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President Pacheco
Proposes 'Aid Invasion' of Haiti
Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco said Wednesday
that Latin American nations should join in sending nonmilitary aid to
troubled Haiti.
"Costa Rica speaks of an invasion of Haiti with teachers, with doctors, with
engineers, with builders, with poets, with philosophers, with humanists,"
Pacheco told reporters after a speech to Mexico's Congress.
Pacheco said the continent has an old debt with Haiti as the first
independent republic in Latin America.
He said that social justice and education would help prevent bloodbaths.
"There is no other way and we have to start immediately Every day that
passes is bloodier and more painful.
Haiti has been torn by a three-week uprising against President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, whose nation -- like Costa Rica -- has no formal military.
The United States, France, Jamaica and other nations have proposed some sort
of security force to restore order.
New York Cops
in Costa Rica To Hunt For Fake MD
Two New York City police detectives arrived in Costa Rica in the early hours
of this morning to find the sham doctor suspected in the death of a Wall
Street bond analyst, Maria Cruz, whose body was found last week stowed in a
black suitcase and buried under concrete at the fake surgeon's former Newark
home.
Authorities said Dean Faiello, a 44-year-old, fled to the Costa Rica in
September.
Faiello is suspected of killing Cruz
after improperly administering anesthesia to her as he was treating her
for a growth on her tongue. Although he had been arrested in October
2002 for practicing medicine without a license, he continued to see
patients in a Manhattan apartment.
He pleaded guilty in June to the charge, but fled to Costa Rica before
his sentencing.
"We sent two guys down," said detective Bernard Gifford, a spokesman for
the New York City police. "I'm not going to comment further. We don't
want to tip our hand here."
The detectives will be working with Costa Rican authorities, as well as
the State Department, in an effort to find Faiello.
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Faiello wanted in the
U.S.
is in Costa Rica!
Foto: Newyorkpost.com |
Cruz's body was found Feb. 18 entombed in a concrete slab
at the former Newark home of Faiello. She had gone to see Faiello for
treatment of a fungal infection on her tongue.
No cause of death has been determined, but detectives believe she died as a
result of a botched surgery performed by Faiello, who has reportedly been
spotted in Costa Rica.
According to Immigration Director, Marco Badilla, Faiello entered Costa Rica
on the 19th of September last year and has not left the country. His 90 day
tourist visa has expired and is now considered illegal in the country. If
immigration police apprehend him, Faiello will have 5 day to resolve his
migratory status in Costa Rica. Immigration records also show that this is
not Faiello's first visit to Costa Rica, he was here in March of 2000.
Rogelio Ramos, Minister of Security, confirmed yesterday that Faiello is
definitively in Costa Rica and that the U.S. authorities have not yet asked
for his capture and detention. INTERPOL, the International Police, confirmed
that they have been working the case for the last 2 weeks.
Zoellick
Eyes Australia Trade Vote
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said on Wednesday the
Bush administration hoped Congress would vote this year on a new free trade
agreement with Australia.
But in a speech to the Asia Society, the chief U.S. trade negotiator did not
mention whether the administration also wanted a vote on a free trade pact
with five Central American countries.
After the speech, Zoellick declined to clarify the administration's
intentions on the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA.
Leading Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts
has said he opposes CAFTA because its labor and environmental provisions are
not strong enough.
A coalition of labor, environmental and other groups have also lined up
against the pact.
The Australian agreement has not generated the same amount of opposition
because Canberra is perceived as having stronger labor and environmental
laws than Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
The White House has notified Congress that it plans to sign CAFTA and the
Australia agreement this spring. That would potentially allow a vote on both
pacts before the August congressional recess.
Cairns
Group Calls on World to Set Date for Free Farm Trade
The Cairns Group of farm exporting nations issued a joint call
for the United States, Europe and Japan to set a "final date" for ending all
agricultural export subsidies.
Wrapping up a ministerial meeting in Costa Rica, they issued a statement
pressing the major powers to show leadership by converting World Trade
Organization commitments into action.
"Ministers called on Europe, the United States and Japan, which have a
special responsibility to show leadership, to translate into action their
commitment to implement faithfully the mandate," the statement said.
"There is no need to identify a list of products on which export subsidies
should be eliminated. What is needed now is a commitment to negotiate a
final date for the elimination of export subsidies on all products."
World Trade Organization ministers in December 2001 adopted an agenda
calling for negotiations with a view to "phasing out" agricultural export
subsidies.
But a deep split over how to do so contributed to the collapse of free trade
talks in Cancun, Mexico, last year.
Cairns Group nations -- Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada,
Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand,
Paraguay, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Uruguay -- chided the
big industrialized nations.
"Proposals by the major developed countries fall well short of the Doha
mandate and would leave in place enormous levels of trade distorting
support," they complained.
Ministers cited in particular rich nations' support for the cotton industry.
"Ambitious cuts" in domestic agricultural support and the elimination of all
export subsidies would enable the world to get a "more ambitious" outcome in
pricing open developing countries' markets, they said.
Cairns Group members also held meetings with WTO director general Supachai
Patnichpadki and US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick to promote a
revival of the collapsed world trade talks.
The World Bank has estimated that agricultural subsidies in rich countries,
which cripple the capacity of farmers from poorer states to compete on world
markets, cost developing nations 350 billion dollars a year.
The Bank says that the European Union spends about 100 billion dollars a
year on direct budget subsidies for agriculture and that the United States
allocates 50 billion dollars a year for direct support to farmers.
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Colombia: Coke’s Killers, Soft drink giant to review union deaths
Coca-Cola representatives told a fact-finding delegation that its employees
may have collaborated with paramilitaries in the deaths and torture of
Colombian union members.
Despite the possible collaboration, Coca-Cola officials in Colombia have not
undertaken any internal or external investigation into the assaults against
its employees.
The company’s Colombian representatives insist any contact with
paramilitaries, widely blamed for killing seven Coke unionists and thousands
of others in recent decades, was unauthorized, according to a report
released by Hiram Monserrate. This New York councilmember led a January
delegation of U.S. unionists and students to Colombia.
In a written response to the delegation, Coca-Cola says it “does not
anticipate supporting in any way any form of ‘independent fact-finding
delegation to Colombia,’” and that allegations leveled against the company
only would be reviewed locally. A company spokeswoman in Atlanta says she is
unaware of any admission of complicity in the unionists’ killings and calls
the allegations false.
Workers who say they were tortured at the hands of paramilitaries operating
at the company’s behest sued Coke and its Colombian subsidiary in 2001 in a
Florida federal court, although Coke was released from the suit last March.
Monserrate’s report says company officials implied defamation and slander
lawsuits filed in Colombia against workers who joined the U.S. suit were a
“direct reprisal.” Some of those reprisal lawsuits were recently thrown out
but others continue.
Colombia, whose civil war kills 3,500 each year, is the world’s most
dangerous place for union members. It accounts for three of five people
killed worldwide for union activity—about 3,600 in the last two decades.
Paramilitaries are responsible for the vast majority of these killings,
according to union researchers, although no killer of a union member has
been convicted since 1995.
Monserrate’s report includes union assertions of uncounted death threats,
forced displacement of membership, incarceration of workers on false
charges, raiding of union offices and homes of union members, and the
kidnapping of unionists in order to force them to renounce their right to
associate. “It’s a systemic campaign of terror,” says delegation member
Lenore Palladino.
Coca-Cola’s strategy has been to distance itself from its Colombian bottling
subsidiary, although it recently acquired the company and holds bottling
agreements with it, says Terry Collingsworth, executive director of the
International Labor Rights Fund. “Clearly, Atlanta has the power to tell
their bottlers, ‘you can’t do this.’ They just refuse to.”
Peruvian government urged to demand Fujimori's extradition from Japan
A Peruvian official on Wednesday urged the government to demand an
immediate answer from Japanese authorities to the extradition request on
former president Alberto Fujimori.
"As a country, we must ask the Japanese authorities to immediately pronounce
on the subject of the extradition," Luis Vargas, special attorney for
corruption, told the press.
"It is clear for us that Japanese authorities seek to win time because they
fear to end in The Hague's International Court of Justice," he added.
Vargas said that since the request was submitted a year ago, the Japanese
government should hand down an official answer as soon as possible.
He stressed that Japan feared international public opinion depicting it as
protecting a man accused of crimes like violation of human rights.
"If Japan decides to maintain Fujimori in its territory appealing to his
Japanese nationality, it would be covering up a person charged with
violation of human rights and that would damage this country's international
image," he added.
Meanwhile, at the forum Justice Now held in Lima, Spanish judge Baltasar
Garzon recommended to take the extradition demand to the international
court.
He indicated that Fujimori was not an ordinary citizen but a former
president and thus it was liable to submit his case to the international
court.
Fujimori, 65, accused of involving in a string of scandals, left Peru in
November 2000 when he was attending an international conference. He has
since been staying in Japan because he also holds Japanese citizenship.
Fujimori was deprived of presidency and has been wanted by the Peruvian
Supreme Court on charges of authorizing the military's massacre of 25 people
in 1991-1992, embezzlement of public funds and dereliction of duty.
Peru is seeking his extradition from Japan, but Japan has refused, saying
its law prohibits its citizens from being tried in another country.
Corruption Scandal May Alter Mexico Vote
A battle over alleged corruption in Mexico's Green Party expanded
on Wednesday with new claims of wrongdoing and countercharges that Mexico's
government was trying to crush the opposition force.
Green Party leader Jorge Emilio Gonzalez - who had been videotaped
discussing a $2 million bribe - said that the administration of President
Vicente Fox was orchestrating the attacks because the Green Party could
swing the 2006 presidential election to another party.
"The presidential succession is at stake for them," Gonzalez told Monitor
radio on Wednesday.
"They are ready to do everything, absolutely everything to maintain power,"
he added.
Fox's administration denied any involvement and Green Party dissident
Santiago Leon denied any government link to the allegations against
Gonzalez.
Leon made the clandestine videotape of the bribe attempt and released it to
news media late Monday as part of an effort to force Gonzalez from
leadership of the Green Party.
Nicknamed "Kid Green," Gonzalez was 29 when he took over the Green Party in
2001 from his father, the party founder.
Leon made new allegations on Wednesday, telling a television news program
that the Green Party faction in the Mexico City legislature had issued
$75,000 in checks in one month to Gonzalez' housekeeper.
Gonzalez insisted the woman was an assistant accountant for the Greens and
said, "I don't have information about all of the checks issued in the
party."
The Greens were junior partner in Fox's historic presidential victory in
2000, but later broke away to form alliances with the Institutional
Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which holds the largest bloc in Congress and
the largest number of governorships.
PRI leader Roberto Madrazo told reporters on Tuesday that the party was
closely following the case and some party leaders called for reconsidering
the PRI's alliances with the Greens.
Congressmen from Mexico's other main opposition force, the left-leaning
Democratic Revolution Party, proposed stripping Gonzalez of the immunity
from prosecution he enjoys as a senator.
The Greens received about 7 percent of the national vote in 2003
Congressional elections, giving it an important swing vote in a legislature
where no party holds a majority. Its alliances with the PRI helped the
larger party win several important close local and state elections.
Gonzalez said Fox's National Action Party was trying to prevent a PRI-Green
alliance that would win upcoming gubernatorial races in Veracruz, Oaxaca and
Chihuahua as well as the 2006 presidential race.
Gonzalez' party released recordings of a phone call between Leon and a Green
accountant in which Leon appears to indicate the dissidents were protected
by Fox's Interior Department. Leon said they were merely going to ask for
help because of fears of retaliation.
Gonzalez also noted that Leon's father had been a prominent supporter of Fox
and that Leon's uncle works in a branch of the president's office. Leon
insisted neither were involved in the affair.
The tape, played repeatedly on national television and radio, shows Gonzalez
offering to speak with officials in the Green Party-governed resort of
Cancun about permits for two development projects in the area. In the video,
Gonzalez raised the idea of a $2 million payoff.
Gonzalez repeated on Wednesday that he had never took the money and never
promoted the projects.
"I wanted to know what these persons were capable of" so that he could warn
officials in Cancun, he said.
Asked why he did not report the bribery attempt to legal authorities or in
public, Gonzalez said "the news media would have laughed at me."
Mexico's top elections court last year ordered the Green Party to revise
regulations that grant the party president near-total control. The revision
is still going on.
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