January 2006 News Archive

From CFI

Contents 1 Colombian Troops Try to Rid Park of Coca 2 Socialist Bachelet Wins Chilean Presidency 3 Left-Leaning Candidate Surges in Peru 4 Chavez Denounces Bid to Block Jet Sale 5 EEUU no permite a España vender aviones a Venezuela

Colombian Troops Try to Rid Park of Coca

By DAN MOLINSKI, Associated Press Writer Wed Jan 18, 2:44 PM ET

BOGOTA, Colombia - Some 3,000 armed troops were deployed to one of Colombia's most pristine national parks Wednesday as part of a bold operation to clear the rebel-controlled region of cocaine laboratories and the plants used to make the drug. ADVERTISEMENT

It is the largest coca eradication drive in Colombia's history and could lead to battles with the country's main rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which makes money by cocaine trafficking, warned Gen. Jorge Daniel Castro.

"It's going to be very difficult because this is the FARC's territory," Castro, the national police chief, told The Associated Press before departing for the park to lead the operation. "This is an extremely risky operation."

President Alvaro Uribe vowed last month to destroy all the coca fields in the Sierra Macarena National Park after the rebels killed 29 soldiers in a surprise attack just outside the preserve, 105 miles south of Bogota.

The rebel group has not commented on the plan, but the advance notice has given the rebels plenty of time to prepare.

"The FARC will not go quietly. But after an initial resistance, they will retreat as they always do, then wait for the government forces to leave and then they will return," said Leon Valencia, a political analyst who was formerly a guerrilla with another leftist group.

Uribe blamed the Dec. 27 assault, in which the guerrillas outgunned the soldiers nearly five to one, on the rebels' increased wealth from drug trafficking and their use of the Macarena nature preserve as a refuge to grow coca.

U.S.-owned fumigation planes spray weed killer over tens of thousands of acres of Colombian coca fields each year, but bypass the country's 36 nature parks due to environmental concerns — a point not overlooked by coca farmers, who have invaded at least 11 of the parks, Castro said.

The December attack was the deadliest on government forces since Uribe took office three years ago on a promise to wipe out the rebels. And while the president's military actions have brought a sharp drop in kidnappings and homicides, they have had little impact on the 12,000-member FARC's strike capabilities.

About 900 farmers have been hired to rip up the coca plants by hand inside the 1.6 million-acre Macarena park. The project, called "Operation Macarena" begins Thursday and will take about three months — until "the last coca plant" in the park is yanked out by its roots, Castro said.

About 1,500 police officers arrived inside the park during the past two days, while 2,000 army soldiers have been deployed just outside the park, the military said.

The ground troops are supported by U.S.-loaned helicopter gunships, Castro said. Eleven U.N. observers were also to be on hand.

The armed forces are mainly there to protect the farmers who will rip up the coca plants under the hot and humid jungle sun.

But the police also plan to wipe out the cocaine trade inside the park, blowing up concrete bridges and destroying clandestine roads built by the rebels to facilitate drug-running.

Several cocaine laboratories, which use gasoline, cement, hydrochloric acid and other chemicals to process coca leaves into cocaine, will also be destroyed before they pollute more rivers and soil, Castro said.

The government has ripped out coca from other nature parks, including the Sierra Nevada National Park in northern Colombia, where 540 acres of the plants were destroyed. But the Macarena effort will dwarf all the others combined, with plans to clear all 11,400 acres of coca there, police said.

Retaking the park would remove a key financing source for the rebels, Castro said. "It would have to cause them many economic problems."

But Valencia said the biggest losers will be local farmers who sell to the rebels. The rebels will find other coca suppliers, he said.

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Socialist Bachelet Wins Chilean Presidency

By EDUARDO GALLARDO, Associated Press Writer

A socialist doctor and former political prisoner was elected Sunday as the country's first female president, defeating a conservative multimillionaire opponent in a race that reflected Latin America's increasingly leftward tilt.

The victory of Michelle Bachelet — a political prisoner during the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet and defense minister in the current administration — extends the rule of the market-friendly, center-left coalition that has governed since the end of Pinochet's 1973-90 rule.

"Who would have said, 10, 15 years ago — that a woman would be elected preident!" Bachelet told thousands of supporters.

The president-elect on Sunday also recalled her imprisonment and torture under Pinochet, saying that "violence entered my life and destroyed what I loved."

With more than 97 percent of some 7.2 million votes counted, Bachelet had more than 53 percent of the vote to just over 46 percent for Sebastian Pinera, who congratulated his opponent on her victory but vowed "to continue to fight for our principles, which do not die today."

Sunday's runoff was necessary after a Dec. 11 election involving four candidates failed to produce a winner with a majority.

Her political success has baffled many Chileans who thought a left-leaning single mother jailed during Pinochet's dictatorship stood little chance in this socially conservative country.

Current President Ricardo Lagos made her his health minister, then in 2002 named her defense minister. She won praise for helping heal divisions between civilians and military left over from the dictatorship.

Bachelet had expected resistance from Chile's conservative military establishment when appointed defense minister. "I was a woman, separated, a socialist, an agnostic ... all possible sins together," said Bachelet, who nonetheless became a popular figure among the admirals and generals.

Bachelet's gender still prompts questions she does not like.

"You wouldn't be asking that question if I was a man," she once chided a Chilean reporter who asked if she would marry again.

But she did answer: "The truth is that I haven't had the time to even think about that. My next four years will be dedicated to work."

Bachelet will be only the third woman directly elected president of a Latin American country, following Violeta Chamorro, who governed Nicaragua from 1990 to 1997, and Mireya Moscoso, president of Panama from 1999 to 2004.

However, Bachelet, unlike those two women, did not follow a politically prominent husband into power.

Bachelet's father was an air force general who was arrested and tortured for opposing the 1973 coup that brought Pinochet to power. Alberto Bachelet died in prison of a heart attack, probably caused by the torture, Bachelet says.

A 22-year-old medical student at the time, Bachelet was also arrested along with her mother and later forced into five years of exile, first in Australia, then in communist East Germany. She married a fellow Chilean exile while in East Germany. Back in Chile, they separated, and she had a third child from a new relationship.

Lagos, the mentor she is following into power, has deftly balanced his socialist ideology with market-oriented economics and enjoys an approval rate above 70 percent. Lagos is constitutionally prohibited from seeking immediate re-election, but as he voted, his backers chanted "2010," referring to the next election.

The 54-year-old Bachelet made clear she intends to maintain the free-market polices that have turned Chile's economy into one of the stroingest in the region.

"We will continue to walk the same road," she said

In a speech to the nation after congratulating Bachelet on the phone, Lagos said, "We now have a new Chile, we have for the first time in our history a woman president."

In spite of their different political backgrounds and ideologies, both Bachelet and Pinera outlined similar goals, promising to continue the two-decade-long free-market policies that have made Chile's economy one of the healthiest in the region.

Both said they would fight to lower the 8 percent unemployment rate, improve public health, housing and education services and curb rising urban crime. They also promised to reform Chile's 25-year-old private social security systems to ensure better pensions for retirees, though neither has given details of how.

"By the end of my government in 2010 we will have consolidated a system of social protection that will give Chileans and their families the tranquility that they will have a decent job," Bachelet said Sunday.

Lagos and Bachelet belong to the same Socialist Party as Salvador Allende, whose leftist policies prompted Pinochet's bloody coup. But the party allied with other major left-center parties in 1990 to oust the right wing, and their coalition has held while leading Chile into a free-trade pact with the United States, cutting inflation and fostering growth of about 6 percent a year.

Chile's next president will be inaugurated on March 11, joining the ranks of Latin American leaders including leftists such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and newly elected Evo Morales of Bolivia.

Bachelet indicated she would work with all the region's leaders. "We shouldn't take Latin America back to the Cold War. Chavez, Morales, they are presidents elected by their peoples. Chile must have relationships with all of them."

Pinochet was not a factor in the campaign, and his spokesman, retired Gen. Guillermo Garin, said he paid little attention to it. At 90, Pinochet is ailing and was only recently freed from house arrest. He faces charges of human rights abuses and corruption stemming from his 17-year rule.

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Left-Leaning Candidate Surges in Peru

By MONTE HAYES, Associated Press Writer 22 minutes ago

LIMA, Peru - When Venezuela's populist leader welcomed Bolivia's socialist president-elect at a ceremony in Caracas, an unexpected guest had a front-row seat: Ollanta Humala, a left-leaning nationalist who is surging in popularity in Peru's presidential race. ADVERTISEMENT

Ollanta, a former army lieutenant colonel like his Venezuelan host, President Hugo Chavez, glowed in the praise he got in Caracas. But the gathering reinforced fears of Peruvian elites that he may be part of the tide of elected leftist leaders rising across South America — or, worse, a military dictator in the making.

Two days later at a news conference in Lima, Humala urged Peru's leftist parties to join his "nationalist project" and laid out policies that would make fundamental changes in Peru's free-market economy.

Wearing a green military-style jacket and an Andean Indian scarf, Humala also proclaimed deep admiration for the 1968-75 leftist dictatorship of Peruvian Gen. Juan Velasco, who carried out a largely failed agrarian reform, nationalized industries and forged close military ties with the Soviet Union.

"You could question his macroeconomics, but Velasco gave dignity to the people who lived in the countryside," Humala said, referring to Velasco's reforms, which freed rural workers from serf-like conditions on large estates.

Humala, 43, has risen strongly in opinion polls heading toward April's presidential election, moving into a tight contest with conservative former Congresswoman Lourdes Flores.

Public opinion analysts say his rapid rise — from 5 percent in August to 23 percent in December — is based largely on voters' disgust with Peru's political parties, which are widely viewed as corrupt.

Humala's economic plans unsettle many in the middle and upper classes. And some voters worry that members of his Indian-descended family are avowed racists and ultranationalists. His father describes himself as a Marxist, expresses admiration for Hitler and believes Peru's Indians and mestizos should rule. Humala insists he does not share their extremist beliefs.

Many Peruvians, especially the poor majority who feel they have not participated in Peru's solid economic growth of recent years, see Humala as the tough military man the country needs to punish the corrupt and impose order.

Humala views himself in the same light.

"Due to my military experience I believe we need discipline in the country, discipline and order," he told The Associated Press in an interview, sitting beneath a map of Peru at his spartan campaign headquarters. "What we have in Peru is the law of the jungle. Corruption abounds. The Peruvian state is corrupt and must be reinvented."

Humala burst into the spotlight when he and his brother, Antauro, a former army major, led some 70 followers in a short-lived military rebellion in October 2000, a month before President Alberto Fujimori's autocratic 10-year regime collapsed in a corruption scandal. Humala was later pardoned by Congress.

He has taken on the mantle of the anti-establishment newcomer, a role that Fujimori, a university dean, played to the hilt to get elected in 1990. Current President Alejandro Toledo, a close U.S. ally who is barred from running again, also ran as an outsider in 2001, becoming the country's first elected leader of Indian descent.

Many Peruvians disenchanted with Toledo's weak leadership had hoped for a return of Fujimori and his tough style, which helped end the economic chaos of the 1980s and defeat leftist guerrillas. But they have turned to Humala since Fujimori's November arrest in Chile, where he is fighting extradition to Peru on a dozen counts of human rights abuses and corruption.

In the interview, Humala scorned his opponents. "None of them offers hope for a true change in Peru," he said.

Humala said he would impose greater state control over the economy and give preference to Peruvian investors over foreign capital. He wants to boost taxes and royalties on foreign mining operations and take at least a 49 percent share for the government in Peru's giant Camisea natural gas fields, which are now run by a consortium of foreign companies.

But Humala said he differs from Velasco's dictatorship in that he does not believe in "expropriating property or limiting freedom of expression."

A key concern for Washington is the illicit growing of coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine.

Like Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales, an Indian activist who is a coca farmer, Humala said he does not support the U.S.-financed eradication of coca because it hurts poor farm families. "They're human beings trying to do the best for their children," he said.

He said he would battle drug trafficking in other ways.

Humala said he is not anti-American and hopes to have good relations with Washington.

"The only thing we want is to build a nation with dignity that will be respected and not a government like Mr. Toledo's that lets others walk over it," he said.

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Chavez Denounces Bid to Block Jet Sale

By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER, Associated Press Writer Fri Jan 13, 6:32 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez on Friday blasted an attempt by the U.S. to block Spain from selling Venezuela 12 military planes with American parts, calling it proof of Washington's "imperialism." ADVERTISEMENT

Displaying deep annoyance, Chavez asked hypothetically in his comments before the National Assembly what would happen if oil-exporting Venezuela cut off shipments to the United States.

Chavez also accused a U.S. Jewish rights group of joining a Washington-backed smear campaign after it denounced him for making anti-Semitic remarks. Chavez insisted those remarks had nothing to do with Jews and were badly misconstrued.

His comments came after the U.S. Embassy in Madrid announced that the United States had denied permission for the sale of planes, citing concerns about a Venezuelan government that it said had "grown progressively more autocratic and antidemocratic."

"What is this if not evidence of the horrific imperialism that the government in Washington wants to impose on the world?" Chavez said, reading news of the U.S. action as he addressed the assembly on the state of the nation.

"I denounce once again before the world the imperialist attack by the U.S. government against the Venezuelan people and the Venezuelan government," he said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States concluded the proposed transfers were not consistent with the country's interests.

"We're concerned that this proposed sale of military equipment and components to Venezuela could contribute to destabilization in Latin America and have made that view clear to the Spanish, Venezuelan and other governments in Latin America," McCormack said.

Chavez has accused the United States of plotting to overthrow him, and has warned any invasion would be defeated. Washington has strongly denied any such plans, but Chavez says Venezuela — the world's No. 5 oil exporter whose main customer is the United States — must be prepared.

"Every day we send them 1.5 million barrels of oil," said Chavez. "What would happen if tomorrow I were to say that no ship leaves for the United States?"

"How high would the price of a barrel go? I think it could hit $100," he said, making clear the idea wasn't being considering at present but was possible if the U.S. were to try to oust him.

"I don't want to do it, but war is war," Chavez said. "The best thing is for us to understand each other in peace."

U.S. law authorizes the government to prevent a country from transferring military equipment purchased in the United States to a third country.

The acquisition by Venezuela of certain types of military equipment, McCormack said, would raise "a lot of questions about their potential use and what effect that may have on the stability in the region."

Chavez called the U.S. concerns ridiculous, saying "these are transport planes."

Spain said Friday it did not share the U.S. concerns and would go ahead with the deal, removing the U.S.-made components and replacing them with parts made elsewhere.

Spain agreed in November to sell Venezuela the planes and eight patrol boats for $2 billion, despite U.S. threats at the time to oppose the transfer. It would be Spain's largest-ever defense deal, involving 10 C-295 transport planes and two CN-235 patrol planes, as well as four ocean patrol boats and four coast patrol vessels.

Officials have said neither the boats nor the transport planes were armed and that the patrol planes were equipped only for self-defense.

But McCormack said Friday that the U.S. was rejecting the entire sale, including the boats.

The U.S. government has also expressed concern about Russia's planned sale of helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles to Venezuela starting early this year. But Russia has said it too is going ahead with the deals.

Chavez called the U.S. action part of a campaign to smear his government.

"A new attack against Venezuela is just beginning," Chavez said. "Mr. Danger will crash up against the force of the truth and the force of morality," Chavez added, in a reference to President Bush.

Chavez also lashed out at The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a U.S. based Jewish organization that demanded he apologize for remarks made in Christmas Eve speech.

"The world has enough for all," Chavez said, according to a transcript of the Dec. 24 speech. "But it turned out that some minorities, descendants of those who crucified Christ, descendants of those who threw Bolivar out of here and also crucified him in their own way in Santa Marta, there in Colombia, a minority took the world's riches for themselves."

Chavez said those comments had nothing to do with Jews, but rather with poverty and the expulsion of 19th century independence hero Simon Bolivar from Venezuela.

The Wiesenthal Center claimed similar remarks have long been used to persecute Jews, but Chavez noted that a prominent leader of Venezuela's Jewish community had issued a statement saying the community does not believe in the slightest that Chavez was targetting Jews.

Chavez, who says he is leading a socialist revolution for the poor, is up for re-election in December. He remains popular amid high oil prices that have funded his social programs and helped bring economic growth of 9.4 percent last year.

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13 de enero de 2006, 03:44 AM PST

EEUU no permite a España vender aviones a Venezuela

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MADRID (Reuters) - Estados Unidos rechazó darle permiso a España para que le venda 12 aviones de transporte y vigilancia marítima con tecnología norteamericana a Venezuela, dijeron el viernes autoridades.

Venezuela, quinto exportador mundial de petróleo, ha estado gastando dinero en compras militares, lo que despertó la preocupación de Washington, enfrentado cada vez más al presidente venezolano, Hugo Chávez.

El embajador de Estados Unidos en Madrid, Eduardo Aguirre, comunicó la decisión el jueves a los ministros españoles de Asuntos Externos y Defensa, Miguel Angel Moratinos y José Bono, respectivamente, y a la empresa que fabrica las aeronaves, EADS-CASA, dijo el portavoz.

El rechazo de la licencia no impediría que España continúe con la venta siempre y cuando encuentre una tecnología alternativa desarrollada en algún otro país.

Los aviones forman parte de un acuerdo por 2.000 millones de dólares por el cual España proveerá barcos y aviones a Venezuela.

El portavoz confirmó la noticia aparecida en la edición del viernes del periódico El Pais, que decía que Estados Unidos creía que la venta de los aviones a Venezuela tenían el potencial de complicar la situación en Sudámerica.

Washington había hecho clara su oposición al acuerdo durante meses, complicando aún más las relaciones con Madrid, nunca restañadas del todo tras la decisión del presidente José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero de retirar las tropas españolas de Irak en 2004.

La radio estatal española citó a Bono diciendo que la venta seguirá adelante y que EADS-CASA estaba en contacto con compañías francesas para obtener la tecnología alternativa, aunque esto podría encarecer los aviones.

EADS-CASA, división española del gigante aeroespacial EADS, no pudo ser contactada para comentar los hechos.

Medios españoles mencionaron que los componentes estadounidenses estaban en su mayoria en los motores de los aviones y en el equipamiento electrónico.

Zapatero ha defendido la venta, diciendo que Madrid no se doblegará ante las políticas estadounidenses. España está vendiendo aviones y barcos que no tienen "carácter ofensivo," declaró el jefe de gobierno.

El ministro de Asuntos Externos de Brasil, Celso Amorim, dijo el miércoles que su país veía señales de que Estados Unidos estaba tratando de bloquear la venta de aeronaves militares brasileñas a Venezuela.

Chavez había acusado el martes a Washington de tratar de debilitar el poder militar de Venezuela, y esperaría a ver si Brasil podía resolver el problema de los aviones, que también incluyen tecnología estadounidense.

En caso de no lograrlo, sugirió que Venezuela podría comprar aviones similares a China.

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