Recopilación de noticias

Noticias de medios y agencias internacionales
Martes, 17 de noviembre de 2009

The Washington Times

Islamic militants boosting role in drug trade

Claude Salhani THE WASHINGTON TIMES

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/17/islamic-militants-boosting-role-in-drug-trade//print/

The sea lanes of the South Atlantic have become a favored route for drug traffickers carrying narcotics from Latin America to West and North Africa, where al Qaeda-related groups are increasingly involved in transporting the drugs to Europe, intelligence officials and counternarcotics specialists say.

A Middle Eastern intelligence official said his agency has picked up "very worrisome reports" of rapidly growing cooperation between Islamic militants operating in North and West Africa and drug lords in Latin America. With U.S. attention focused on the Caribbean and Africans lacking the means to police their shores, the vast sea lanes of the South Atlantic are wide open to illegal navigation, the official said.

"The South Atlantic has become a no-man's sea," said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity owing to the nature of his work.

A spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) confirmed the new route.

"The Colombians have shifted their focus from sending cocaine through the Caribbean, and they saw an opportunity to sell cocaine in Europe, transshipping it through the South Atlantic from Venezuela and then to Africa, through Spain and into Europe," DEA spokesman Michael Sanders told The Washington Times. "That's what we're seeing. It's just a new location. That's the route they're taking, for the most part."

The Washington Times reported in March that Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Lebanese Shi'ite group, is deeply involved in the drug trade. Increasingly, however, Sunni groups linked to al Qaeda are also dealing in narcotics to finance their organizations, specialists say.

"It's a weapon against the infidels in the West," said Chris Brown, a senior research associate at the Potomac Institute outside Washington. "As long as the target of the drug trade is the infidels, they have no problem doing it."

Concerns center on groups such as al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM), which operates primarily in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. North African officials say they worry that AQIM is amassing large sums of money from the drug trade to use in financing attacks, with the object of frightening away tourists, undercutting local economies and, ultimately, secular regimes.

Much of the drug trafficking passes through Venezuela, said Jaime Daremblum, the director of the Center for Latin American Studies at the Hudson Institute and a former Costa Rican ambassador to the United States.

"Caracas has become the cathedral of narco-traffickers," he said.

Colombian and Peruvian drugs pass through Venezuela en route to Africa and then are transshipped to European markets, anti-drug specialists say. The FARC guerrilla movement, which seeks to destabilize the government of Colombia, is involved and has links to the Islamists in North Africa, they say.

"Most of the drugs that are available in Spain come from Venezuela," Mr. Daremblum said.

Venezuelan Ambassador to Washington Bernardo Alvarez said the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has nothing to do with the trafficking and actively fights against it.

"Do not forget that Venezuela is between the biggest producer of drugs [Colombia] and the biggest consumer of drugs [the U.S.]," Mr. Alvarez said in an e-mail. To accuse Venezuela of responsibility "would be like saying the U.S. government is blessing the trafficking of weapons to Mexico, considering that around 90 percent of the weapons confiscated in Mexico originate in the U.S."

The ambassador added, "Venezuela has adopted a comprehensive anti-drug strategy that includes prevention, drug seizures, arrests and extraditions of criminals, destruction of clandestine airstrips, and the monitoring of possible drug routes.

"Venezuela has cooperative anti-drug agreements with 37 countries, including France, Spain and Portugal. Venezuela's fight against drugs has been recognized and lauded by the Organization of American States and even the International Criminal Police Organization."

Michael Shifter, vice president for policy of the Inter-American Dialogue, a center in Washington that focuses on Latin America, said, "Venezuela is a major transshipment point" for drugs, but he said the problem is complex.

"The drug traffickers are having a field day," he said. "The FARC is clearly involved, but there are a lot more actors."

Intelligence officials and other specialists said some of the deals between Islamist groups and narco-traffickers are negotiated in the West African country of Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony where corruption is rampant.

In a recent report, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said there is "a real risk of Guinea-Bissau becoming Africa's first narco-state."

The ICG, a think tank based in Washington and Brussels that focuses on conflict prevention and amelioration, added that "in the absence of effective state and security structures, the country has become a prime transit point for drug trafficking from Latin America to Europe."

The Middle East intelligence official said the CIA tries to monitor the trafficking but cannot stop it in a country where Islamists and drug dealers buy impunity by paying hefty bribes to officials.

The official suggested that a joint tracking center be set up to coordinate data on air and plane shipments on both sides of the South Atlantic.

"If the South Americans know of a ship or plane coming to Africa, they can inform us, and we will track it from here," the official said.

Mr. Sanders of the DEA said his organization "knows there are extremist groups in West Africa, but at this point we don't know if they're playing a role in narcotics trafficking."

• Sara A. Carter contributed to this story from Washington.

 Ir arriba

South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Colombia holds major export event in Miami

By Doreen Hemlock

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-colombia-trade-20091116,0,281909,print.story

Blame it on Hugo Chavez: Colombia is rushing to boost sales to North America,  now that political disputes with Venezuela have slashed hefty trade with its South American neighbor.

The largest Colombian export mission ever to the United States is in Miami this week for two-days of match-making sessions with pre-selected importers. High on the agenda for sale: women's lingerie and other clothing, processed foods, books and other manufactured goods, Colombian officials said.

Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez, has been lashing out for months against Colombia's conservative leader, Alvaro Uribe, even ordering Venezuelan soldiers to prepare for war. Chavez rejects Uribe's decision to allow U.S. military aircraft and warships greater access to Colombian bases.

The political dispute has pushed Colombian sales to Venezuela down 56 percent in October from the same month last year, Colombia's Trade, Industry and Commerce Minister Luis Guillermo Plata told a news conference in Miami on Monday morning.

To help offset that drop, Colombia is accelerating its drive to diversify sales abroad. More than 360 Colombian exporters are visiting Miami this week for pre-arranged meetings with more than 240 importers from the United States, Canada, Mexico and Caribbean islands, said Maria Elvira Pombo, president of Colombia's export promotion agency Proexport.

Colombia held similar but smaller export events recently in Chile, Brazil and Guatemala, she said.

The U.S. long has ranked as the top market for Colombian goods, buying about $14 billion worth last year, including nearly $7 billion in coal, oil and energy products. Venezuela placed second, buying about $6 billion last year, mainly manufactured items, Colombian officials said.

In revitalizing Colombia's economy, the Uribe administration has focused on boosting exports, with sales abroad more than tripling since 2002 from $12 billion to $37 billion last year. The effort includes new or expanded free trade accords with numerous countries, including Mexico, Chile and Switzerland.

A free trade agreement with the United States is pending approval in U.S. Congress, hopefully "soon," Minister Plata said, to help Colombia reduce its dependence on business with Venezuela.

 Ir arriba

Revista Foreign Policy

Hugo Chavez is going to make it rain

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/11/16/hugo_chavez_is_going_to_make_it_rain

Some of the world's remaining communist countries (plus former Soviet Russia) are preparing to control the weather. Indeed, China, Russia, Venezuela, and Cuba are preparing ways to control precipitation -- hearkening back to something the X-Men guys thought up during the Cold War.

Last a summer, Chinese government officials worried that it might rain on their parade, literally, during the Olympics. They fired rockets filled with dry ice and silver iodide into the clouds, to make them cough up any raindrops before Beijing. The process might have backfired, causing two fierce snowstorms. But Moscow's mayor seems undeterred by the weather -- he is using the same technology to deflect snowfall from his city, having military planes spray iodide clouds.

Venezuela isn't as concerned with deflecting precipitation. Chavez is trying to increase rainfall on parched areas of his country. And rather than simply ordering the cloud seeding to take place, he is going to do it himself, going airborne with a group of Cuban scientists.

"I'm going in a plane. Any cloud that crosses me, I'll zap it so that it rains," Chavez said.

 Ir arriba

The Nation

Honduran Crisis Outfoxes US Attempts at Negotiation

By Tom Hayden

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091130/hayden/print

Representatives of the Honduran resistance against the military coup in Honduras arrived in Los Angeles this week as the Obama administration appeared to be abandoning its support for deposed President Manuel Zelaya and acceptance of the June 28 coup.

The four Hondurans, traveling overnight after four months of street resistance and state repression, displayed the diversity of the new social movement born in the wake of the June 28 coup. Their first meeting was hosted by Carecen, an agency long supportive of Central American immigrants.

Marvin Andrade, executive director of Caracen, was sharply critical of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's handling of the Honduran crisis. Clinton claimed earlier this week that an historic breakthrough had been achieved, only to realize, no sooner than the ink was dry, that the agreement failed to restore President Manuel Zelaya to power, even temporarily.

No other Latino political or labor leaders were present to welcome the Honduran delegation. The reason suggested by one source close to the delegation was "not wanting to be critical of the Obama administration."

The four delegates gave brief and pointed testimony against the coup and any US plan to extend legitimacy to the upcoming presidential election scheduled for November 28.

Iris Munguia, born on a Chiquita banana plantation and now an organizer the Honduran banana workers union, denounced the presidential election, predicting electoral fraud because the coup regime controls the ballot boxes. Arrested in July, Munguia described new emergency laws passed to "legalize the repression" and impose long jail terms as further impediments to a fair and open electoral process.

Sara Aguilar, formerly of the Honduran public defenders' office, estimated 113 deaths from the police repression thus far, many of them victims followed and killed in their own homes, while no police officers have been brought to account. In some cases, lawyers have been beaten when seeing their clients in jail. Aguilar has taken leave from her public defender job to coordinate the new Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ).

Indyra Mendoza, a lesbian feminist working on documentary films, testified how the nature of the coup is imprinted on the bodies of women, especially street workers, who are beaten on their breasts and sexual organs. Large numbers of the dead and tortured are from homosexual communities, she said.

Esequias Doblado, a legal adviser to the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CODEH) explained in detail how President Zelaya's call for a consulta, or referendum, on public sentiment towards a constituent assembly was fully legitimate ["una consulta, nada mas"] and not a rational reason for his military expulsion from the country. While ruled unconstitutional by the coup regime, the aspiration towards a constituent assembly, as a means of expanding participatory democracy, has grown in popularity in the weeks since the coup.

It appears that whatever the fate of Zelaya, the coup leaders ["golpistas"] have provoked a unified national opposition movement which die not exist before the coup, and has not existed in Honduras for decades. The scale and intensity of the movement was not anticipated either by the golpistas or the United States, and is not likely to decline significantly during or after an election this month. Honduras may be in the process of irreversible, unpredictable change.

Meanwhile Secretary Clinton has announced an empty agreement that leaves the coup regime intact and Zelaya trapped inside the Brazilian embassy. Though important details may emerge, it appears that US officials at the highest levels misled themselves into an October 30 agreement that Clinton claimed was unprecedented. Top officials were spreading the word that the agreement was a done deal only hours before it unraveled, leaving the White House isolated and embarrassed. Sen. John Kerry called the development "an abrupt change" that "caused the collapse of an accord it helped negotiate."

One after another, a series of longtime Latin American diplomats as well as Clinton allies like Lanny Davis have pressured for a weaker policy than was originally declared by President Obama. These diplomats and lobbyists view the crisis through a neo-Cold War lens in which Venezuela is the continental enemy. In this view, the negation of the coup and restoration of Zelaya, however temporary, would be a point for Venezuela. This binary focus neglects the fact that virtually the entire Organization of American States, the European Union, and even Clinton-appointed mediator Oscar Arias, have insisted on the return of Zelaya as a precondition for recognizing the elections.

The newest State Department voice to muddy the waters was W. Lewis Amselem, a career diplomat whose previous postings included Guatemala and Bolivia, and who was foreign policy adviser to the US Southern Command. Amselem made an astonishing argument Tuesday that the OAS should give up its opposition to the coup and accept the coming election:

"I've heard many in this room say that they will not recognize the elections in Honduras. I'm not trying to be a wiseguy, but what does that mean? What does that mean in the real world, not the world of magical realism?"

Speaking to the OAS the week before, Amselem warned that the only practical course is for the organization to move forward with the election without Zelaya. This would mean an election not only without Zelaya, who is barred from another term in office, but without any progressive or independent candidate, since those potential candidates, such as union leader Carlos Reyes, are boycotting the election as a farce.

Thus the current US position is to accept the June 28 coup with its goal of eliminating Zelaya, electing a new conservative government, and regaining legitimacy in the OAS, the United Nations and other international organizations. As Amselem said, "For us to adopt a position that we cannot 'recognize' a Honduran government that emerges from conversations between the two parties, or from the electoral process, could leave the people of Honduras in the hands of those who created the current disaster in the first place...will some in this assembly try to have us condemn an entire nation to the fate of the ghostly Flying Dutchman, the ship of 17th century legend doomed to sail the seas forever without ever reaching safe haven?"

This drama is not over as election day approaches. Behind the scenes pressure now will be placed on Zelaya, and his Brazilian and regional allies, to accept the coup and its consequences by honoring the November election. Attempts to salvage a face-saving scenario that briefly returns Zelaya to office will be attempted as well.

But it is apparent that the hawks in the State Department, with their allies in business and military sectors across Latin America, have won their skirmish against the perceived threat of change in tiny Honduras. The coup is becoming a fait accompli.

The Honduran coup was not only aimed at Zelaya, Venezuela and the new left of Latin America, but against the perceived potential of the new Obama administration as well. Time will tell whether the new American president understands and accepts this fate, or eventually fights back.

In any event, the small Honduran delegation continues seeking to find an audience in America, in the faded tradition of the solidarity movements that arose in the 1980s.

About Tom Hayden

 Ir arriba

The Miami Herald

VACLAV KLAUS

Czech president prizes freedom above all

BY FRANK CALZON

frankcalzon@cubacenter.org

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other-views/story/1335522.html

Czech President Vaclav Klaus is an economist with an open but well-disciplined mind. Schooled in communism, he converted to capitalism and became an advocate of free markets after watching the Marxist model fail. Having represented Czechoslovakia's communist government at international financial meetings, he had ample opportunities to make comparisons.

Klaus joined the ``Velvet Revolution'' led by Vaclav Havel and became minister of finance overseeing Czechoslovakia's transition to a free-market economy. The Czech Republic and Slovakia split in a ``Velvet Divorce'' in 1993, but neither has retreated to communism.

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, Klaus was in Washington last week, meeting with Vice President Joe Biden and State Department officials and hosting a reception.

Playwright and former Czech President Vaclav Havel earned his appellation as a ``man for all seasons'' with his strong continuing advocacy of human rights and ethical politics. Klaus, known as ``the professor'' in Prague, projects the image of a statesman -- knowledgeable, engaging and willing to answer questions even when he knows his answers will be politically incorrect.

Addressing Georgetown University students, he warned against ``utopian thinking'' that perfect societies can be created and sustained. ``Let's recognize that great suffering has been inflicted by efforts to implement ideas,'' he said. The issue in world politics remains ``freedom'' and the threat to freedom remains ``dangerous collectivism.'' He insists the integration of Europe ``to enable the free movement of capital, people and ideas is not the same thing as unification.''

Countering a question about global warning, he asked: ``What is in danger: the climate or freedom?'' The clamor for a centrally directed effort ``to control the climate, is another utopian idea'' one that ``will endanger growth,'' he added.

The Czech Republic has ``the best growth rate of the post-communist nations'' he said. ``We would not be happy to go back to the centralized, unnecessarily organized system we got rid of 20 years ago.'' The ``current economic crisis . . . is not the result of market failure, but of politics playing with the market, a failure resulting from immoderate ambitions.''

Klaus was introduced at Georgetown by Spain's former Prime Minister José María Aznar, who took a hard line against the Castro government in Cuba but lost reelection after supporting the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Klaus criticized the current Spanish government's ``soft'' approach to Cuban issues adding, ``In the Czech Republic we have much more radical thoughts. Those of us in former communist countries were not helped by the soft talk of the Helsinki process and dreams of achieving something by friendliness. [Spain's current Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez] Zapatero's soft talk to Cuban leaders is not the way out.''

Klaus was carefully circumspect when talking about President Obama's decision not to deploy missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic. He said he ``accepts'' the policy change, ``the Czech Republic is part of the trans-Atlantic world, and friendship with the United States is crucial.''

Klaus will soon travel to Brazil and Peru ``where I see a chance to carry on discussions rationally.'' Seeing no chance for rational discussions in Venezuela where President Hugo Chávez has seized control of the nation's oil, steel, cement and sugar industries, ``is precisely the reason, I am not traveling to Caracas.''

So add ``blunt'' and ``outspoken'' to the list of adjectives behind Klaus's name. He is no man of pretense.

Frank Calzon is executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba, based in Arlington.

 Ir arriba

El Nuevo Herald

Cubanos manejan los hilos del poder en Venezuela

By CASTO OCANDO

cocando@elnuevoherald.com

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/venezuela/story/1337188.html

Una élite de técnicos y asesores cubanos participan activamente en el control de funciones oficiales clave en el gobierno de Venezuela con la anuencia de las autoridades, incluyendo el mando militar, advirtió el lunes un ex alto funcionario de la administración chavista.

Luis Alfonso Dávila, un coronel retirado que dirigió el Congreso Nacional en 1999, y fue canciller y ministro de Relaciones Interiores y Justicia del presidente Hugo Chávez entre el 2000 y el 2002, aseguró que unos 60,000 cubanos controlan actividades sensibles para la soberanía de Venezuela, desde los sistemas de salud y de producción alimentaria, hasta las notarías públicas, donde se registran las propiedades y sus dueños en todo el país.

"Los cubanos están en los máximos niveles de gobierno en Venezuela, con anuencia de Chávez'', dijo Dávila en una entrevista con El Nuevo Herald.

Dávila dijo que junto a un grupo de ex oficiales, funcionarios y parlamentarios que se aliaron al presidente Chávez en 1999, pero que ahora son disidentes, está integrando un movimiento nacional para oponerse efectivamente a las políticas del mandatario venezolano, a las que calificó de "verdaderamente graves''.

El coronel disidente detalló que los cubanos en Venezuela constituyen "el principal factor que maneja el mayor nivel de asesoría política que tiene el presidente Chávez''.

Dávila presidió en 1999 el extinto Congreso Nacional antes que diera paso ese mismo año a la Asamblea Constituyente, que tuvo como misión principal redactar la nueva Constitución promulgada por Chávez.

"La presencia cubana es evidente en las modificación de las leyes que violan la Constitución'', dijo.

"La salud de nuestro país la dirigen los cubanos, la producción agrícola pretenden dirigirla los cubanos; los registros y notarías de nuestro país las rigen los cubanos; el proceso de cedulación y ciertas misiones como la Misión Milagro están bajo el control de estos señores. Esto es verdaderamente preocupante'', indicó Dávila.

El ex dirigente chavista dijo que al controlar registros y notarías, los cubanos pueden conocer todos los bienes muebles e inmuebles en el país, y quiénes son sus dueños. "Y si el interés del presidente Chávez es cuestionar la propiedad privada y promover las expropiaciones, saque usted sus propias conclusiones''.

Dijo también que la asesoría cubana "es evidente'' en la modificación de un conjunto de leyes que han recibido la aprobación de la Asamblea Nacional, dominada por el chavismo.

Las afirmaciones de Dávila coinciden con recientes informes sobre le penetración cubana en Venezuela.

Recientemente, el propio gobierno del presidente Chávez anunció que empleará técnicos cubanos para recuperar hoteles, explotar minas de oro, bombardeas nubes para acelerar las lluvias, instalar plantas eléctricas y dirigir compras masivas de alimentos en el exterior para distribuirlas en la red oficial de mercados populares Mercal.

Según un estudio del investigador Antonio Pasquali, académico de la Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV), "decenas de miles de funcionarios cubanos'' laboran en áreas "sensibles'' de la administración nacional como "cedulación, pasaportes, infraestructura y servicios de telecomunicaciones, extranjería, Fuerzas Armadas, policías, seguridad y espionaje, notarías y registros, puertos y aeropuertos, minería e industrias, educación formal e ideológica, salud y deporte''.

En materia militar, la integración de los cubanos dentro de las Fuerzas Armadas de Venezuela es de tal envergadura que supervisan unidades enteras, "creando un enorme malestar entre la tropa'', dijo el analista político Américo Martín, que ha estudiado la presencia cubana en Venezuela.

De hecho, el 24 de junio pasado un centenar de militares cubanos, entre ellos oficiales, cadetes y tropa, tomaron parte del tradicional desfile del día de la independencia venezolana.

La presencia militar cubana en Venezuela "cambia la visión geopolítica y denota el grado de politización de la FAN'', sostuvo Rocío San Miguel, directora de la organización no gubernamental Control Ciudadano, que monitorea el sector militar en Venezuela.

 Ir arriba

El Nuevo Herald

La reina y las bombas

By JORGE RAMOS AVALOS

http://www.elnuevoherald.com/opinion/story/589250.html

Pregunta: ¿puede una reina acabar con todas las armas nucleares en el mundo? La reina Noor de Jordania no lo sabe. Pero lo está intentando.

La viuda del rey Hussein (1935-1999) está promoviendo la iniciativa llamada Global Zero cuyo objetivo es terminar con las armas nucleares en el año 2030. ``¿Es realista?'', le pregunté.

``Tendremos que ver. En los últimos 20 años nos hemos deshecho de 40 mil armas. Quedan 23 mil armas. ¿Por qué no podemos deshacernos de esas 23 mil armas (nucleares) cuando hay un consenso de que no tienen ya ningún valor para evitar guerras y hay un enorme peligro de que caigan en manos de grupos terroristas?''

La reina Noor --quien divide su tiempo entre Londres y Amman, y lleva 30 años promoviendo causas sociales-- tiene el mismo temor que ha expresado el presidente norteamericano, Barack Obama. ``Todos tememos que la proliferación de armas nucleares va a ocasionar que sean usadas por grupos terroristas o por gente que no está vinculada con ningún gobierno. Las posibilidades crecen día a día''.

Tras los actos terroristas del 11 de septiembre del 2001 y las guerras en Irak y Afganistán, ¿vivimos en un mundo más seguro?, le pregunté.

``No lo creo'', dijo. ``Creo que vivimos en un mundo cada vez más peligroso. Entre el cambio climático y la proliferación de armas nucleares corremos el riesgo de dejarles a nuestros hijos y a sus hijos un mundo imposiblemente peligroso y lleno de amenazas''.

México y Costa Rica apoyaron recientemente la propuesta del presidente Obama en el Consejo de Seguridad de la Organización de Naciones Unidas para eliminar todas las armas nucleares. Y la reina me recordó que fue un mexicano, Alfonso García Robles, quien en 1967 negoció el Tratado de Tlaltelolco para evitar la construcción y emplazamiento de armas nucleares en América Latina y el Caribe. Pero 1967 no es el 2009.

Venezuela ha pedido la ayuda de Irán para buscar depósitos de uranio en su territorio, confirmó a periodistas Rodolfo Sáenz, ministro de Industrias Básicas y Minería del gobierno chavista. El reporte fue publicado por The New York Times. Pero luego el gobierno de Venezuela se quiso deslindar de Irán --quien ha anunciado una segunda instalación nuclear en su territorio-- y aclaró que era Rusia (y no Irán) quien les estaba ayudando a buscar reservas de metales radioactivos.

Con Irán o Rusia, o con los dos, el presidente Hugo Chávez insiste que su objetivo es la creación de energía con fines pacíficos, no para hacer bombas nucleares. Pero ¿es esto un peligro para la región?

``Como ambientalista'', contestó la reina, quien actualmente tiene a una hija estudiando español en Centroamérica, ``estoy preocupada incluso por el uso del poder nuclear entre civiles: los desechos nucleares es un asunto que no se ha resuelto y existe el peligro de daños al medio ambiente y accidentes''.

terminé la entrevista con dos preguntas personales. ¿Cuál es el principal malentendido que hay sobre el mundo árabe y musulmán?

``Uno de los problemas es que en un país como Estados Unidos, por ejemplo, es muy difícil tener una cobertura de prensa balanceada sobre el mundo árabe y musulmán. La mayor parte de la cobertura es tendenciosa''.

¿Y qué es lo que la mayor parte de la gente, particularmente los que no somos parte de una familia real, no comprende sobre el hecho de ser reina?

``Sólo puedo hablar por mí misma y por mi esposo'', concluyó, ``pero los dos vimos nuestra responsabilidad como servidores públicos y no como gobernantes''.

Noor, que significa ``luz'' en árabe, sabe que su visibilidad puede atraer la atención del mundo al delicado e impostergable asunto del desarme nuclear. Es una misión casi imposible: sabe que basta una sola bomba para terminar con su sueño... y con la vida de millones de personas.
 

Ir arriba

The Washington Times 

Latin American leaders look to repeal term limits

Alexandra Olson ASSOCIATED PRESS

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/17/latin-american-leaders-look-to-repeal-term-limits//print/

MEXICO CITY

Horrified by the excesses of dictatorship, Latin Americans discarded the strongman model at the end of the 20th century and limited politicians' time in power.

Now a new wave of populist presidents is trying to do away with those limits, arguing that they impede real change. As leaders in country after country move to extend their rule, opponents fearing a return to the "caudillo" era of authoritarian power have done everything to stop them - from throwing eggs to staging coups.

"It's a new political model of what I call low-intensity dictatorships," said Manuel Orozco, a Central America analyst at the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue.

Term limits were the backdrop for a June coup in Honduras, where proponents said they were trying to prevent an illegal attempt by President Manuel Zelaya to extend his time in office. Mr. Zelaya denies any such intention.

Nicaragua joined the fray with a Supreme Court ruling giving President Daniel Ortega the right to seek re-election as many times as he wants. Opponents, calling it an illegal power grab, threw eggs at the judge in charge.

Similar scenarios have played out in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia, where some leaders have made progress on entrenched issues such as poverty or violence but are accused of quashing dissent.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has spent his country's oil wealth liberally on education, health care and food subsidies for the poor. He also has closed critical media outlets and used a majority in Congress to vastly diminish the powers of opposition mayors and governors.

In December, Venezuelans voted to allow Mr. Chavez, known as "el Comandante," to seek indefinite re-election.

Mr. Chavez first gained prominence for staging a failed coup in 1992. Far from being appalled at the assault on a 30-year-old democracy, many poor Venezuelans considered the young army lieutenant colonel a hero for trying to overthrow a president accused of stealing millions in public funds.

In decades past, Latin Americans once feared strongmen who emerged from military coups and curtailed human rights and crushed all dissent. Many were from the right. But some leftists also managed to amass great power or ruled for decades, such as Cuba's Fidel Castro, Peru's Gen. Juan Velasco and Argentina's populist general, Juan Peron.

After years of peaceful, democratic transfers of power in most countries, some of that fear has faded. Instead, there is anger over the corruption scandals and ineffectiveness that have marred many fledgling democracies.

Bolivia's Evo Morales and Ecuador's Rafael Correa - like Mr. Chavez, leftists popular for their efforts to redistribute wealth and give a voice to the poor - have won referendums to change their constitutions to allow them to seek second terms.

In Colombia, Alvaro Uribe's supporters don't want to let go of the conservative president, who is hugely popular for reducing murder and kidnapping rates and crippling leftist rebels. Mr. Uribe won a constitutional change to secure his second term, and now lawmakers have called a referendum asking voters to let him seek a third.

The rise of the "new caudillos" is testament to the failure of some countries to establish strong branches of government that can check executive power, despite decades of democratic rule, Mr. Orozco said.

Mr. Ortega, who doesn't have support to overturn term limits in the Nicaraguan Assembly, took the issue to the constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court, where the majority of judges are from his ruling Sandinista party.

While the opposition Liberal Constitutionalist Party complained, Mr. Orozco noted it was the Liberals who made a pact with the Sandinistas to split influence over such institutions so they could freeze out other political parties.

Mr. Ortega played a central role in Nicaragua's long struggle to shake off autocratic rule, first coming to power after Sandinista rebels toppled dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979. He ruled in a guerrilla-dominated junta before winning a presidential election in 1984 and fought U.S.-backed Contra rebels for a decade until losing his bid for a second term.

By the time Mr. Ortega won 2006 elections, Nicaragua had banned presidents from seeking consecutive presidential terms.

"Daniel Ortega has come full circle, pulling stunts that Anastasio Somoza used to do, to stay in power," said Robert Pastor, a professor of international relations at American University. "In his case, Ortega stacks the Supreme Court, which then obliges him by interpreting the constitution to say the opposite of what it actually says about re-election."

Meanwhile, the region's stronger democracies have avoided such turmoil.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has overseen economic prosperity and secured South America's first Olympic Games, has served the maximum two terms and will step down after next year's election even though he is wildly popular.

In Mexico, the single-term presidency has been the third rail of politics since it was implemented after the 1910 revolution that overthrew dictator Porfirio Diaz.

Chile's Michelle Bachelet, a popular successor to a popular president, will leave office next year after one term in a country with one of Latin America's lowest poverty rates.

Mr. Uribe hasn't said whether he wants to run for a third term. But even some supporters are urging him not to, worried he could end up lumped with Mr. Chavez and discredited in the United States, Colombia's top ally.

President Obama might have been thinking the same in June, when shortly before a meeting with Mr. Uribe he publicly lauded Mr. Lula da Silva as an example for other countries, "where the democratic tradition is not as deeply embedded as we'd like it to be."

 Ir arriba

The Washington Post

Venezuela: Colombia detained troops illegally

The Associated Press

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/16/AR2009111604257.html

CARACAS, Venezuela -- A Venezuelan commander contends Colombia wrongly detained four of his soldiers last week along the border separating the South American nations.

National Guard Gen. Orlando Mijares says the troops were navigating the Meta River, which is part of the border, when Colombian soldiers intercepted their boat.

Mijares said Monday that rivers on the frontier are considered international waters under agreements between Venezuela and Colombia, meaning troops from both countries are allowed to use them.

Colombia sent the Venezuelans home over the weekend, saying it wanted to ease worsening tensions. There have been several shootings and slayings the past few weeks along the border.

 Ir arriba

Reuters

Venezuela Orinoco oil upgrader failure lowers output

http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USN1651278920091117

CARACAS, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Venezuela's Petroanzoategui oil upgrader is down 44,000 barrels a day of production since Friday because of problems with a boiler, causing storage issues for the field's extra-heavy crude, sources said.

The Petroanzoategui field and upgrader in the vast Orinoco belt of tar-like crude was controlled by ConocoPhillips (COP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) until being nationalized in 2007.

A source at state oil company PDVSA said on Monday that repair teams had been trying unsuccessfully to fix the boiler since Friday. The feeding capacity of Petroanzoategui is 130,000 bpd.

A statement from PDVSA later on Monday confirmed a water-leak at a boiler, and said the upgrade should be back to full capacity at some point this week.

Production from the Orinoco region's four upgraders was close to its full capacity of 620,000 bpd in August, but dropped from October when the 180,000 bpd PetroPiar upgrader, part owned by Chevron (CVX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), went offline for planned maintenance.

The outages are causing a bottle-neck of the heavy crude, with the local Zuata storage tanks almost full, the company source said.

"There has been less tanker activity in Jose since last week," a trader said, referring to a drop in exports of upgraded crude from the Jose storage center in the region.

(Reporting by Marianna Parraga)

 Ir arriba

Agencie France-Presse

Narcos transportan cocaína desde Venezuela a África en avión Boeing de carga

Por Christophe Parayre (AFP)

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hNI2SU-JOTHgCOYFuo1cvZGByGPA

DAKAR — Los traficantes sudamericanos franquearon una nueva etapa al llevar cocaína desde Venezuela a Malí, en África occidental, a bordo de un avión de transporte Boeing fletado especialmente, utilizando medios cada vez más importantes y sofisticados.

Pero África occidental, importante punto de tránsito hacia los mercados europeos, se está también convirtiendo en una zona de producción, como lo prueba el reciente descubrimiento en Guinea de sitios de fabricación de heroína, cocaína y éxtasis.

"Un Boeing de carga partió de Venezuela y aterrizó en una pista improvisada a 15 km de Gao (noreste) antes de descargar cocaína y otros productos ilícitos", indicó el lunes en Dakar el responsable regional de la Oficina de las Naciones Unidas contra la Droga y el Delito (UNODC), Alexandre Schmidt.

"Luego trató de despegar y se estrelló el 5 de noviembre", agregó en conferencia de prensa. La cantidad de droga se desconoce, pero "un Boeing puede transportar hasta 10 toneladas de cocaína", subrayó.

La droga no fue encontrada. Interpol ya fue advertida y se está efectuando una investigación, según dijo.

Los restos del avión "fueron luego incendiados por los traficantes para hacer desaparecer cualquier rastro. Pero los números de referencia fueron registrados y una investigación se está haciendo en torno al propietario. Ningún cadáver fue encontrado en el lugar", subrayó el responsable.

"No se sabe desde hace cuánto tiempo se hace este tipo de vuelos y no se puede decir si este es el primer o el último vuelo de ese tipo", precisó. "Pero esto puede ser considerado ya como un nuevo modo de operar y eso es inquietante", según Schmidt.

Según él, "no hay cobertura de radar en esta zona", situada a mil kilómetros de la capital Bamako, en la región del Sahara, propicia a los tráficos de todo tipo (droga, armas, migrantes, cigarrillos...) y donde circulan rebeldes tuaregs y combatientes islamistas.

Pero África occidental, donde se encuentran algunos de los países más pobres del mundo, no es sólo una zona de tránsito.

El descubrimiento por las fuerzas de seguridad, en julio, en Guinea, de importantes cantidades de productos químicos en varios sitios de Conakry prueba que todo está instalado para fabricar heroína a partir de opio, cocaína pura y éxtasis.

El opio habría sido trasladado por "grupos nigerianos con sede en Pakistán", indicó el representante regional de la UNODC.

En los últimos años, el tráfico de droga que transita por África occidental, en especial cocaína, estaba entre las manos de los carteles colombianos que pasan por Venezuela.

"Pero ahora hay cada vez más grupos de nigerianos que van a Brasil, a Sao Paulo, para comprar droga y luego trasladarla a Europa por medio de habitantes de ese país en el exterior", precisó Schmidt.

Estos nuevos actores estarían, según él, "en competencia" con los traficantes sudamericanos.

Por eso "puede desencadenarse la violencia entre cárteles colombianos y nigerianos", advirtió el representante regional de la UNODC.

Cada vez más audaces y globalizados, los narcotraficantes desarrollan además "nuevas tecnologías" para "mezclar cocaína y otros productos químicos" que hacen muy difícil detectar la droga.

Lo que podría explicar las muy escasas incautaciones de droga en África occidental en 2009, pues la mayor (sólo 170 kg) fue realizada en Ghana a fines de agosto.

 Ir arriba

El Nuevo Herald

Venezuela objeta detención de cuatro militares en Colombia

Por FABIOLA SANCHEZ

The Associated Press

http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/ultimas-noticias/story/589423.html

CARACAS -- Un alto jefe militar afirmó el lunes que los cuatro guardias nacionales detenidos la semana pasada en Colombia se encontraban en aguas internacionales, y que los militares colombianos que participaron en la operación vulneraron un tratado suscrito por ambos países.

El general Orlando Mijares, jefe del comando número 9 de la Guardia Nacional en el estado suroriental de Amazonas, dijo a la estatal Venezolana de Televisión (VTV) que los cuatro guardias nacionales detenidos el pasado viernes por las autoridades colombianas se encontraban en "aguas internacionales", y no en Colombia, como aseguró el gobierno de ese país.

Mijares indicó que los militares venezolanos "fueron abordados...en el río Meta. El río Meta son aguas internacionales", según reseñó la estatal Radio Nacional en su página de internet.

El alto oficial sostuvo que la actuación de los militares colombianos en la detención de los guardias nacionales "va en contra de todo un tratado sobre demarcación de fronteras y navegación de los ríos suscrito por ambos gobiernos, que está vigente y que habla sobre el derecho a la libre navegación de los ríos que separan a los dos países".

El presidente colombiano Alvaro Uribe anunció el sábado la detención de los militares venezolanos y su inmediata deportación.

Por su parte, el Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS) indicó que los militares fueron detenidos por miembros de la Armada colombiana cuando transitaban por el río Meta en una lancha en cuyo interior fueron hallados uniformes de la Guardia Nacional de Venezuela.

La detención de los cuatro militares ocurre en medio de la crisis que enfrentan Bogotá y Caracas desde julio pasado, luego que el presidente Hugo Chávez decidió "congelar" las relaciones y distanciarse del gobierno de Uribe en protesta por el acuerdo militar que suscribió Colombia con Estados Unidos que permite a tropas estadounidenses utilizar bases colombianas.

En Venezuela permanecen detenidos cuatro colombianos, uno de ellos un detective de la policía secreta, Julio Enrique Tocora Parra, quien fue arrestado en septiembre pasado en la ciudad occidental del Maracaibo y es señalado por las autoridades venezolanas de realizar actividades de espionaje, acusación que fue rechazada por Colombia.

Una comisión de congresistas brasileños, encabezada por el diputado Raúl Jugmann, inició el lunes una visita de dos días a Caracas para sostener encuentros con autoridades locales y evaluar la crisis colombo-venezolana.

Jugmann dijo a la AP, en una conversación telefónica, que en Brasil hay preocupación sobre la crisis colombo-venezolana, y que la posición brasileña es que "debe buscarse una mediación de todos los países de la América del Sur" por medio del bloque de Unasur para solventar las tensiones.

El diputado descartó que la comisión de congresistas, que tiene previsto visitar también esta semana a Bogotá y Quito, vaya a actuar como mediador en la crisis, e insistió que la idea es "hablar con todos".

"Se puede mostrar el punto de vista de Venezuela, Colombia,...Ecuador, y eso es una manera también de colaborar para la apertura", agregó.

Los diputados brasileños se reunieron con el viceministro para Relaciones Exteriores para América Latina y el Caribe, Francisco Arias Cárdenas, y martes sostendrán un encuentro con la presidenta de la Asamblea Nacional, la diputada oficialista Cilia Flores, y otros de sus colegas venezolanos.

Arias Cárdenas dijo a la estatal Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias (ABN) que durante la reunión con los congresistas brasileños se abordó "la necesidad de que América del Sur, y Unasur (Unión de Naciones de Suramérica) acudan a señalar con mucha fuerza no sólo a Colombia sino a quienes quieren imponer las bases en tierra neogranadina, el riesgo que esto significa para la paz regional".

 Ir arriba

El Nuevo Herald

Venezuela: detienen a italiano y colombiano por narcos

The Associated Press

http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/america_latina/venezuela/story/588995.html

CARACAS -- Los cuerpos de seguridad locales detuvieron a un italiano y colombiano quienes era solicitados por delitos de tráfico de drogas, informó el lunes el gobierno.

El ministro de Relaciones Interiores, Tareck El Aissami, dijo a la estatal Venezolana de Televisión (VTV) que la policía judicial arrestó al italiano Walter Carapacci, de 54 años, quien es requerido por las autoridades de Italia por el delito del tráfico de heroína hacia Europa.

El Aissami señaló que Carapacci fue apresado en la ciudad centro costera de Maracay, y que fue puesto a la orden de las autoridades migratorias que procederán a entregarlo a representantes del gobierno italiano.

Asimismo, el ministro señaló que la policía política apresó en la ciudad occidental de Maracaibo al colombiano Luis Mauricio Palacios Giraldo, de 48 años, quien es solicitado por la Interpol por los delitos de tráfico de drogas y lavado de activos.

Palacios Giraldo, quien fue condenado en Colombia por narcotráfico, será entregado a las autoridades colombianas luego de completar los procedimientos, según informó El Aissami.

El ministro no precisó cuando se realizaron las detenciones.

  Ir arriba