Andean Currents

Animated Internet Series Skewers Latin American Policial Leaders

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 11:00:00 +0000

In just more than a month since it's debut, Presidential Island has become an Internet sensation.

The the online animated series that delights in poking fun of Latin American political leaders has become a massive hit even though its Venezuelan producers hail from a country where freedoms of speech are becoming disturbingly rare.

The series, is a sort of unholy combination of Lost and South Park with the presidents of South America as the protagonists. Cameos of other political leaders abound as well. US President Barack Obama has popped up and Spanish King Juan Carlos has also made a few appearances.

Since debuting in February the first episode of the series has drawn more than 660,00 viewers (a version with English subtitles is also available). The Presidential Island Twitter feed has almost 20,000 followers and there are more than 18,000 fans on the Facebook page.

The second episode debuted last week and at least two more are planned.

The creators of Presidential Island are three Venezuelans in their early 30s; Oswaldo Graziani, Alvaro Mora and Juan Andrés Ravell who is also the son of former head of the opposition channel Globovision. The trio also run a political humor website, The Bipolar Capybara - named for a type of huge rodent found in Venezuela known as a Chigüire in Spanish.

"We have some very colorful presidents,"Graziani said. "That gives us a lot of good raw material."

The series is chock full of pop-culture references (Wilson the volleyball from Tom Hank's Cast Away shows up) as well as whip-smart satire of South American politics. It's also funny as hell.

Viewers with even a passing knowledge of the region's recent political conflicts will recognize the humor in Colombia's Alvaro Uribe and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez struggle to command which direction the ship should turn.

Venezuelan officials have been unamused by Presidential Island and The Bipolar Capybara, going so far as to label the creators drug addicts on the country's state-television channel.

It's an uncertain time for freedom of speech in Venezuela and Chavez has already called for greater controls over the internet in his country where usage has ballooned from 820,000 users in 2000 to 7.5 million last year.

The outspoken leftist leader later backed off the statement but also announced he plans to start his own website soon. Although it's not likely to be as entertaining as his animated counterpart.

Machu Picchu Reopens But Access Remains A Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:25:00 +0000

While access Peru's premier tourist attraction, Machu Picchu, was restored on April 1, the headaches involved with getting to the famed "lost city of the Incas" continue to bedevil tourists.

On Jan. 24, the sole railway providing access to the ruins was washed away by floodwaters. Initially, officials said it would take months to re-open the railway. That was cut down considerably by restoring service over a portion of the route while repairs on the rest of the route are continuing.

Currently, the train line runs to Aguas Calientes station (the access point for Machu Picchu) from the town of Piscacucho which visitors must traveled to from Cusco by bus. According to Ferrocarril Transandino, work will continue to fully restore the line all the way to Cusco, expected to be completed by the end of June.

Yet the amount of tourists that can use the route is still limited. The maximum number of visitors able to use the train is only about 1,500 per day - almost 1,000 less then when the trains are running at maximum capacity. Officials say the expect to increase access as the rest of the rail line is repaired.

To handle the pent up demand following the unexpected closure of the popular site, Peru’s National Institute of Culture (INC) will ration the number of tickets to enter the ruins and imposed restrictions on their purchase.

Machu Picchu entrance tickets can only be purchased in Cusco (previously it was possible to buy them in Aguas Calientes) and backpackers wanting to hike the Inca Trail must show they have a return ticket and confirmed seat on the train.

Moreover, tickets to enter the ruins from the Inca Trail are reserved through June, according to Dircetur, Cusco's tourism agency. The 26-mile trail's limit of 500 people per day allows for only about 250 tourists when the accompanying guides and porters are accounted for.

Machu Picchu is the most popular tourist destination in South America and more than 580,000 foreign tourists traveled to see it in 2009, according to Peru's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism. It's considered the primary draw to the country's tourist industry and it's ten week closure is estimated to have cost the country more than $200 million in lost business.

To counter the loss of the country's premier tourist destination, Peru’s export and tourism agency Promperú launched an aggressive campaign to attract visitors to many of the country's other attractions.

The campaign, "Cusco Pone" included an advertising blitz and discounts on hotels, airfare and tourism packages. The agency recently announced it would be extending the campaign through July.

The demand for tickets to Machu Picchu and the uptick in travelers to Cusco has contributed to a boom in fraudulent tourist agencies, according to law enforcement officials.

In the first week of April, Peruvian national police received more than 20 complaints against agencies for fraudulent practices that are currently under investigation. Most involved agencies that had taken money for tour packages then disappeared. Most, according to police, are fly-by-night operations that are not registered businesses.

Cable Suggests Kissenger's Culpability In Operation Condor Killings

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Recently declassified US government documents have increased questions surrounding former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's culpability in atrocities carried out in the 1970s as part of Operation Condor.

Recently, researchers with the non-profit research organization National Security Archive unearthed a cable sent by Kissinger to his his top Latin American deputy in 1976. The document was among tens of thousands recently declassified by the US State Department and made available to the public.

The cable, dated Sept. 16, 1976, ordered state department officials to halt efforts to warn the government of Uruguay about Operation Condor's efforts toward carrying out international political assassinations. The warning would have represented a formal notice to the authorities of the clandestine groups efforts and likely deterred planned actions.

Two days later Chile's ambassador under the previous leftist government, Orlando Letelier, was killed with a car bomb detonated on Embassy Row in Washington D.C. The execution was later tied to Chilean secret police working through the Condor network.

Operation Condor was the brainchild of Chile's General Augusto Pinochet, who rose to power with a US-supported coup against his country's the elected leftist government in 1973. The program was inaugurated in 1975 and represented a clandestine effort on the part of the right-wing governments of Chile, Argentina and Uruguay that targeted political opposition Latin America, Europe and even the United States.

The governments of Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil also participated in Operation Condor and the program, seen as a counter to Communist influence in the western hemisphere, was carried out with the tacit approval of the United States. More than 60,000 people are believed to have perished and tens of thousands were disappeared by the authorities.

Kissinger's cable effectively ended efforts to alert the governments of of Chile, Uruguay and Argentina about Operation Condor activities. Shortly after the Uruguayan cable, his top Latin America deputies moved to cancel U.S. warnings to other countries as well. Kissinger later argued his orders were taken too broadly and were only intended to apply to the Uruguay elements of the plan.

Poachers Slaughter 150 Vicuña In Peru Highlands

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 17:00:00 +0000

In the second such incident this year, poachers slaughtered 150 vicuña in the highlands of southern Peru in order to collect the valuable fur of the animals.

Peruvian authorities said the outlaws had trapped the animals in a remote area of Ayacucho region of last weekend killing them all, including newborns and adult males and females, to harvest their extremely fine wool.

In February, 300 vicuna were killed in a similar manner in nearby district of Laramate and an almost identical carnage occurred last year.

The vicuña is the national animal of Peru and is protected by law. There are about 140,000 of the animals in the country today, a far cry from the meager 6,000 that were alive when the species was declared endangered in 1974.

Vicuñas are related to llamas and alpacas but their wool is worth substantially more than either. The animals can only be shorn every three years and are extremely difficult to raise in captivity.

A pound of fiber - which requires the wool from least two animals to obtain - can fetch $400 on the local market and $2,000 on international markets. Current prices for vicuña yarns and fabrics can range from $1,800 to $3,000 per yard. Several years ago, an attorney in San Diego had a suit made of the material that cost more than $20,000.

Due to the value of the wool, poaching has always been a problem although the mass slaughter of the animals is a relatively new and worrisome development. Officials estimate that as much as 50,000 pounds of vicuña wool are exported each year as a result of illegal activities.

The regional government where the killings occurred has announced plans to create a security team to combat poaching. Local villagers have requested permission to form locally-organized civil defense forces known as ronderos similar to groups created in the 1990s to protect the region from Maoist insurgents.

$2 Billion Peru/Brazil Railrway Link Proposed

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:00:00 +0000

A $2 billion effort to link Peru's rail system to Brazil has been proposed by a Bermuda-based hotel and leisure company known for operating luxury hotels, cruise and train services around the world.

Orient Express Hotels Ltd. is seeking to obtain a concession from the Peruvian government in order to build and operate the 528-mile cargo railway that would link the Andean nation to it's eastern neighbor.

The proposed project would require extending a rail line almost 700 miles from the existing tracks near Cusco across the Andes and the Peruvian amazon to connect with the border town of Inapari - a route roughly the same as a highway currently under construction.

Orient Express is best known in Peru for operating the trains that ferry tourists on the 80-mile route from Cusco to Machu Picchu. The company partly owns and manages PeruRail in Peru which netted a 30-year concession on the route after Peru’s government privatized rail lines in 1999.

That monopoly has been threatened in recent years by two newcomers, Inca Rail and Andean Railways. Last month, Peru's antitrust regulator, Indecopi, found that Orient Express had indulged in "abusive" practices to thwart competition on the highly lucrative rail line.

The company is also planning to open its sixth hotel in Peru in 2011, and is evaluating another two hotel projects.

Orient Express' interest in cargo lines is not out of keeping with the company's investments in Peru. It recently completed a $25 million upgrade of a rail line serving Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.'s copper mine in the southern highlands.

If the proposed interoceanic railroad is built, it would allow Brazilian firms with operations in Peru to send cargo directly to markets in their home country instead of sending by sea. One example offered by Orient Express officials is the Brazilian mining giant Vale which owns the $479 million Bayovar fertilizer project in northern Peru.

Earthquake Tours A Hit in Chile

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Fishermen in Chile, whose business has been hard hit by the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the country in February, have found another industry to make ends meet - disaster tourism.

Boat tours around the tsunami-battered bay of Talcahuano costs about $3 and are becoming increasingly popular as word of the service has spread. One captain claims to have performed more than 600 such tours over the past several weeks.

Chilean authorities have set the death toll from the disaster at 486 and 79 people remain missing. Approximately 800,000 people were injured or displaced and damage estimates have topped $30 billion.

Some of the areas most affected were coastal towns struck by the tsunami created by the earthquake. Talcahuano's fishing fleet was devastated by the temblor. Approximately 1,000 small-scale fishing boats were destroyed and many of the larger ones that washed ashore have yet to be repaired and returned to the water.

Tourism is a big business in Chile, raking in an estimated $2 billion each year. Although almost all the country's primary tourist sites and destinations were unaffected by the temblor, officials say as much as a third of reservations have been canceled for April

A similar controversy emerged in Haiti which was struck by a 7.0 magnitude temblor in January that virtually razed the capital of Port-au-Prince. The casualty estimates are staggering; an estimated 230,000 people were killed, 300,000 were injured and 1,000,000 made homeless.

Just weeks after the disaster, cruise ships were again docking at the Labadee resort, a mere 60 miles from the devastated capital, raising an outcry. But tourism is one of the island nation's few income-generating industries remaining after the near complete destruction of it's infrastructure.

Peru's Controversial Inambari Hydroelectric Project

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 21:49:00 +0000

Peru's controversial 2,000MW Inambari hydroelectric project in the southern Amazon continues to lumber forward despite growing concern over the project's social and ecological impacts.

The Brazilian consortium behind the $4-billion project, Empresa de Generación Eléctrica Amazonas Sur S.A.C. (EGASUR) is composed of Brazilian construction firm OAS as well as the country’s national electric utility company, Eletrobras, and its subsidiary Furnas.

Egasur has been granted a temporary concession to develop feasibility studies by June 2010 but has requested an extension of that from the Peruvian goverment. According to the country's laws governing electricity concessions, the holder of a pre-concession has priority rights to the final concession which, once granted, they would hold indefinitely.

During meetings earlier this year with Peru's president, Alan Garcia, officials with OAS said earlier this year they could start work by December and have Inambari online by 2014.

According to agreements between Peru and Brazil signed two years ago, as much as three-fourths of the power generated by the facility will be routed to Brazil initially. Over a period of years, the electricity would be distributed to Peru's grid with the option of selling the surplus to Brazil.

Peru’s has been investigating the possibility of increasing it's investment in hydropower in an effort to meet the country's growing energy needs. In the past three decades, Peru has invested $6 billion in hydroelectric schemes, and the country’s installed capacity is approximately 6,500 MW.

Inambari is one of six hydroelectric power plants in the Peruvian Amazon Region valued at $16 billion being developed by Peru and Brazil. The other proposed projects include Sumabeni (1,074 MW), Paquitzapango (2,000 MW), Urubamba (940 MW), Vizcatan (750 MW) and Chuquipampa (800 MW).

There has been a significant outcry over the expected ecological and social impacts of the proposed project. According to the Peruvian government, a estimated 3,400 people would be displaced by the planned 410-square-kilometer reservoir - which would be the second largest body of water in Peru.

The local media has been highly critical of the national government's efforts to fast track the project and residents have staged strikes and protests to underscore their displeasure over the proposal. Recently, questions about the amount of profits the dam's Brazilian owners would reap from the project - almost $1 billion each year - have raised new concerns.

The Peruvian government has downplayed the discontent insisting that the company that wins the right to build and operate the plant will be required to provide compensation for the ecological and social impacts. The concessionaire would also be responsible for replacing an estimated 100 kilometers of the almost-completed InterOceanic Highway the reservoir would inundate.

The Man Who Captured Che Under Suspicion

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 17:00:00 +0000

The retired Bolivian general who led the army group that captured Ernesto "Che" Guevara in 1967, Gary Prado, is wanted for questioning in connection with an alleged assassination plot against President Evo Morales.

On April 16, 2009, Bolivian police raided a house in Santa Cruz and killed three men who they alleged were part of an international plot hired by Morales' political opposition to kill him. Investigations in the home countries of some of the dead men have raised questions over the official version of the incident.

According to Bolivian authorities, retired General Prado exchanged "ultrasecret" encrypted e-mail with one of the men killed in the raid, Eduardo Rozsa, a Bolivian-born Hungarian.

In a radio interview from his home in Santa Cruz, Prado said he would not go to La Paz for questioning and insisted he had no connection with any plot against Morales. He said Rozsa had contacted him for an interview under the guise of a foreign journalist.

Morales has long identified with the leftist rebel and has a portrait of Guevara painted in coca leaves hanging in his office. But it is Prado whose name is indelibly connected with the former Argentinian dentist after leading the Bolivian Special Forces detail that captured him in 1967.

After assisting in the Cuban revolution, Guevara had traveled widely in an effort to incite other communist uprisings worldwide. He unsuccessfully attempted to aid a guerrilla uprising in the Congo before heading to Bolivia to build a revolutionary army in the Andean highlands.

Despite several successes in spring and summer of 1967, Guevara had difficulty recruiting local peasants to the cause. On October 7, using an informant's tip, Prado's unit encircled Guevara's encampment in a ravine near the village of La Higuera and captured the famed revolutionary.

Three days later, under orders from Bolivian President René Barrientos, Guevara was shot to death by one of Prado's soldiers.

Press Freedoms in Ecuador Under Fire

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:08:00 +0000

Concerns over press freedoms in Ecuador under President Rafael Correa - who has been vehemently dismissive of the media during his tenure - have sharpened with the sentencing the editor of a Quito newspaper to three years in prison for criticizing a senior member of the administration.

Emilio Palacio, an editorial writer for the newspaper El Universo, received a three-year sentence for penning an editorial that mocked the head of the Ecuador's state-run National Financial Corp, Camilo Saman.

The editorial published last August suggested Saman had sent bodyguards to the newspaper to complain about a news story. Saman filed a libel suit claiming the charge was false. Reporters Without Borders condemned the judge's decision as disproportionate for the offense and contrary to Inter-American jurisprudence.

The ruling comes as the government is considering a new Communication Law that has Correa's support that would create a creation of a super-governmental control agency with broad powers to control the country's media. IAPA and other press freedom organizations have roundly denounced the measure.

Palacio, who remains free pending the outcome of his appeal, has accused Correa of using the case to "send a message" in order to silence critics of the administration.

The current case is not the first time the leftist leader has faced allegations of using the country's legal system to infringe on press freedoms. According to El Universo, there are at least a half-dozen cases similar to Palacio's pending before the courts.

Last year, Correa spurred legal proceedings against media outlets for creating "alarm" over coverage concerning a natural gas development project with the Government of Venezuela. One television station, Teleamazonas was ordered off the air for three days by Ecuador’s Telecommunications Agency (Suptel).

Correa has used the country's libel laws himself in the past. In 2007, the president filed a "public insult" complaint against Francisco Vivanco Riofrío, editor of the daily "La Hora" for an editorial column that criticized the government's policy on acts of violence. The column described Correa's policy as "shameful." The suit was later dropped.

Chilean Author Wins Prestigious Literary Prize

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:04:00 +0000

Chilean author Hernán Rivera Letelie has won the prestigious Alfaguara Novel Prize for his unpublished novel “El arte de la resurrección” (The Art of Resurrection).

Rivera's work was submitted under the pseudonym Manuel Madero. A total of 539 manuscripts penned by authors from various Latin American countries and Spain were entered in this year's competition.

“El arte de la resurrección” is set in northern Chile during in the first half of the 20th century and is centered around a real-life figure named Domingo Zarate Vega. Known as “the Christ of Elqui," Zarate wandered across the Elqui Valley, preaching prophetic messages while claiming to be a reincarnated Christ.

The prize, which carries a $175,000 cash award, will be conferred on May 18 in Madrid. It has been presented since 1998 to recognize the best in Spanish-language literature.

As a young man, Rivera worked as a saltpeter miner in Chile's Atacama desert. He took to writing at 21 "out of hunger." He heard about a poetry contest whose top prize was a dinner in a luxury hotel. He immediately wrote a four-page love poem, submitted it and won.

He then went on to become one of Chile's most popular authors, publishing several collections of poems and fiction novels. He is a two-time winner of the country's National Book Council Prize.

Peruvian Mummy Recovered from Black Market

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:00:00 +0000

The mummy of a a four-year-old Incan child and dozens of historical artifacts have been recovered by Peruvian officials from traffickers who intended to sell them on the black market.

Officers with the Peruvian National Police accompanied by agents with the country's National Institute of Culture (INC) raided two homes in Cusco on March 26 and discovered a trove of relics.

In addition to the 500-year-old mummy, which was found swaddled in an Inca cloak, more than three dozen items including fabrics from the Paracas culture, as well as ceramics from the Inca, Chavin and Mochica cultures, were recovered in the raid.

The men arrested in the raid are being held on charges of smuggling. The confiscated items will be handed over to the Cuzco center of the National Institute of Culture.

In 2008, Peru recovered more than 1,200 cultural and national heritage artifacts that traffickers were attempting to smuggle out of the country. The INC has a team of three archaeologists and three art historians on call 24 hours a day to respond to reports of items of cultural significance being traded illegally.

While items of cultural significance have dominated the black market, fossils and other items are becoming more popular for criminals as well. Police even recovered the 19-pound jawbone of a dinosaur that year.

The Chile Earthquake

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 22:32:00 +0000

At 3:34 a.m. local time Saturday, Feb. 27, Chile was hit by one of the strongest earthquakes in this century. The 8.8 magnitude temblor that struck about 70 miles north-east of the city of Concepcion devastated the Andean nation although the extent of the damage is only beginning to be known.

The government has confirmed the deaths of 140 people although many more have been reported missing and the death toll is almost certain to rise.

The earthquake is estimated to be more than 500 times more powerful than the devastating 7.0 magnitude event that struck Haiti on Jan. 12. Only four earthquakes since 1900 have exceeded it in terms of intensity. The largest earthquake on record is the 9.5 magnitude temblor that struck Chile on May 22, 1960 near the location of Saturday's quake. That earthquake claimed 1,655 lives and left 2 million homeless.

Several news organizations have posted slideshows with images of the scale of the destruction. These include The New York Times, The Washington Post, The San Jose Mercury News, BBC, Salon and Yahoo! News.

Argentina and Britain Face Off Over the Falklands

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:00:00 +0000

A long-simmering feud between Argentina and Britain over the Falkland Islands has begun to boil again with the start of oil drilling by a UK-based exploration group this week.

The semi-submersible drilling rig, Ocean Guardian, began drilling on Monday about 93 miles from the islands. The rig is owned by Desire Petroleum – named after the ship believed to have discovered the islands in 1592.

Argentina responded by formally requesting that United Nations to bring Britain into talks over the sovereignty of the islands located just 300 miles from the South American mainland.

The Falkland Islands have been a British protectorate since 1833 but Argentina considers them part of Tierra del Fuego province and knows them as Las Malvinas.

The issue came to a head in 1982 when Argentina's ruling military junta provoked a 74-day war over the issue. A total of 655 Argentine and 255 British servicemen as well as three civilians died. Britain retained sovereignty over the archipelago.

The controversy lay quiet until recently when seismic studies suggested there may as much as 17 billion barrels of oil and 51 trillion cubic feet of natural gas beneath the seabed surrounding the islands. Both Britain and Argentina have pressed claims with international organizations over rights to exploit the expected largess.

Argentina has taken other more direct measures as well. Claiming that Britain is "illegally promoting" drilling, the government has vowed to take action against British firms with links to the companies involved in the drilling.

In addition, Argentina has begun to harass ships sent to supply oil rigs in the region. Earlier this month, port officials refused to allow a vessel to leave claiming there was evidence that the cargo would be used for oil exploration near the islands.

Argentina's hard-line stance is partly due to its difficult economic position caused by a credit default in 2001. The refusal to reimburse creditors has made it almost impossible for the country to attract foreign investment on the scale needed for deep sea oil and gas exploration.

A major natural gas discovery would also be a huge help to the country which is scrambling to avert an energy crisis. Although once a natural gas exporter and still one of the major producers on the continent, the country faces a dire shortage in the next several years.

Volcanos Put Ecuador and Chile on Alert

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:20:00 +0000

A pair of volcanoes in South America that sputtered to life two years ago but lapsed into relative dormancy have resumed volatile activity over the past several weeks.

On Jan. 11, the Tungurahua volcano in central Ecuador erupted sending an ash columns two-and-a-half miles into the air. About two dozen smaller eruptions followed that day with ash and lava pouring out of the mountain regularly for weeks afterward.

The Ecuadorian government has been sorely tested by the disaster. While it struggled to alleviate the crop loses expected due to the massive ashfall, heavy rains struck the region causing widespread flooding and fatal mudslides.

Scientists with the Geophysical Institute of Ecuador remain concerned that another large eruption could be possible.

Tungurahua, whose name means "Throat of Fire," had not had a major eruption for eighty years when it rumbled back to life in October 1999 forcing 17,000 people to be evacuated from the nearby tourist town of Banos. It has remained active since with a spike in activity in 2006 leading to evacuations as well.

In Southern Chile, the Chaiten volcano has also began exhibiting signs of life after two years of quiescence. The country's National Emergency Office put the area under red alert due to a worrisome uptick in seismic activity over the past month.

Chaiten, which had been dormant for 9,000 years, erupted in May 2008 causing widespread evacuations and ashfalls that carpeted Chilean and Argentinean Patagonia.

Chiquita Still Paying The Price for Terrorist Payoffs

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:00:00 +0000

The connections between Chiquita Brands International and terrorist groups operating in Colombia continue to bedevil the Cincinnati, Ohio-based producer and distributor of bananas and other produce.

Three years after the company agreed to a $25 million fine for paying off paramilitary and insurgency groups listed as a "foreign terrorist organization" by the U.S. State Department, a civil suit related to the case has been green-lighted by a federal judge.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra in West Palm Beach, Florida ruled that the families of five American missionaries killed by FARC rebels in 1993 could continue their lawsuit against Chiquita and Dole Food company.

The families filed the case in March 2008 under civil provisions of the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act of 1991 that law allows American citizens, their heirs and their estates to be paid compensation for injuries suffered as a result of international terrorism.

They claim that the companies "intentionally agreed to provide money, weapons and services to FARC" in an effort to hinder competition, undermine local unions and bolster the influence of the insurgency groups.

Human rights groups have said the payments led to the murders of thousands of peasants and workers in the region, including four U.S. missionaries. The companies have brushed off the allegations as "baseless" and insist the payments were made with the intention of protecting their employees in Colombia.

In 2007, Chiquita Brands International agreed to pay a $25 million fine after it was revealed the company had paid right-wing paramilitaries and leftist rebels to protection for its workers in Colombia.

A US Justice Department investigation found that the company made more than 100 payments for a total of more than $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia - known by it's Spanish-language acronym AUC.

The company also made payments to leftist insurgency groups - the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as they gained control of Chiquita's farming regions in the country.

The investigation was initiated when Chiquita voluntarily alerted the Justice Department in April 2003 of the deals, which by that time had been ongoing for 15 years. Prosecutors also considered bringing charges against 10 Chiquita Brands International executives involved in the scheme but chose not to do so.

And many former members of the paramilitary groups that have taken part in Colombia's clemency program have testified that Chiquita and Dole were not simply acting to protect their employees but were actually hiring the groups to act as an extrajudicial security force.

Jose Gregorio Mangones Lugo (aka "Carlos Tijeras") one of the primary AUC leaders in the region Chiquita and Dole held banana-growing plantations, now says the companies essentially hired the group for "security services" that included kidnapping and assassination.

A similar case involving an Alabama mining company has been initiated as well. Drummond Co. Inc., which controls several coal mines near Colombia's Caribbean coast, was accused of paying a hit squad to kill three union leaders in 2001 at one of its mines.

Although the company denies the charges and insists it has never had any association with the groups, a former paramilitary collaborator has testified to being a witness to the payoff.

Rafael Garcia, who is in prison, claims he was present when the president of Drummond Colombia, Augusto Jimenez, handed over "a suitcase full of money" in 2001 to a representative of regional paramilitary warlord Rodrigo Tovar Pupo.

South America's Space Race

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:42:00 +0000

Last week, Bolivia's President Evo Morales announced the creation of the country's own space agency and the intention to have a satellite in orbit within three years.

If successful, the tiny Andean nation will be fifth in South America with it's own successful satellite program joining Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina and, with a launch slated for later this year, Chile.

Bolivia's effort to construct the communications satellite is slated to start next month, according to Morales. The satellite has been named Túpac Katari, an Aymara Indian leader who fought Spanish colonialists,

Bolivia has allocated $1 million to the infant agency but has hopes that China will help meet the estimated $300 million price tag on the endeavor. The Andean nation will also seek funding and technical assistance from other countries.

The effort follows on a similar Chinese-backed space initiative undertaken in 2004 by Morales' political ally, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. The $406 million effort culminated in the launch of the nation's first communications satellite - the Simon Bolivar - in 2008.

Chile and Argentina also harbor aspirations for their satellite programs. Chile's Sistema Satelital para la Observación de la Tierra (SSOT) satellite was built with French assistance is slated to launch in the next few months. Argentina's SAC-D satellite was developed with help from NASA should launch in May.

While the number of South American nations with space agencies developing satellites is growing, they remain dependent on other nations to propel their projects into orbit. The Venezuelan satellite, for example, was carried by a Chinese Long March 3II rocket launched from the Satellites Launching Center of Xichang in China’s Sichuan Province.

The only country in the region with a satellite development program as well as a rocket program and launch facilities is Brazil.

Since the late 1980s, the Brazilian Space Agency (known by it's Portuguese-language acronym, AEB) has worked in coordination with China to develop it's own satellite program. Three satellites have been put into orbit as part of the $1.5 billion program.

For the past decade, the Brazilian Space Agency has also been working on the development of it's own satellite launch vehicle with the assistance of Russian experts. The country's first successful rocket launch in 2004, a year after a launch-pad explosion killed 21 people.

Brazil plans to launch a four-stage satellite launch vehicle - another joint effort with China - as early as next year.

A key advantage in Brazil's favor is the location of Alcantara rocket base (CLA) that sits just 150 miles off the equator. That allows the earth's own rotation provides and additional boost to help rockets reach escape velocity. The upshot is that launch vehicles use less propellant and can carry larger payloads.

In addition to its own orbital efforts, Brazil has sought to market Alcantara as an international space port and has received interest from Russia, China and the US into using it's facilities.

The growth of the base has caused concern about the effects to hundreds of local residents, mostly indigenous fishing and farming villagers.

Alcantara's biggest challenger is the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, better known as Guiana Space Centre. Located just more than 300 miles north of the equator, has been used by European and Russian space agencies since 1968.

The gravitational advantage of the spaceport has made it popular for the heaviest commercial satellites such as the TerreStar-1 platform that was launched last June. The 7.7 ton payload carried by the Arieane 5 rocket - approximately the same as a full-grown African elephant - is the largest satellite ever carried into orbit.

Peruvian Cuisine Continues To Convert

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:52:00 +0000

Peruvian cuisine has been the "next big thing" for several years now but the fact it hasn't yet burst completely into the US culinary mainstream isn't a sign that things are slowing down a bit.

In the last year, features on Peruvian food have appeared in; The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Seattle Times.

One reason for the growing interest is the numbers of Peruvian restaurants have continued to emerge across the US. In many cases these establishments are founded by immigrants who cater to fellow Peruvians.

For the uninitiated, the mix between authenticity and camp involved in the presentation either works like a charm or it doesn't. What isn't up for debate is the quality of the cooking at the place in question.

By their sheer weight of numbers these mom and pop restaurants are making inroads into the American culinary landscape from within the borders of the US. But at least one chef from Peru is laboring to export the priceless commodity directly from the land of it's origins.

Gaston Acurio has become the champion of the Peruvian table. In the US he's probably best known for appearing on Anthony Bourdain's Travel Channel show, "No Reservations."

Since opening his flagship Astrid & Gaston in Lima two decades ago, Acurio has taken up the banner of Peruvian cuisine with gusto. He is a tireless promoter and businessman who has successfully established several high-end restaurant chains featuring foods from his native country across Latin America.

Acurio's intent has been to introduce the idea of the classic Peruvian restaurants, such as the country's ubiquitous cebicherias, into a fine dining environment.

His inaugural foray into the US market was the La Mar Cebicheriea in San Francisco which opened in 2008. The reviews were excellent and locals were ecstatic but the effort to import chaotic ambiance of the Peruvian cebicheriea may have been a bit too successful.

But, perhaps more importantly, with the opening of Acurio's restaurant, foodies in the Bay area discovered that there were quite a few other locales featuring food from Peru well deserving of the culinary traditions of their homeland.

And the United States is only one front of Acurio's culinary revolution. Recently he was host to a cooking conference in Lima featuring of eight Basque chefs who demonstrated ways the two culinary traditions could fuse and strengthen each other.

Last month, the gastronomic exchange went the other direction as Peruvian food was a highlight of the international culinary festival Madrid Fusion 2010.

The reputation of Lima as a gastronomic capitol is only expected to gain momentum as tourists in the Andean nation are denied access to the country's biggest draw, the famed "lost city" of the Incas, Machu Picchu.

The mountatintop citadel has been closed while repairs are made to the railway line that washed away in recent flooding. While Machu Picchu itself is expected to reopen in April but rail access could take weeks longer to be restored. In the meantime, the country's tourism agency is promoting other highlights such as the cuisine.

Many visitors find Peruvian cuisine a delightful discovery on their vacation but, more and more, tour agencies are selling high end culinary tours that cater specifically to gastronomes.

Venezuela Tries to Make it Rain

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:46:00 +0000

Venezuela's colorful head of state, Hugo Chavez, has seemingly turned to the pages of science fiction to find solutions for his country's devastating drought.

An El Niño-related drought has dropped river and reservoir levels throughout the country leading to drastic shortages in power and drinking water in the country. Last year Chavez announced he would begin using technology made available from Cuba to begin "bombing" clouds to produce rain.

The process involves spraying silver iodide into the clouds either from a plane or from cannons on the ground. The chemical then draws the moisture out of the clouds allowing it to fall to the earth as rain. Although it has been available since the 1980s, its effectiveness remains an open question.

Venezuela is utilizing technology Cuba obtained from Russia several years ago to help control the mercurial nature of weather over the island nation (cloud seeding has been theorized as a way to deter hurricanes).

According to the Global Post, Venezuela's National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (MARN) says the strategy has worked, but the question is how well.

“Where we have sewn it has rained,” said MARN president Jose Gregorio Sottolano. “What I can’t tell you, and it would be a lie, is how much water has fallen and if it has increased.”

The process isn't as esoteric as it was two decades ago. Today the technology is being used by utility companies in the US as well as China where more than 35,000 people working in cloud seeding programs across the country.

So, in this particular case, perhaps science fiction is proving to be science fact. Not a likely outcome for Chavez' other recent claim that the Haiti earthquake was caused by the United States testing a "tectonic weapon" off the coast of the island nation.

Bringing South American Dictators to Justice

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:00:00 +0000

Uruguay's former dictator Juan Maria Bordaberry was recently sentenced to 30 years in prison for violating the constitution during a 1973 coup that began 12 years of dictatorship in the South American country.

The conviction of the 81-year-old former despot is the latest chapter in South America's difficult struggle to come to grips with the excesses of authoritarian rulers. Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Peru and Brazil have all struggled in recent years to bring offenders to justice for crimes committed decades ago.

Bordaberry was elected democratically in 1971 but dissolved Congress and banned political parties a year later. Military leaders, who backed the move, formally seized power in 1973 and ousted Bordaberry three years later. The right-wing dictatorship lasted until 1985.

Just four months ago, Uruguay's last military dictator, Gregorio Alvarez, 83, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for murder and human rights violations during his 1981-1985 rule. Alvarez was instrumental in the coup that ousted Bordaberry and he later assumed the presidency himself.

Bordaberry's democratic rise to power and totalitarian turn mirrors that of Peru's Alberto Fujimori two decades later. In 1990 Peruvians chose the former agricultural university rector to lead the country gripped by a bloody leftist insurgency and teetering economy.

Two years later, Fujimori took complete power when he dissolved the congress and assumed full legislative powers in a self coup now known as the "Autogolpe." His administration quickly became totalitarian in nature as he used the military to quell the internal conflict and an extensive spy agency to keep his grip on power.

Last April, Fujimori was convicted for ordering the security forces to carry out killings and kidnappings. The 25-year sentence was upheld by Peru's supreme court last month.

The case against Fujimori hinged on the actions of a paramilitary squad, the La Colina "Death Squad," who were acting under the president's authorization. The group was found responsible for a a series of murders, kidnappings and acts of violence and several of it's leaders have been convicted for those charges.

The convictions were connected with two incidents; the shooting to death of 15 people in a Barrios Altos tenement in 1991 and the "La Cantuta University massacre" where nine students and a professor from a local teachers' college were kidnapped and killed in 1992.

Still, Fujimori retained substantial popularity by the success in quelling the insurgency and stabilizing Peru's teetering economy. He was re-elected in 1996 but his government collapsed amid charges of abuse of power and corruption in 2000.

Of all the South American military dictators, none is more intimately associated with totalitarian abuses than Chile's Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. The Army Commander in Chief took control of the Andean nation on Sept. 11, 1973 by overthrowing the leftist government of Salvador Allende.

For the next 17 years Pinochet held power by creating a climate of fear and intimidation using raids, executions, "disappearances" and the arrest and torture of thousands of Chilean citizens.

Eventually, Pinochet ceded power over the government until democratic rule was restored in 1990. The new president, Patricio Aylwin, then ordered a truth commission to investigate the human rights abuses under the military dictatorship.

Pinochet died in 2006 at the age of 91 with several hundred pending criminal charges for human rights violations, tax evasion and embezzlement under his rule and afterward.

Today approximately 500 soldiers who served under him are awaiting trial for for crimes against humanity. Recently the Supreme Court vowed to continue investigating more than 1,300 unresolved cases from that era.

Argentina began grappling with the legacy of its decade under military dictatorship with the creation of a Truth Commission in the mid-1980s after the restoration of the democracy.

That report, released in 1984, found that an estimated 11,000 to 30,000 people were killed in a crackdown on leftists from 1973 to 1983 under the military in a period known today as the "dirty war."

The findings opened the doors to the trial of the military juntas of the dictatorship. A series of trials quickly followed seeing several major figures in the government convicted for dozens of murders, kidnappings and torture. Yet a sequence of amnesty law and presidential pardons freed those convicted and quenched further legal proceedings.

Argentina's Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that the amnesty laws were unconstitutional. A year later, an ex-police chief accused of murder during military rule was brought to face charges in connection with abuses and convicted.

Paraguay's Gen. Alfredo Stroessner was the most tenacious of the regions dictators, holding power for 35 years until he was forced to flee to neighboring Brazil in 1989. At the time of his death in 2006 at the age of 93, Stroessner was being sought by Paraguayan officials on charges of murder.

Since much of the Paraguayan government was composed of former members of Stroessner's ruling coterie, no real effort to extradite the dictator was ever undertaken. The effort to reveal the extent of the abuses under the military dictatorship has been minimal.

Brazil has been similarly unwilling to unveil the abuses alleged to have occurred under the military regime that ruled the country from 1964 to 1985. According to official estimates, around 50,000 persons were detained just in the first months of the dictatorship and roughly 10,000 went into exile at some point during that period.

In December, Brazil's current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, signed a decree authorizing the creation of a Truth Commission to investigate cases of torture and killings of political prisoners under the military dictatorship.

The action triggered an angry response from members of Lula's cabinet who were officials in the military government forcing the president to back off the proposal.

Bolivian Candidate Sentenced to Making Bricks

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:14:00 +0000

The candidacy of a Bolivian politician vying for the governorship of the La Paz department has been set aside for a more mundane task – brick making.

Felix Patzi, an Aymara Indian and former education minister, was arrested for drunk driving on Feb. 4 following a wake and sentenced under the country’s’ community justice system to make 1,000 adobe bricks as reparation.

Patzi was running for the governorship of La Paz in the April regional elections as the candidate of Morales’ Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) party.

Typically, the La Paz department, which is home of the nation’s capital, has been a MAS stronghold but the situation has cast the outcome of the April election into doubt and sharpened divisions within the country’s ruling party.

Initially, Patzi offered a verbal withdrawal of his candidacy but, citing the support of several highland peasant groups, he changed his mind. His candidacy was never revoked by the country's electoral court.

Now Patzi insists that he is a qualified candidate given the fulfillment of his sentence and has accused MAS of discriminating against him.

It is unclear if the community justice process supersedes the regular court process. Patzi was the first Bolivian convicted under the country's new drunk driving laws passed less than 24 hours before his arrest. His drivers license was suspended for life and the criminal case against him is still being investigated.

The controversy complicates an already tumultuous political battle for the highland department Last month the ex-governor of La Paz and leader of the opposition Plan Progreso political party, José Luis Paredes, fled the country following accusations of embezzlement.

Patzi’s primary rival in the race has been Simon Yampara, a candidate with the Moviemnto Sin Medio (MSM) party. Historically, MAS and MSM have been politically allied but recently tensions have emerged as Morales has worked to consolidate his control over the governing coalition.

Also running are Lino Villca, a former MAS senator and Julio Tito with Social Patriotic Alliance (ASP).

Colombian Flower Exporters Love Valentine's Day

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:07:00 +0000

Monday night saw the premiere of the new romantic film "Valentine's Day" at the famed Grauman's Chinese theater in Hollywood, California. While the stars of the ensemble cast were on display, so too were thousands of roses donated by Colombia.

According to Colombia's Association of Flower Exporters, more than 10,000 blooms were required to decorate the cinema for the event and another 5,000 roses were presented to fans that showed up.

Valentine's Day is traditionally one of the most important times of the year for the South American industry. According to the association, 80% of all the flowers currently imported to the United States are from Colombia - almost two thirds of all flowers sold in the country.

This year more than 500 million flowers will be shipped overseas to meet the demand generating 12% of annual sales for Colombian growers, the association reports.

The cut flower industry emerged in Colombia in the 1960 after a graduate student at Colorado State University identified the savanna around Colombia's capital of Bogota as one of the best places in the world to grow flowers for the US market. The region boasts regular 12-hour periods of daylight and temperatures averaging 57 degrees. Moreover, it's just a three-hour flight to the United States.

Over the following two decades, the industry grew steadily. By the end of the 1980s Colombian imports accounted for a full quarter of all flowers sold in the US. The real boom came in the early 1990s with the easing of tariffs as part of an initiative designed to help Andean countries fight the economic dependence on the drug trade.

Within a decade, Colombia's cut flower exports brought in more than $600 million annually and that total reached $1 billion in 2007.

But since then the industry has struggled. The association says that not only was last year's $1.03 billion a drop from the year before but that they expect the total to fall further in 2010.

The main culprit is the global economic downturn that has hit the industry in two ways; a drop in consumer spending has cut into sales and the weakening of the US dollar has slashed profit margins.

An unexpected winter freeze that struck in January has also affected the industry's bottom line (and led to higher flower prices in the US this year as well).

Even if Colombian flower growers get through the current tough times, clear sailing is by no means assured. The tariff exemptions that have allowed the Colombian growers to capitalize on the US market have expired and must be extended on a year by year basis.

Colombia and the US signed a Free Trade Agreement in 2006 that would make the exemptions permanent but awaits approval by the US congress. The passage of the agreement is by no means certain. US flower growers oppose a Free Trade Agreement with Colombia on the grounds it will give the South American country an even larger segment of the market.

Moreover, many Democrats have balked at the treaty citing lack of union rights in Colombia. The flower industry in Colombia has been particularly slow to incorporate labor organizations, critics say.

Endangered Galapagos Seals Migrate to Peru

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:51:00 +0000

A colony of approximately three dozen fur seals have left their home haunts in the Galápagos archipelago off Ecuador and settled on tiny Foca Island off Peru's northern coast - more than 1,500 away.

The species, Arctocephalus galapagoensis, breeds exclusively on the Galápagos islands as well as the nearby Isla del Plata. According to the Lima-based Organization for Research and Conservation of Aquatic Animals (ORCA) individual animals sometimes stray away from the islands but this is the first time such a large group of this particular species has migrated this far.

ORCA says that temperature changes in the Pacific prompted the sea lions to move southward. Typically the sea temperature around the Galápagos islands (about 1,000 kilometers west of continental Ecuador) averages around 25 degrees Celsius. But the waters off northern Peru have now heated up to that range as well.

Historically, the influence of the Humboldt Current flowing northward from Antarctica has kept the waters off Peru significantly cooler than those off the coast of Ecuador - usually about 17 degrees Celsius or so. Due to the effects of climate change or El Niño - the sea temperatures off northern Peru have now warmed to about 23 degrees Celsius.

The migration comes at a dangerous time for the unique species. The population of the Galápagos fur seals is estimated at about 40,000 but a decline of 50% over the last 30 years has led them to be classified as endangered. Moreover, El Niño events like the one currently occuring in the Pacific often leads to die offs and a cessation of reproduction.

Other seal species - such as the South American sea lion (Otaria flavescens) and the South American fur seal (Arctocephalus australis) - are quite common off the coast of Peru. In fact, a colony of 8,000 sea lions lives on desert islands in the bay of Lima.

Further south, the Ballestas Islands in the National Reserve of Paracas off the Southern Peruvian coast are home to huge colonies of seals, sea lions and other wildlife.

South American Presidential Approval Ratings

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:13:00 +0000

The popularity ratings for presidents across South America have altered significantly in recent months as elections have altered the political landscape in several countries and political pressures are precipitating changes in others.

• Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is enjoying overwhelming popularity as his second and last term in office comes to a close. An election is set for October and Lula's chief-of-staff and top adviser Dilma Rousseff leads Social Democratic Party presidential candidate Jose Serra in polls by only 5.4 percentage points.

• The situation is much the same in Chile as Michelle Bachelet enjoys stellar approval ratings while she puts the finishing touches on her term in office (she barred by law from a second term). On January 17, Sebastián Piñera won Chile's presidential election with 52% of the vote and he will take office on March 11.

• In Uruguay, outgoing president Tabare Vazquez is also enjoying a late-term boost in popularity. He is slated to step down in March to make way for José Mujica, a former left-wing guerrilla fighter who won the presidency last November with 52.39 per cent of the vote.

• The popularity poll have nots are led by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez who has suffered a severe dip in his once-soaring ratings as his country has been beset with energy shortages and street protests linked to his increasingly autocratic rule.

• Chavez's erstwhile political ally, Ecuador's Rafael Correa, is facing similar pressures after starting the year with a downturn in his popularity ratings as well. After taking office in 2007 but engineered a constitutional change that called for a presidential election last year which he won handily. According to the new law, he can run again in 2013 if he chooses.

• Political turmoil in Peru and Argentina have similarly walloped the popularity ratings of presidents Alan Garcia and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner respectively.

• The situation couldn't be more different in Bolivia where staunch leftist Evo Morales is still enjoying the goodwill from his re-election last month where he garnered a whopping 63 percent of the vote. While he has already served one four-year term, term limits restrict him to just one more five-year term although many believe he will make an attempt to change the law to run again.

• Colombia's Alvaro Uribe has seen his stock plummet from the ratified stature of just a year ago due to turmoil in his government. He is seeking changes in his country's election laws to allow him to run for a third term in the May presidential elections. The proposal was recently dealt a legal setback but a final ruling may not be made until April.

• In Paraguay, president Fernando Lugo is holding steady in the polls.

• Presidential popularity figures further afield in Latin America include: Panama's Ricardo Martinelli at 91%, El Salvador's Mauricio Fuenes at 88%, Mexico's Felipe Calderon at 55%, Guatemala's Alvaro Colom at 46%, Costa Rica's Oscar Arias at 44% and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua at 26%. In Honduras, Porfirio Lobo Sosa was sworn in last month after winning that country's controversial presidential election.

Ecuador's Dangerous Drug Dilemma

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:32:00 +0000

Historically, security concerns about Ecuador have been eclipsed by neighboring Colombia and Peru. That could be changing as a series of reports critical of the tiny Andean nation's growing problems of lawlessness, corruption and human rights abuses have emerged over the past few months.

The cultivation of coca remains the headache of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia but, increasingly, Ecuador is becoming a site for cocaine production, trafficking and the shadowy financial system that services the industry.

According to the Los Angeles Times, "as much as 200 tons, or one-third of the cocaine produced in Colombia, may be transiting through Ecuador, four times the estimated percentage a decade ago."

The UNODC reports that more than 25,000 kg of cocaine was seized in Ecuador in 2007 - more than 400 percent more than five years prior and outstripping every South American country save Colombia and Venezuela.

And there is evidence that the country is increasing its profile as a producer of the drug as well. A drug lab with the capability of cranking out 10 tons of cocaine a month was discovered in town of Lomas de Sargentillo last year.

Even more troubling, Ecuador has also become a hub for transnational criminal groups, according to the Financial Action Task Force - the inter-governmental body representing 33 countries and territories and 2 regional organizations.

The FATF reports that Ecuador has become a key business hub for Colombian and Mexican drug traffickers as well as Chinese and African human traffickers. The group noted that Ecuador had failed to comply with 48 of its 49 recommendations on money laundering and terrorist financing in 2007.

The group is expected to ask for Ecuador to be included on its high-risk jurisdiction list later this month.

These trends have occurred as Ecuador has joined a growing number of South American countries loosening draconian drug laws enacted at the behest of US policies.

For years, US anti-drug funding dollars carried demands that participating nations beef up their domestic drug laws. The result was a spike in prison populations as small-time users were incarcerated for minimal possession charges.

Reform efforts that loosen the penalties associated with individual drug users have swept the region and include Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Ecuador. The lack of opposition by the Obama administration has been interpreted as a tacit approval of the change.

President Raphael Correa brought this approach to Ecuador in 2008 when he ordered Ecuador's parliament to pardon about 2,000 small-time couriers or "drug mules" being held in the nation's prisons.

"These people are not criminals," he said. "They are single mothers or unemployed people who are desperate to feed their families."

The move also dovetailed with his stated opposition to US involvement in Ecuador and Latin America. A stance he backed up with the termination of Ecuador’s lease with the US army for the use of the Manta air base - the center for anti-drug surveillance aircraft in the region.

Flights out of Manta were ceased last June and begun, somewhat controversially, out of Colombian bases.

Colombia's Invests in Infrastructure

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:49:00 +0000

Last month, Colombia launched the ambitious $2.6-billion, 1,000-kilometer Ruta del Sol highway project that will connect the capital of Bogota with the country's Caribbean Coast. It's the largest single highway project ever undertaken in the country and one of the biggest infrastructure efforts in South America.

Five years ago, Colombia launched the largest infrastructure overhaul in the country's history - Plan 2500. The $770 million effort has been aimed at the construction and upgrade of more than 3,200 kilometers of roadway.

Colombia's problem has been the inequality between the nation's primary method of transportation and the suitability of the routes it used. Approximately 70 percent of the nation's cargo is transported by truck but, as of 2007, less than 15 percent of the nation's almost 150,000 kilometers of roads were paved. Just 400 kilometers of multiple-lane paved highway existed at all.

The 2,500 infrastructure initiative was ignited partly by the promise of a Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Colombian officials cited it as a factor in the decision to move forward with the Ruta del Sol project. Although signed in 2006, that treaty still awaits approval by the US Congress and the likelihood of that occurring in this calendar year are slim.

The route is also critically important for Colombia to capitalize on the opportunity represented by the ongoing expansion of the Panama Canal. Although the country is the world's fifth-largest exporter of steam coal, it is the only producing country unable to sell into Asia due to high freight costs.

The increased scrutiny on carbon emissions has cut heavily into the European and the U.S. markets. The expanded canal is expected to facilitate exports from Colombia's Caribbean coast, where the bulk of the country's coal supplies are loaded for shipment abroad.

Santa Marta, the terminus of the Ruta del Sol road project, is the largest port on Colombia's Caribbean coast and handles more than half of the country's coal exports. That's expected to increase with the completion of a $300 million upgrade and other improvements which will more than triple the capacity of the port.