UNICEF and Casa Alianza signed an inter-institutional agreement in Panama
UNICEF and Covenant House Latin America (Casa Alianza) have reaffirmed their opposition to the use of repression as a valid mechanism to address youth violence during a signing of an inter-institutional agreement to help children and adolescents who are victims of violence in Latin America.

With this agreement, both organizations have committed to organize joint prevention and protection programs aimed at persons under 18 years old who are victims of violence, neglect, abuse and sexual and economic exploitation, informed UNICEF's Regional Office for Latin America in Panama.

Both organizations agreed that the issue of youth gangs or “maras” as they are called in Spanish, is an important item in their work agendas and reaffirmed the need to stop the adoption of repressive measures to tackle youth violence as currently practiced by governments in the region..

“The solutions to the social problems affecting children and adolescents must come from public policies on education, healthcare, housing, employment and protection, i.e. the creation of opportunities”, said UNICEF in its press release.

The agency added that “activation of the State’s repressive machinery as a response to this kind of problem will only bring greater suffering and punishment to children living in poverty”.

The agreement was signed by Bruce Harris, Regional Director of Covenant House Latin America and Nils Kastberg, UNICEF’s Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
 

Over 200 arrested in violence on Pinochet coup anniversary in Chile
As many as 205 people were arrested in overnight unrest Saturday on the anniversary of the 1973 coup that led Augusto Pinochet to power.

According to the Interior Ministry on Sunday, 165 people were arrested in the capital city of Santiago and 40 in different partsof the country.

Meanwhile, some 50 people were also injured in the clashes between protesters and police.

Interior Minister Jose Insulza said the violence was indignant and much worse than expected. "Those responsible will have to respond before the courts," he said.

President Ricardo Lagos condemned the violence Sunday, saying the violence "does not represent what our country wants. This is not the Chile we want to build."

In the coup in 1973, Pinochet ousted then President Salvador Allende and remained in power until 1990. During his rule, more than 3,000 people were killed for political reasons, said an official report from the government.

Pinochet, 88, who is currently at his residence in eastern Santiago, faces hundreds of charges of homicide, kidnapping and torture in Chile.

The Chilean Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that proceedings against Pinochet in the Death Caravan case should be permanently suspended, given the dictator's "progressive" and "incurable" mental insanity.

However, the court's rule on Aug. 26 stripped Pinochet from immunity, which has opened the way for legal investigations by judges from other countries.
 

38 people killed in Bolivia's traffic accident
The Bolivian police announced Sunday that at lease 38 people were killed and 25 wounded in a serious traffic accident Saturday in the south of the country, said reports from the Bolivian administrative capital of La Paz.

The tragedy occurred when an overloaded bus went out of control on the road connecting Potosi with Tarija, the capitals of Potosi and Tarija departments respectively. It plunged into a valley of 300 meters deep beside the road.

Preliminary investigation showed that overload, speeding and foggy weather were major factors leading to the accident.
 

Mercosur, EU hope to meet trade deadline
The South American trade bloc Mercosur and the European Union said after a ministerial meeting Sunday they hope to conclude stalled talks about free-trade agreement on time.

Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said there were still difficulties, but that his meeting with EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy was productive and positive.

"We decided to maintain the timetable we had set (earlier on)," Amorim said after the talks in the Brazilian capital.

The two trade blocs are aiming to agree on a far-reaching free-trade accord by Oct. 30, but negotiations have stalled in recent months on disagreements over import quotas by the EU for Mercosur agricultural products and demands by the Europeans to gain greater access to financial services and telecommunications markets.

Lamy - who had asked for the meeting with Amorim and also Brazil's Agriculture Minister Roberto Rodriguez and Development and Trade Minister Luiz Fernando Furlan - said a lot still needed to be done, but was upbeat about the talks.

"We got the feeling that with a little more push the thing will be nicely ended for us to celebrate," Lamy said.

On Sept. 20, technical negotiators of the two parties will meet again to exchange new trade offers, Amorim announced. Depending on the outcome of the offers, a new meeting on a ministerial level could take place a month later, he added. Amorim did not say where those meetings would take place.

Mercosur, which also includes Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay as full members, has been negotiating an agreement with the EU since 1999.

The trade volume between the economic blocks is $46 billion (euro37.3 billion) a year, most of it in agricultural goods.