Monday, April 25, 2005

U.S. Considers Toughening Stance Toward Venezuela

U.S. Considers Toughening Stance Toward Venezuela
By JUAN FORERO
The New York Times
April 26, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/26/international/americas/26venezuela.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1114488312-Phk2X4f7lSKn47aIiQvTag&pagewanted=print&position=

As President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela veers toward greater confrontation with Washington, the Bush administration is weighing a tougher approach, including funneling more money to foundations and business and political groups opposed to his leftist government, American officials say.

The Bush administration has already begun to urge Venezuela's neighbors to distance themselves from Mr. Chávez and to raise concerns about press freedoms, judicial independence and the Venezuelan government's affinity for leftist groups abroad, including Colombian guerrillas.

But it has found no allies so far in its attempts to isolate the Venezuelan leader, and it has grown more and more frustrated by Mr. Chávez's strident anti-American outbursts and policies that seem intended to fly in the face of Washington. On Sunday, Mr. Chávez ended a 35-year military cooperation agreement and ordered out four American military instructors he accused of fomenting unrest.

The accusation, which American officials denied, was the latest blow to relations that had been bitter since the United States tacitly supported a coup that briefly ousted Mr. Chávez in April 2002. Since then his strength has grown. He won a recall election last August, and record high oil prices have left his government flush with money as it provides 15 percent of American oil imports.

American officials, who had chosen to ignore Mr. Chávez through much of last year, now recognize the need for a longer-term strategy to deal with a leader who is poised to win a second six-year term in elections next year.

A multiagency task force in Washington has been working on shaping a new approach, one that high-ranking American policy makers say would most likely veer toward a harder line. United States support for groups that Chávez supporters say oppose the government has been a source of tension in the past. Under the plans being considered, American officials said, that support may increase.

"The conclusion that is increasingly being drawn in Washington is that a realistic, pragmatic relationship, in which we can agree to disagree on some issues but make progress on others, does not seem to be in the cards," said an American official who helps guide policy in Latin America.

The official added, "We offered them a more pragmatic relationship, but obviously if they do not want it, we can move to a more confrontational approach."

Already counternarcotics programs have suffered, American officials noted, and meetings among high-ranking officials from the two countries are minimal.

"What's happening here is they realize this thing is deteriorating rapidly and it's going to require some more attention," said a high-ranking Republican aide on Capitol Hill who works on Latin America policy. "The current look-the-other-way policy is not working."

The United States, he said, is particularly concerned because Venezuela is one of four top providers of foreign oil to the United States. "You can't write him off," the aide said of Mr. Chávez. "He's sitting on an energy source that's critical to us."

A main problem for the United States is that Washington has little, if any, influence over Caracas. The high price of oil has left Venezuela with no need for the loans or other aid that the United States could use as leverage.

Nor does the Bush administration have much support in Latin America, where left-leaning leaders now govern two-thirds of the continent. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to raise concerns about Venezuela in a four-country tour through the region this week. Political analysts say she will have a hard time finding support.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, on a recent trip to Brazil, publicly raised concerns about Mr. Chávez. Days later, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, in a meeting in Venezuela with Mr. Chávez and the leaders of Colombia and Argentina, pointedly said, "We don't accept defamation and insinuations against a compañero," meaning a close friend.

"Venezuela has the right to be a sovereign country, to make its own decisions," he added.

For his part, Mr. Chávez, who is famous for his rambling, often outrageous speeches, has grown more belligerent, using his anti-American posturing to bolster his popular support. He has accused the United States of planning an invasion, prompting a threat to cut oil sales, and has hurled sexually tinged insults at Secretary Rice.

While other Venezuelan officials stress that oil sales to the United States would never cease, Venezuela's new energy ties with China have worried Washington, as did Mr. Chávez's recent meeting with President Mohammad Khatami of Iran, which he declared "has every right" to develop its atomic energy program.

Mr. Chávez is also forming a popular militia that he says will eventually have two million members and has plans to buy 100,000 AK-47 assault rifles from Russia and fighter jets from Brazil.

"All governments recognize the democratic character of the Venezuelan government, its peaceful vocation, and they want to establish relations with Venezuela, with just one exception, the United States," Alí Rodríguez, the Venezuelan foreign minister, said in an interview. "It has gone to great lengths to isolate Venezuela, but no government is playing along. It has failed, and that's because there is no reason to isolate Venezuela."

Indeed, many of Latin America's largest countries see little benefit in colliding with Mr. Chávez, nor do they support the isolation of Cuba. Venezuela provides oil at below-market prices and has numerous lucrative economic agreements with dozens of nations. Many also do not want to antagonize their own leftist constituencies, who are partial to Mr. Chávez.

"The other countries don't want to be drawn into a polemic between Venezuela and the United States," said Jennifer L. McCoy, a Venezuela expert at Georgia State University who headed the Carter Center's election observer mission in Caracas last year. "It's a counterproductive strategy that could result in a negative Latin American reaction if they're forced to take sides."

Many influential Democrats in Congress also oppose a more aggressive approach.

"I think it creates further estrangement," said Representative Bill Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat and a member of the House International Relations Committee who has met many times with Mr. Chávez. "One cannot get around the fact that Hugo Chávez is a democratically elected president."

But Bush administration policy planners say that efforts to patch up relations with Venezuela have largely failed.

The American ambassador, William Brownfield, who took over in Caracas in September, spent fruitless months before getting a meeting with Mr. Rodríguez. Requests for meetings with other ministers and even midlevel officials are routinely ignored, and Venezuela has canceled dozens of routine exchange programs with the United States.

The one option that administration officials increasingly believe they have is to respond much more assertively and publicly to Venezuelan policies the United States does not like, ideally with the help of other countries and respected institutions like the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

"We shouldn't be afraid to say when he's taking away liberties, not at all," Robert B. Zoellick, now the deputy secretary of state, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in February.

Venezuelan Foreign Ministry officials say they still hold out hope that relations will improve. "There is one condition for us to have healthy relations with the United States," said Vice Minister Mari Pili Hernández, who handles relations with Washington. "It's called respect."

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Sunday, April 24, 2005

::: Acerca de Gerardi :::

Amigos:

Hoy se cumplen 7 años que la Iglesia Católica guatemalteca por medio de la persona del Obispo Juan Gerardi presentaba al pueblo y al mundo entero un trabajo realizado en todo el territorio nacional, donde el ejército era el autor principal de la represión contra un pueblo indefenso.

Desde ese 26 de abril del año 1998, el Centro Guatemalteco Tecún Umán, aqui en Nueva York, hemos honrado la memoria de este verdadero hijo de Dios que supo descubrir en el Evangelio la fuerza para luchar en pro de sus hermanos, los otros hijos de Dios, el pueblo guatemalteco.

Hoy por razones de varios compromisos se nos ha sido imposible convocar a la comunidad, y recordarlo en una celebración eucarística, pero por este medio a ustedes queremos trasladarles parte de la obra que el hizo por todos nosotros con la esperanza que personajes como el no mueran de nuestra memoria, sino todo lo contrario, los hagamos vida en la lucha diaria que no pude ser terminada por el.

Gerardi, un guatemalteco de nacimiento, que supo descubrir que no importaba que por sus venas corriera sangra italiana, lucho en los años '70, porque se reconociera la importancia de las lenguas indígenas de Guatemala y logró que se autorizara transmitir en dichas lenguas mayas en dos estaciones de radio. En el '74, fue elegido Obipso de la diócesis de Quiché, aunque continuo trabajando como administrador apostólico de Verapaz. Dos años mas tarde, con motivo de una matanza de campesinos en el norte de la diócesis de Verapaz, el obispo, protestó en terminos muy fuertes y atrajo mucha atención periodística. Como Obispo de Quiché, departamento en el que fueron asesinados muchos líderes de las comunidades cristianas, Gerardi se dirigio varias veces a las autoridades militares, llamándoles a la cordura.

Como todos sabemos, esos eran años de mucha represión en donde se veíamos algo no lo podiamos comentar y mucho menos denunciar, pero no era el caso de alguien que sufria ver el sufrimiento de toda esa gente, fue así como en el año l980, 39 personas, casi todas de El Quiché, fueron asesinadas en la Embajada de España en Guatemala, miemtras pedian que se escucharan sus acusaciones de violaciones de sus derechos humanos. Gerardi emitio un comunicado condenando estos crímenes. Durante una visita al Vaticano, en su calidad de Presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal de Guatemala, Gerardi le informó al papa Juan Pablo II sobre la situación en Guatemala, los asesinatos de varios sacerdotes y los comunicados de los obispos denunciando la violencia. A su regreso al país, las autoridades militares del aereopuerto no le dejaron entrar y, después de intentar obtener asilo en San Salvador, lo consigue en Costa Rica, donde permaneció hasta el derrocamientos del gobierno de Lucas Garcia en 1982.

Durante el tiempo que estuvo en el exilio organiza la Iglesia guatemalteca en el exilio, regresa y en el año 1984, Geradi fue nombrado Obispo auxiliar de la arquidiócesis de Guatemala. Cuatro años despues, se le nombró para participar en la Comisión Nacional de Reconciliación, que organizó encuentros entre guerrilla, el gobierno y los sectores civiles. Su próximo paso fue participar en el establecimiento de la Oficina de Derechos Humanos del Arzobispado (ODHA), en cuyo contexto se implementó el proyecto Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica. Dos dias antes de ser asesinado, Gerardi presentó el informe de este proyecto, "Guatemala: Nunca Más", con miles de testimonios de las víctimas de la represión. En esa ocasión, Gerardi dijo que el compromiso del proyecto con la gente que dio su testimonio habia sido recoger su experiencia en el informe y apoyar las demandas de las víctimas.

La labor de recuperación histórica impulsada por Gerardi contituyó un aporte fundamental al trabajo de la Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico, creada en el marco del proceso de paz en Guatemala.

Es mucho lo que podemos decir sobre el trabajo que este gran hombre guatemalteco hijo de Dios hizo por que un día los guatemaltecos podamos ser reconocidos en igualdad de condiciones, el reto es para todos nosotros, que su trabajo continue en nuestras comunidades, que nuestro compromiso sea iluminado con su ejemplo de valentia, de entrega y amor al necesitado.

Tanto amó la verdad, la justicia y la paz, que dió su vida por ello. La verdad nunca morirá. Hagamos vida su pensamiento:

"La verdad y la justicia no son sinónimos de venganza, sino que es abrir los caminos a un futuro de paz y de esperanza. Monseñor Gerardi.

"La verdad es la fuerza de la paz" Monseñor Gerardi.

En este septimo aniversario de su martirio, siempre en nuestra memoria y vida su testimonio.

Centro Guatemalteco Tecún Umán
New York.
...

:::::: Photojournalism ::::::

Subject: Dispatches from Iraq
From: ______@jjay.cuny.edu
Date: Sun, April 24, 2005 4:17 pm
To:

Dear all,

This is to confirm that Dahr Jamail, one of the few unbedded journalist reporting from Iraq will be presenting his own accounts of the war on Wednesday, April 27, at 1:55 at the Sociology Conference room.

This is the only time that Dahr can make it to John Jay. I urge you to attend, this is a unique opportunity to meet Dahr, whose news reporting is frequently on Democracy now, and various European, independent media.

Look forward,

Marcia Esparza Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Director, Historical Memory Project
Puerto Rican/Latin American Studies Department
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
(212) 237-8667 or (212) 237-8749

http://www.historicalmemoryproject.org

...

Monday, April 18, 2005

PROTESTA EN CONTRA DEL CAFTA

Hola Amigos de Guatemala, les re-envio esta informacion:

Que? PROTESTA EN CONTRA DEL CAFTA!!

Quien? El Frente Latinoamericano (FLA)

Cuando? Viernes 22 de abril, 2005 11AM - 1PM

Donde? Placita Olvera y despues en el Edificio Federal (300 N. Los Angeles Ave)


QUE ES EL FRENTE LATINOAMERICANO? En Los Angeles se esta formando un gran Frente de grupos Latinoamericanos progresistas para unificar nuestras fuerzas populares! Unidos somos mas fuertes! Unidos VENCEREMOS!! Que grupos actualmente forman el Frente Latinoamericano? (En orden alfabetica)

Asociacion Estudiantil de Posgrados, UCLA, Los Angeles

Frente Farabundo Marti para la Libercíon Nacional (FMLNLA)

Frente Sandista para la Liberacíon Nacional (FSLN, Nicaragua)

Frente Indigena Oaxaqueno Binacional (FIOB, Mexico)

Mayavision (Guatemala)

Alianza Nueva Nacion (Guatemala)

Union Del Barrio-(Los Angeles, Mexico Ocupado)

Para mas informacion o para integrarse al Frente Latinoamericano: FrenteLA@yahoo.com


_______________________________________________________________________________
Este no es un evento oficial de la Red por la Paz y el Desarrollo de Guatemala.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Friday, April 15, 2005

::: ATENCION :::

Image hosted by Photobucket.com


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