O U R   A M E R I C A

• Anti-Correa opposition attempts to stir up chaos and anarchy in Ecuador
March 16.07
QUITO, March 15. — The most recent maneuvers by members of the right-wing opposition and former Ecuadorian congress members are aimed at spreading rumors to cause a financial panic and blame it on the government.  That was the situation denounced by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, who accused the congress members removed by the Supreme Electoral Court of being irresponsible, anti-patriotic liars.

• Defeat for Bush in Latin America
March 15.07
THERE has been a generalized rejection throughout the world for the 2006 Annual Report on Human Rights, published in the first week of March by the U.S. State Department. Described as unilateral, disrespectful and of an interfering content, its launch could not be more contradictory at this current time, when the policy and behavior of the United States is coming under harsh criticism for openly infringing those rights.

• Venezuelan government announces creation of humanitarian aid fund for Haiti worth $20 million
March 13.07
PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 12.—Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez arrived this afternoon in Port-au-Prince (Haiti) where he was received by a large crowd celebrating his arrival and shouting slogans against U.S. President George W. Bush.

• Venezuela and Argentina for integration, U.S. on the prowl
March 9.07
BUENOS AIRES, March 9 (PL).—While Argentina and Venezuela are paving the way toward integration, that inexorable decree of the peoples’ future, the United States is prowling around Latin America like a herald of war.

• Rio Group for closing ranks
March 8.07
IN a world marked by the hegemony of the rich and industrialized North, the fight against poverty and marginality and to overcome asymmetries as a source of inequity among states must be via the rescue of multilateralism in international relations, integration and solidarity. In that search for better forms of understanding and cooperation, the Rio Group heads of state and government gathered in Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, for their 19th Summit.
• Massive protests against Bush’s visit to Brazil
March 8.07
SAO PAULO, March 8 (PL) —. Brazilian social movements were planning massive demonstrations against a visit to their country by U.S. President George W. Bush . Bush begins his official, 24-hour visit tonight, and since early in the morning, Brazilians have taken to the streets of the nation’s 27 states to shout “Bush out!” The protests actually began earlier in the week, and have become stronger every day, which is why nobody is questioning how large they will be on Thursday.

• Bolivia receives resources for reconstruction
March 6.07
LA PAZ, March 6 (PL) —. The Bolivian government has received foreign economic assistance worth $57.6 million, which it will use for rebuilding the regions impacted by the El Niño climate phenomenon, according to official sources. These resources come from international agencies and friendly nations, according to Gonzalo Lora, director of Civil Defense Emergency Services, quoted by the daily El Deber.

• LATIN AMERICA
Riches abound... and so do the poor
February 23, 2007
Paradoxically, countryside areas have consolidated themselves as immense zones of poverty, in place of becoming important economic centers based on agricultural development.

• Rigoberta Menchú at the moment of definition
February 22, 2007
EVEN though it has not been officially defined, the Winaq political movement, which is aspiring to become a political party, has given its consent to promote the candidature of indigenous personality Rigoberta Menchú for next September’s presidential elections in Guatemala.

• KIRCHNER TO VISIT CARACAS
Venezuela and Argentina to increase bilateral trade to $1 billion in 2007
February 20, 2007
CARACAS, February 20 (PL).—Argentine President Néstor Kirchner today begins a two-day visit to Venezuela with a cooperation program that contemplates the signing of important agreements in the industrial and hydrocarbons sector.

• Venezuela advances on construction of trans-Caribbean gas pipeline
February 19, 2007
CARACAS, Feb. 19 (PL) — Work on a joint Venezuelan-Colombian project for a trans-Caribbean gas pipeline is moving forward, with welding completed on the first 78 kilometers in Venezuela, project directors said.

• Brazil formalizes Bolivian gas price increase of 289%
February 16, 2007
LA PAZ, February 15.—Presidents Evo Morales (Bolivia) and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil) have signed protocol agreements in the hydrocarbons sector that formalize the increase in the price of gas that the former exports to that Amazonian country, PL reports.

• NICARAGUA
A question of sovereignty
February 15, 2007
NOBODY should be fooled. Washington still has the huge bone of Daniel Ortega’s victory in the November presidential elections stuck in its throat. The return of the Sandinista movement could lead the empire to its old road of dirty war, perhaps camouflaged this time but with the identical purpose: to prevent Nicaragua from joining some of its Latin American neighbors and advancing along the road of nationalist, popular and revolutionary change.

• Ecuadorian Congress approves call for popular referendum
February 14, 2007
QUITO, February 13.—The Congressional minority group and the deputies of the Partido Sociedad Patriótica (PSP) have approved the proposal of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa to convene a popular referendum on installing a Constituent Assembly.

• MERCOSUR
Something more than the sum of its parts
February 1, 2007
CRITICISMS raised in the international press of the recently concluded 31st Summit of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), reflecting adverse opinions on the part of persons from ex-neoliberal governments in the bloc, indicate that the new South American leadership is on the right path; above all bearing in mind the social aspect that is predominant in each and every one of the projects and solutions that they have set in action.

• Bolivian government reiterates Cochabamba governor’s responsibility
January 19, 2007
COCHABAMBA, January 18.— The Bolivian government today accused Cochabamba governor Manfred Reyes of being responsible for the conflict unleashed in this region that has left two people dead and more than 200 wounded, reported PL.

• Sandinista government makes education and health care free again
January 17, 2007
MANAGUA, January 17.— The re-establishment of free education and health care services, a campaign promise made by newly-elected President Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, is beginning to go into effect, according to Prensa Latina.
 
• Social protests spread from Cochabamba to La Paz
January 16, 2007
LA PAZ, January 15.— Some 5,000 demonstrators in the Bolivian city of El Alto, near to La Paz, have demanded the resignation within 48 hours of opposition Governor José Luis Paredes; the same demand the coca workers are calling for in relation to the Cochabamba governor, Manfred Reyes Villa.

• Correa sworn in as president; calls for referendum for Constituent Assembly
January 16, 2007
QUITO, Jan. 15.— At his investiture ceremony, attended by 12 heads of state, six vice presidents and a prince, President Rafael Correa said that “the peoples will not forgive us if we do not achieve progress on the integration of Our America, to use Martí’s essential concept.

• Hugo Chávez begins new mandate and Daniel Ortega and the FSLN return to government in Nicaragua
January 11, 2007
CARACAS, January 10.—With the invocation of a constituent assembly aimed at reforming the constitution and a call for special legislative powers to draft legislation to boost the construction of socialism, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez officially began his new six-year mandate.

• Chávez announces measures to develop Bolivarian revolution
January 9, 2007
CARACAS, January 8.—President Hugo Chávez has announced new measures to develop the Bolivarian revolution and its advance to socialism, including the nationalization of sectors privatized by previous governments.undamental lines.

• More than 4,000 Panamanians have benefited from Operation Miracle
December 11, 2006
HAVANA — Operation Miracle has benefited thousands of low-income Panamanians who would not have been able to obtain operations in their own country, Camilo Alleyne, Panamanian health minister, told Prensa Latina.

• BOLIVIA
The days of the latifundia are counted
December 7, 2006
EVO Morales has not failed once since he became president of the Quemado Palace after being the favorite at the polls with 53.7% of the vote, despite certain people doubting his victory.

• Cochabamba: capital of South American integration
December 6, 2006
COCHABAMBA, Bolivia Dec. 6 —. This Bolivian city is becoming the capital of continental unity, according to organizers of the Social Forum for Integration of the Peoples, which begins today, and the 2nd South American Summit of Nations (CSN), to open this Friday.

• Latin America is in better conditions for integration, Chávez affirms
December 6, 2006
CARACAS, December 5.—President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela has assured that Latin America is now in better conditions than ever before to achieve genuine integration and highlighted Cuba’s “exceptional” role in this new era in which “horizons are continuing to brighten.”

• VENEZUELA
December 6, 2006
WITH the resounding reelection of Venezuelan President Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías on December 3, with more than seven million votes, a series of important definitions and advances by the continent’s leftist forces has come to a close, announcing not just the inevitable end of the neoliberal model and dependence on the empire, but also the growing awareness that capitalism is not a safe port for our people. 

• Felipe Calderón sworn in as president of Mexico
December 1, 2006
MEXICO. — Felipe Calderón was sworn in today, Friday, at 06:00 GMT as the constitutionally-elected president of Mexico, in a transfer of power ceremony unprecedented in this country’s history.

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