Fwd: Latin America News Round-up [June 18, 2009]

[Julio Huato]

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From: "Center for Economic and Policy Research" <la...@cepr.net>
Date: Jun 18, 2009 3:06 PM
Subject: Latin America News Round-up [June 18, 2009]
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CENTER FOR ECONOMIC AND POLICY RESEARCH
________________________________________

Latin America News Round-up
June 18, 2009


Argentina
Wealthy businessman takes on Argentina's Kirchner in mid-term vote. Reuters
The Kirchners say they have 'shut the mouth' of neoliberalism. Buenos Aires Herald
Argentina Jun Consumer Confidence +2.4% On Mo,+1% On Yr. Dow Jones Newswires

Bolivia
Bolivian leader 'enemy of Peru'. BBC
Bolivia asks Colombia to support legalization of coca leaf consumption. Colombia Reports

Ecuador
Interview with Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa. NACLA
Ecuador to Offer Bond Holdouts Less Than 35 Cents (Update2). Bloomberg
Ecuadorian President to visit Venezuela in June. El Universal
Ecuador prepares sale of 50,000 tons of rice to Venezuela. El Universal

Venezuela
Suspects Arrested in Death of Venezuelan Opposition Activist. EFE
Students March for New Type of Education in Venezuela. Venezuelanalysis
Government dismantles Venezuela's patent system. El Universal

Andean Region
Peru Indian protest leader arrives in Nicaragua. AP
UN to Check Amazon Clash in Peru. Inside Costa Rica
EU trade talks with Peru continue despite government violence. EU Obersver
Colombian Law to Aid Conflict Victims Labeled Discriminatory. EFE
Quinoa Plants a Seed for Food Revolution in Colombia. Upside Down World
Chile's $5.7 Bln In New Public Spending Not Seen As Stimulus. Dow Jones Newswires
Chile bolsters its military. GlobalPost

Southern Cone
Tight rules helped mitigate crisis in Brazil. Financial Times
Brazil invests 7.6 million USD in family farming. Mercopress
Brazilian leader special guest at AU summit. AFP

México, Central America and the Caribbean
Mexican Industrial Output Falls 13 Percent. EFE
Mexico's opposition PRI's race lead narrows: survey. Xinhua
Gun flow south is a crisis for two nations. The Los Angeles Times
Salvadoran Government Looks to Ban Precious-Metals Mining. EFE
Guatemala turns to DNA to help solve war crimes. Reuters
Guyana Slams U.S. TIP Report. CaribWorldNews
Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon Condemns US Supreme Court's Refusal to Hear Appeal of Cuban Five. Democracy NOW!
Student protesters in Haiti burn UN police car. AP
Haiti's prime minister visits Miami. South Florida Sun Sentinel

Region: Trade, Security, Economy and Integration



Argentina   [contents]

Wealthy businessman takes on Argentina's Kirchner in mid-term vote
Kevin Gray. Reuters. June 18, 2009
http://blogs.reuters.com/global/2009/06/17/wealthy-businessman-takes-on-argentinas-kirchner-in-mid-term-vote/

A wealthy businessman and critic of President Cristina Fernandez is spending millions of dollars in his own money to win the biggest race in Argentina's upcoming mid-term elections.

Polls show Francisco de Narvaez, who leads a congressional ticket for a dissident faction of the ruling Peronist party, in a close race against Fernandez's husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, who is widely seen as the government's top political and economic strategist.

Both are bidding for a congressional seat from Buenos Aires province, Argentina's largest and most populous, in a vote that will define to what extent the Kirchners keep their grip on the governing party through 2011 presidential elections.

Fernandez is expected to lose her congressional majority in the June 28th balloting.

Little-known politically only months ago, de Narvaez has raised his profile by spending heavily on television advertising and using his wealth to lead one of the most technologically modern campaigns in Argentine history.

De Narvaez, who was born in Colombia and is known for a tattoo spread across his neck, has said he plans to spend up to the $4 million limit allowed under Argentine campaign finance laws - virtually all of it out of his own pocket.

He has spent an additional undisclosed amount on a mass marketing campaign before the campaign formally got underway.

A member of an Argentine family that sold a popular supermarket chain it once owned for $600 million in the late 1990s, de Narvaez has used the Internet and employed his own video production crew to bolster his campaign.

It has also helped him that the Kirchners are struggling with slumping popularity ratings.

A center-right candidate, de Narvaez has campaigned on fighting crime and criticizing the governing style of the Kirchners as confrontational and authoritarian.

Kirchner has lashed out at de Narvaez's campaign, saying he is looking to buy his way into a more prominent role in politics.

But his campaign is shaking up the Buenos Aires province race, and at least one poll last week showed him holding a slight lead over Kirchner.
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The Kirchners say they have 'shut the mouth' of neoliberalism
Buenos Aires Herald. June 17, 2009
http://www.buenosairesherald.com/BreakingNews/View/4100

President Cristina Fernández criticized sectors of the opposition that are "seeking to privatize again" companies that were recently nationalized by her administration, and said her government has "shut the mouth of neoliberalism."

The president's remarks were made at a ceremony at the Atucha II nuclear plant, where she was inaugurating the installation of a part of the reactor, which is scheduled to become operational in 2011, after decades of delays in the project.

Alongside the president were Buenos Aires Governor Daniel Scioli, who is running for a seat in the Lower House in the upcoming mid-term vote and Planning Minister Julio de Vido.

The Kirchner administration has nationalized several private companies in the past, which it claimed failed to provide a proper service, including Argentina's main water supplier, railway services, a postal company and others.

In her speech, Fernández de Kirchner indirectly referred to City Mayor Mauricio Macri, head of the opposition's PRO-party, claiming that some people "say they want to privatize (airliner) Aerolíneas Argentinas again or they said pensions should be managed by the private sector again."

"They dream of returning to the model of the nineties, because they received profits and income in those years," she said.

Also, President's husband and congressional candidate in Buenos Aires province for the Peronist Victory Front party, Néstor Kirchner, attacked neoliberal politics from the past.

After arriving to the Greater Buenos Aires district of Escobar to lead an act in his party's favour, Former president, Kirchner, said that "due to the need of upward social actions we are having an electoral battle for the June 28 mid term elections, against the past and the ones that sold and bankrupted Argentina".

"I don't care when they attack my own interests they always attack, but I want the people to like me."

"It is necessary to deepen the country's growth" said Kirchner, who also assured that the district will have "the technical school that this people deserve."
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Argentina Jun Consumer Confidence +2.4% On Mo,+1% On Yr
Taos Turner. Dow Jones Newswires. June 16, 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090616-715720.html

BUENOS AIRES (Dow Jones)--Consumer confidence in Argentina seems to have stabilized and is in some ways improving after months of negative sentiment and bad economic data, according to a new study published Tuesday.

The consumer confidence index compiled by Torcuato di Tella University, or UTDT, for the month of June rose 2.4% from May and rose 1% from a year earlier.

The last time a year-on-year increase took place was in February 2007, Di Tella said.

The index's month-on-month data have now improved for the second consecutive month. Even so, the index is still at its lowest values since the beginning of 2003.

UTDT said the index is now at 40.1 points, which is down about 27% from January 2008, when the index reversed its positive trend and declined steadily to current levels.

People who responded to the survey said their personal situations improved on the month. Their willingness to buy property and durable goods rose 6.76% from May, although their assessment of the macroeconomic situation worsened by 0.93%.

Confidence declined in the City of Buenos Aires and in the country's interior provinces, but it improved in the highly populated areas adjacent to the capital city.

Bolivia   [contents]

Bolivian leader 'enemy of Peru'
Dan Collyns. BBC. June 17, 2009
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8106248.stm

Peru's foreign minister has accused Bolivian President Evo Morales of being an enemy of Peru.

Jose Antonia Garcia Belaunde's remarks followed Peru's withdrawal on Tuesday of its ambassador to Bolivia.

That move, on Tuesday, was a response to Mr Morales's remarks about violent clashes that have erupted in Peru over Amazon land rights.

Mr Morales described the deaths of indigenous protesters in the dispute as a genocide caused by free trade.

Decrees

The Peruvian foreign minister's response marks an escalation of tension and bad feeling between the governments of the neighbouring Andean countries.

Mr Garcia Belaunde said the Bolivian leader appeared to believe he had a messianic role to play in liberating Peruvians from the government of President Alan Garcia.

Mr Morales's comments on free trade appeared to be a reference to Peru's bilateral treaty with the United States, which facilitated the decrees that the native Amazonians believed to be a threat to their lands.

At least 34 people were killed when police attempted to clear a roadblock of indigenous protesters this month.

President Garcia blamed foreign forces - widely believed to mean Bolivia and Venezuela - for inciting the unrest.

Mr Garcia Belaunde reinforced that allegation, saying there were many indications that Bolivia was behind the violence in Peru.

Some experts say the relationship between the two countries has never been so bad.
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Bolivia asks Colombia to support legalization of coca leaf consumption
Adriaan Alsema. Colombia Reports. June 18, 2009
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/4611-bolivia-asks-colombia-to-support-legalization-of-coca-leaf-consumption.html

Bolivia Wednesday asked Colombia to support its initiative at the organization of American States (OAS) to legalize the consumption of coca leaves.

"Today we asked the Colombian government (...) that they accompany us to obtain support within the OAS to not penalize the consumption of the coca leaf, which is our cultural tradition. We hope Colombia helps us," Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca told French press agency AFP.

According to the Bolivian Minister, his country does support fighting illicit drugs like cocaine and heroin, but "it is different to penalize an activity like the 'mambeo' [the chewing of coca leaves], which is part of our heritage and culture."

The Bolivian Foreign Minister is on an official visit to Colombia.

Ecuador   [contents]

Interview with Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa
Translated by Justin Delacour. NACLA. June 18, 2009
https://nacla.org/node/5900

The numbers speak for themselves: In May, Rafael Correa was reelected president of Ecuador with 51 percent of the vote. Correa had a 23-point advantage over the second-place candidate, ex-President Lucio Gutiérrez, and he won in 17 of the country's 24 provinces. In this interview the day after his victory with Spanish magazine Diagonal, Correa says that Ecuador's government-backed "Citizens' Revolution" will accelerate at an intensifying pace over the next four years. With a majority in the National Assembly, and a Constitution that was drafted and approved during his first government by a broad convergence of allied forces, Correa's path seems wide open.

You are now in a scenario that you dreamed of two years ago, with the approval of the constitution and your reelection?

I don't have the scenario that I dreamed of two years ago, I assure you. I have dreamed of a scenario in which there is no misery, there is no inequality, there is no injustice. And we've yet to achieve that. You say that I had a democratic triumph, but that's only in the formal sense of democracy. I maintain that Ecuador and Latin America have elections but have yet to arrive at what is democracy. In truth, I don't believe that there is democracy in a country where there is so much injustice, so much inequality.

Whoever knows Latin America well, knows that it is the most inequitable region of the world. And Ecuador, within the most inequitable region of the world, is one of the most inequitable countries. One can find here the most insulting opulence alongside the most intolerable misery. That has to change, and only when that changes will we have true democracy. That is the scenario that I have always dreamed of, and that is why we are here. What are the means to reach that end? A country that is more just, with greater solidarity and equity. The electoral results have supported us broadly. That is a strong base of political support to continue deepening the changes. Rather than changing course, we are talking about deepening the changes that we have initiated, carrying them out more radically, in a more accelerated way.

With regard to the economic plan, we are going to continue deepening the reforms, continue emphasizing the popular economy (informal businesses, micro-enterprises, artisans, cooperatives, etc.), a sector that was made largely invisible by public policies. Today more than ever we have to support the popular economy. While in the modern capitalist sector you spend $10,000 to create a job position, in the popular sector, you create a position of employment with just $800.

In terms of social policy, we are going to continue with this social revolution that we began two years and three months ago, in which the characteristics of the government have become clear. In the economic sector too. We should continue with this revolution putting an end to the impunity for bankers, this is an urgent challenge. By December we are going to close the curtain on this tragedy that the banking system created and that still goes unpunished. That is urgent.

Finishing off this nightmare, continuing to collect taxes, recovering our natural resources, struggling against corruption and continuing also with this politics of opening to all the countries of the world, in a context of mutual respect, and especially pursuing Latin American integration and constructing this pan-regional country ("patria grande") of which Jose Martí spoke of. What Ecuador did on Sunday was to ratify the project. What we are going to do is deepen and ratify that project: the Citizens' Revolution.

From a more global perspective, the change that is needed is much more radical and relates to the architecture of global power of the corporations and mega-banks. Do you believe that it is possible to democratize this capitalist system that we live in now? Do you believe that it is possible to accomplish this change?

Within the system, no. By changing the system, yes, and that is what we are doing. But we can't be naïve. The changes and revolutions in a society depend upon the correlation of forces. With this strong base of political support that we had Sunday, we can greatly deepen our revolution. But remember all the psychological trauma that they've inflicted upon us. For someone who doesn't know Ecuador but reads its newspapers, we were the most unpopular, corrupt and incompetent government in the country's history, in spite of the fact that we've had more than 70 percent popular support for the government's performance ? and popular support for the government's performance isn't the same thing as voter intention, to be sure. We always had about 56 percent of voter intention.

And there was a very interesting phenomenon in the elections. The opposition didn't take one vote away from me; they split their vote among themselves. The right saw that little Alvaro Noboa didn't have a chance, so they ditched him and bet everything on Lucio Gutiérrez. That also demonstrates the amorality of our powerful sectors, of the Ecuadorian right, because they put their interests before their principles. You know that nobody sensible can vote for a person with such serious moral and intellectual limitations as Lucio Gutiérrez. But the interest groups of the country bet their fortunes on him in an attempt to boycott the Citizens' Revolution. But they shot themselves in the foot, thank God.

In any case, change depends upon the correlation of forces. On Sunday the Ecuadorian people clearly demonstrated their support for the government, they've given us more democratic legitimacy, and we can advance with much greater strength, thus giving greater legitimacy to these changes that, little by little, go on changing the correlation of forces in favor of the people. That means many things.

Six kids drowned a week ago in an absurd tragedy.1 They were poor kids. Go look how many times that story came out in the newspaper. If they had been the children of powerful families, I assure you it would have been covered by the newspapers for two months, and a commission would have been ordered, etc. So Ecuador has to change this correlation of forces, and we are going to continue doing it. Little by little the force of the people gains space and this translates into real changes in terms of the devotion of resources and public policies to the needs of the weak. That's outside the capitalist system, and inside the socialist system of the 21st Century.

The crisis of global capitalism that we are living through in this moment does not come from outside the system, it comes from within. Among the recurring crises of capitalism, this is one of the most serious, but from within the system. We are not going to find solutions within the same system that is collapsing. We have to construct something new and better. I believe that there exists a consciousness among the majority of Latin American governments and leaders, so that that they are taking this opportunity to construct something new and different.

For example, we are constructing our own regional financial architecture to overcome our dependency. Nowadays they don't need bombs, ships or planes to subjugate our countries; they need dollars. These have been the "arms" for subjugating us by means of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. There is no reason it has to be this way. With the resources that Latin America has, we could self-finance, but we engage in the absurdity of sending our resources, in the form of reserves, to the First World, by way of autonomous Central Banks.

With a regional financial architecture, our resources could stay in the region and we would do away with one of the principle forms of dependency that has served to subjugate us, which is financial dependency. That much is clear to us. We are advancing. We just created, at the level of ALBA (the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas), the only system of regional compensation that will lessen the need for dollars, but there is still much to go over, to make the Bank of the South effective, and I hope that, in the short term, or at least in the medium term, we will create this fund of the reserves of the South, so that we can keep our money here in the region instead of sending it to the First World to finance the developed countries.

What are the goals and projects that you want to achieve in the next four years in your relations with Latin America and the United States?

With respect to Latin America, consolidating UNASUR (the Union of South American Nations) and making it effective, because we can no longer keep talking about integration as an ethereal issue that nobody understands well, that nobody feels. Integration has to translate into concrete actions that benefit our population. And what are these concrete actions? One of the great errors of all the integrationist focus in most recent years ? not necessarily at the beginning of integration, with the CAN (the Andean Community), etcetera ? is that it was a commercial integration. It dealt with seeking out bigger markets based on the absurdity of competition.

Competition is a concept that is already very debatable at the level of economic agents, but at the level of countries ? fraternal countries ? are you going to compete? It's a complete absurdity. And how have they competed? Whoever mistreats the labor force most, whoever puts it in the most precarious position, because that is the only way to gain competitiveness. And we deteriorate the standard of living of our population and, above all, our working class. And the ones that most benefit from the cheapest products are the First World.

We can't keep falling into this trap. We have to create an integration with a different focus, a focus upon coordination, complementarity and cooperation among fraternal countries, transcending the merely commercial. For example, with energy integration. Latin America can be self-sufficient in energy, and that will also do away with a source of vulnerability. Also food security and financial integration? We have to work on all of these aspects. Advancements are being made, but they have to be made more rapidly. Within the UNASUR, basically one of the most immediate objectives is to look for a new regional financial architecture that does away with the absurdity that Latin America exports capital, finances the First World, and then gets down on its knees for them to give us some dollars. This cannot continue one more day.

Justin Delacour translated this interview for NACLA. It was first published in Spanish by the Madrid-based biweekly newspaper Diagonal.

1. Correa is referring to an incident that occurred on April 20 in Lumbisí, a small village in the northeast of Quito where a group of children were swept away by the current of the San Pedro River. Six children drowned.
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Ecuador to Offer Bond Holdouts Less Than 35 Cents (Update2)
Stephan Kueffner. Bloomberg. June 17, 2009
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=anOeBiRs2CNQ

June 17 (Bloomberg) -- Ecuador will offer holdouts from its buyback of defaulted debt less than the 35 cents on the dollar paid to holders who tendered their securities earlier, Finance Minister Maria Elsa Viteri said.

Bondholders who for regulatory reasons weren't able to participate in the buyback by the June 3 deadline will still be able to sell their bonds at the 35-cent price, Viteri told reporters today in Quito.

"For the rest of holders, if any of them would like a definite solution at some moment, that will have to be at a revised price that I'm working on right now," Viteri said. "It would be inferior to 35" cents.

The government estimates that most of the bondholders who didn't participate are Italian, Viteri reiterated. Through the buyback, Ecuador retired 91 percent of its $3.2 billion bonds due 2012 and 2030, close to a third of its foreign debt, after declaring a default in December.

Ecuador won acceptance for its 35-cent offer from 91 percent of the bondholders, Viteri said on June 11.

Viteri today said she has spoken to officials at Italy's National Corporations and Bourse Commission about extending the original bond offer to holders there.

"We understand that Italian bondholders have begun to contact their regulator and are interested in getting a solution as soon as possible," Viteri said.

Ecuador will continue to try to reduce its debt load, mostly owed to foreign governments and multilateral lenders, through dialogue, she added.

Viteri spoke after signing an agreement with Spanish diplomats that writes off $30 million Ecuador owes that country in exchange for pledges to invest that amount in local schools and health programs.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephan Kueffner in Quito at skue...@bloomberg.net
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Ecuadorian President to visit Venezuela in June
El Universal. June 17, 2009
http://english.eluniversal.com/2009/06/17/en_eco_art_ecuadorian-president_17A2397971.shtml

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa will visit Venezuela and the United States at the end of June, an official source confirmed on Wednesday.

The source told Efe that in Venezuela, Correa is to take part in the ceremony for his country inclusion into the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of our America (ALBA), slated for June 24, reported Efe.

On June 25, the source added, the Ecuadorian head of State will attend the United Nations conference on the world financial crisis that will take place in New York.
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Ecuador prepares sale of 50,000 tons of rice to Venezuela
El Universal. June 17, 2009
http://english.eluniversal.com/2009/06/17/en_eco_art_ecuador-prepares-sal_17A2396763.shtml

The government of Ecuador is about to sell 50,000 tons of rice to Venezuela, reported local media on Wednesday.

Although there are some details to be worked out to make the deal, the officials of the Ecuadorian Ministry of Agriculture said that the operation is ready to proceed. Ecuador will sell 25,000 tons of rough rice and a similar volume of processed grain, Efe reported.

The rice that will be shipped to Venezuela is stored in Ecuador and is part of the strategic reserve of the State, which recorded a surplus of production this year.

Óscar Araújo, a top official at the Corporation of Supply and Agricultural Services (CASA), is visiting Ecuador to certify the quality of the products and speed up the deal.

"The rice has an acceptable quality level, the parameters are within Venezuela's requirements," Araújo said in an interview with Ecuavisa TV network.

Venezuela   [contents]

Suspects Arrested in Death of Venezuelan Opposition Activist
EFE. June 17, 2009
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=337488&CategoryId=10717

CARACAS ? Venezuelan authorities have announced the arrest of six people suspected in last weekend's shooting death of an opposition leader during a protest in the eastern state of Anzoátegui.

Interior Minister Tarek El Aissami said authorities on Monday night arrested the suspected perpetrator of the murder of 31-year-old Jhonathan Rivas, a leader of the opposition party Primero Justicia (Justice First).

El Aissami also said another five people suspected of involvement in the crime have been arrested, although he did not reveal any of their identities.

The Attorney General's Office announced plans to arraign the six suspects in a state court and said the investigation of the slaying was ongoing.

The rapid identification and detention of suspects shows that the government does not tolerate violence, irrespective "of the ideological and political orientation of those who may be affected," El Aissami said on state radio.

Rivas was shot and killed on Saturday at a square in El Tigre, a city in Anzoátegui, in an attack that opposition spokespersons say may have been carried out by supporters of President Hugo Chávez.

Ernesto José Paraqueima, 36, leader of the opposition Podemos party, suffered a blow to the head in the same attack.

Paraqueima told the media Saturday that a group of Chávez supporters arrived at the square armed "with handguns and rocks and attacked the people in the place," although El Aissami said "the evidence shows that there was a fight between two groups."

Rivas and a group of opposition demonstrators were protesting outside a state police station at the time of the attack. They were denouncing the arrest of anti-Chávez activists for painting graffiti in support of Globovisión, an opposition television network now locked in a battle with the socialist government. EFE
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Students March for New Type of Education in Venezuela
Tamara Pearson. Venezuelanalysis. June 18, 2009

Mérida, June 18th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis) - Youth and students marched on Tuesday morning from the Bolivarian University of Venezuela (UBV) to the National Assembly, in order to demand more democratic decision making in the nation's universities and a transformation of the university system to make it more equitable.

The march followed a month of protests by pro-government students and anti-government students regarding university funding and structure.

The UBV is part of the government's social program called the Mission Sucre, which aims to provide free higher education to all those who were previously excluded from it or who need it. The marching students said they want a more equal distribution of university funding between the government universities and autonomous universities like the UCV, which are government-funded but make all their decisions independently of the government.

The students also called for democratic participation in university administration, fairer admission mechanisms, and a nation-wide discussion about the role of education generally, in the country.

Vicente Moronta, a history student at the UCV said that constructing socialism involves new social relations, so students in Venezuela need a "new paradigm of education". He said the marching students want to create a university that "orchestrates a new social order".

Moronta said it is necessary to revise the concept of autonomous universities. "The current university law was made in 1970 with the military incursion that closed down academic life for over three years and that generated a structure that caused the currently reality of the privatized university that excludes the popular sectors," Moronta said.

One banner in the march said, "What are the bourgeoisie complaining about? UCV budget 949,819,000 bolivars [$US 442 million], population 58,000. UBV budget 193,342,000 bolivars [$US 90 million] population 260,305". The banner was referring to a protest on May 20th by opposition students, leaders, and UCV rector Cecilia Garcia, who marched to protest the government's 6% budget cut to higher education. The higher education ministry invited the students to have a debate about education and education spending. Minutes into the debate Garcia called it an "ambush" and walked out.

"It's not right that a student of the UCV costs the country 14,000 bolivars [$US 6,500] per year while one from UBV costs 2,000 bolivars [$US 930]," Moranto said.

Student Natascha Garcia told the rally, "We want there to be more equality in the distribution of the university budget because Mission Sucre... has a smaller budget than the UCV." Law student Oliver Rivas said students want more democracy within the universities.

On Saturday, the student group Movement for University Transformation March 28th along with pro-government students had organized a meeting to call Tuesday's march. Moronta denounced the UCV authorities for cutting electricity to the auditorium where the students were meeting.

Previously, on June 8th fourteen pro-government UCV students began a hunger strike to protest a 16% reduction in the university's cafeteria budget that had been decided by the autonomous university administration. When the national budget cuts were announced, Education Minister Luis Acuna had sent a statement to university administrators saying that salaries and student services such as the cafeteria, housing and transportation should not be cut. Four thousand students at UCV depend on the cafeteria for free meals.

The hunger strike was violently dispersed with tear gas and gun shots by "unknown people", according to press reports. However, two of the students involved in the hunger strike, president of the social work student center Kevin Avila, and president of law student center Jose Casanova, are currently being publicly threatened by some university administrators with expulsion proceedings for alleged violence during the hunger strike. The university council, which is majority opposition, would have to vote on starting the proceedings.
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Government dismantles Venezuela's patent system
El Universal. June 17, 2009
http://english.eluniversal.com/2009/06/17/en_eco_esp_government-dismantle_17A2396725.shtml

The information of patents will be made public and any person will be able to "make use of it"

Experts consider that the measure is "unconstitutional" and will lead to a "chain of disinvestment" in different economic areas (Photo: AP)

Economy
The "technical information" of patents licensed in Venezuela will be posted on the website of the Autonomous Service for Intellectual Property (SAPI) and any person will be able to "make use of it," the agency said in a press release.

"Any person can access SAPI's website, go to the consultation area and search all they need. This is very important, because Venezuelan technicians will be able to change and improve new technologies that have been developed," said the director general of SAPI, Arlene Piñate.

According to the document, the decision was taken to "eliminate the exclusion created by the patent systems." Last Sunday in the weekly radio and TV program Aló Presidente (Hello, President), Hugo Chávez said that intellectual property and patents must be discussed. "We consider that patents cannot be a restriction or a trap."

After requesting the cabinet to study the issue and make recommendations, Venezuela's President announced that he had authorized the Minister of Trade Eduardo Samán to "make some changes" to the patent system "to begin a process that must lead to legal changes, to the amendment of laws."

Orlando Viera Blanco, a lawyer specialized on industrial property, said that SAPI's decision is a "coup d'état" to the patent system. "The President has ordered to eliminate the right to have patents and industrial property."

He described the measure as "unconstitutional" since it violates rights established in the Constitution. In this sense, Viera highlighted Article 98 which reads as follows: "The State recognizes and protects intellectual property rights in scientific, literary and artistic works, inventions, innovations, trade names, patents, trademarks and slogans, in
accordance with the terms and exceptions provided by law and the international treaties executed and ratified by Venezuela in this area."

According to Viera Blanco, SAPI abandoned its duties as protector of these rights to become a promoter of "illegal copy" of inventions that already have a patent.

With reports from Roberto Deniz

Andean Region   [contents]

Peru Indian protest leader arrives in Nicaragua
AP. June 18, 2009
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/1102592.html

MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Peruvian indigenous leader Alberto Pizango arrived Wednesday in Nicaragua, where he has been granted political asylum after facing charges in his homeland for his role in protests against Amazon development that turned bloody.

Pizango left Lima on a Copa Airlines flight and was greeted in Managua by a Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry representative.

Pizango said he was "astonished, very concerned and very pained" by the deaths, which occurred during protests by Indian groups opposed to government decrees they say will speed the sale of their ancestral lands for oil and gas projects.

Peru's Amazon-based indigenous peoples have been opposing the decrees since last year, but on June 5 the protests erupted in clashes that left 24 police dead. Indian leaders say at least 30 civilians died.

"The results were disastrous, and even the government can't deny it any more," he said.

The government of President Alan Garcia, who had argued the decrees were needed to help the poor nation develop, filed sedition and rebellion charges against Pizango.

He sought refuge in Nicaragua's embassy in Lima last week and Nicaragua agreed to grant him asylum. On Tuesday, Peru approved his safe passage out of the country.

Peru's government this week said it would ask congress to repeal the decrees that sparked the deadly protests.
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UN to Check Amazon Clash in Peru
Inside Costa Rica. June 17, 2009
http://insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2009/june/17/la03.htm

Lima - UN special rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples James Anaya expects to visit Peru to check consequences of the conflict between the government and Amazon indigenous people, a non-official source reported Monday.

Ernesto de la Jara, leader of the Legal Defense Institute (IDL), said the government has accepted the visit. It will clear up the situation of about 60 indigenous people that disappeared in the conflict zone.

De la Jara told television media of the need for an impartial investigation on what had happened with those native people after the June 5 clash that killed 13 policemen and 10 indigenous people in the northern jungle zone of Bagua.

He also addressed the possibility that those disappeared are really hidden, and said the IDL wants elements to question the official figure of deaths.

Humanitarian activists and the Ombudsman's Office have started to visit native communities that participated in those clashes, to verify how many indigenous people have not still returned home, De la Jara noted.

Juan Jose Quispe, lawyer of the Pro Human Rights Association, stated that the main problem to confirm the number of disappeared after the Bagua incidents is the limited State's agents to provide information.
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EU trade talks with Peru continue despite government violence
Andrew Willis. EU Observer. June 17, 2009
http://euobserver.com/9/28324

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS ? A coalition of development NGOs has expressed concern at the European Commission's decision to continue negotiations on a free trade agreement with Peru this week, despite government attacks on indigenous protesters in the country earlier this month that resulted in over 30 deaths.

In a recent letter sent to European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, a coalition of NGOs called for the talks - currently taking place in Bogota, Colombia - to be suspended.

"Peru has entered a new stage characterised by a deterioration in social peace, including serious human rights violations that can not be left unnoticed during negotiations," reads the letter.

The violence erupted on 5 June when the Peruvian government sent in troops to break up roadblocks in the north of the country, set up by protesters from Peru's indigenous population who say a recent free trade agreement with the US threatens their livelihoods by transferring land and resource rights to foreign companies.

The EU's executive has defended its decision to continue talks for a similar FTA with Peru.

"The European Commission remains committed to a free trade agreement with Andean countries that will benefit all sides," the commission's trade spokesman, Lutz Guellner, told EUobserver.

"Provisions on the mining and extracting industries are envisaged as part of the final agreement, but the EU is committed to including flexibilities that allow Peru and others to restrict market access, in particular to preserve the rights of indigenous communities," said Mr Guellner.

EU trade agreements

Frustrated by slow progress in multilateral trade talks pursued through the World Trade Organisation, the EU adopted its "Global Europe" strategy in October 2006 with the goal of securing trade agreements with regional trading blocks and individual countries.

However, subsequent talks with the Andean Community, which groups together Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia, stalled last year, with Bolivia's left-wing government of Evo Morales deciding to call off the discussions with the EU, citing unfair terms.

Recent comments by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa suggest it too is likely to pull out, leaving the EU to negotiate with the right-wing governments of Peru and Colombia.

"We are very concerned about the bias, the direction being taken by the negotiations," said Mr Correa last month.

Friends of the Earth trade campaigner Charly Poppe, whose organisation has followed the negotiations closely and is one of the signatories on the letter to Mr Barroso, told this website that an agreement between the EU and Peru had the potential to cause more unrest in the South American country.

"It will be very much a copy of the agreement that Peru has with the US that sparked all the criticism and from the information we have ... it's going to be even more stringent in terms of the rules that it will put in place for Peru," he said.

If the FTA goes through, "it will restrict even more the ability of indigenous populations to have control of their resources," he added.

Government backdown

On Tuesday (16 June), the Peruvian government appeared to back down on the controversial land laws introduced by presidential decree as part of the country's FTA with the US.

Peru's prime minister, Yehude Simon, said his government would introduce a bill into parliament this week that would revoke the controversial land laws, adding that he intended to step down once the country regains peace, according to the BBC.

However, he also insisted the reversal would not jeopardise the country's free trade agreement with the US.

Peruvian President Alan Garcia meanwhile signaled he intended to move ahead with development policies based on free trade and foreign investment.
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Colombian Law to Aid Conflict Victims Labeled Discriminatory
EFE. June 18, 2009
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=337473&CategoryId=12393

BOGOTA ? Colombian opposition politicians and human rights groups said Wednesday that a bill passed this week to provide financial compensation to victims of Colombia's decades-long internal conflict is a "step backward" because it discriminates against those who have suffered the consequences of state terrorism.

The original sponsor of the so-called Victims' Law, Liberal lawmaker Guillermo Rivera, told reporters he was frustrated by the bill passed Tuesday night in the lower house.

One of the most controversial provisions of the legislation ? passed with the support of allies of conservative President Alvaro Uribe ? is one that recognizes that state agents can be rights abusers; but compensation will only be paid if the agent was acting in the line of duty and has already been convicted in court.

By contrast, victims of rights abuses committed by leftist guerrillas and rightist paramilitaries can receive compensation irrespective of whether individual perpetrators of the crimes were identified, tried or convicted.

Rivera said that the way in which the Victims' Law was approved was "an outrage," because the more than 160 articles were voted on in a single motion and not individually as the Liberal Party had proposed.

In all cases of rights violations, including those involving victims of state agents, a total of up to 19 million pesos ($9,500) will be paid in compensation: a portion in cash and the rest in social assistance.

"It's a mixture of pecuniary compensation and social assistance, with the state not recognizing guilt but rather expressing solidarity with the victims," said Rivera, who added that the law leaves "the victims in even worse condition than they were before."

A statement by a national movement of victims of state crimes also criticized the law, saying it "fails to comply with minimum international and constitutional standards."

It also noted that some recommendations made by the United Nations with respect to the bill were ignored, as were "the proposals made by more than 4,000 victims."

The bill passed by the lower house will now be reconciled with one approved earlier in the Senate, which did not draw a legal distinction between crimes committed by members of security forces and illegal armed groups.

Colombia has been plagued by a decades-old armed conflict involving leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and the security forces, with all sides guilty of numerous human rights violations. EFE
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Quinoa Plants a Seed for Food Revolution in Colombia
Elyssa Pachico. Upside Down World. June 18, 2009
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1913/1/

They were tiny white seeds, as rough and grainy as a handful of sand, and Esmeralda Solarte knew that she had seen them before. It was June 2000, just outside of Quito, Ecuador, and the Colombian farmer was attending an international seminar on agricultural innovations introduced by farmers like herself, rather than technocrats from the World Bank.

At first, she said, the seeds reminded her of amaranth, a staple crop of the Incas. Back in Las Cruces, a small Colombian village nestled between the green slopes of the Andes, she and other indigenous farmers used to cultivate the grain themselves, toasting the kernels like popcorn before drizzling them with honey. But for whatever vague reason ? the convenience of buying white bread from the nearest major city, guerillas stalking the countryside, a bad strain of seed that didn't survive the rainy season ? amaranth had disappeared from Las Cruces completely in 1994.

Ms. Solarte was told that the familiar-looking white grain was not the amaranth that she remembered so well. It was another altitude-hardy, protein-loaded grain typical of the Incas: quinoa. Then the idea came to her.

"I don't know how long quinoa has been lost to our community," she said. "Our grandparents would talk about their grandparents growing it." Upon returning to Las Cruces from Quito, Ms. Solarte met with Colombian agronomist Jose Ignacio Roa, who'd been working with local farmers on experimenting with maize and bean varieties. What would happen, she asked him, if they were to bring quinoa seeds back to the indigenous reservation?

The push to reintroduce long-lost native crops is not exclusive to Ms. Solarte's village, but rather is one expression of Latin America's burgeoning food sovereignty movement. Governments across Latin America are increasingly concerned with promoting the rural poor's ability to live self-sufficiently on locally produced goods instead of dumped products often exported from monoculture farms.

In Mexico, lack of self-sufficiency in food ? the country imported half of its wheat supplies and three-quarters of its rice last year ? has fueled rural unrest for years.1 In Argentina, Bolivia and Venezuela, small-scale farmers have long protested against large agribusinesses that invest in transgenic agriculture, arguing that by forcing farmers to cultivate only the company seed, this prevents farmers from innovating with their own ancestral crops, and eventually causes dependency on company product. At the forefront of the movement is Ecuador. In September 2008, President Correa's government passed a constitutional amendment that promised to cut back dependency on food imports.2 A law passed last February declared the country "free of transgenic crops and seeds,"3 although Correa has since proposed modifying the legislation, inspiring the outrage of campesinos and environmentalists alike.

In Las Cruces, located in one of the six indigenous reservations found in Colombia's Cauca department, introducing quinoa was widely seen as a rallying cry for a modest food revolution. "We want to depend less on foreign products that are filled with preservatives and rely more on what's local, what's organic," said Ms. Solarte. "We want to recuperate our traditions and improve the health of our community at the same time."

Beginning in 2000, Ms. Solarte and a small group of mostly female farmers began experimenting with six different varieties of quinoa on their tiny garden plots, alongside towering rows of maize and squat, green strawberry bushes. Ten years later, the crop is spreading steadily throughout the Quisgo reservation, population approximately 5,000. Esmeralda estimates that 40% of farmers in the region now grow quinoa, and the other 60% are at least familiar with it.

"It's been a very useful crop for me," said Merecedes Hurtado, a farmer who helped popularize the crop alongside Ms. Solarte. They hope to continue protecting their food sovereignty by not initially selling quinoa to supermarkets or factories outside the region, she explained. Instead, "it must first be eaten in the reservation."

A family's typical diet on the reservation previously relied heavily upon white bread purchased in either Silvia or Popayan, the closest major cities. Wheat flour handouts from a family welfare program, known as bienestarina, were another staple. Mixed with soya extracts and other preservatives, the bienestarina is generally viewed with suspicion: in the region's poorest indigenous reservation, Guambia, the welfare flour has long been subject to a popular (yet unfounded) rumor that it is spiked with sterilizing chemicals.

According to Ms. Solarte, due to the community's lobbying, the welfare program has since begun mixing the bienestarina with quinoa instead of soya, as well distributing individual packages of quinoa to families. A previously unknown crop is now commonly sold among farmers at $2,500 pesos (about $1) per kilo, or else traded for, say, half a pound of seed for 20 maize cobs. Community members have observed less malnutrition among children, Ms. Solarte says, while families often visit her home, asking to borrow her quinoa threshing machine.

The crop is used for cakes, drinks, trout food, making purses and even medicinal purposes, by taking the ash from burned quinoa greens and applying them to wounds.

"There is a real desire, especially within the indigenous community, to recuperate their genetic heritage [in crops]," said agronomist Roa, who has been working with small-scale farmers in Colombia for the past two decades. "And there is real suspicion of transgenic seeds, a real fear that they are going to lose their own varieties of seeds to other varieties imposed on them from the outside."

Increasingly in villages like Ms. Solarte's, farmers are rescuing ancestral crops from the "inside" rather than waiting to react to "outside" species. In Santa Maria, another predominantly indigenous community in Colombia's lush, green Cauca department, farmers successfully reintroduced granadilla to the region after years of careful experimentation. A type of passion fruit with a thick orange peel and gooey translucent insides, it went virtually extinct after farmers deforested the area to make way for coffee plantations. Now, it is once again a kitchen staple for local families, and is also commonly sold along with pineapple in rickety wooden stands by the roadside.

San Bosco, another Colombian village in Cauca, also launched a campaign to reintroduce yunga, a brightly colored, local maize variety that had been steadily disappearing over the past 70 years. Similar recuperation efforts are also underway in some regions of Bolivia for papa lisa varieties, a corkscrew-shaped potato that ranges from bright pink to deep purple. In Ecuador, farmers are experimenting with rescuing ancestral habas (broad bean) varieties, while in the Mixteca indigenous region in southern Mexico, farmers are reviving a traditional style of agriculture known as milpa that better promotes soil fertility.4

While Ms. Solarte hopes that someday all families on the indigenous reservations will be cultivating, eating and selling quinoa to outside markets, she says their impact on the region is already unmistakable. For farmers like herself, successful innovations like quinoa follow the kind of sustainable production model that allow communities to feed themselves, safeguarding seed diversity and reviving long lost traditions ? the likes of which do not have to be irreconcilable with modernity.

"A decade ago, I had a friend ? about 70 years old ? who called me over to his farm and showed me a handful of black, wild quinoa seeds that he'd found on his land," said Angel Maria Hurtado, another quinoa-grower on the Quisgo reservation. " 'What are these for?' he asked me. An old man, and he had no idea that this was a crop our community used to grow. Now everybody knows of the nutritional benefits."

"White rice isn't native to here, but there's no shortage of white rice in people's homes," he added. "What we need is people sprinkling quinoa on top of their white rice."

Elyssa Pachico is a graduate of Wesleyan University and a former intern at The Nation magazine. She currently lives in Colombia, and can be contacted at epachico(at)wesleyan.edu.

Notes:

1. "The Basic Food Position: 2008," Rosen, Fred, NACLA Report On The Americas, July 2008, pg. 4 Vol. 41 No. 4.
2. http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/2301
3. http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1827/68/
4. http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42116
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Chile's $5.7 Bln In New Public Spending Not Seen As Stimulus
Julian Dowling. Dow Jones Newswires. June 17, 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090617-706023.html

SANTIAGO (Dow Jones)--The $5.7 billion increase in Chile's public spending will offset falling tax revenues as the economy skids, but isn't likely to get it back on the fast track anytime soon.

The government announced Monday it will increase spending this year 14.5% from 2008 as it seeks to boost sagging economic growth and cover the gap in tax receipts.

The spending will create a projected deficit of 4.1% of gross domestic product, or some $6.1 billion, this year - the first time Chile has posted a deficit since 2002.

The increased spending "is absolutely essential to inject more dynamism and energy into the economy," Finance Minister Andres Velasco told reporters Tuesday.

The ministry and the central bank expect GDP to move in a range of -0.75% to +0.25% this year.

Analysts are more cautious about the economic impact of the increase in fiscal spending.

"There is nothing new here we didn't know before," said Alberto Ramos, senior economist at Goldman Sachs. The spending increase "basically compensates for lower revenues and a higher deficit," he said.

The government announced it will withdraw another $4 billion from its sovereign wealth fund after the $4 billion tapped for its January fiscal stimulus package, and issue another $1.7 billion in sovereign debt on the local market.

However, in contrast to the January stimulus, which included $1 billion for state copper miner Corporacion Nacional del Cobre's capital expenditures and $3 billion to finance infrastructure plans, direct transfers and employment subsidies among other uses, this latest repatriation from the sovereign wealth fund is a stop-gap measure rather than stimulus.

"There is no new extra stimulus in this package," said Juan Pablo Castro, an economist with Santander GBM. "It is just financing to compensate for the higher deficit."

Total public spending is expected to run up to $10.7 billion in 2009, of which $8 billion will be financed through sovereign wealth funds and the remainder through sovereign bonds issued in the local market, government Budget Director Alberto Arenas said Monday.

The surge in spending is necessary given the "badly damaged economy in the context of a severe recession," said Goldman's Ramos. "The country can afford it and the economy needs it."

The fiscal stimulus package announced in January "is having a positive effect on the economy through increased aggregate demand, but it's still too early to say how much," said Cesar Guzman, a macroeconomic analyst at Estudios Security.

The central bank estimated an impact of one percentage point on GDP, but it could be lower at around half of a percent, he said.

There are concerns the increased spending could restrict government stimulus down the road.

"The deficit...is reducing the room to maneuver in the future for new fiscal stimulus," said Rafael Guilisasti, president of the country's leading business trade group, known as the CPC.

The government will also violate a temporary agreement to keep the structural balance, which is the sum of fiscal income and spending, at zero this year, dragging the balance down to -0.4%.

Ahead of an election in December, the government may have an eye on the political benefits of increased public spending, but it's not irresponsible macroeconomic policy, argues Ramos.

"It's a small deviation," he said. "As long as it is a one-off and not the beginning of a trend," it's not a problem, suggested Ramos.
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Chile bolsters its military
Pascale Bonnefoy. GlobalPost. June 18, 2009
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/chile/090530/military-purchases?page=0,0

SANTIAGO - Chile's government recently announced the purchase of 18 F-16 combat planes from Holland, continuing a decade-long weapons spending spree that some say is destabilizing South America's military balance.

The $270 million for fighter jets and related equipment and infrastructure is the latest in a long string of acquisitions for the three branches of the armed forces - other purchases have included army tanks, navy warships and submarines, and an earlier purchase of 18 F-16s and other military aircraft.

"Chile now has the most modern weapons systems in South America for its army, navy and air force," said Carlos Gutierrez, director of the Center for Strategic Studies (CEE-Chile)."This power is even more asymmetrical when considering that Argentina and Peru - which once had powerful armed forces - have been in crisis over the past decade in terms of maintaining their weapons systems and renewing their material, while Bolivia's military institutions are known for their inefficiency and lack of modernization. Of course all of this is creating distrust and concern with our neighbors."

Government officials have described the purchases as nothing more than an effort to replace obsolete material, some of which dated to the World War II era. But neighboring countries, such as Peru, say the acquisitions have placed Chile at the top of regional military powers.

As soon as news of the recent combat planes purchase emerged, Peru accused Chile of a military build-up and approved increases to its own military budget - above the $650 million it was already planning to spend over the next few years.

Peru's concern, however, is likely rooted in President Alan Garcia's need to turn around his sinking popularity ratings by focusing attention on tensions with his country's historical rival to the south. Peru recently filed a case against Chile at the International Court of Justice at The Hague over territorial waters it claims as its own.

In truth, despite Chile's recent acquisitions, the country is far from the best-armed in South America. Chile's weapons systems - both in terms of quality and quantity - lag far behind those of Brazil - which is developing a nuclear aircraft carrier - or Venezuela - which has announced the purchase of sophisticated Russian submarines, fighter jets and missiles.

And then there's Colombia. "What Colombia has is even more dangerous than any F-16 or aircraft carrier. It has access to United States satellite technology that allows it to monitor and supervise operations anywhere in real time. No other country in the region can do that," said an adviser to Chile's Defense Ministry who requested anonymity.

But according to the Argentina-based Latin American Security and Defense Network (RESDAL), Chile's military expenditures as a percentage of gross domestic product is one of the highest in the region (2.63 percent in 2008), second only to Colombia (2.97 percent of GDP), which, unlike Chile, is actually fighting guerrilla forces. Two of Chile's closest neighbors allocate much less to military expenses: Peru spends 1.20 percent of its GDP, and Bolivia 1.61 percent.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the budget available for military expenditures (not actual spending) in Chile was 3.6 percent of GDP in 2006, the latest figure available.

Why is Chile spending so much on military acquisitions, especially in an economic crisis? One key reason is because it can: In addition to the regular annual budget for defense, 10 percent of all copper revenues are automatically transferred to a secret reserve fund for military purchases. With the international price of copper, Chile's main export product, so high in recent years, this fund has ballooned.

According to the Defense Ministry, the fund now contains about $1 billion, but only a fraction is being spent to replace obsolete material. The law that established this fund specifically states that it must be used to buy weapons and equipment, and cannot be re-allocated for other expenses.

When Peru learned that Chile was going to buy more F-16s, Peru's defense minister and a lawmaker quickly introduced a bill that would allocate 5 percent of royalties on future mine deposits to the military - similar to Chile's copper law.

For the most part, though, Chile's military purchases haven't harmed regional relationships: Political and economic cooperation is better than ever. In fact, South American nations, including Peru, were well aware of Chile's plans to purchase the F-16s. In recent years, the 12 members of the Union of South American Nations agreed to tell each other about their military acquisitions.

Last March, Unasur members took these agreements a big step forward, creating the South American Defense Council to coordinate defense policies. Chile is currently presiding over the council.

Southern Cone   [contents]

Tight rules helped mitigate crisis in Brazil
Financial Times. June 17, 2009
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bfc6f4ce-5ab7-11de-8c14-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

If Bernard Madoff had tried to run his Ponzi scheme in Brazil, it would never have got off the ground.

"There could never be a Brazilian Madoff," says Paulo Oliveira, director for new business at BM&F Bovespa, the multi-asset exchange formed last year by the merger of the São Paulo derivatives and stock exchanges. "The regulators always want to know both sides of all trades."

In many countries, regulators and exchanges require banks and brokers to reveal only the net position of their clients. If a client is long in one asset and short in another, his net position may be neutral. But he could still be a risk.

But in Brazil, brokers are obliged to provide information on every trade by every client, identified by their registered account number. Mr Madoff, who allegedly invented clients' trades and had no obligation to deliver proof, would have been stumped.

This is one of many aspects of regulation in Brazil that have helped it avoid the worst of the global economic crisis. Not all beneficial aspects of its regulation have arisen by design. Some are the result of slowness to modernise in the years before the crisis. But many are now being looked at for the lessons they offer.

Alexandre Tombini, director for regulation at the central bank, is among those representing Brazil at meetings of the Financial Stability Forum and the Bank for International Settlements in Basel to discuss regulation and supervision. Brazil's enhanced presence at both forums follows its work on financial market regulation in the ambit of the G20 group of the world's biggest industrialised and developing economies.

Mr Tombini points out that Brazil endured several periods of severe volatility in recent decades, although it has become more stable since runaway inflation was conquered in the 1990s. "We are used to dealing with challenging environments, for our institutions and our regulations," he says. "Everything we have done since the mid- 1990s has tended to take a more cautious approach."

For example, many countries' banks are obliged to maintain capital ratios ? capital as a percentage of assets ? of at least 8 per cent, the minimum recommended by the BIS. Unfortunately, says Ross Levine, an economist at Brown University, "almost all countries have taken the Basel minimums as the norm. They've been a lot less cautious than they might have been."

In Brazil, the minimum required is 11 per cent but many banks keep levels of 16 per cent or more.

Perhaps more question-able are Brazil's very high reserve requirements ? the share of their deposits that banks must park at the central bank. Many countries have phased these out but in Brazil they are about 30 per cent of all deposits.

Francisco Vazquez, a specialist in banking regulation at the International Monetary Fund, says Brazil's reserve requirements should be replaced with more modern instruments, such as deposit guarantee funds. "The system is so complex that it's hard to get a good idea of what the cost to banks really is," he says. It is also one reason why borrowing costs are so high in Brazil.

Nevertheless, when the financial crisis hit last year, Brazil's central bank was able to release R$100bn ($51.4bn, ?37bn, £31.3bn) overnight to ensure banks had sufficient funding.

Similarly, Brazil's high interest rates are a legacy of past instability that has come in handy in the crisis, giving the bank leeway.

In addition, short selling ? selling shares you do not own, often by hiring them ? is allowed but naked short selling ? selling shares you do not have ? is prevented by prohibitive fines for traders who fail to deliver shares they have sold within three days.
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Brazil invests 7.6 million USD in family farming
Mercopress. June 18, 2009
http://en.mercopress.com/2009/06/18/brazil-invests-7.6-million-usd-in-family-farming

The Brazilian government confirmed Wednesday that the fund to promote home farming and gardening will have at its disposal 7.6 million US dollars.  This represents a 525% increase since the administration of President Lula da Silva took office in 2003.

Daniel Maia and Adoniram Peraci from the Family Agriculture Development Secretary said that the 7.6 million is to be invested in the plan covering the 2009/10 harvest.

Half the sum is to be invested directly in farming projects while the rest is for management, teaching and equipment.

"This represents 525% more resources than those at the beginning of this administration back in 2003, when President Lula da Silva took office", said Maia.

The funds had been anticipated as a project from the Agriculture Ministry for the 2009/10 farm year to promote family farming and increase food production in Brazil, mainly beans, corn, rice, wheat, tapioca, among others.

Other benefits for small farmers registered in the Program to Strengthen Family Farming include access to insurance policy compensations against climate problems.

Brazil is a leading world exporter of agriculture commodities but a percentage of its population of 190 million is undernourished.
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Brazilian leader special guest at AU summit
AFP. June 18, 2009
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ixVQKTiD5fXSprHVCFP4EcSkESLQ

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will be a special guest at next month's African Union summit of heads of states in Libya, the AU said on Thursday.

Lula will address the July 1-3 bi-annual summit at Sirte. The invite was a "recognition of the particular attention President Lula has personally given to Brasil's relationship with Africa," catapulting trade, a statement said.

Trade between Africa and Brazil has zoomed by 415 percent since 2002 when Lula took office.

"Africa has watched with keen interest, the domestic policies of President Lula, which have contributed to the upliftment of the poor masses, many of who are Brazilians of African origin," the statement said.

Brazil is home to the largest population of people of African origin outside the continent itself, according to the AU.

México, Central America and the Caribbean   [contents]

Mexican Industrial Output Falls 13 Percent
EFE. June 18, 2009
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=337478&CategoryId=14091

MEXICO CITY ? Industrial production in Mexico fell 13.2 percent in April compared with the same month in 2008 for the largest 12-month decline in 14 years, the INEGI statistics institute said Wednesday.

The last time Mexico's manufacturers experienced such a sharp drop was in April 1995, amid the slump spurred by the financial meltdown known as the "tequila crisis."

Even so, the April 2009 figure was not as bad as the 15 percent plunge expected by most analysts, given the severity of a recession that saw Mexican gross domestic product contract by 8.2 percent in the first quarter.

Industrial output for the first four months of this year was down 10.7 percent from the same period in 2008, INEGI said. For last year as a whole, production fell 1.3 percent after anemic growth of 1.4 percent in 2007.

Mexican officials predict that GDP will shrink by 5.5 percent this year. EFE
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Mexico's opposition PRI's race lead narrows: survey
Xinhua. June 17, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/18/content_11559982.htm

MEXICO CITY, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Mexico's opposition Institutional Revolution Party (PRI) is still keeping an opinion poll lead before looming mid-term legislative elections, but its lead is narrowing, according to a survey published on Wednesday.

The PRI, which ruled the country for 71 years until 2000, obtained 37 percent of preferences in a survey conducted by local newspaper Reforma, but its lead over the ruling National Action Party (PAN) has fallen to four percentage points from seven percentage points a month earlier.

The PAN had lost a percentage point of support but still remained in second place with 33 percent, according to the survey.

The survey, conducted among 1,515 registered voters across the nation from June 12 to 14, also showed that the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) obtained 16 percent of preferences, the lowest among the three largest parties in the country.

The combined vote for all the other smaller parties was 14 percent, up from 12 percent in May.

The survey also showed rising support for the so-called "null vote" campaign, in which leading political figures called on citizens to spoil their ballots in protest against the parties that they say no longer represent citizens.

Some 15 percent of those surveyed said they had considered a null vote, compared with 10 percent a month earlier, and five percent spoiled the survey ballot paper, compared with 2.5 percent a month earlier.

Mexican elections usually generate around 2.5 percent of null votes, a figure that is normally attributed to ignorance of how the voting system works. The null vote campaign might have been considered to have an effect if it generates a null vote of more than 5 percent.

Mexicans will vote on July 5 to elect 300 deputies in 300 electoral districts.
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Gun flow south is a crisis for two nations
Josh Meyer. The Los Angeles Times. June 17, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-arms-smuggling18-2009jun18,0,4097841.story

Reporting from Washington -- The United States lacks a coordinated strategy to stem the flow of weapons smuggled across its southern border, a failure that has fueled the rise of powerful criminal cartels and violence in Mexico, a government watchdog agency report has found.

The report by the congressional Government Accountability Office, the first federal assessment of the issue, offered blistering conclusions that will probably influence the debate over the role of U.S.-made weaponry as violence threatens to spill across the Mexico border.

According to a draft copy of the report, which will be released today, the growing number of weapons being smuggled into Mexico comprise more than 90% of the seized firearms that can be traced by authorities there.

The document also cited recent U.S. intelligence indicating that most weapons were being smuggled in specifically for the syndicates -- and being used not only against the Mexican government but also to expand their drug trafficking operation in the United States.

"The U.S. government lacks a strategy to address arms trafficking to Mexico," the report said in blunt terms. "Individual U.S. agencies have undertaken a variety of activities and projects to combat arms trafficking to Mexico, but they are not part of a comprehensive U.S. government-wide strategy for addressing the problem."

Obama administration officials said that, although they could not comment on the report before it was released, they have taken steps to reduce the flow of weapons, long a source of frustration to Mexican authorities.

This month, for instance, the administration announced a Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy that included a section on arms trafficking.

The GAO report's authors, however, said that strategy and similar Obama administration efforts were in the early stages and unlikely to significantly improve the situation quickly. They also said the Merida Initiative -- $1.4 billion in initial aid allotted under the George W. Bush administration -- had provided no dedicated funding to address the issue of weapons trafficking.

In the meantime, illegally obtained U.S. weapons -- including an increasing number of automatic rifles -- are being used to kill thousands of Mexican police, soldiers, elected officials and civilians, the report said.

Jess T. Ford, the GAO's director of international affairs and trade, is scheduled to deliver testimony on the findings at a House hearing today.

Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere that is holding today's hearing, said he was troubled by the findings.

"It is simply unacceptable that the United States not only consumes the majority of the drugs flowing from Mexico but also arms the very cartels that contribute to the daily violence that is devastating Mexico," said Engel, who requested the report.

The GAO singled out the two agencies primarily responsible for combating weapons trafficking for criticism -- the Justice Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The auditors said those agencies had not effectively coordinated their efforts, in part because they lacked clear roles and responsibilities and had been operating under an outdated interagency agreement. As a result, the agencies duplicated one another's initiatives, leading to confusion.

They also lack the kind of systematic analysis and reporting of weapons trafficking data -- such as how many firearms they have seized that were destined for Mexico -- that would allow authorities to better investigate and prosecute cases.

In response, Justice Department and Homeland Security officials acknowledged that they were working to address some shortcomings the GAO identified.

ATF Assistant Director W. Larry Ford said that his agency and ICE were working to complete a memorandum of understanding "to maximize our joint effectiveness to combat violent crime along the Southwest border."

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said interagency cooperation "has been a priority of mine since I became secretary."

"Any agreement between ICE and DEA will increase our ability to secure the border, curtail drug trafficking and make our country safer," Napolitano said in a statement. "I am very optimistic that we will reach an agreement soon."

But the GAO criticisms go beyond operational concerns. Some findings cited laws and policies in the U.S. and Mexico that could make it difficult to institute lasting reforms such as lax U.S. laws for collecting and reporting information on firearms purchases, and a lack of required background checks for private firearms sales.

Moreover, they said, the United States was not doing enough to help Mexico with fighting weapons trafficking and related corruption on its side of the border.

The two countries have not established a bilateral, multiagency arms-trafficking task force, and Mexico has not fully implemented the ATF's electronic firearms tracing system -- "an important tool for U.S. arms trafficking investigations in the United States," Jess Ford planned to say in his testimony, according to the report.

Another significant challenge, according to Ford, was corruption within the Mexican government.

"Despite President [Felipe] Calderon's efforts to combat organized crime," Ford will say, "extensive corruption at the federal, state and local levels of Mexican law enforcement impedes U.S. efforts to develop effective and dependable partnerships with Mexican government entities in combating arms trafficking."
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Salvadoran Government Looks to Ban Precious-Metals Mining
EFE. June 18, 2009
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=337496&CategoryId=23558

SAN SALVADOR ? President Mauricio Funes' leftist FMLN party is urging El Salvador's legislature to ban the mining of precious metals in the Central American nation.

"With this we guarantee the right of people to live in their place of origin in a healthy environment," FMLN lawmaker Lourdes Palacios, the bill's sponsor, told Efe Wednesday.

Complaints about the contamination of soil and water with toxic chemicals used in extracting and refining gold and silver are widespread in Central America.

The FMLN proposal would give mining companies active in El Salvador six months to wind down their operations. It will be up to the National Assembly's Health, Environment and Natural Resources Committee to decide whether the measure makes it to the floor for a vote.

Officials say that a score of foreign companies currently have concessions to mine metals in El Salvador. One of the firms, Canadian-based Pacific Rim, is reported by the press here to have initiated arbitration proceedings against the Salvadoran government for refuse to issue permits for specific projects.

Palacios said she was not familiar with Pacific Rim's claim and that the FMLN is committed to "the protection of national sovereignty and people's health."

The lawmaker said she supported the idea put forward by environmental organizations to embark on a process of "study and analysis" as preparation for the drafting of a new mining law.

Funes' victory in the March election ended 20 years of rule here by the right-wing ARENA party, but the FMLN does not have a majority in congress. EFE
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Official El Salvador Office Bugged
Inside Costa Rica. June 18, 2009
http://insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2009/june/18/ca04.htm

San Salvador - Salvadorian authorities are investigating on Wednesday an espionage operation against officials, after monitoring equipment was found in Government Minister Humberto Centeno''s office.

In a press conference in this capital, Centeno denounced that a radio link was placed in his office and it seemed like it was transmitting the information received by several hidden microphones.

"It is relevant to the Attorney General's Office to determine who placed the transmitting device and the microphones," said the minister, and announced that he would show the devices found in the office to the press on Wednesday.

Centeno also requested that the Attorney General's Office investigate the people related to the previous Government minister's office.

A few days ago Farabundo Marti national Liberation Front (FMLN) Communication Secretary Sigfrido Reyes denounced a political espionage plot on a large scale to keep the new ministers under control.

According to Reyes, the operation also covered other state offices, although he did not give further details.

"It seems that the objective was to keep the new government under surveillance, with cameras, microphones and a secret machine that we do not know to whom it answers, but it does seem something serious that we have to investigate," said Reyes.
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Guatemala turns to DNA to help solve war crimes
Sarah Grainger. Reuters. June 17, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN17360688

GUATEMALA CITY, June 17 (Reuters) - Guatemala opened its first DNA testing lab on Wednesday hoping that genetic fingerprinting will help solve decades-old civil war crimes as well as more recent murders.

Guatemala's Forensic Anthropology Foundation opened the $1.5 million laboratory funded by international donations to identify victims excavated from hundreds of mass graves from the 1960-1996 civil war.

More than a quarter million people -- mostly Mayan villagers -- were killed or disappeared during the civil war that pitted successive right-wing governments against leftist guerrillas.

A U.N.-backed truth Commission found that Guatemalan security forces committed more than 90 percent of the killings but only a few officials have been tried for war crimes.

"This work will allow the families of the victims to answer the questions we have: what happened in Guatemala, who was responsible, and how can we bring them to justice?" said Julio Solorzano, desperate to find out what happened to his mother who disappeared in December 1980 after being picked up by military police.

Solorzano gave his own DNA sample with an oral swab which will go into a database of victims' family members to be matched with samples from thousands of bodies exhumed by anthropologists.

While the bulk of the work will focus on past crimes, Guatemalan authorities are eager to use the lab to aid the country's ailing justice system, which only manages to prosecute 2 percent of the 6,000 murders committed each year.

Since the end of the war, Guatemala's population of 13 million has been overrun with violence by youth gangs and Mexican cartels increasingly using Central America as a corridor to smuggle drugs north to the United States.
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Guyana Slams U.S. TIP Report
CaribWorldNews. June 18, 2009
http://www.caribbeanworldnews.com/middle_top_news_detail.php?mid=2184

CaribWorldNews, GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Thurs. June 18, 2009: The Guyana government is again disagreeing publicly with the United States State Department on Trafficking in Persons which places Guyana on the Tier 2 watch list.

Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, on Wednesday said Cabinet is yet to be convinced by the recent report released on June 16, that stated that the government has not yet punished any trafficking offenders under its 2005 anti trafficking law.

Luncheon said the US report is lacking the evidence to prove an enormity of trafficking in persons exists in Guyana.  'It (The TIP report) is unsupported by the kind of details of some sort that addresses magnitude. The fact that we fail to prosecute one or two persons doesn't address a concern that exists,' Dr. Luncheon said.

The U.S. report cited Guyana as a source for trafficking of men, women and children for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor.  President Bharrat Jagdeo has been complaining bitterly about the US reports on Guyana describing them as 'the usual lectures.'

 While in Trinidad and Tobago at the conclusion of the Fifth Summit of the Americas in March, the Head of State had said that about 100 documented cases of trafficking in persons are required for a country to be given the Tier 2 rank which was given to Guyana, a country which has not gained the required amount of documented cases to be graded in this manner.

Dr. Luncheon was also adamant about its inaccuracy while speaking on the issue at his post - Cabinet media briefing yesterday.

'It's wrong and I don't think anyone has any questions about that,' Luncheon said

Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Priya Manickchand, also objected to the report and its ranking of Guyana, insisting that trafficking in Guyana is not to the level where it should attract attention of the US.

While responding to the claim in the report that prosecution and conviction of TIP offenders is not satisfactory, Minister Manickchand reiterated that despite not having large numbers of convictions, prosecutions have been exercised on every person who can be tried under the Act.
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Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon Condemns US Supreme Court's Refusal to Hear Appeal of Cuban Five
Democracy NOW! June 17, 2009
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/17/cuban_national_assembly_president_ricardo_alarcon

The Supreme Court declined Monday to review the case of the five jailed Cuban nationals known as the Cuban Five. The men were convicted by a Miami jury in 2001 for being unregistered foreign agents spying on the US military and Cuban exiles in southern Florida. All five are serving time in federal prisons across the country. Attorneys for the men say they weren't spying on the US, but trying to monitor violent right-wing Cuban exile groups that have organized attacks on Cuba. The Miami judge in the case refused to move the trial to an area less dominated by Cuban exiles. Lawyers for the five say the jury pool in Miami was biased. The Cuban Five trial was the only judicial proceeding in US history condemned by the UN Human Rights Commission. [includes rush transcript]

Ricardo Alarcon, President of the Cuban National Assembly. He joins us on the telephone from Havana.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, another court, the Supreme Court, declined Monday to review the case of the five jailed Cuban nationals known as the Cuban Five. The men were convicted by a Miami jury in 2001 for being unregistered foreign agents spying on the US military and Cuban exiles in southern Florida. All five are serving time in federal prisons across the country. Attorneys for the men say they weren't spying on the US, but trying to monitor violent right-wing Cuban exile groups that have organized attacks on Cuba.

The Miami judge in the case refused to move the trial to an area less dominated by Cuban exiles. Lawyers for the five say the jury pool in Miami was biased. The Cuban Five trial was the only judicial proceeding in US history condemned by the UN Human Rights Commission.

AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Havana, where we're joined on the telephone by Ricardo Alarcon, the president of the Cuban National Assembly.

We welcome you to Democracy Now! Please start off by responding to the US Supreme Court's decision.

RICARDO ALARCON: Well, good morning, Amy and Juan and everybody listening there.

I would say that it is a very sad decision that was taken, if you remember that, at the request of the US administration, that in May, well after the new administration had assumed office, it urged the Supreme Court to deny review.

I would like to also to clarify one point. It is said that they were accused or found guilty of spying, seeking information on military installations and all that. But let's remember that what we were appealing or trying to review at the Supreme Court was the decision that had been affirmed by the Court of Appeals of the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, September 2008. That was a negative decision, unfair, because it didn't end the whole process.

But it also had some positive facts. In that determination, the Court of Appeals said five times that nothing involving the national security of the US was involved in this case, that they didn't gather or transmit secret information affecting US national security. That is why the Court of Appeals decided to vacate the sentences of three of them and order a resentencing process, which is now probably the next step in this slow, long case. But that means that after ten years of discussions and appealings and so on, that unanimously a lower court, the Atlanta court, determined, recognized what we had been saying all along, that they were not doing anything against the US, that their only role was to penetrate terrorist groups that had been operating for many years from Miami against Cuba.

And there are many, many, many evidences to that. I don't need to go through all the facts that you know very well. Mr. Luis Posada Carriles is still moving freely, at large, in the US territory. He has not been extradited to Venezuela, where he was-had been tried for the destruction-the first case in history of the destruction of a civil airplane in mid-air. And he has not been prosecuted for that, for that crime in the US. Just here's an example. The persons who tried to learn about Mr. Posada Carriles and others like him, their plans against Cuba, they are in prison. And Mr. Posada, Mr. Bosch and many others are enjoying the good life in America.

That was a very sad conclusion in the legal sphere that sent a very negative message to the Cuban people and to many peoples around the world. The US continues-

AMY GOODMAN: Ricardo Alarcon, we have to break, but we're going to come back to this discussion, president of the Cuban National Assembly, on the line with us from Havana. We'll be back in a minute.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: Our guest is the president of the Cuban National Assembly. We're joined by Ricardo Alarcon. I wanted to ask you more broadly about US-Cuba relations under President Obama. Speaking at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago April, Obama called for a, quote, "new beginning with Cuba" and raised hopes for a thaw in US-Cuba relations.

     PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: There's been several remarks directed at the issue of the relationship between the United States and Cuba, so let me address this. The United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba. I know that there is a longer-I know there's a longer journey that must be traveled to overcome decades of mistrust, but there are critical steps we can take toward a new day. I've already changed a Cuba policy that I believe has failed to advance liberty or opportunity for the Cuban people. We will now allow Cuban Americans to visit the islands whenever they choose and provide resources to their families, the same way that so many people in my country send money back to their families in your countries to pay for everyday needs.

     Over the past two years, I've indicated, and I repeat today, that I'm prepared to have my administration engage with the Cuban government on a wide range of issues, from drugs, migration and economic issues, to human rights, free speech and democratic reform. Now, let me be clear, I'm not interested in talking just for the sake of talking. But I do believe that we can move US-Cuban relations in a new direction.


AMY GOODMAN: That was President Obama at the Summit of the Americas. Ricardo Alarcon, you're president of the Cuban National Assembly. Your response?

RICARDO ALARCON: Well, it's very important not to speak just for the sake of speaking. The proof of the pudding is indeed in.

He didn't mention, by the way, among the list of issues that may be addressed in this process, terrorism. And more or less at the same time he was saying that in Trinidad and Tobago, he was urging the US Supreme Court to not to consider, not to review, the case of the five. He can prove that he doesn't have only words, but deeds, by exercising his authority. He can and should drop immediately the charges brought against the five. Atlanta already recognized that they were not entertaining any espionage activities.

And the other important charge, the one referring to an alleged murder attempt by Gerardo Hernandez, was also recognized by the US administration in a written-in a document, unprecedented in American history, according to them, that they didn't have any evidence, that they couldn't demonstrate that charge, and asked the court that said this years ago, in 2001, even to drop that charge. And what is it? The President could use those legal arguments, let's say, to exercise justice. He can put in jail Posada Carriles and the terrorists and free those who opposed their actions. That would be a very concrete, simple step to demonstrate that what is coming from the White House are not just words.

By the way, the only concrete thing that he promised was to eliminate the restrictions for traveling by Cuban Americans. But if you go now, Amy, to the US official sources, you can visit in their website, you will see that the regulations are still as they were before. Then they haven't yet taken the necessary step. They talk about that, but still, the regulations, if you read them as they are now, today are exactly as they were before.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Ricardo Alarcon-

RICARDO ALARCON: It is-

JUAN GONZALEZ: Yes, Ricardo Alarcon, I'd like to ask you about the summit itself. Many people consider it a major shift, in that the countries of Latin America for the first time rebuffed the United States and said that Cuba should join the OAS. But then, apparently, the Cuban government has rejected that offer. Can you talk about that?

RICARDO ALARCON: Well, they knew very well what was and is our position, that we will not join the OAS for many reasons, as we have explained time and again. What they did was to eliminate an absurd resolution that the OAS passed in 1962, by which Cuba was excluded from participating in that organization because of our links with the-what they used to call in those days the China-Soviet bloc. And then that doesn't exist anymore. That's good, because it is a way to correct history. But I think it's too late to-even to think about joining an organization that is really rejected by the peoples in the continent and that has not served any useful purpose, has been an instrument of the worst part of US policy in the area.

We are in agreement with those in Latin America that are proposing the creation of a Latin American and Caribbean organization, and we are cooperating with them in many instances. We have a number of mechanism of cooperation and integration in the area. Like the Africans have their organization, the African Unity, in which the former colonial masters do not belong, the Latin American, Caribbean people should have their own, only for them, only for Latin American and Caribbean-area countries. And they understand that position.

We appreciate, of course, the fact that everybody-with the exception of the US and Canada, everybody in that conference repeated the same line of thinking, that Cuba should not be excluded. As a matter of fact, Cuba has relations with everybody else except the United States. Those are facts that would be useful for the administration to discover, and in order to learn that the world has changed. The US must also change.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Ricardo Alarcon, I'd like to ask you about something else. You were mentioning the former colonial masters. Guantanamo, the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba, many consider it a residue of the old colonial period. The original lease for Guantanamo, the United States imposed on Cuba, ninety-nine-year lease at the beginning of the twentieth century. What is the legal basis for the United States being in Cuba and having that naval base on your national territory?

RICARDO ALARCON: The only basis for that is imperial arrogance. It was a treaty that was imposed upon the Cuban people before Cuba attained its formal independence. Americans were occupying the island at that time, and they imposed, as a condition to withdraw their troops, two things: one, that Cuba has to recognize and even include in their constitution the right of the US to intervene in Cuban affairs, and Cuba had to lease some pieces of land for military bases. That was the origin of Guantanamo.

That was modified during FDR. The right to intervention was dropped, but the bases, was Guantanamo and others at that time, were to remain until both parties agreed to something else. And the party, as you know, has refused to abandon that piece of Cuban land due to arrogance. It doesn't make any sense to-and that was the origin of the scandal of transforming it into a prison and all the stories that they are very well known around the world. But it's an issue that remains to be solved, that remains to be addressed. It was [inaudible], by the way, in the list the President presented to the others attending Trinidad conference.

AMY GOODMAN: Ricardo Alarcon, the question of this couple, the-Walter Myers and his wife, Gwendolyn, the former State Department analyst and his wife, being charged with spying for the Cuban government. They've pled not guilty to conspiracy and being agents of a foreign government and wire fraud. Your response?

RICARDO ALARCON: Well, I know only what has been published in the press, and I read the indictment. It's interesting. In the indictment, they only mention one thing: what an FBI agent said that they told him. Apart from that, that this couple had a shortwave radio-I imagine that they are not the only Americans that have such a thing-and that they came to Cuba on one occasion. And also, in the media, it is mentioned, a private diary of the lady, in which she expressed certain sentiments about Cuba that are not only her sentiment. Many people also love Cuba and respect us.

Apart from that, the real question, to me, is why, if they had known about those alleged activities for a number of years, they chose to publicize that precisely on the eve of the moment that the Supreme Court was going to deny the review of the Cuban Five case, as it was requested by the same administration that now is accusing this couple in New York [inaudible]-

AMY GOODMAN: Ricardo Alarcon, we're going to have to leave it there, but we thank you very much for being with us. Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban National Assembly, joining us on the telephone from Havana.
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Student protesters in Haiti burn UN police car
AP. June 18, 2009
http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=979934?=eng_news

Student demonstrators have attacked and burned a U.N. police vehicle in Haiti amid a rise in violent protests ahead of weekend elections in the troubled country.

Two U.N. police officers were in the vehicle when students in the capital bombarded it with rocks Wednesday and forced it to halt. The officers escaped unharmed and the demonstrators set the vehicle on fire.

A contingent of U.N. peacekeepers arrived shortly afterward and fired tear gas to disperse the protesters.

Violent protests such as this one have become increasingly frequent in recent weeks in the run-up to Sunday's vote for 11 vacant Senate seats. Demonstrators have also called for the ouster of the 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers who have kept order in Haiti since 2004.
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Haiti's prime minister visits Miami
Georgia East. South Florida Sun-Sentinel. June 18, 2009
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/sfl-haiti-minister-visit-bn061709,0,3401140.story

MIAMI - Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis of Haiti is making her first official visit to South Florida.

Pierre-Louis will discuss investment opportunities in Haiti at a gala in Miami today. She is also meeting with local leaders of the South Florida Haitian community, said Ralph LaTortue, the Haitian consul general in Miami.

Jean Claude Cantave, executive director of the sponsoring Miami-based Haitian-American Center for Economic and Public Affairs, said many local Haitians want to set up businesses in the island nation. They need to know more about what incentives the Haitian government is willing to offer.

Area investors seem to be most interested in tourism, retail and education in Haiti, he said.

"People want to invest in Haiti but we've had so much bad press,'' said Cantave. "But there are business opportunities there and investors could help create jobs."

Pierre-Louis became Haiti's prime minister in July, making her the impoverished country's No. 2 leader.

The gala is being held from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Double Tree Biscayne Bay Hotel, 1717 N. Bayshore Drive, Miami. Tickets, for $55, are still available.

For more information contact Jean Claude Cantave at 305-803-1658.

Region: Trade, Security, Economy and Integration   [contents]

POLITICS-LATIN AMERICA:  Gender Equality Requires Quotas
Tito Drago. Inter-Press Service. June 17, 2009
http://ipsnews.org/news.asp?idnews=47265

MADRID, Jun 17 (IPS) - Laws stipulating a minimum number of women in public posts are essential for achieving gender equality, according to a meeting of women legislators from Latin America and the Caribbean, held this week in Madrid.

The meeting, "Towards a Political Agenda for Gender Equality in Latin America and the Caribbean", was organised by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with support from the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

More than 60 women parliamentarians from 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, and a further 20 from Spain, attended the two-day conference, which ended Tuesday.

Eleven of the 20 Latin American and Caribbean nations represented at the meeting already have quota laws, whose effectiveness can be seen in the proportion of women lawmakers, who held 20.5 percent of total seats in 2008, compared to just 14 percent in the other nine countries.

Argentina adopted the world's first national gender quota law in 1991, and this country and others in the region such as Chile, Nicaragua and Panama have or have had women presidents.

Without these laws, it would take until 2052 for women to gain 40 percent of parliamentary seats, said Rebeca Grynspan, UNDP regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean.

But none of these countries has reached the degree of equality that prevails in Spain, which has equal numbers of men and women in the cabinet presided by socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and where political parties are required to include at least 40 percent female candidates on electoral lists.

Latin America has made some progress in the composition of cabinets: in the 1990s only nine percent of ministers were women, a proportion that has climbed to nearly 22 percent this year. A particularly positive sign is that women are increasingly being appointed to ministries traditionally seen as male preserves, such as the ministries of defence, interior, economy, industry, science and technology.

Spain's First Vice President María Teresa Fernández de la Vega told the meeting it must never be forgotten that exercising and showing the value of political freedom is a contribution to the values of equality throughout Ibero-America - the community of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking coun...