11 August 2004
VENEZUELA: US braced for Chávez victory
DRUGS: No reduction in supply of cocaine to US
PANAMA CANAL: Anti-terrorism exercises conducted
ARGENTINA: US is 'best friend' in the IMF
ECUADOR: ChevronTexaco Corp faces lawsuit
COSTA RICA: US citizen jailed for paedophilia
VENEZUELA
The US foreign policy establishment is reconciled to a victory by President
Hugo Chávez in the recall referendum on 15 August. Foreign policy commentators
in Washington admit that the US will have to change its policy towards the world's
fifth biggest oil exporter if Chávez is reaffirmed as president until 2007.
Currently, Venezuela is providing the US with about 15% of its daily imports
of crude oil. Joseph Tulchin, Latin American director at the Woodrow Wilson
Center in Washington, said that it was difficult to see how the US could react
to a win by Chávez . The US cannot send in the marines and it cannot impose an
embargo on the country, Tulchin said, but the Bush government would have to
do something, even if it does not yet know what. Michael Shifter, a vice-president
at Inter-American Dialogue, admitted that relations were deteriorating and contacts
between the two governments were limited. He added that the last thing the US
needed now, given the situation in the Middle East, was unrest in Venezuela.
DRUGS
The US anti-drugs czar, John Waters, said that Mexico's success in arresting
leading drug traffickers was worthy, but it was not, however, reducing the supply
of cocaine into the US. Waters, who is director of the national drug control
strategy at the White House, was on his way back from Colombia when he visited
Mexico on 4 August. He said that although sometimes the arrest of their leaders
upset drug gangs, mostly the drug gangs just reformed around new leaders. He
said that the only policy which had an effect on drug supply in the US was spraying
coca fields with herbicides and preventing drug processors getting the chemicals
they needed. He said that he expected to see a fall in the amount of drugs getting
into the US over the next 12 months. He claimed that the drug processing capacity
of Colombian laboratories had fallen by a third and that this, coupled with
the eradication of coca plantations and the interception of shipments (which
he claimed amounted to 400t over the past couple of years), would diminish supplies
into the US. What this would mean on the street, he said, was that the drug
would be more heavily cut with other substances.
PANAMA CANAL
The US is leading ten days of anti-terrorism naval exercises in Panama with
the aim of protecting the Panama Canal. Seven other nations, Panama, Chile,
Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Honduras and the Dominican Republic are participating.
The US has voiced its concern in recent months at the threat posed to the Canal
from terrorists. US military forces first conducted exercises with Panama and
Chile in July to improve security in and around the Panama Canal to coordinate
air, naval and land patrols into layers of defences around the waterway. The
outer layer will include a multinational naval force operating in international
waters that could monitor and interdict suspicious vessels. The Pentagon has
been pushing for more countries to participate in the anti-terror initiative.
Last month the autonomous Panama Canal Authority implemented the global sea
anti-terror law, known as the International Ship and Port Facility Security
code. The US has said it will strictly enforce the code, pledging to board every
ship in its waters and threatening to turn away vessels not compliant with the
new anti-terror measures.
ARGENTINA
US ambassador Lino Gutiérrez said on 10 August that the US will continue to
support Argentina before the IMF. He said that the US had been 'one of the best
friends that Argentina has had in the IMF'. Gutiérrez's remarks came days after
the US Treasury's undersecretary for international affairs, John Taylor, said
it wasn't right for the US to get involved with Argentina's talks with the IMF
over debt restructuring. 'There's no way an external group like the IMF or the
United States can come in and say `you've got to do this or that particular
deal,'' Taylor said on 6 August. Support from the US treasury was crucial in
ensuring Argentina struck a favourable deal with the IMF back in September 2003.
The US has come to the government's aid since then in securing subsequent loan
approvals.
ECUADOR
Judicial authorities in Ecuador are preparing to inspect oil wells formerly
operated by Texaco as part of a lawsuit filed by inhabitants in the Amazon against
U.S.-based ChevronTexaco Corp. The suit accuses Texaco of badly damaging the
environment as well as the health and livelihood of indigenous communities in
the region. Texaco formed a consortium in 1967 with the state-owned Petroecuador
to undertake exploration and production, and was in charge of the venture until
1990, before leaving the consortium in 1992. Cleaning up toxic wastes in the
region could cost ChevronTexaco more than US$5bn and take as long as 10 years,
but the company has denied wrongdoing, maintaining that it has complied with
its clean-up responsibilities. In June the US company filed suit in New York
against Petroecuador to seek compensation for current and future legal costs
related to the lawsuit from indigenous groups.
COSTA RICA
US citizen Thomas Scott Cochran was sentenced to 45 years in prison after being
found guilty of sexual abuse of minors in the Costa Rica. Judges also sentenced
Cochran's Costa Rican accomplice Manuel Pérez to 18 years in gaol. Between them,
the two men were accused of 99 sexual crimes, ranging from the distribution
of pornography to the rape of minors.