Posted on 01/16/2004 10:47:13 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:45:29 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
The U.S. State Department warned Friday of a potential threat to American interests in Caracas, urging U.S. citizens here to take precautions.
"The U.S. Embassy has received information of a possible threat against U.S. interests in Caracas sometime between Sunday, January 18, and Tuesday morning," said the advisory on a U.S. State Department Web site. "U.S. citizens are advised to maintain security awareness."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Supreme Court Judge Alejandro Angulo Fontiveros said the so-called "famine theft" clause should be part of a broad penal code reform measure for humanitarian reasons. "This is a guide for judges to avoid injustice," said Mr Fontiveros, who is in charge of drafting the reforms. "They lock up for years a poor person who lives in atrocious misery and what they need is medicine."
But critics say the initiative will fuel crime in a country mired in a recession and where police last year reported an average of 25 murders a day and thousands of robberies a month. Two thirds of Venezuela's 25 million people are poor and a third of those cannot afford their basic food needs despite the nation's huge oil wealth, according to government figures. [end] --Reuters
"Clearly, an axis can be seen ... -- and it's not an axis of evil as some people say -- .. that passes from Caracas, through Brasilia and reaches Buenos Aires," the left-wing Venezuelan leader said in a state of the nation speech to parliament.
Chavez spoke a day after returning from a summit of regional leaders in Monterrey, Mexico in which he, President Nestor Kirchner of Argentina and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva sharply criticized Washington's plans for a hemisphere-wide free trade zone.
U.S. President Bush tried to rally Latin American support at the summit for the U.S. project to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas by Jan. 1, 2005.
Chavez, an outspoken former paratrooper elected in 1998, on Thursday hailed Kirchner and Lula as like-minded leaders spearheading a Latin American continent that is increasingly shying away from U.S. polices.
"There is a new America present, a new voice," he said.
He has campaigned vehemently against the proposed FTAA, arguing that Latin America's weaker economies cannot compete with powerful U.S. corporations. He says the region should first strengthen its own trade ties.
Chavez, who held talks with Cuban President Fidel Castro in Havana on the way back from Mexico, also called for communist-run Cuba to be allowed to participate in any future Summit of the Americas.
Castro is barred from these summits because the United States shuns his one-party government as undemocratic.
"I think it would be good if we consulted all the countries of Latin America about whether it's right that Cuba should be excluded. Yes or no?" Chavez said.
The Venezuelan president said the growing cooperation between Cuba and Venezuela, in which more than 10,000 Cuban doctors are participating in Venezuelan government health projects, was a model of social and economic collaboration.
"Yes, we are de-stabilizers ... Fidel and Chavez ... against death, against injustice, against hunger, sickness and inequality," Chavez said. He faces a bid by foes to hold a referendum this year to try to vote him out of office.
Not to worry - Former US President Carter to Hold Talks with Venezuela's Government, Opposition Leaders ***Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter heads to Venezuela later this month to hold talks with government and opposition leaders.***
Jan. 16, 2004 Rumors of Castro's death sweep Miami-Dade - again Herald Staff Reports [full text] Uncorroborated rumors that Cuban President Fidel Castro had died or suffered a stroke buzzed around Miami-Dade County on Friday, with anxious callers inundating police departments, media outlets and exile groups.
''We've gotten hundreds of calls, mostly from the media, but also from our own officers and some members of the public,'' said Miami-Dade police spokesman Randy Rossman. ``At this point, we are not mobilizing anyone for anything special at this time.''
The latest rumor -- something that has occurred frequently over the years -- appear to have been spawned from comments published Wednesday from Luis Eduardo Garzón, the leftist mayor of Bogota, Colombia. He said that Castro appeared to be ''very sick'' during their talks in late December.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez met with his friend Castro in Cuba on Wednesday, Cuban state television reported, without offering details of the visit.
One senior exile community leader said he was contacted by a CIA official Friday to ask what he knew about it.
A foreign correspondent in Havana took a precautionary drive past Castro's offices in the Palace of the Revolution Friday afternoon and reported that all seemed normal.
Officials at the Cuban American National Foundation said many of the 100-plus callers who phoned their Miami office said they saw or heard about something on TV that suggested Castro might have suffered a stroke or worse.
''It's a rumor that started yesterday,'' CANF executive director Joe Garcia said Friday afternoon. ``It's wishful thinking. I don't have anything on it. But it's gotta be right some time.'' [End]
Chavez, a populist former paratrooper who has irked Washington by maintaining close ties with Communist Cuba, accused members of U.S. President George W. Bush's administration of meddling in Venezuela's internal affairs.
He rejected U.S. statements urging him to submit to a referendum being sought by his opponents this year on whether he should remain president of the world's No. 5 oil exporter.
Last February, bombs badly damaged a Spanish embassy technical office and the Colombian consulate in Caracas in incidents blamed by the government on anti-Chavez military officers. The blasts followed verbal attacks by the Venezuelan president against the Spanish and Colombian governments.*** Reuters
Approval of the bill would allow the leftist populist president to get his way in the courts, including blocking or delaying the referendum by filing any number of appeals against the process, without having to violate the constitution to remain in power.
''The judicial system is pyramidal and centralized,'' said Gerardo Blyde, a constitutional lawyer and legislator for the opposition Justice First party, ``The Supreme Court is at the top. Political domination of the court would result in political domination of the entire judiciary.''
The 20-member Supreme Court appears almost evenly divided between Chávez supporters and critics. The justices have occasionally ruled in favor of an opposition movement that claims to have collected some 3.4 million signatures demanding a recall vote against the president.
The Chavistas' push for new rules that would speed up consideration of the bill came at an extremely sensitive time. Venezuela waits on tenterhooks for the National Electoral Council to rule whether the opposition has enough valid signatures in December to force a referendum.
The new rules proposed for the legislative National Assembly, the seventh reform of procedures since Chávez supporters won control of the assembly in 1999, would limit severely the number of speakers in any debate and further hobble the opposition's ability to use procedural delaying tactics.
The new rules can be approved by a simple majority in the 165-member assembly where Chávez's supporters have a five-seat majority.***
"What they have done is absolutely insignificant given the gravity of the problem," Chavez said, blaming globalisation and failed neoliberal economic policies. "Neoliberalism has been defeated," Chavez proclaimed to applause. "Now we're going to bury it, starting this century."
Chavez, a strong political ally and close personal friend of Castro, last year survived a short-lived coup attempt by opponents who accuse him of trying to amass power. They have called for a recall referendum later this year.
The approximately 20 heads of state from Africa and the Caribbean who arrived over the weekend for the UN conference also included the presidents of Zimbabwe, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Benin, Cape Verde, and the prime ministers of Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines. The heads of the African states Mali, Lesotho and Namibia arrived on Friday.
Many of the Africa presidents in attendance hail from countries whose independence struggles were aided by Cuba in the 1980s and 1990s.
"Coming to Cuba is to come to a country where there are true friends of Africa," Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said. Source
...exempt from the usual customs controls or inspections.
Now isn't that encouraging. I wonder what else they're carrying, except for the 10% of the Cuban population that seems to be classified as "doctors."
Such a tiny little island to have 10,000 "doctors" they can spare to improve the "health" of Venezuela. I wonder how many doctors they have left at home.
Our own fifth column "leaders" have praised Castro's health system so extravagantly. Now we know what it was they admired so much and what they want to bring to us.
Also, wouldn't it be funny if the number of "doctors" left in Cuba weren't up to the job of keeping the Cuban people's "health" under control.
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