In Brief
Colombia: U. S. Aid to Protect Pipeline In a policy shift that signals an escalation of U.S. involvement in Colombia's civil war, U.S. Special Forces are training the Colombian military in...
...Weekly News Update Sources Notisur is a weekly publication of the Latin America Data Base, an on-line news service...
...Community (CARICOM), which -TB met in Cuba December 7. Guyanese president Bharrat Jagdeo, the curParaguay: President Faces rent CARICOM chair, told a press Impeachment conference that Aristide has named a representative to Haiti's provisional The lower chamber of Paraguay's electoral council and "indicated to congress has voted to impeach us he was willing to escrow the President Luis Gonzdlez Macchi on money" to pay reparations to vicfive counts of corruption, including tims of attacks by pro-Aristide the alleged embezzlement of $16 groups in December 2001...
...Paya chief Ernesto Ayala, second chief San Pascual Ayala and commissary Luis Enrique Martinez were taken outside the community, hacked with machetes and executed with shots to the head...
...The fourth victim of the paramilitary massacre was Gilberto Vasquez, chief of the tiny neighboring community of Pucuro...
...The agreement does not include stringent austerity measures usually included in comprehensive agreements with the IMF and other international lenders...
...absence of a vice-president, so if -Weekly News Update Gonzdlez Macchi is impeached, the next in line to become president is Mexico: Controls on GMOs the leader of congress: Juan Carlos to be lifted Galaverna...
...The decision comes after 14 years in which planting such crops has been strictly limited to experimental fields...
...agricultural trade liberalization -Southern Cone Report under way between Mexico and the United States, charge that GMOs are Haiti: Aristide Backs Early a threat to the environment, human Elections health and rural livelihood...
...The FARC sent another obvious message with a September mortar attack on the base where the United States troops will be stationed...
...In January, up to 100 Army Green Berets began training Colombia's 18th Brigade...
...They are getting $100 million more in funds, so the difference is measurable, but it's not just quantitative, it's qualitative...
...http://ladb.unm.edu/> or 1-800- 472-0888...
...Steven Lucas, spokesman for the United States Southern Command said, "the difference now is primarily in scale and scope...
...The Brigade's mission is to protect the 500-mile Cafio Lim6n pipeline that stretches from the Cafio Lim6n oil fields in the province of Arauca near the Venezuelan border to the Caribbean port of Covefias...
...Abuses under the system were widespread...
...The legislatures of both countries are also expected to sign off on the measure...
...those two issues, the conditions may A two-thirds majority vote is needed be set for Haiti to move to early to remove the president...
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...he has been threatened with The center-right opposition impeachment proceedings twice Democratic Convergence (CD) before, he is more vulnerable this charges that the victory of Aristide's time because many members of his left-populist Lavalas Family Party in own Colorado Party are no longer May 2000 elections was fraudulent...
...embassy officials...
...Isacson characterized the new policy as "a definite escalation...
...citizens were released on January 23 to a local priest and a municipal official in a rural area of the Colombian municipality of Unguia, Choco department, and later turned over to U.S...
...personnel are not allowed to engage in combat, they are allowed to defend themselves if attacked-a likely possibility considering they are entering the front lines of a war zone...
...entanglement in Colombia's 38year civil war...
...all parties to work together towards Another factor at play is the restoring normalcy in Haiti...
...Proponents of the agreement hope it will give the interim administration some breathing room and allow the coming administration to work towards a comprehensive IMF agreement without having its hands tied by previous budget restrictions...
...The U.S...
...The U.S...
...The Bush administration has asked Congress to approve $98 million for 2003 to help the Colombian military protect the pipeline...
...The Free Trade Agreement between Chile and the United States comes at a time when some Latin American leaders are increasingly skeptical of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, a pact that would create a continent-wide free trade zone...
...an additional $6 million has already been awarded to jumpstart the project...
...Now we're in the war and the line in the sand [between drug control and counterinsurgency] has been erased...
...Public interest groups won a Freedom of Information Act case in federal court forcing the Bush administration to turn over documents concerning the negotiations...
...President Alejandro Toledo, however, said that the ruling did not require the immediate release of prisoners, but rather that those sentenced in military courts be retried...
...Although elections...
...military has been working with Colombian forces in the southern drug-producing zone where the FARC has a heavy presence for several years...
...The ruling was a response to a petition filed by 5,000 people, mostly relatives of people jailed on terrorism charges, and was also part of an effort to bring Peru in compliance with rulings by the Costa Ricabased Inter-American Court of Human Rights, who directed Peru to reform its anti-terror laws...
...While a majority is in favor nizations and the peasant farmer of prosecuting Gonzdlez Macchi, movement, an umbrella of organizamost do not want Galaverna to step tions that are working to block the into the president's shoes...
...Evo Morales, leader of the coca growers and runner-up in last year's presidential election, met with President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada signed the agreement on January 26...
...Opposition in the United States centered on the secretive manner in which the deal was struck...
...CD parties have refused to name The Colorados, as his party mem- representatives to the electoral counbers are known, are trying to dis- cil, saying fair elections are impossitance themselves from the disgraced ble unless Aristide resigns...
...Now, with the trainers going to Arauca, the mission is clearly counterinsurgency and makes explicit U.S...
...But Adam Isacson, a senior associate at the Center for International Policy in Washington D.C., called the use of military assistance for the protection of an oil pipeline under the old policy "unthinkable...
...Roadblocks continue despite the initiation of dialogue with the government...
...some verdicts were decided before the accused even appeared in court...
...http://www.globalinfo.org> IPS' regularly-updated Latin America coverage can be read on our website, <http://www.nacla.org...
...He asked Congress to give his administration special powers to "avoid giving those responsible for terror and death the possibility of escaping their responsibility...
...military involvement in Colombia's counterinsurgency efforts marks a new emphasis in U.S...
...presence, the FARC has stepped up bombings in Arauca...
...The AUC claimed it held the three in order to protect them while its forces battled leftist rebels nearby...
...The ruling could mean retrials for hundreds of people jailed on terrorism charges during the 1990s, including top leaders of the Revolutionary Movement Tupac Amaru and the Shining Path as well as many others who are now believed to have had no connection to either group...
...The bulk of the money will be used for helicopters, training, infrastructure and intelligence support...
...Galavema's presidential aspirations explain why he has pre- MEXICO CITY-The Mexican vented congress from choosing a government plans to authorize the new vice-president...
...Police and soldiers trying to reopen the nations main highways have caused several violent confrontations with protestors...
...operations in Colombia officially focused on drug control...
...Special Forces are training the Colombian military in counterinsurgency tactics aimed at stemming guerrilla attacks on an oil pipeline in northeastern Colombia...
...Galaverna has planting of genetically modified postponed the selection debate crops (GMOs), justifying the move repeatedly and now says it will not with the argument that it will benefit take place until after the senate the country's impoverished agriculimpeachment proceedings have tural sector...
...But the president to better position their CARICOM leaders urged the oppoparty for the coming April 27 presi- sition to end its boycott, calling on dential elections...
...Congress voted on January 8 to grant Toledo the special powers he requested for a 30-day period...
...Southern Cone Report is published by Latin America Newsletters...
...TB Peru: Court Overturns AntiTerror Decrees Peru's Constitutional Tribunal ruled on January 3 that several provisions of the anti-terrorism decrees of former President Alberto Fujimori are unconstitutional...
...At least 10 civilians and 2 soldiers have died since the protests began...
...The paramilitaries abducted him in Paya, but his body was found inside his home in Pucuro...
...On the million from the central bank...
...But environmental orgastarted...
...Top trade officials from Chile and the United States agreed December 11 to sign a bilateral Free Trade Agreement...
...A FARC bomb exploded on a bus carrying 17 Colombian Occidental oil workers, killing two of them...
...The Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corporation and Ecopetrol, the Colombian stateowned company jointly operate the pipeline, which was bombed 170 times in 2001...
...Before attacking the Kuna communities, the AUC seized three U.S...
...The bilateral U.S.-Chilean agreement exposes an ideological rift between leaders of countries, like Chile, who support the FTAA and those like Brazil that instead hope to strengthen regional trading leaders of the Caribbean blocs...
...Congress gave the president last year...
...Another obstacle in reaching the agreement was the large protectionist subsidies that U.S...
...The agreement would rollover $6 billion of Argentina's debt...
...The rollover is meant to keep the nation's debt payments on track until a new administration takes office after April 27 presidential elections...
...TB Panama: Colombian Paramilitaries Kill Kuna Leaders On January 18, right-wing paramilitaries from the United SelfDefense Forces of Colombia (AUC) crossed the border into Panama and murdered four indigenous Kuna leaders in the communities of Paya and Pucuro...
...The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) target the pipeline as a means of extorting funds from the local government and oil companies...
...Argentina's default could have meant the further alienation of the country from multilateral lenders...
...Direct U.S...
...The staunchest critics of the agreement in Chile are agricultural, environmental and labor groups...
...In response to the increased U.S...
...The IMF cut off lending to Argentina just before it defaulted to private creditors in December 2001 leading to its most severe economic crisis in history...
...Notisur Chile: Free Trade Pact Signed with U.S...
...supporting him...
...Although U.S...
...The cocaleros are calling for the demilitarization of the Chapare, the coca-growing region in Cochabamba, an end to forced coca eradication programs and a promise that Bolivia will not join the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas...
...farmers receive...
...Protesters have brought parts of the country to a virtual standstill by blockading several key highways and staging massive demonstrations...
...Teo Ballve Argentina: 'Transitional' Deal with IMF After nearly a year of negotiations, the International Monetary Fund and Argentina have agreed on a "transitional" debt rollover deal...
...The coca growers enjoy the support of a broad range of social groups throughout Bolivia...
...InterPress Service Bolivia: Cocaleros Begin Talks After 12 days of protests and roadblocks, leaders of Bolivia's coca growers signed an agreement to begin dialogue with the country's government...
...Community members were unable to recover the bodies because the paramilitaries mined the area, according to a local resident...
...he had been shot in the back of the head, execution style...
...Officials from the Vicente Fox Haitian president Jean-Bertrand administration announced that a Aristide is moving toward calling law allowing the commercial plantnew legislative elections in the first ing of GMOs will be ready in half of 2003, according to other March...
...citizens: journalist Robert Young Pelton of the Discovery Channel and backpackers Mark Wedever and Megan Smaker...
...Fujimori's decrees allowed suspected rebels to be tried by secret military tribunals, often presided over by judges wearing hoods or hidden behind one-way glass...
...last day of the CARICOM meeting The senate began to hold Jagdeo said, "with him clarifying impeachment hearings January 23...
...Past U.S...
...The agreement calls for the phasing out of all tariffs in 12 years and could go into effect as soon as mid-2003 under the "fast track" authority the U.S...
...Argentine President Eduardo Duhalde hailed the outcome of negotiations as paving the way for negotiating a comprehensive agreement when a new president takes office and reaffirming a relationship between Argentina and the IME Critics of the agreement, however, characterize it as just another bailout geared to paying back loans to lenders without improvements to the local economy...
...Negotiations stalled for nearly ten years because of Chile's insistence on a tax on short-term foreign investments-the so-called "hot money" that has decimated other emerging markets...
Vol. 36 • January 2003 • No. 4
