[Cincinatus' Wife]

Communism Thrives South of the Border***Brant points his finger at Lula's foreign policy adviser, Marco Aurelio Garcia, a notorious hard-line Marxist operative and founder and executive secretary of Sao Paulo Forum, a coalition of leftist parties and revolutionary movements dedicated, Garcia says, to "offsetting our losses in Eastern Europe with our victories in Latin America."

In other words, rebuilding shattered world communism in Latin America.

A NewsMax.com investigation has revealed that Garcia, in his role as head of Sao Paulo Forum, controls and coordinates the activities of subversives and extremists from the Rio Grande to the southernmost tip of Argentina. This new axis of terrorism begins in Cuba, then works its way down to Colombia, financed with Venezuelan oil billions, and ends in Lula's Brazil.

In a policy dictated by Havana, Garcia has shown special interest in terrorist Manuel Marulanda Velez, a.k.a. "Tirofijo," leader of the terrorist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Every year since 1990, Garcia has made it his priority to meet with FARC. The meetings have not just taken place in Havana (with Fidel Castro himself being always present), but also in Mexico, where Marco Aurelio Garcia traveled to meet with FARC member Marco Leo Calara on Dec. 5, 2000. What they talk about is a matter that remains behind closed doors. But every time they meet, FARC always increases its attacks in the weeks that follow, with a high cost in loss of human lives.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Latest News From Latin America - Crisis in Venezuela***The rocky road to the referendum lead to the assignment of an ad-hoc commission assigned to appoint the five members of the Electoral Council that would be responsible for assuring smooth elections. The commission had been put in charge of breaking the stalemate in Congress, where a two-thirds majority to approve the five members has not been possible so far. Thursday the commission declared it failed to meet its objective after having extended its initial deadline.

The Supreme Courts of Justice could now be the only alternative left to name all of the Electoral Council or just the fifth, tie-breaking member by omission.

It is possible that whomever the judges end up assigning will be considered a transitory solution. The opposition is wary of transitory government officials, especially after having lost the opportunity to vote on a non-binding referendum in January because Chavez did not consider the Electoral Council's director's term, elected by the Interim National Assembly, legitimate.

The now-dissolved Interim Constitutional Assembly had also appointed the twenty Supreme Court judges who now sit at the Supreme Justice Council in 1999. The transitory body acted in lieu of Venezuela's Congress for close to two years. Its main task had been the approval of a new constitution. The Chavista vote reaching 98 percent of the Interim Assembly, it was not surprising that the constitution got approved with hardly any debate surrounding the major event.***