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Latinnews Daily - 16 August 2007

Washington Watch

Nicaragua: US authorities in Nicaragua have been quick to react to the most recent instance of anti-US rhetoric from Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega. During a celebration of the Nicaraguan Navy's 27th anniversary on 13 August, Ortega declared that the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers were "insignificant" compared to the dropping of the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He also raised concerns over the US Drug Enforcement Agency, claiming that there are questionable interests behind the DEA's operations although did not provide further details. In response to these comments, US ambassador in Nicaragua, Paul Trivelli expressed his "disappointment" and dismissed the accusations against the DEA. The American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham) in Nicaragua also warned that Ortega's "unnecessary acts of verbal aggression" and the resultant "climate of confrontation" which ensues is not conducive to "encouraging foreign investment".

Latin America: A recent poll by Zogby International, conducted between 27-30 July revealed that US adults are badly informed about Latin America. Only 10% of online respondents could name Brazil's President, Lula de Silva while 20% were familiar with the president of Mexico, Felipe Calderón. The majority of respondents also believed Brazil and Mexico to be the US's biggest allies and identified Colombia - which has been the US's closest ally in the past decade - as an adversary - third after Cuba and Venezuela.
Meanwhile 56% of those surveyed consider China's increasing involvement in the region to be a threat to US influence, a figure which Peter Hakim of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank, cites as evidence of the huge gap between US public perception and reality.

Immigration: Rudolph Giuliani, the most socially liberal of the contenders for the Republican party's presidential nomination in 2008, said on 14 August that he would take a tough line on undocumented migrants. He said: " We are can end illegal immigration. I promise you: we can end illegal immigration." He advocated issuing all workers and foreign students with an identity card which would be secure against forgery by containing finger or cornea prints. This would create a data bank which could be used to track all visitors to the US. Giuliani said that currently too many people crossed into the US without being identified. Giuliani has been criticised by Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, also seeking the Republican nomination, for being liberal on immigration. Romney claimed that Giuliani, a former mayor of New York told municipal employees that he would not pass on information about their immigration status to the federal government.

Colombia: Carolina Barco, Colombia's ambassador to the US said on 13 August that US aid to Colombia for anti-drugs and anti-guerrilla initiatives would be cut by 10% to just over US$500m. She said that she expected the cut to be about US$40m. The US delivered US$4bn in military aid to Colombia between 2000 and 2005.

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