiotape aired Friday that the release of two French journalists abducted by militants hinges on France's military role in Afghanistan. "We repeat the same message to you," said the speaker in an audio tape played on the Al-Jazeera satellite news network. "The release of your prisoners from the hands of our brethren depends on the withdrawal of your soldiers from our countries."

    The speaker, believed to be al Qaeda chief bin Laden, warns the French government that its alliance with the United States will prove costly. "The dismissal of your President (Nicholas) Sarkozy to get out of Afghanistan is the result of his subservience to the United States and this (dismissal) is considered to be the green signal to kill your prisoners without delay," the speaker said. He goes on to say that "we will not do that at the time that suits him (Sarkozy) and this position will cost you dearly on all fronts, in France and abroad."

    France, however, said it would not deter from its Afghanistan strategy. "We are determined to stay in Afghanistan with our allies for the Afghan people," said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero. Taliban militants captured the journalists -- Herve Ghesquiere and Stephane Taponnier from France 3 Television -- in December 2009 and threatened to kill them if their demands were not met, including the release of some detainees held by France. France has 3,750 troops in Afghanistan, according to NATO's International Security Assistance Force. Al Qaeda's north African wing has made the same withdrawal demands pertaining to the safety of five French nationals abducted in Niger.

COLOMBIA ASSESSES SECURITY AT BORDER WITH VENEZUELA 

     BOGOTA, COLOMBIA--Colombia's Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera visited the Arauca Department on the border with Venezuela to assess security issues in the area, where members of the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), the two main Colombian guerrillas, are still operating.

    Rivera travelled to Arauca Department with Admiral Edgar Cely, the General Commander of Colombia's Armed Forces; Felipe Muñoz, the director of the Security Administrative Department (DAS); General Gustavo Matamoros, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General Rafael Parra, the deputy director of the National Police, Efe reported.  Luis Ataya, the governor of Arauca Department, reported that the cooperation between Colombia and Venezuela to chase guerrilla groups in the region is not working. He added that the situation in the border with Venezuela has not changed in the last few years.

     The meetings held in recent months between the presidents of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, and Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, in which both heads of State committed themselves to strengthen cooperation to chase rebels, "have not produced any results yet," according to Ataya.  "Extreme violence" is also recorded in the departments of La Guajira, Norte de Santander, Vichada and Arauca (also located on the border with Venezuela), the governor of Arauca Department reported.

January 21, 2011

in venezuela, anyone accusing dictator chavez of "bad faith" will be prosecuted

      CARACAS, VENECUBA--Any Venezuelans who believe that DICTATOR Hugo Chávez has committed a crime and resort to the Attorney General Office to seek prosecution of the Venezuelan president will go from complainant to defendant, as provided for in two judgments issued by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ).

    The Supreme Tribunal of Justice authorized the Public Prosecution Office, led by Luisa Ortega Díaz, to dismiss two cases filed by Henry Ramos Allup and Rafael Marín, two leaders of Venezuelan opposition party Acción Democrática (Democratic Action); and by retired Navy Vice Admiral Iván Carratú and retired Colonel Pedro Soto against Chávez. Additionally, the top court "instructed" the Public Prosecution Office to "initiate a criminal investigation against the complainants."

    According to the judgments prepared by Justice Omar Mora Díaz, who is the First Vice President of the TSJ and president of the Social Court, such instruction is justified. He argued that none of the legal actions demonstrated that the Venezuelan Head of State had committed a crime. Therefore, he found that the complainants violated Article 291 of the Organic Code of Criminal Procedure (COPP).

VENEZUELAN GOVERNMENT MAY REGULATE PRIVATE FIRMS' PROFITS

     CARACAS, VENECUBA--The Venezuelan Federation of Trade and Industry Chambers (Fedecámaras) rejected the establishment of the Superintendence of Costs and Prices  A newly created Superintendence of Costs and Prices seeks to control the profits of private companies, said Noel Álvarez, the president of the Venezuelan Federation of Trade and Industry Chambers (Fedecámaras), Venezuela's main business association.  "It appears that the only goal of this agency is to control corporate profits and prices of goods and services," the business leader added.

    According to Álvarez, no additional economic controls will boost supply and curb inflation. "As long as actions are taken to discourage supply, as is the case now, there will be less variety of products. In turn, waning supply will result in increased prices of goods and services," he said.  Last Saturday, Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez raised the possibility of creating a Superintendence of Costs and Prices within the framework of the enabling law, in order to fight speculation.

    The president of Fedecámaras recalled, however, that controls similar to those proposed by Chávez have failed in the past, just like government's price controls are failing now. "With all previous experiences, we dare to say that this measure will fail, just like the Commission on Costs, Prices and Salaries (Conacopresa) did in the past."  The business leader stressed that the government must prepare a plan to encourage domestic production.  "Production in Venezuela should be increased dramatically in order to bring prices of goods and services down. Producers should not be persecuted. On the contrary, entrepreneurs should be supported, so as to galvanize the domestic production apparatus and create goods and services."

PURCHASING POWER AND CONSUMER CREDIT PLUNGE IN VENEZUELA

     CARACAS, VENECUBA--Based on economic figures at the end of 2010, consumption in Venezuela has declined, thus curbing credit card financing and car loans.  In 2010, credit card loans amounted to VEB 26.66 billion (USD 6.20 billion), according to data provided by the Venezuelan Superintendence of Banks. After inflation, this represents a 2 percent fall compared to 2009.

    Meanwhile, car loans decline is 22 percent, after inflation.  Even though poor car supply, reduced US dollar quota to make purchases over the Internet, and restricted use of the annual US dollar quota for travels abroad have had a negative influence, the main factor is the declining purchasing power of wages.

    Venezuelan households have been seriously hit by the highest inflation in Latin America, as in the last 12 months prices increased dramatically by 27 percent. This surge has not been offset by modest wage increases in the private and public sectors.  In real terms, after inflation, tumbling purchasing power at the end of the third quarter of 2010 amounts to 1.8 percent for workers in the private sector and 15.3 percent for public workers.

January 20, 2011

president barack obama and president hu jintao sparred over human rights

      washington, d.c.--President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao sparred over human rights on Wednesday, with Obama declaring that Americans believe such rights are among "core views" and Hu declaring China had made progress but "a lot still needs to be done" to improve his country's record. The concern over human rights was balanced against U.S. happiness about what Obama said was $45 billion in expected new export sale for the U.S. because of business deals with China cemented by the summit meeting of the world's two largest economies. Obama said those deals would help create 235,000 U.S. jobs. "I absolutely believe China's peaceful rise is good for the world, and it's good for America," Obama said, addressing a major concern in Beijing that the United States wants to see China's growth constrained.

     "We welcome China's rights. We just want to make sure that (its) rise occurs in a way that reinforces international norms, international rules, and enhances security and peace as opposed to it being a source of conflict either in the region or around the world." The two leaders vowed closer cooperation on critical issues ranging from increasing trade to fighting terrorism. But they also stood fast on differences, especially over human rights. Obama acknowledged that differences on rights were "an occasional source of tension between our two governments." He said at a joint news conference with Hu at the White House, "We have some core views as Americans about the universality of certain rights: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly.

     Obama said he drove that home forcefully in his discussions with the Chinese leader, but "that doesn't prevent us from cooperating in these other critical areas." For Hu's part, he at first didn't respond to an American reporter's question on human rights differences between the two countries. Pressed about it in a later question, he said technical difficulties in translation had prevented him from hearing the question. Hu said that each of his meetings with Obama - eight including Wednesday's - the rights issue had been raised. "China is always committed to the protection and promotion of human rights," Hu said. He said that China had "made enormous progress" in its practices. "China recognizes and also respects the universality of human rights," he said. "It recognizes and also respects the universality of human rights. At the same time, we need to take into account the different national circumstances. China is a developing country with a huge population, and also a developing country in a crucial stage of reform."

china lends usd 110 billion to developing countries

     beijing, china--According to the Financial Times newspaper, oil deals recently signed by Chinese state-run financial institutions included large loans to Russia, Venezuela and Brazil. At a time when banks in developed countries are still struggling amidst liquidity shortage, China has signed agreements with developing countries that are commodity producers

    In the last years, China has lent more money to developing countries than the World Bank, thus mirroring Beijing's thirst for natural resources, the Financial Times said on Tuesday.  State-owned China Development Bank and China Export-Import Bank agreed to lend USD 110 billion to developing countries in 2009 and 2010, according to the British newspaper, as reported by AFP.

     At a time when banks in developed countries are still struggling amidst liquidity shortage, China has signed agreements with developing countries that produce commodities, said the FT.  The Chinese state-run banks signed oil agreements which included large loans with countries such as Russia, Venezuela and Brazil.

'baby doc' duvalier plans to STAY in haiti and become president

     pORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI--Haitian authorities want Jean-Claude Duvalier to leave the country, but the once-feared dictator will not go and could even choose to get involved in politics and become president, one of his lawyers said Wednesday. Defense attorney Reynold Georges told reporters that it is Duvalier's right to remain in Haiti, but that he is free to travel. He stressed that Haiti's government has not ordered Duvalier to return to France following his surprise return on Sunday. "He is free to do whatever he wants, go wherever he wants," Georges said of the once-feared strongman, known as "Baby Doc." "It is his right to live in his country ... He is going to stay. It is his country."

    But Duvalier, whose reasons for coming back to Haiti remain murky, stayed sequestered in his room at the upscale Hotel Karibe in the hills above downtown Port-au-Prince and spoke publicly only through his lawyers. At one point, he went out on his balcony and waved to a small group of supporters on the street. Shortly after his arrival at Port-au-Prince's airport, his longtime companion Veronique Roy told reporters he would stay for just three days.

    But Georges portrayed the former leader as an esteemed ex-president who might choose to help a small Duvalierist political party during his time in Haiti, though he gave no details on what the help might involve. Georges said a Haitian judge who met with the 59-year-old former leader, who apparently does not have a valid Haitian passport, asked him when he planned to leave. "They want him to leave," he insisted. Duvalier, who assumed power in 1971 at age 19 following the death of his notorious father, Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, faces accusations of corruption and embezzlement for allegedly pilfering the treasury before his 1986 ouster. He returned to Haiti after being exiled for nearly 25 years.

January 19, 2011

FORMER DICTATOR JEAN-CLAUDE 'BABY DOC' DUVALIER RETURNS TO HAITI

      PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI-- In a move that stunned Haitians here and abroad, former dictator Jean-Claude ``Baby Doc'' Duvalier unexpectedly returned to his homeland Sunday after decades of exile in France.  A crowd estimated at 2,000 people gathered outside the international airport after news of Duvalier's return began to spread through the capital. ``Here's my president!'' some in the crowd chanted. Local journalists who talked with Duvalier inside the airport said he told them that he ``came to help his country.'' It was unclear how he intended to do so or what his immediate plans were. Duvalier's dramatic return could have unpredictable consequences for the country, Haitian experts said.

    "At least in the short term, the Haitian political chessboard has changed and changed utterly,'' said Robert Fatton, Jr., a government and foreign affairs professor at the University of Virginia. ``We need more information from the French, the United States and the Haitian governments before arriving at a sensible idea of this event.'' Haitian officials had no immediate response to Duvalier's return. However, Police Chief Mario Andresol said there was no warrant for Duvalier's arrest and he was free to return. For hours after landing, Duvalier was holed up in the diplomatic lounge at the airport as the crowd outside grew and authorities huddled over what to do. About two hours later, a frail-looking Duvaliar left the airport in the back seat of an SUV. The crowd cheered.

     National police used pepper spray and pointed their weapons at journalists to keep them away from the airport. The United Nations, which has a peacekeeping force in Haiti, sent tanks to help keep order. Earlier, a smiling Duvalier, wearing a dark-blue suit and light blue tie, stepped off an Air France flight shortly before 6 p.m. Few here knew of his planned return. Sources said he traveled on a diplomatic passport. The foreign diplomatic community, which was also caught be surprise, had no immediate response. The U.S. ambassador and other diplomats were attending a meeting in preparation for Monday's visit of the head of the Organization of American States, which is working with the government to end a crisis stemming from last year's presidential and legislative elections. Duvalier, who became president at 19, ruled Haiti from 1971 to 1986. He fled the country for France amid massive unrest after anti-government demonstrators clashed with his security forces. He has said for years that he would like to return to Haiti.

'BABY DOC' ARRESTED BY HAITIAN POLICE

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI--Haitian police took Jean-Claude Duvalier into custody and to a courthouse in downtown Port-au-Prince Tuesday afternoon. Charges remained unknown. Heavily-armed police picked up the long-ago toppled dictator known as ``Baby Doc'' at the posh Karibe Hotel in Petionville two days after his surprise return from exile. He said nothing as he was escorted through the back of the hotel. Haitian attorney Gervais Charles, who had represented the 59-year-old Duvalier in the past, called the move ``a scandal.''  Judge Gabriel Ambroise and Haitian attorney Reynold Georges arrived at the hotel about 10:30 a.m., as Haitian police officers were asked to secure the premises. A helicopter could be heard buzzing overhead. Human rights attorneys greeted the news with caution. ``It could be a very good step in the right direction if the Haitian justice system truly pursues this case,'' said Brian Concannon, director of Haiti's Institute for Justice and Democracy. ``It could also be a whitewash if they don't pursue him and find a reason to let him go.''

    In Haiti, Duvalier, 59, had spent Monday receiving visits from members of the secret police that once terrorized the country, fueling fears that his return would deepen a political crisis sparked by the nation's disputed Nov. 28 presidential elections. No winner emerged and the streets of Haiti have been roiled by violence as activists try to influence which candidates would engage in a run-off. In Washington, a State Department spokesman said the French government notified the United States about Duvalier's arrival in Haiti ``roughly an hour before'' he landed at Port-au-Prince's international airport. ``We don't believe at this point Haiti needs any more distractions,'' said spokesman P.J. Crowley.

    "Our focus right now is to help Haiti through this delicate period, have a new government emerge that is credible enough and legitimate enough and viewed positively in the eyes of the Haitian people so that the country, with international support, including the United States, can move ahead with the ongoing efforts to -- to rebuild Haiti.'' Duvalier had spent Monday receiving visits from members of the secret police that once terrorized the country, fueling fears that his return would deepen a political crisis sparked by the nation's disputed Nov. 28 presidential elections. No winner emerged and the streets of Haiti have been roiled by violence as activists try to influence which candidates would engage in a run-off. Duvalier's return stirred confusion and protest. The United States and Canada denounced his return, with Ottawa tersely referring to Duvalier as a ``dictator.''

52 DEAD AFTER BOMBER STRIKES POLICE STATION IN BAGHDAD

     BAGHDAD, IRAQ--A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of police recruits on Tuesday, killing at least 52 people and undercutting Iraqi security efforts as the nation struggles to show it can protect itself without foreign help.   The death toll was still rising hours after police said the bomber joined hundreds of waiting recruits and detonated his explosives-packed vest outside the police station in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, some 80 miles north of Baghdad. The attack starkly displayed the Iraqi forces' failure to plug even the most obvious holes in their security as the U.S. military prepares to withdraw from Iraq at the year's end. One recruit who survived the blast said the jobseekers were frisked before they entered the station's yard.

    "We were waiting in the line to enter the police station yard after being searched when a powerful explosion threw me to the ground," said recruit Quteiba Muhsin, whose legs were fractured in the blast. "I saw the dead bodies of two friends who were in the line. I am still in shock because of the explosion and the scene of my two dead friends." Loudspeakers from the city's mosques were calling on people to donate blood for the wounded. An Iraqi television station broadcast footage from the scene that showed pools of blood, bits of clothing and shoes of the victims scattered near a concrete blast wall.

    Tikrit police put the death toll at 52, with at least 150 wounded. Dr. Anas Abdul-Khaliq of Tikrit hospital confirmed the casualty figures. Tikrit is the capital of Sunni-dominated Salahuddin province, and the city sheltered some of Al Qaeda's most fervent support after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion ousted Saddam. Salahuddin provincial councilman Abdullah Jabara accused Al Qaeda of being behind the attack. "The aim of this terrorist attack carried out by Al Qaeda operatives is to shake the security in the province and to bring back instability to Tikrit," Jabara said. "The security forces shoulder responsibility for this tragic incident."  Jabara said insurgents successfully exploited what he called "inefficiencies" and "breaches" in security measures, calling it "an indication that the terrorists are still on the job and all security forces should be on high alert all the time."

 





¡ QUE VIVA BALTASAR..!
 

January 18, 2011

US POMP MEANT TO IMPROVE TONE OF CHINA RELATIONS

      WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Chinese leader Hu Jintao is being feted in Washington this week with a lavish state banquet at the White House and other pomp usually reserved for close friends and allies - all intended to improve the tone of relations between a risen, more assertive and prosperous China and a U.S. superpower in a tenuous economic recovery. The shaky trust between the United States and China has been eroding recently because of an array of issues - currency policies and trade barriers, nuclear proliferation and North Korea - and both sides seem to recognize the need to recalibrate relations. The U.S. is one of China's biggest markets, with $380 billion in annual trade largely in Beijing's favor. Washington increasingly needs Beijing's help in managing world troubles, from piracy off Africa to Iran's nuclear program and reinvigorating the world economy.

    Hu sounded a conciliatory tone in a rare interview with U.S. newspapers ahead of his visit, saying the two countries could mutually benefit by finding "common ground" on issues ranging from combatting terrorism and nuclear proliferation to clean energy and infrastructure initiatives. "There is no denying that there are some differences and sensitive issues between us," Hu said in written answers to questions submitted by The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal that were published over the weekend. "We both stand to gain from a sound China-U.S. relationship, and lose from confrontation." Hu called for more dialogues and exchanges to enhance "practical cooperation," stressing the need to "abandon the zero-sum Cold War mentality" in U.S.-China relations.

    Center for Strategic and International Studies scholar Charles Freeman, a former trade negotiator in the George W. Bush administration, said, "It is absolutely critical for the two sides to be setting a tone that says 'hang on a second, we are committed to an effective, positive relationship.'" The state banquet President Barack Obama is hosting will be Hu's first. In the days before his visit, senior officials from both countries have spoken publicly in favor of better ties. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a speech Friday that the countries needed to manage their conflicts but their shared interests were so entwined as to constitute entanglement. "History teaches us that the rise of new powers often ushers in periods of conflict and uncertainty," Clinton said. "Indeed, on both sides of the Pacific, we do see trepidation about the rise of China and the future of the U.S.-China relationship. We both have much more to gain from cooperation than from conflict."

CUBA SAYS TRAVEL CHANGES ARE NOT ENOUGH

     HAVANA, CUBAZUELA--Cuba said Sunday that the Obama Administration's decision to lift some travel restrictions on students, academics and religious groups and make it easier for Americans to send money were positive steps, but not nearly enough while Washington maintains its 48-year trade embargo on the island. The changes announced last week mean that students seeking academic credit and churches and synagogues traveling for religious purposes will be able to go to Cuba. Any U.S. international airport with proper customs and immigration facilities will be able to offer charter services to the island. The plan will also let any American send as much as $2,000 a year to Cuban citizens who are not part of the Castro administration and are not members of the Communist Party. Previously, only relatives could send money.

    "Though the measures are positive," Cuba's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday, "they are well below what was hoped for, have a limited reach and do not change (U.S.) policy against Cuba." The ministry said most of the changes simply bring U.S. policy back to where it was during the Clinton Administration, before President George W. Bush toughened restrictions. They do not alter Washington's trade embargo, which Cuba refers to as a "blockade." "These measures confirm that there is no will to change the policy of blockade and destabilization against Cuba," the ministry said. "If there exists a real interest in widening and facilitating contacts between our peoples, the United States should lift the blockade and eliminate the restrictions that make Cuba the only country in the world to which North Americans cannot travel."

    Under the embargo, American tourists are still prohibited from visiting Cuba and most trade with the island is barred. Obama had previously made it easier for Cuban-Americans to visit family and send money home, and cultural exchanges had greatly expanded under his watch. Still, relations between the Cold War enemies remain frosty, in particular over the detention of an American subcontractor held in Cuba since December 2009 on suspicion of spying. The changes, announced by the White House on Friday, will be put in place within two weeks. They do not need congressional approval.

VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ IN "FAST-TRACK" TO LEGISLATE AGAINST SPECULATION

     CARACAS, VENECUBA--Venezuela's DICTATOR Hugo Chávez has ample powers under the enabling law to legislate against speculation, usury and capital accumulation. Last Saturday, he said that he was ready to use the special powers granted by the lame duck National Assembly to wage this fight. The government considers that the Law to Defend People in the Access to Goods and Services is not enough.

    In his annual address to the National Assembly, Chávez said that inflation amounted to 27.2 percent in 2010 and all efforts must be made to lower inflation below 20 percent. Therefore, he urged people to fight against speculation and announced the establishment of the Superintendence for Costs and Prices, as well as regulations on corporate profits.  Additionally, the government will implement a policy of marking-up prices. On Sunday, Elías Eljuri, the president of the National Statistics Institute, said that "mandatory retail prices (PVP) are likely to be implemented again, in order to prevent price increases and curb speculation."

    The Venezuelan official said in an interview with state-run Radio Nacional that the ministries of Trade and Industry have been discussing the implementation of PVP. "No decisions have been made yet, but it is important to curb the speculation caused by firms that import products at (the official exchange rate of) VEB 4.30 per US dollar" and sell those products as if the US dollars had cost them VEB 6 or 8 per US dollar.

January 17, 2011

VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ OFFERS TO GIVE UP ENABLING LAW POWERS IN MAY

     CARACAS, VENECUBA--Addressing the South American nation’s parliament, DICTATOR HUGO Chavez said he was being unfairly “demonized” around the world and was prepared to give up sooner than expected the fast-track powers given for 18 months under an Enabling Law passed in December. “I am capable of asking this National Assembly to overturn the Enabling Law...So if anyone feels restricted (by the decree powers), then I’ll send it back, I have no problem,” he said.

     Chavez pledged to work “harder” and “faster” to push through decrees by May he says are needed for reconstruction and relief after floods that left more than 130,000 homeless. “In four to five months we may be able to carry out all the laws to manage the emergency,” he said. The socialist Chavez, who has led Venezuela on an increasingly radical path since 1999, requested decree powers from the outgoing parliament at the end of last year. The decree authority was to have lasted to mid-2012, a few months before a presidential vote where he plans to run again. Critics said the real intention was to undercut the incoming National Assembly, which has a greater presence of opposition lawmakers who were relishing the chance to try to block

     Chavez said the wave of criticism against him at home and abroad over the Enabling Law was unjustified. “There is a campaign to make me out to be a devil,” he said. “How on earth can they make out that the Enabling Law means we are in a dictatorship?”  Also at the start of a speech the famously garrulous president said would last five to six hours, Chavez welcomed the presence of opposition parties returning to parliament for the first time after a 2005 boycott of the legislative poll. “I am very happy to greet the opposition lawmakers. Really, no irony intended,” said Chavez.

US-ISRAEL TESTED WORM LINKED TO IRAN ATOM WEAPON WOES

      WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Israel has tested a computer worm believed to have sabotaged Iran's nuclear centrifuges and slowed its ability to develop an atomic weapon, The New York Times reported Saturday. In what the Times described as a joint Israeli-U.S. effort to undermine Iran's nuclear ambitions, it said the tests of the destructive Stuxnet worm had occurred over the past two years at the heavily guarded Dimona complex in the Negev desert. The newspaper cited unidentified intelligence and military experts familiar with Dimona who said Israel had spun centrifuges virtually identical to those at Iran's Natanz facility, where Iranian scientists are struggling to enrich uranium. "To check out the worm, you have to know the machines," an American expert on nuclear intelligence told the newspaper. "The reason the worm has been effective is that the Israelis tried it out." Western leaders suspect Iran's nuclear program is a cover to build atomic weapons, but Tehran says it is aimed only at producing electricity.

    Iran's centrifuges have been plagued by breakdowns since a rapid expansion of enrichment in 2007 and 2008, and security experts have speculated its nuclear program may have been targeted in a state-backed attack using Stuxnet. In November, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that malicious software had created "problems" in some of Iran's uranium enrichment centrifuges, although he said the problems had been resolved. The Times said the worm was the most sophisticated cyber-weapon ever deployed and appeared to have been the biggest factor in setting back Iran's nuclear march. Its sources said it caused the centrifuges to spin wildly out of control and that a fifth of them had been wiped out. It added it was not clear the attacks were over and that some experts believed the Stuxnet code contained the seeds for more versions and assaults.

    The retiring chief of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, Meir Dagan, said recently that Iran's nuclear program had been set back and that Tehran would not be able to build an atomic bomb until at least 2015. U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have not disputed Dagan's view. Neither Clinton nor Dagan mentioned Stuxnet or any other cyber-warfare possibly used against the Iranian program. Israel has voiced alarm over a nuclear Iran and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said only the threat of military action will prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb. Israel itself is widely believed to have built more than 200 atomic warheads at its Dimona reactor but it maintains an official policy of "ambiguity" over whether it is a nuclear power. Any delays in Iran's enrichment campaign could buy more time for efforts to find a diplomatic solution to its stand-off with six world powers over the nature of its nuclear activities.  U.S. and Israeli officials refused to comment officially on the worm, the newspaper said.

CHILE JUDGE NIXES EXTRADITION FOR FARC COMMUNIST SYMPATHIZER

     SANTIAGO DE CHILE, CHILE--A Chilean Supreme Court judge ruled Saturday that a Communist Party member linked to leftist rebels should not be extradited to Colombia.  Justice Sergio Munoz's ruling is preliminary, and the matter will ultimately be decided by the court's criminal division. Manuel Olate, 43, was arrested in October and had been under house arrest for the past month while his case was being heard.  The Colombian government accused Olate of being a financier for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, saying he traveled to that country several times and allegedly met with guerrilla leaders. Among other evidence against Olate, Colombia submitted 16 videos purportedly showing Olate with FARC leaders - including the guerrillas' "foreign minister," Raul Reyes, who was killed by the Colombian military in March 2008 in a cross-border raid on a rebel camp in Ecuador.

     Olate allegedly used the alias "Roque" in communications with the FARC, according to the extradition request filed by Colombia. The defense accused the Colombian government of fabricating evidence to incriminate Olate. Lawyer Alex Caroca argued that Olate's relationship with the FARC was one of solidarity, and he was not a member of the armed group. In his ruling, Munoz said Colombia failed to conclusively prove its case. "We always thought it would be like this," Olate said as he left the court Saturday. "We were confident that it could not be any other way." Alluding to the Chilean government - which has expressed its support for the extradition request - Olate said there must be an explanation for why "they destroyed my reputation."

     Caroca called the extradition request a "poorly founded" measure that, "if approved, would have endangered freedom of expression in Chile." "It would have endangered everyone's right to political expression as they see fit." Olate is one of two Chilean Communist Party members who appeared in photographs taken at Reyes' camp in 2008, days before it was bombed. At the time, Olate and Valeska Lopez held a news conference in the capital, Santiago, to deny reports in Colombia that they were there for military training. They said they went to the camp to interview a rebel commander who turned out to be Reyes, and explained that they were wearing fatigues only because their own clothes were wet and the rebels offered them dry outfits. The Chilean Attorney General's Office, which represented Colombia in the hearing, did not immediately comment on Saturday's ruling.

January 16, 2011

PRESIDENT OBAMA SHOULD RECOGNIZE GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS' OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE AND PROMOTE HIM TO FIVE-STAR GENERAL

     WASHINGTON, D.C.--Members of the Senate and House armed services committees currently are talking to the Pentagon about the next round of hearings on Afghanistan, trying to coordinate sessions with the U.S. commander there, Gen. David Petraeus. When Petraeus, probably the best-known military man in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan, returns to answer questions, the television lights will shine on the four stars he wears on each shoulder. Now a new debate is swirling in Washington, thanks to an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal pushing for Petraeus to get a fifth star, like military giants of the past.

    "The U.S. war against terrorism is now the longest war in U.S. history, and Gen. Petraeus has clearly distinguished himself as a leader worthy of the rank held by Gens. MacArthur, Marshall and Nimitz," Pete Hegseth and Wade Zirkle, of the group Vets for Freedom, wrote in the Wall Street Journal. A promotion would properly honor his service -- and it would also honor the troops he leads and has led," they write. "Today's soldiers have fought as valiantly as any in American history, and they deserve recognition of their leaders. Congressional approval of a fifth star would demonstrate the nation's commitment to their mission."

     Most senior officers are selected by a promotion board of their peers. But for three-stars and above, the president makes the choice, and the Senate must confirm the decision. Right now, including Petraeus, there are only 12 four-star generals in the U.S. Army. Currently, there is no legislation allowing the appointment of officers to a five-star grade, according to Pentagon information. The last general receiving a fifth star was Omar Bradley in 1950, and it took a special law to make that happen. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, recommended a fifth star during a congressional hearing back in 2008, when Petraeus was leading the surge of troops in Iraq. "If I could promote you to five stars, I would," Graham told Petraeus. It has been more than half a century since a U.S. general was awarded a fifth star. David Petraeus’s generalship has spanned 11 years, three presidents and seven Congresses. It is time to promote him to “General of the Army” and award him a fifth star. Our military deserves it, and he has certainly earned it.

DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ EXTENDS AN OLIVE BRANCH TO VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION

      CARACAS, VENECUBA.--DICTATOR Hugo Chavez welcomed members of the political opposition Saturday in Venezuela's new legislature, and even hinted that he could surrender some of the extraordinary powers the previous assembly gave him. Venezuela's new National Assembly, in which pro-Chavez legislators no longer hold a supermajority, was seated in early January. "I'm happy to see you here. I want to welcome you," Chavez said during his annual presentation to the single-chamber National Assembly.

     Chavez told them that he is thinking of accelerating the process of approving decrees, and surrender "within four or five months" powers he was granted to govern by decree into mid-2012. Chavez, who first took office in 1999, has used special decree powers to legislate in 2000, 2001 and 2008. During that time he decreed more than 100 laws. Opposition lawmakers have taken up 40 percent of seats in a new National Assembly ending five years of almost unopposed rule by Chavez supporters in the oil-rich South American nation. The new political context promises to exacerbate internal tension in the run-up to 2012 presidential election.

    "Gentlemen of the opposition," Chavez said. "You believe that I am a true demon, someone that you cannot talk with, and we believe that you are demons that we can't talk with. "Let's throw out the demons and long live the human element, ideas and debate." Chavez urged opposition and pro-government legislators to "not miss" this opportunity to engage in debate. "In the end, we're all Venezuelan," Chavez told the legislators. "You aren't leaving here, and neither are we."

HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY JANET NAPOLITANO CANCELS "VIRTUAL FENCE" PROJECT IN THE MEXICAN BORDER

     WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Friday that she has canceled the troubled virtual fence project along the southwest border, proposing a new plan which she claims will better address each region's border security needs.  The decision comes a year after the secretary ordered a review of the project, which was hampered by delays and technological glitches, and froze its funding. The original plan, known as SBInet, envisioned a system of cameras and sensors which would allow officers to monitor crossings and dispatch Border Patrol agents to catch anyone entering the United States illegally.

     Napolitano said her department briefed members of Congress on Friday about the final decision to nix the program "as originally conceived." But she said DHS will pursue a "new path forward" for security along the 2,000-mile southern U.S. border. The secretary said that while the U.S. cannot provide a "single, integrated border security technology solution," the new plan will use different technologies in different areas.  That could mean a system of surveillance towers in one area and unmanned drones in another. It could mean thermal imaging in one area and elements of the old SBInet plan in another.  "There is no 'one-size-fits-all' solution to meet our border technology needs, and this new strategy is tailored to the unique needs of each border region, providing faster deployment of technology, better coverage, and a more effective balance between cost and capability," Napolitano said.

      The project was first proposed under the George W. Bush administration. When SBInet was put on hold a year ago, it had cost the government $672 million. Technical problems, involving the effectiveness of video cameras and other elements, had by that point pushed the project far off schedule.  Republicans have since been torn over the decision to sideline the virtual fence. Republicans like Arizona Sen. John McCain shared the administration's concern about mismanagement while others fretted that the government would not present a viable alternative. Border security-conscious lawmakers will surely weigh in on whatever proposal Napolitano puts on the table next, something she said would be worked out this year.  Despite potential concerns about what will fill the void, a DHS official told Fox News that Border Patrol is better staffed "than at any time in its 86-year history." The official said the administration has doubled the number of agents since 2004 to more than 20,500. The official said the deployment earlier in the year of 1,200 National Guard and other initiatives have helped border officials seize more illegal cash, more illegal drugs and more illegal weapons over the past two years.

January 15, 2011

CUBAN AMERICAN NATIONAL FOUNDATION SUPPORTS NEW CUBA POLICY MEASURES

     MIAMI, FLORIDA--The Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) regards the Cuba policy measures announced today by the Obama Administration as a positive step towards furthering people-to-people contact with Cubans on the island. These measures concur with the recommendations that CANF presented to President Obama at the beginning of his presidency and include the establishment of new points of departure in the United States for purposeful travel to Cuba and the expansion of opportunities for religious and academic groups that wish to interact with the Cuban people. Additionally, the new regulations allow all Americans to send remittances of up to $500 per quarter for humanitarian and economic purposes to any individual on the island who is not a member of the Communist Party.

     "We feel these measures promote the interests of the people of the United States as well as the interests of the people of Cuba. A greater ability to send remittances in conjunction with increased contact and communication with those on the island will help to break the chains of dependency that the Castro regime has traditionally used to oppress those inside Cuba," declared Francisco "Pepe" Hernandez, CANF President. "Increased purposeful travel fosters fraternal bonds among ordinary people that those in power in Cuba's totalitarian system will have difficulty in controlling. This goes hand-in-hand with the democratic demands that we are seeing from Cuba's independent civil society."

     "It is significant that these measures do not represent a concession to the Castro regime, but rather form part of a continuing series of unilateral measures that the US is taking which demonstrate a concern for the wellbeing of ordinary folks," added Hernandez. "Ultimately, change will come to Cuba from the activities of these same ordinary people inside the island. The more we can do to promote their self-reliance, their knowledge of the realities of the outside world, and their independence from the Castro regime, the better are their prospects for democratic change."

JOSE MIGUEL INSULZA: "COUNTRIES' INTERESTS HAMPER DISCUSSION OF SOME ISSUES"

      WASHINGTON, D.C.--José Miguel Insulza, the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States (OAS), late on Thursday ratified that he is not satisfied with the restrictions that the enabling law imposes on the new Venezuelan National Assembly. However, he said that he lacks powers to request the OAS Permanent Council to consider the issue, adding that only the OAS 33 member countries can take such a decision.

    During an interview with US news network CNN en Español, Insulza denied that he has meddled with Venezuela's internal affairs. With regard to the special ruling powers granted to President Hugo Chávez by the outgoing National Assembly, he said that he had just expressed a personal opinion and he still holds that view.  Insulza termed inappropriate that a lame duck Parliament passes a law that deprives the incoming legislators of certain powers. But this time, he clarified his previous comments. "I am not asking anybody to change the (enabling) law; I am no even asking the OAS to make any decision about it."

      The silence of the OAS member countries, according to the Secretary-General of the OAS, is related to what he called "a very calm situation full of harmony" in the region. "Countries (in the region) have superb relations, and I understand (their position). They are often reluctant to create disagreements under such circumstances. I have the duty to raise the issues submitted to me... but they (member countries) have the obligation to watch over their interests. Member countries have probably good reasons not to engage in public debate of those issues."

FORMER CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO CRITICIZES PRESIDENT OBAMA'S SPEECH TO HONOR VICTIMS OF  TUCSON SHOOTINGS

     HAVANA, CUBAZUELA--Former Cuban dictator  Fidel Castro weighed in on the Arizona mass shooting that killed six and injured 14, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, in a column distributed Monday. The column, titled "An Atrocious Act," condemns the shooting, but Castro didn't miss the chance to criticize the right wing of U.S. politics. He said Giffords was an enemy of the Tea Party and described her as a supporter of immigration reform, stem cell research and alternative energy, "measures that are hated by the far right."

     Castro said he was disappointed by Obama because “hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans who work in that country doing the toughest and worst paid jobs are captured each year and sent back to their points of departure, many times separated from their closest kin.  They were hoping that the new administration would correct that criminal and inhuman policy. According to just-arrived news, 18 people were shot and six died, among them a 9-year-old girl and Federal Judge John Roll.” When her father was asked whether she had any enemies, he replied: “The entire Tea Party”, Castro said.

     But despite the differences between the United States and Cuba, the Communist former president said he was saddened by the news. "Even those of us who don't share his (President Barack Obama's) political or philosophical ideas in the least sincerely hope that no children, judges, congressmen or any U.S. citizen should die in such an absurd and unjustifiable way," he wrote.

January 14, 2011

US HIGH MILITARY COMMAND QUESTIONS VENEZUELAN DICTATOR CHAVEZ'S SPENDING IN WEAPONS

     WASHINGTON, D.C.--Venezuela is not a threat for the United States, but it is worth wondering why a significant amount of money is being spent in sophisticated weapons, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said on Wednesday.

     "I don't regard Venezuela as a significant threat for the United States at this moment, but at the same time (Venezuela's dictator Hugo Chávez) is spending lot of money in arms which will arrive over the next years in that country," said Mullen in a press conference with foreign correspondents.

     "Some of us wonder about the purpose of buying these sophisticated weapons," the highest ranking US military officer said.  "We are tracking them," he added.  Venezuela's arms purchases, particularly from Russia, have also been matter of concern for some neighbors, such as Colombia.

opposition leaders ask for oas action to normalize venezuelan institutions

      washington, d.c.--Four political leaders of the opposition's Democratic Unified Panel (MUD) met on Wednesday with José Miguel Insulza, the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States (OAS), and asked him through a letter to adopt "appropriate measures necessary to achieve normalization of democratic institutions in Venezuela."

      Luis Aquiles Moreno, a deputy to the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino) for Acción Democrática (Democratic Action) party, deputies Omar Barboza of Un Nuevo Tiempo (A New Time) party and Ismael García, for Podemos (For Social Democracy) party and Ramón José Medina, MUD's international relations coordinator, were the leaders who met with Insulza in Washington. They had previously met with Santiago Cantón, the Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

     In a six-page letter, the opposition leaders reported the recent actions carried out by the Venezuelan government, claiming that they "violate the constitutional order; disregard the rule of law, disrespect human rights; violate the principles of separation and independence of public powers; ignore popular sovereignty, and therefore violate several provisions of the Inter-American Democratic Charter and other international declarations and treaties."  According to the MUD's international relations coordinator, Insulza announced that he is doing consultations to submit to the OAS Permanent Council the issue of the special ruling powers granted to dictator Hugo Chávez for consideration.

warning about future of dictator "chavez's bloc" 

     JERUSALEM, ISRAEL--Former Venezuelan Minister Ricardo Hausmann thinks that the "big conundrum of Latin America" is if the policies of the "Chavez's bloc" will be remembered as a "terrible nightmare" of the past or "will take the way of Zimbabwe."  "The big conundrum of Latin America is if it will be able to turn over the page of this very dark chapter of destruction of economic freedoms and development opportunities of its people," Hausmann said in an interview with Efe shortly before taking part in the conference "Israel 2021," in Jerusalem.

    Hausmann, who was Minister of Planning in 1992-1993, during the second term of Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez, made a distinction among four regional groups in Latin America concerning its economic performance in the next decade.  The first one is composed of "democratic countries of market orientation of the Pacific Coast," such as Chile, Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica and "perhaps Mexico." These nations will have a "good decade" and are "besides China's imports."

     The second group includes Uruguay, which "is on its way," Argentina and Brazil.  Central America comprises the third group and faces "the problem of finding its role in the world" in the face of Asian exports, according to Hausmann.  Lastly, there are the "countries of the Chávez's bloc," namely: Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Cuba.  "They are doing very badly. The question is if in the next decade, this will be remembered as a terrible nightmare or if these countries will follow suit with Zimbabwe, where the government destroys society to such a pace that, despite the government is weaker, the society is still weaker."

¿CARTAS MARCADAS?
 

January 13, 2011

DISSENTING DEPUTY, ISMAEL GARCIA, SAID THAT DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ WANTS TO DISMANTLE THE STATE WITH THE ENABLING LAW

     WASHINGTON, D.C.--A VENEZUELAN delegation of opposition deputies is submitting on Wednesday at the OAS a document detailing what is happening in Venezuela, with special emphasis on the “unconstitutional laws” passed in December by the National Assembly.

     Opposition deputy Ismael García (Podemos party) said that the Venezuelan government has used the rain tragedy and the situation of people made homeless by heavy rains to pass an unconstitutional law. A delegation of opposition legislators are reporting on this situation on Wednesday in the Organization of American States.

     "Tragedy has been used for demagoguery and populism, to kidnap the victims and also to grant special powers to the president in several areas that have nothing to do with the tragedy, such as mass media," García said in an interview from Washington with Venezuelan radio station Unión Radio.  The dissenting lawmaker added that the goal of the government is using the enabling law to finish off "the State as outlined in the Constitution, which is federal, decentralized, democratic, pluralist and based on justice, and to replace it by a hegemonic state."

CUBAN SOCIAL SERVICES (EDUCATION AND HEALTH) ARE UNSUSTAINABLE IN THE ABSENCE OF REFORMS

      HAVANA, CUBAZUELA--Cuban social services (HEALTH AND EDUCATION), the flagships of the Revolution, cannot be sustained under the current economic model and can only remain if all the reforms recommended by dictator  Raúl Castro are enforced, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

      "It is not possible to solve the problems faced by onerous social services" without a substantial improvement of the economy, Cuban scholar in exile Carmelo Mesa Lugo said in his study, backed by the views of local economists and released in the Cuban magazine Temas.

       "If Venezuela were to reduce it trade and aid to Cuba, it would suffer a strong economic blow, perhaps similar to that occurred after the fall of the socialist field in 1989; this would have a similar untoward effect on social services," he noted.

IRAN SAYS IT HAS CRACKED AN ISRAELI SPY RING

     TEHRAN, IRAN--Iran says it has broken up an Israeli spy ring and captured an agent who helped assassinate an Iranian nuclear scientist last year, raising tensions between the two countries even further. Iran's foreign minister today said Tehran will bring Israel to justice for "crimes against humanity and our scientists." The alleged Mossad agent was paraded on Iranian TV's English broadcast Monday night and shown on Israel TV's Channel 2. The suspect's name was not given, but he appeared to be in his early 30s. He said he traveled to Israel, where he met with his Israeli handlers. He described landing at Ben-Gurion Airport, where an official became suspicious that he did not speak Hebrew.

    "At that moment, the person who was responsible for me came into the picture. He presented a card, took my passport and we exited through a different way," he said. "We left Tel Aviv on the highway to Jerusalem, and about 30 minutes later we reached the Mossad headquarters." He also described the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Masoud Ali Mohammadi, one of the heads of the Iranian nuclear program, who was killed a year ago. "We booby-trapped a car near his home which killed him," he told the Iranian interviewer, adding that the Mossad "trained me how to do surveillance, to shake off someone following me and how to attach a bomb under a car." 

     Since Mohammadi's death, another Iranian nuclear scientist was killed and a third seriously wounded in two simultaneous attacks in November. Iran accused the Mossad, the CIA and the British MI6 of involvement. Israeli officials declined to comment. Iranian officials said the man was one of "more than 10" in a network of Israeli spies who had been arrested recently. "We will definitely utilize all our means and capabilities to follow up the case in international legal bodies," Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, said today. "The issue that we will actively pursue is the condemnation of this illegal regime [Israel] and its punishment as the perpetrator of crimes against humanity and our scientists." Israel has repeatedly said that Iran is working to develop a nuclear bomb that could be used against Israel or moderate Arab states. Iran insists its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes. Sponsored LinksIn recent months, Iran has suffered a series of setbacks in addition to the killing of the Iranian scientists. Notably, it has had trouble maintaining it centrifuges used to enrich uranium.

January 12, 2011

CHINESE STEALTH FIGHTER MAKES FIRST TEST FLIGHT

     BEIJING CHINA--China's radar-eluding stealth fighter made its first-known test flight Tuesday, marking dramatic progress in the country's efforts to develop cutting-edge military technologies. The prototype plane dubbed the J-20 flew for about 15 minutes over an airfield in the southwestern city of Chengdu where it was spotted carrying out runway tests last week, Kanwa Asian Defense magazine editor Andrei Chang said. Photos of the plane in flight and on the ground surrounded by men in civilian clothes and army overcoats were also posted on unofficial Chinese military websites. A J-10 fighter - China's last homegrown jet - flew behind it as a chase plane.

    The test flight comes on the second day of a visit to China by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and the normally secretive military made no attempt to hide it or remove photos and reports about the J-20 from the Internet. The timing and hands-off approach is apparently intended to send the message that Beijing is responding to calls from the U.S. and others to be more transparent about its defense modernization and future intentions. Although likely many years from entering China's inventory, the J-20 is a potential rival to the U.S. F-22 Raptor, the only stealth fighter currently in service. The U.S. is also employing stealth technology on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, while Russia's Sukhoi T-50's stealth fighter made its maiden flight last year and is set to enter service in about four years. In the photos, China's twin-engine J-20 appears larger than either the Russian or U.S. fighters, potentially allowing it fly farther and carry heavier weapons.

     The J-20 would pose the greatest immediate threat to Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing claims as Chinese territory - to be recovered by force if necessary. Taiwan's air force is composed mostly of aging U.S. F-16s and French Mirage jets, and its electronic warning systems would find it difficult to cope with stealth technology. A Chinese stealth fighter would "seriously undermine the Taiwan air force's advantages," said Alexander Huang of Taipei's Tamkang University. Stealth technology is difficult to master because it relies on systems to hide the presence of the plane, while equipping the pilot with enough information to attack an enemy. Emissions must be hidden and the plane's fuselage sculpted to avoid detection by radar and infrared sensors.  Despite the challenges, the J-20's entry into the test flight stage seems to indicate China is progressing faster than expected with the new technology, even while the plane's true capabilities aren't known.

COSTA RICA TAKES NICARAGUA DISPUTE TO THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE IN THE HAGUE

      THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS--Costa Rica accused Nicaragua on Tuesday of flagrantly breaching international law by putting troops on disputed land along the river that forms the two nations' border and asked the highest U.N. court to order their immediate withdrawal.  San Jose has accused Nicaraguan troops of illegally setting up camp on its territory in October as part of a dredging project to create a canal. Nicaragua denies violating Costa Rican territory. The dispute even drew in Google when the Nicaraguan official in charge of the dredging project said in a newspaper interview that he used Google's map system to decide where the work should be done.

    Costa Rican Foreign Ministry legal adviser Sergio Ugalde told the court that Google quickly fixed an inaccurate map cited by Managua. "Alerted to the mistake, and despite Nicaraguan protests, Google acknowledged the error and amended their map on Google Earth," Ugalde told the court. The San Juan river has been a source of disputes for nearly two centuries. In 2009, the International Court of Justice set travel rules for the river, affirming freedom for Costa Rican craft to navigate the waterway while upholding Nicaragua's right to regulate traffic.

Costa Rica's agent to the court, Edgar Ugalde, told the 16-judge panel the dispute is threatening "the peaceful coexistence of the region." "This is not the way two states who see each other as brothers should treat each other," he said as hearings started at the world court's oak-panelled Great Hall of Justice in The Hague. Ugalde called Nicaragua's actions "a flagrant breach of law" and said his country, which has no army, has no way of "facing up to military incursions." Costa Rica has asked the court to issue an emergency order for Nicaragua to immediately withdraw its troops and halt dredging. Nicaraguan lawyers were to address the court later Tuesday. They argue the dredging work is being carried out on Nicaraguan territory.

VENEzUELA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DEBATES JOSE MIGUEL INSULZA'S CRITICAL STATEMENTS ON THE ENABLING LAW 

     CARACAS, VENECUBA-- Ruling party deputy Carlos Escarrá said that the enabling law has a constitutional tradition, while opposition lawmaker Tomás Guanipa said that the law strips power of the new deputies.

    At a regular meeting of the Venezuelan National Assembly, members of ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) supported the special ruling powers granted to dictator Hugo Chávez, and rejected the statements against the law made by José Miguel Insulza, the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States (OAS).

    However, opposition deputies said that the enabling law, as adopted by a lame-duck assembly, is not only illegal but also immoral. They claimed that the move left the deputies who were elected on September 26 without legislative powers.  Carlos Escarrá, a pro-government legislator, said that Insulza's statements were "rude, incoherent and barbarian."  For his part, opposition deputy Tomás Guanipa insisted on saying that the enabling law is illegal and lacks moral legitimacy.

January 11, 2011

SENATOR JOHN McCAIN VIEWS HUGO CHAVEZ AS "UNDEMOCRATIC" 

     BOGOTA, COLOMBIA--US Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain (R-AZ) said that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is "undemocratic" because he requested a new enabling law that allows him to pass laws by decree without the approval of the National Assembly.

     "His latest recent move to obtain powers to rule by decree is certainly undemocratic," the Republican Senator said when asked whether he believed that "Venezuela is becoming a dictatorship," according to an interview published on Monday by Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, as reported by AFP.  McCain said that he is concerned over the "rapid erosion of democracy in the institutions of a freely elected government in Venezuela." He added: "I feel sorry for Venezuelans."

     "People in Venezuela are being deprived of their fundamental right to freedom in the pursuit of happiness, the right to choose their leaders and have their elected representatives to govern," said McCain.  He added that the eventual inclusion of Venezuela in the list of state sponsors of terrorism greatly depends on Chávez's behavior."

VENEZUELAN BISHOPS RULE OUT CALLING FOR FOREIGN INTERVENTION

      CARACAS, VENECUBA--Monsignor Baltazar Porras, the vice president of the Venezuelan Bishops' Conference (CEV), rejected claims made against the Catholic Church after the release of Wikileaks documents. He said that they have never requested the intervention of foreign forces in Venezuela.

     "Neither the Venezuelan Bishops' Conference nor the Cardinals have made shady deals with other countries, particularly the United States, to tell them that they have to intervene in Venezuela. It is obvious that we have been in contact with them as we are important figures and we have been placed in particular circumstances," he said.  Monsignor Porras said that to defend people's rights "you must have the guts." He clarified that it was not a call to subversion. Cardinal Savino also expressed his concern about takeovers ordered by dictator  Hugo Chávez.  "The problem of seizures is very serious. Even if it is true that it is a capacity of the State, authorities must follow the procedures provided in the Constitution and apparently (these procedures) have been disregarded in some cases," Cardinal Urosa Savino warned.

     On Saturday night, Chávez issued a decree ordering temporary occupation of an area of 10,900 square yards, located in low-income neighborhood of Antímano, west Caracas, where a Child Nutritional Care Center of food giant Polar is located. When asked about it, Urosa Savino said: "in the case of this charity, it is an institution that is doing a great social service. It is a worrying development. I would like to urge the executive office to reflect on the issue of expropriations."

LUIS POSADA CARRILES TRIAL BEGINS IN EL PASO

      EL PASO, TEXAS--Cuban exile and self-proclaimed militant Luis Posada Carriles is going before a federal judge in El Paso's Federal Courthouse downtown this morning. Posada, 82, is linked to several terrorist attacks over the last four decades. He's believed to be the mastermind behind bombings in Cuba in 1997 that killed an Italian tourist, as well as the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976 that killed 73 people. But rather than face charges for those attacks, Posada is being tried for naturalization fraud, perjury and obstruction. Authorities said the militant lied about how he entered the U.S. back in 2005, as well as about his involvement in the bombings of Havana tourist spots.

     Posada was caught in El Paso in 2005, arrested for allegedly entering the U.S. illegally. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone threw out the charges in 2007, saying there was a lack of evidence. But a Fifth Circuit Court judge reversed that ruling a year later. The Cuban militant has been living in Miami with family, according to a report by the New York Times. An immigration judge ordered him deported in 2005, but ruled Posada should not be sent to Venezuela or Cuba, where it's believed he would be tortured.

     While waiting for the trial to begin, the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition out of Washington, D.C., held a tribunal for Posada in El Paso over the weekend. The organizer feels the federal government is not using the stacks of evidence against the militant to its fullest potential. "ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) acknowledged that Posada is a terrorist, and yet he's only charged with lying," exclaimed Brian Becker, national coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition. "Why is that? If the United States wants to pretend to be the champion of the struggle against terrorism, how can you let a man like Posada Carriles walk free?" Posada will go before Judge Cardone this morning.

January 10, 2011

SECRETARY GATES IN BEIJING TO DISCUSS US CONCERNS ABOUT CHINA'S MILITARY

     BEJING, CHINA--U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is in China to try to improve bilateral military ties and discuss ways to ease U.S. concerns about China's military modernization, which he says is more advanced than first thought.  Gates arrived in Beijing Sunday for a three-day visit, during which he is expected to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Defense Minister General Liang Guanglie.   Prior to arrival, Gates told reporters on his plane that he wants to persuade China to engage in regular military talks with the United States to prevent misunderstandings that could lead to conflict.

     China last invited Gates to visit in 2007, but later suspended military contacts several times to protest U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.  Secretary Gates expressed concern about China's latest advances in hi-tech weaponry.  Gates said China "clearly" has the potential to put some U.S. military capabilities "at risk." He said the United States must "respond appropriately" to that risk with its own programs. Gates also said he hopes a "strategic dialogue" with China will reduce its need for some advanced weapons. China says its military programs are purely for defense. The U.S. Defense Secretary said Beijing's development of its first stealth fighter jet is "somewhat further along" than U.S. intelligence predicted. But, he said the quality of Chinese stealth technology is unclear.   He also said China has made significant advances in building anti-ship missiles designed to destroy aircraft carriers. He said he has been concerned about China's pursuit of such missiles ever since he took office four years ago. 

      The U.S. Defense Department proposed a series of programs last week, aimed at responding to the perceived challenge of China's military advances. The proposals include developing a long-range nuclear bomber and radar upgrades for the F-15 fighter jet.  Gates' arrival in China comes 10 days before Chinese President Hu visits Washington to deepen ties and try to resolve disputes that marred that relationship last year.  From Beijing, Gates is due to travel to South Korea and Japan to discuss tensions on the Korean Peninsula. He praised China for what he called its "constructive" role in trying to ease those tensions.

DICTATOR CHAVEZ DISMISSES CRITICISM FROM OAS SECRETARY GENERAL

      CARACAS, VENECUBA--VENEZUELAN DICTATOR Hugo Chavez on Saturday dismissed criticism by the head of the Organization of American States, who expressed concern about a new law granting Venezuela's leader power to enact laws by decree. OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza said Friday that the powers granted to Chavez by the previous National Assembly last month were completely contrary to the 2001 Inter-American Democratic Charter.

     Insulza said the OAS probably would soon discuss the law, which will enable Chavez to bypass the congress for 18 months to enact laws affecting a broad range of areas. Chavez called Insulza's remarks an embarrassment. "I don't even ignore you," he said. He did not refer to similar criticism by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela, who called the law undemocratic and said it violated the OAS charter.  Chavez obtained the decree powers shortly before a new National Assembly took office with an opposition contingent large enough to prevent passage of some types of major laws that require approval by a two-thirds majority.

    Venezuela's Foreign Ministry also condemned Insulza's comments, accusing him of supporting U.S. policies of "intervention and domination" in Latin America. Insulza and Chavez have had public clashes in the past. In November, after Insulza criticized the remarks of a top Venezuelan general, Chavez called the OAS an impotent and increasingly irrelevant organization. The OAS "will have to start disappearing," Chavez said.

15 HEADLESS CORPSES FOUND IN AN ACAPULCO

      ACAPULCO, MEXICO--Police discovered the bodies of 15 decapitated men outside a shopping mall in Acapulco, Mexico, early Saturday, bringing the death toll from 24 hours of raging drug violence in the Pacific Coast resort to 27, a top official said. The headless bodies were found on a walkway outside the Playa Sendero shopping mall, about a mile from the sweep of high-rise hotels on the scenic bay that made Acapulco Mexico's first famous beach resort. It was the largest single group of decapitation victims ever found in Mexico.  Guerrero state prosecutor David Augusto Sotelo told the official Notimex news agency that the daily death toll in Acapulco had risen to 27 victims.

    A statement by the Public Security office in Guerrero state said police received a call at 12:44 a.m. alerting them to a burning vehicle near Playa Sendero, a popular two-year-old shopping center with an indoor ice rink. When state police arrived, they discovered a white Nissan SUV on fire, and four other abandoned vehicles, one with its motor running, the statement said. Police also found the beheaded corpses - and, some distance away, their heads, piled together. Nearby, two white posters with black lettering bore messages from a drug cartel. All the victims were male and appeared to be between 25 and 30 years old, the police statement said. The bodies were covered in sand and appeared to have been murdered elsewhere and dumped at the scene.

    Police did not reveal the messages left on the signs at the scene of the beheadings. But the Blog del Narco website posted numerous photos of the scene and said the posters were written on behalf of Mexico's most wanted drug lord, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman Loera, head of the Sinaloa Cartel. Prior to Saturday's discovery, the largest single occurrence of beheadings was in Merida, the largest city in the Yucatan Peninsula, in August 2008, when 12 headless bodies were found. Most of the bodies had dragon tattoos. The heads were never found. The bloodshed in Acapulco came a day after the mayor of Zaragoza in Coahuila state was found dead from gunshot wounds. Mayor Saul Vara was the 15th sitting mayor or mayor-elect murdered since the beginning of 2010. Drug violence in Mexico has taken more than 30,100 lives since President Felipe Calderon took office in late 2006 and deployed troops in a frontal battle against drug cartels. The pace of killings quickened last year when more than 12,400 people were slain.

January 9, 2011

SECRETARY GATES HEADS TO CHINA WITH HOPES FOR BETTER TIES

     washington, d.c.--After a rocky year for U.S.-Chinese relations, Defense Secretary Robert Gates heads to China in hopes of strengthening relations with the rising military power and global competitor. The relationship between the two countries has been strained recently as China expanded its firepower and reach, quarreled with U.S. allies over Pacific territory and broke off the few flimsy military ties it had allowed with Washington. Gates, set to depart Saturday on an Asia trip, will meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao a week ahead of Hu's planned state visit to Washington. In talks with Hu and Chinese military leaders, Gates plans to make the case for regular face-to-face discussions between military officials from both countries. Direct discussions are already routine for presidents and diplomats. Limited relations between the two militaries were restored late last year.

    On the eve of Gates' trip, an aide said Gates saw the military relationship on the mend. "He goes into it encouraged, optimistic, hopeful," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Friday, noting that Gates will tour a major Chinese nuclear facility and meet with uniformed leaders. Still, there are few signs that China wants the kind of broad engagement Gates has argued would help avert risky misunderstandings and miscalculations as China extends its military reach.  "We've raised a lot of these issues before. We've raised them in Beijing, we've raised them in Washington," Morrell said. "We will raise them again and we certainly hope we make additional progress and sustainable progress." The United States and China are sometimes global competitors for markets, influence and increasingly for military bragging rights. But they also are diplomatic partners, and Gates' visit comes as the Obama administration is leaning hard on China to tighten the leash on its erratic ally North Korea, which in recent months has come close to open conflict with South Korea.

    Gates is also visiting South Korea, for brief talks about averting war with the North, as well as Japan, which is alarmed by Chinese military moves. The China invitation is a coup for Gates, who invited a Chinese counterpart for similar talks and a visit to the U.S. nuclear weapons headquarters in 2009. A reciprocal invitation was expected in 2010, but China withheld it in protest of a planned $6.4 billion arms sale to China's rival, Taiwan. The U.S. and China have cooperated on penalties against Iran over its nuclear program, and both nations are discussing working side by side to deter piracy and respond to Asian natural disasters. But the two militaries are engaged in a test of wills in the Pacific, as China begins to challenge the century-old assumption that the United States is the pre-eminent military power there. China has made significant gains toward fielding a missile system designed to sink a moving aircraft carrier from nearly 2,000 miles away, the top U.S. commander in the Pacific said Thursday. The so-called carrier-killer missile and a new showpiece stealth fighter jet may not be a match for U.S. systems but represent rapid advances for China's homegrown technology and defense manufacturing.

IRAN SAYS IT CAN PRODUCE OWN NUCLEAR FUEL  

      TEHRAN, IRAN-- Iran says it is now capable of producing nuclear fuel plates and rods, according to AFP. Iran's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi declares in a report that the country has completed the construction of a facility in Isfahan for the fuel plates.

     "A grand transformation has taken place in the production of (nuclear) plates and rods. With the completion of the unit in Isfahan, we are one of the few countries which can produce fuel rods and fuel plates," Salehi told AFP.

    Salehi claims it was the West's policies towards Iran that propelled its nuclear achievements, despite the West saying the Islamic republic does not possess this sort of nuclear technology. "What we say is based on reality and truth. There is no exaggeration or deception in our work. It is them who do not want to believe that Iran has no intention, but to obtain nuclear technology for peaceful purposes," Salehi told AFP. This latest report comes ahead of the next round of talks in Istanbul and the six world powers over Tehran's nuclear program.

CHILE JOINS OTHER SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTRIES IN RECOGNIZING PALESTINIAN STATES   

      SANTIAGO DE CHILE, CHILE--Chile said on Friday it had recognized a Palestinian state, joining an endorsement by Latin American peers the United States has called premature and Israel has warned is harmful to the Middle East peace process. Brazil became the first of several South American countries in recent weeks to recognize a Palestine state along pre-1967 borders. Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and Ecuador have done the same and Mexico, Peru and Nicaragua are reported to be considering recognition.

     "The Chilean government has adopted a resolution to recognize the state of Palestine as free, independent and sovereign," Chilean Foreign Minister Alfredo Moreno told reporters, saying he hoped the recognition would help give fresh impetus to negotiations. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas thanked Brazil last week for recognizing his nation's statehood with its first embassy in the Americas and said other countries were following suit. Palestinian authorities are hoping for a diplomatic domino effect to back their claim for a state in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

    Israel disputes the Palestinian claim on all the West Bank and East Jerusalem, land it captured from Jordan in a 1967 war and has since extensively settled.  U.S.-sponsored peace negotiations dating back two decades are predicated upon a Palestinian state being delineated with Israel's consent. Direct peace talks revived by Washington in September after a year's suspension collapsed within weeks. A U.S. drive to keep the process alive via third-party talks is in limbo.

LA CRISIS ECÓNOMICA DE VENEZUELA LLEGA A LA OEA
 

January 8, 2011

pedro alvarez, the former head of alimport, escaped from cuba

      WASHINGTON, D.C.--Pedro Alvarez, who recently was replaced as head of Alimport for alleged corruption, was able to escape from the island and has asked for political asylum in the United States.

     As the head of Alimport, the monopoly that conducts all the purchase of agricultural products from the US, Alvarez signed hundred of million of dollars in contracts with US companies.  While Alvarez was running Alimport, the US became Cuba's fifth largest trading partner. Alvarez wined and dined dozens of US politicians and business executives who visited Cuba trying to do business with the Castro brothers.

    On November 4, Alvarez's wife was killed in a plane crash in central Cuba. According to El Mundo, Alvarez probably escaped Cuba between December 27 and 29. Alvarez had been under interrogation for several weeks about the alleged corruption and it is hard to understand how he was able to escape without help from those who were in charge of keeping him under surveillance.   El Mundo reports that there is a huge investigation going on at the present time in Cuba to find out how Alvarez was able to escape. Alvarez called his mother in law in Cuba and told her "I'm not going back," according to the paper.

OAS secretary general, jose miguel insulza, states that venezuelan enabling law is contrary to the democratic charter

     washington, d.c.--The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) said on Friday that the enabling law, which is in force in Venezuela, is "completely contrary" to the Inter-American Democratic Charter and it is likely that the multilateral organization will discuss the issue soon although no member state has made a formal request.

     José Miguel Insulza said in an interview with The Associated Press that he did not rule out submitting the case of Venezuela to the Permanent Council of the OAS in his capacity as Secretary General, but he expected some members to make a request. "I have noticed that countries are concerned over the issue and want to discuss it," he commented.

     "The matter for concern is that outgoing lawmakers exceeded the authority of the legislature for 18 months. I think that this is not a valid mechanism for a democracy," Insulza said. "There is a simple solution: the new Congress might discuss the issue of the enabling law and make a decision."

cuban dictator raul castro announces changes to his cabinet; fires ramiro valdes  

      HAVana, cubaZUELA--CubaN DICTATOR RAUL CASTRO announced a reshuffle of HIS Cabinet on Thursday, relieving the minister in charge of construction for undisclosed "errors" and stripping a powerful vice president of a secondary role he held as head of the Telecommunications Ministry. Fidel Figueroa was being replaced as head of the Construction Ministry for "errors committed in his job," according to an official government statement read out on the state-controlled television news. His replacement was Rene Mesa Villafana, who since 2007 was head of the institution that controls Cuba's water supply.

     The statement also said Ramiro Valdes, 78, would step down as head of the Telecommunications Ministry. Far from a demotion, the statement said the move was being made to "give Valdes more time to oversee the leadership of both his old ministry and the Construction Ministry." Valdes is a former leader of the rebels who brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959 and an ex-interior minister, and is also considered to be extremely close to Fidel's brother, Raul, who is now the dictator. Valdes has also had a key role in building relations between Cuba and its most important ally, Venezuela. In addition to being a Cabinet vice president he has been a vice president of the communist country's supreme governing body, the Council of State, since December 2009.

    The moves were the latest in a series of Cabinet changes carried out in recent months as cash-strapped Cuba tries to revamp its economy, firing half a million state workers and opening up new opportunities for self-employment. In September, the island's government announced the removal of the minister of oil and mining in a sternly worded statement that cited her "deficiencies" and "weak manner." The island's health minister was replaced in July, a month after the transportation minister was fired for professional mistakes and the head of the Sugar Ministry was ousted after admitting incompetence.

January 7, 2011

US: DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ'S SPECIAL RULING POWERS ARE ANTI-DEMOCRATIC

      WASHINGTON, D.C.--Extraordinary ruling powers granted to Venezuelan DICTATOR Hugo Chávez by a lame duck National Assembly are "an anti-democratic measure" that violates the Inter-American Democratic Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS), said Arturo Valenzuela, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs.  United States is willing to have a "candid dialogue" with Venezuela. Therefore, Washington "regrets" that the Venezuelan government has withdrawn the agrément on US Ambassador-designate Larry Palmer, said the top US official in a speech on US policy towards Latin America in 2011.

     The opposition paper El Universal reported that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States (OAS) is also worried about the term for the special powers granted to Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez for rulemaking and the areas covered by such powers. The Organization noted that failure to set the limits necessary for true control endangers human rights in Venezuela. The IACHR, like the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, expressed "special concern" that the National Assembly could enable the executive branch to create norms that establish the sanctions that would apply when crimes are committed.

    "The President has requested (special decree powers) for 12 months to create a package of laws required to address a serious crisis, mainly the result of structural causes that still keep Venezuelan people trapped in poverty. Natural phenomena occurred in the last decade due to the global climate change have worsened this crisis," Jaua said. Capriles Radonsky thinks that the national government does not need special powers or laws to solve Venezuelans' problems. "Here what we need is will, funds and efficiency to overcome the emergency which, in addition, may not be treated in a sectarian manner and with a political-partisan vision." This is the fourth time President Chavez requested special ruling powers since he took office in 1999. The bill was passed by a qualified majority with the votes of PSUV lawmakers and the rest of the political parties supporting the government.

NEW VENEZUELAN N.A. SPEAKER, FERNANDO SOTO ROJAS, SAID "LARRY PALMER MAY NOT COME TO OUR COUNTRY" 

     CARACAS, VENECUBA--National Assembly (AN) Speaker Fernando Soto Rojas said on Thursday that Larry Palmer, the nominee for US ambassador to Venezuela, may not enter the country because he disrespected the Venezuelan State and President Hugo Chávez.  "Commander Hugo Chávez has dignity indeed and he has lifted Venezuelan people's self-esteem. But one thing is priceless; that is dignity," Soto Rojas said at the legislative palace.

     In his opinion, "dignity is contrary to capitalism, which enslaves peoples; not now, but since the 12th century in the European feudal society, where that cancer emerged," the AN Press Office quoted.  For the legislature new speaker, neither freedom nor democracy is consistent with surplus value. Therefore, "we need to continue ratifying the position within the State public branches, I mean, that gentleman may not come to this country."

     US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela considers that the enabling law violates the OAS’ Inter-American Democratic Charter  Extraordinary ruling powers granted to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez by a lame duck National Assembly are "an anti-democratic measure" that violates the Inter-American Democratic Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS), said Arturo Valenzuela, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. United States is willing to have a "candid dialogue" with Venezuela. Therefore, Washington "regrets" that the Venezuelan government has withdrawn the agrément on US Ambassador-designate Larry Palmer, said the top US official in a speech on US policy towards Latin America in 2011, AFP reported.

VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ said rightist voices will be squashed by the revolution

      CARACAS, VENECUBA--The dictator conceded that it was he who nominated Fernando Soto Rojas, the current National Assembly Speaker, to head the list of candidates for Falcón state  "Rightwing voices will be squashed by the voices of revolution, as it happened today (Wednesday) at the National Assembly" (AN), Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez said after the new Congress was sworn in.

     The Head of State showed up together with pro-government congressmen downtown Caracas and delivered a short speech. There, he lashed out at the opposition for nominating José "Mazuco" Sánchez as first deputy chair of the parliament. He termed the opposition deputy-elect a killer and said that in this case, the Constitution will govern.

     Dictator Chávez also conceded that it was he who nominated Fernando Soto Rojas, the current National Assembly Speaker, to head the list of candidates for Falcón state.  The president also referred to his veto on Tuesday evening of the University Education Law endorsed by the outgoing National Assembly. The move, he said, was intended to make room for debate.  On Tuesday evening, when refraining himself from enacting it, he explained that the legal instrument was "inapplicable."

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED COMANDANTE!

 

January 6, 2011

venezuelaN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ SAYS HE WOULD LIKE TO WELCOME BILL CLINTON, SEAN PENN OR OLIVER STONE AS THE NEW US ENVOY  

      caracas, veneCUBA--President (DICTATOR) Hugo Chavez welcomed the U.S. government's suggestion that it may nominate a new ambassador to Venezuela, joking that Washington might consider naming an American he knows and likes such as Oliver Stone or Sean Penn.  Chavez was upbeat while divulging details of a cordial encounter over the weekend with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. He said he views as a positive step a State Department announcement that the U.S. may nominate a new candidate for ambassador after he rejected the previous White House choice.

     "I hope they name Oliver Stone, Sean Penn  or Bill Clinton" said Chavez, laughing during a televised Cabinet meeting Tuesday night. "We have many friends there."  The film director and actor have both visited Venezuela and expressed admiration for the leftist president.  The U.S. and Venezuela are embroiled in a dispute that has left them without ambassadors in each other's capitals. Chavez rejected the U.S. nominee for ambassador, Larry Palmer, accusing him of making disrespectful remarks about his government. That led Washington to revoke the visa of the Venezuelan ambassador in response.  But Chavez said his chance meeting with Clinton at the Brazilian president's inauguration on Saturday opened up possibilities, and that he expressed interest in dialogue with the U.S. government.

    Chavez recalled telling Clinton that "if there's a rectification" on the part of Washington, his government will respond in kind.  State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said on Monday that the Obama administration regrets that Chavez refused to accept Palmer as ambassador and that the U.S. believes it is important to have an ambassador in Caracas. Crowley said the nomination of Palmer, who had been awaiting Senate confirmation, has expired and that "we will have to renominate ... an ambassador candidate. Responding to the latest U.S. position, Chavez said: "We would be very ... pretentious if we were to think it's a sign of weakness, that we've defeated (the U.S.). No. They have their interests and we have ours."  Diplomats from the two countries have long had reduced contacts due to antagonism fed both by Chavez's condemnations of U.S. policies and by State Department criticisms of threats to democracy in Venezuela.

US LAWMAKERS WARN PDVSA ABOUT CONSEQUENCES OF COOPERATION WITH IRAN

     WASHINGTON, D.C.--A group of members of the US House of Representatives addressed a letter to Rafael Ramírez, CEO of state-run company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (Pdvsa), expressing their "concern" regarding reports that Pdvsa "is continuing to do business with Iran that is subject to sanctions under the provisions" of two US laws.

    In a letter signed by five House members dated September 24, 2010 they encouraged Ramírez "to provide a written report" that Pdvsa "will not undertake such activities in the future."  The two laws mentioned by the US Congressmen are the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) and the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act of 2010 (CISADA).

     The House members who signed the letter are Ted Poe, Brad Sherman, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Dan Burton and Bob Inglis.  The letter reminds Ramírez that the US Congress has an obligation to enforce these regulations. The lawmakers warned that the US Congress decided to toughen its stance against Iran and its allies. Therefore, US companies and their technologies could be barred from participating in the oil business in Venezuela if the government of Hugo Chávez fails to provide an adequate response.

VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ SCRAPS UNIVERSITY LAW, PLANNED TAX HIKE

      CARACAS, VENECUBA--Venezuelan dictator  Hugo Chavez said Tuesday that he is scrapping plans for a tax increase and will veto a controversial law that critics argued would have dramatically increased government control of universities. The  veto has been a New Year gift unexpected Chavez said Tuesday that, after hearing the positions and criticisms from various sectors, has decided to veto the law on universities. In economic terms, announced that VAT was not increased in the way you planned. A large sector of the country was shocked: there is no precedent in the Bolivarian government 11 years that the president has regressed in certain political activities that always believed essential.  

     The dictator did it openly, “I have decided to veto the law that I have come here after talks with former chancellors, rectors, ministers (…) And as the Act has its strengths, I am among those who think you have your weaknesses, “he announced in a Council of Ministers passed the country through the official channel Venezolana de Television.   Chavez  went further in the  case when he  said he will not give green light to a set of provisions that deserve be discussed in depth in the context of full freedom of expression. In this way, asked the National Assembly  to lift the sanction of the law The announcements came the night before a new National Assembly takes office with a larger opposition contingent, and amid criticism that Chavez used the outgoing legislature in its final weeks to concentrate his powers and gain new abilities to crack down on dissent.

     Chavez said during a televised Cabinet meeting that the law on universities passed by his congressional allies had some weaknesses and he will veto it. He said his willingness to veto the measure after widespread criticism shows Venezuela has a democratic government that "listens and is willing to rectify." The law on universities was one in a series of measures approved in December by the previous National Assembly, under the overwhelming control of Chavez loyalists. Thousands of students protested in the streets after its approval, saying the law would give too much power to Chavez's education minister and increase controls on universities that have been a bastion of opposition to the president.

January 5, 2011

venezuela  begins 2011 under the socialist economic model

      caracas, veneCUBA--"I will not change a comma in the constitutional reform. This proposal is alive, it is not dead (...) I will seek a way, which will certainly be slower, to implement the project," said Venezuela's dictator Hugo Chávez in the early hours of December 3, 2007, after his intended constitutional reform was rejected in a referendum. Three years later, the Venezuelan president met his goal of promoting a socialist production model, which was consolidated thanks to the legal texts passed by the National Assembly and which will be strengthened with the enabling law.

     In the proposed constitutional reform, the government intended to set up a socialist system by changing the territorial structure through the creation of communes and functional districts. New types of ownership would be implemented in those areas. The reform encouraged social ownership, and private property was maintained, yet minimized.  Although the system was rejected on December 2, 2007, the Venezuelan government kept on trying to reach its goals. Through the enabling law that was adopted in 2007-2008, it approved several laws that promote the creation of socialist production units and increase the State's participation in the production of food. The Economic and Social Development Plan provides that the strategic sectors should be under the control of the State.

     In July 2008, when the special decree powers came to an end, the government delegated to the National Assembly the drafting of new laws to strengthen the socialist model.  In 2010, in order to deal with the emergency situation derived from heavy rains, dictator  Chávez requested a new enabling law. The rules to be drafted will serve to support the socialist model.  On Sunday, January 2, the Venezuelan head of state in his column Chávez's Lines said that the adoption of the "enabling law opens a path to good living, to the good living that we all deserve. We will strengthen and deepen revolutionary laws to reverse the structural asymmetries and social imbalances that are part of capitalism."

VENEZUELA HAS NO PLANS TO "BREAK RELATIONS" WITH THE US

     CARACAS, VENECUBA--DICTATOR  Hugo Chávez told US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that "rectify is wise" during a brief meeting in Brazil in which they talked about Venezuela's rejection to Larry Palmer's nomination as the US ambassador to Caracas.

     The report was published in Correo del Orinoco, a pro-government newspaper. It said that the president's statements were reported by a "Venezuelan government source, who witnessed the brief and informal conversation that Chávez and Clinton held on Saturday during the inauguration of Dilma Rousseff as president of Brazil," Efe reported.  According to the source, Chávez reiterated to Clinton that he is not planning "to break relations with the United States."

    "It was a pleasant and unexpected meeting," the source said.  "Chávez is convinced that what Clinton did 'is a good sign,'" the government source added. He said that "everyone thought that Bernardo Álvarez would be expelled from the US, but they only revoked his visa."  "They sent a signal that is not bad," he insisted, as reported by Efe.  The source added that Chávez "believes" that "Republicans" are interested in causing a rift between Venezuela and the United States.  "Republicans have a plan to break relations, but this is not our plan. National interests must be placed above everything else," the unnamed Venezuelan official said.

cuba official says 500,000 state worker layoffs have begun

      havana, cubaZUELA--The head of the Cuban Workers Confederation says the first layoffs have begun in the communist government's program to cut the jobs of 500,000 state workers. Cuban state-run media quotes Salvador Valdes as saying the initial layoffs are occurring in the sugar, agriculture, tourism, health and construction sectors. Cuban media, including Monday's edition of the weekly Trabajadores, say Valdes made the comments during a meeting with workers' representatives but don't specify when it took place.

     The layoffs are to affect 10 percent of Cuba's government work force and are supposed to finish by March. The job cuts are part of an economic overhaul aimed at slashing government expenditures.  The cost of cleanliness will rise in Cuba after its cash-strapped, communist government announced Wednesday that soap, toothpaste and detergent will be slashed from monthly ration books.  The “personal cleanliness products” will join a growing list of products cut from the ration books that islanders have come to rely on for a small but steady supply of basic goods.

     Cubans currently pay about 25 centavos, or about a penny, for a rationed bar of soap. They'll soon have to fork out four to six pesos, according to the gazette.  The list of products available with the ration books has shrunk in recent months as the government trimmed items deemed nonessential. Cigarettes, salt, peas and potatoes have been cut. Sugar, beans, meat, rice, eggs, bread and other products remain. “It's already hard to make ends meet as it is and this is only going to make it harder,” said Elias Conde, a 38-year-old father of two who works in a cafeteria. “But we're used to them taking things away, today it's soap and tomorrow it'll be something else.”  Authorities say the cuts are necessary to free the state _ which pays for or heavily subsidizes education, health care, housing and transportation _ from a crushing economic burden.

January 4, 2011

cardinal jaime ortega expects more dissidents to be released in cuba

      havana, cubaZUELA--Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega said that he has the “moral certainty” that the 11 prisoners from among the so-called Group of 75 who remain behind bars will be released in the coming months, and he added that the communist island’s government will continue to release other people who are in prison for political reasons. “There exists the clear and formal promise of the Cuban government that all those prisoners will be set free,” Ortega said during a Mass celebrated Saturday at the Havana Cathedral on the World Day of Peace, which has been observed by the Catholic Church every January 1 since 1968.

    The Havana archbishop said that obtaining the release of the 11 political prisoners is “a personal commitment” that he has made before “national and international public opinion.” Some of the 11 men who remain in prison from the Group of 75 want to travel to the United States after their release but others want to remain in Cuba, Ortega said. “In addition, I have the moral certainty that in the coming months those prisoners will be set free, as well as others from a larger group of inmates being punished for some type of (reason) related to political stances or actions,” Ortega said. During his homily, Ortega reviewed the role of the Cuban Catholic Church in 2010 to emphasize the novel and positive elements of the government’s response to his “humanitarian activity” in favor of the prisoners, as well as his subsequent mediation in the release process.

    After initiating an unprecedented dialogue with the Church – and with the support of the Spanish government – the government of Raul Castro announced in July that it would release the 52 opposition figures from among the Group of 75 who remained in prison at that time, and as of now 40 of them have been set free on the condition that they travel to Madrid. Arnaldo Ramos Lauzurique is the only member of the group of 52 to be released from prison “for humanitarian reasons” and he has remained in Cuba. He was set free in November. The 11 prisoners from the Group of 75 who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms in 2003 during the government’s “Black Spring” repression are refusing to travel to Spain and are demanding to be released with no preconditions.

larry palmer's appointment as us ambassador to venezuela "null and void"

     washington, d.c.--The nomination of Larry Palmer as the US ambassador to Venezuela, refused by the Venezuelan government and causing a diplomatic impasse, was made "null and void" upon the legislative closure of the US Congress in December, a US official spokesman said.

    "I think that Palmer's nomination was formally null and void upon the closure of the last Congress; therefore, among the topics that we will have to assess is what to do from the steps that Venezuela unfortunately took," Philip Crowley, the spokesman of the US Department of State said in a press conference, as quoted by AFP.

    US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez had a little talk in Brasilia last Saturday during the inauguration of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.  The talk was "very brief" and informal, Crowley told reporters. He refused to say whether Clinton and Chávez tackled the ambassadors' issue.

former intelligence director said that venezuela spied on COLOMBIA with pdvsa MONEY

      bogota, colombia--Colombian newspaper El Espectador published statements to the Colombian Supreme Court of Justice made by Andrés Peñate, the former director of the Department of Administrative Security (DAS), who was punished by the Solicitor General's Office and investigated by the Public Prosecution Office, and former intelligence director Fernando Tabares, who was sentenced to eight years in prison, in connection with the investigation against former Senator Nancy Patricia Gutiérrez.

    They claimed that a Venezuelan consular official "was trying to get insider information from Colombian army officers in Bucaramanga." The former officials also said that members of a Venezuelan sports delegation visited poor neighborhoods in Cartagena and Barranquilla promising them that "they would get identity cards in Venezuela and they would have access to health campaigns to cure cataracts."

     Peñate added that it was "espionage aimed at creating a base of political support for expansion projects."   Meanwhile, former intelligence official Tabares said that Venezuela, "sent money to (former) Senator Piedad Córdoba" through state-run oil company Pdvsa.

January 3, 2011

WIKILEAKS: U.S. CONCERNED ABOUT SITUATION ALONG MEXICO-GUATEMALA BORDER

      WASHINGTON, D.C.--A cable provided to WikiLeaks indicates that U.S. diplomats are concerned about the situation along Mexico’s border with Guatemala, describing events in the region, where arms smugglers operate and planes loaded with cocaine land in broad daylight, as “dramatic,” the Spanish daily El Pais reported Sunday.  The diplomats who wrote the cable point out that Mexico has deployed few immigration officers along the border with Guatemala.

    “While there are 30,000 U.S. CBP (Customs and Border Protection) officers on the 1,926 mile Mexican/U.S. border, only 125 Mexican immigration officials monitor the 577 mile border with Guatemala,” the cable says.  “Mexican immigration officials repeatedly confirmed that they do not have the manpower or resources to direct efforts effectively along the southern border,” a cable classified “CONFIDENTIAL” and dated Jan. 25, 2010, said. Visits by U.S. diplomats to crossings along the Mexico-Guatemala border “offered dramatic evidence of the porous southern border and serious resource shortfalls,” the cable said.

    The diplomats concluded that there were “weak controls on Mexico’s southern border that are contributing to problems with illegal migration and guns/drugs smuggling.” “Much more needs to be done to improve secure information sharing among federal agencies and between Federal and State officials in Mexico.  Better cooperation among Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize could also help coordinate current efforts by each state and ensure that existing laws are enforced,” the cable says.

IRAN SAYS SHOT DOWN TWO "SPY PLANES" IN GULF

     TEHRAN, IRAN-- "Many spy planes and ultra-modern aircrafts of our enemies have been shot down (by our forces) ... We have also shot down two spy planes in the Persian Gulf," said commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the elite forces' aerospace unit. "But it is the first time we are announcing it. He did not say when the aircraft had been shot down, but described them as "western drone reconnaissance" aircraft. Iran is at odds with major powers over its nuclear activities, which the United States and its allies suspect are intended to enable Iran to produce nuclear bombs. Iran denies the allegations and says it wants only to generate electricity.

    The United States and Israel, Iran's main foes, do not rule out military action if diplomacy fails to end the nuclear row. Hajizadeh said the enemies -- a term used by Iranian authorities for the United States and its allies -- had been using the drones mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan. "But there has been cases of violations of our airspace by their drones," the commander said. Iran has dismissed reports of possible U.S. or Israeli plans to strike Iran, but says it would respond by attacking U.S. interests and Israel if any such assault was made.

    Analysts say Tehran could retaliate by launching hit-and-run strikes in the Gulf and by closing the Strait of Hormuz. About 40 percent of all traded oil leaves the Gulf region through the strategic waterway.  "All their military bases are completely within Iran's missile range ... We have full control of our enemies and notice any changes taking place on our shores," Hajizadeh said. Iran often launches military drills in the country to display its military capabilities amid persistent speculation about a possible U.S. or Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. Alongside the regular army, Iran has a Revolutionary Guards force viewed as guardians of the Islamic ruling system. The Guards have a separate command and their own air, sea and land units, but often work with the regular military.

SOME 16,000 PEOPLE WERE KILLED IN VENEZUELA IN 2010

      CARACAS, VENECUBA--A balance on personal security in Venezuela shows that 123,000 people were killed during the past 10 years. Out of these, about 16,000 died in 2010 alone, according to unofficial figures provided by the Commission on Public Safety, which comprises opposition deputies-elect. The lawmakers questioned the efforts made by the cabinet of President Hugo Chávez to solve the problem of insecurity and violence.

     "This is the situation facing a country where the government itself is not interested in addressing the problem of violence in Venezuela. We live in a country where there are about nine million arms," said deputy-elect for Miranda state Julio Borges (Primero Justicia), who served as spokesman for the commission.

     Borges rejected the fact that the government has neglected investment in personal security, but he would not provide figures. "How is it possible that in the budget this year and next year investment in personal security has suffered the largest cuts?" said Borges. He added that in 2011 military spending will be 22 percent higher than spending in personal security.

January 2, 2011

DICTATOR CHAVEZ AND SECRETARY CLINTON MET AT BRAZIL INAUGURATION

      BRASILIA, BRAZIL--Despite a simmering diplomatic row, dictator Hugo Chavez and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were seen having a brief, friendly chat Saturday at the inauguration of Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff. "They talked and smiled, at least for five minutes. It looked like a social conversation, both were smiling," a Brazilian official who witnessed the encounter told AFP.

     The encounter came only three days after the United States revoked the visa of Venezuela's ambassador in Washington, in reprisal for Chavez's rejection of the US president's appointed ambassador to Caracas. But Chavez and Clinton were all smiles as they mingled with the presidents of Chile and Colombia and the prime minister of Portugal while waiting to meet Rousseff. At one point, Chavez extended his hand to Clinton, who shook it, smiling. They chatted for a few minutes before moving on to formally greeting Rousseff. There were no reports on what was said between them. Chavez on Tuesday reaffirmed his decision to reject diplomat Larry Palmer as President Barack Obama's ambassador-designate to Caracas, and challenged Washington to break off diplomatic relations if it didn't like it.

    The State Department responded the following day by revoking the visa of Venezuelan Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez, who was in Venezuela on vacation. A US State Department spokesman on Wednesday said the visa revocation was an "appropriate, proportional and reciprocal action," recalling that Washington had already warned of "consequences" if Caracas turned down the US ambassador-designate. Palmer infuriated Chavez by criticizing his government during Senate confirmation hearings in August. He is still awaiting confirmation by the US Senate.

BOLIVIAN PROTESTERS FORCED EVO MORALES TO CANCEL A DECREE THAT SHARPLY RAISED FUEL PRICES

     LA PAZ, BOLIVIA--Sunday's price hikes had caused a burst of street protests, many of them by core supporters of the leftist who is Bolivia's first indigenous president. Protesters vowed to renew their demonstrations after the New Year holiday, with workers from the crucial mining industry vowing to join in. Morales said in a televised message about 90 minutes before midnight that he had listened to unions and social groups and decided "to obey what the people say by abrogating the decree raising gasoline and everything that accompanied that measure. That means that all of the measures are withdrawn."

     The government announced Sunday that it was raising gasoline prices by 73 percent, to 92 cents a liter ($3.48 a gallon) for regular gasoline, up from 50 cents ($1.89). Diesel jumped to 97 cents a liter ($3.67 a gallon) from about 50 cents. Some other fuel prices doubled. The prices had been frozen for six years, and Vice President Alvaro Garcia said the state was paying $380 million a year to subsidize gasoline imports, with much of it smuggled to neighboring countries with higher prices.

     The sharp rise prompted strikes by bus and taxi drivers that hobbled transit in many cities, and mass street protests on Thursday turned violent. At least 15 people were reported injured. Protesters carried posters denouncing the president as a traitor and some shouted, "Evo, the people are angry!" Morales' government at first tried to mitigate the blow of the higher prices by announcing a 20 percent salary increase for troops, police, health and education workers. The government also offered help for rice, corn and wheat farmers.

'LA PELIRROJA,' LEADER OF A GANG OF MEXICAN KIDNAPPERS FOUND HUNG FROM A MONTERREY BRIDGE

      MONTERREY, MEXICO--Gabriela Elizabeth Muñiz Tamez, alias “La Pelirroja”, was found hung from a bridge by the neck and half-naked at 6:00 AM Friday (today) on the busy Gonzalitos Avenue, north of Monterrey. The 31-year old leader of a gang of kidnappers was arrested in 2009 and released on Monday by command during a transfer from the Topo Chico prison to the University Hospital. She was found hung with hair dyed blonde, wearing only blue jeans and white socks. Her chest and back was painted with black letters that read the word “Yair”.

     The spokesman for the State Public Security, Jorge Domene Zambrano, said the victim was in fact ‘La Pelirroja’, which means ‘The Readhead’, but forensic analysis will later confirm her identity. Hundreds of drivers passing through Gonzalitos Avenue, at its junction with the colony of Tuxtla North Mithras, watched astoundedly as elements from the State Agency for Research, did their research. This kind of hanging has not been seen in the city like many other parts of Mexico. Muniz Tamez operated in the citrus region, northeast of Nuevo Leon, before being arrested with two accomplices last year and subsequently imprisoned at Topo Chico. The three were tried for the crimes of illegal deprivation of liberty in the form of kidnapping, unlawful deprivation of liberty and attempted blackmail.

     On Monday, a doctor at the Centre for Social Rehabilitation ordered her transfer to the University Hospital in order to attend a medical condition. Along the way, the van was intercepted by armed men who underwent the three guards and kidnapped Muñiz Tamez. Following her release, prosecutors opened an investigation on the institution’s director, Jose Rodrigo Martinez Yañez, and the doctor who ordered the transfer, Víctor Manuel Martínez González. Gonzalez confessed in the hearing that he had been threatened to release Muniz Tamez and feared he would be killed if he didn’t comply.

January 1st., 2011

VENEZUELAN CARDINAL UROSA SAVINO: ENABLING LAW THREATENS THE COUNTRY PEACE

      CARACAS, VENECUBA--The new package of laws recently approved by the Venezuelan National Assembly is unprecedented, according to Jorge Cardinal Urosa Savino. "It is something that should be meditated and I say it to government officials, because they are causing an unbearable situation of disrespect of rights and the people's will."  Urosa made an appeal to rectify for the sake of social peace. "Both the enabling law and the amendment to the regulations on domestic affairs and sessions at the National Assembly are intended to make the legislature null and void and concentrate all the legislative capacity in the hands of the President of the Republic."

    "This is certainly undemocratic, because it nullifies and dismisses the people's will which was expressed on September 26 and threatens the country peace."  The cardinal is afraid that the enabling law will finish the current status of deputies. "People elected there, both of the government and the opposition, will just be nullified by such a law and the changes in the regulations on domestic affairs and sessions."  He added that the amendment to the Telecommunications Law and the Radio and TV Social Responsibility (Resorte) Law are intended to restrain civil liberties, including freedom of information and speech. "Controls on the Internet and regulated TV channels are also a constraint."  As to the Universities Law, the cardinal thinks that it "seeks to impose a single way of thinking, which runs counter to a civil liberty such as freedom of thought."

    Earlier, on December 24 in an interview with private TV channel Globovisión, Urosa Savino had taken a stance against the package of laws endorsed this month at the National Assembly. "We are heading towards dictatorship; there is no doubt about it. I urge the nation leaders to bear in mind their enormous responsibility before history and God, if they are to impose a totalitarian dictatorship which will surely be something terrible for Venezuela."  In view of the political reality, the cardinal rebutted the use of violence. "It is not the way and it is totally harmful for the people who practice it." And he proposed peaceful instead of passive resistance. "I am not the one who must say how such peaceful resistance is to be organized, because I am not a political agent."

BOLIVIAN PROTESTERS BURNED A VENEZUELAN FLAG AND WARNED THAT "WE PUT EVO IN POWER, WE CAN ALSO BRING HIM DOWN"

     LA PAZ, BOLIVIA--Bolivian protesters in La Paz burned a Venezuelan flag and in the town of El Alto they set fire to a statue of Argentinean mass murderer che Guevara. Fifteen police officers were injured Thursday in clashes with rock-wielding protesters near La Paz, as major cities in the Andean nation were crippled by a transport strike protesting against huge fuel price hikes. "There are 15 police officers injured in El Alto, two of them seriously.... There are 16 people arrested in Cochabamba and five in El Alto," an administration official told AFP, going over police reports after a day of strikes and demonstrations. Initial reports from El Alto said police officers came under attack by rock-wielding demonstrators and responded by lobbing tear gas.

    The residential area surrounding the La Paz international airport saw thousands of protesters throwing up barricades across access roads, burning tires and hurling stones at government buildings to vent their anger. The crowds tried to set a monument to Cuban revolutionary hero Ernesto "Che" Guevara on fire, broke the doorway to the vice president's residence, torched highway toll booths and damaged offices of state-run BoA airlines and the Central Obrera union. Earlier in the day, President Evo Morales's palace in La Paz was besieged by angry demonstrators who were also repelled by police using tear gas. The scenes in the capital, long an electoral stronghold for the populist Morales, showed the extent of public fury at the president for lifting costly government fuel subsidies on Sunday, sending prices soaring by 83 percent.

     Elsewhere in La Paz, public transport was at a near standstill as long lines formed at stores, where shelves grew emptier by the hour as residents stocked up fearing wider unrest. Erecting barricades in El Alto as tires and cars burned around her, an unrepentant Patricia Coyo said the poor "suffered the most" with serious knock-on effects such as hikes in transport fares and food prices. We put Evo in power, we can also bring him down," the 30-year-old laundry worker told AFP, as protestors waved Bolivian flags and set off firecrackers. "We have to repeal this decree of starvation by this damn government!" Coyo said. Demonstrators muttered the word "treason" to describe Morales's actions, compared him to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, his political mentor, and called for immediate elections. Even Morales's strongest base, the coca growers union, voiced their disdain at the price hikes. Union protestors even halted truck routes by barricading a key road linking the country's centre to the south. Truckers blocked key intersections with their rigs in Cochabamba, 400 kilometres (250 miles) southeast of La Paz, and Bolivia's economic capital Santa Cruz was also hard hit by a transport strike and demonstrations.

VENEZUELA'S DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ DEVALUES BOLIVAR CURRENCY AGAIN

      CARACAS, VENECUBA--Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez's government devalued its bolivar currency for the second time in 12 months on Thursday, abolishing the lowest exchange rate as the OPEC member fights to revive its economy.  Intended to spur local production in the largely import-dependent nation, the announcement followed a central bank estimate that the economy contracted 1.9 percent during 2010 -- Venezuela's second straight year of recession.  The central bank said it would eliminate the exchange rate of 2.6 bolivars per dollar, which had been available for essential imports such as medicines and some foods, accounting for roughly a third of all forex transactions. The socialist government hopes the move will attract foreign funds, improve its balance sheet and make the local private sector more competitive.  "The decision will have positive consequences for investment in 2011," said central bank chief Nelson Merentes.

    Economists had forecast a devaluation given the perilous state of the country's finances despite global oil prices that have averaged over $80 per barrel during the year. Crude and oil products account for about 90 percent of Venezuela's export revenue. They expected that Chavez, who trumpets his "21st century socialism" as a model for the world, would want to take the political pain of a devaluation as early as possible before seeking re-election in the December 2012 presidential polls. Latin America's only major economy still in recession, Venezuelan GDP shrank 3.3 percent last year. But the government says the economy is recovering and will grow by 2.0 percent in 2011.

    "Politically, it is the right thing to do. They are devaluing now so as to avoid it in 2012 and take the inflationary hit in 2011," said local analyst Miguel Octavio, of BBO financial services. "It's brutal for the ordinary Venezuelan because it will affect food and medicine prices." Venezuela already has one of the world's highest inflation rates, estimated by the central bank at 26.9 percent in 2010. The price rises threaten to alienate Chavez's core support in the country's slums and poor rural areas. As of January 1, in a still-complicated currency control system, dollars will be available at state-controlled rates of 4.3 bolivars per dollar for some preferential goods and 5.3 bolivars via the central bank's SITME exchange system. State-run PDVSA, one of the world's biggest oil companies, will continue to book its revenue at 4.3 bolivars per dollar, meaning the impact of the move is limited. However, it will no longer be required to sell some of its dollar revenue to state institutions at the previous 2.6-per-dollar rate.

Cuba New Year  2011