Oscar Berger sworn in as Guatemala's new president
Businessman and former Guatemala City mayor Oscar Berger was sworn in as Guatemala's new president and prepared to tackle the country's widespread poverty, limited economic resources and pressing health care, security and education needs.

Berger, 57, officially took office on Wednesday at the Miguel Angel Asturias theater under tight security in effect since Saturday.

Representatives from various international organizations and some 150 countries were on hand for the swearing-in ceremony, including the presidents of Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Saint Kitts.

The brother of US President George W Bush, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, represented the United States at the ceremony.

Berger, a conservative, defeated fellow businessman Alvaro Colom with more than 54 per cent of the vote in the Central American country's December 28 runoff presidential race.

Berger succeeds Alfonso Portillo in leading the country of some 11.2 million people -- the majority of whom are living in abject poverty.

His task of ruling the country will be complicated by the fact that his party, the National Grand Alliance does not control parliament.




Leaders Conclude Americas Summit Without Consensus on FTAA
The leaders of all Western Hemisphere nations except shunned Cuba signed a document here Tuesday committing them in general terms to fight corruption and poverty, but providing few concrete new tools to do so.

After intensive negotiations and two days of dialogue among the leaders, this Summit of the Americas concluded with anti-globalization protesters burning U.S. President George W. Bush in effigy outside and Venezuela voicing skepticism about the goal of creating the U.S.-sponsored Free Trade Area of the Americas by early 2005.

Although the text only alludes to the "balanced results" of the FTAA ministerial meeting in November, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the deadline to begin the process "is too short." "It's just around the corner," said Chavez, expressing his reservations to his fellow heads of state and government about this point.

The inclusion of the timetable for the creation of the FTAA became one of the most conflictive issues in negotiating the text, after Brazil and Venezuela argued that since the summit was supposed to focus on social development, the trade agreement should not have been tackled at the meeting.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he finally agreed to sign a text including this topic because "it's merely a continuation of what we decided in Miami" during the November meeting.

For his part, Chavez appeared upset the leaders paid no heed to his proposal to create an international humanitarian fund aimed at helping countries in "social emergencies." In the final text, however, the heads of state and government agreed to "take note" of the discussions about his initiative.

Another controversial issue was the U.S. proposal to exclude from future summits countries whose fight against corruption is deemed inadequate. Most leaders turned down the measure, arguing that evaluating this would prove problematic.

However, corruption was among the main topics addressed in the Nuevo Leon Declaration - named after the Mexican state of which Monterrey is the capital - where the assembled leaders pledged to "deny refuge to corrupt officials, those who corrupted them and their assets." At the meetings that tackled the stated objectives of the conclave - equitable growth, social development and democratic governance - the summiteers also discussed initiatives to improve the living conditions of their peoples.

According to most of the leaders, the Nuevo Leon Declaration places sufficient emphasis on the social aspects of the problems facing their peoples and establishes measures to achieve more equitable growth.

The text also touches upon encouraging small businesses, deemed as one of the driving forces of Latin American economies.

The heads of state and government hailed the Inter-American Development Bank, which at the summit unveiled plans to triple its small business loans over the next four years.

The declaration includes a commitment to cut by half by 2008 the charges for remittances sent home by immigrants.

Likewise, the text calls on "all creditors" to take part in programs to reduce the debts of the poorest Latin American countries.

The leaders also pledged to step up the fight against terrorism and take "all the measures needed to combat" terrorists and those who finance them.




Chavez's Clowning at Summit Hits a Chord in Latin America
Latin American bad boy Hugo Chavez hammed it up at the recently concluded Summit of the Americas in Monterrey, Mexico, comparing the barren surface of Mars to what poor countries look like after the IMF gets done with them. But like a court jester, the writer says, the leftist leader can bring up uncomfortable truths.

Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's voluble president, acted the class clown at the recently concluded Summit of the Americas in Monterrey, Mexico, and many in Latin America lapped up his antics at the expense of the United States and its allies.

The leftist leader trashed protocol, ridiculed the event as a mere photo-op and "a waste of time," and cracked jokes as often as possible, most notably a barbed comment aimed at U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.

Chávez's quips got lengthy coverage in Latin American newspapers. It was obligatory for correspondents at the summit, even those working for fairly conservative major media like Mexico City's Reforma and Brazil's O Globo, to include a sidebar on the Venezuelan's antics.

It's not just the irreverence that is striking a chord, but the truth many perceive in his remarks. Like any court jester, Chávez brings up uncomfortable realities, or at least hyperboles that graze uncomfortably close to truth.

According to the Buenos Aires daily Pagina 12, reporters were awaiting the conclusion of a key meeting between the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and President Nestor Kirchner of debt-crushed Argentina, when Chávez passed by.

"Have you seen the photos that they've been sending from Mars?" he asked the crowd, referring to images of a flat, scorched-looking landscape the U.S. space vehicle has been transmitting.

Chávez's punch line: "It looks like the IMF has been there too."

Free market reforms and onerous debt payment schedules devised by Washington D.C. and the IMF--where U.S. officials wield the decisive influence-have worsened inequality and ravaged economies throughout Latin America. The region's economies actually shrank in the last six years as reforms took hold, and 44 percent of Latin Americans now live in poverty, according to the U.N.'s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

"We still have time to turn back, but we are there, at the gates of hell," Chávez said of the situation, pushing for his roundly ignored proposal for an international humanitarian fund for Latin America.

He exaggerates. But it is this stark economic reality that formed the urgent backdrop to the talks, not the U.S. offers of a temporary worker program aimed at placating Mexico or its usual offers of token aid.

Like the student provocateur who speaks aloud what has crossed the mind of the entire class, Chávez is not afraid of being singled out for U.S. criticism. Mexico City's leftist La Jornada daily called him the "punching bag" for U.S. officials.

But Chávez knew that behind closed hotel room doors many Latin American delegations were probably nodding in approval and chuckling over his remarks. His main allies, Argentina's Nestor Kirchner, and the influential Brazilian President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, tempered their comments far more than he did, but they join him in opposing much of the U.S. agenda, including the Free Trade Area of the Americas and the embargo on Cuba.

Behind the scenes, Lula, who is South America's main power broker, shared a warm embrace and a private lunch with Chávez.

Chávez's relations with other governments in the region serve as a barometer of their current attitude towards Washington. Chilliest, if not positively hostile, toward Venezuela are key U.S. allies Chile, Mexico (which already have free trade deals with United States) and Colombia (the recipient of billions in U.S. financial and military aid).

"We're not afraid, we're not afraid of anything," were Chávez's first combative words upon arrival, responding to accusations by the White House that he was plotting, with Cuba's Fidel Castro, to "destabilize" Uruguay, Ecuador and Bolivia, countries simmering with growing leftist or indigenous movements.

"I don't have anything to do with that. The real destabilization is caused by neoliberalism." Chavez added. Neoliberalism is the popular shorthand for Washington's "market-friendly" prescriptions.

Castro and Chávez make no secret of their contacts with like-minded political leaders across the Americas. The popular view is that whatever mischief their alliance has cooked up pales in comparison with the impact of the austerity measures imposed by the IMF.

In his summit address, President George W. Bush excoriated Cuba and said oil-rich Venezuela, Bolivia and Haiti were places where democracy was at "risk." Condoleezza Rice already had warned Chávez that he must allow a recall process against him to go through "unhindered, unfettered."

Chávez bristled at the U.S. hectoring and the insinuation that he would try to sabotage the recall. He told the Associated Press that Rice must be "illiterate" and recommended she read up on Venezuela's Constitution.

In 2002 the democratically elected Chávez was overthrown for 48 hours by a business-military coup that was nodded at by the White House. Most regional leaders, however, howled that democracy had been subverted. The Venezuelan opposition is now counting on the recall to oust him.

Bush, backtracking, said U.S. concerns over the recall centered merely on the "integrity" of the process.

Chávez approved. "That," he said, "is a more intelligent statement."