Month: June 2005

Left-leaning Latinos Fuel Resistance
CARACAS — Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez was scheduled to speak at the UN in late September. But he abruptly cancelled his US trip. The main reasons given were security concerns and a lack of enthusiasm for UN summits. "A dialogue of the deaf,” Chavez called them, arguing that the world body is fundamentally undemocratic and should be democratized.

Meanwhile, weeks of rising anger and police violence in Bolivia climaxed in a September 29 general strike by unionists, backed by peasants, students, and merchants. Two days later, miners joined, paralyzing production. As a result, President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada resigned and fled to Miami. The confrontation, inspired by Evo Morales, popular leader of Indian coca farmers, involved a deal that would have sold Bolivian natural gas to the US and Mexico, via a Chilean port. read more

Foreign Leaders Fair Game for Murder
WASHINGTON, DC — In theory, the US has a long-standing policy banning political assassination. But it’s been overlooked at times, and now the Bush administration has basically declared the idea obsolete. After Odai and Qusai Hussein were killed this summer, for instance, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of coalition troops in Iraq, crowed, "We remain focused on finding, fixing, killing or capturing all members of the high-value target list." read more

Expansion Brings Uncertain Future
ATHENS — April 16 may turn out to be a historic date for Europe, the day leaders of the European Union (EU) and 10 candidate countries signed documents in Athens sealing the biggest enlargement in EU history. But will it be celebrated or mourned? Will size turn out to matter? In short, will the newcomers — mostly Eastern European countries — help unite the continent or tear it apart?

The candidates include Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Malta, countries Washington has recently taken to calling the "new Europe." Letting them in could alter the political order. Many candidate countries, eager to protect national values, will inevitably defy Franco-German leadership. Poland is already expanding its influence. read more

Bush Wargame Reaches the Americas
IQUITOS — Jungle Expeditionary Forces have their deployment orders, and US Marine battalions have begun rotating in and out of south Colombia. Their mission: to eliminate officers of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and scatter the enemy to the remote corners of the Amazon. But the offensive also means that the US is fighting wars on three fronts: Afghanistan, Iraq, and Colombia.

Officially, the operation is led by the local military, assigned to push the FARC — under intensive US surveillance for years — south toward the waiting Marines. A similar operation was called off at the last minute two years ago. read more

Attitudes Shift on Crime and Punishment 
WASHINGTON, DC — US sentiments toward crime are slowly changing. Two out of three people now say they want to deal with the causes rather than simply locking up offenders, according to a poll by the Open Society Institute (OSI). They also think those convicted of nonviolent crimes can be rehabilitated.

Seventy percent believe the drug war has failed, and two-thirds view drug use as a medical problem. This contrasts sharply with a recent study by the Administrative Office of the US Courts, which says drug defendants still make up the largest category facing criminal trials in federal courts. From Oct. 2000 to Sept. 2001, nearly 31,500 defendants were involved in drug cases, 38 percent of the total. read more

Burmese Junta Stalls on Reform
BANGKOK — When 30 Nobel Peace Prize laureates gathered in Norway last December to mark the 100th anniversary of the Prize, there was one notable absentee: Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the pro-democracy movement in Burma (known as Myanmar). By the time her Peace Prize was announced in 1991, she was already under house arrest. Ten years on, the situation hasn’t charged. 

The laureates appealed to the junta to free her and more than 1500 political prisoners, including 19 members of parliament. "In moral stature, she is a giant," South Africa’s Bishop Desmond Tutu said of the diminutive activist. read more