WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #628, FEBRUARY 10, 2002 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Bolivia: Pact Ends Cocalero Roadblocks 2. Brazil: Chilean Rebels in Kidnap Bust 3. Paraguay: Officials Fired for Torture 4. Ecuador: March Against Privatization 5. Costa Rica: Runoff Scheduled 6. Argentina: Piquetero Gunned Down at Demo 7. Argentina: US Disses Economic Plan 8. Mexico: Dissident General Freed 9. Haiti: US Says No Aid 10. Venezuela: Four Officers Defy Chavez 11. US: Preparing for LA "Instability" 12. In Other News: Mexico/Cuba ISSN#: 1084-922X. The Weekly News Update on the Americas is published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York. A one-year subscription (52 issues) is $25. To subscribe, send a check or money order for US $25 payable to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012. 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Feel free to reproduce these updates, or reprint or re-post any information from them, but please credit us as "Weekly News Update on the Americas," and include our full contact information so that people will know how to find us. Send us a copy of any publication where we are cited or reprinted. We also welcome your comments and ideas: send them to us at the street address above or via e-mail to *1. BOLIVIA: PACT ENDS COCALERO ROADBLOCKS Early on Feb. 9, after six hours of negotiations mediated by the Catholic Church, Bolivian government representatives signed an accord with campesino coca grower (cocalero) leader Evo Morales Ayma, putting an end to road blockades throughout the Chapare region of Cochabamba department and in the city of Cochabamba [see Updates #625-627]. The government had previously insisted it would not negotiate with Morales. Blockades in La Paz department were expected to be lifted following a Feb. 10 meeting of La Paz campesino leaders, headed by Felipe Quispe Huanca, to review the agreement. Under the terms of the pact, the government is to suspend coca eradication efforts in the Los Yungas region of La Paz; and guarantee the normal functioning of the coca leaf market at Sacaba, in Cochabamba department, for 90 days while a commission of government representatives and campesino leaders reviews controversial decrees 26415 and 26491, which criminalized the transport and sale of coca leaves. The government must pay the medical expenses of campesinos wounded in clashes with police or soldiers, and compensate the relatives of those killed. In addition, the government will seek the release of 69 campesinos detained during the conflict. At least 15 arrested cocalero leaders had already been released by Feb. 7 through efforts by defense lawyers. [El Diario (La Paz) 2/10/02; Andean Information Network (AIN) 2/7/02; La Jornada (Mexico) 2/10/02 from AFP; La Republica (Lima) 2/9/02 from AFP] The pact came after another week of violence that left at least one campesino dead and numerous others wounded. Facundo Barcaya Mayza was shot to death on Feb. 2 by a military chief in Challapata, La Paz department. A number of other campesinos were shot in the back and wounded as they fled the troops. On Feb. 6, cocalero Roberto Vargas died following a march in Shinahota, either from respiratory failure, a heart attack or a stroke-- brought on, say his colleagues, by tear gas inhalation. [Los Tiempos (Cochabamba) 2/6/02; AIN 2/7/02] A number of violent incidents have been attributed to the Special Security Group (GES), a police unit popularly known as "Dalmatas" (Dalmatians). Most of the GES agents were trained by the US; GES Cochabamba commander Col. Antonio Jordan said they have "a certain specialty and an affinity for dealing with confrontational civilian groups." [LT 2/10/02] Meanwhile, on Feb. 6 a group of workers who had been denied pension funds lifted a two-day highway blockade in Potosi after reaching an agreement with departmental police officials. The accord provides for a departmental commission to advocate with the national government on behafl of the workers, who are known as the "Sandwich Generation" because they were left out of pension deals benefiting older and younger workers. [ED 2/7/02 from ABI] *2. BRAZIL: CHILEAN REBELS IN KIDNAP BUST On Feb. 1, Brazilian police raided a rented country house near the city of Sao Paulo and arrested six people allegedly linked to a high-profile kidnapping. The property's landlord reportedly contacted police after the tenants' behavior led to suspicions (they had paid the rent in advance in US dollars). Late on Feb. 2, a police squad freed hostage advertising tycoon Washington Olivetto from a deserted home in the residential and commercial Sao Paulo district of Brooklin. His captors had reportedly already fled, having heard of the earlier raid; a neighbor reportedly heard Olivetto pounding on a wall. Olivetto is considered one of Latin America's leading advertising executives; he was kidnapped on Dec. 11 by a group of armed men dressed in police uniforms, outside the offices of his agency, W/Brasil. [New York Times 2/4/02; El Mostrador (Chile) 2/8/02; Jornal do Brasil 12/13/02] Lloyds Bank, through which Olivetto had acquired a kidnapping insurance policy, reportedly hired Control Risks, a kidnapping specialist firm, to negotiate with the kidnappers. Communication took place via coded messages in the classifieds section of a Sao Paulo newspaper. The kidnappers are said to have sought a ransom of $10 million, which his family and business partners were prepared to pay, police said. Sao Paulo state governor Geraldo Alckmin said the ransom was not paid. [NYT 2/4/02] Police announced on Feb. 4 that one of those arrested Feb. 1 was Chilean national Mauricio Hernandez Norambuena, a member of the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front (FPMR). Godofredo Bittencourt, head of Sao Paulo's Organized Crime Division, said Hernandez Norambuena was behind Olivetto's kidnapping. Chilean authorities said they would seek to extradite the rebel, who has been a fugitive since his dramatic helicopter escape on Dec. 30, 1996, from Santiago's Maximum Security Prison (CAS) [see Update #362]. [NYT 2/5/02 from AP] At the time of his escape, Hernandez Norambuena was serving two life sentences for the 1993 assassination of rightwing senator Jaime Guzman and the kidnapping of Cristian Edwards. [La Tercera (Chile) 2/6/02] Another of the six arrested on Feb. 1 was Alfredo Canales Moreno, identified by a team of Chilean detectives assisting with the investigations in Brazil as a member of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) who fled Chile while free on bail in 1995. Hernandez and Canales were transferred on Feb. 5 to the maximum security prison in Taubate, 250 kilometers from Sao Paulo. The remaining detainees appear to have been identified as Carlos Renato Quiroz, Rosa Amalia Ramos, Federico Antonio Arrivas and Alejandra Meza. Meza is a fugitive MIR member from Chile who is said to be Canales' companion. Police say at least four other suspects in the Olivetto kidnapping remain fugitives; these allegedly include FPMR members Ricardo Palma Salamanca and Maritza Jara. Jara fled prison in 1992 while serving a life sentence for the Cristian Edwards kidnapping; Palma, convicted in the Guzman assassination, escaped in the same December 1996 helicopter breakout with Hernandez Norambuena and two other FPMR members. Brazilian Maria Yvone Braeckman, who together with five MIR members participated in the 1989 kidnapping of Brazilian businessperson Abilio Diniz, is also said to be a suspect in the Olivetto kidnapping. A number of the suspects were reportedly using Argentine passports. [LT 2/6/02, 2/7/02] On Feb. 6, Cristina Hernandez Norambuena--sister of Mauricio Hernandez Norambuena--went to the Chilean consulate in Sao Paulo in an effort to contact her brother. "I fear for his safety, because no one has seen him since he was arrested," she said. She was accompanied by a Chilean lawyer, and by Dolores Lopez of the People's Defense Organization (ODEP), as well as Maricarmen Canales, the sister of Alfredo Canales. [LT 2/7/02] After meeting with Hernandez Norambuena, Chilean lawyer Alberto Espinoza confirmed that those arrested in connection with the kidnapping had been tortured with beatings and electric shock. A Chilean group called the Human Rights Committee is urging people to write to Brazilian authorities, asking them to respect the rights of the detainees: emails can be sent to President Fernando Henrique Cardoso at protocolo@planalto.gov.br; Justice Minister Aloysio Nunes Ferreira at gabinetemj@mj.gov.br; and Secretary of State for Human Rights Paulo Sergio de Moraes Sarmento at sedh@mjgov.br. [Message from Comite de Derechos Humanos, comite119@yahoo.com, undated, forwarded 2/9/02 by exiled MIR founder Victor Toro of La Pena del Bronx] *3. PARAGUAY: OFFICIALS FIRED FOR TORTURE Fallout continues in Paraguay over the Jan. 17-30 abduction and torture of activists Juan Arrom and Anuncio Marti, members of the leftist Patria Libre movement. Parapolice forces apparently carried out the operation with the knowledge and consent of high- level government officials [see Update #627]; the government accuses Patria Libre of orchestrating the kidnapping for ransom of Maria Edith Bordon de Debernardi, whose brother, Guillermo Bordon, is married to Arrom's sister, Marina Arrom. Maria Edith Bordon [DN 2/4/02] Two of the top officials most tainted by the scandal resigned: Justice and Labor Minister Silvio Ferreira on Feb. 4, and Interior Minister Julio Cesar Fanego on Feb. 5. [Clarin (Buenos Aires) 2/6/02 from DPA] On Feb. 7, Paraguay's Congress voted 36 to 23 in favor of a declaration "against state terrorism" which blames President Luis Gonzalez Macchi and Attorney General Oscar Latorre Canete as "responsible" for the abduction and torture of Arrom and Marti. Opposition deputies are working toward impeaching both Gonzalez Macchi and Latorre. [La Jornada (Mexico) 2/8/02 from AFP, DPA; Diario Noticias (Paraguay) 2/8/02] On Feb. 6, the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH) of the Organization of American States (OAS) formally asked the Paraguayan government to provide Marti and Arrom with protection and to submit a report on their situation within seven days. [DN 2/7/02] At a Feb. 6 ceremony, Finance Minister Francisco Oviedo took over as interior minister, replacing Fanego, while James Spalding, deputy economy minister and former president of the oil company Petroleos Paraguayos (Petropar), replaced Oviedo as finance minister. On Feb. 8 Diego Abente Brun, Paraguay's ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), took over as justice and labor minister, replacing Ferreira. While Abente's National Encounter Party (PEN) has officially admitted that the abduction and torture of Arrom and Marti was an act of state-sponsored terrorism, it has not pulled out of its coalition with Gonzalez Macchi's Colorado Party. [Ultima Hora (Paraguay) 2/10/02; CNN en Espanol 2/8/02 from Reuters; ENH 2/9/02 from AFP; DN 2/6/02] The scandal has forced the government to dissolve its intelligence service and announce broad investigations of the police force. On Feb. 8, prosecutor Fabian Centurion charged police subcommander Antonio Gamarra and noncommissioned officer Jose David Schembori with participating in the torture of Arrom and Marti. Centurion will also question ex-ministers Fanego and Ferreira in connection to the case. [ABC Color (Paraguay) 2/9/02; CNN en Espanol 2/8/02 from Reuters; DN 2/4/02] *4. ECUADOR: MARCH AGAINST PRIVATIZATION Some 2,000 Ecuadorans, including electrical workers and members of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), the Federation of Evangelical Indigenous People of Ecuador (FEINE) and the National Federation of Campesino, Indigenous and Black Organizations (FENOCIN), marched in Quito on Feb. 7 to protest the planned privatization of the country's 17 electrical distribution companies. Lincoln Jara, president of the National Federation of Electrical Workers (FEDELEC), said "the unity of all the sectors will successfully halt the privatization, since we don't want the same thing to happen to Ecuador that happened in Argentina, where selling the electric companies brought higher rates." Police met the marchers with tear gas as they tried to reach Carondelet, the government palace. [La Hora (Quito) 2/8/02; El Telegrafo (Guayaquil) 2/8/02] Ecuador's regulator Conelec announced on Feb. 7 that it has postponed until Apr. 3 the opening of bids for an electricity distribution and trading concession in Guayaquil, originally scheduled for Feb. 18. The bidding rules will now be on sale until Mar. 14. It was Conelec's third such delay, following similar postponements in October and December of last year. To date four companies have acquired bidding rules for the concession: US-based AES and Sempra, and Spain's Union Fenosa and Ibedrola. The Guayaquil distribution concession was previously held by Emelec, whose owner, Fernando Aspiazu, was arrested in July 1999 for a scandal involving the bankruptcy of a bank he owned, Banco Progreso [see Updates #533, 546]. Conelec cancelled Emelac's contract in March 2001 after the company accumulated debts and failed to provide services. [Business News Americas 2/7/02] *5. COSTA RICA: RUNOFF SCHEDULED With over 92% of the ballots counted from Costa Rica's Feb. 3 general elections, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) reported that presidential candidate Abel Pacheco of the ruling Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) had won 38.5% of the vote--just short of the 40% needed to avoid a runoff [see Update #627]. In second place with 30.9% was Rolando Araya of the National Liberation Party (PLN), who will face Pacheco in the second round, scheduled for Apr. 7. Otton Solis of the Citizen Action Party (PAC) won 26.3% of the vote. The runoff will be the first ever in Costa Rica, where the PUSC and the PLN dominated electoral politics until the PAC emerged a year ago. [In the 1998 elections, the third-place presidential candidate won only 3.02% of the vote--see Update #419.] Despite this year's new alternative for voters, abstention remained high at 31%, up slightly from 30.1% in 1998. With 85.47% of the ballots counted, it appeared that the 57-seat Legislative Assembly would have 19 deputies from the PUSC; 17 from the PLN; 14 from the PAC; six from the neoliberal Libertarian Movement; and one from the Christian-oriented Costa Rican Renewal Party. Solis warned on Feb. 4 that his organization will not back either of the two main parties in the runoff. "We don't believe in under-the-table pacts and negotiations. We have an agenda to improve the situation of our country, a commitment to the environment, the struggle against corruption, defense of farmers and the fight against privatizations," he said. [La Prensa (Honduras) 2/5/02 from AFP] On Feb. 5, Pacheco expelled one of his two running mates from the campaign. Pacheco said PUSC candidate for second vice president Luis Fishman had tried to "blackmail" him into letting him run the campaign. Fishman claims Pacheco expelled him because he feared the PLN would use Fishman's Jewish heritage to attack the PUSC and force its defeat. The PLN warned the move shows Pacheco is "unstable" and thus unsuited to be president. While Fishman has been expelled from running the campaign, he would still become vice president if Pacheco wins, since he cannot be removed from the position. [El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 2/9/02 from AFP] [On Sept. 23, 1992, while serving as Minister of Public Security under President Rafael Calderon (1990-1994), Fishman was briefly kidnapped by Honduran national Orlando Ordonez Betancourt in a bizarre incident which was never fully explained; critics accused Fishman of having orchestrated the kidnapping himself--see Updates #139, 154. Following the 1998 elections, Fishman served as president of the Legislative Assembly.] *6. ARGENTINA: PIQUETERO GUNNED DOWN AT DEMO A store owner reportedly linked to local authorities shot and killed a young man in the early morning of Feb. 6 at a roadblock held by unemployed workers in Esteban Echeverria in the Argentine province of Buenos Aires. Jorge Bogado, who own a grill, drove up to the roadblock, shouted obscenities at the unemployed protesters--known as piqueteros (picketers)--and then shot twice, hitting Javier Barrionuevo, who friends said was visiting the protest out of curiosity or to get a free meal. Bogado then threatened the other piqueteros, but finally agreed to drive Barrionuevo to the hospital. Barrionuevo died in the car. He was the first protester to be killed since Eduardo Duhalde was appointed interim president on Jan. 1, after some 27 people died in protests that brought down two previous governments. Police did not initially arrest Bogado, who claimed the piqueteros had attacked his car. Bogado is said to work for a leader of the ruling Justicialist Party (PJ, Peronist) in Ezeiza; the authorities denied the protesters' claim that he is a former police agent. Bogado was arrested on homicide charges on Feb. 7, after the incident had been widely publicized. [Retruco (Argentina) 2/7/02 via Equipo Nizkor/Derechos Human Rights/Serpaj Europa Information 2/9/02; Clarin (Buenos Aires) 2/7/02, 2/8/02] The incident in Esteban Echeverria came as anti-government demonstrations continued throughout the country. The piqueteros, whose movement paralyzed the country with a wave of protests last summer [see Updates #601-603], had called for a new round of demonstrations starting on Feb. 5. Other demonstrators, including many middle-class people, have continued to carry out cacerolazos, demonstrations in which protesters bang on pots and pans. Traditional parties and unions have been absent from the organizing of the cacerolazos, which has been carried out largely through neighborhood-based "assemblies" formed after the protests started in December. In the city of Buenos Aires, some 60 assemblies are represented in "inter-neighborhood assembly" meetings in Parque Centenario every Sunday, with 3,000-5,000 participants. [La Jornada 1/30/02 from correspondent] The Feb. 3 assembly issued a schedule of events, including acts in support of the piqueteros on Feb. 5 and a cacerolazo on Feb. 8. In addition to economic demands, the meeting produced a long list of "pronouncements," including calls for a Popular Constituent Assembly; support for the World Social Forum meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil [see Update #627]; prison terms for military members implicated in the 1976-1983 "dirty war" against suspected leftists; rejection of the trade union bureaucracy; and demand that the Argentine government not votes against Cuba in international forums. The assembly emphasized that "pickets" and "pots and pans" were united in one struggle. ["Buenos Aires: La Lucha Continua!" 4ta Asamblea interbarrial en Parque Centenario, 2/3/02, via LATINAcoop Europa] *7. ARGENTINA: US DISSES ECONOMIC PLAN On Feb. 3 the Argentine government announced a number of changes in economic policy, including a gradual phasing out of the unpopular restrictions on bank withdrawals popularly known as the corralito, and a decision to let the peso float against the US dollar. To shore up the peso, the government restricted the banks' ability to transfer hard currency abroad. [New York Times 2/4/02, 2/5/02] Interim president Eduardo Duhalde, who was appointed on Jan. 1, had promised a "new plan" worked out "with the world's best specialists so that it will be the best plan." [Clarin 1/27/02] The US and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expressed concerns that the Duhalde government--based on more populist sections of the centrist Justicialist Party (PJ, Peronist)--would move away from the neoliberal model Argentina had followed over the past decade. But the conservative British daily Financial Times predicted that the plan would be "not nearly as populist and backward-looking as foreign investors feared." Deputy Economic Minister Jorge Todesca, who criticized the IMF harshly in mid-January [see Update #624], told the newspaper that the idea was "to loosen [regulation] until we recover a free functioning of the economy.... We are not thinking of price controls.... We are not thinking of a nationalized banking system." But Todesca warned that "if the resolution is not balanced, we will again have a lot of social convulsion." [FT 1/24/02] Apparently the US and its allies felt the new plan was still too far from the neoliberal model. On Feb. 9 a meeting of finance ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) richest industrial nations in Ottawa turned down an Argentine request for a $20 billion loan. "We've been very supportive of the steps Argentina has taken," Canadian finance minister Paul Martin said. "But we believe it's very important that Argentina work closely with the IMF in order to bring about a plan that will be sustainable." [NYT 2/10/01] In another sign of Washington's new attitude toward Argentina, the US government is reportedly planning to require Argentines to apply for visas to enter the US. Since 1996 Argentina has been in a list of 29 countries whose citizens do not need visas to travel to US destinations. [Clarin 2/10/02] *8. MEXICO: DISSIDENT GENERAL FREED On Feb. 7 Mexican president Vicente Fox Quesada suddenly ordered the release of Brig. Gen. Jose Francisco Gallardo, who has been in prison since 1993. He was jailed following publication of an article criticizing the army's human rights record. The government said that Fox had simply reduced Gallardo's sentence and that the president could not overturn the general's 1998 conviction for corruption, for which he received a 28-year sentence. Upon his release the night of Feb. 7 Gallardo told reporters he was "grateful" to Fox but that he would continue to fight to have his conviction overturned. Gallardo's release came three months after Fox released two campesino environmental activists, Rodolfo Montiel Garcia and Teodoro Cabrera Flores; in that case too, Fox simply freed the activists, without granting a pardon or exoneration [see Update #615]. The Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH) of the Organization of American States (OAS) had called for Gallardo's release in 1996. Last November, it gave Mexico a Nov. 16 deadline for freeing the general [see Update #616]. The Fox government finally acted as the CIDH's court was set to hold a Feb. 19 public hearing into the matter in San Jose, Costa Rica. At a Feb. 7 press conference, Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretary Jorge Castaneda was asked how much Gallardo's release had been influenced by international pressure. "It wasn't pressure," Castaneda said. "It wasn't a hint or a suggestion. It was very explicit and clear: let him go. So, well, President Fox's government, in view of the [CIDH] recommendation, freed him." [La Jornada 2/8/02, 2/9/02] *9. HAITI: US SAYS NO AID US secretary of state Colin Powell announced on Feb. 7 that the US will continue to block aid to Haiti, including $200 million in loans from the Inter-American Development Bank (IBD) approved in 1997 and 1998. "We are terribly concerned about the political unrest that continues to haunt Haiti," Powell said during a meeting of foreign ministers of the 14-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in Nassau. "We are concerned about some of the actions of the government [of left-populist president Jean-Bertrand Aristide], and we do not believe enough has been done yet to move the political process forward... We believe we have to hold President Aristide and the Haitian government to fairly high standards of performance before we can simply allow funds to flow into the country." [New York Times 2/8/02] Powell was responding to a request CARICOM leaders approved during a Feb. 3-5 meeting in Belize City asking international donors to restore aid to strengthen democracy and "provide humanitarian relief to the people of Haiti, particularly in the areas of education and health." The aid would help Haiti build "democratic pillars," Guyanese foreign minister Samuel Insanally told Powell. [Miami Herald 2/5/02 from AP, 2/8/02 from correspondent] *10. VENEZUELA: FOUR OFFICERS DEFY CHAVEZ On Feb. 7 Col. Pedro Soto of the Venezuelan Air Force announced to reporters attending a forum on democracy that left-populist president Hugo Chavez Frias is a "totalitarian" and a "fascist" and should resign. Some 75% of the military share his opinion of the president, Soto said, without directly threatening action by the military; Chavez himself is a former paratrooper who led a failed coup attempt in 1992. Soto then proceeded to address a crowd of some 2,000 Chavez opponents outside the presidential residence of La Casona in eastern Caracas. About the same number of people reportedly attended a pro-Chavez demonstration at the Miraflores presidential palace in the western part of the city. Both demonstrations remained peaceful. Presidency Secretary Rafael Vargas assured reporters that the situation was calm and that Soto was not speaking for the military. Vargas said Soto was part of a plot directed from abroad by former president Carlos Andres Perez in an effort to embarrass the government during an official visit by Inter- American Human Rights Commission (CIDH) Santiago Canton. [El Nuevo Herald (Miami) website 2/6/01 from EFE] Soto was an aide-de-camp to Perez during his second term as president (1989-1993) On Feb. 8 Perez told Dominican television that he was ready to "cooperate" in running Venezuela if the military overthrew Chavez. The fall of Chavez "is going to happen at any minute," but "in the end it will be the army that makes that decision," said Perez, who was suspended from the presidency in May 1993 when he was indicted on corruption charges. Meanwhile, on Feb. 8 Capt. Pedro Jose Flores joined Soto at a demonstration; two other top officers are reportedly also ready to call for Chavez's resignation. [Clarin (Buenos Aires) 2/9/02] Venezuela's Supreme Court of Justice ruled on Jan. 24 in favor of an initiative to ask the Dominican Republic and the US to extradite Carlos Andres Perez and his wife Cecilia Matos to Venezuela for trial on corruption charges. [CNN en Espanol 1/24/02 from AP] *11. US: PREPARING FOR LA "INSTABILITY" In testimony to the US Congress on Feb. 6, US central intelligence director George Tenet warned that successive economic crises and the global recession were creating a "growing volatility" in Latin America and a "potential for instability." "I am especially worried about Venezuela," he said, "our third largest supplier of petroleum." "Domestic discontent with President [Hugo] Chavez's Bolivarian revolution is growing," he told the Senate Intelligence Committee, "economic conditions have deteriorated because of the drop in oil prices, and the climate of crisis will probably get worse." Tenet also expressed concern about the situation in Argentina, where interim president Eduardo Duhalde "is trying to maintain public order" but has a "tenuous" "base of support." A third focus for Tenet, who oversees the US intelligence agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is Colombia, where the situation is "highly volatile." Tenet's remarks came as the administration of President George W. Bush was asking Congress for $98 million for helicopters and military training for the protection of a Colombian pipeline belonging to the Occidental Petroleum Corporation of California from attacks by leftist rebels. [La Jornada (Mexico) 2/7/02, quotes retranslated from Spanish] The New York Times calls the request for funding for direct counterinsurgency against guerrillas "a sharp departure from a policy that until now has focused on eradicating drugs." [NYT 2/6/02] On Feb. 5, the day before Tenet's testimony, Secretary of State Colin Powell told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: "We have been concerned with some of the actions of Venezuelan President Chavez and his understanding of what a democratic system is all about." [New York Times 2/6/02] Powell complained about Chavez's remarks in October about the US-led bombing campaign in Afghanistan. Chavez held up pictures of dead Afghan children on national television and said the "killing in Afghanistan must stop." [Miami Herald 2/7/02 from AP] Meanwhile, the Pentagon is planning to send Bush a recommendation for creating a new military command to coordinate the US military response to terrorist attacks in the US. According to the New York Times, it is not clear whether Canada and Mexico would be in "the area of responsibility" of the new command, to be called the "Northern Command." [NYT 2/6/02] The Mexican daily La Jornada reported that in fact Mexican and Canadian forces would participate in the command. [LJ 2/6/02] Bush is planning a Latin American tour in March to discuss democracy and to strengthen "free trade," according to the White House. He will visit Mexico on Mar. 22, Peru on Mar. 23 and El Salvador on Mar. 24. [Clarin 2/8/02 from AP, EFE] *12. IN OTHER NEWS... Mexican president Vicente Fox Quesada arrived in Cuba on Feb. 3 for a 24-hour visit which included meetings with Cuban president Fidel Castro Ruz and--for 30 minutes--with opponents of the leftist government. The center-right Mexican president expressed his opposition to the US embargo of Cuba and said Cuban-Mexican relations are "deep and solid and have endured the toughest tests of time." Fox's trip was the first official visit by a Mexican president since 1994. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 2/5/02 from EFE; New York Times 2/4/02, 2/5/02] END VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED to help research and write the Weekly News Update on the Americas via email (from anywhere). We need people who are regular Update readers to send us news sources and to write articles for the Update. If you're interested, send your inquiry to and we'll send you the details. 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