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NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (AP) -- The United States is closing its consulate in this violence-wracked border city for a week following a shootout in which assailants used machine guns, grenades and even a rocket launcher to attack a home, the U.S. Ambassador said Friday evening. In a statement from Mexico City, Tony Garza said "in light of this alarming incident and continued violence along the border, I have decided to suspend all operations except for emergency services for American citizens," for one week beginning Aug. 1. He said temporarily closing the consulate would allow officials to "access the security situation...

I have created a public register of "bump lists" here on Free Republic. I define a bump list as a name listed in the "To" field used to index articles. Free Republic Bump List Register

<p>How many Chinese bras -- and televisions and Barbie dolls and VCRs -- can fit through the Panama Canal?</p> <p>It's a question bedeviling canal authorities and many huge U.S. retailers who are betting on the waterway to get goods from Asia to the East Coast. Booming Chinese exports, and the increasing popularity of the all-water route from Asia to the Atlantic seaboard, made 2003 the busiest and most profitable year in the canal's 90-year history.</p>

From time to time I read the news and articles of the PT (Worker’s Party), www.pt.org.br, official site. And it's not old news from old notebooks, it is this year’s declarations. It’s possible to see that old aspirations – suffering metamorphosis, or not – still live. Look at this affirmation of José Dirceu, head of Civil House: We are retaking the political agenda of 1964 because problems like cultural democratization, agrarian reform, national autonomy and citizenship are still ongoing since then. (http://200.155.6.3/site/noticias/noticias_int.asp?cod=16887) For the reader who doesn’t know what happened around 1964, I can explain in three words: Brazil's counter-revolution....

The imprisoned leader of a Peruvian rebel group that was once involved in a lengthy hostage drama says his group has given up armed conflict and now wants to become a political movement. In an interview published in Wednesday's Peru21 newspaper, Victor Polay acknowledged that the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement has been defeated. "The moment has arrived for the MRTA to actively join the political fight, within the framework of democracy," said Polay, using the group's initials in Spanish. He said he would like authorities to grant amnesty to imprisoned MRTA guerrillas. "I hope there will be a political way...

A citizen decides to drive from one city to another, say, 100 miles away. He decides to start at dusk, when the temperature is more pleasant. Only 30 minutes along the way he, she sees an object being thrown across the road. It is a big boulder. The driver maneuvers as best as he can, to avoid it and manages to stop by the side of the road. At this moment a horde of savages jumps the car, killing the driver. Why? ... to rob him, her... Are we in the Africa of Idi Amin or Mugabe, in the old...

Potentially damaging to the opposition is that the ruling appears to exclude from participation in future referendum petitions the nongovernmental organization Súmate, which coordinated the February operation. Súmate has a network of tens of thousands of volunteers throughout the country, ready to assist with a fresh petition. But the electoral council's view is that Súmate ''does not represent civil society'' and cannot therefore play any role. There was no immediate reaction from the organization itself.……………………….………………………Flores told reporters that Article 72 of the constitution, which establishes the recall referendum, ''makes it clear that there can only be one request'' for such...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Election officials rejected a petition Friday signed by millions of Venezuelans calling for a referendum on Hugo Chavez's presidency, a major setback in opposition efforts to oust the leftist leader. The petition was thrown out because the signatures were gathered before the midpoint of Chavez's term, an election rule violation, said National Elections Council President Francisco Carrasquero. The council is considered an impartial body by rival political groups. Thousands of Chavez supporters outside the council headquarters cheered and pumped their fists upon learning of the decision. Dozens of National Guardsmen surrounded the building to keep order. The...

<p>Having recovered from the worst of his own socialist deliriums, George Orwell wrote, after viewing the carnage of the Civil War in Spain: "At an early age, I became aware that newspapers report no event correctly. But in Spain, I read for the first time articles which bore no relation to the facts, not even the relation implicit in an ordinary lie." Of no nation since would that doleful observation apply more keenly than to the Chile of Salvador Allende and of Augusto Pinochet.</p>

Imagine a Californian losing her job or a student grant simply because the governor didn't approve the fact that she signed a recall petition. That would be outrageous in a democracy that checks abuses of power. Yet it is what's happening today in Venezuela, where President Hugo Chávez's heavy-handed campaign to block his recall is threatening constitutional democracy. The Organization of American States, the Carter Center and other friends of Venezuela should remind Mr. Chávez that he mustn't break his own constitutional rule. Yes, he was elected legitimately in a landslide vote and shouldn't be ousted by force or any...

<p>Argentine Stocks, Currency May Gain in Loan Accord (Update1) Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Argentina's stocks and currency may gain after an International Monetary Fund-led group of lenders pledged $21 billion in new financing, improving the chances the country will renegotiate debts and spur the economy.</p>

Colombia is investigating instances of Venezuelan air force planes entering its airspace to cover left-wing Colombia guerrillas who were retreating into sanctuaries across the border, internal government documents obtained by United Press International show. The Colombian army is investigating more than a dozen reported Venezuelan military incursions to aid narco-guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in their decades-long struggle against Colombia's U.S.-backed government and right-wing paramilitaries. The most serious clash took place March 21. Some diplomats say Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez may want to pick a fight with Colombia to deflect the attention of his armed...

He has been dead for 30 years but Chile's former president, Salvador Allende, is still idolized and demonized in his country, three decades after the Sept. 11, 1973, coup that toppled him. The doctor who became the world's first democratically elected Marxist president is idolized by the left for his dream of a peaceful socialist revolution, cut short by Gen. Augusto Pinochet's brutal 17-year anti-communist crusade. Allende's horn-rimmed glasses and neat mustache have been omnipresent for weeks as an Allende-mad media has inundated Chileans with details about the charismatic, upper-middle-class orator who sent Cold War shivers through Washington. "Allende is...

Argentina Defaults on $3 Billion IMF Debt September 09, 2003 10:28:00 PM ET By Simon Gardner BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) - Argentina defaulted on a $3 billion debt to the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday, the biggest single missed payment in the IMF's history and likely to further isolate the precarious economy. The default, which comes nearly two years after Argentina racked up the biggest sovereign debt default ever in the throes of economic collapse, means Latin America's No.3 economy joins the ignominious ranks of IMF defaulters like Liberia, Sudan and Zimbabwe. ``To avoid compromising 25 percent of (Central...

CARACAS, VENEZUELA - The 17 volunteers gathered in a central Caracas apartment have at least one thing in common: most have President Hugo Chávez to thank for getting them involved in politics. Now they're determined to end his political career by having him recalled from office. In a poor neighborhood across town, Paula Bastida has also turned into an activist - but for the opposite cause. A passionate supporter of Mr. Chávez, Ms. Bastida volunteers for a government-sponsored literacy program in her hillside neighborhood of tin-roofed shacks. She believes Chávez to be the savior of the nation's poor. Welcome to...

President Alvaro Uribe on Monday said human rights groups critical of his crackdown on leftist rebels are cowards and terrorist sympathizers. Uribe's sharp words, delivered during a speech at a military ceremony in the capital, came the same day a group of 80 human rights groups and other non-governmental organizations released a report critical of Uribe's crackdown. International human rights officials condemned Uribe's remarks. Since being elected by a landslide and taking office in August 2002, Uribe has led a campaign to restore order in a country afflicted by 39 years of guerrilla warfare that takes about 3,500 lives...

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned the United States Sunday to back off after its envoy in Caracas met with electoral officials who must decide whether to allow a referendum on the leftist leader's rule. Populist Chavez, whose anti-capitalist rhetoric often targets the U.S., cautioned Washington against meddling after ambassador Charles Shapiro held talks with the National Electoral Council that is considering an opposition petition for the referendum. "This is a sovereign nation, ambassador, and you must respect this country and your government must respect this country," Chavez said during his regular Sunday television program. "What prerogative...

Allende's image appears everywhere The family of Augusto Pinochet has claimed that Chilean history is being distorted in the lead-up to the 30th anniversary of the nation's military coup. The general's daughter said her father was being falsely portrayed as a demon while Salvador Allende was being turned into a saint. Thousands of Chileans are paying tribute to the former socialist president, who died during the military coup of 11 September 1973. The image of the socialist president wearing horn-rimmed glasses appears everywhere from street posters to newspapers. 'Tense time' More than 45,000 people attended a tribute concert called "The...

Standing amid his medals and gold-encrusted ceremonial sword, Gen. Roberto Clemente Noel, now retired, says his wartime past is full of heroism and sacrifice. The way he sees it, his work as military chief in the Peruvian highlands during a barbarous civil conflict in the 1980's stopped rebels from toppling the state. Stepping into the study of his elegant colonial-style home, General Noel showed off proclamations in his honor and his book, "Testimony of a Soldier," in which he defends himself against accusations of vast human rights abuses. "I am proud of the work I have done," said General Noel,...

September 7, 2003 30 Years Later, a Coup's Scars Have Been Masked By LARRY ROHTER SANTIAGO, Chile — The first thing a visitor is likely to notice on entering La Moneda presidential palace here after a prolonged absence is that the bullet holes that once pockmarked the exterior have been plastered over. But while the visible scars of the coup that overthrew Salvador Allende Gossens on Sept. 11, 1973, and installed Gen. Augusto Pinochet may have finally been erased, the same cannot be said of the deeper, interior trauma that was inflicted. As it prepares to mark the coup's 30th...

Chinese control of the Panama canal has fuelled wild speculation in the US as to Beijing's plans for this strategic piece of real estate. Though I am not party to Beijing's military intentions I do know that they do not include submarine bases or sabotage, both of which would be obviously self-defeating. On the contrary, the Chinese will, as former President Clinton inadvertently blurted out, bend "over backwards to make sure that they run it in a competent and able and fair manner." What matters, however, is not how the canal is managed but how Beijing will use the Hutchison...

Colombian troops backed by helicopters stormed a Marxist rebel camp in the country's northeast, killing 16 guerrillas, the army commander said on Saturday. Troops, following orders to crack down on Colombia's confusing array of illegal armed groups, also gunned down six far-right militiamen in Santander province, Gen. Carlos Alberto Ospina told local television. Troops overran a camp used by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- a Marxist rebel army known as FARC -- in Chita, Boyaca province, about 200 miles (300 km) northeast of Colombia's Andean mountain capital Bogota. "Sixteen FARC bandits were killed," Ospina said. "Their equipment was...

<p>CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela declared war on Friday against what it called an unfair world trade system and urged developing nations not to subscribe to any new agreements at upcoming global trade talks next week.</p> <p>The world's No. 5 oil exporter made clear it would take an aggressive stance at September 10-14 World Trade Organization negotiations in Cancun, Mexico, which aim to lower barriers to world trade. Venezuela's chief trade negotiator Victor Alvarez said the world's poorest countries had only a tiny share of world exports, which were hogged by rich nations: "It's clear who are the winners and losers of today's world trade system."</p>

A day after blasting industrialized economies for allegedly wreaking environmental and financial woe on third world countries, Venezuela's leftist dictator received a verbal pummeling of his own Tuesday. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez spoke Monday at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, held in Havana, Cuba where one of Chavez' political allies - Fidel Castro - served as host. Chavez blamed globalism and what he called the "neo-liberal" policies of the industrialized world for the failures to address some of the major problems in Latin America and on the African continent. "What they have done is absolutely insignificant given the...

Over the last few weeks, Brazil suffered two institutional crises with far reaching consequences. They were sparked by statements and attitudes of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whose image was inevitably damaged. Political analysts point out Lula’s growing messianic and populist tone. He has now shed his moderate image adopted during his election campaign and first few months in power. They also note a growing climate of intolerance and confrontation in Brazil. The first crisis was unleashed by a speech in which Lula confronted both the Judiciary Branch and Congress, breaking the most basic rules of any democratic state....

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's government on Wednesday stepped up its offensive against an opposition bid to hold a referendum on his rule, calling for a criminal investigation into a group that collected pro-vote signatures. This followed comments by left-winger Chavez in Cuba on Tuesday that he would not accept opposition signatures calling for a poll, even if they were approved as legitimate by the country's newly appointed National Electoral Council. The government's verbal and legal offensive against the referendum bid stoked fears of renewed conflict in the world's No. 5 oil exporter, which has been rocked...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's high court late Monday denied ever ruling that President Hugo Chavez couldn't run if there are new elections, saying a statement purportedly from the court making that claim was a forgery. The court said that someone rewrote a sentence of a ruling, which had been given to reporters earlier Monday. It said that the forgery read that the justices had decided that Chavez wouldn't be able to run if he were to lose a possible recall referendum later this year. In a statement posted on its Web site late Monday, the court said that the ruling...

<p>Venezuela's Economy Shrank 9.4% in the Second Quarter (Update3) Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela's economy shrank 9.4 percent during the three months ended in June, led by a decline in construction, as the country's worst recession on record entered a sixth quarter.</p>

Latin America’s fastest-growing faith resents terror allegations from U.S. By Michele Salcedo Staff Writer September 1, 2003 PORLAMAR, MARGARITA ISLAND, Venezuela -- Margariteños cannot figure out how their picturesque island off the coast of Venezuela became a battleground in the war on terrorism. No bomb ever exploded here, no shot fired. But the Bush administration has the island, and other parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, under scrutiny as a place where terrorists might live, raise money or move contraband. "The television commentators are distorting information," said Sulenma Reyes, who, like other villagers of El Magüey, learned from television...

<p>The Bush administration plans to announce in the next few weeks a new set of Cuba initiatives to undermine the regime of Fidel Castro, the State Department's senior diplomat on Latin America said yesterday.</p> <p>"We are reviewing where we are in meeting the president's commitment to promote democratic change on the island," Roger Noriega, assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs, said in an interview.</p>

<p>A videotape now under study by the FBI shows three Americans captured by Colombian rebels -- the first "proof of life" of the three since their plane crash-landed in rebel territory six months ago, officials said Thursday.</p> <p>The three American contract workers were seized by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, after the Feb. 13 landing in southern Colombia.</p>

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - The FBI has obtained a videotape of three apparently healthy Defense Department contractors captured by Colombian rebels when their light aircraft crashed in February, U.S. officials said on Thursday. The tape, which was obtained by a television documentary maker and handed over to the FBI as evidence, shows the three clean-shaven American men inside what appears to be a house, one official told Reuters. The video is the first proof of life for the three men since they were captured by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia when their Cessna crashed on a rugged hillside on...

<p>The Bush administration yesterday welcomed Venezuela's appointment of a new electoral agency as a first step toward resolving a long-running political crisis with a referendum on the presidency of Hugo Chavez.</p> <p>"We expect that this decision will facilitate the peaceful, democratic, constitutional and electoral solution to Venezuela's political crisis," said Philip Reeker, State Department spokesman.</p>

SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - A fresh bid to have Chile's former strongman Augusto Pinochet (news - web sites) face human rights charges failed on Wednesday when a panel of judges voted against taking away his immunity. "The petition to strip him of immunity was rejected by a vote of 15 to eight," Alfred Pfeiffer, president of the Appeals Court told reporters after a one-day hearing in the case of five Communist Party leaders kidnapped and presumed killed in 1976. Human rights lawyers who accused Pinochet of ordering the four men and one woman killed because they opposed his military government...

<p>Suspected rebels fired at a U.S. drug-spraying plane piloted by an American contractor, forcing the pilot to make a crash-landing that injured him, authorities said Wednesday.</p> <p>The plane was flying above the town of Santa Rosa, 220 miles north of Bogota, on Monday when it was hit by small-arms fire, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. Colombian police are investigating which of the country's two main rebel groups are responsible.</p>

<p>Donald Rumsfeld's recent visit to Colombia is a welcome signal of solidarity toward America's most reliable Latin American ally in the war on terror.</p> <p>"The Colombians are in every sense holding up their side of the partnership against narcoterrorism, and so we are always trying to find ways that we can be helpful," the Secretary of Defense said in an interview en route to Bogota. Perhaps even some holdouts in the State Department will now get the message.</p>

<p>Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's trip to Colombia last week was preceded by visits made earlier this month by Joint Chiefs Chairman Richard B. Myersand U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick. There are a number of reasons why the Bush administration may be assigning this level of importance to Colombia, but Jim Garamone, writing for the American Forces Press Service, put it most succinctly: "The narcoterrorists already have a smuggling pipeline into the United States, and it is no stretch to imagine other terror groups allying themselves with the narcoterrorists, said U.S. Embassy officials."</p>

BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA - Just as momentum is building for President Alvaro Uribe's push to end Colombia's four-decade civil war, the country's two main leftist rebel groups have renewed their efforts to stop him. The 17,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the 5,000-member National Liberation Army (ELN) publicly declared on Monday that they had joined forces in their war against the government. Until the declaration, the ELN was thought to be amenable to a possible peace deal. The declaration comes at a time when Mr. Uribe is engaged in peace talks with right-wing paramilitaries and has proposed granting alternative...

CARACAS - Venezuela's Supreme Court has achieved the remarkable feat of uniting supporters and opponents of President Hugo Chávez in praise of its choice of members for the new national electoral council. The council now faces the delicate task of organizing a possible recall referendum against Chávez. The appointment of the five-member council, unveiled by the court late Monday, had been held up for months by a deadlock in the legislative National Assembly between the pro-Chávez majority and the opposition. ''We are confident this is the best decision,'' Chávez said Tuesday as he called on all sides to respect the...

Darkness had descended outside, and a bare light bulb illuminated Mayor Teófilo Torres in his office here as he explained the danger posed by the reemergence of the Shining Path guerrillas deep in the Peruvian jungle. ''Shining Path could enter San Francisco at any time and shoot me,'' Torres said. ``They look for the mayors first.'' A decade after the Shining Path was believed to have been vanquished, the guerrillas -- known in Peru by their Spanish name, Sendero Luminoso -- are making a comeback in a potentially dangerous alliance with traffickers of coca paste, the basic ingredient of cocaine,...

<p>MEDELLIN, Colombia &#8212; Colombia's two most powerful rebel groups, which have clashed on many occasions, announced yesterday they will now fight together, presenting the government with a more dangerous united front.</p> <p>The move by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) comes in response to Bogota stepping up efforts to crush the groups.</p>

BOGOTÁ, Colombia, Aug. 19 — Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, on a one-day visit to Colombia, said today that the United States would support Colombia in resuming a policy that allows Colombian fighter pilots to shoot down planes suspected of ferrying drugs or force them to land. Such a policy, which has been criticized by human rights groups, was suspended in Colombia and Peru after a Peruvian jet fighter mistakenly shot down a private plane carrying American missionaries, killing two people, one an infant, in 2001. A White House statement said President Bush had determined that Colombia had since "put...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's Supreme Court did not meet a self-imposed deadline Sunday for naming a new elections authority that could organize a possible referendum on President Hugo Chavez's rule. Chavez, speaking during his weekly television show, said a consensus within the court broke down after some judges were pressured by opposition members to appoint a biased panel to the National Electoral Council, or CNE. "I am sure that the Supreme Court will defeat the conspiration campaign ... to try to get a CNE named that is subordinate to that gross oligarchy," Chavez said. He blamed the opposition-aligned commercial television...

BOGOTA, Colombia -- At least six people were killed, including a 6-year-old boy, and 28 more wounded Sunday when two bombs ripped through a crowded riverboat in central Colombia, the army said. Clashes erupted between anti-government rebels and troops who arrived to rescue the injured. Authorities blamed the attack on rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as FARC, a Marxist peasant army that has been fighting the government for four decades. Meanwhile, rebel sources said Colombia's two leftist rebel groups have agreed to form a military alliance and will step up attacks against the government of...

<p>Brazil's Lula Loses Support From Businesses as Economy Falters Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Paulo Skaf, owner of a Brazilian textile factory, says he's disappointed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's failure to boost economic growth 10 months after voting for him.</p>

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gestures during a rally to show opponents pushing for his ouster that the Venezuelan leader still commands high support among the nation's poor majority in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2003.(AP Photo/Fernando Llano) Salsa music, whistles and drums echoed over a sea of red banners as Chavez sympathizers jammed a Caracas avenue to celebrate the halfway mark of his six-year mandate and reject an opposition bid to unseat him at the ballot box. "The opposition talks about a referendum, but they don't really want one. It's a trick, because they know if there is one we'll...

More than 1,000 Cuban doctors, sports trainers, sugar experts and other technicians are working in Venezuela. · The cooperation treaty includes the shipment of 53,000 barrels per day of Venezuelan oil to Cuba. CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela's left-wing government Friday condemned as politically motivated a court decision to bar Cuban doctors from working in Caracas' slums and said they would remain in their jobs. The ruling Thursday by the First Administrative Court rekindled a fierce debate in Venezuela about growing cooperation between President Hugo Chavez's government and communist Cuba. Accepting an appeal by the Venezuelan Medical Federation, the court decided...

When Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez announced the launching of an urban gardens programme, he said it would produce jobs and reduce the country's dependence on imported food. It has. But Mr Chavez may not have bargained that the rows of lettuce, cucumber and mint now thriving amidst the traffic and high-rises of downtown Caracas would also produce a harvest of controversy. The controversy has arisen because many of the advisers assisting with the gardening programme are Cubans. And Mr Chavez's opponents, who accuse him of desiring to convert Venezuela into a communist dictatorship similar to that led by his...

<p>BUENOS AIRES &#8212; Argentina's Senate yesterday overturned two amnesty laws dating to the 1980s that ended trials for human rights abuses committed during the country's military dictatorship.</p> <p>Human rights activists and relatives of the disappeared broke into raucous applause when it was announced that senators voted 43-7, with one abstention, to scrap the laws. Twenty-one lawmakers were absent. The lower house of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies, passed the proposal last week.</p>

Here goes a ''nightmare scenario'' that some senior Bush administration officials are worrying about: the possibility that rightist and leftist candidates with dubious democratic credentials will win upcoming elections in Central America, and unleash a new cycle of violence in the region. It's entirely possible, they say. Consider: • In Guatemala, former dictator and current president of Congress Efraín Ríos Montt, 77, has won a legal battle to become the ruling party's candidate in the Nov. 9 presidential elections. EX-GENERAL Ríos Montt, a former army general whose 1982-1983 military regime was marked by massive human rights abuses against Guatemala's Indians,...