South America

Cocaine-laden plane seized

From correspondents in Asuncion, Paraguay

November 26, 2004

PARAGUAY police captured a leading Brazilian drug trafficking suspect after a gunbattle with the occupants of a cocaine-laden plane near the border with Brazil, authorities said.

Anti-narcotics police said a load of about 880kg of cocaine was seized, the biggest haul in Paraguay since 370kg of cocaine was confiscated near the Bolivian border in 1990.

The Brazilian suspected was identified as Ivan Mezquita and authorities said he was captured with four other Brazilians on Wednesday as the light plane made a refuelling stop on a farm about 700km north of Asuncion, Paraguay's capital.

Shots were traded as drug agents swarmed around the plane on a small landing strip near the Paraguayan community of Carmelo Peralta, said anti-narcotics chief Aldo Pastore. The farming area is located close to the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso Do Sul.

All five men were detained, Mr Pastore said, speaking by telephone with The Associated Press. BDWN

Peru's Congress Rejects Censure Of Cabinet Ministers

LIMA -(Dow Jones)- Peru's Congress late Tuesday rejected a censure motion against Prime Minister Carlos Ferrero and Transportation and Communications Minister Jose Ortiz.

Only 36 members of Congress voted to censure Ferrero, while only 32 voted to censure Ortiz.

More than half of the 120 members of Congress would have to vote in favor of a censure motion of a minister, which would led to an automatic resignation.

The left-leaning Apra party led the censure motions, although President Alejandro Toledo's Peru Possible party and its allies voted against the motions.

Congress had earlier called the two ministers to appear in the legislature to answer a series of questions.

That interpellation focused on various themes, including recent acts of civil unrest, high fuel prices and turmoil in the airline sector.

In May this year, Congress voted to censure former interior minister Fernando Rospigliosi, which led to his automatic resignation. 26 November 2004. BDWN

Chávez arrives in Moscow to boost bilateral relations

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Thursday arrived in Moscow to boost Venezuela-Russia relations and address issues related to oil prices in the world markets.

Chávez is scheduled to meet Friday at the Kremlin with Russian President Vladimir Putin. On Thursday, the Venezuelan President is to attend meetings, round tables and conferences with local businesspeople, intellectuals and students.

Also on Thursday, Chávez is to hold a meeting with Russian oil business representatives. He is to meet with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, and attend a forum at the Russian Philosophy Academy, news agency EFE reported.

According to Russian and Venezuelan sources, at the Kremlin, both presidents are to review bilateral relations and address major international issues.

They are expected to sign several agreements previously negotiated by Venezuelan Vice President José Vicente Rangel during his visit to Moscow on October.

"Russia and Venezuela have an interest in the stability of the world energy market and they are to continue to hold a bilateral dialogue and global cooperation in this field," Wednesday said Alexandr Yakovenko, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry. 26 November 2004. BDWN

FALSE BOMB ALARMS IN PARLIAMENT, GOVERNMENT IN STATE OF ALERT

“As of today we are in permanent emergency”. This was the statement made by the Bolivian police chief, Colonel David Aramayo, in announcing the reinforcement of security measures around all institutional buildings. Following a bomb explosion outside the Defense ministry on Tuesday, five anonymous telephone calls have indicated the presence of bombs planted in the Parliament building. They were all false alarms, but authorities have declared themselves on high alert: “These actions proceed in the intent of destabilizing the government, generating an atmosphere of insecurity and tension”, stated Interior Minister Saúl Lara, adding: “they are acts of terror aimed at provoking the reaction of the armed forces”. Minister Lara also reported the arrest of two people suspected of taking part in the attack against the Defense ministry, without providing generalities, but limiting his comment to saying that “they belong to no type of organization”. The blast on Tuesday marked the third in the past 9 days in La Paz, after the explosions near the army officers club on the 194th anniversary of the armed forces and outside the offices of the ‘Periodistas Asociados Televisión’ (PAT) TV broadcast owned by Bolivian President Carlos Mesa. Senators Leopoldo Fernández (Nationalist Democratic Action right) and Filemón Escóbar (Socialist Movement, left) also reported that dynamite sticks were launched at their homes, without however detonating. BDWN

State President highlights results of South American tour

In an interview granted to Vietnamese media after the tour, President Luong said this was the first visit to Argentina and Chile and the second to Brazil by a Vietnamese State President. He held talks with the countries'presidents, met with legislative and judicial leaders and visited economic establishments in each country. Discussions focused on concrete measures to boost friendship and co-operative ties, particularly in economics and trade, as well as regional and international issues of mutual concern.

Mr Luong said leaders and people of countries he visited expressed their admiration for the Vietnamese people’s heroic and indomitable struggle for national liberation in the past as well as the great achievements recorded in the current Doi Moi (Renewal) process. They considered Mr Luong’s visit a historic milestone, marking a new stage of development in bilateral ties and affirmed their respect for Vietnam’s role and position, stating they were determined to further boost relations with the country.

President Luong thanked the three countries and people for their warm welcome and hospitality.

During the trip, bilateral agreements were signed to mark the end of Vietnam’s WTO negotiations with the three countries. Vietnam and Brazil agreed to grant visa exemptions to diplomatic passport holders and to grant each other the most-favoured nation status in trade. Vietnam reached an agreement on fisheries co-operation and a protocol on the signing of a framework on scientific technological co-operation with Chile. The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry signed co-operative deals with its Brazilian and Chilean counterparts.

Mr Luong said that all three countries support Vietnam’s bid to join the WTO and its candidacy to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2008-09 period.

Mr Luong said his official visits to Brazil, Chile and Argentina once again demonstrated Vietnam’s open external policies of diversifying relations with all countries in the spirit of "readiness to befriend and become a reliable partner of all countries in the world, while actively integrating into global economies and striving for peace, co-operation and development.

President Luong affirmed that the visits marked a milestone in relations between Vietnam and the three countries, contributing to promoting mutual friendship and co-operation in all areas.

Regarding the prospects of relations between Vietnam and three countries and Latin America in general, President Luong said the positive results of high-ranking talks and agreements reached herald a new period in co-operative relations between Vietnam and Brazil, Chile and Argentina.

Brazil, Chile and Argentina, the leading developed countries in Latin America, have advanced science and technology in such fields as mining, metallurgy, machinery manufacturing and biology. The farming, husbandry and processing seafood industries of these countries are also highly developed.

In the process of industrialisation and modernisation, Vietnam can learn from the experiences of the three countries, Mr Luong added.

Brazil, Chile and Argentina all pursue external relation policies towards the Asia-Pacific region, including Vietnam. They wish to expand investment overseas and import many kinds of production and consumer items, which are Vietnam’s strengths, including rice, tea, coffee, rubber, electronics and electrical household products, garments and footwear.

This situation represents favourable conditions for Vietnam to strengthen and expand co-operation with the three countries for mutual benefits, especially in trade, economics and science, Mr Luong said.

Governments and businesses of the three countries said they will boost investment seeking opportunities in Vietnam and trade promotion to increase foreign trade turnover with Vietnam.

President Luong said with strong determination, co-operative relations between Vietnam and Argentina, Brazil and Chile could be more productive, opening new opportunities for Vietnam to expand relations with other Latin American countries. 26 November 2004.

BDWN

Doe Run might close plant in Peru

11/26/2004 -- Doe Run Resources Corp. of Maryland Heights, the world's No. 2 producer of lead, might shut its copper-zinc smelter in Peru at year's end unless that nation's government grants a five-year extension for an environmental-cleanup deadline, the company's chief executive said Wednesday.

Doe Run is on course to meet 2004 output goals at its La Oroya smelter, said the chief executive, Jeffrey Zelms. He didn't provide output figures. The smelter produces 70,000 tons of zinc and 60,000 tons of copper a year, according to the nation's Energy and Mines Ministry.

Doe Run, a privately held company, said it has spent $135 million on cleaning up the town of La Oroya since taking over the former state-run smelter in 1997. But the company can't complete a sulfuric-acid plant by the end of 2006 to curb emissions and lower lead levels in children's blood there, Zelms said.

"The danger of suspending operations is very real," he said. "We need to reach a resolution by the end of the year." BDWN

Brazil's Housing Deficit of 7 Million Might Double

In less than 20 years, Brazil's housing deficit can nearly double from its present lack of 7.2 million residential units to 12.45 million in 2023. In an attempt to diminish this difference, the Ministry of Cities estimates that an annual expenditure of around US$ 4.52 billion (12;44 billion reais) is necessary.

Yesterday in Brasília the National Urban Development Policy (PNDU) was presented by the Brazilian government, in a seminar sponsored by the Ministry, to deal with the question of the housing deficit, in addition to questions related to sanitation, transportation, traffic, and urban planning.

One of the main points was the creation of the new National Housing System (SNH),, intended to provide residential access to all segments of the population, most of all the low income population.

According to the Minister of Cities, Olívio Dutra. the basic idea of the PNDU is that the country is undergoing an "urban crisis," and what is needed to turn it around is a policy to orient and coordinate the efforts of the three governmental levels (federal, state, and municipal), together with the Legislative and Judicial branches, the private sector, and civil society.

"What is being sought is social equality, greater administrative efficiency, expansion of citizenship, environmental sustainability, and answers to the questions of the rights of the most vulnerable segments of the population, namely children and adolescents, the elderly, the handicapped, women, blacks, and Indians," Dutra declared.

He opened the seminar in the company of the Minister of National Integration, Ciro Gomes.

Investment

At the end of last month, Dutra, affirmed that Brazil will have to spend US$ 6.9 billion (R$ 20 billion) annually over the next two decades to eliminate the country's housing shortage.

The Minister was in Porto Alegre to inaugurate another Residential Lease Program (PAR) housing complex. Dutra announced that 478 thousand new housing units will be handed over this year and that the government expects to invest US$ 4.5 billion (13 billion reais).

Over 8 thousand people whose family income is less than six minimum wages signed up for the PAR selection process. The monthly lease paid by the future occupants amounts to US$ 85.30 (245 reais), plus an administration fee. At the end of 15 years, the family receives the deed to the residence.

The PAR is a residential lease plan for families that earn between three and six minimum wages and do not own their own homes. The aim is the construction of homes or the purchase of homes that are under construction or in need of refurbishment.26 Nov 04. BDWN

US Regime Change, Torture, and Murder in Chile

President Bush’s recent trip to South America provides a valuable foreign-policy lesson for Americans.

The president was greeted in Santiago, Chile, by some 30,000 angry demonstrators. But it was not only Bush’s invasion and war of aggression against Iraq that Chileans were angry about. Unlike so many Americans, the Chilean people have not fallen for the “We invaded Iraq to spread democracy” line that U.S. officials moved up to rationale number one after failing to find those infamous weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The reason? Chileans have not forgotten – and are still angry about – the U.S. government’s role in bringing about “regime change” in Chile in 1973. (Just as the Iranian people have not forgotten the U.S. government’s “regime change” in Iran in 1953.)

Chileans still remember that in the 1973 “regime change” in their country, the U.S. government played an active role in ousting their democratically elected president because he was a communist and replacing him with a brutal military dictator, Augustin Pinochet, who ended up ruling Chile for almost two decades, until 1990. Yes, you read that correctly – the U.S. government, the paragon of democracy around the world, helped to oust a man who had been democratically elected by the people of Chile and helped replace him with an unelected, military brute.

What mattered to U.S. officials was not democracy in Chile but rather the same thing that matters to them today in Iraq – the installation of a ruler, brutal or benevolent, democratically elected or not, who was friendly to the U.S. government. If that meant supporting a cruel and brutal military dictator whose forces killed, tortured, or disappeared his own people, so be it.

It is even likely that Chileans are much angrier than Americans over the U.S. government’s role in the murder of an American journalist, Charles Horman, during that Chilean “regime change.” In fact, despite the fact that a movie, entitled “Missing,” was produced about Horman’s execution. I’ll bet most Americans are not even aware of that execution or that the CIA played a role in it. (Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the CIA refuses to open all its files on U.S. government involvement in the Pinochet coup, the Hormon murder, and the succeeding years of torture, executions, disappearances, and other human rights abuses under the Pinochet military regime. "National security," of course.)

Chileans remember the decades of military rule in their country, characterized by middle-of-the-night arrests, obliterations of civil liberties, torture, executions, disappearances of suspected terrorists, and other human-rights abuses that eerily bring to mind the U.S. military’s “war on terrorism” policies in Iraq, Cuba, Afghanistan, and the United States.

As their counterparts in the U.S. military are doing today, Chilean military officials long avoided responsibility for the wrongdoing by claiming that the human-rights abuses were committed by a few lowly soldiers. However, today's Chilean army officials are finally taking responsibility for the institutional framework that permitted and encouraged the abuses to take place.

Obviously, we're still a long way from that here in the United States. After all, don’t forget that the next U.S. attorney general is likely to be the very man who provided the president with the “Geneva Convention is quaint and obsolete” memo that not only opened the door to Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and the Pentagon’s suspension of habeas corpus and due process but also conveniently provided the president and other U.S. high officials with “legal cover” when the U.S. Army’s human-rights abuses came to light. Let's also not forget the ongoing deception and cover-up in the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Just as bad, if not worse, has been the supine position that has been adopted by Congress in the face of the U.S. military’s torture, sex abuse, rape, murder, denial of habeas corpus and due process, and massive violations of civil liberties of prisoners. For all practical purposes, Congress’s silence has been no different from the silence adopted by the Chilean parliament under the Pinochet regime. Come to think of it, the “We’re here to support you and not ask questions” attitude of Congress toward the president and the Pentagon in the U.S. government’s “war on terrorism” is no different than it was when the U.S. government was “regime changing” and participating in the murder of an American journalist during the dark days of Chile’s “war on terrorism.” 26 Nov 2004.

BDWN

Oil makes U.S. raise military stakes in Colombia

BY BILL WEINBERG

Bill Weinberg, author of "Homage to Chiapas: The New Indigenous Movements in Mexico" (Verso, 2000), is currently working on a book on Plan Colombia.

November 26, 2004

President George W. Bush's quick stop in Colombia on his return from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Chile on Monday brought this forgotten front in Washington's war on terrorism briefly into the headlines. Bush promised Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe - his closest South American ally - to boost aid for his military campaign against leftist guerillas.

Just two weeks earlier, 100 unarmed peasants were killed in a massacre reportedly by rightist paramilitary troops in Colombia's southern jungle province of Putumayo. Unlike the Bush visit, this failed to make headlines here.

Colombia has received $3.3 billion in U.S. aid since 2000 - making it the top recipient after the Middle East. In October, Congress approved doubling the Pentagon's troop presence in Colombia to 800 - although they are officially barred from combat.

The Iraq war may have knocked Colombia off the front page, but Mideast chaos has made South America's energy resources more strategic to the United States. Colombia itself is among the top 15 global suppliers to the United States, and Uribe hopes to privatize the country's oil industry as part of his push to join President Bush's Free Trade Area of the Americas. Venezuela, bordering Colombia, is the fourth-largest U.S. supplier after Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Canada. Venezuela's populist leader Hugo Chavez is himself a White House target for Western hemisphere "regime change" - as seen by the current push for sanctions.

Meanwhile, the oil industry has charted a new thrust into the Amazon regions of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia - countries all now receiving U.S. military aid under the Andean Regional Initiative, the Bush administration's expansion of President Bill Clinton's "Plan Colombia."

The White House has now dropped the fiction that Plan Colombia is an anti-drug operation. A post-9/11 $28.9 billion supplemental anti-terrorism package allowed U.S. military aid to be targeted against groups on the State Department's terrorist list - including both Colombia's two leftist rebel groups, as well as the rightist paramilitary network known as the United Colombian Self-Defense Forces (AUC), which is responsible for the vast majority of massacres and atrocities, according to groups like Amnesty International.

The problem, say human rights organizations, is that Uribe is not fighting the AUC - his government is negotiating with them, while refusing to talk with the guerillas. Rights advocates cite reports of collaboration between the AUC and Colombia's military, although they have been officially denied. Targets of AUC's terror have included not only guerillas, but union oil workers opposing Uribe's privatization plan, Indians demanding their constitutional right to local autonomy and non-involvement in the war, and - as in the recent Putumayo massacre - peasants simply trying to survive.

One beneficiary of the increasing troop presence in Colombia is Occidental Petroleum, known colloquially as "Oxy." The United States is training and equipping a Colombian army brigade to protect Oxy's 480-mile pipeline linking the oil fields of Arauca province with the Caribbean. Arauca, the heart of Oxy's operations, hosts the greatest concentration of U.S. military advisers and has Colombia's worst human rights situation.

Oxy is also building a new pipeline over the Andes to get oil from Ecuador's Amazon to Pacific ports, while in Peru, Hunt Oil and Halliburton have launched a massive natural gas project in the Amazon, with a new pipeline to the Pacific. And in Bolivia, a consortium including Shell hopes to build a pipeline linking natural gas fields to a terminal on the Chilean coast. In each case, the protests by peasants and Indians charging illegal land grabs and pollution have been violently broken by security forces. Last November, Bolivia's government was brought down following weeks of protests over the gas pipeline plan.

With leftist governments in power in Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, securing the oil and gas resources of the region is more critical than ever for Washington. But the United States may be on a proverbial slippery slope to a second counter-insurgency quagmire - this one in our own hemisphere. BDWN

Peace hopes in Colombia as militia lays down arms

By Zoe Selsky

26 November 2004

Some 450 right-wing Colombian paramilitary fighters turned in their weapons yesterday and asked society to allow them back into its fold.

The members of the "Banana Bloc" of the outlawed United Self-Defence Forces, or AUC, sang the national anthem, then laid down hundreds of rifles, grenade-launchers and mortars on a long table.

"We have been given hope again," Luis Carlos Restrepo, the government peace commissioner, told the disarmament ceremony at a football stadium in Turbo, 310 miles north-west of the capital, Bogota. The ceremony completes the disbandment of the Banana Bloc, which for more than a decade held sway over much of Colombia's main banana-growing region, Antioquia state.

The fighters will now head to a nearby country estate where authorities will review their individual legal status, health, education and job prospects. Once deemed fit to return to civil society, they will be allowed to leave as free men.

Villagers, however, have expressed concern that Marxist rebels driven away by the paramilitaries could return to fill the void. The army says it has sent 500 additional troops to secure the region.

Peace talks between the government and the AUC began in July in a safe haven in north-west Colombia and aim to demobilise the AUC's 15,000 right-wing fighters by 2006. Hundreds have already demobilised, though the fate of commanders and fighters accused of gross human rights abuses has yet to be decided.

Right-wing paramilitary groups were created two decades ago to combat leftist guerrillas. They finance themselves through drug trafficking and extortion. BDWN

Mistrust stole Bolivia's shot at reform

By DAVID ADAMS, Times Latin America Correspondent

Published November 26, 2004

MIAMI - Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada still has a hard time believing what happened to him.

The former president of Bolivia was once considered one of Latin America's most progressive heads of state. But he was ignominiously forced to resign and flee the country in October 2003 during violent street protests against his rule.

His overthrow still hurts. But a year later, "Goni," as he is universally known, is philosophical about it.

"When something as traumatic happens to you as happened to me, there's one lesson you have to learn," he said, over an outdoor lunch by the Miami River. "First, it's not all my fault. And two, it's not everybody else's fault, either. It's some place in between."

When populations rise up to throw out a president in Latin America, it's usually well-deserved. Too many heads of state have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar or were responsible for bloody acts of repression.

But it's hard to feel that way about Goni, a thoughtful, 74-year-old democrat who is still widely respected in international political circles. These days, it seems, even the good guys fall foul of their electorate.

His ouster holds some salutary lessons about the social and economic breakdown in parts of Latin America. Political stability in Latin America is vital to U.S. commerce. Exports to Latin America last year accounted for about one-half of Florida's outbound trade, and one-seventh of all goods leaving the United States.

Academics call this modern trend in Latin American politics the "ungovernability of democracies." Governments of poor countries in the hemisphere are increasingly unable to cope with popular pressures.

International lending institutions are demanding fiscal responsibility: raising taxes and cutting domestic spending. On the other hand, grass roots popular movements are rejecting these so-called neoliberal economic measures, saying they serve the interests of only a minority business elite. Democracy, they argue, should mean offering more to the poor who make up the vast majority.

In Bolivia's case, Sanchez de Lozada was caught in the middle. Though he has been accused in his own country of responsibility for ordering troops to put down the bloody uprising, most experts say he was a victim of circumstances mostly beyond his control.

"He had no option," said Jorge Nef, director of Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of South Florida. "That is the straightjacket that exists in this region."

Bolivia's impoverished indigenous population makes up two-thirds of the country's inhabitants. They harbor deep historical grievances dating to Spanish colonial rule.

Sanchez de Lozada thought he had the answer. He had already set the stage by passing a series of key political reforms during a previous term as president in the 1990s. These included broadening access to health and education for the indigenous masses.

In his second term he planned to open the country's enormous reserves of natural gas to foreign companies. It promised to reap tremendous economic rewards: $21-billion over 20 years.

"We were going to cover the entire budget deficit and balance of payments in five years," he said, with a tone of nostalgia.

But the reaction of indigenous leaders caught him by surprise. After decades of political marginalization, they didn't trust the government to use the money fairly. They were also angered by the war on drugs led by the United States and the social effects of forced eradication of drug crops. The coca leaf is part of traditional indigenous culture and is often the only source of livelihood for poor farmers.

Instead, an alliance of coca farmers and peasant groups mounted a violent campaign against the government, demanding the gas sector be nationalized.

With his government in trouble, Sanchez de Lozada visited Washington in November 2002 seeking $150-million in loans to ride out the crisis. "I paralyzed the government for three days," he jokes. He was shuttled to meetings with President Bush at the White House, Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell.

On each occasion he delivered his message that Bolivia could be a major supplier of hydrocarbons. But he needed help. "I told them, "Help us. Help us to build a bridge over troubled waters.' "

At the meeting with Bush he recalls plenty of kind words. "President Bush told me, "We have confidence in you. I know you will survive.' "

But all he got was $10-million. Less than a year later he was out of power.

"The tragedy of Bolivia is that we were one step away from the fruits of reform," said Sanchez de Lozada. "We lost that moment."

Despite his rueful reminiscing, Sanchez de Lozada has not given up on his homeland altogether. As the world's energy resources become scarcer - and costlier - he hopes that Bolivia's natural gas deposits eventually will be tapped.

But for that to happen, Washington will have to shift its attention. He offers some parting advice for U.S. policymakers: "It's a lot easier to handle Latin America than the Middle East." 26 November 2004. BDWN

Venezuelan Police Kill Second Suspect in Prosecutor's Murder

By VOA News

26 November 2004

Venezuelan police have shot to death a second person linked to the killing of a top government prosecutor.

Authorities say the suspect was killed Thursday, in a gunfight at a motel in western Venezuela. Authorities also say they found explosives in his car.

Both the man and a lawyer killed in a gunfight with police on Tuesday were suspected in the November 18 murder of prosecutor Danilo Anderson. He was killed when explosions ripped through his car as he drove through the Venezuelan capital.

Mr. Anderson had been overseeing a case against hundreds of opposition politicians, businessmen and former military officers involved in a 2002 coup that briefly ousted President Hugo Chavez. BDWN