Washington Watch

Items

• 01 June 2005

  01 June 2005 Hits: 76

  IRAQ: Mexico has third-largest number of dead

  NICARAGUA: Former congressman warns against Ortega

  MEXICO: Two traffickers extradited for exploiting deaf people

  VENEZUELA: Bush meets Sumate leader

  CAFTA: One of Bush's top priorities

  IRAQ
  Mexico is the country with the third-largest number of dead from the war in Iraq, even though it has committed no troops. Figures from the US Defense Department show that up until 22 March 2005, 22 Mexican nationals had been killed while serving with the US army. Only the US and Britain have suffered higher casualties. The US Defense Department revealed on 22 May that 66 foreign nationals had been killed while serving with US forces in Iraq. The total coalition death toll in Iraq, to 19 May, was 1,806. Of these 1,627 were US service personnel and 88 were British. Mexican sources say that 33,000 Mexicans are serving with the US forces. Non-Governmental Organizations say that the Mexican death toll is higher, because the US figures do not include Mexicans born in the US and Mexicans who have already qualified for US citizenship. If these are included, more Mexicans have been killed in Iraq than British personnel. Guerrero Azteca (Aztec Fighter, a NGO founded after the first Mexican, Jesús Suárez, was killed in Iraq), reckon that 93 Mexicans have been killed in Iraq. Altogether 206 Hispanics have been killed there.

  NICARAGUA
  On a trip to Nicaragua, Cass Ballenger, a former Republican congressman, said that if Daniel Ortega was elected president in 2006 relations between the US and Nicaragua would become as bad as they are now between the US and Venezuela. Currently the US provides aid worth about US$100m a year to Nicaragua. In addition the US Millennium Challenge Fund also provides US$195m. Ballenger, who comes from North Carolina, said that the US had a problem with both major parties in Nicaragua. Both the Sandinistas (Ortega's party) and the Partido Liberal Constitucionalista (whose dominant faction is controlled by the jailed former president, Arnoldo Alemán) are run by caudillos (strongmen). Ballenger said the US would prefer any other Sandinista to Ortega. Ballenger is one of the few US politicians to have friendly relations with Chávez : he has entertained Chávez at his home in Hickory, North Carolina.

  MEXICO
  Mexico extradited two people found guilty of trafficking Mexican deaf people. The deaf people were made to sell cheap stuff on the streets of New York. The business, apparently, provided the traffickers with an income of US$1m a year. The two people to be extradited are José Paoletti Moreda and his son, Renato Paoletti Lemus. The case against them started in 1997 when two deaf people went to the US police with interpreters to explain what had happened to them.

  VENEZUELA
  President Bush met a prominent opponent of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez at the White House on 31 May. Maria Corina Machado, a founder of Sumate, a citizens rights organization, helped promote the August 2004 referendum against Chavez and still faces a possible jail term of up to 16 years; she is free pending a preliminary hearing June 10. Prior to the referendum Sumate received a grant from the US Congress-funded National Endowment for Democracy, which Chávez says was a US government attempt to topple him. Speaking to reporters after the meeting,

  Machado said, "[Bush] said that he, as well as many other leaders around the world, is very worried about the information regarding the violations on the part of Venezuelan government to the democratic principles and to the Venezuelan constitution." Bush's show of support for the opposition came days after the US angered Chávez by rejecting Venezuela's initial efforts to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile with Venezuelan citizenship wanted for a 1976 airliner bombing that killed 73 people. On 26 May the supreme court president, Omar Mora Dí­az, intending to travel to Washington to request Posada Carriles's extradition, had his US visa suspended.

  CAFTA
  On 31 May President Bush listed passing CAFTA, the Central American and Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement, among his top four legislative priorities for this year. The others are passing an energy bill and a federal spending plan, and overhauling Social Security. "This agreement is a good deal for American workers and farmers and small businesses," Bush said of CAFTA. "We'll lower barriers in key sectors like textiles, which will make American manufacturers more profitable and competitive in the global market and keep jobs here in America."

  So far, Bush lacks enough votes in the Republican-controlled Congress to pass the trade agreement. Democrats, as well as the sugar and textile industries, argue that the pact would cause US job losses. To drum up support, Bush is linking CAFTA to both national security and his larger push for global democracy, arguing that prosperous, democratic nations are peaceful ones.

• 08 June 2005

  08 June 2005 Hits: 67

  NEW YORK: Bloomberg worries about Hispanic challenger

  OAS: 'Florida Declaration' snubs US proposals

  TOURISM: Caribbean stands to lose out over passport rule

  NICARAGUA: US backs Bolaños

  CARIBBEAN: Rice meets regional leaders to discuss Haiti

  NEW YORK
  The mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, is concerned about the challenge of a Hispanic, Fernando Ferrer. Ferrer is the likely Democratic challenger to Bloomberg in this year's election. In 2001, Bloomberg scooped 47% of the Hispanic vote. Ferrer is of Puerto Rican extraction. Bloomberg is learning Spanish and is setting up a Spanish website to pitch to voters from Dominican Republic, who, Bloomberg aides say, are disenchanted with Ferrer. Bloomberg himself has made several visits to the Dominican Republic and on 4 June he dined with the country's president, Leonel Fernández. The latest opinion polls show that Bloomberg would beat Ferrer, but not Ferrer's main Democratic challenger, Virginia Fields. Ferrer is well ahead of Fields in the race for the Democratic nomination.

  On 17 May, Antonio Villaraigosa, 52, won the election for mayor of Los Angeles on Villaraigosa is the first Hispanic to hold a mayorship in the state of California since 1872. Villaraigosa, who was supported by the former Democratic Party presidential candidate, John Kerry, beat the incumbent, Jim Hahn. Los Angeles, the US's second-biggest city, is now 46% Hispanic. New York is still the country's biggest city.

  OAS
  The general assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) closed at midnight on 6 June with proclamations of good intentions, but little promise of action. The summit at Fort Lauderdale resulted in the 'Florida Declaration', which committed the 34 member organisation to the principals of non-intervention and national self-determination. The result was a blow to the US, which had lobbied hard for the OAS to take a more 'preventative' role in dealing with crises. Despite the entreaties of both US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President George W. Bush, the "Aladi Group", comprising Mexico, South America and the Caribbean, managed to get its vision for the hemisphere, one which concentrated more on social and economic development, approved.

  This setback to US ambitions follows its failure to get either its first or second choice candidate elected to the position of secretary-general. During this week's negotiations, which began on 5 June, the US had advocated that the OAS "ought to face up to crises" and ought to employ "preventative" measures to deal with deterioration in democracy in one of its member states. Neither of these phrases was adopted in the final text. What remained of the US's proposals referred to the organisation's plans for "balanced, gradual and efficient cooperation initiatives to confront situations which could affect the development of democratic, institutional politics or the legitimate exercise of power".

  TOURISM
  On 4 June a summit of Caribbean tourism officials in New York concluded that the region could lose up to US$2.6bn annually if a new rule requiring US citizens to carry passports when travelling to the Caribbean comes into effect. Tourism accounts for 14.8% of the Caribbean's GDP and generates 15.5% of the region's jobs. The rule, proposed to go into effect from 1 January 2006, requires US citizens to have a passport to re-enter the US from the non-US territories of the Caribbean. At present only 15% of Americans hold passports; those travelling to the Caribbean only need to show proof of citizenship. The requirement is part of more stringent US border controls by the Department of Homeland Security.

  NICARAGUA
  The US has cancelled the visas of the new director of the Superintendencia de Servicios Públicos (Sisep), the Liberal deputy Ví­ctor Guerrero; and the head of the Consejo Supremo Electoral, the Liberal judge José Marenco, for alleged corruption. The US has come down firmly on the side of President Enrique Bolaños in his institutional struggle with the opposition-dominated national assembly, which made the appointments. Bolaños accuses the assembly, controlled by the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) and Partido Liberal Constitucionalista (PLC), of breaking the terms of the agreement under which he agreed to hold a national dialogue by setting up the Sisep and appointing its head and the regulators for the electricity, water and telecommunications sectors, as well as the representative of the consumers. He said that the national dialogue stipulated that these appointments would only be made by consensus.

  CARIBBEAN
  US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Caribbean foreign ministers on 6 June in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Top of the agenda was Haiti; suspended from Caricom since shortly after the rebellion that ousted former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004. Caricom irked the US then by refusing to recognise the interim government of Prime Minister Gérard Latortue. Rice said that she was very concerned by the security situation in Haiti in the run-up to elections in November this year. "I know we had some differences about the Aristide period," Rice said, "but I think Caricom has a responsibility to care about the Haitian people and to help them get to these democratic elections". "Everybody agrees the common ground on that issue (Haiti) is there has to be engagement," Fred Mitchell, the Bahamas foreign minister and head of the Caricom's foreign minister council, said. Caricom ministers said they were committed to finding a solution to Haiti's problems. Both sides agreed to hold a conference on the future of the Caribbean in the near future.

• 15 June 2005

  15 June 2005 Hits: 74

  TERRORISM: Posada Carriles's bail hearing set

  HAITI: Justice ministers quits following US criticism

  CAFTA: Senate Finance Committee begins debate

  PARAGUAY: No immunity for US military personnel

  MILITARY ACADEMIES: Application numbers down

  MEXICO: Fox asks for help from US

  TERRORISM
  Posada Carriles's bail hearing set On 13 June a US immigration court decided to continue to detain Luis Posada Carriles, the Cuban-born Venezuelan accused of terrorism, while it examines his case. Posada Carriles, accused by Cuba and Venezuela of masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner, faces charges of entering the US illegally. In a court hearing in the Texan city of El Paso, where Posada Carriles was sent following his detention in Miami in May, judge William Lee Abbott set the date for his bail hearing for 24 June and the date of his trial for 29 August. As well as pleading for bail, Eduardo Soto, Posada Carriles's lawyer, asked the judge to grant his client political asylum and move the case to Florida. Soto said that as his office was in Miami, it would be very expensive for his client to pay the costs for him to travel out to El Paso. The prosecuting attorney argued that as Posada Carriles was accused of crossing illegally from Mexico into Texas the hearing should be held in that state. The prosecutor also argued that Posada Carriles should not be given political asylum because he had renounced his US citizenship in 1962, when he left the country to work for the Venezuelan secret police.

  HAITI
  Ten Democratic legislators presented US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with a signed letter describing Haiti's interim government as "an instrument of repression," on 10 June. "Although the unelected interim government was supposed to be composed of non-political technocrats, it has proven itself to be as fiercely partisan as previous Haitian regimes," they wrote. They said that the judicial system had become highly politicised and was clearly targeting supporters of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide while ignoring the rebels that overthrew Aristide in February 2004. They called on Rice to put pressure on the interim government to replace the justice minister, Bernard Gousse. "Put simply, his attitude and his actions have actually increased Haiti's instability and have guaranteed that Haiti will remain volatile even after elections," they said. On 14 June Gousse handed his letter of resignation to the interim prime minister, Gérard Latortue. The US ambassador to Haiti, James Foley, moved quickly to deny that the timing of Gousse's departure had anything to do with US influence. "This is not the way the US government acts in Haiti," Foley said to local radio. "We are not trying to dictate (to the interim government)," he added.

  CAFTA
  The Senate Finance Committee began debating the Central American free trade agreement (DR-Cafta) on 14 June; in a preliminary, non-binding vote they endorsed the agreement 11-9. The Bush administration is determined to push Cafta through Congress but it is coming up against strong opposition from Democratic congressmen and cannot rely completely on Republican backing. The House Democratic Whip, Steny Hoyer, said that "substantially" less than 20 Democrats would vote for Cafta. As things stand only four Democrats have endorsed Cafta. He said that Cafta would fail "unless the Republicans are more unified than they are today". One of the reasons for the lack of support for Cafta is the perceived failure of the North American free trade agreement (Nafta), upon which Cafta is closely modelled. However, the US Trade Representative, Rob Portman, claimed that Cafta was "light-years ahead of Nafta". He said that the main criticism of Cafta -that it has poor labour laws - was inaccurate. Cafta, he said, is "the best trade agreement ever negotiated by the United States on labor rights_ If a country fails to enforce its labor laws, DR-Cafta provides for heavy fines, up to US$15m per year, per occurrence," he said.

  PARAGUAY
  The Paraguayan foreign minister, Leila Rachid, said on 14 June that US military personnel on exercises in Paraguay did not enjoy absolute immunity from prosecution. She said that the terms that congress had agreed in May were similar to the legal protections offered to embassy personnel and other nationals on missions in a foreign country. She pointed out that only the heads of mission enjoyed absolute immunity from prosecution. She claimed that Paraguay was standing together with the rest of the Mercosur in upholding the International Criminal Court and the Statute of Rome which regulates it. The US is deeply unhappy with the ICC which, it fears, could lead to US military personnel on operational duty being prosecuted for war crimes.

  MILITARY ACADEMIES
  Applications to the three US military academies (West Point, for the army, Annapolis for the navy and Colorado Springs for the air force) are down this year. This is the first time they have fallen since the 11 September attacks on the US in 2001. The three academies train officers. The biggest fall is in applications to the air force academy. These are down by 23%. Annapolis applications are down by 22% and West Point applications are down by 9%. Colonel Michael Jones, West Point's head of admissions, said on 14 June that the 9/11 attacks had generated a wave of applications but the memory of the attacks was now fading. Commentators say that the armed forces' reputation has taken knocks in Afghanistan and Iraq.

  MEXICO
  On 14 June Mexico asked the US for help to deal with the drug-related violence along the border. President Fox's spokesman, Rubén Aguilar, claimed that Mexico was not solely responsible for the killings, which have been taking place predominantly on the Mexican side of the border. Aguilar said that the weapons the drug gangs used in Mexico came from the US: "No one can close their eyes to that," he said. The Mexican government started an operation, Secure Mexico, on 11 June. The focus of this operation is the border town of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, where over 65 people have been killed in drug-related violence this year alone. One of the first moves in Secure Mexico was an investigation into all 724 policemen employed by Nuevo Laredo. The federal authorities have found evidence that they have links to drug gangs. Already 41 municipal policemen have been brought to Mexico City for further investigation after they opened fire on a detachment of federal agents sent to the town.

• 22 June 2005

  22 June 2005 Hits: 74

  PANAMA: 15 countries to participate in 'anti-terror' exercises

  DRUGS: DEA's 'Operation Mallorca' a success

  GUATEMALA: Plan Colombia mooted for Guatemala

  ECUADOR: Craddock pays a visit

  CUBA: US businessmen seek to boost flagging sales

  PANAMA
  The armed forces of 15 countries will take part in the Panamax exercises 2005 organised by the US Southern Command for the middle of August. The exercises will consist of joint naval "anti-terror" exercises around the Panama Canal. The armed forces of Argentina, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, the US and Panama will participate while Costa Rica, El Salvador, France and Uruguay will attend as observers. Only three countries participated in 2003; nine countries took part in 2004. Previous exercises have taken place in and around the Panama Canal, coordinating air, naval and land patrols into layers of defences around the waterway. The outer layer included a multinational naval force operating in international waters that could monitor and intercept suspicious vessels.

  DRUGS
  The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) celebrated the success of a major operation to crack down on drug trafficking from Colombia. DEA Administrator Karen Tandy said that Operation Mallorca, a 27-month investigation that targeted the alleged money-laundering activities of four Colombian-based money brokers who channelled drug proceeds through the Colombian Black Market Peso Exchange (BMPE), had resulted in the arrests of 36 people in two countries and the confiscation of US$7.2m, 947 kg of cocaine, 7 kg of heroin, and 21,650lbs of marijuana. "The DEA is targeting the financial networks of drug cartels like never before to bankrupt traffickers and money launderers," Tandy said. "In Operation Mallorca, we followed the money around the globe and into the hands of major Colombian drug traffickers. We've shown the Black Market Peso Exchange for what it is - the largest known drug money laundering mechanism in the Western Hemisphere." Tandy travelled this week to Panama to meet President Martí­n Torrijos to discuss cooperation in combating drug trafficking.

  GUATEMALA
  The US is considering a request from the Guatemalan government to provide the country with its own small version of Plan Colombia to assist it in its fight against drug-trafficking. The interior minister, Carlos Vielmann, said that Guatemala did not have the resources to deal with the problem alone. Vielmann said that US gifts of vehicles and equipment were insufficient. He said that the government wanted the US to commit agents to the ground to work with Guatemalan security teams to capture drug traffickers.

  ECUADOR
  General Bantz J. Craddock, head of the US Southern Command, paid a visit to Ecuador on 20-21 June. This was his second trip to the country since taking up the post in November 2004 and his first since the overthrow of Lucio Gutiérrez. The general gave a press conference with Ecuadorean defence minister Solón Espinosa in which he emphasised the important role the controversial Manta airbase played in the fight against drug-trafficking and guerrilla insurgency in Colombia. Craddock also apologised on behalf of the military last year for the sinking of Ecuadorean boats, suspected of carrying drugs. On the subject of the International Criminal Court he was more circumspect. The US has conditioned its military aid to Ecuador on its refusal to accept the ICC's jurisdiction over US soldiers actions in the Latin American country; Ecuador has so far refused.

  CUBA
  A delegation of US businessmen who work in agriculture will meet today (22 June) in Havana with directors from the Cuban ministry that controls agricultural imports, Alimport, in order to discuss how to boost their sales on the island. Between January and April 2005 sales were down 25% on the same period of the year before. The aim of the US businessmen “is to develop commercial ties and work in favour of eliminating the restrictions which have been put on them by the US government," Pedro Alvarez, the president of Alimport, said. Since 2001, when Washington authorised the sale of food and agricultural products to Cuba, the island has bought US$1.3bn worth of US merchandise.

• 29 June 2005

  29 June 2005 Hits: 78

  CAFTA: Congress to vote on free trade deal

  COLOMBIA: Rumsfeld welcomes Uribe to discuss Plan Colombia

  NICARAGUA: US pressures government to destroy SAM-7s

  PARAGUAY: Senate votes to allow US soldiers into country

  GUATEMALA: US Treasury to help crack down on money laundering

  VENEZUELA: US companies to attend trade fair

  CAFTA
  President George Bush made a last-ditch effort last week to persuade congress to back the Central American free trade agreement (Cafta). "These small nations are making big and brave commitments, and America must continue to support them," he said. The US Senate Finance Committee began its debate on Cafta on 28 June but will not vote on it until today (29 June) at the earliest. This reduces the likelihood of either the full Senate or the House of Representatives considering Cafta before legislators take a week's holiday to celebrate Independence Day on 4 July. The Finance Committee approved a draft version of the Cafta bill earlier this month by a vote of 11-9.

  COLOMBIA
  The US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, met his Colombian counterpart, Jorge Alberto Uribe, on 27 June to discuss the progress of Plan Colombia. The meeting followed an attack by the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia on a Colombian army outpost on the border with Ecuador which left 19 soldiers dead; the highest military death toll from a single Farc action since Alvaro Uribe became president. Nevertheless officials at the Pentagon appeared full of praise for Colombia's efforts to combat drug trafficking and guerrilla insurgency. President George W. Bush has asked congress for another US$463m to finance Plan Colombia in 2006; the US has contributed US$3bn to the campaign since 2003.

  NICARAGUA
  The US has begun pressurising the Nicaraguan government again to destroy its stockpile of SAM-7 missiles for fear that they could fall into the hands of terrorists. The Acting Assistant Secretary of State, Rose Likins, blamed the opposition Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) for sabotaging the efforts of the Bolaños administration to destroy the missiles. "President Enrique Bolaños and the armed forces are in agreement that the country does not need this type of weapon," Likins said. This is not strictly accurate. Bolaños and the armed forces are in agreement that a further 651 Sam-7 missiles should be destroyed (1,300 Sam-7's have already been destroyed) but they both want to hold on to the 400 missiles which would then be remaining, equivalent to 20% of the original stockpile, for defence purposes.

  PARAGUAY
  On 28 June the Paraguayan senate voted to allow the US army to carry out military manoeuvres in the country up until September 2006. In May the senate voted to accept the US request that its soldiers be immune from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for any actions committed on Paraguayan soil. Senators defended themselves against outraged human rights groups by claiming that the immunity offered to the soldiers was no different to that granted to diplomatic personnel.

  GUATEMALA
  An official from the US Treasury Department will aid Guatemala investigators in a large-scale search for laundered money in the country. The Guatemalan authorities are seeking more intelligence to determine the amount of money laundering going on, but they estimate that the illegal activity has risen by 400% in the last five years. "We do not have a sufficient level of information in that subject," said the U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala, John Hamilton. "A good step would be to establish a method of action."

  VENEZUELA
  The government of Venezuela has announced that 212 US companies will participate in a trade fair in Caracas on 30 June to 1 July. The purpose of their visit is to increase and diversify bilateral commerce between the two countries. Of the US$14bn worth of bilateral trade in 2004, oil accounted for US$11.5bn. The Venezuelan Minister of Light Industry, Edmee Betancourt, is emphasizing the need for increased trade in other industries, such as plastics, metals and health products. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez welcomed the event as a time to "work and produce together" with the United States, but criticised Washington for "failing to understand us."

• 06 July 2005

  06 July 2005 Hits: 70

  BRAZIL: US belatedly eliminates cotton subsidies

  MEXICO: Post office withdraws 'racist' stamp

  HAITI: US holds back on sending troops

  CUBA: Head of US Interests Section attacks Castro

  COLOMBIA: Uribe defends Peace & Justice bill

  BRAZIL
  On 5 July the White House asked the US congress to eliminate agriculture subsidies to cotton exporters, after Brazilian authorities complained that such subsidies are illegal under a World Trade Organization ruling. "We are being fully responsive to the WTO decision," US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said on 5 July. In retaliation against the US's failure to remove the subsidies by the 1 July deadline, Brazil will go ahead and ask the WTO for the right to impose sanctions on selected US imports. Brazil's government estimates its cotton farmers have lost more than US$600m because of the US measures. The World Bank has calculated that subsidies paid to US cotton farmers, as well as support to Chinese and European growers, clipped world prices by as much as 15%.

  MEXICO
  In response to US outrage at the 'racist stereotype' perpetuated by the circulation of Memí­n Piguí­n stamps, the Mexican post office has decided to stop printing them. The commemoration of the 60-year old comic strip character, Mimí­n Piguí­n, a black schoolboy, attracted opprobrium from NGOs, The Washington Post and The New York Times before coming to the attention of the White House. After saying that this was "an internal issue for Mexico", White House spokesman Scott McLellan went on to state: "Racial stereotypes are offensive no matter what their origin. The Mexican government needs to take this into account." Although the Mexican embassy in Washington responded hastily that Mexico had never taken umbrage with the character of Speedy Gonzalez, the post office has now decided to withdraw the stamp from circulation, meaning those already printed will become collectors' items.

  HAITI
  The US State Department appears, for the time being at least, to have ruled out sending troops to Haiti to assist the UN stabilisation force, Minustah, in the run-up to elections in November. A State Department spokesman said on 30 June that Minustah needed to adopt a more "robust response_targeting those violent actors who are creating the instability in Haiti". The spokesman went on: "It is essential that the [UN] secretary-general work with troops and police contributors to safeguard the electoral process, particularly ongoing voter registration and campaigning." The US has expressed mounting concern at the parlous state of security in Haiti. During an Independence Day speech delivered at the US Embassy, US Ambassador James Foley said "Today in Haiti they are burning houses, they are burning stores, they are attacking means of transportation and communication links. They are kidnapping people of all social classes. They are assassinating, torturing and raping. All of this has a name: The use of violence against civilians for political purposes is the very definition of terrorism." He did not specify who he felt was to blame. "There are certainly criminal and shadowy elements who have aligned with the political masterminds and whose participation only makes the political aims all the more illegitimate. But, for the most part, we know what is involved and who is involved."

  CUBA
  The head of the US Interests Section in Cuba, James Cason, delivered a stinging indictment of the government of Fidel Castro during his Independence Day speech at his official residence. "The system cannot go on for much longer. Everybody knows how inoperable it is and how it is maintained by the force of one dominant figure. And this figure is on his last legs," Cason said. "Change is inevitable," he said. Cason also responded to criticism that he has deliberately sought to provoke Castro during his three-year stint in Cuba: "Is it provocative to point out that Cubans live under one of the most repressive regimes in the world? Is it provocative to remind western journalists of Cuba's 300 political prisoners? Nothing will come - indeed, in almost 47 years nothing has come - from being polite to a dictator," he said. "If we thought that keeping quiet would bring about political reforms, we would be quiet. If we thought that lifting the US embargo would result in a democratic Cuba, we would have 747s full of Americans on the tarmac tomorrow," he added. Cason certainly was not keeping quiet. After his speech, a three-story-high metal sculpture of the Statue of Liberty was unveiled. It was illuminated by blue electrical lights and held a torch with yellow bulbs forming the number "75" - the number of political dissidents rounded up during the last crackdown in March 2003.

  COLOMBIA
  On 5 July President Alvaro Uribe responded angrily to a New York Times editorial entitled "Colombia's Capitulation" in which the newspaper criticised the Colombian government for drafting a law that would benefit "mass murderers, terrorists and major cocaine traffickers". Uribe attacked the Times saying it published "bad information". He went on to defend his administration saying that more than 10,000 members of illegal armed groups have handed in their weapons since he took office in 2002. Luis Carlos Restrepo, the president's peace advisor, also remarked on the editorial, saying it "is not objective and says things that don't comply with reality". The new "Justice and Peace Law" blocks the extradition of paramilitary leaders wanted for trafficking drugs to the US, and places time limits on prosecutions. A Colombian official has said he would send a letter to the editor to clarify and defend the new legislation, but as of 6 July no letter has been published.

• 13 July 2005

  13 July 2005 Hits: 63

  MEXICO: More nationals on US training courses

  CRIME: Mexican 'Robin Hood' caught in Los Angeles

  TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: FBI agents arrive to investigate explosion

  CUBA: Government rebuffs US offer of aid after hurricane Dennis

  DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: SouthCom conduct security assessment along border

  MEXICO
  The number of Mexicans on US anti-terrorism and anti-drug trafficking training courses almost doubled between 2003 and 2004. In 2003 there were 484 Mexicans on the US course; in 2004 there were 866. The figures come from the US State Department's annual report: Military training of foreigners. The US gave most anti-terrorism training to people from Afghanistan (584 in all), Colombians came second (542) and Mexicans third (233). The figures cover training both in the US and in home countries. One innovation in 2004 was the training of 77 officials from the Procuradurí­a General de la República in anti-drug trafficking techniques. This was done at Lackland, Texas. Previously only military personnel had been allowed on these courses.

  CRIME
  Alfredo Rí­os Galeana, a man sought for decades by Mexican authorities for his involvement in a series of homicides, robberies and kidnappings, was arrested by US immigration authorities on 12 June at his home in Los Angeles, after a lead by the US Transportation Department. He lived there under the name "Arturo Vargas" since the last of his three escapes from prison in 1986, with the aid of eight armed commandos who blew a whole in one of the prison's walls with a hand grenade. Authorities have confirmed his identity by matching his fingerprints to those on record with the Mexican police - despite surgical alterations to his face to conceal his identity. US federal agents will escort Rí­os to Mexico City, where he was previously convicted under serious criminal charges. The 56-year-old ex-police officer was known for his notorious crimes in the 1970s and 1980s, and many called him the "Robin Hood of thieves".

  TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
  FBI agents arrived in Port-of-Spain on 12 July to help local police investigate a bomb blast that injured 14 people on 11 July. The bomb had been placed in an iron dustbin in the downtown part of the Trinidadian capital, a few blocks away from parliament. Although nobody was killed, two of the injured remain in a critical condition and one woman had to have her leg amputated. Police vigilance has increased since the explosion and there have been a number of false bomb threats. The leader of the opposition, Basdeo Panday, criticised the prime minister, Patrick Manning, for failing to take the threat of terrorism seriously.

  CUBA
  The Cuban government rebuffed an offer of humanitarian assistance made by the US in the wake of hurricane Dennis on 10 July. The offer was conveyed by the US Interests Section to the Cuban foreign ministry. President Fidel Castro rejected US$50,000 in aid from the US and the deployment of an assessment team to determine what relief supplies are needed. "If they offered us a billion dollars, we would say no," he said. The US State Department said it is providing funding to various humanitarian organisations that currently have a license to operate in Cuba. At least 16 people were killed in Cuba as Dennis passed through and thousands more were left without water or electricity.

  DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
  Military advisors from the US Southern Command are conducting a security assessment of the 380km border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Invited by the government of President Leonel Fernández, the advisors arrived in the Dominican Republic on 11 July and will stay for nearly two weeks. They were taken in a helicopter along some of the border accompanied by the armed forces minister, Admiral Sigfrido Pared Pérez, and the US ambassador, Hans Hertell, on 11 July. The government asked the head of the Southern Command, General Bantz J. Craddock, to send a team of security advisers to take a look at the border and offer advice on ways to control it. It said that drug trafficking and terrorist penetration were problems. No mention was made of the main cause of friction between the Dominican Republic and Haiti: Haitian immigrants.

• 20 July 2005

  20 July 2005 Hits: 68

  BOLIVIA: US promises to back whoever wins elections

  EL SALVADOR: Controversy over International Law Enforcement Agency

  MEXICO: New York laboratory to help in Ciudad Juárez

  VENEZUELA: US stresses business relationship

  PANAMA: Report on canal widening warns of increased tolls

  BOLIVIA
  The US will support the next government of Bolivia even if Evo Morales, the leader of the coca growers and likely presidential candidate for the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), wins the elections, the US under secretary of state for the Andean region, Charles Shapiro, said during a two-day visit to the country on 19 July. He did not repeat the mistake of US ambassador Manuel Rocha who, in 2002, incensed Bolivia's body politic by suggesting voters boycott Morales. Morales went on to finish second in the elections. Shapiro confined himself to recommending the use of the ballot box rather than violence. “_the most important thing is that the elections reflect the will of the Bolivian people," Shapiro said. Morales still accused him of meddling in Bolivia's political domestic affairs. Shapiro met President Eduardo Rodrí­guez. He expressed his concern at the increase in coca cultivation in Bolivia. “This is a problem for Bolivians and it is a problem for the US as well as the world's main consumer of cocaine," Shapiro said.

  EL SALVADOR
  The decision by the government of President Tony Saca to agree to the establishment of an International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in San Salvador has triggered a fiery response from the opposition Frente Farabundo Martí­ para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) which sees it as signing over the country's national sovereignty. Carlos Castañeda, a deputy for the FMLN, said that he thought the ILEA would become a substitute for the discredited School of the Americas, which taught counterinsurgency techniques, psychological operations, and intelligence gathering to some of the repressive regimes in Latin America in the 1970s and 80s. He also said that Costa Rica rejected the establishment of the ILEA on home soil in 2003. The interior minister, René Figueroa, said that that politicians should not see the presence of the ILEA as “a political or ideological fact but rather as a way of combating organised crime". The ILEA would be located in the national police academy in La Comalapa, he said. The director of ILEA, Hobart Henson, said that it would empower the police to combat drug trafficking, money laundering, terrorism and arms trafficking. The FBI is also in talks to establish in San Salvador a liaison office which will focus on the gangs problem.

  MEXICO
  A New York-based laboratory which identified some of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks will carry out genetic tests on some of the corpses of the women killed in Ciudad Juárez. The public prosecutor's office in the state of Chihuahua, where the city is located, announced on 19 July that the Bode Technology Group will carry out DNA tests to try to identify the women. Over 400 women have been killed in Ciudad Juarez over the past eleven years; with many of the cases left unsolved and many of the victims yet to be identified. Hiring the Bode Technology Group will cost around US$400,000, which will be paid for by the state of Chihuahua, the US government, the Swiss government and the Argentine Team of Forensic Anthropology.

  VENEZUELA
  According to Charles Shapiro, the US under secretary of state for the Andean region, the US has no intention of “taking anything" from Venezuela, “least of all its oil". The comments of the former ambassador to Venezuela followed a speech by President Hugo Chávez to the 16th meeting of the Andean group in which he exhorted his counterparts in the region to form PetroAndina, a local energy ring which would help break the economic dominance of the US. “We don't want to take oil or anything else from Venezuela," Shapiro said, “We're business partners." Shapiro pointed out that there was a significant amount of US investment in Venezuela and that the US was “a very sure consumer" of Venezuelan products.

  PANAMA
  Some 200 US investors flew to Panama on 18 July to explore a possible expansion of the canal, just days after an international economic consultancy firm, Global Insight, concluded that a widening of the canal would lead to steep toll rises. The Panama Canal Authority, which is studying the possibility of expansion and is expected to release a report in the coming months, has denied any claims by Global Insight, calling the study a "baseless analysis". The firm says that with a current average toll of US$170,000 - almost as much as the longer Suez canal which connects the Mediterranean to the Red Sea - a sharp increase in tolls would lead to transport companies finding alternative routes. These alternative routes include rail transport from the US Pacific coast to the east coast, or shipments via the Suez canal, but traffic in these areas are already high. Transit fees would have to start increasing by at least 5.8% a year annually between 2008 and 2029 to meet the estimated US$7bn cost of new locks and canal widening, according to the study. An average of 43 container ships cross the 80km-long canal every day, providing Panama with an annual income of US$700m from tolls.

• 27 July 2005

  27 July 2005 Hits: 61

  COCA: US warning over increase in drug taking

  NICARAGUA: Noriega frets over possible Sandinista victory

  MEXICO: Garza calls for tougher border security

  CAFTA: House of Representatives to vote on free-trade deal

  POSADA: US judges denies Posada Carriles bail

  COCA
  The US embassy in La Paz issued a warning on 26 July arguing that the legal cultivation of coca was encouraging an increase in drug taking in the country. The country has 12,000 hectares on which coca can be grown legally for traditional and ritual use. The UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reckons that Bolivia has 27,700h of coca plantations. The issue of legal coca is likely to become acute in the run-up to the elections, due in December. The interim government is still promising to complete and publish a report on the legal coca market to help policymakers decide what would be an appropriate acreage. As part of the deal, made in October 2004, the coca-growers in Chapare agreed to cut their legal acreage to 3,200h. There are probably over 10,000h of illegal coca plantations in Chapare. The US statement, from the senior anti-drugs official in the country, Carol Fuller, suggested that 12,000h was more than sufficient to meet local needs. The US ambassador, David Greenlee, argued that there had been a dramatic increase in drug consumption in Bolivia. He said that there were no longer producers and transit countries, but drug-consuming countries. Bolivia is the smallest of the three main Andean coca-growing countries: it probably produces 107t of cocaine a year compared with 190t in Peru and 390t in Colombia. The UN reckons that world demand for cocaine is running at 1,000t a year.

  NICARAGUA
  The US is starting to fret about the opposition Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) winning the presidential elections in 2006. Roger Noriega, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, said as much during an interview with the Nicaraguan daily La Prensa on 21 July. "We will do everything we can to provide alternatives so that Nicaraguans can choose the government they deserve, and the country doesn't end managed by Cuba or subsidised by Venezuela," Noriega said. He added that he was sending his new charges d'affairs, Oliver Garza, to Nicaragua to pressure the Partido Liberal Constitucionalista (PLC) to unite to stop the FSLN from coming to power and "underline to some of our friends in the Liberal movement that they must choose if they want to be friends or enemies of the United States". Garza arrived in Managua on 22 July. Significantly, in light of the release of former president and PLC leader Arnoldo Alemán from house arrest days later on 25 July, Noriega emphasised that the US would have nothing to do with some Liberals that had chosen "corruption and short-term interest" (in reference to those pushing for Alemán's release) and those that had demonstrated their willingness to "conspire with the Sandinistas to prevent the SAM-7s from being destroyed, thus apparently showing that they do not appreciate relations with the United States". The leader of the FSLN, Daniel Ortega, said on 26 July that Alemán's release was part of a US ploy to stop the FSLN from winning the elections. The US embassy responded by accusing the FSLN of cynicism; blaming the US in order to cover up its own involvement in Aléman's release..

  MEXICO
  The US ambassador to Mexico, Tony Garza, said on 26 July that Mexico needed to do a lot more to safeguard and improve the security along the border between the US and Mexico. He praised the México Seguro operation, which began on 11 June, but also noted that more than 100 people had been killed in Mexico's border states [where México Seguro was focused] since June. The Mexican press and politicians seized on his criticism and called for more action. The foreign ministry issued a statement pointing out that Garza had said that Mexico had designed a strategy to deal with the threat by organised crime and was implementing it diligently. But the foreign ministry went on to argue that the problem straddled the border and both governments had a joint responsibility to address the issue. .

  CAFTA
  The United States House of Representatives is expected to vote this week on whether to approve the Bush-supported Central American Free Trade Agreement, which would also include the Dominican Republic. If the vote is positive it could mean the US is closer to approving a Free Trade Area of the Americas which was first proposed by the President George Bush Snr. The US commerce secretary, Carlos Gutiérrez, said Cafta would open the Central American market to US products, strengthen security and create more economic opportunities for the region. The Senate already approved the bill with a 54-45 vote on 30 June. US textiles and sugar-producing sectors are against the bill's passage because of fears that Central American producers will dominate the market in the US. Democrat activists are also concerned about low-wage labour and workers' rights in Central American countries. A White House spokesman said "It is important that we support these young emerging democracies in Central America as they advance to establishing institutions of a lasting democracy." Nevertheless the trade pact has proven to be the most controversial one in several years.

  POSADA
  On 26 July a US immigration judge denied bail to Luis Posada Carriles, who entered the country through Mexico and is asking for political asylum. The 77-year-old Cuban-born militant was involved in the failed CIA-backed Bay of Pigs operation and more recently stands accused of planning the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner which killed 73 people. A judge in El Paso, Texas denied Posada bail on grounds that an investigation into whether his role at the Bay of Pigs invasion was a terrorist act is pending. Posada's lawyers were "surprised" at the ruling, saying if Posada is found to have been engaged in terrorist activity then the entire CIA operation would be considered a terrorist act. Meanwhile, Venezuela has formally requested Posada's extradition but the US has said it would not extradite him to a country which could in turn send him to Cuba. Moreover, Posada was already acquitted twice in Venezuela under the same charges.

• 3 August 2005

  03 August 2005 Hits: 74

  CAFTA: House of Representatives approves bill

  CUBA: US appoints "transition coordinator"

  HONDURAS: 13-year old kills DEA officer

  NOREIGA: Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere quits

  MEXICO: US closes down consulate in Nuevo Laredo

  CAFTA
  On 28 July the House of Representatives approved the Central American Free Trade Agreement (Cafta-DR) with a 217 to 215 vote, narrowly avoiding a political embarrassment for President Bush. Democrats strongly opposed to the bill said labour rights in Central American countries are not adequate and Cafta-DR could lead towards exploitation of workers in the region. Supporters argued that the bill would make it easier for Americans to invest in the region and that larger quantities of US fabric and material would be sold to Central America for clothing manufacturing, even though the US textiles industry says it will suffer job losses. Bush's principal argument - which seemed to sway some Republicans - was that Cafta-DR is in the interest of national security. The agreement, first passed by the senate in June, was signed into law by Bush on 2 August. It has also been ratified by El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, while Costa Rica, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic have up to two years to ratify it.

  CUBA
  The US appointed a “transition coordinator", who will develop a plan for democracy in Cuba to prepare for the passing of Fidel Castro. Caleb McCarry, a veteran congressional staff expert on Latin America, was appointed last week to the new post, which was first mooted a year ago by a commission headed by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell. The official Communist mouthpiece in Cuba, Granma, said in an editorial that the US president “once again meddles in a rude manner in the internal affairs of Cuba by naming one of his men to publicly coordinate subversive actions against the island". Castro has said that after his death, leadership will pass to his brother Raúl, and that Cuba already went through a transition in 1959 and doesn't need another one.

  HONDURAS
  A 13-year-old Honduran youth, Erlan Fabricio ''El Siniestro'' Colindres, was accused of killing a US Drug Enforcement Administration agent, Michael Timothy Markey on 29 July while he was visiting the Basilica of Our Lady of Suyapa dedicated to Honduras's patron saint near Tegucigalpa. Colindres, who has escaped from a juvenile correction centre three times before, said that he intended escaping to go on a killing spree. “I won't be here much longer," he told Honduran radio. “I will escape to kill all of the journalists." Colindres belongs to Mara 18, one of the main two mara gangs, which originated in Chicago in 1952. In the last 5 years, 12 US citizens have been murdered in similar circumstances, according to official statistics. Markey was in Honduras to train police involved in counter-drug activities.

  NORIEGA
  Roger Noriega, the US Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere announced on 29 July that he would leave his post in September for the private sector. He has been a cackhanded chief US policymaker for the region and it is worth noting that the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, did not publicly regret his decision to leave. US foreign policy towards countries as disparate as Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela has exasperated even its supporters. Noriega is likely to be replaced by a career State department official, Thomas Shannon, who is an Andean specialist. The State Department stressed that the changes in personnel did not represent a change in policy. The State Department said on 2 August that it has put forward a very positive policy for Latin America. In particular, there would be no change in US policy towards Venezuela.

  MEXICO
  The US decision to shut its consulate in Nuevo Laredo for a week from 1 August prompted the Mexican government to rethink its México Seguro programme. On 2 August President Vicente Fox told his security chief, Ramón Martí­n Huerta, to beef up México Seguro. It is not yet clear what new policies the Mexican government envisages. The US ambassador to Mexico, Tony Garza, said on 29 July that the security situation in Nuevo Laredo was now so bad that his government had to take stock of whether it was safe for people to use the consulate. So far this year 107 people have been murdered in Nuevo Laredo and 41 of those have been killed since México Seguro started on 11 July. Garza announced the shutting down of the consulate after a firefight between two drug gangs, who used grenade launchers and assault rifles on 28 July. Garza has been concerned about the security situation in border states for some time. On 26 July he said that Mexico needed to do a lot more to safeguard and improve the security along the border between the US and Mexico.

• 10 August 2005

  10 August 2005 Hits: 70

  INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE REPORT: Growth fails to ease problems

  MEXICO: US reopens Nuevo Laredo consulate

  VENEZUELA: State Department labels accusations against DEA "unfounded"

  BELIZE: US signs reciprocal ship boarding agreement

  HAITI: US to provide arms to police

  INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE REPORT
  The influential US think tank, Inter-American Dialogue, released a report on economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2004. It says that most economies in Latin America resumed a “healthy pace of growth in 2004" although it tempers this optimism by pointing out that not only does history suggest that “too many of Latin America's economic booms have turned into busts for anyone to predict with confidence that the region is on a permanent course of growth" but also “the economic rebound (has) not eased the political turmoil or moderated the social tensions affecting many of the region's countries." While the report says that democracy has shown “remarkable resilience" across the region it severely criticises Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez for having “eliminated most checks on his power and stifled the activities of opposition groups" to the extent that Venezuela “hardly qualifies as a democracy". The same, it argues, goes for Haiti, which “may not yet be a failed state, but it is perilously close". It singles out Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua for possessing many of the features of a functioning democracy and constitutional order, which are nonetheless compromised by “weak institutions, fractious politics and deep social divisions". The report classifies relations between the US and Latin America as “faltering". The reasons it cites for this are the stalled Free Trade Area of the Americas (although it hails the recent ratification of the Central American Free Trade Agreement); the lack of an inter-American agenda despite four presidential summit meetings since 1994, and disagreements over the role of the Organization of American States (OAS) regarding the definition of democracy, elections and human rights. It concludes that “the Bush administration has not yet demonstrated either the interest or capability to pursue a longer-term cooperative policy in the Americas that would mobilize the support of Latin American nations and help buttress democracy and economic progress in the region."

  MEXICO
  On 8 August the US reopened its consulate in the border town of Nuevo Laredo, after a week's closure prompted by an increase in violence as rival drug gangs fought for control of the city. Mexican indignation at the decision was followed by high-level meetings between President Vicente Fox and his security team in a tacit admission of the limited success of México Seguro, the plan to crack down on crime in the border states. Nuevo Laredo, in the state of Taumaulipas, a town of 350,000 just over the border from Laredo, Texas, has become one of the principal stopover places for drugs travelling north to the US. The city is at the centre of a dispute between the Gulf cartel, headed by the incarcerated Osiel Cárdenas, and the Sinaloa cartel, led by Joaquí­n 'El Chapo' Guzmán. By 3 August 107 people had been murdered in Nuevo Laredo in 2005 and 41 of those had been killed since México Seguro, which is supposed to crackdown on violence in Taumaulipas, Sinaloa and Baja California, started on 11 July. The US consul in Nuevo Laredo, Michael Yoder said that he hoped the consulate would not have to close again, but admitted it was a possibility. Hours after it opened a 17-year old boy was killed in a drive-by shooting.

  VENEZUELA
  On 8 August the US described as "unfounded" Venezuelan accusations of spying levelled at agents of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) operating in the country. Responding to President Hugo Chávez 's accusations the State Department Spokesman Adam Ereli said there was "no substance or justification" to the reports. Ereli described Chávez 's decision to break off anti-drug operations with the US as "genuinely sad" and said the only people who would benefit from such a decision were drug-traffickers. Ereli went on to say that Venezuela's fight against drug trafficking appeared to have tailed off over the past few months as its government had failed to apply measures against money laundering, exchange information on illegal flights and shipping and pass any anti-drugs laws.

  BELIZE
  The US signed a reciprocal ship-boarding agreement with Belize on 4 August. Belize became the sixth country to sign such an agreement with the US after Liberia, Panama, the Marshall Islands, Croatia and Cyprus. The aim of the agreement is to combat the transport of weapons of mass destruction. The State Department said it established points of contact and procedures for boarding and searching ships flying the US or Belizean flag in international waters. The accords are part of the Proliferation Security Initiative launched in May 2003.

  HAITI
  Even though a 1991 embargo forbids it, the US said on 5 August it will provide police in Haiti with a US$1.9m shipment of 3,000 handguns, several hundred rifles and tear gas. The US ambassador to Haiti, James Foley, said the additional arms will help police fight against militants ahead of elections in October. Human rights groups, however, say the police are corrupt and responsible for unjustified killings. Foley said: "Given the state of insecurity in the country, the attempts to create chaos, we had to do our best to protect the people from the forces of insecurity and criminality." Critics have warned that a rise in instability could delay elections which are meant to replace the interim government. Last year the US provided the Haitian National Police with 2,600 used firearms

• 17 August 2005

  17 August 2005 Hits: 81

  VENEZUELA: US threatens to withdraw drugs 'certification'

  COLOMBIA: Farc arms buyer sent to prison

  MEXICO: US praises Mexico Seguro, defends travel warning

  RUMSFELD: Defense secretary visits Paraguay

  EL SALVADOR: Fifth batch of troops sent to Iraq

  ARGENTINA: US offers help to tackle money-laudering

  VENEZUELA
  In response to President Hugo Chávez 's decision to sever all contact with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the State Department has warned Venezuela that it will factor this move into the US Congress's certification of governments which cooperate with the US International Narcotics Control Act. The law requires that US government assistance be withheld to countries which have not been fully “certified". The State Department's International Narcotics Control Strategy Report for 2005 said that a “remote and poorly secured 2,200 km border is all that separates Venezuela from Colombia - the world's primary source of cocaine and South America's top producer of heroin". Colombian cartels and other smugglers routinely exploit a variety of routes and methods to move hundreds of tons of illegal drugs into Venezuela every year," the report said.

  COLOMBIA
  A US district court judge in Tampa, Florida, has sentenced a Colombian arms dealer to 25 years in prison for providing support to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc). Carlos Gamarra-Murillo, a native of Bucaramanga, Colombia, was sentenced to jail for attempting to purchase over 1,000 machine guns, rifles, grenades, grenade launchers and pistols for the Farc. The negotiated deal specified 15,000kg of cocaine would comprise 60% of the payment for the weapons, with the balance to be paid in US currency.

  MEXICO
  The State Department praised the efforts of Mexico in tackling organised crime in the border area at the same time as justifying the travel alerts issued to US citizens because of the recent upsurge of violence. Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said that the Mexican government had taken significant steps to deal with the crime wave in its México Seguro operation. McCormack was also quizzed about the decision by the governors of New Mexico and Arizona to declare a state of emergency. The decision has freed funds to beef up security along the border area and has been interpreted as a criticism of the federal government's passivity in confronting illegal immigration. Although McCormack said the governors had taken steps that they considered necessary to protect their citizens, he added that the department of national security was leading the efforts to patrol the border.

  RUMSFELD
  The US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Asunción on 16 August for a meeting with Paraguay's president, Nicanor Duarte. Rumsfeld's trip prompted further (ill-founded) media speculation that the US is thinking of setting up a military base at Mariscal Estigarribia near the Mennonite Colonies in the Paraguayan Chaco. Rumsfeld and Duarte confined themselves to discussing the presence of US troops in Paraguay: between 300 and 400 members of the US armed forces are scheduled to arrive in Paraguay over the course of the next 16 months to train Paraguayan troops in anti-terrorist operations and to assist in anti-poverty initiatives. Rumsfeld cancelled a scheduled visit to Uruguay, providing further evidence that ties between Washington and Montevideo have grown more distant since the left-leaning president, Tabaré Vázquez, came to power.

  EL SALVADOR
  The government has sent a fifth contingent of troops to Iraq. The dispatch of the troops shows once again that El Salvador is the staunchest ally of the US in Latin America. El Salvador is the only Latin American country with troops still stationed in Iraq. The fifth contingent, from the Cuscatlán IV Battalion, is made up of 380 troops. It will relieve the fourth contingent that was sent to Iraq in February on 21 August. Douglas Barclay, the US ambassador to El Salvador, praised the government of President Tony Saca. “The United States supports the deployment of the 5th contingent and so does the coalition in Iraq, because it shows the commitment of El Salvador to world peace and the combat against terrorism," he said.

  ARGENTINA
  The US has offered Argentina assistance to help it adopt measures to prevent money-laundering and the financing of terrorism, Daniel Glaser, the US undersecretary of the Treasury said this week after meeting members of the Argentine Senate foreign relations committee. The US and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an independent body set up to combat money laundering whose secretariat is housed at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) headquarters in Paris, are pressurising Argentina to enhance legislation to tackle money laundering. The Argentine Senate is currently considering an anti-terrorism law, approved recently by the chamber of deputies. Argentina is one of only three Latin American countries to belong to the FATF. The others are Brazil and Mexico.

• 24 August 2005

  24 August 2005 Hits: 67

  COLOMBIA: US attorney general visits to discuss extraditions

  MEXICO: Garza set for the long term

  MARA THREAT: US steps up anti-gang measures

  PERU: Rumsfeld pays a visit

  VENEZUELA: Televangelist calls for Chávez's assassination

  COLOMBIA
  The US attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, visited Colombia on 23 August to discuss the extradition of Colombians to the US. He met Colombian President Alvaro Uribe for an hour and then two supreme court magistrates, including the president, Marina Pulido, to try to agree the terms under which Colombians could be extradited to the US. The US congress has approved a bill under which the US government has to stop financial aid to countries that forbid the extradition of people who face life imprisonment if they are convicted in the US. Under the Colombia-US extradition treaty, extradition is only applicable for crimes which carry the similar penalties to those a person convicted in Colombia would face. The Colombian penal code does not permit the death penalty or life imprisonment. In 2002 a Colombian extraditee, Alex Restrepo, was sentenced to life imprisonment for homicide. The Colombian supreme court then ruled that another 30 extraditions to the US were unsafe because of the unusual punishments the US justice system offered. The extradition treaty also stipulates that Colombians can only be prosecuted for offences committed after 1997 when the treaty was reactivated. The US provides Colombia with US$700m a year in financial aid.

  MEXICO
  The US ambassador to Mexico, Tony Garza, who has been heavily critical of the law and order situation along the border, visited President Vicente Fox on 23 August. The buzz in Mexico City is that although Garza wants to become governor of Texas, the almost certain re-election of Rick Parry means that he will remain as ambassador to Mexico for the remainder of President Bush's term. Garza is an uncomfortable appointment for the Fox administration as he is plugged into Mexico's elite through his marriage to the country's richest woman. Garza is also unafraid to take unilateral action, without concern for the State Department, such as his decision to shut the consulate in Nuevo Laredo in order to "punish" the Mexican government for its failure to tackle drug-related crime in the region.

  MARA THREAT
  The US is stepping up its efforts to deal with the threat of the mara gangs, the US Department for Homeland Security says. It plans to deport hundreds of gang members to Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. "They're expanding their membership, they're expanding their recruiting effort, they're expanding their criminal activities... in 'mom and pop' country down in the Midwest_ Before it becomes an epidemic we are going to stop it," the spokesman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Michael Keegan, said. Operation "Community Shield" was launched in March in response to the perceived growing threat of "Mara Salvatrucha" or "MS-13," described by Keegan as "a transnational organisation with membership in Latin America whose activities include rape, murder, hostage taking, contraband, all types of smuggling, including human cargo." It has now been extended to include other mara street gangs. Concern in El Salvador, particularly, that the authorities simply do not have the capacity to deal with deported gang members prompted the FBI to set up an office in San Salvador recently.

  PERU
  The US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, finished his mini-tour of Latin America by visiting Peru, where he met President Alejandro Toledo and the newly-appointed defence minister, Marciano Rengifo, last week. Little of substance was achieved. Rumsfeld pushed for Peru to sign an agreement not to surrender US personnel to the International Criminal Court (ICC); no agreement was reached. He is also believed to have expressed his unease at recent developments on the coca front in view of mixed signals coming out of Peru regarding its commitment to coca eradication. Peru, in turn, appealed for greater support (which Rumsfeld could not promise) and the authorisation of the resumption of drug interdiction flights, suspended since the downing in 2001 of a civilian aircraft in which US nationals were killed. Rumsfeld did not have anything to say about this either but he did present Peru with two C-26 aircraft, which will presumably be used in anti-drugs operations.

  VENEZUELA
  The televangelist Pat Robertson advocated assassinating President Hugo Chávez on his "700 Club" broadcast on the Christian Broadcasting Network on 22 August. Robertson, the founder of the Christian Coalition of America and former Republican presidential candidate, who has likened activist judges to terrorists and claimed feminism encourages women to kill their children, argued that Chávez was turning Venezuela into a launch pad for Muslim extremism and communist infiltration. Outrage in both the US and Venezuela, even among leading anti-chavistas prompted the State Department to distance itself from Robertson's "inappropriate" comments. Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman said the government did not share his view, but he did not respond when asked if he considered Robertson a terrorist, nor did he comment on the 1971 convention the US signed forbidding the assassination of leader and president. When asked if the US felt an obligation to prevent that type of act, McCormack ignored the question. Finally, when quizzed on whether these comments represent a violation of US law, McCormack said, "I'm not a lawyer. You'd have to check with a lawyer on that."

• 31 August 2005

  31 August 2005 Hits: 68

  ALEMAN: PLC leader re-released

  POSADA CARRILES: US could deport anti-Castro activist to Venezuela

  NORIEGA: Outgoing Assistant Secretary of State hailed as 'hero of democracy'

  MEXICO: No leads in shooting of off-duty marine

  DRUGS: US arrests meta-amphetamine dealers

  ALEMAN
  The US special envoy to Nicaragua, Oliver Garza, will leave Managua in the coming days to be replaced by the new US ambassador, Paul Trivelli. Garza is leaving the country just as his efforts of the last two months to unite the Partido Liberal Constitucionalista to defeat the Frente Sandinista de la Liberación Nacional in the 2006 elections appear to be in jeopardy. Arnoldo Alemán, the leader of the PLC, will serve the remainder of his 20-year prison sentence on probation, the supreme court of justice ruled on 30 August. Significantly, this will not debar him from pursuing political activities and possibly seeking to run on the PLC ticket in the elections. Garza had been urging PLC deputies to give up on Alemán, who is tarnished by corruption. Alemán's wife, Marí­a Flores de Alemán, a PLC deputy, said that her husband had not yet decided whether he will seek to prolong his political career. The leader of the PLC in the national assembly, Enrique Quiñonez, was in little doubt. He said the liberals would continue to support Alemán “whatever the pressure from the US".

  POSADA CARRILES
  The US might decide to extradite Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela after all. Government prosecutor Gina Garrett-Jackson, the homeland security representative, advised US Judge William Abbot on 29 August that the anti-Castro activist should be deported to Venezuela if federal prosecutors decide that he should not receive asylum in the US. Posada is currently on trial for illegal entry into the US. He was picked up by homeland security agents in Miami in May. At the time, the homeland security department released a statement saying that the US does not extradite people to Cuba or “countries believed to be acting on Cuba's behalf", which was taken to be a reference to Venezuela. It might be revising this stance. Jackson said that “initially" Venezuela did not pose any “danger" for Posada. The US State Department says it is reviewing the formal extradition request from the government of Venezuela.

  NORIEGA
  The outgoing Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega was hailed as a “hero of democracy" by Florida government and civic leaders during a lunch on 29 August. Noreiga was meeting Miami Republicans, such as Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Dí­az-Balart, who expressed a certain amount of concern about whether his apparent successor Thomas Shannon would adhere to his tough stance on Cuba and Venezuela. Noriega played to his audience. “Usually you have to die to get a tribute like this," he said, before denouncing Cuba's President Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez as “bullies" and defending his department's efforts to promote trade relations with Latin America as a means to tackle poverty and improve security.

  MEXICO
  Mexican officials confessed that they had no leads to follow in their investigation into the murder of a US marine, shot dead in Ciudad Juárez on 29 August. The marine, Heber Villagrán, was shot dead when he visited the border town with three other marines. All were in civilian clothes. The El Paso police department, the FBI and the Marine Corps police are all observing the Mexican investigation. Eyewitnesses said that Villagrán was shot after coming out of a bar and entering into a discussion with unknown people in a vehicle in the street: these people shot him. His three companions were all wounded. The Mexican investigator said that it seemed that the four marines had been lobbing beer bottles at passing cars. The US has issued repeated warnings to US citizens about the dangers of travelling on the Mexican side of the border. The Mexican state prosecutor's office said that even if the marines had been throwing beer bottles, the response was completely disproportionate.

  DRUGS
  US Justice Department agents arrested 427 people on 30 August who it claimed were involved in shipping meta-amphetamines (ephedrine compounds) to the US. The bulk of the traffickers were Mexicans. The US attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, said that the swoop, code-named Operation Fire, had also collected 250kgs of drug-manufacturing material. US consumption of meta-amphetamines (commonly known as speed) has been increasing dramatically. At the end of August, Karen Tandy, the head of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, said that consumption of meta-amphetamines had been growing like wild fire. The DEA reckons that 65% of the meta-amphetamines consumed in the US are made in Mexico.

• 7 September 2005

  07 September 2005 Hits: 206

  DR-CAFTA: Congress approves trade agreement

  POSADA CARRILES: Anti-Castro activist drops US asylum request

  HURRICANE KATRINA: Mexico expects reconstruction boom

  LOUISIANA: Fox appeals to Mexicans caught up in Katrina to reveal their identities

  PERU: Sendero Luminoso guerrillas convicted for car bomb attack outside US embassy

  DR-CAFTA
  The Central American free-trade agreement (DR-Cafta) with the US is one step closer to becoming a reality after the Dominican congress voted overwhelmingly to approve the bill. The Dominican Senate passed DR-Cafta by 27 votes to 2 in late August. The chamber of deputies passed it by 118 votes to 4 on 6 September. The president of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernández, will ratify the agreement within the next few days. "This agreement levels the playing field for American workers, farmers and businesses," US Trade Representative Rob Portman said in a statement congratulating the Dominican congress. This means that Nicaragua and Costa Rica are alone in not having ratified DR-Cafta. Uncertainty surrounding the political future of President Enrique Bolaños has sidelined the bill in Nicaragua while the president of Costa Rica, Abel Pacheco, is holding out for a fiscal-reform bill to make its way through congress before he says he is ready to ratify the trade agreement.

  POSADA CARRILES
  Luis Posada Carriles has withdrawn his request for asylum in the US to avoid encroaching on "sensitive areas that could harm the security of the US government", his attorney Matthew Archambeault revealed. It has already been alleged since the trial began at El Paso, Texas, that the FBI helped Posada Carriles enter Honduras illegally a year ago. However, Posada continues to resist efforts to deport him to Venezuela, where he is wanted on charges of planning the bombing of a Cubana commercial plane in 1976 (which he denies), killing all 73 passengers onboard over Caracas. He escaped imprisonment for his alleged involvement in 1985, and sneaked into the US via Mexico before being discovered and arrested in Miami this May. Posada argues that the Venezuelan government will send him to Cuba if he is deported. Joaquí­n Ramos Chaffardet, a former government official, told the court that the Venezuelan government has already decided Posada is a terrorist and will torture the anti-Castro militant before stripping him of his Venezuelan citizenship, opening the way for his extradition to Cuba. Judge William Abbott said that he will defer any ruling on deportation until the end of the trial. Posada is invoking his past military service for the US - notably his role in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, for which he received training from the CIA - to emphasise the US government has a legal obligation not to deport him; US citizenship can be granted to aliens who have 'honourably served' their armed forces. The Cuban Parliament has released a statement demanding the US extradite Posada in the name of justice.

  HURRICANE KATRINA
  The Mexican trade and industry minister, Fernando Canales Clariond, said on 6 September that Mexican companies in general, and construction companies in particular, expected to increase their sales to the US as the reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina gathered pace. Canales stressed that he was not rubbing his hands at the prospects for Mexican industry because the scale of the tragedy was so enormous. Mexico runs its biggest bilateral trade surplus with the US: in 2004 the trade surplus was US$45bn. Canales said that the surplus this year should be larger.

  LOUISIANA
  Mexican President Vicente Fox has appealed to Hispanic immigrants in the US stranded and apparently missing following the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina to reveal themselves to officials, assuring them that they 'will not be subject to any pressure or persecution whatsoever'. The US has assured President Fox that they will not prosecute any illegal immigrants who come forward to officials. Tens of thousands of immigrants are thought to have been affected by the natural disaster, many of whom are believed to be illegal immigrants scared to reveal their identities to officials for fear of being extradited. Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez told the media that 87 Mexican citizens are reported as missing following the hurricane. Latin Americans are well represented in this region of the US: 150,000 Hondurans, 145,000 Mexicans, 10,000 Brazilians, and 9,600 Salvadoreans are thought to be living in the affected area. The Mexican government has redirected US$175,000 to local consulates to boost its outreach programme for affected nationals, as well as donating US$1m, heavy machinery (helicopters, amphibious vehicles), and a navy and army convoy bearing food, medicine, and accommodation, to the relief effort.

  PERU
  Four members of the Sendero Luminoso guerrilla group have been sentenced to a total of 95 years imprisonment for a car bomb attack opposite the US Embassy in Lima in 2002, killing 10 people and injuring 30. Wilbert Elqui Meza received 30 years on 1 September; one woman was given 25 years to serve whilst two more women both received 20-year sentences. Four other defendants were acquitted of all charges. Pablo Talavera, president of the anti-terrorism court in Lima, also informed reporters that the guerrillas must pay US$61,000 in civil reparations to the state. The bomb exploded in an outdoor shopping complex three days before an official state visit from President George Bush, the first by a US President to Peru.
  

• 14 September 2005

  14 September 2005 Hits: 105

  NEW ORLEANS: Ambassador thanks Mexico for relief

  CUBA: US Interests Section questions visa system

  BUSH: US president unpopular in Southern Cone

  NOREIGA: Outgoing secretary endorses Bolaños

  VENEZUELA: Chávez accuses US of withholding visas

  NEW ORLEANS
  The US ambassador to Mexico, Antonio Garza, issued an open letter to the Mexican public on 13 September to thank them for their "rapid, friendly and well-coordinated response" in providing relief to those left homeless or injured by Hurricane Katrina. Mexico sent troops to help in the rescue effort in New Orleans and a Navy ship laden with provisions. On 8 September President Vicente Fox hailed the return of the Mexican army, which is helping in the relief effort after Hurricane Katrina, back in US after 159 years. The last time the Mexican army crossed the border was to fight for Texas, which had then just been annexed by the US. Garza's fulsome thanks to Mexico makes a contrast with his grumpy comments, for most of this year, about the way Mexico's authorities had failed to police the border states. The US State Department still advises US citizens not to travel to some border areas and at the beginning of August Garza shut the US consulate in Nuevo Laredo for a week because he was worried about the safety of the people who worked there. The US government has also been annoyed by Mexico's lack of support at the UN for its invasion of Iraq in 2003.

  CUBA
  The US Interests Section (ie the only diplomatic representation the US has in Cuba) has issued 20,075 US visas so far this financial year, the section reported on 8 September. The fiscal year ends at the end of this month. Under two deals signed in 1994 and 1995, the US agreed to issue at least 20,000 visas to Cubans each year and to return to Cuba any migrants it intercepted at sea. The head of the US Interests Section in Havana, James Cason, said that the Cuban government has the habit of refusing to allow people who have legally obtained visas for the US from leaving Cuba. He argued that this policy was encouraging people to take to their rafts in search of a better life in the US. Cason said that the US had documentary proof that 533 Cubans with valid visas had been prevented from leaving Cuba for the US. So far this year the US Coast Guard has intercepted 2,402 Cubans trying to sail to the US. This is double the number it intercepted during the same period of 2004.

  BUSH
  A survey conducted in four Latin American capitals suggests a negative perception of President George W. Bush in the region. A majority of South Americans in Buenos Aires, Brasí­lia, Santiago and Montevideo have a negative opinion of US President George Bush, according to an opinion poll released on 12 September by the think-tank, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, which is based in Chile. A total of 53% of the 2,362 respondents in the four capital cities described their perception of Bush as either “bad" or “very bad," the poll found. Bush was particularly unpopular in Argentina, where 60% of those polled responded negatively to Bush, whilst only 40% of Chileans concurred, the lowest national disapproval rating of those countries involved (though just 19% of Chileans approved of him). “Latin Americans feel that (terror) issues are not the biggest problems facing our region," David Alvarez, a political scientist and the organiser of the survey, said. “There is a big difference in the terrorist vision and the social problems many feel are plaguing Latin America." Significantly, the poll did not include any respondents from Bolivia or Colombia, where the US coca-eradication policy is highly unpopular with producers, as the popularity of Evo Morales, one of the frontrunners in Bolivia's December elections, demonstrates.

  NORIEGA
  The outgoing assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Roger Noriega, gave a firm endorsement of beleaguered President Enrique Bolaños last week in his domestic power struggle with the opposition-dominated national assembly, which had been threatening to remove the president's immunity to face charges of campaign finance irregularities. Noriega, who will leave his post at the end of September, said he expected the inter-american community to isolate Nicaragua economically and politically if Bolaños were removed from power by the "naked aggression of one branch of government against another". He said he hoped that the national assembly would not do anything "so irresponsible". Noriega's tough rhetoric comes after the US sent a special envoy to Managua to try and resolve the differences within the Partido Liberal Constitucionalista with the aim of defeating the Sandinistas in the presidential elections in 2006.

  VENEZUELA
  Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez accused the US government of "violating international agreements and principles" by not granting visas to his security and medical entourage for the UN summit that began on September 14 in New York. Speaking during a joint Venezuelan-Chinese press conference, the leftist leader said he was still deliberating whether to attend the 2005 World Summit, which marks the 60th anniversary of the United Nations. "The US government is interfering so that we can't fulfil our obligations at the UN," Chavez continued. In response, Brian Penn, spokesman for the US embassy in Caracas, said that no member of the Venezuelan delegation had been denied a visa to enter the United States. This most-recent diplomatic spat is the latest in a long line of regional confrontations between the United States and Venezuela, which has led to increased tensions between the countries.

• 21 September 2005

  21 September 2005 Hits: 81

  SHANNON: New Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs

  HURRICANE KATRINA: Mexican cement tariffs could be cut

  IMMIGRATION: Fraudalent marriages to obtain citizenship

  VENEZUELA: Spat with the US over drugs, Súmate funding

  ARGENTINA: US takes spent nuclear fuel

  SHANNON
  Thomas Shannon, incoming Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, will undergo senate hearings on September 21 before taking up his post as Washington's official emissary to Latin America. A career diplomat with close ties in the region, Shannon will be a marked change from his predecessor, Roger Noriega, who was criticised for maintaining close links with radical Cuban exiles and for labelling Venezuela president Hugo Chávez as a "bully." In contrast, Shannon has held top positions in the Organisation of American States and has been a member of the White House National Security Council - experience that he will need to draw upon in his new post. Over the next four years, Shannon's main responsibility will be to improve the United States' standing within Latin America. This task has become increasingly difficult over recent years due to the rise of leftist movements opposed to perceived US interference within the region. In particular, he faces the burgeoning role of oil-rich Venezuela throughout Latin America and growing popular discontent over the region's orthodox economic policies.

  HURRICANE KATRINA
  The US Trade Representative, Rob Portman, said on 16 September that the government was considering suspending anti-dumping (ie protectionist) duties on Mexican cement, Canadian lumber and foreign steel to aid reconstruction in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He said that US government agencies had discussed the idea but a decision had yet to be taken. The US has been levying an anti-dumping duty of 55% on Mexican cement since 1990. The US imposed an 8% anti-dumping duty on Brazilian plywood in July and has levied anti-dumping duties on various countries' steel for years. The US government reckons that the cost of rebuilding after the Hurricane could reach US$200bn. Even before the Hurricane struck, at the end of August, cement was in short supply in the southern US: prices had risen by 10% over the past 12 months to about US$90 per tonne.

  IMMIGRATION
  Every year around 400,000 US citizens marry a foreigner, thus immediately conferring US citizenship on their spouse. An immigration lawyer in California, Carl Shusterman, claimed on 19 September that at least a quarter of these marriages are fraudulent, designed only to obtain US citizenship. He based this claim on a six-year study of immigration statistics at the Immigration Department in Los Angeles.

  VENEZUELA
  US-Venezuelan relations took another turn for the worse on September 15 when Washington criticised Caracas for demonstrably failing to tackle illicit drug trafficking and drug production. Published in a congressional report, the United States highlighted Venezuela's failure to cooperate with the Drug Enforcement Agency, as well as its refusal to sign a bilateral data-sharing agreement. Under US law, countries accused of disregarding their counter narcotic obligations are ineligible for US financial assistance. This condition, according to Nancy Powell Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, would be wavered in Venezuela's case to allow continued support for programmes "vital to US national interests." Such remarks brought a quick response from Venezuelan officials, who accused the United States of funding subversive and terrorist groups within the country. Vice-President José Vicente Rangel highlighted continued US support of Súmate, an opposition civil rights' group that organised the presidential recall referendum in 2004, saying that "the United States is interested in fomenting conspiracy in Venezuela and in aiding destabilising groups [such as Súmate]."

  ARGENTINA
  The US Department of Energy removed spent nuclear fuel from the Ezeiza Atomic Centre site near Buenos Aires on 17 September, as it is concerned the material could fall into terrorist hands. Two hundred and seven highly enriched uranium (HEU) spent nuclear fuel assemblies, containing 90% U-235 enriched uranium, were transferred to the port of Charleston in South Carolina and on to the Savannah River atomic centre for long-term storage and disposition, Horacio Taboada, of the country's Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA), said. HEU fuel assemblies were used from initial startup in the 1950s until 1987 in Argentina. The US is paying for low enrichment (20%) uranium assemblies, which the reactor now operates on, to replace the HEU. Argentina has two nuclear reactors generating nearly one tenth of its electricity. The Department of Energy will remove 42 HEU spent nuclear fuel assemblies from the other one, in Bariloche, shortly.

• 28 September 2005

  28 September 2005 Hits: 219

  VENEZUELA: Brownfield on land expropriations

  DRUGS: Marijuana in Sequoia national park

  HAITI: Rice visits

  COSTA RICA:  Cafta to go before congress

  CUBA: US trade embargo

  PARAGUAY: Bilateral Drug-Piracy Treaty

  VENEZUELA
  The US ambassador to Venezuela, William Brownfield, was particularly circumspect in his comments on the apparent expansion of President Hugo Chávez 's policy of expropriating idle private assets. Brownfield said on 27 September that he did not want to comment on issues which were clearly the province of the Venezuelan government, but he did say that the expropriations "would have some impact in commercial decisions made by foreign companies" that wanted to do business in Venezuela. Brownfield noted that the government policy of expropriating idle assets for economic and social reasons was a longstanding one. He added that the process had to be seen to be fair and lawful, and that the people who lost their property were fairly and quickly compensated. Brownfield was also non-committal about widely reported comments from the US ambassador to Spain, Eduardo Aguirre, who told the Spanish media that the US was afraid that the government of President Hugo Chávez was turning into a autocracy.

  DRUGS
  Marijuana in Sequoia national park US National Park Rangers say Mexican and Colombian drug gangs are successfully growing around US$1bn worth of marijuana inside US national parks, such as Sequoia and King's Canyon located 200 miles north of Los Angeles. So far this year the US authorities have found and destroyed 1m marijuana plants in the state of California, mostly in national parks. This is about half the number the gangs have planted, the US authorities estimate. The rangers believe that every 1,000 plants have a street value of US$1m. So far the eradication efforts have not led to major confrontations with drug gangs. Those tending the marijuana "gardens" inside the parks tend to scatter when the authorities arrive to destroy the plants. Environmental activists are outraged by the drug growers' activities since pesticides and fertilisers are used to grow the marijuana. The marijuana growing season lasts from March to mid October.

  HAITI
  US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Port-au-Prince for talks with interim prime minister Gérard Latortue on 27 September ahead of the all-important legislative and presidential elections which are scheduled for 20 November. There was no repeat of the violence in the capital that greeted the visit of Rice's predecessor Colin Powell in December 2004. In particular, Rice called upon more Haitians to register for the elections. Currently an estimated 2.5m people out of some 4.5m eligible voters have registered. She also said at a joint press conference with Latortue that "Those who want to participate in this election should be allowed to participate". Rice could have been referring to the imprisoned priest, Gérard Jean-Juste, who the Fanmi Lavalas party of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide tried, but failed, to register for the election. However, she was more likely alluding to Dumarsais Simeus, a wealthy Texan businessman of Haitian origin who has lived in the US for 40 years. Latortue said that the provisional electoral commission (CEP) had rejected Simeus's registration attempt because "He isn't Haitian and lives in a hotel". The CEP has so far accepted only 32 of the 54 candidates that met the 23 September deadline for registration.

  COSTA RICA
  The president of Costa Rica, Abel Pacheco, said he will send the Central American free trade agreement with the US (DR-Cafta) to congress "shortly". This would leave only Nicaragua among the seven signatory nations yet to ratify DR-Cafta. Pacheco had previously said that he would not send DR-Cafta to congress until it approved a fiscal reform package he considers necessary to have in place before the free trade agreement is implemented. Hundreds of workers from the state-owned electricity institute (ICE) marched on congress this week to protest DR-Cafta and the envisaged opening of the telecommunications industry, currently monopolised by ICE. Pacheco has put together a "complementary agenda," which will set aside US$355m of investment to improve education in rural areas, and help farmers and small to medium-sized businesses face the challenge of international competition when DR-Cafta comes into effect. More than US$200m of the fund will be financed by low-interest loans from the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE).

  CUBA
  On 27 September Cuba published its annual report over the United States' forty year trade embargo of the communist country. Entitled "Cuba Against the Blockade," it vehemently attacked the "immoral and illegal" blockade, saying that it had cost Cuba US$82bn in lost revenue since 1963. Bruno Rodrí­guez Parrilla, the deputy minister of foreign affairs, explained that the embargo had worsened over recent years. In June 2004 President George Bush restricted access to Cuba, limiting the visits by US residing exiles to the island, as well as reducing the amount of remittances that they could send back to family members. The impact of these policies is estimated at US$2.7bn of lost revenue in 2004. The number of US visitors to Cuba has also fallen due to Washington's hardened stance. Rodrí­guez Parrilla said there had been a 40% decline in US tourists and a 50% reduction in Cuban exiles visiting the island in 2005. In response, US officials denounced the report, claiming that the embargo had been a success and that Fidel Castro's government was "on its last legs."

  PARAGUAY
  Paraguayan and US officials announced a bilateral agreement on 27 September aimed at limiting drug, piracy, and money-laundering operations in the South American country. The treaty, worth US$600,000, is designed to improve Paraguay's ability to fight international crime and reduce piracy along its triple border with Brazil and Argentina. Both governments welcomed the deal. US ambassador John Keane explained that US$324,000 would be spent to improve the effectiveness of Paraguay's anti-smuggling operations. Annually, the country imports 200m pirated CDs that are subsequently exported to neighbouring countries for resale. The bilateral agreement also outlined expanded cooperation over counter-narcotics activities. Hugo Castor Ibarra, chief executive of the national anti-drugs secretariat (SENAD), said the treaty would build upon the country's counter-narcotics programmes. Over the last 20 years, Paraguay has received approximately US$6.4m from the US to eradicate drug operations in the country.

• 5 October 2005

  05 October 2005 Hits: 235

  IMMIGRATION: Border fatalities climb dramatically

  BRAZIL: Border arrests on the increase

  CENTRAL AMERICA: Zoellick tours Central America and Brazil

  BOLIVIA: Free trade could be put on hold

  URUGUAY: Bilateral investment treaty

  IMMIGRATION
  The US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection announced on 4 October that at least 464 immigrants died crossing the 3,200km US-Mexican border during the fiscal year ending on 30 September, a rise of 43% on the previous year and the highest number since records began. The US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection said that over half the deaths occurred in Arizona, the most popular route for immigrants seeking to reach the US, as temperatures there soared above 120 F (49 C) in a hot spell in June and July. The biggest single cause of death was heat exposure. The US reckons that each year over 1m undocumented migrants, most of them from Mexico and other parts of Latin America, attempt to cross the border in search of work. Border Patrol agents also carried out a record number of rescues during the year, citing 2,570 operations, almost twice the number in fiscal 2004.

  BRAZIL
  Figures from the US border patrol reveal that in the last year an average of 85 Brazilians were arrested every day trying to enter the US illegally. Between October 2004 and September 2006 a total of 31,070 Brazilian citizens were arrested trying to cross the US-Mexican border without proper documentation. The number of arrests in the period surpassed the combined total of detentions recorded in the last 5 years. According to US authorities, the rate of Brazilian immigration to the US in the last year showed the fastest growth among Latin American nations. Brazil is currently in fourth place behind Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador for border arrests. The increase in arrests of Brazilians trying to enter the US illegally has led to the revocation of an accord which had exempted Brazilians from needing a visa to enter Mexico.

  CENTRAL AMERICA
  The assistant secretary of state, Robert Zoellick, is visiting Central America and Brazil this week. He started his mini tour in Guatemala on 3 October where he spoke to President Oscar Berger about the Central American free trade agreement (DR-Cafta) with the US, the fight against corruption and the steady downsizing of the Guatemalan military. He then travelled to Managua where he held talks with Nicaragua's President Enrique Bolaños. He offered his full support for Bolaños and denounced the "corrupt pact" between Arnoldo Alemán and Daniel Ortega, the leaders of the opposition Partido Liberal Constitucionalista and Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, with whom Bolaños is engaged in a power struggle. Zoellick will travel to Brazil on 6 October. "As two large and vibrant democracies, Brazil and the United States share many goals.... Brazil has taken a leadership role in stabilizing Haiti, and I look forward to discussing how the United States and Brazil can work together to strengthen democracies throughout the region," Zoellick said before departing.

  BOLIVIA
  On 3 October interim US assistant secretary of state for the western hemisphere, Charles Shapiro, called on Bolivia to resolve its internal problems if it wanted to enter into a free trade agreement with the US. "There are many things that [Bolivia] must solve," he said. Bolivia has maintained observer status during the protracted negotiations between Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and the US over a free trade agreement. Due to its presence at these discussions, Shapiro said Bolivia could join the pact after it reached an "internal political consensus." These comments followed remarks made to the La Razón newspaper by Todd Chapman, political and economic advisor to the US embassy in La Paz, on 29 September. "We will continue to discuss [options] with Bolivia's negotiating team," he said. Any free trade agreement between Bolivia and the US, however, will be dependent on the outcome of the 4 December elections. At present, anti-US candidate Evo Morales, who has campaigned for the legalisation of coca, is the frontrunner and is likely to face a cold reception in Washington if he wins the elections.

  URUGUAY
  Uruguayan foreign minister Reinaldo Gargano announced the start of renegotiations between Uruguay and the US over a bilateral investment treaty on 3 October. The agreement was negotiated in 2004 during President Jorge Battle's term, but has faced criticism from sectors of the governing Encuentro Progresista-Frente Amplio (EP-FA) coalition. As Uruguay's first leftist government, the EP-FA-dominated congress balked at an article of the treaty that denied protection in the US to investments made by Uruguayan companies with commercial ties to countries that do not maintain diplomatic relations with Washington. This was designed to limit Uruguay's commercial ties with Cuba. The Communist and Socialist parties in the EP-FA coalition rejected the proposal and have blocked the agreement's ratification until the article is changed. Carlos Amorí­n, the foreign ministry's director for Mercosur and economic policy, will lead Uruguay's negotiation team in Washington.

• 12 October 2005

  12 October 2005 Hits: 109

  CENTRAL AMERICA: US sends aid after Hurricane Stan

  DR-CAFTA: Nicaragua approves free-trade deal

  HAITI: Anti-drug czar cleared of charges

  CALIFORNIA: Schwarzenegger rejects closer links with Mexico

  COLOMBIA: Airforce generals meet to tackle drug trafficking

  CENTRAL AMERICA
  On 11 October US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved the dispatch of military helicopters, food and other aid to help Central American nations reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Stan. Rumsfeld, who is currently meeting the defence and security ministers of seven Central American countries in south Florida, said “It looks like it's a terrible natural disaster. It's heartbreaking." Rumsfeld said that the disastrous mudslides in Guatemala and El Salvador, which have claimed in excess of 600 lives, provided an example of the need for Central American nations to work more closely together. The US relief effort is being coordinated by the commander of the US Southern Command, Bantz J Craddock. The Central American ministers meeting, which begins today (12 October) will look at developing coordinated responses to gang crime and illegal arms sales. Rumsfeld said the meeting would also address “the problems of hostage taking, narcotics and terrorists, all of which are things that concern our country (and) concern all of those countries."

  DR-CAFTA
  Nicaragua ratified the Central American free-trade agreement (DR-Cafta) with the US by 49 votes to 37 in a six-hour session on 10 October. The Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) had kept DR-Cafta off the agenda in the opposition-controlled national assembly but the visit to Managua by deputy secretary of state Robert Zoellick on 4 and 5 October brought sufficient pressure to bear on the Partido Liberal Constitucionalista (PLC) to force the FSLN to make concessions to keep its “pact" with the PLC alive. Costa Rica is now the only signatory nation yet to ratify the trade treaty. It also looks like Panama and the US could have a free-trade agreement by late October after two years of talks. “The United States and Panama are looking at our schedules to see if we can set a final round (of talks) some time during the second half of October," Neena Moorjani of the Office of the US Trade Representative in Panama, said on 5 October. The FTA might be finalised in time for President George W Bush's visit to Panama as part of a Latin American tour in November. Talks have foundered on two main issues: Panamanian concerns that its farmers will be unable to compete when agricultural markets are opened and pressure from US business to secure a strong government procurement package with the expansion of the Panama Canal in mind. The recent progress of Cafta could mean that Panama will be prepared to yield some ground.

  HAITI
  On 7 October a Miami jury found Haiti's former anti-drug czar, Evintz Brillant, not guilty on charges of conspiring to ship cocaine to the US. Brillant was accused, along with other Haitian officials, of accepting bribes from drug traffickers smuggling Colombian cocaine via Haiti, and releasing arrested drug smugglers for a fee. A witness for the prosecution, Jeannot Francois, Brillant's former supervisor, claimed that the two of them would commandeer cocaine shipments and then sell them, splitting the profit. Prosecutors said Brillant once confiscated US$450,000 at the airport in Port-au-Prince, part of a shipment sent by Colombian drug lord Carlos Ovalle, then negotiated to return US$300,000 for a percentage of future sales. The defence managed to get Brillant off by attacking the credibility of witnesses, some of whom had testified as part of plea agreements with prosecutors. Three of Brillant's associates have already been found guilty. Romaine Lestin, former chief of police of the Port-au-Prince airport, pleaded guilty to drug-trafficking in August; Rudy Therassan, a former police commander, was sentenced to 15 years in prison; and Jean Nesly Lucien, former police director general, was given a five-year sentence.

  CALIFORNIA
  Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican governor of California, vetoed three proposals on 8 October that would have tightened links between California and Mexico. The most general proposal, from Fabián Núñez, a Democrat, would have aimed at improving relations with Mexico between 2007 and 2017. Núñez wants to compensate for Schwarzenegger's decision to close California's representative office in Mexico. The governor argues that issues addressed by Núñez's bill are better covered by the annual summit of governors from both sides of the border. Schwarzenegger also vetoed a bill, from another Democrat, Denise Moreno, that would have allowed children of migrants to take exams in Spanish. Schwarzenegger said that as an immigrant himself he knew that it was vital to learn English quickly. The third proposal vetoed by Schwarzenegger would have allowed 2m undocumented migrants to have Californian driving licences. Schwarzenegger said that he now wants to wait for a federal ruling on the legality of issuing driving licences to undocumented migrants. The latest proposal would have offered them a Californian licence in a distinctive colour and stipulated that the documentation could not be used as proof of identity to open a bank account. Schwarzenegger has now vetoed successive proposals to allow undocumented migrants driving licences three times since he took office at the end of 2003.

  COLOMBIA
  A US airforce general, Randall Mark Schmidt, who commands the XII Air Corps, called on Colombia's neighbours to support it in its fight against drug trafficking and terrorism. He was speaking in Bogotá on 11 October at The First Meeting of Airforce Commanders from Central America, the US, the Dominican Republic and Colombia (Conjefamer) on Drug Trafficking. Schmidt said that contrary to what other countries believed drugs were not a problem peculiar to Colombia. Seven countries sent delegations to the three-day meeting which grew out of the most recent Conjefamer meeting in Miami which brought together airforce commanders from across the region.