Washington Watch

20 December 2006

20 December 2006 Hits: 68

CUBA: Congressional delegation remarks on lack of change

CUBA: Martí broadcasts accused of breaking federal law

ENERGY: Jeb Bush throws weight behind ethanol

IMMIGRATION: Latin American baseball players benefit from law change

CUBA
The Cuba Working Group, a 10-member bipartisan committee of the US House of Representatives, visited the island between 15 and 17 December to meet senior Cuban officials, including foreign minister Felipe Pérez Roque and National Assembly president Ricardo Alarcón. Despite their requests, the delegation was not permitted an interview with Raúl Castro, the acting president. This was the largest delegation from the US Congress to visit Cuba since 1959.

Jeff Flake, a Republican congressman from Arizona who took part in the visit, said that "Apart from maybe a change in the person who is running the country, there's not much change." He said that the Cuban leaders they spoke to showed no interest in changing the current political system because they are convinced that "the economy is going well and the people are happy". Cuban officials told the visiting legislators that Fidel Castro is not suffering from terminal cancer and is expected to make a public appearance soon.

Another member of the delegation, Republican congressman William Delahunt, said that a bid backed by the Cuba Working Group to end the travel ban to Cuba was likely to get a boost in the new Democrat-controlled Congress. Hearings about easing restrictions on Cuban-Americans travelling to the island to see family will be held early next year.

CUBA
The US Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which broadcasts anti-Castro programming to Cuba through Radio and TV Martí, is to face a congressional investigation after it was discovered that it is spending US$377,500 to air programmes on South Florida commercial stations over the next six months. Federal law states that government-funded media such as the Martís cannot broadcast to the US because its message is intended for a foreign audience.

Pedro Roig, the director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, claims that broadcasting through the commercial stations is "another method to get our signal in. It's a decision taken at the White House." However, critics of the scheme say that the US government is essentially hiring the commercial stations to reach local audiences in South Florida, and that the broadcasts will not reach audiences in Cuba. One of the commercial stations, Radio Mambí, is blocked in Cuba because the state-owned station, Radio Rebelde, transmits on the same frequency.

ENERGY
In his last public appearance as governor of Florida, Jeb Bush launched the Inter-American Commission on Ethanol on 19 December, along with the Brazilian Roberto Rodrigues, a former agriculture minister now representing agribusiness, and the Colombian Luis Alberto Moreno, president of the Inter-American Development Bank. Ethanol is a biodegradable alcohol generally distilled from corn or sugar which can be blended into gasoline to produce cleaner fuel. Brazil is the world's leader in ethanol production; the US has a growing corn-based ethanol programme, producing around 4.3 billion gallons in 2005, a fraction of the 140 billion gallons of gasoline the US consumed.

Writing in the Miami Herald a day after the conference, Bush said, “Increased ethanol consumption can strengthen the United States' relationship with Latin America, serving as a catalyst to remove barriers to free trade within the region." At the conference he described the project as “win, win, win, win" and chose to ignore the recent extension of a tariff on ethanol imports which has just been extended to 2009.

IMMIGRATION
On 15 December the US congress passed legislation reclassifying minor league sportsmen's visa status from temporary seasonal workers to internationally recognised athletes, as is currently the case for major league players. Although the bill will help professional basketball and ice hockey players, its main beneficiary is baseball because of the sport's vast minor league system and reliance on players from Latin America. At present the US allows minor league athletes into the country with the same kind of visas as other seasonal temporary workers, but their number is capped at 66,000 a year which has been reached every year since 2004. An estimated 350 players were prevented from entering the country in 2004 and 2005, with many of them sent to play in low-level rookie leagues in Venezuela or the Dominican Republic.

3 January 2007

03 January 2007 Hits: 66

ANDEAN: Senators' sojourn ends in Peru

COLOMBIA: Drug traffickers extradited

HAITI: US Coastguard notes fewer migrants

MEXICO: 426 die crossing the border in 2006

NICARAGUA: Alemán's stash is seized

ANDEAN
Led by the new Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, a six-senator delegation from the US visited Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador between 28 December and 2 January in an attempt to foster closer relations with the Andean region. Reid was accompanied by Republican senators Robert Bennett and Judd Greg, and Democrats Richard Durbin, Kent Conrad and Ken Salazar.

The three countries the six senators visited are all drug producers in varying degrees and one of the main aims of the visit was to discuss counter-narcotics strategy. Reid was enthusiastic after his meeting on 28 December with President Evo Morales of Bolivia, who is advocating a different approach to the war on the drug trade. He wants to draw a distinction between coca-leaf products and cocaine; promoting the former but continuing to criminalise the latter.

However, Morales promptly undermined the new spirit of cooperation by introducing visas for US visitors to Bolivia, and announcing in a radio interview on 29 December that US medical aid was outshone by that of the Cuban government. After meeting the US delegation on 29 December, Ecuadorean president-elect Rafael Correa said that the senators supported the extension of the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (Atpdea) beyond June 2007, and had told him that in the new congress an unconditional extension would be possible.

On 2 January the delegation met the Peruvian president, Alan García, to discuss the free trade agreement still awaiting ratification in the US Congress. Reid did not make any comments about the issue in a press conference after the meeting, but Peruvian ministers seemed optimistic that they had gained the delegation's support for the agreement.

COLOMBIA
Colombia extradited 19 nationals, including a former police chief, accused of drug trafficking to the US on 30 December. According to the US's Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), a group of former and current police, along with an employee of the Colombian airline Avianca, let a shipment of 409 kg of cocaine pass through security in Bogotá airport in October 2005 to be taken first to Mexico and then on to the US. The drugs were seized in Mexico by officials alerted to the shipment. The investigation into the gang took seven months and was carried out by the DEA in New York and Bogotá, and involved the cooperation of the US customs as well as Colombian and Mexican security officials.

HAITI
There has been a dramatic drop in the number of undocumented Haitians stopped at sea by the US coastguard. Only 769 Haitian migrants were intercepted in 2006, compared with some 1,828 in 2005. A number of factors could be responsible for this reduction; the US coastguard has increased patrols off Haitian waters, forcing would-be migrants to remain in Haiti. Bad weather could also have played a role. There is also the possibility that fewer Haitians want to leave their homeland because of new hopes brought by the government of René Preval, who was elected in early 2006.

MEXICO
At least 426 Mexicans died while trying to cross the border into the US in 2006, according to Mexico's secretariat of foreign relations. Of this total, 203 died in the desert bordering Arizona, 140 in Texas, 66 in southern California and 17 in New Mexico. The number of deaths is slightly lower than that of 2005 (443), but higher than 2004 (369). Mexico's National Migration Institute said that it had helped around 6,000 Mexicans who were in danger in 2006. Around 450,000 Mexicans emigrate each year to the US.

NICARAGUA
Officials from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed on 27 December that it had confiscated US$700,000 worth of savings certificates purchased by members of the family of Arnoldo Alemán, the former Nicaraguan president. According to US officials, the certificates had been bought on behalf of Alemán with money stolen from the Nicaraguan government. The money, which had been deposited in the Miami-based Terrabank, was frozen by Judge Federico Moreno in March 2003. Moreno ruled on 21 December that the money should be returned to Nicaragua. Alemán, who was president of Nicaragua between 1997 and 2001, was sentenced in 2003 to twenty years in prison for corruption and embezzlement but was later granted parole.

10 January 2007

10 January 2007 Hits: 63

COLOMBIA: Trial begins in the US for Farc leader “Sonia"

CURRENCY: Pizza chain in Texas happy to take pesos

DRUGS: State Department supports Mexican anti-drugs offensives

HEALTH: Californian healthcare reforms

NICARAGUA: Bush makes congratulatory call to Ortega

COLOMBIA
On 8 January the trial of Anayibe Rojas Valderrama, alias “Sonia", a former commander of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) began in Washington DC. Sonia was extradited in March 2005 and stands accused of distributing and exporting cocaine in the US. According to the prosecution, Sonia was the head of financing for the Farc's Frente 14, and as such supervised the purchase of coca paste from peasants, its transition to cocaine and its subsequent distribution to drug traffickers. One witness due to give evidence against Sonia claims she ordered the massacre of ten peasants who sold coca paste direct to traffickers. The trial of Sonia follows that of Ricardo Palmera, alias “Simón Trinidad", who was charged with organizing the kidnapping of three US citizens. The case was thrown out for lack of evidence in November 2006, but he still faces charges of drug trafficking.

CURRENCY
Pizza Patrón, a Dallas-based pizza chain said that it will accept payment for meals in Mexican peso bills until the end of February. The Pizza Patrón exchange rate is M$12: US$1, hardly advantageous, as the current wholesale rate is around M$10.95 and at Mexico City's main airport the retail rate is M$11.15. The chain said that 60% of its customers and 45% of its franchisees are Latinos.

DRUGS
The US State Department gave its unequivocal support to the two Mexican offensives, which involve major army deployments, against the drug trade. On 9 January the US State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said that it was “very encouraging" that the Mexican government was going after drug trafficking networks. On 8 December, the federal government launched Operación Conjunta Michoacán, which involved the deployment of 7,000 army and police personnel. On 2 January it launched Operación Tijuana, which involved half that number of personnel. In Operación Tijuana, 80% of the personnel involved come from the army.

HEALTH
One side effect of the comprehensive healthcare reforms proposed by the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is that undocumented migrants will be covered by medical insurance. Schwarzenegger proposed on 8 January that all companies which employ more than 10 staff in the state should either offer them all fully comprehensive health insurance or pay the state government 4% of their income to offer the same insurance. Lupe Díaz Alonso, from the Coalición Latina para una California Saludable (the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California) wondered if the governor had got his sums right as 4% seemed a very low price to pay for such an extension of health insurance. Businessmen point out that 80% of companies in the state employ fewer than 10 people.

NICARAGUA
US President George W Bush has held out an olive branch to Nicaraguan President-elect Daniel Ortega just before his investiture on 10 January. During the election campaign the US ambassador to Nicaragua, Paul Trivelli, made it quite clear that Ortega was not the US's candidate of choice. But on 8 January, two months after Ortega won the presidency with 38% of the vote, President George W Bush called to congratulate him on his electoral victory and wish him luck during his mandate. This is a less effusive greeting than that given to Ecuador's leftwing president-elect, Rafael Correa, who was contacted by Bush just three days after winning the presidential election, but more cordial than that accorded to President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, who has yet to receive a congratulatory call despite having been in office for eight years. The US delegation to Managua for Ortega's investiture ceremony is being led by Michael Leavitt, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, who met Ortega on 9 January to pass on a message from Bush; "We want to work with you." As a goodwill gesture Leavitt offered to build a regional training centre for health workers in Nicaragua, a proposal that Ortega accepted.

17 January 2007

17 January 2007 Hits: 68

BRAZIL: Nixon turned blind eye to human rights abuses

COLOMBIA: Success for Operation Death Merchant

CUBA: Reports on Castro's health reveal "nothing new", says US

MARRIAGE: More señoritas than señoras

MEXICO: Calderón unhappy with US treatment of migrants

BRAZIL
The former US president, Richard Nixon (1969-1974), was aware of torture being committed in Brazil between 1973 and 1974 by the military junta but did not act to stop it, according to recently declassified documents released by the US state department. The documents show that the US ambassador to Brazil at the time, John Crimmins, told the US government not to impose economic sanctions because this could undermine US influence in Brazil and the arms trade between the two countries.

COLOMBIA
The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) broke up a smuggling network, based in Pereira (Colombia), estimated to have imported around US$7.5m of cocaine and heroine to the US through the east coast. On 16 January the DEA arrested 10 people in New York and another 20 in Colombia. Over the past three years agents involved in Operation Death Merchant have arrested 117 members of the gang and seized 173kg of cocaine, 55kg of heroine, 12 cars, nine weapons and US$260,000 in cash. Several couriers hid the drugs inside running shorts and the soles of their shoes. Others carried suitcases and purses packed filled with the drugs.

CUBA
The US administration played down reports about Fidel Castro's grave health condition which were reported in the Spanish newspaper El País on 15 and 17 January. Although the medical sources cited in the newspaper contradict claims from US intelligence services that Castro is suffering from terminal cancer, the press secretary for the White House, Tony Snow, said that "We've seen the reports out of El País. I think that as far as we can tell it's just sort of a roundup of previous health reports. We've got nothing new." Snow was presumably referring to speculation from US doctors that Castro was suffering from diverticular disease, a diagnosis which was confirmed by the El País report.

In the State Department press briefing on 16 January Tom Casey, the deputy spokesman, said, "We don't have any information that would either deny or substantiate those reports. The Cuban Government isn't generally in the habit of sharing that information with us." One of the reporters who attended the press briefing claimed that the US ambassador to Spain, George Argyros, had stated that the Spanish doctor who travelled to Havana in December to treat Castro had understated the severity of the Cuban leader's condition. José Luis García Sabrido, the doctor in question, said on his return from Cuba that Castro did not have cancer, and that it was possible he would get well enough to return to power.

MARRIAGE
More than half of women of Latin American origin living in the US are single, according to a study taken from the US census and published in The New York Times on 16 January. Thirty-five percent of Latinas over the age of 15 never married; 10% are divorced; 4% are separated and 3.5% are widows. Latinas are the ethnic group second-most likely to be single, after African-American women, only 30% of whom are married. For the first time in the history of the US census, married couples are in a minority for the population as a whole. Fifty-one percent of the 117m women living in the US are not married, up 2% on 2000 and up 16% from 1950.

MEXICO
President Felipe Calderón instructed a diplomatic note to be sent on 17 January to the US Department of State in protest against the death of Francisco Javier Domínguez on 12 January at the hands of US Border Patrol agents. Javier Domínguez was shot in Naco, Arizona, where he had illegally crossed the border into US territory with three other migrants. Calderón wanted to make his "serious worries" about the regularity with which Mexican migrants die in this way known to the US government.

24 January 2007

24 January 2007 Hits: 73

CUBA: Bipartisan push to relax embargo

EDUCATION: Joint medicine courses proposed by Nevada

FLORIDA: Leftist group scuffles with Cuban exiles

IMMIGRATION: Bush asks Congress for reform

PANAMA: US release Noriega

CUBA
Two members of the US Congress from the Cuba Working Group outlined plans on 23 January to relax the economic embargo that the US has had in place against Cuba for 40 years. Representative Jo Ann Emerson, (R, Missouri) and Representative James McGovern, (D, Massachusetts) both formed part of the 10-member congressional delegation that visited Cuba in December. McGovern declared himself "absolutely certain" that the new, Democrat-controlled Congress would take a different approach to Cuba. Emerson said "I think we have a marginally better chance to make some changes, gradual changes [in our foreign policy towards Cuba], but I don't think we are going to see anything huge."

Changes they would like to introduce include the lifting of travel restrictions to the island, more cultural exchange, and bilateral co-operation over immigration and drug-related issues. The group also wants Cuba to be taken off the list of countries that support terrorism. However, both members of Congress recognised that any reforms were likely to be vetoed by President George W Bush. McGovern said that the best way to get changes approved by Bush was to incorporate amendments into other, related legislation which will be difficult to veto. Members of Bush's government have stated that it will not allow any relaxation of its policy towards Cuba until the Cuban government make significant changes, including the holding of elections and the freeing of political prisoners.

EDUCATION
Richard Carpenter, the president of the Community College of Southern Nevada, said that the state's four universities were considering linking up with the Autonomous University of Guadalajara (AUG) in Mexico to train Mexican students as doctors. James Lenhart, vice dean of the Medicine faculty at the University of Nevada warned that the idea was still in its very early stages.

The idea is that students would study in their home university before coming to Nevada for their residencies at the end of their eight year courses. New York University already offers a similar scheme. The AUG takes in 2,000 medicine students a year. The University of Nevada produces 50 doctors a year. Nevada medics would start in Nevada before moving to Guadalajara and then finishing back in Nevada. Nevada has a growing number of Hispanics but few bilingual doctors. According to the latest census, 23.5% of the state's population is Hispanic.

FLORIDA
Two members of the Bolivarian Youth group filed a police report on 23 January against a group of Cuban exiles, who they say assaulted them during a protest held on 19 January. The group had begun a counter-protest across the street from a rally attended by about 100 Cuban exiles supporting Luis Posada Carriles, the anti-Castro militant accused of committing terrorist acts in Cuba. Bolivarian Youth is a leftist, anti-capitalist organization that supports the ''Bolivarian'' revolution of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez . His supporters started Bolivarian groups in Venezuela and abroad, including Miami, New York and other major cities in the United States. On 11 January a US grand jury charged Posada Carriles with giving false testimony about how he entered the US.

IMMIGRATION
President George W Bush called on congress, in his State of the Union Address delivered on 23 January, to approve an immigration reform. President Bush said that this was the last opportunity for such a reform during his presidential term. He wants congress to approve his Temporary Worker Programme, which was blocked by his own Republican party in 2006. The programme would allow companies to import labour by issuing three-year visas, renewable for a further three years. President Bush argued that by introducing temporary work visas congress would free up border patrol agents to chase after drug smugglers, criminals and terrorists.

Senator Edward Kennedy, (D, Massachusetts) welcomed President Bush's initiative. The Mexican government has yet to comment but will be pleased by the immediate dividend on its controversial decision on 19 January to extradite 15 Mexican drug traffickers to the US before they had served their sentences in Mexico. The US was delighted by this move.

PANAMA
The former Panamanian dictator, Manuel Noriega, will leave prison in September, his lawyer said on 23 January. Noriega was originally condemned by a US court, back in 1990, to 40 years in jail in Miami on charges of drug-trafficking. This sentence was reduced in 1999 and has now been reduced again following a new appeal.

Rubino informed that the 72 year-old Noriega is in “good health". The former dictator plans to return to Panama after his release, which is scheduled to take place on 9 September. Rubino said there is no motion against Noriega's return to his home-country.

Noriega ruled Panama with a heavy-hand from 1981 until his overthrow in 1989. A former US ally, Noriega fell from grace because of his links with Colombian drug cartels. The charges served as an excuse for US troops to invade Panama in December 1989 to arrest him. Noriega had tried to find shelter in the Vatican Embassy.

31 January 2007

07 February 2007 Hits: 73

BOLIVIA: US ambassador defends anti-drugs record

CUBA: Miami's Castro-death celebrations get downgraded

TRADE: Bush wants his trade powers renewed

VENEZUELA: Negroponte identifies Chávez as a threat

BOLIVIA
On 30 January the US ambassador to Bolivia, Philip Goldberg, published an article in the daily La Razón defending the US's record on tackling the consumption of illegal narcotics. Goldberg wrote that the perception in Bolivia that the US was only dealing with the supply of cocaine and not the problem of consumption in the US was “wrong". The US, he wrote “is very conscious of the serious problem consumption of illegal drugs causes" and the government is committed to “confronting it responsibly and firmly". According to Goldberg, the government has succeeded in lowering consumption by doubling its investment in anti-drugs campaigns. On 30 December President Evo Morales, who is also head of the coca-growers' union in Chapare, said that the coca leaf “had never killed anyone" and that it is in the US where they ought to “have a law to put an end to drug addicts".

CUBA
The mayor's office in Miami came in for criticism when it announced on 29 January that it was examining the possibility of holding a party for Cuban exiles in the city's Orange Bowl stadium when the Cuban leader Fidel Castro dies. According to a statement by a city spokesman, preliminary plans included musical acts and special t-shirts to mark the event. However, due to an angry response from the Cuban-American community in Miami at the idea of celebrating a man's death with a party, the plans have been toned down. City officials now say that the Orange Bowl can be used as a gathering space, and nothing more. Plans to hire musicians and hand out t-shirts are apparently off the table. Angel Desfana, the head of one of Miami's largest exile organisations, said that he thought the plans "inappropriate and illogical", explaining that Cubans have traditionally preferred to celebrate in a spontaneous way, like with parties in Calle Ocho in Little Havana.

TRADE
On 29 January the White House urged the US Congress to renew the president's Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), which was introduced in 2002 and is due to expire in July this year. Under the TPA, trade bills must be approved or rejected in their entirety by Congress, which does not have the power to introduce amendments. According to the White House spokesman Tony Snow, "It is an important mechanism for increasing free trade." The TPA was introduced to give other countries confidence that the agreements they signed with the US would not be subject to subsequent renegotiation, and make trade negotiations more efficient. If the TPA is not renewed it could make it more difficult for the US to make bilateral agreements with Latin American countries and, if the FTAs with Peru and Colombia are not ratified by the time it expires, could prolong the process further by leaving them open to amendments by Congress.

VENEZUELA
On 30 January John Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, said that President Hugo Chávez posed a threat to democracies in Latin America. Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations committee during his confirmation hearing for the post of deputy secretary of state, Negroponte said, “One of the trends we need to be concerned about is a kind of a frustration among some of the populations in Latin America that democracy is not necessarily delivering the kinds of results that people had hoped for, and that has in turn given rise to a certain amount of populism. That is most clearly symbolized by Mr. Hugo Chávez ." Over the past few months, the US has avoided direct confrontation with Chávez , and it is as yet unclear how Negroponte plans on addressing this concern about populism.

Thomas Shannon, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, spoke briefly with Chávez at the inauguration of Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega on 10 January. According to Shannon, “President Chávez indicated a desire to improve relations and a belief that we could find areas where we could have a positive, constructive conversation." Referring to meetings the US ambassador, William Brownfield, has had with high-ranking Venezuelan officials, Shannon said, “I think we are fairly close to a moment in which we might be able to sit down and talk." The US overtures coincide with the Venezuelan congress's passing of the “enabling act", granting Chávez the power to rule by decree for 18 months and the announcement, by General Alberto Muller who is one of Chávez 's top military advisers, that Venezuela plans to buy air defence missiles to guard strategic sites, such as oil refineries and major bridges, against any air strike.

7 February 2007

07 February 2007 Hits: 65

BURNS: US not obsessed with Chávez

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: US donate anti-drug resources

PERU: US engages in military exercises with Peru

REGION: US targets budget cuts for Latin America

BURNS
Speaking on a two-day trip to Brazil, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, Nicolas Burns, said that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was not an issue of great interest to Washington. “We are not obsessed with Hugo Chávez ," he said. “Frankly he is not someone we think about_he is not a big issue for the US. […] If Chávez wants to take his country in the same direction of a failed system of politics, that's his decision." Burns added that the US was more concerned with working with friends in the region, such as Brazil and Argentina, arguing that as independent, powerful countries they were not going to be unduly influenced by Venezuela. Burns's comments, on 6 February, came on the same day as the State Department announced that the ambassador to Venezuela, William Brownfield, would be moving to Colombia. Patrick Duddy, the deputy assistant secretary for Brazil, the Southern Cone and the Caribbean, is the White House's candidate for the post in Venezuela, though he will have to be confirmed by the US Senate and approved by the Venezuelan government.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has announced that it will help the Dominican Republic in its fight against drugs. The island of Hispaniola (comprising the Dominican Republic and Haiti) is used as a "bridge" to the US and Europe by drug-traffickers. Following a meeting with the DEA's head of operations, Michael Braun, Rafael Ramírez Ferreira of the Dominican Republic's drug control agency said that the US had agreed to provide a plane for identifying places where drug-traffickers dropped packages of drugs from light aircraft. There has been in a sharp increase in drug-related violence and deaths in the Dominican Republic recently.

PERU
The administration of President Alan García continues to strengthen its ties with the US, with the news that the Peruvian and US air forces are to participate in joint exercises from 9 to 18 Februrary using Mig-29, Mirage 2000 and F-16 aircraft. Sam Wunder, the director of public affairs at the US embassy in Lima, said that "Peru is an important ally in our shared goals to bring stability, security and prosperity to the region." Peru has good relations with the US, as one of the few South American countries, along with Colombia and Bolivia, to sign an article 98 agreement guaranteeing immunity for US troops before the International Criminal Court.

REGION
President George W Bush's budget for 2007/08 called for cuts in US aid to Latin America. The US government is ending all military aid to Latin America, apart from programmes in Colombia and El Salvador. It will, however, continue with military training programmes across the region and step up its support to encourage farmers to switch from coca to alternative crops. Even for Colombia, direct US military aid will be cut by US$11m to US$78m. This cut, however, is balanced by a US$10m increase in support for alternative agricultural programmes. El Salvador's military aid entitlement is a token US$4.8m. What kept El Salvador on the list is that it is the only Latin American country with troops in Iraq. Even so the US is cutting its military aid to the country by half, compared with the US$9.9m it allocated for the current financial year. The big losers in the military aid stakes are Chile, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, which will get no US military aid next year.

14 February 2007

14 February 2007 Hits: 66

CUBA: US public wants to re-establish diplomatic relations

DIPLOMACY: The US's "Year of Latin America"

MEXICO: Texas senator calls for new Texas prisons to be built in Mexico

MEXICO: Walters warns over narco-violence

TRADE: US trade deficit with Latin America grows

CUBA
In a study on US attitudes towards Cuba carried out by Ipsos Public Affairs, 64% of respondents said they had a negative opinion of Cuba. However almost as many, 62%, said that the US should re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba. Fewer than half of those questioned said they did not think Cuba would become a democracy after the death of Cuban leader Fidel Castro. The poll also indicated that some of the Cold War antagonism towards Cuba is cooling, as 35% of respondents aged between 18 and 34 said they did not know enough about Castro to express their opinion of him. One thousand people participated in the study which was carried out between 30 January and 1 February. It has a margin of error of 3%.

DIPLOMACY
After returning from their tour of São Paulo, Brasília and Buenos Aires, Assistant Secretaries of State Nicholas Burns and Tom Shannon said that 2007 is to be the year of "US engagement in Latin America". Speaking at a press conference at the US State Department on 13 February, they said that their visit was the first stage in President George W Bush's initiative to consolidate relations with Latin America and that Brazil and Argentina were chosen as destinations because they are "the leading countries" in the region. Bush is to travel to Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico in march. Shannon said that the US had a common history in Latin America, unlike Iran whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, visited the region in January.

MEXICO
John Walters, the US anti-drugs czar, issued the annual National Anti-Drugs Strategy report on 10 February. One of the report's most striking findings is that the sovereignty of Mexico is threatened by drug trafficking and the violence trafficking generates. Walters is Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). The report said that “threats, intimidation and attacks had imbued widespread fear, retarded the free press and reduced the capacities of municipal, state and even the national government in exercising authority." The report said that Mexico was the main conduit for cocaine sold in the US and the conduit for a considerable amount of the heroin sold in the US, as well as for marijuana and meta-amphetamines. Despite Mexico's importance in the illegal drug trade, of the 57 pages in the report, only two deal with Mexico.

MEXICO
A Republican state senator, Craig Estes, called for the state government to look at the idea of moving Mexican prisoners out of the Texas prison system and into new facilities in Mexico. He claimed that Mexican prisons are just as efficient as their Texan counterparts but cost half as much to run. Estes said that such a move would benefit Mexican convicts held in Texas state prisons as they would be closer to their families. At the end of 2006 there were just over 8,000 Mexicans among the 152,671 people held in prisons in Texas. Texas currently has 110 prisons. Texas is planning to build another two prisons, to house 4,000 inmates, this year. The cost of the new prisons is budgeted at US$400m. Texas is second only to California in the number of Mexicans it holds in prison. Around 10% of California's 172,000 convicts are Mexican.

TRADE
The US's trade deficit with Latin America and the Caribbean grew by 11% in 2006, from US$96,588m in 2005 to US$106,553m. The increase was mainly due to increased imports from Mexico, according to the US government. Mexico is now the country with the fourth largest trade surplus with the US, after China, Japan and Canada. Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela all saw their trade surpluses with the US grow.

21 February 2007

21 February 2007 Hits: 217

BOLIVIA: Study encourages US to engage with Bolivia

NICARAGUA: US Senator argues against missiles

IMMIGRATION: More troops make for fewer migrants

PERU: US offer military aid

COLOMBIA: "Sonia" convicted in the US

BOLIVIA
A study published by the Council on Foreign Relations on 21 February advised the US administration to increase aid to Bolivia despite the two governments' differences, particularly on the issue of coca cultivation. Bolivia on the Brink, written by Eduardo Gamarra, argues that with ethnic, regional, and political tensions in Bolivia on the rise, Washington's current “wait and see" approach to the Morales government is no longer adequate. Instead, Gamarra encourages the US to redirect its policy toward Bolivia with an emphasis on the preservation of democratic process and conflict prevention. The report recommends that Washington strengthen relations with both the Bolivian government and the opposition, and argues that excluding Bolivia from US benefits such as trade, military training, and development assistance would only push the Morales government closer to Cuba and Venezuela, feed anti-American sentiment in the region, and increase the likelihood of sociopolitical turmoil. Gamarra also calls on Bolivia's neighbours; Brazil, Argentina and Chile, to help mediate between the government and the opposition in Bolivia.

NICARAGUA
On a trip to Managua on 19 February US Senator William Nelson (D-Fla) questioned the need for Nicaragua to retain its stockpile of Sam-7 missiles. Nelson argued that Nicaragua faced no external threat to justify their retention and that neither Costa Rica nor Honduras represent a military threat to Nicaragua, with which Washington wants to have "good relations," he said. The Nicaraguan army currently has 1,000 missiles.

IMMIGRATION
The US Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff, said on 20 February that the flow of illegal immigrants across the US-Mexico border had decreased by over 40% since June. Chertoff attributed this fall-off to President George W Bush's decision to deploy 6,000 National Guardsmen to patrol the border area. This measure was introduced as a stop-gap for two years while more Border Patrol officers are recruited. According to Homeland Security officials, the number of immigrants has fallen by two-thirds in two areas around Yuma and Del Río in Texas. The troops are not allowed to make arrests, but keep watch for immigrants to inform Border Patrol. They also carry out a range of tasks to prevent immigrants arriving, such as erecting stadium lights, secondary fences and barriers of thick steel poles to stop smugglers from racing across the desert in all-wheel-drive trucks. Standing next to a new stretch of a 4.6 metre fence that the troops had put up, Chertoff said, "This is the kind of tangible indication of progress that the American people have been waiting for."

PERU
The head of Southern Command, James Stavridis, announced on 14 February while in Lima that the US would give military aid to Peru to help them in counter-narcotics operations. The US will provide coast guards to detect shipments of cocaine leaving from Peru for North America, Asia and Europe, and also train Peruvian coastguards to perform the same role. According to the UN, Peru is the second greatest producer of coca leaves and cocaine after Colombia.

COLOMBIA
A court in Washington DC found Anayibe Rojas Valderrama, the guerrilla leader better known as Sonia, guilty of drug-trafficking on 20 February. Sonia is the first member of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) to be convicted in the US and is likely to face 30 years in jail when she is sentenced on 7 May. US prosecutors welcomed the verdict for two reasons: first, it is the first time that the Farc's links to the illegal drugs trade have been confirmed in a US court; secondly, the US could ill-afford a repeat of the Simón Trinidad debacle. Trinidad, the most senior member of the Farc ever to be arrested, went on trial in Washington last year charged with kidnapping and terrorist offences, but the case against him collapsed due to a lack of evidence. Trinidad still faces charges of drug-trafficking in the US, and given the ease with which Sonia was convicted he is highly unlikely to escape prison.

28 February 2007

28 February 2007 Hits: 92

COLOMBIA: Uribe not a worthy ally, says US press

EL SALVADOR: Saca elicits security promises from Bush

IMMIGRATION: Beefed-up immigration bill is back

MEXICO : Walters calls for more extraditions

US & LATIN AMERICA: Richardson accuses Bush of ignoring Latin America

COLOMBIA
The Boston Globe newspaper published an article on 25 February that claimed, "The widening probe linking dozens of political allies of Colombia's president, Alvaro Uribe, to the country's right-wing death squads and drug traffickers has started to erode support on Capitol Hill for Colombia, the biggest recipient of US aid outside the Middle East and Afghanistan." The article went on to claim that by staking its political capital on Uribe, the US would lose credibility and influence in the region, leaving the field open for Chávez . The New York Times, Washington Post and Time magazine have published articles expressing similar views.

EL SALVADOR
President Tony Saca's discussion with President George W Bush at the White House on 27 February centred on security concerns following the recent murders of three Salvadorean congressmen in Guatemala. Bush promised US help in the investigations, and Saca told reporters that Bush "has offered to collaborate and if the Guatemalan government agrees to it_the North American investigations might help a bit to clear up the facts." Guatemala's interior minister, Carlos Vielmann, said on 28 February that two FBI agents were in the country investigating the case. Saca was eager to push the security agenda because he has had trouble getting the Frente Maribundo de Liberación Nacional (FMLN) to approve a series of US loans in congress and asked Bush to help find "creative solutions" to the country's security troubles, including direct assistance to the Salvadorean police force. Saca has been a steadfast ally of the Bush administration, as the president of the only Latin American government with troops in Iraq. However, unusually he also met up with Democrat leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid during his trip to Washington, to try to influence them over immigration reform.

IMMIGRATION
Harry Reid, the Senate Majority leader, told reporters on 26 February that the immigration bill would be debated on 22 March, the first step towards immigration reform that the Democrats have taken since they took control of Congress in January. The bill that the Senate will debate is a new version of the Kennedy-McCain bill, which offers illegal immigrants a path to citizenship but failed to pass last year in the Republican-controlled Congress. This time round more emphasis has been put on securing the US borders and punishing companies that employ illegal workers.

MEXICO
John Walters, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) which coordinates US policies against the drug trade, called for Mexico to extradite more of the drug gangsters it has in its jails to the US. Mexico extradited 15 gangsters to the US on 19 and 20 January. Walters was speaking on 27 February after meeting senior Mexican anti-drugs officials in a lightning visit to Mexico City. Walters met the Mexican attorney general, Eduardo Medina Mora ; the public security minister Genaro García Luna ; and the technical secretary of the national council for addictions, Carlos Rodríguez Ajenjo.

US & LATIN AMERICA
Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico and a contender for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2009, accused President George W Bush of having forgotten about Latin America. Richardson who was speaking to Hispanic leaders on 27 February said: “No other region of the world showed more clearly our diplomatic shortcomings and our failure to construct strong alliances than Latin America. It is a region that has been forgotten by our government." Richardson was re-elected governor with 70% support in November 2006. In 2004, Bush took New Mexico in the presidential election.

8 March 2007

29 November -0001 Hits: 218

US: Bush to visit region

COLOMBIA: Parapolitical links put aid in jeopardy

DRUGS: US releases drugs report

MEXICO: Creel doubts Bush will deliver much

HUMAN RIGHTS: US report criticises Cuba, Venezuela and Mexico

AVIATION: San Diego frets over Tijuana airport

US: Bush to visit region
President George W Bush said that his visit to Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico from 8 to 12 March is intended to show the people of Latin America that the US is a "constructive partner" in the region. "Our presence is sometimes silent but very effective," he said, reminding reporters that since the beginning of his first presidential term US aid has doubled from US$800m to US$1.6bn, and that direct investment has reached US$350bn. On 5 March Bush announced a series of new aid programmes, such as the deployment of army medical teams in 14 countries in the nation and US$75m for a scholarship programme that will help Latin American students improve their English by studying in the states.

The first stop on his tour is Brazil. Bush will meet President Lula da Silva for a first round of talks on 9 March. The two men will meet again at the end of the month, this time in the US, to continue their conversation. Representatives of the Brazilian and the US governments say the talks will focus on a prospective partnership for the production of ethanol, a biofuel which Brazil and the US have pioneered. To curb the influence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez the US is eager to promote other forms of leftwing government. The Lula administration in Brazil seems to fit the bill. Brazil is the largest country in the region and, arguably, has the most important economy. By promoting a partnership in ethanol production the US hopes to undermine the power of Chávez 's petrodollars. Chávez is concerned that he may lose the Brazilian government's quiet backing and has criticised the use of ethanol as "immoral" since it may increase the price of food worldwide.

COLOMBIA: Parapolitical links put aid in jeopardy
Democrat legislators in Washington are becoming increasingly critical of the US government's relationship with Colombia in the light of the parapolitical scandals affecting President Alvaro Uribe's administration. Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont who chairs the appropriations subcommittee that oversees US foreign aid programmes, said that "the resignation of the [Colombian] foreign minister and the recent arrests of members of the Colombian congress are positive, though overdue steps, but they leave many questions unanswered_American taxpayers deserve assurances that the Colombian government has severed links to these terrorist groups and is prosecuting those involved." President George W Bush's brief visit to Colombia scheduled for 11 March is intended to show his support for Uribe and to reassure the Colombian government that he will fight against any proposals for reductions in anti-drugs funding from the US.

DRUGS: US releases drugs report
The US published its annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) on 1 March. The spin US officials put on the information contained in the report is highly political. Venezuela and Bolivia, which have doubts about US anti-drugs policy, came in for major criticism from Anne Patterson, Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. Yet countries with major narco-gangster problems, notably Colombia and Mexico, were praised for their efforts even though there is clear evidence, especially in Mexico, that the drug trade became stronger in 2006.

MEXICO: Creel doubts Bush will deliver much
Santiago Creel, a prominent senator from the Partido Acción Nacional and a former interior minister, said on 5 March that he doubted that much would come from the visit by President George W Bush to Mexico on 12 March. He noted that Bush has kept his distance from Mexico and had authorised the construction of the wall along [a very small part of] the border with Mexico.

Creel said: "What we are waiting for is the next elections in the US and that the government of President Bush will change so that we can have better relations. We are waiting for politicians who are much more sympathetic to the neighbourliness and friendship that exists between the peoples of Mexico and the US." Manlio Fabio Beltrones, the leader of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional in the senate, noted that no opposition senators had been invited to the meeting between President Bush and President Felipe Calderón in the Yucatán on 12 March. "I hope [Bush's visit] is not a party political occasion," he observed.

HUMAN RIGHTS: US report criticises Cuba, Venezuela and Mexico
The US State Department published its annual assessment of human rights around the world on 6 March. In Latin America, the State Department was most gloomy about the prospects for human rights in three countries: Cuba; Venezuela and Mexico. The department's criticism focussed on flaws in those countries' institutions and did not accuse their governments of executing opponents. China, Russia, Iran and even, guardedly, Saudi Arabia were accused of killing dissidents. The criticism that the US Assistant Secretary, Barry Lowenkron, made of Venezuela was that the human rights position was deteriorating. He said that the Chávez government was "packing the supreme court, muzzling the opposition, intimidating the press, going after NGOs".

On Mexico, Lowenkron said that the main issue that needed to be addressed was corruption, though he also cited the long-running unrest in Oaxaca in 2006. On Cuba, the State Department noted that the "government's human rights record remained poor, and the government continued to commit numerous, serious abuses." The State Department went on: "The government denied citizens the right to change their government. There were at least 283 political prisoners and detainees at year's end. Thousands of citizens served sentences for "dangerousness", in the absence of any criminal activity."

AVIATION: San Diego frets over Tijuana airport
San Diego is looking urgently for a new site for its airport. On 6 March, the airport authority in San Diego suggested that it go into partnership with the Tijuana airport. San Diego is alarmed that there are now direct (weekly) flights to Narita, Tokyo from Tijuana. Previously, passengers to Tokyo would have used Los Angeles.

A partnership with Tijuana would throw up all sorts of political and security problems. It also represents a desperate throw by the San Diego airport authority. Electors in Southern California overwhelmingly rejected the idea of a new airport in San Diego last November. The proponents of a new airport in San Diego have managed to set up an independent agency (beyond the authority of the Port District) to push for a new airport. This success is being threatened by a bill from a state senator, Christine Kehoe, to bring the airport authority back under democratic control.

28 March 2007

28 March 2007 Hits: 106

CUBA: Cuba to buy US$30m in Nebraskan agricultural products

CUBA: Fidel still the boss, says Shannon

ECUADOR: Request to extend ATPDEA

IMMIGRATION: Efforts to halt Venezuelan deportations

TRADE: Democrats demand FTA revision

CUBA
Nebraskan governor Dave Heineman met executives from the Cuban food import company, Alimport, this week to finalise and sign two trade agreements to export Nebraskan agricultural products to the island. Despite Washington's 45-year embargo on bilateral trade with Cuba, a loophole exists due to a law passed by Congress in 2000 that allows Cuba cash-in-advance-only purchases of US food and agricultural products. Cuba did not take advantage of this law until November 2001 when Hurricane Michelle diminished the food supply. Heineman signed a letter of understanding with Alimport in Havana on Tuesday. This was Heineman's third visit to the island; the previous two in 2005 and 2006 were for identical missions. The contracts signed with Alimport in these two years resulted in deals to export US$60m worth of products: mainly beans, corn, wheat, turkey, pork, beef and soy. While this round of negotiations will focus purely on agricultural products: beans, wheat, beef and pork, Heineman says Nebraskan officials are looking into exporting medical supplies in the future. Exporting US medical supplies to Cuba has been permitted since 1992.

CUBA
The Bush administration is becoming more circumspect over its analysis of Fidel Castro's health and his ability to return to power, as indicated by the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Thomas Shannon, during a video conference with Madrid-based journalists. Fidel's recent spurt of activity has prompted speculation about his possible return to the Cuban presidency. "At least I've tried to be very careful about Fidel Castro's health, and be careful about making it clear that the Cuban state is so opaque and that his health is treated as a state secret, and guarded in such a way that it's hard to assess what it is", said Shannon. He stated that he considered a "transfer of power in terms of day-to-day governance" to have taken place, but said that Fidel still establishes "the context and the parametres" in which the Cuban regime can operate. Shannon predicted that as long as Fidel retains a strong grip on Cuban politics, there is no chance for major reform. He indicates that while the US hopes for change, it is understood "the future of Cuba has to be decided by the Cubans".

ECUADOR
The ministers for industry and labour, Raúl Sagasti and Antonio Gagliardo, visited Washington on 27 March to discuss extending the Andean Trade Preferences and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA) with the US Secretary of Labor, Elaine Chao. The Ecuadorean foreign minister, María Fernanda Espinosa, said her government had requested an extension of "at least five years". This may be unrealistic. Democrat leaders, who criticised the decision by the Republican-controlled Congress last year to make the extension of ATPDEA conditional on Andean countries pursuing free trade agreements with the US, asked Congress on 27 March to extend the act for another two years. Sagasti said that 350,000 Ecuadoreans relied on ATPDEA for their jobs, and that the act generated US$480m each year.

IMMIGRATION
On 26 March three South Florida legislators urged the White House to implement a "deferred enforced departure provision" for the thousands of Venezuelan immigrants, facing deportation because of expired visas or failed asylum pleas, who have arrived in the US since Hugo Chavez's election in 1998. Essentially, the provision allows immigrants facing political strife in their home countries to apply for work permits and remain in the US legally for 12 to 18 months. If enacted, Bush would also be able to renew the provision and allow immigrants more time in the instance that a new immigration bill is not passed at the end of the year as planned.

The Republican representatives, three Cuban-Americans representing Miami: Lincoln Diaz-Balart, his brother Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Connie Mack of Fort Myers, also suggested another option to help the immigrants should the provision not be issued. They want a program similar to the Nicaraguan Review Program of 1987, which effectively halted the majority of Nicaraguan deportations while all cases were reviewed by the Justice Department. The White House has only used the deferred enforced departure provision on four occasions and it "is considered extraordinary relief and it's not given lightly", said Crystal Williams, deputy director for programs for the American Immigration Lawyers. The US ambassador to Venezuela, William Brownfield, warned that enacting the provision "is quite complicated and serious", but refused to say whether he thought it would get the support of Congress and the White House in Washington.

TRADE
Two Democrats in the House of Representatives presented a petition on 27 March requesting that Free Trade Agreements with Peru, Colombia and Panama should be revised to protect workers and the environment, and guarantee access to generic drugs for patients in those countries. Charles Rangel, the head of the House Committee on Ways and Means, and Sander Levin, the president of the Subcommittee on Trade, did not mention "renegotiation" of the agreement, which the Peruvian trade minister, Mercedes Aráoz, explicitly rejected, but the two congressmen are suggesting some fundamental changes to the document. Aráoz said, "We could speak about adding something supplementary in a linked document, but what we cannot accept is insulting our congress, which already approved the agreement."

The main controversy centres around labour provisions in the document; it currently states that signatory countries should respect their own labour laws, whatever they may be. However, Rangel and Levin are demanding that the agreement binds all signatories, including the US, to the five laws set out by the International Labour Organisation (ILO); the prohibition of child labour, slavery and discrimination, and the right to form associations and trade unions. This is attracting criticism because the US has not yet signed all the ILO treaties, and some Republicans claim the Democrats are using the FTA as an excuse to ensure that it does so. Rangel and Levin also want to add a clause which would protect US ports, following the revelation that the company Dubai Ports World has a concession to operate a container terminal in Lima. John Murtha, a Democrat representative for Pennsylvania, expressed his fear that the FTA with Peru would allow the company to invest in the US.

5 April 2007

05 April 2007 Hits: 83

BRAZIL: Bush-Lula "friendship" flourishes

BRAZIL: Differences over how to deal with Iran

HAITI: Haitians get support in plea to stay in US

HUMAN RIGHTS: US arrests 3 accused of human rights violations

LEGAL: Suits brought against US companies by foreign workers

BRAZIL
President George W Bush received his Brazilian counterpart, Lula da Silva, at Camp David on 31 March. This was the second meeting between the two leaders in less than a month. According to the White House, the US government is eager to "explore ways to deepen the US-Brazil relationship" and to "work together to strengthen democracy and international economic cooperation and to develop alternative energy sources". Indeed, when Bush went to Brazil on 9 March the governments signed a cooperation agreement to promote ethanol. The second meeting, however, focused mainly on trade talks, especially the Doha Round of global trade liberalisation. Bush told reporters after his meeting with Lula that "it is in the US interest [to] complete the Doha Round successfully" and that his government is "willing to reduce agricultural subsidies in a substantial way".

However, Bush continued saying that the US "expects its goods and services to be given access to markets". This signals that both Bush and Lula agreed on the terms to reach an agreement before 30 June, when Bush's special powers of negotiation granted by congress expire. Lula left the meeting "with lots of optimism" despite coming back "empty-handed" regarding two crucial issues still dividing the two countries: the US tariff on Brazilian-produced ethanol and reform in the UN security council. Brazil is campaigning for a permanent seat, but the US government is not so keen on the idea.

BRAZIL
The US and Brazilian governments do not see eye-to-eye with regards to doing business with Iran. During a press conference after a meeting with Brazil's President, Lula da Silva, President George W Bush said he hoped that other countries "would be careful in dealing with Iran, particularly since Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon". This was his answer to a journalist's question about the recently announced agreement signed by Petrobras, Brazil's state-controlled oil company, to drill and refine oil in Iran. Lula said that, "we have no political differences with them, so we will continue to work together with Iran on what is in the interest of Brazil". Bush agreed that Lula "articulated a sovereign decision" and that the deal with Petrobras "is not in violation of any UN mandate" against Iran.

HAITI
A group of 101 Haitians who landed on Hallandale Beach, Florida on 28 March are receiving support from Episcopal Church leaders and Haitian community activists, who are urging that the immigrants get temporary immigration status, as well as the other Haitians already in the state. The clergy pointed out the discrepancy between the treatment of Cuban and Haitian immigrants. Haitians are not eligible for temporary protected status which delays deportations and allows immigrants to gain workers permits. While Cubans who are seized at sea are sent back to Cuba, they are allowed to apply for residency if they reach US soil. The protestors gathered in South Florida on 3 April to demand that the Haitians, 14 of whom are minors, are not deported back to a country where its people are, according to the bishops, suffering far more than in any other island in the Caribbean. The Haitians have been assigned attorneys for their asylum pleas.

HUMAN RIGHTS
Immigration agents from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have arrested three South American military officers accused of war crimes, who were living as fugitives in the US. The arrests were announced on 2 April and are considered by Washington the most significant arrests since the creation of a human rights unit early last year. The ICE was forced to improve its proficiency after several embarrassments resulting from human rights violators from around the globe escaping to the US and living undetected.

The suspects include Ernesto Guillermo Barreiro, a retired Argentine army general accused of serving as the chief interrogator at a secret torture facility during Argentina's Dirty War, which lasted from 1976 to 1983. The other two, Telmo Ricardo Hurtado and Juan Manuel Rivera, are former Peruvian army officers suspected of participating in the Accomarca massacre in 1985, in which 96 villagers were tortured, raped and killed. All three face deportation and charges of violating US immigration laws. Barreiro fled Argentina in 2004 and settled in Virginia, where he was eventually discovered when he was arrested for visa fraud. Hurtado, who was living in Miami, was also arrested for visa fraud, while Rivera was picked up in Baltimore on immigration charges. Hurtado and Rivera face deportation to Peru, where they will be handed over to local authorities and face charges for their part in the Accomarca massacre.

LEGAL
About a dozen cases, pitting foreign workers against the US companies that employ them, have emerged thanks to the help of a law passed in 1789, the Alien Tort Statute, which allows citizens of foreign countries to sue in US courts for actions that violate human rights. The law was not commonly used until the 1980s, when activists invoked it to sue foreign military officials accused of repression. It has just recently gained renewed popularity as activists and labour unions combine efforts to sue US companies for the oppression of workers in Latin America. Cases include an ongoing suit against Geo W. Drummond Ltd. of Alabama in which the company's subsidiary in Colombia is accused of paying death squads to kill labour leaders.

Another lawsuit is aimed against Del Monte, which is being sued by five Guatemalan union officials who allege that the Miami corporation's subsidy hired armed men to kidnap them and force them to quit their jobs on a banana farm. The State Department weighed in on the issue on 3 April with an advisory letter to a judge presiding over one of the cases. The letter indicated the sentiment that the 1789 law was being abused and never intended for such use, and that the suits could interfere with US diplomacy and foreign policy because foreign countries might interpret them as a sign that the US lacks confidence in foreign justice systems. The groups bringing lawsuits against US companies claim it is their only chance at a fair trial. Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, believes the suits might provoke the eventual shutdown of foreign US operations, which would be detrimental for workers seeking employment at the US companies who tend to have higher pay.

12 April 2007

12 April 2007 Hits: 208

COLOMBIA: Drug traffickers extradited to US

CUBA: US frees anti-Castro terrorist

IMMIGRATION: Bush stresses need for reform

BOLIVIA: New front in coca eradication

POLICY: US secretary of state defends US role in Latin America

COLOMBIA
On 9 April the government of Colombia authorised the extradition of nine Colombians to the US. Of these, five were sent to Florida -Jackson Orozco Gil, Herney Moncayo Velez, Deguis David Romero Acosta, Leyner Valencia Espinosa and John Jairo Moreno Betancourt. Two men, Olario Mitchel Palacio and Nelson Arias Valencia, were sent to New York, while courts in Washington D.C. were granted their requests for the extradition of Sergio Rene de Martini Tamayo and Danilo Castaneda Lancheros. More than 530 people have been extradited from Colombia in the last five years.

CUBA
On 10 April, in his third newspaper article in three weeks, Fidel Castro denounced the US for releasing on bail Luis Posada Carriles. Posada is an anti-Castro militant who was involved with terror plots against Cuba and in the bombing of an airliner. Texas federal court judge Kathleen Cordone ordered Posada's release on 6 April, but Fidel claimed that the order "could only have originated in the White House', in his article titled: Brutal Response.

Posada escaped from a Venezuelan prison in the 1980s after being convicted of bombing a Cuban airliner in 1976 in which all 73 passengers on board were killed. Also, in 2002 he was convicted in Panama for attempting to murder Fidel. Significantly, he was pardoned four years later by a Panamanian president closely allied with the US.

Fidel, who ceded power to his brother Raul on 31 July 2006, stated in his column that the White House was "covering up at every turn the criminal and terrorist character" of Posada by only charging him with a minor immigration violation rather than deporting him. If Posada was to be deported, he could face extradition back to Venezuela.

IMMIGRATION
On 9 April, while visiting a newly-built outpost along the border between Mexico and Arizona, US President George W Bush said he thought the current atmosphere in the Democratic-dominated congress was favourable for passing a new immigration bill. Bush's past attempts at passing reform bills were prevented by dissidents in his own party. Bush wants the reform before the start of the 2008 presidential election campaigns, when achieving a bi-partisan consensus is still possible. Bush stated that he hoped "Congress can pass a comprehensive bill and I can sign it into law this year."Bush visited the border to check on new surveillance technology and the reinforced border fence. Bush stated that the number of people caught illegally crossing the border is down by almost 30% from last year.

BOLIVIA
On 9 April Bolivian officials launched a cooperative programme, funded by the US, to reduce the illegal coca production in a traditional coca-growing region of the Andean foothills previously ignored by past governments. US-backed eradication teams were sent into the Yungas, northeast of the capital La Paz at the behest of President Evo Morales, who wants to restrict coca growing in the region. Yungas now has 45,700 acres of coca plantations, over 50% more than the 30,000 allowed by a 1988 Bolivian law. In 2006, Bolivian eradication programmes paid for by the US in 2006 destroyed 12,350 acres of coca, the majority of which were in Chapare. Past US-backed eradication programs have also sparked violence and led to fatal confrontations between coca farmers and soldiers.

POLICY
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave a speech on 10 April defending US policies in Latin America and assured the public that the US would continue pursuing agendas as it sees fit, despite criticisms and "negative agendas" from leftist opponents in Latin America. Notably, Rice stayed true to Bush's habit of not mentioning the US's fiercest rival, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, by name. Rice referenced Bush's visit to Latin America last month and cited examples of US commitments to health and education as evidence of the US's positive impact in the region. She also indicated that the US had amicable relations with some left-leaning governments, such as those of Brazil and Chile. Rice stated that Bush was willing to work with governments "wherever they come from on the political spectrum, as long as they respect democratic elections and values."

19 April 2007

20 April 2007 Hits: 85

REGION: Visa notes record spending

HONDURAS: Protection status may be extended

ENERGY: US praises energy summit in Venezuela

CUBA: Posada Carriles stays in jail

MEXICO: EU official speaks out against border fence

REGION
The company Visa International registered point-of-sale purchases of US$110bn in Latin America in 2006, a rise of 33% on 2005. The president of the Miami-based Latin American section of the company, Eduardo Eraña, said that the increase "reflects a greater consumer demand, as well as a growing acceptance of business." The growth was largely fuelled by debit cards, the use of which has increased by 34% on last year. Credit card purchases increased by 32% on 2005, to US$73bn in 2006.

HONDURAS
The US government is studying the possibility of extending the Temporary Protection Status (TPS) for Honduran immigrants, according to the Honduran ambassador to Washington, Roberto Flores Bermúdez. Some 78,000 Honduran nationals are allowed to live illegally in the US under the TPS which was granted in 1999 as a form of aid to Honduras after it was hit by Hurricane Mitch. The TPS has been renewed annually since then. Remittances from the estimated 1m Hondurans living in the US reached US$2.4bn last year. According to the US government, on average an undocumented Honduran national arrives in the US every 15 minutes. Those who are not protected under the TPS are repatriated on planes or buses by the US Immigration Service. Between January and April this year it has deported 7,300 Hondurans.

ENERGY
The US ambassador to Venezuela, William Brownfield, said he thought the 1st South American Energy Summit held in Isla Margarita, Venezuela, on 16-17 April was an "important idea". Brownfield told journalists that US President George W. Bush considered the meeting a positive step, because it allowed the region's governments to discuss future energy supplies, such as ethanol. In March Brazil and the US signed an agreement to promote the production of ethanol, an energy source which Cuban President Fidel Castro has described as "genocidal" for its potential to drive up world food prices. Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez has also condemned the technology for the same reasons. After extensive debate at the energy summit, however, Brazil managed to get a reference to the "potential of biofuels" into the final declaration. Chávez , speaking after the conference, said that although Brazil's sugar-based ethanol had a future, the US's corn-based variety would be a disaster.

CUBA
On 17 April an appeals court denied a US government motion to keep Luis Posada Carriles, an anti-Castro militant accused of blowing up a Cuban airliner, in jail on immigration charges but at the time of going to press he had still not been released. The US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in favour of Posada Carriles, who is wanted in Cuba and Venezuela for the 1976 bombing, was issued without explanation. It raised the possibility of Posada Carriles going free on bail before his May trial on immigration fraud charges. US prosecutors were considering whether to fight to keep Posada Carriles, a 79-year-old former CIA operative, incarcerated on the immigration case. Posada Carriles, a Cuban-born Venezuelan national, has been in US custody since May 2005 after he entered the country illegally and was indicted in January on charges he lied to immigration officials.

MEXICO
At a news conference on 17 April in Mexico City, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana stated his disapproval of the 680 miles of fence being built on the border of the US and Mexico, a measure that has recently been implemented after President George W Bush signed the bill in October 2006. Solana stated that the fence was unnecessary and that immigrants should be treated "like people, not like criminals." Solana spoke collectively for the EU when he said, "A wall that separates one country from another is not something that I like or that the European Union members like." Mexico, after objecting to the border fence bill but failing to halt its construction, continues to lobby for immigration reform that would allow more Mexican citizens to enter the US legally.

26 April 2007

27 April 2007 Hits: 73

COLOMBIA: US ambassador's reassuring words

MEXICO: Americans warned not to travel

PERU: García's second trip to Washington

SECURITY: Anti-gang convention

COLOMBIA
The spokesman for the US embassy in Bogotá, Marshall Louis, announced on 23 April that "nothing has changed" in the US's relations with Colombia. Louis's assurances might be correct from the perspective of the US executive: US President George W Bush still views Uribe as a key ally in the region and wants to keep military aid at its current level. What has changed, however, is that Bush's Republican Party no longer controls Congress as of last November's mid-term elections, and the new legislative majority, the opposition Democratic Party, is far less sympathetic to Uribe.

Former vice-president Al Gore's very public refusal last week to appear at an environmental conference at which Uribe was attending is only the most obvious evidence of the Democrats' antipathy towards the Colombian president. Uribe will have to work very hard to win the Democrats around during his three-day visit to the US next week (2-4 May) if he is to secure congressional support for the bilateral free-trade agreement between Colombia and the US and for continued military aid.

MEXICO
The US state department issued a travel advisory on 19 April, warning Americans that it may be unsafe to travel to certain parts of Mexico, causing uproar from Mexican politicians who deny the claim that tourists are unsafe in the country. Deputies Edgar Olvera, of the governing Partido Acción Nacional, and Evodio Velásquez, of the opposition Partido de la Revolución Democrática, said on 21 April that the recent murders are drug and gang related and do not target civilians or tourists. Velásquez also stated the US warning against travel would have serious consequences on Mexico's economy. He called on federal, state and municipal governments to ally and form a common front against organised crime in order to prevent a further decrease in tourism to key cities like Acapulco and Monterrey.

The US warning to travellers comes after a surge in drug-related killings. Often bodies have threats against government officials and their families attached with ice picks. The US state department singled out certain areas for tourists to avoid in Mexico, including Nuevo León, especially Monterrey where at least 53 people have been killed so far this year; Tamaulipas and the popular resort destination, Acapulco. The State Department's announcement acknowledged that violence is mainly between drug traffickers, but it warned that foreigners could also be at risk. The US ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza stated, "We ask US citizens to exercise all due caution while in Mexico and remain vigilant for any situation that could become dangerous."

PERU
Two items dominated President Alan García's trip to Washington on 23-24 April: the stalled free trade deal with the US and Peru's anti-drugs policy. After their meeting President George W Bush said, "The President [of Peru] is here to urge the Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, to pass the free trade agreement with Peru, and I urge them to vote yes." García scheduled meetings during his trip with two of the most prominent Democrat opponents of the FTA: Charles Rangel (New York) and Sander Levin (Michigan).

Rangel is chairman of the House Ways and Means committee while Levin is chairman of the Ways and Means's trade subcommittee. García told reporters after the meeting that the congressmen agreed that substantial changes should not be made to the text of the FTA, an option that García opposes because it would mean the agreement needs re-ratification by the Peruvian congress. García said that he was open to changing some of the language of the agreement, in accordance with the congressmen's wishes. In the same press conference Rangel said, "We need to find language that will be compatible for both political parties." The Democrats are worried that the FTA is lacking sufficient worker protection and environmental provisions.

SECURITY
Police chiefs from Central America and Mexico attended the third annual anti-gang convention in El Salvador on 24 April to discuss strategies for tackling crime with specialists from the FBI and members of the Los Angeles police force. The convention follows an agreement between President Felipe Calderón of Mexico, Oscar Berger of Guatemala and Manuel Zelaya of Honduras to establish a common policy for improving security against the estimated 20,000 gang members in Central America, and to pool intelligence about the gangs.

10 May 2007

10 May 2007 Hits: 69

FREE TRADE: Gloomy outlook for FTAs

HAITI: Préval heads to Washington

IMMIGRATION: LA police chief sacked

REGION: Negroponte begins four-nation tour

FREE TRADE
Academics and think tank experts in the US doubt that the US congress will approve a free trade agreement with Panama, Perú and Colombia. Several spoke at a seminar organised by the OAS on 8 May. Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said that the US was profoundly divided over free trade. He claimed that free trade agreements had delivered benefits worth 20 times their costs to the US but US governments had failed miserably to help the losers or to convince the population in general of the deals' benefits. Grant Aldonas, who was deputy commerce secretary between 2001 and 2005 and is now at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, claimed that divisions in the Democrat party were too great.

HAITI
On 8 May President René Préval made his first visit to Washington since taking power last year. US President George W Bush was full of praise for his Haitian counterpart, crediting him with having brought "prosperity and security" to Haiti. Préval arrived with the aim of securing further US investment in his country and better protection for undocumented Haitian migrants. According to sources cited by The Miami Herald newspaper, during their meeting Bush chided Préval for his pragmatic policy of trying to attract aid from Venezuela, and reminded him that the US delivered more reliably on its promises than other donors. Préval also met a number of members of Congress; Charles Rangel, the New York Democrat who heads the powerful Ways and Means Committee is pushing for an expansion of special trade preferences for Haiti's textile sector.

IMMIGRATION
On 8 May, Antonio Villaraigosa, the Hispanic mayor of Los Angeles, demoted two of the senior police officers involved in the heavy-handed policing of the peaceful demonstration by migrants in MacArthur Park on 1 May. Over 300 non-lethal rounds were fired at the demonstrators by riot police. Cayler Lee Carter Jr., who was head of central police operations, was demoted from the rank of the deputy police chief to commander. He had previously been considered an untouchable since he had headed the high profile internal affairs unit. He has also headed the anti-drugs unit and the anti-riot police. The other officer demoted was Louis Gray, a commander. He was moved to a less important job. A further 60 police officers were sent for retraining.

REGION
The US Deputy Secretary of State, John Negroponte, arrived in Colombia on 8 May on the first leg of a visit which will also take in Ecuador, Panama and Peru. The choice of countries is interesting as all are currently seeking a free trade agreement with the US, except for Ecuador. The Colombian visit, where Negroponte restated his government's commitment to ratifying the free trade deal and praised bilateral ties between the two countries, was undoubtedly less difficult for Negroponte than his stay in Ecuador. He was greeted without much enthusiasm in Quito on 9 May because of the decision by the US Southern Command to move the headquarters of the Unitas naval exercises from Ecuador to Florida. While the US's aim for the trip is to prise Ecuador away from Venezuela's sphere of influence, Ecuador's main objective will be the extension of the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (Atpdea).

17 May 2007

17 May 2007 Hits: 77

FOREIGN POLICY: Negroponte trip bolsters free traders

IMMIGRATION: Insulza criticises wall

MEXICO: Congress deems Mexican trucks too unsafe to cross border

PANAMA CANAL: Peters pleasantly surprised by canal work

URUGUAY: FBI to collaborate with investigations

FOREIGN POLICY
John Negroponte, the US Deputy Secretary of State, ended his four-country tour of the region on 11 May in Panama. Trade issues dominated his trip, his first as Deputy Secretary, which coincided with concessions by President George W Bush to the Democrat-controlled congress (on labour rights and environmental issues) that should at least increase the number of Democrats in congress who will vote in favour of free trade agreements with Panama and Peru. The bigger and more important free trade agreements with Colombia and South Korea are still unpopular with Democrats. Negroponte's tour took in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru before ending in Panama. Besides trade issues, Negroponte spent considerable time puncturing rumours that the US Southern Command would replace its forward Operating Location in Manta, Ecuador, with a base either in Panama or Peru.

IMMIGRATION
José Miguel Insulza, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, said on 14 May that the wall the US is building along its border with Mexico was “not an adequate response to immigration." He said that as long as Latin America economies failed to provide the jobs people need, there would be emigration to the US. He argued that the best policy would be for the US to boost the economies in Latin America while simultaneously admitting that it also needed a workforce from Latin America. On 15 May the US Senate decided to delay its long awaited debate on immigration for a couple of months to allow more time for negotiations between senators and the administration over an immigration deal. Also on 15 May, the US National Guard started to scale back its deployment along the Mexican border.

MEXICO
President Bush's plan to fully open the US border to Mexican trucks has stalled, after the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to restrict access to 100 Mexican-based trucking companies for the next three years and introduce legislation that would require the Mexican trucks to meet high health and safety standards. A spokesman from the Mexican government considered the move disappointing in the light of Nafta, the free trade area established in 1994 between Mexico, the US and Canada. "The decision today by the House of Representatives raises questions about the commitment of most of its members to comply with international trade obligations," said Rafael Laveaga, communication director at the Mexican Embassy in Washington.

PANAMA CANAL
The US Transportation Secretary, Mary Peters, visited Panama on 7 and 8 May to inspect plans for the expansion of the canal. She was clearly impressed by the way the Panamanian government is setting about the expansion project. This was her first visit to Panama but, she said, “not her last." She said that she was impressed by the security at the ports at both ends of the canal. The US handed over control of the canal to Panama at the end of 1999.

URUGUAY
The governments of the US and Uruguay signed an agreement on 11 May that will allow the FBI to help the Uruguayan police with crime-solving. In particular, the FBI will collaborate on cases which require DNA testing. The Uruguayan interior minister, Daisy Tourné, said that using the technology would be a great help in investigating crime, "especially crimes involving sexual violence." The Uruguayan police will now have access to an FBI computer programme called Codis which facilitates DNA testing. Tourné added, "We are going to send personnel to the US so that they can familiarise themselves with the programme and the idea is to put it into practice as soon as possible in Uruguay, because it will be a very useful tool."

24 May 2007

24 May 2007 Hits: 71

New Page 1

BOLIVIA: US pressure leads to cabinet change

CUBA: US fines Scottish oil company for violating embargo

IMMIGRATION: Senate starts debate on immigration bill

BOLIVIA
Washington's displeasure with Bolivia's progress in the war on drugs is likely to be behind President Evo Morales's decision to change things around in his cabinet, replacing the vice-minister for coca, Félix Barra, with another coca leader, Gerónimo Meneses. The US ambassador to Bolivia, Philip Goldberg, has made several pointed comments in the last few weeks, saying on 22 May that "at the moment there is plenty of coca available in Bolivia that can be turned into drugs." Bolivia particularly needs to co-operate in the US's war on drugs so that the US Congress will extend Atpdea, the trade preferences act that expires on 30 June.

CUBA
The US government fined PSL Energy Services, a well connected energy services company which was recently acquired by Halliburton, for breaking the restrictions on doing business in Cuba. PSL paid a fine of US$164,006, the US Office of Foreign assets Control reported on 22 May. PSL is based in Scotland and in 2004 exported equipment to Cuba in contravention of the US embargo. It is not clear whether the fine was paid before PSL was bought by Halliburton in April or afterwards.

IMMIGRATION
The US Senate started debating the bi-partisan immigration reform bill on 21 May. Almost the first act was to reject a Democratic party proposal to drop the provisions for 400,000 two-year guest worker visas to be issued every year. This proposal looks unworkable: guest workers will not be allowed consecutive visas, but will have to return home for a year before reapplying. The Democrats argue, correctly in our view, that the guest worker scheme will create an underclass of cheap labourers.

The outlook for the bill is uncertain. A majority of senators appear to believe that they can turn the bill into something acceptable to the House of Representatives and the administration. Whether they can do it before political attention shifts to next year's elections is far from clear.

31 May 2007

31 May 2007 Hits: 70

CUBA: Increasing trade with US

ECUADOR: Stepping up Atpdea lobbying

IMMIGRATION: US public approve of legalising migrants

VENEZUELA: US mildly criticises RCTV shutdown

CUBA
On 28 May 265 US businessmen and five members of the US Congress arrived in Havana for a three-day conference with Cuban officials about exporting food to the island. Contracts worth US$100m were up for grabs. Pedro Alvarez, the head of the state-run company Alimport, hosted the conference. He welcomed participants, saying that "Today Cuba constitutes the main new potential market for the US", but recognised the difficulties that US businesses have in exporting their goods to Cuba. Although an amendment made by the US congress in 2000 means that foodstuffs are excluded from the economic embargo, the US government still imposes a number of restrictions and erects red tape for those exporting to the island. In 2006, Cuba bought US$570m worth of food from the US, including maize, rice, beans, soy, fruit, frozen poultry and eggs.

ECUADOR
The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, agreed to meet Ecuador's foreign minister, María Fernanda Espinosa, on 4 June when they are both in Panama for an OAS meeting. Espinosa is pushing for an extension to the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (Atpdea). The Atpdea, which was passed in the 1990s to help Andean countries export manufactured and agricultural goods to the US, expired at the end of 2006, though the US government has granted a further six months to Ecuador. Ecuador is also sending a mission to lobby in Washington for the extension of Atpdea. This will be headed by Mauricio Dávalos, the coordinating minister for economic policy. He will be accompanied by groups that benefit from the Atpdea. The Ecuadorean government is also launching a media campaign aimed at demonstrating to the US how many industries in Ecuador benefit from the Atpdea.

IMMIGRATION
According to an opinion poll published by the New York Times, conducted in partnership with CBS, 67% of US citizens are in favour of legalizing the 12m or so illegal immigrants currently living in the country. Significantly, 66% of respondents seem to be in favour of a temporary work programme for foreigners. President George W Bush declared last week that illegal immigrants “should acknowledge that they broke the law, pay a fine and prove they have permanent work" to be granted permanent residency in the US. Several congressmen, from right and left, however, are against this plan. They say that the government's plans to grant residency to illegal immigrants is nothing but “undeserved amnesty" and that it will foment more illegal immigration. Indeed, the White House suffered a defeat last week after congressmen decided to halve the 400,000 temporary work-visas granted to manual workers. Congress also voted to increase the number of guards patrolling US borders and authorise the building of barriers along the Mexican border.

VENEZUELA
The State Department's deputy spokesman, Tom Casey, issued a relatively mild statement on the decision by the Venezuelan government to refuse to extend RCTV's broadcasting licence. “The United States," Casey said on 29 May, “joins the expressions of concern made by the international community about the May 27th closure of RCTV, Venezuela's only independent television network with nationwide broadcast coverage. We join with many other organizations from the European Union to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to private NGOs in speaking on this subject. Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right and it's an essential element of democracy anywhere in the world. And we'd certainly call on the Government of Venezuela to abide by its commitments under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Inter-American Democratic Charter and to reverse these policies that they're pursuing to limit freedom of expression."

The State Department's press corps ignored the statement, preferring to quiz Casey about Russian missiles and the Middle East.

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