Mayan priests to purify site after Bush visit

A Guatemalan Indian priest is seen during a Mayan ceremony in Iximche, 60 km west of Guatemala City, October 12, 2003. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

By Juan Carlos Llorca, Associated Press Writer

March 9, 2007

GUATEMALA CITY --Mayan priests will purify a sacred archaeological site to eliminate "bad spirits" after President Bush visits next week, an official with close ties to the group said Thursday.

"That a person like (Bush), with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture," Juan Tiney, the director of a Mayan nongovernmental organization with close ties to Mayan religious and political leaders, said Thursday.

Bush's seven-day tour of Latin America includes a stopover beginning late Sunday in Guatemala. On Monday morning he is scheduled to visit the archaeological site Iximche on the high western plateau in a region of the Central American country populated mostly by Mayans...

(click here to view entire report)

McCain: When I Have A Question, I Call Kissinger

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger addresses the audience during a fund raising event for Presidential hopeful Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., Thursday, March 8, 2007 in New York. According to a recent poll, McCain is trailing former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani by more than 20 points, triggering doubts about his stance on the war in Iraq and his age. (AP Photo/Stephen Chernin)

By Eric Kleefeld

TPM Cafe

March 9, 2007

Guess who John McCain relies on perhaps more than anyone else for counsel on foreign policy? None other than Henry Kissinger. The Associated Press reports that McCain let the secret slip at a recent fundraiser at which the guest of honor was the former Secretary of State. "When I have a question about something that's going on in the world, I call Dr. Kissinger and he is able to connect the dots for me," McCain said, according to the AP. "It is easy to be an expert on one aspect of some international situation. He's one of the only people I've ever known who can connect the entire scenario for you in a way that you understand the completeness of the challenge." Others who McCain says he consults: Brent Scowcroft, George P. Shultz, Lawrence Eagleburger, Robert Kagan and Bill Kristol...

(click here to view entire report)

Chavez tells Bush: "Gringo go home"

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, left, and Hebe de Bonafini, president of the mothers of Plaza de Mayo, wave to supporters during a rally against the ongoing visit to several Latin American countries by U.S. President George W. Bush, Friday, March 9, 2007 in Buenos Aires. Chavez is in a two-day visit in Argentina. (AP Photo/Daniel Luna)

The Observer

March 11, 2007

HUGO CHAVEZ: 'The little imperial gentleman from the north must be across the river by now. Let's send him a big shout: Gringo go home,' Chavez told thousands of people gathered at a football stadium on Friday night, prompting roars of 'Gringo go home'.

(click here to view entire report)

Venezuela's New Health Care Model

Oil Wars

March 10, 2007

This has previously shown that huge efforts on the part of the Chavez government to improve the level of medical care available to Venezuelans, and particularly poor Venezuelans. What started out with the by now world famous Barrio Adentro program has long since expanded to more sophisticated ambulatory care sites, then to fully integral diagnostic centers with the most advanced equipment available anywhere and is now moving into completely renovated and/or new hospitals...

(click here to view entire report)

Colombia's Para-Scandal and Bush's Visit: An Interview with Jorge Robledo

Colombian Senator Jorge Robledo of Colombia's leftist Alternative Democratic Pole

By Justin Podur and Manuel Rozental

www.en-camino.org

March 10, 2006

Jorge Robledo has been a Colombian senator with the Polo Democratico Alternativo (PDA), a democratic left party, since 2002. In recent years he has given a national voice to the opposition to the “free trade agreement” between the US and Colombia, which has delivered the country’s public sector industries, resources and territories to multinationals. In recent months, the Polo Democratico has also opened a national debate to expose the connections between the political system and the paramilitaries, death squads linked to the government who are implicated in massive human rights violations, assassinations, massacres, the liquidation of social opposition, and narcotrafficking. Another senator with the PDA, Gustavo Petro, has been instrumental in investigating these connections, and was interviewed during a recent trip to the US on Democracy Now! and WBAI.

With Bush’s visit to the region, US Congressman McGovern and Senator Leahy, as well as others in the Democratic party, have challenged Bush’s sponsorship of President Alvaro Uribe Velez. Popular protests against Bush’s visit have taken place all over Latin America. Senator Robledo will be raising questions about the beneficiaries of paramilitarism in Colombia, and its backers, in the US. We interviewed him over the phone on March 9.

JUSTIN PODUR: Can you introduce, and explain briefly to readers who don’t know, what the ‘para-scandal’ is, how it came to be exposed, and what its effects have been on politics in Colombia?

JORGE ROBLEDO: Colombia has long had the phenomenon of “paramilitarism”. Paramilitaries are armed groups linked with the state. One sector of the paramilitaries was organized by wealthy rural landowners for the purpose of attacking the guerrilla movement, but many paramilitary crimes have been directed against the civilian population. They are closely linked with narcotrafficking and organized crime. This has been the case for at least 20 years. Over this time, the paramilitaries have become a significant political power, in regional governments, municipalities, governorships, the congress, and the senate.

The ‘para-scandal’ is this: in recent months it has come to light that the paramilitaries are connected throughout the political system of the country, and especially the congress and senate. The supreme court has sent some congresspeople and other politicians to jail. According to the national newspaper, El Tiempo, there are 19 more congress members who could end up in jail. No less than the chief of the secret police, DAS (departamento administrativo de seguridad) is in jail. There are publicly available documents signed by congresspeople and paramilitaries, explicit agreements.

But the other part of this scandal that’s less-often discussed, is that all of the paramilitary-connected politicians, almost all of them, are friends of the Uribe government (Colombia’s President is Alvaro Uribe Velez). So even though the scandal is referred to as a scandal of “para-politica”, it makes more sense to call it “para-Uribismo.”

(click here to view entire report)

Legacy of civil war still plagues Nicaragua

A Nicaraguan army engineer demonstrates demining in Nueva Segovia, on the border with Honduras. Officials say 1,000 to 1,200 mines are blown up each month. But it’s extremely dangerous work: five soldiers have been killed and 33 wounded. (ESTEBAN FELIX / AP)

By JOSEPH B. FRAZIER

The Associated Press

March 10, 2007

SAN FERNANDO, Nicaragua — A workbook being handed out to grade-schoolers in the steep, pine-covered hills of northern Nicaragua doesn’t have stories about seeing Spot run.

It tells of a woman hearing an explosion and her son running to tell her that her favourite cow has been killed by a mine.

Land mines have killed 82 people and injured 905 since 1990, when Nicaragua’s civil war ended, Daniel Ortega and his Sandinistas were defeated in the polls, and the U.S.-funded Contras laid down their arms.

Now it’s Ortega’s problem again. The Sandinista leader, who was in power when most of the mines were planted — by both sides — returned to office last month...

(click here to view entire report)

University of Washington grad's death brought global notice to Nicaraguan civil war

UW graduate student Ben Linder, 27, in Nicaragua to build a hydroelectric dam, was killed on April 28, 1987, by U.S.-backed Contras. He was believed to be the first U.S. citizen to die in Nicaragua's civil war. (UPI / 1986) (March 06, 2007)

By TOM PAULSON

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

March 6, 2007

LEON, Nicaragua -- On a street corner here in one of the oldest cities in the Western Hemisphere, situated among the volcanoes, the rum refineries and some of Nicaragua's leading intellectuals, is a coffee shop called Puerto Café Ben Linder.

The cafe may represent one of Seattle's more notable connections with this nation. Ben Linder was a 27-year-old University of Washington engineering graduate who was killed on April 28, 1987, by U.S.-backed Contras while he was building a small hydroelectric dam for a rural community in the north.

The Contras regarded Linder as a Sandinista sympathizer. Though the rebels contended his death was an accident, colleagues in Nicaragua said he and two peasants working with him had been targeted and executed by the Contras.

"Ben's death was no accident or aberration. It was an expression of U.S. policy," his father, John Linder, told the Seattle P-I at the time of his son's death...

(click here to view entire report)

Historian Miguel Tinker-Salas on PBS

Historian Miguel Tinker-Salas, Pomona College

PBS

March 8, 2007

Excerpts from interview:

MARGARET WARNER: Professor, how do you see the Chavez factor and whether he's a threat, a real threat, or just a sort of irritant to the United States and its interests?

MIGUEL TINKER-SALAS: I don't necessarily think of the whole entire Latin America as being controlled by Hugo Chavez. This is a process that is taking place in many South American countries and also Central American countries.

That is, we've had, through a series of electoral means, the elections of individuals who have, in many ways, come to power by criticizing and rejecting what has been perceived as a very inequitable economic system, and this is the promotion of free trade that has taken a toll on agricultural production, that has dislocated the economy in many countries.

So I don't think it's just Chavez. It's very simple to put it all on Chavez, but the reality is these conditions are real conditions for Bolivian miners, these are real conditions for Ecuadorian indigenous people, these are real conditions for Brazilian homeless and populations without land.

And these are the real issues that are fomenting the kind of political change. And these aren't radical insurgents taking to the hills, as we saw in the '60s and '70s, but rather political movements that are taking the challenge of taking state power, and winning through democratic means, and charting an independent course that, as we've seen in the Cochabamba Declaration in Bolivia, where all the presidents of South America began to chart a European Union-style agreement.

We see that in the Mercosur, the South American common market, where they begin to chart economic policy, that, again, primarily focuses on Latin American concerns and interests.

...

MIGUEL TINKER SALAS: For most Latin Americans, the notion that the U.S. administration is concerned about their social conditions tends to ring hollow, particularly since they have been at the receiving end of what they perceive to be a very narrow focus on free trade, neo-liberal economic policy, and really not a concern for the central issues that have been affecting the region.

So I think it's a different kind of perspective that we see coming out of the region. And I think that's what begins to trouble the Bush administration, that the inroads that have been made and, more importantly, that these inroads have taken place and are beginning to shape how Latin Americans forge their own sense of identity, their own foreign policy, in many cases not including the United States...

(click here to view entire report)

Protests against Bush in Uruguay

Thousands of demonstrators march during a protest against the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush in Montevideo, Friday, March 9, 2007. (AP Photo/Marcelo Hernandez)

Two children play in front of a graffiti that reads:'Bush Murderer' in Montevideo,Tuesday,March. 6, 2007. (AP Photo/Marcelo Hernandez)

Uruguayan citizens take part in a demonstration against U.S. President George W. Bush's planned visit to Uruguay in front of the City Hall of Colonia, 180 km (120 miles) north-west of Montevideo, March 9, 2007. The sign reads 'Get Out Bush'. REUTERS/Enrique Marcarian (URUGUAY)

A protester burns tires in Montevideo March 9, 2007 to protest a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush to Uruguay. REUTERS/Pablo La Rosa (URUGUAY)

Demonstrators rally against the visit of US President George W. Bush to Uruguay in downtown Montevideo, 09 March 2007. (AFP/File/Pablo Porciuncula)

Chavez leads rally against Bush visit

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez gestures during a rally against the visit by U.S. President George W. Bush to Uruguay, at a soccer stadium in Buenos Aires, March 9, 2007.

By BILL CORMIER, Associated Press Writer

Sat Mar 10, 5:28 AM ET

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Nearly 20,000 fans gathered at a stadium in Buenos Aires — not to watch soccer but to hear Hugo Chavez bash George W. Bush. And the Venezuelan leader didn't disappoint them...

(click here to view entire report)

Social Programs at Root of Chavez's Popularity

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (C) rides a vehicle among the crowd during his closing presidential campaign rally in Caracas November 26, 2006.(Jorge Silva/Reuters)

By Simon Marks

Voice of America

March 9, 2007

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is at odds with U.S. President George W. Bush, straining relations between their two countries. But opinion polls show Mr. Chavez has the support of most Venezuelans. It is backing he has received in large part because of his government's social programs. Simon Marks visited a Caracas slum recently to see how these programs are working and has this report...

(click here to view entire report)

Maybe We Should Have Sent Condi

BoRev.Net

March 8, 2007

As our president likes to point out, he's the "soft bigot of low expectations' or something. And since his plane is directly over the Bermuda Triangle right now, it seems like a good a time for a little roundup of just how low America’s expectations are for this little Latin American junket.

* TomPaine.com frames the whole thing nicely with a question: "What are the odds that his travels will do anything to reverse anti-yanqui sentiment? Not good."

* The Washington Post, generously, says that Bush "faces an enormous gulf between ambition and reality."

* The WaPo Online's Dan Froomkin is more blunt: "Let there be no doubt about this: Bush's attempt to persuade Latin Americans that he is the champion of the poor …is utterly doomed. Almost laughably so."

* AP's Deb Riechmann notes that Bush has "a weak hand," considering that "Anti-Americanism and Bush's poor image, tainted by the war in Iraq, have only fueled Chavez's influence in the region and beyond."

(click here to view entire report)

Venezuelan President to Visit Haiti

In this photo released by Miraflores Press Office, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, left, signs a trade agreement next to Argentina's President Nestor Kirchner, center, as Argentina's First Lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner looks on, during a meeting at the Presidential Residence in Buenos Aires, Friday, March 9, 2007. Chavez is in Argentina in a two-days official visit. (AP Photo/Miraflores Press Office/Marcelo Garcia)

Associated Press

March 9, 2006

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has offered assistance and oil benefits to much of the Caribbean, will meet with Haitian President Rene Preval to discuss providing aid to the impoverished country, Preval's office said Friday.

Chavez is scheduled to arrive in the capital of Port-au-Prince for a one-day meeting Monday, Haiti's National Palace said in a statement.

Venezuela's state-run development bank said this week it will create a $20 million fund to provide humanitarian aid to Haiti and develop joint cooperation projects. The money will pay for health care, education, housing and other basic necessities sorely lacking in the Caribbean nation of 8 million.

Haiti also benefits from Chavez's Petrocaribe initiative, which provides petroleum products and other aid to needy Caribbean countries to help them counter rising energy prices. Recipients are offered deferred payment and long-term financing for fuel shipments...

(click here to view entire report)

War, Neoliberalism and Empire in the 21st Century

Noam Chomsky Connects the Dots

Counterpunch

March 9/11, 2007

NOAM CHOMSKY: For the first time in 500 years since the Spanish conquest Latin America--especially South America--is beginning to move towards some sort of integration. Actually it's a dual type of integration. Part of it is international integration meaning the countries are becoming more integrated with one another. The traditional structure in LA has been that each of the countries is primarily oriented towards Western imperial powers. So [economies are oriented toward trade with] Spain, and in recent years mostly the United States, not with one another. That's even true of the transportation systems. They're designed for export of resources abroad and import of luxury goods for the rich within.

There's a very clear contrast with East Asia. East Asia is resource poor, Latin America is resource rich. You would have expected Latin America to have rapid growth, not East Asia, but it didn't. One of the reasons is that Latin America adhered very rigorously to the neo-liberal policies of the last 25 years, the IMF World Bank policies, and those are basically offshoots of the U.S. Treasury department. They adhered to the rules and they suffered severely--most of the population that is. The rich sectors did ok. East Asia just disregarded the rules and followed the same kinds of programs that the rich countries themselves, including the U.S., had followed to gain their wealth and power. So East Asia grew, but in addition to that, if you look at say imports and exports, Latin America exported raw materials, which is low income basically, and imported luxury goods for the wealthy. East Asia imported capital goods and moved up the ladder of industrial progress and ended up exporting high technology goods...

(click here to view entire report)

Why Latin Americans are skeptical of U.S. intentions

By Mark Weisbrot

Nieman Watchdog

March 09, 2007

President Bush is touring Latin America delivering a message that the United States is dedicated to fighting poverty in the region. But one reason Latin Americans don't believe it is that U.S.-backed policy reforms have resulted in a quarter century of poor economic growth...

(click here to view entire report)

Due south

In focusing on the Middle East George Bush has neglected the problems in his own backyard - as he will see during his trip to Latin America.

U.S. President George W. Bush makes remarks at press conference with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, not shown, Friday, March 9, 2007 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

By Richard Gott

Guardian

March 6, 2007

Excerpt from report:

Bush's neoconservative administration has few weapons with which to confront the appeal of Chávez. The US gave a green light to a coup attempt in 2002, but it failed. On the diplomatic front, it has neither the political clout nor the intellectual understanding to create anything as creatively ambitious as the Alliance for Progress. And in any case, it is too late. While Bush's head has been buried in the sands of the Middle East, the heaving shanty towns of Latin America, where the great majority of the population now lives, have been using a brief period of democracy to elect governments far to the left of anything that the US has customarily sanctioned...

(click here to view entire report)

$49 billion is Slim's pickings in Mexico

Mexican businessman Carlos Slim Helu is seen in this 1996 photo. Helu jumped into third place on the Forbes magazine list of the world's richest people with a massive 19 billion dollar increase in his net worth.(AFP/File/Omar Torres)

By Marla Dickerson

Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

March 9, 2007

MEXICO CITY — Telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helu has built a corporate empire so vast that it's nearly impossible for most Mexicans to go a day without slipping a few pesos into his pocket.

Those pesos add up. On Thursday, Forbes magazine estimated his net worth at $49 billion.

That represented a stunning $19-billion increase from 2006, the biggest one-year jump in a decade for anyone on the magazine's annual list of the world's richest people.

Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates' $56 billion helped him retain the top spot. Investor Warren Buffett was again runner-up with $52 billion.

But with those tycoon-philanthropists increasingly focused on giving away their fortunes, the 67-year-old Slim appears destined to surpass them both. Although his third-place ranking didn't change from 2006, he increased his wealth by 63%. That's a growth rate of $2.2 million an hour.

When Mexicans talk on the phone or use the Internet, they're almost certainly doing it through a company controlled by Slim, who in 1990 bought control of the old state-owned telephone company Telefonos de Mexico, or Telmex, and turned it into a cash machine. Profits from that near-monopoly have bankrolled Slim's telecom acquisitions around the region, propelling his America Movil wireless spinoff into the largest provider of cellphone service in Latin America.

Mexicans buy cigarettes from Slim's tobacco company, apply for mortgages at his bank and purchase policies at his insurance firm. Shoppers patronize his department stores, eat at his restaurants and browse for CDs at his music outlets.

Travelers fly his discount airline. Industrialists buy his auto parts, electronics, steel and ceramic tile. The government hires his infrastructure firm to build highways, water treatment plants and oil platforms. More than 250,000 Mexican employees draw paychecks from his companies.

"It's virtually cradle to grave. It's Slimlandia," said George Grayson, a Mexico expert at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. "You are engulfed by Slim in Mexico."

The portly Slim has more than tripled his fortune since Forbes published its 2004 list, thanks to a string of acquisitions and the ballooning value of his telecom holdings. His current net worth is equivalent to nearly 6% of his nation's gross domestic product, a feat unmatched even by America's robber barons at the height of their influence.

News of the spectacular increase in his wealth elicited cheers and jeers in Mexico, where Slim is a polarizing figure. And it comes at a sensitive time for the nation. President Felipe Calderon is under pressure to confront business oligarchs blamed for squelching competition, exacerbating income inequality and retarding Mexico's economic growth.

"I have tremendous respect and affection for him personally," former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda said of Slim. But Castañeda, who has publicly advocated dismantling Telmex, which controls 94% of Mexico's land lines, added, "The problem is that this is a country where we don't have either the regulatory capacity or the political will to break up monopolies."

(click here to view entire report)

Colombian Opposition Leader Gustavo Petro Defies Threats to Challenge Ties Between Death Squads and US-Allied Colombian Government

Colombia's Senator Gustavo Petro speaks during a Senate speech in Bogota in this Tuesday, Sep. 19, 2006 file picture. Since Petro first aired his allegations of ties between paramilitary death squads and top Colombian politicians in Senate testimony, eight members of Congress have been jailed on charges ranging from creating illegal armed groups to homicide. The latest included the brother of Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araujo on kidnapping and other charges, prompting her resignation as Colombian President Alvaro Uribe sought to contain the damage to Colombia's international image.

Democracy Now!

March 9, 2007

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe -- the closest U.S. ally in Latin America -- has been mired in scandal. Eight lawmakers from Uribe’s party and his former domestic intelligence chief have recently been jailed for having ties to rightwing paramilitary death squads. We speak with Gustavo Petro, the leader of Colombia’s main opposition party, the Democratic Pole. He is a Senator in Colombia and has been leading efforts to investigate ties between paramilitary death squads and top politicians...

(click here to view entire report)

Protests Sweep Latin America as Bush Begins Five-Nation Tour

Democracy Now!

March 9, 2007

Protests have broken out across Latin America as President Bush begins a five-nation tour. In Brazil, over 30,000 people took to the streets of Sao Paulo Thursday with more underway in Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico. We go to Uruguay for a report...

(click here to view entire report)

From Sao Paulo...

Brazilians protest against the visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, scheduled to arrive later in the day for the first leg of a tour of five Latin American countries, along Sao Paulo's Paulista Avenue March 8, 2007. (Caetano Barreira/Reuters)

Activists paint 'get out Bush' near the hotel where U.S. President George W. Bush meets with Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Sao Paulo, Friday, March 9, 2007. President Bush is on the first leg of a week-long tour of Latin America. (AP Photo/Maurilio Cheli)

A protester rides on a bus placarded with anti-Bush posters as he arrives for a protest rally next to the Hilton Hotel in Sao Paulo, Brazil, as US President George W. Bush starts a five-nation Latin American tour.(AFP/Vanderlei Almeida)

Chavez: Jesus is Socialist

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez makes a gesture of prayer as he speaks of US President George W. Bush whom he refered to as "the Devil" during his address to the 61st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. (AFP/Timothy A. Clary)

By Peter Fallon

In The Dark

March 6, 2007

Christians have been debating this contention for a while -- it's nothing new. But from the mouth of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, during the week that George W. Bush is visiting Latin America, "Jesus is a Socialist" is, well, "fightin' words...."

President Hugo Chavez calls Jesus a guiding light for his self-styled socialist revolution. But his relationship with the Roman Catholic Church is complicated and sometimes strained. Even as the leftist leader has invited Catholic priests to share their ideas on transforming Venezuela into a socialist state, he has clashed with some priests who are critical of him - and in one case declared that a Venezuelan archbishop is bound for hell.

So far, it doesn't sound so controversial. At the risk of sounding heretical (but not blasphemous), I've felt that way about certain priests and Bishops myself during my lifetime. Chavez made his particular remark about Monsignor Roberto Luckert, an archbishop who recently said that Venezuela was headed down the road to Communism, a charge Chavez rejects. His idea of "21st Century Socialism" is, to hear him tell it, true Christianity...

(click here to view entire report)

Bush and Chavez on rival tours in bid to win Latin American hearts and minds

US President George W. Bush (behind) walks past Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at a 2004 summit in Monterrey, Mexico. Bush criticized the economic model of his Venezuelan counterpart, saying it would lead to more poverty, on the eve of a tour of Latin America aimed at warning against the dangers of populism and isolationism.(AFP/File/Luke Frazza)

By Jude Webber in Buenos Aires and Andrew Buncombe in Washington

Independent

Published: 09 March 2007

As George Bush arrives in Uruguay tonight as part of a five-nation Latin America tour, his verbal sparring partner, Hugo Chavez, is scheduled to hold a rally 30 miles away across the River Plate in Argentina. The George and Hugo show is poised to start again.

It is unlikely that either will have anything particularly pleasant to say about the other. Despite their symbiotic relationship based on fossil fuel - Venezuela is the fourth largest supplier of oil to the US - Mr Bush and Mr Chavez are engaged in a battle for influence in Latin America. For once it is the US that is running second, with a predominance of countries in the region headed by left-wing leaders.

For decades Washington wielded influence through bodies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and through direct or indirect military intervention when it saw fit. But in recent years the power of the IMF in the region has waned. In that vacuum, Mr Chavez, bolstered by soaring oil incomes, has stepped in and offered countries an alternative source of funding and credit...

(click here to view entire report)

Chavez goes on counter-tour to Bush trip

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez waves after arriving at Buenos Aires airport March 8, 2007. Chavez will meet Argentina's President Nestor Kirchner on Friday and will also lead a rally at a soccer stadium to demonstrate against the visit by U.S. President George W. Bush to Uruguay. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci (ARGENTINA)

By BILL CORMIER, Associated Press Writer

March 9, 2007

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday that President Bush's Latin American tour was nothing more than an attempt to improve America's image, dismissing pledges of U.S. aid as a cynical attempt to "confuse" the region.

Chavez, who complained last week that Bush's tour was meant to divide Latin America and isolate his leftist government, launched a counter-tour of his own, arriving late Thursday in Buenos Aires. He said the U.S. leader only recently "has discovered poverty" in the region.

"I believe the chief objective of the Bush trip is to try to scrub clean the face of the (U.S.) empire in Latin America. But it's too late," Chavez said of recent Bush pledges of aid. "It seems he's just now discovered that poverty exists in the region."

(click here to view entire report)

Bush arrives in Brazil amid protests

March 8, 2006

[Editor's Note: See the Irish Times' report, "Protests await Bush in South America."]

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- President Bush opened a weeklong tour of Latin America on Thursday as police clashed with protesters in Brazil and across the region...

(click here to view entire report)

From Sao Paulo...

Demonstrators march in protest of the visit of US President George W. Bush, in the main avenue of Sao Paulo, Brazil's economic capital. Bush arrived in Brazil Thursday at the start of a Latin American tour to promote democracy and free trade, amid protests in the region and a rival trip by his arch foe Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.(AFP/Evaristo Sa)

Brazilians protest against the visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, scheduled to arrive later in the day for the first leg of a tour of five Latin American countries, along Sao Paulo's Paulista Avenue March 8, 2007. The poster reads, 'Go Home Yankee Murderer.' (Caetano Barreira/Reuters)

Brazilian women carry sugarcane stalks while holding a 'Bush Go Home' banner during a protest against the visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, scheduled to arrive later in the day for the first leg of a tour of five Latin American countries, along Sao Paulo's Paulista Avenue March 8, 2007. (Sergio Moraes/Reuters)

Brazilians protest against the visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, scheduled to arrive later in the day for the first leg of a tour of five Latin American countries, along Sao Paulo's Paulista Avenue March 8, 2007. REUTERS/Caetano Barreira (BRAZIL)

Brazilian police clash with protesters demonstrating against the visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, scheduled to arrive later in the day for the first leg of a tour of five Latin American countries, along Sao Paulo's Paulista Avenue March 8, 2007. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes (BRAZIL)

Brazilians protest against the visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, scheduled to arrive later in the day for the first leg of a tour of five Latin American countries, along Sao Paulo's Paulista Avenue March 8, 2007. REUTERS/Caetano Barreira (BRAZIL)

From Bogotá...

Two men and a dog walk past a graffiti against US President George W. Bush in Bogota, Thursday, March 8, 2007. US President George W. Bush will visit Colombia on March 11. (AP Photo/Inaldo Perez)

Demonstrators throw stones at riot police during a protest against the upcoming visit of US President George W. Bush to Colombia, in Bogota, Thursday, March 8, 2007. US President George W. Bush will visit Colombia March 11. (AP Photo/Inaldo Perez)

From Guatemala City...

Women pass by a graffiti reading, "Get out Bush" in Guatemala City, 05 March 2007. US President George W. Bush heads to Latin America Thursday to sell his message of democracy, free trade and cooperation with Washington, and to fight the growing sway of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.(AFP/File/Orlando Sierra)

A protester spray-paints a wall with the phrase 'Bush, Genocide' during a demonstration against the upcoming visit of U.S. President George W. Bush in Guatemala City March 3, 2007. REUTERS/Carlos Duarte (GUATEMALA)

A demonstrator holds up a poster during a protest against the upcoming visit of U.S. President George W. Bush to Guatemala in front of the US Embassy in Guatemala City, Saturday, Mar. 3, 2007. US President George W. Bush will visit the country on March 11. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)

Brazil police battle Bush protesters

Brazilian Policemen beat a protester during a march against U.S. President George W. Bush in Sao Paulo, Thursday, March 8, 2007. Bush will visit Brazil March 8-9. (AP Photo/Maurilio Cheli)

By STAN LEHMAN, Associated Press Writer

March 8, 2007

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Police clashed Thursday with Brazilians protesting a visit by
President Bush and his push for an ethanol energy alliance, while dozens of students in Colombia showed their opposition by lobbing rocks and explosives at authorities.

Violence in Sao Paulo took place several hours before Bush arrived in South America's largest city on the first stop of his five-nation Latin America tour.

More than 6,000 students, environmentalists and left-leaning Brazilians held a largely peaceful march through the financial heart of Brazil before police fired tear gas at protesters and beat them with batons. Hundreds fled and ducked into businesses to avoid the chaos, some of them bloodied.

Authorities did not immediately report any injuries, but Brazilian media said at least six people were hurt and news photographs showed injured people being carried away...

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U.S. "Anti-Drug" Post Pressured to Close by Ecuador Protesters

By Bill Faries

[Editor's Note: The term "anti-drug" is code for counter-insurgency. The United States government will gladly turn a blind eye to "our kind" of drug traffickers (i.e. Nicaraguan contras and Colombian paramilitaries). But if left-wing guerrillas get in on the gig, well, by golly, we'd better build some "counter-narcotics" bases down yonder to deal with the problem.]

March 5 (Bloomberg) -- The largest U.S. military outpost in South America faces growing pressure to close as protestors opposed to foreign military bases begin a week-long conference in Quito backed by Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa.

The International Conference for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases, taking place this week in Quito, is focused on ending the U.S. presence at Ecuador's Manta Airfield, where a 1999 accord allows up to 475 U.S. troops to be stationed as part of U.S.-backed efforts to fight drug trafficking. Correa will address the conference March 9, said spokeswoman Aura Ledena.

"There's strong opposition in Ecuadorean society to the U.S. presence at Manta," Presidential spokesman Javier Rueda said in an e-mailed statement. ``When the current agreement at Manta expires, U.S. forces will have to leave," he said. That agreement expires in 2009, said Jose Ruiz, a spokesman for the U.S. military's Southern Command in Miami...

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Internet cartoon gives Colombian government fits

By TOBY MUSE, Associated Press Writer

March 8, 2007

BOGOTA, Colombia - With a cast of leering far-right paramilitaries, smiling skeletons climbing from mass graves and a buffoonish George W. Bush, an animated Internet cartoon that criticizes Colombia's peace process has prompted a rebuke from the nation's foreign minister.

The two-minute clip playing on the Amnesty International Web site is presented as a mock commercial for a new soap, Colombia Clean. It's a sarcastic reference to the Colombian government effort to make peace with illegal paramilitaries, a process that critics say absolves extremist right-wing warlords of savage massacres.

Colombia Clean, the bubbly narrator promises, will wash away "dirty consciences" and "bloodstained histories."

"We can wallow in the dirt of human rights abuses, but stay spotless with the nonstick blame repellant of Colombia Clean!" a Colombian politician says.

"If you're a member of a ruthless paramilitary militia, you can come clean," chimes in an increasingly bloodstained paramilitary commander, "And continue killing!"

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The President's Latin American Journey: A Matter of Low Expectations and Utter Despair

A Brazilian woman protests the visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, scheduled to arrive later in the day for the first leg of a tour of five Latin American countries, along Sao Paulo's Paulista Avenue March 8, 2007. The words on her back read, 'Bush Go Home. Murderer.' REUTERS/Sergio Moraes (BRAZIL)

Council on Hemispheric Affairs

March 8, 2007

Excerpt from report:

The President is taking the trip at this juncture for a number of pressing, if not particularly strategic reasons. For starters, with his public approval rating dancing just above thirty percent and the political climate on capital hill becoming increasingly more chilly to his administration, Bush could—conceivably—naively view his southern visit as a diversion from White House pressures being generated by the Iraq war. Regardless of Bush’s preconceived notion of how he will be received in Latin America, and his awesome capacity for denial, the demonstrably, poorly-informed president will undoubtedly be shocked by the angry anti-Bush demonstrations likely to occur in some of countries which he will be visiting. Bush and his White House handlers have become painfully aware that he is running out of time for substantive initiatives in Latin America to be conjured up, sent to Congress and then implemented. There may be just too much of a handicap to engage in much heavy lifting in order to rehabilitate his administration’s flawed reputation when it comes to inter-American affairs. This trip is a reflection of a frantic attempt to save a foundering Latin American foreign policy and the subsequent reputation which history may not treat all that kindly...

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1947-64: An age of short-sightedness?

By Jaimini Bhagwati

Business Standard

March 8, 2007

Excerpt from report:

In a 2003 lecture, former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers mentioned that the rate at which a country would grow depends substantially on its "ability to integrate with the global economy through trade and investment ... capacity to maintain sustainable government finances and sound money ... and ability to put in place an institutional environment in which contracts can be enforced and property rights can be established." In the 2004 Wider Annual Lecture titled "Rethinking Growth Strategies," Dani Rodrik, Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard University, observed that these are outcomes, not policies. Another outcome often cited in the context of the debate on globalisation is that only those developing countries that are in a position to manage their interaction with the rest of the world should open up in a phased, sector by sector manner. Additionally, Rodrik pointed out in his 2004 lecture that the examples of the Asian tigers and later China, India and Vietnam suggest that successful outcomes can be reached by very "divergent and heterodox institutional arrangements."

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The plot against Latin America

Bush's trip to the region is supposed to counter the leftist influence of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, but the effort is doomed to failure.

A woman shouts slogans during a protest against U.S. President George W. Bush 's upcoming visit to Colombia in Bogota March 7, 2007. Bush will visit Colombia as part of a tour of Latin American countries that includes Brazil, Uruguay, Guatemala and Mexico. The banner reads 'Bush Out.' REUTERS/Alejandra Munoz (COLOMBIA)

By Roger Burbach

Guardian

March 7, 2007

Bush's trip to Latin America is a calculated effort to counter Hugo Chavez's growing influence in the region and to separate the "bad left" from the "good left" - namely Uruguay and to some extent Brazil. He hopes to add them to the dwindling bloc of pro-US nations - including Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico - that he is visiting.

But from the beginning the trip is doomed to fail. He will be greeted by demonstrators in Montevideo, Uruguay who are opposed to the special trade agreements being negotiated with the government of Tabare Vasquez. Even members of Vasquez's ruling party, the Broad Front, are active in organising the demonstration.

Across the border in Argentina, which Bush will not be visiting, massive demonstrations are being organized to coincide with his stay. And, to add insult to injury, Hugo Chavez is flying in to take part. While Argentinian President Nestor Kirchner will not be participating, lower level government officials are. This comes on the heels of a series of commercial and economic accords that Kirchner just signed with Chavez on a trip to Caracas, including the founding of the Bank of the South, which is seen as an alternative to US-dominated institutions like the Inter-American Development Bank...

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Attending to Hurricane Hugo

Editors Note: It takes another kind of hurricane --Hurricane Hugo-- to bring out the "compassionate conservative" side of Katrina George.

BBC

March 5, 2007

US President George W Bush has unveiled a social aid programme to alleviate the plight of the region's poor, two days before a tour of Latin America.

Millions of dollars will be spent on education, housing and health care.

In a speech, Mr Bush described poverty in the region as "a scandal" that had caused some people to question the value of democracy...

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Massive anti-Bush Chavez rally in Buenos Aires confirmed

Members of FUCVAM, an Uruguayan organization that helps the needy solve housing problems, wear T-shirts with portraits of U.S. President George W. Bush and the words 'Get out of Latin America, mass murderer' at the start of a 180 km (111 miles) protest march to the city of Colonia, where Bush and his Uruguayan counterpart Tabare Vazquez will spend a day together on Saturday, in Montevideo March 6, 2007. REUTERS/Andres Stapff (URUGUAY)

Mercopress

March 6, 2007

[Editor's Note: The Uruguayan man at the front of the march pictured above is flying Venezuela's flag.]

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela will lead a rally in a stadium in Buenos Aires on Friday, when US President George W. Bush arrives to the San Juan presidential residence estancia in Uruguay, only 60 kilometers away from the Argentine capital...

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Scientists seek coca's medical benefits

A man fills bags with coca leaves at the coca market in La Paz, Thursday, March 1, 2007. In its annual global survey of the drug war, the US State Department, said Thursday that in the Western Hemisphere, Colombia, Venezuela and Bolivia were identified once again as major suppliers of illegal drugs, mainly cocaine, to the U.S., Europe and Asia. (AP Photo/Dado Galdieri) (AP Photo/Dado Galdieri)

By DAN KEANE, Associated Press Writer

Tue Mar 6, 6:54 PM ET

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Cuban scientists are studying the possible medicial benefits of the coca leaf, a Bolivian official said Tuesday, signaling a possible expansion of President Evo Morales' plans to develop more legal products from a plant that is the chief ingredient of cocaine.

Felix Barra, minister of coca and alternative development, told Bolivian radio the Cubans have visited growing areas and would later go to research centers "to examine the benefits of the coca leaf from a pharmaceutical perspective."

Bolivians have chewed coca as a mild stimulant for centuries, and coca tea is commonly served in offices here instead of coffee. But the small green leaves are also turned into cocaine, manufactured here and smuggled mostly to Brazil and Europe.

Since taking office in January, Morales, a former coca grower, has stepped up anti-cocaine enforcement while promoting the leaf's traditional role in Bolivian life. But his plans to expand the plant's use to include flour, liquor and even toothpaste have vexed U.S. officials bent on reducing coca production.

Cuba, an ally of Morales' leftist government, has built a pharmaceutical industry that exports to many countries. Cuban doctors also have conducted extensive research into alternative medicines due to a shortage of imported drugs caused in part by the U.S. trade embargo of the island...

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Lula tells Brazil to respect women

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva listens to a singer during the launch of a HIV/AIDS education program and World Women's Day celebration at the Cidade de Samba, in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, March 7, 2007. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Wednesday, March 7, 2007; 3:47 PM

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilians must show women more respect by using condoms during sex, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday at an event to help women avoid sexually transmitted diseases.

"AIDS is growing among heterosexual women. We are going to fight hypocrisy. We need to give out condoms and teach people how to use them. People need to be taught how to have sex, that's the only way we will have an AIDS-free country," Lula said.

Lula's words marked the start of a new Health Ministry program to lower AIDS infection rates among women, up 44 percent from 1995 to 2005...

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Bush to Brazil

Brazilian students prepare effigies to protest against U.S. President George W. Bush in Sao Paulo March 6, 2007. Bush and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are expected to discuss Brazilian-U.S. cooperation in forging a global market in ethanol, a biofuel increasingly used to power vehicles, when they meet in Sao Paulo on March 9. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker (BRAZIL)

By Conor Foley

Guardian

March 7, 2007 10:30 PM

Tomorrow's meeting between Bush and Lula says as much about the growing power of Brazil as it does about the interests of the US.

The most interesting thing about tomorrow's visit by President George Bush to Brazil is how uninteresting most Brazilians find it.

Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of trade unionists, students and activists from Brazil's large landless movement will demonstrate against Bush, who is almost universally loathed in Brazil. Dislike of him spans the domestic political spectrum. An opinion poll for the BBC showed that 60% of Brazilians had a negative opinion of him, which was one of the highest figures of any country in the world.

But it would be wrong to portray Bush's visit as a 'plot against Latin America', despite the paranoid precautions of his security services. As far as most are concerned, it is a good thing for Brazil's most important trading partner, to be visiting their country. And as Brazil's President Lula made clear earlier this week, the two governments have much to discuss.

What Brazil wants to talk about is very specific. It wants an end to trade-distorting US agricultural subsidies and is threatening to take a case against the US at the World Trade Organisation over US protectionism of its ethanol industry. And it wants US support for its proposals for reform of the UN security council, including a seat for a Latin American country. It also wants to discuss measures to avert the threat of global warming and protect the Amazon rain forest.

The issue that Lula has explicitly ruled off the agenda is Venezuela and its radical government, led by Hugo Chavez. "We respect the sovereignty of other countries", Lula said in an interview on Monday, "and there is only space on the agenda to discuss the problems facing our own countries."

This is, in effect, a pre-emptive strike against what everyone knows to be one of the main reasons for Bush's visit to Latin America...

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