In Brief
Colombia: Paramilitary Group Agrees to Peace Talks The Colombian government and the nation's largest paramilitary group, the United SelfDefense Forces of Colombia (AUC), agreed on July 15...
...Since February there have been 134 SL actions in the forested valleys along the Apurfmac, Ene and Huallaga rivers-important coca producing zones...
...The AUC promised to start demobilizing its estimated 13,000 fighters by the end of the year and to lay down its weapons by 2005...
...Designed by a 22-year-old college student, the design is of a winking smiley face with a plus and a minus sign for eyes, symbolizing the two possible results of an HIV test...
...For many Colombians such concessions are unacceptable, because they would allow AUC leadersresponsible for gross human rights violations-to emerge unscathed as political actors...
...for institutions: Can$80 (Can$135/2 yrs, Can$185/3 yrs...
...Although Brazil does targeted prevention work with groups such as IV drug users, health specialists are beginning to question an overemphasis on risk groups...
...In reference to attacks on journalists by Chavista government supporters, a report prepared by Reporters Without Borders pointed out that "while taking a stand as press freedom defenders as regards the president, the privately-owned media would paradoxically be happy to see the community media shut down...
...Catia TV's director, Blanca Eekhout, denied the claims and said that since the station's studio is located elsewhere only two station technicians would retrieve equipment on a daily basis...
...Scruggs, Robert M. Siegel, J. Michael Turner, Steven Volk, Susan Wood, Peter Yarrow Editorial Board Alejandro Bendafia, Emelio Betances, Roger Burbach, Jo-Marie Burt, Marc Chernick, Elizabeth Dore, Marc Edelman, Jonathan Fox, Jean Franco, Mark Fried, Marcial Godoy-Anativia, Jack Hammond, Luis Herndndez Navarro, Maria Hinojosa, Peter Kornbluh, J. Patrice McSherry, Mario Murillo, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, George Priestley, Cathy Schneider, Hobart Spalding, Carlos Vilas, Coletta Youngers NACLA Report on the Americas (ISSN 1071-4839) is published bimonthly by the North American Congress on Latin America, Inc...
...But examining U.S...
...The peace accord that he is proposing is a political strategy of preparation for Vol XXXVII, No 2 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2003 5 GUATEMALA Casa Xelaju offers: Volunteer work, internships...
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...Most of these outlets are unabashed in their branding of the private news media as "coup mongers" and "traitors...
...Bogoti and Washington are promising to help the demobilized fighters return to regular society...
...Isabel Coral, head of the government's Resettlement Support Program, said that SL "is trying to recruit marginalized young people who are poor, unemployed and with no memory of the years of violence...
...A recent issue of Semana, a BogotA-based magazine, raised the issue of ties between security forces and the AUC...
...Both Brazil and the United States have stabilized the number of new HIV cases per year...
...Although officially the EU has a stated position of dialogue with the Cuban government, in June it imposed diplomatic sanctions that limit top-level representatives from visiting the island...
...Brazil combines sophisticated mass marketing with the force of its federal communication apparatus to give HIV prevention mass appeal in a diverse nation of 170 million people...
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...Officials explained that the decision to close the station was carried out without the proper approval of senior officials...
...Julie Gerberding in an April press conference...
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...Guzmin has never admitted defeat...
...www.casaxelaju.com/xelabaj Vol XXXVII, No 2 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2003 5IN BRIEF war...
...E-mail: nacla@nacla.org Website: http://www.nacla.org NACLA is an independent nonprofit organization founded in 1966 to research the political economy of the Americas and U.S...
...and Brazilian records on prevention raises questions about how effective the U.S...
...Gerberding: "Major parts of this initiative appear to respond more to political pressure from the far right than the prevention needs of communities threatened by HIV/AIDS...
...The official peace negotiations come after a supposed December cease-fire and six months of exploratory talks...
...The residents of the area have reactivated the campesino guards that defended against SL raids in the 1980s and early 1990s...
...Castro used the speech to blast the European Union, saying that Cuba would reject any international aid that compromises the island's national dignity...
...Teixeira says Brazil's government has long pushed public opinion to confront prejudices in a multiracial and predominantly Catholic society...
...Most community stations have an unofficial pro-government stance and are concentrated in the poorer barrios of Caracas...
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...Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced a new, $35 mil- lion HIV prevention strategy that, like Brazil's, emphasizes expanded HIV testing...
...The two countries' approaches to HIV/AIDS differ not only in content but also in communications strategies...
...The announcement made on July 19 by Mexican special prosecutor Margarita Guerra might close the controversial case, which has gone unresolved for nearly two years...
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...The Brazilian attitude around sexual activities is a lot more flexible than in many countries," says Paulo Teixeira, the longtime director of Brazil's National Coordinating Office for AIDS...
...A Colombian government source said legal measures were being sought that would allow Castaiio and his fighters to lay down their arms, despite pending prison sentences...
...Legalized in a 2000 telecommunications law, community media outlets have multiplied at astonishing rates...
...Postmaster: Send address changes to NACLA Report on the Americas PO Box 77, Hopewell, PA 16650-0077 or visit http://www.nacla.org Subscription Information $36/year for individuals ($61/two years, $86/three years...
...Several sources have pointed out that the required December cease-fire was never taken seriously by the AUC and was in fact violated repeatedly...
...Tel: +52 (777)311 8956 & 317 5151 Fax: +52 (777) 317 5151 & 316 3546 cls@cuernavacalanguageschool.com www.cuernavacalanguageschool.com Vol XXXVII...
...The Brazilian government's approach includes frank HIV awareness messages, broadcast nationally, that often contain a touch of humor...
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...We are concerned about the conservative policies adopted by this [U.S.] government on safe sex and intravenous drug users," he says in reference to recent White House statements advocating sexual abstinence as its preferred strategy for prevention...
...We are in Cuernavaca, Mexico, "The City of Eternal Spring...
...Ochoa was a tireless human rights advocate who successfully defended activists in some of Mexico's most famous human rights cases...
...Instead of prison sentences they could be required to make "social reparations...
...Periodicals postage paid at New York, NYand additional mailing offices...
...Some human rights groups and Ochoa's family have asked the Mexico City prosecutor's office to keep the case open and not rule out other hypotheses...
...The Washington D.C.-based National Association of People Living With AIDS attacked the CDC campaign in an open letter to Dr...
...The AUC, led by Carlos Castafio and Salvatore Mancuso, represents about 70% of the paramilitary forces operating in Colombia...
...LA HERMANDAD EDUCATIVA includes Proyecto Linguistico Quetzalteco in Quetzaltenango and Escuela de la Montania near Nuevo San Jos6...
...Teixeira, who earlier this year was tapped by the World Health Organization to apply Brazil's treatment and prevention strategies on a global scale, is not shy about questioning the U.S...
...In June, a six-person Colombian peace commission said the government should continue the peace process "under the condition that there is a total and verifiable cease-fire, with the main goal being demobilizing and reincorporating the paramilitaries into society...
...Before a recent run of print and television ads pushing HIV testing, the government flew its health minister to the country's biggest fashion show in Sao Paulo to launch the campaign...
...I think this concept of a risk group helped create this epidemic," he says...
...Tapia believes that "The loyalty of Carry On is no longer to Guzmin but to the drug traffickers who finance their movement and to the local powers whom they charge for protection...
...Peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo said he hoped the peace talks with the AUC would prompt leftist guerrillas to put down their arms...
...But never once have they stopped fighting...
...Cecilia Rem6n (for Latinamerica Press) Venezuela: Community Broadcaster Shut Down Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pefia shut down Catia TV, a pro-government community television and radio station in Caracas, on July 10...
...We are very interested in assuring that our focus for HIV prevention continues to address populations and communities that are the most heavily affected by HIV," including minority communities, said CDC Director Dr...
...She was found in her Mexico City office on October 19, 2001, with a gunshot to her leg and a fatal one to her head...
...Huamdn Ztiiiga is said to be responsible for the June 9 kidnapping in Peru's central jungle of some 70 employees of the Argentine company Techint...
...But reversing the spread of the stubborn virus is a different challenge altogether...
...U.S...
...However, Adela Gonzdlez Mufioz, Venezuela's representative for the World Association for Community Radio, stated: "Those who try to associate community media to party or government lines are only stereotyping community media to undermine the credibility of their work as journalists...
...Views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of NACLA...
...However, the report shied away from condemning the investigation for trying to obstruct the truth and instead called attention to the inefficiencies present in most criminal investigations conducted by the Mexican judicial system...
...The comments were in direct reference to the recent shift in the EU's Cuba policy after the arrest and closed trials of dissidents and the execution of three convicted hijackers...
...So far, the investigation into the death has received repeated criticism from human rights groups...
...Fax: (646) 613-1443...
...Notably absent from the statement signed by the AUC and the Colombian government was any mention of the legal actions pending against top AUC leaders, both in Colombia and in the United States...
...Politics and ideology account for the differ- ences...
...AUC leaders claimed they want to help build the "authentic peace that Colombia waits for and deserves...
...policy towards the region...
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...A report to the Mexican government by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission detailed a number of problems with the investigation including crime scene contamination and improper forensic and ballistic studies...
...The CDC says that it is best to give local governments and community-based groups control over HIV prevention campaigns...
...The ads emphasize that, of 600,000 Brazilians estimated to carry the HIV virus, roughly 400,000 do not know they are infected...
...Human rights groups caution, however, that the paramilitary fighters should not be absolved of responsibility for their atrocities and abuses...
...Benedicto Jiminez, second in command at the National Police's Department on Terrorism (DIRCOTE...
...A confidential report prepared for Uribe on whether a formal peace process should begin with the AUC revealed a deep split between Colombia's civilian government and the military leadership regarding the demobilization of the paramilitary group...
...And the rank-and-file of the AUC are just as likely to be absorbed by these groups or create new ones...
...Coral said that combating SL military strikes is not enough...
...approach to HIV/AIDS...
...policy were uncharacteristically minimal...
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...But the $13 million campaign, known by its slogan "Fique Sabendo," Portuguese for "Be in the Know," is not just about hip marketing...
...For information, call 800-247-6651 or write to: Charles P. Goff, Cemanahuac Educational Community Apartado 5-21 Cuernavaca, Morelos MEXICO Tel: (52-73) 18-6407 Fax: (52-73) 12-5418 Internet:74052.2570@compuserve.com Homepage: http://www.cemanahuac.com 4 NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASIN BRIEF anyone ever noticed...
...Even if the peace process with the AUC pro- ceeds, several other paramilitary groups refusing to negotiate remain...
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...TB Cuba: Fiftieth Anniversary of Revolutionary "Spark" On July 26 Fidel Castro marked the fiftieth anniversary of his attack on the Moncada army barracks...
...Two nations this year, Brazil and the United States, announced new HIV prevention strategies with sharply divergent styles...
...HIV prevention programs are fragmented, with federal funds channeled mainly through state and local agencies, which tend to focus on high-risk groups...
...Caracas City Hall retreated on July 18 and granted Catia TV access to the premises housing the station's equipment...
...In the United States, where an estimated 200,000 people don't know they have HIV, the prevention drive has unfolded differently-if IN BRIEF Continued from page 2 4 NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS Director Terry Gibbs Contributing Editor Fred Rosen Associate Editor Teo Ballv4 Business Manager Marisa Maack Production Manager Marisa Maack Advertising Coordinator Jordi Pius Liopart Staff Assistants Robert Booth, Elena Kay, Christopher Moore, Corinna Zeltsman Board of Directors Albert Bildner, Josh DeWind, Rick Edwards, Fred Goff, Judy Hellman, Eric Hershberg, Peggy Hutchison, Pierre LaRamie, Susan Lowes, Deidre McFadyen, Don Reasoner, T.M...
...In Cuba the date marks the symbolic origin of the revolution...
...Marcelo Ballvie (for Pacific News Service) Peru: Shining Path Making a Comeback Although Shining Path (SL) leaders are behind bars, they continue directing their party faithful, according to Col...
...Humanitarian aid by the EU to Cuba has decreased dramatically since 2001...
...The Mayor is a staunch opponent of President Hugo Chdvez...
...or Brazil to Lead World's Fight Against HIV...
...The excuse given by city officials was that the station's equipment was abandoned and the station staff was interfering with the hospital's work...
...Families are welcome...
...The national treatment program, which provides free HIV drugs through Brazil's free public health care system, reinforces the message that prevention is a collec- tive responsibility...
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...The current strategy of the Political Solution group is being carried out on political and juridical fronts simultaneously...
...It concludes: "Opposition exists at the highest ranks to permit demobilization...
...The next day, Brazilian television and newspapers carried images of leggy models sporting miniature tees emblazoned with the new HIV testing logo...
...His peace accord proposal is only a way to gain time and build strength for returning to the armed struggle as soon as his party militants are freed from prison," Jim6nez said...
...Colombia: Paramilitary Group Agrees to Peace Talks The Colombian government and the nation's largest paramilitary group, the United SelfDefense Forces of Colombia (AUC), agreed on July 15 to peace talks...
...The new CDC prevention campaign will not include any television advertising on a national scale...
...Political analyst Carlos Tapia, a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, agrees with Jim6nez that SL was never truly defeated...
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...Similar attacks on U.S...
...approach will be abroad or at home...
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...It continues to call on constituencies like women and homosexuals to assume strong roles on controversial issues such as AIDS...
...They use lawyers and family members to deliver messages to militants con- cerning overall strategies and goals in their struggle for power...
...There are currently two lines of action within SL: The first is a "Political Solution," led by the imprisoned Abimael Guzmdn (aka Gonzalo), that seeks an agreement with authorities that would include general amnesty for political prisoners...
...On his recent tour of Africa, President Bush touted his $15 billion plan to fund HIV prevention and treatment in that continent and the Caribbean...
...The second is "Carry On," which continues the armed strug- gle headed by Leonardo Huamin Ztfiiga and "Artemio," whose true identity is unknown...
...These self-defense committees have some 50,000 members...
...The speech, reprinted by the government-run daily Granma, blasted the EU in one especially biting phrase: "The sovereignty and dignity of [the Cuban] people are not open to discussion with anyone, much less with a group of former colonial powers historically responsible for the slave trade, the plunder and even extermination of entire peoples, and the underdevelopment and poverty suffered today by billions of human beings...
...Castro delivered a lively, relatively short 70-minute speech to commemorate one of the island's most important national holidays-the Day of National Rebellion...
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...It reported that Uribe's security policies have coincided with the "strong expansion" of paramilitary groups, and added that, despite the cease-fire declared by the AUC late last year, the ultra-right groups have increased their presence in various regions of the country...
...President Alvaro Uribe V61lez said he believes "this can contribute to the country laying the foundation for peace...
...UK Subscribers: Order from Latin America Bureau, 1 Amwell Street, London EC1R 1UL (rel...
...Na 2 SEPTEMBERJOCTOBER 2003 1 LA HRAi AIi ; EIUllA IV Vol XXXVII, No 2 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2003 1IN BRIEF mutual support, the army brass clearly sees the AUC as a valuable tool in fighting guerrillas...
...The so-called 'Gonzalo line' hasn't changed, as some would like us to believe...
...For individuals: Can$55 (Can$93/2 yrs., Can$130/3 yrs...
...Arthur Raichman, head of HIV programs in Sdo Paulo state, speaks of an "epidemic of prejudice" that fuels global HIV...
...In mid-April, the U.S...
...Military and police actions are important, but that doesn't mean eliminating everyone and ignoring the political and ideological battlefield," she said...
...The letter said focusing prevention messages on HIV-positive individuals and high-risk groups, rather than communicating with a broader swath of the population, would fail to create "the sense of shared responsibility for prevention that is essential...
...Under Pefia's orders, Caracas city hall officials and the Metropolitan Police-who take their orders from the mayor's office-went to the hospital housing Catia TV's broadcasting equipment and locked the doors, forcing the station to stop broadcasting...
...Ofvf S WAIA4L *'4 4fdtu...
...Although military intelligence claims that Carry On is confined to the country's inhospitable central jungle, the group's recent activities suggest otherwise...
...Taking away armed actors like the paramilitary fighters opens the way to an effective peace process" with the rebels, Restrepo said...
...Guzmdn has never rejected violence...
...Although Washington has helped fund programs for former combatants following other civil wars, this is officially the first time it would do so for a group it considers a terrorist organization...
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...He has only changed strategies," Jim6nez added...
...Quoted by the Washington Post, the report bluntly states: "The armed forces are the principal enemy to a peace process with the self-defense groups...
Vol. 37 • September 2003 • No. 2
