IN BRIEF
For frequently updated news from Latin America, check our Web site <www.nacla.org>. Register on the site to receive our email newsletter CARIBBEAN/HAITI: Hurricane Season Brings Devastation A...
...The international media has taken considerable interest in the II llL...
...In response to the Red Cross' appeal for $3.3 million, the European Union immediately pledged $1.8 million in aid and countries such as Japan, Canada, Argentina and Venezuela made significant contributions...
...January 2-13, 2005 Visit projects in ecology, archaeology, history, and sustainable community development in Lima, Ica, Nazca and Cusco...
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...Political instability has also hindered aid efforts...
...In early October, Lavalas supporters began responding in kind, attacking police with machetes and reportedly beheading three on October 1. A government spokesperson claimed this was part of "Operation Bagdhad," an urban guerrilla movement emulating the decapitations by hostage-takers in Iraq...
...The reference is to Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, who is confronting that country's notoriously decades-past authoritarian dictatorships...
...Year-round classes in small roups Multicultural Mexico Cuernavaca & Chiapas December 18, 2004 - January 1, 2005 Winter Queer Program January 2 - 14, 2005 Woman and Social Change In Mexico January 8 - 21, 2005 The Workers' Movement In Mexico April 23 - May 6, 2005 Language and Culture for Healthcare Workers May 7 - 27, 2005 InM/sibllty: Lesbian lives in Mexico June 11 - July 1. 2005 43NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS IN BRIEF agency was virtually powerless when it came to bringing relief to the battered northwest, and Prime Minister Latortue was not even able to enter Gonaives for nearly a week after the storm...
...the CFJI simply represents an old-fashioned corporatist trade union strategy-it's been in the works for 10 to 15 years and has very little to do with curbing press freedoms...
...Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan called on the international community for assistance in providing water, food and shelter to the 300,000 people affected by the storm...
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...Journalism must not be guided by government-imposed regulations that could be used to silence criticism and shield the powerful from scrutiny...
...These developments prompted senior UN envoy to Haiti, Juan Gabriel Valdes, to call upon Haitians "to avoid being drawn into a vicious cycle of revenge and violence and to follow the path of dialogue, reconciliation and peace...
...But the purported relationship between the CFJ project and Lula's run-ins with Rohter is spurious, according to some...
...Larry Rohter, the Times correspondent in Brazil, first aggravated the President with a negative article about his rumored drinking habit on May 9. Against the advice of his aides, President Lula immediately revoked Rohter's visa, but later reinstated it after receiving a letter of apology...
...The Brazilian commander of the UN peacekeeping mission, Gen...
...According to the New York-based International Action Center, during this time of national emergency the U.S.-backed interim government of Haiti has been preoccupied with violently repressing the supporters of deposed President Aristide...
...Indeed, for Haiti-based journalist Kevin Pina the tragedy of Gonaives has eclipsed "an even more tragic story, which is the continuing repression of Lavalas"-the mass movement that brought Aristide to power...
...However, the SNEW YORK UNIVERSITY FELLOWSHIPS 2005 - 2006 The Politics of the Unprivileged The INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR ADVANCED STUDIES (ICAS) at NYU brings together a community of scholars to pursue research, writing, and intellectual exchange around a common theme...
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...As the civil conflict intensifies, much of the burden of the aid operations have fallen on the shoulders of the UN peacekeeping mission to Haiti, which is additionally responsible for the difficult task of maintaining security in the increasingly chaotic country...
...According to Alberto Dines, a media critic from the Sao Paulo-based online Press Observatory, Lula's second personal response to the Times merely reinforced the false impression of direct governmental investment in the project and further compromised his credentials as a defender of press freedoms...
...Agency for International Development (USAID) made an initial meager contribution of $50,000 and dispatched a two-person emergency disaster team...
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...Numerous columnists filled the editorial pages of national dailies in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo with similar condemnations, and Lula's conservative opponents in Congress didn't miss out on the opportunity to attack the President, saying that he was suffering from "the Chavez effect...
...When President Luiz InAcio Lula da Silva passed the bill on to Congress August 4, critics reacted sharply, prompting a bitter if ultimately beneficial public debate about the role of the media in Brazil's democracy...
...The International Federation of Red Cross and Crescent Societies mobilized an urgent aid operation, requiring assistance from the UN peacekeeping mis42NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2004 IN BRIEF sion to ferry in supplies by helicopter to otherwise inaccessible areas...
...Fellows are awarded a $35,000 stipend for 9 months, a research fund and are eligible for NYU faculty housing...
...Since the removal of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide by the United States earlier this year, a fragile interim "civil protection agency" was created to handle such national disasters...
...Lula reacted immediately with a letter to the Times headquarters...
...Augusto Heleno Ribeiro Pereira, told a Brazilian wire service that he was frustrated with the slow pace of relief delivery to Gonaives, where some of the city's notorious street gangs were hijacking food shipments at gunpoint and many residents were undergoing emergency amputations in atrocious hospital conditions...
...International press advocacy groups expressed clear opposition to the proposal: "This governmentsponsored proposal severely 4 1- h f_ 11 r 45 partisan elite-dominated media with a proposed "Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television...
...Details of the project, application forms and instructions are available on the Center website at www.nvu.edul/sas/deot/icas...
...While several international development programs have initiated environmental recuperation plans, Haiti's pervasive poverty drives its residents to cut down any remaining trees to sell for additional income...
...On September 22, UN soldiers fired shots in the air to control the desperate crowds of Haitians during food distribution...
...The Law would enforce certain broadcasting regulations and, according to the government, increase public access to, and participation in, communications media...
...Applications from outside the United States are encouraged...
...The second year of the project, 2005 - 2006, will focus on "The Politics of the Unprivileged...
...Hurricane Ivan pounded Grenada on September 7, reportedly killing 39 people and leveling 90% of the buildings on the island-leaving about 60,000 people homeless and strangling the country's economy...
...This type of prerogative could serve as an instrument to put pressure on the media, which acts as a counterbalance in democratic societies," said Robert Mtnard, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders...
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...Register on the site to receive our email newsletter CARIBBEAN/HAITI: Hurricane Season Brings Devastation A STRING OF INTENSE HURRICANES wreaked havoc and destruction in Central America and the Caribbean throughout September, leaving several beleaguered administrations of the region struggling to provide aid to the victims...
...The draft bill, put forth last May by the Brazilian journalists' union FENAJ, sought to create a Federal Journalism Council (CFJ) that would set up oversight committees to "guide, discipline, and supervise" journalists...
...Contact the Committee on US/Latin American Relations (CUSLAR...
...In mid-August hurricane Charley killed four in Cuba, and later Ivan caused widespread destruction in the country's western province of Pinar del Rio, prompting mass evacuations...
...James T Kimer BRAZIL: Proposed Media Law Causes Controversy BRAZII'S BRIEF FLIRTATION WITH A press oversight project this summer raised considerable controversy among journalists and civil liberties groups, who were quick to publicly denounce the proposal as a censorship mechanism reminiscent of 44 SPEAK SPANISH TOTAL IMMERSION PROGRAM If you really want to speak Spanish correctly and fluently in a surprisingly short period of time, study with us...
...The severely deforested Haitian countryside lacks sufficient topsoil and is prone to mudslides and floods-98% of Haiti is stripped bare, and wood and charcoal account for 71% of fuel consumption...
...By mid-September, President Lula abandoned all support for the initiative, giving a strong speech on the importance of freedom of the press at a journalism association ceremony...
...It is not the government's job to tell a journalist how to do his work, writes Dines...
...The tropical storms similarly hit parts of Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, the Cayman Islands, Panama and Venezuela...
...Widespread poverty and poor environmental conditions make Haiti especially vulnerable to natural disaster: only four months before huricane Jeanne, an estimated 3,000 people died in floods along the border with the Dominican Republic...
...After sharp criticism by a Florida congressman, USAID confirmed a $2 million aid package on September 23 destined for nongovernmental organizations involved in the relief effort...
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...LA HERMANDAD EDUCATIVA includes Proyecto Lingufstico Quetzalteco in Quetzaltenango and Escuela de la Montafla near Nuevo San Jos...
...With most hospitals and morgues out of service, international aid organizations warned that the lack of potable water could cause an epidemic...
...Families are welcome...
...The current political situation makes aid efforts and reconstruction practically impossible, and the only immediate solution on the table is a mass evacuation of the displaced to a tent city...
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...Or contact icas@nvu.edu, fax: 212-995-4546...
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...On September 17, the president of the Senate, Jos6 Sarney, confirmed that the CFJ project had practically no chance of passing in Congress...
...Its defenders argue that it will promote and protect the democratic function of the media against the skewing effects of highly concentrated private ownership...
...cuslarcomrell.edu www.M.omll.edlW/cular r tLI IL Lt e rigIL LU Ito IIe om expression," said executive director Ann Cooper of the Committee to Protect Journalists in a press release...
...Over a short period of time, 12 tropical storms and seven hurricanes caused many deaths and billions of dollars in damages, provoking a particularly acute humanitarian disaster in Haiti...
...For more information write or call: PO Box 452 Manson, WA 98831 Phone (800) 963-9889 Visit our web site: www.hermandad.com SJNACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS IN BRIEF Brazilian story, perhaps because of the poor timing of the draft bill, which came shortly after the administration's bristly conflict with The New York Times and a series of damaging investigative reports on possible corruption within Lula's Workers' Party...
...Application deadline: January 6, 2005 NYU is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer ,lntsh LanO ,1 ETLALI Political and Soclal issues...
...Violence escalated with police actions against pro-Aristide demonstrations in Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien on September 30...
...Angry groups set tires aflame in the streets to protest insufficient government action while unidentified victims were buried in mass graves...
...Learn about icaragua's past, * I *Cudd present, and future s 0uc ,Wo while working and Sa meeting with man) Nicaraguans...
...The CFJ would be endowed with the authority to decide who can work as a journalist, as well as to issue fines and revoke permissions...
...Haiti has suffered the greatest catastrophe so far, with flooding and mudslides caused by hurricane Jeanne claiming over 1,500 lives around Gonaives...
...Critics of the proposed law, however, including various international journalism organizations, have labeled the effort an attack on press freedoms and consider it indicative of an authoritarian tendency in Chavez's rule...
...The FENAJ bill has nothing to do with the Times incident, they're completely unrelated," comments William Waack, a correspondent for TV Globo who has worked in Brazilian media for 35 years...
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...Rohter again irritated the administration with an article about the CFP project that mistakenly alleged the initiative originated from Lula's office rather than the FENAJ...
...On the other hand, Dines continues, the Times story about the CFJ greatly exaggerated the ambitions of the state, and inappropriately connected the bill with the completely unrelated proposal for a new National Cinema and Audio Visual Agency...
...Tel: +52 (777) 311 8956 & 317 5151 Fax: +52 (777) 317 5151 & 316 3546 cls@cuemrnavacalanguageschool.com www.cuernavacalanguageschool.com INOVEMBER DECEMBER 2004 IN BRIEF Peru Heritage Adventures Beyondiheca toufass expeaence...
Vol. 38 • November 2004 • No. 3
