Sources of the Argentine Foreign Ministry said Thursday that the senior officials expressed satisfaction over the "excellent" relations between the two countries and exchanged views on cooperation.

They also confirmed the compromises their respective countries made for the integration of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) in political, social, cultural, trade and economic areas.

The Argentine Foreign Ministry underscored the "solid compromise" of the two governments to "shore up the democracy" in the region.

Argentina and Paraguay highlighted in the talks "the full respect for and promotion of human rights, the combat against corruption and the search for solutions to the problem of poverty, the attention to asymmetries and the promotion with these purposes of the sustained development of the region."

The governments also agreed to set up in the last quarter of the year the Political Coordination and Integration Commission and various sub-commissions to define new agendas of bilateral cooperation.

Diplomatic sources said that Rachid had persuaded Bielsa for Argentina to support within the realm of the Organization of American States (OAS) Paraguay's candidacy for the Assistant Secretariat-General of that organization.
 

Chilean president questions Pinochet's accounts
Chilean President Ricardo Lagos reiterated Thursday his suspicion about the secret bank accounts of former dictator Augusto Pinochet in the Washington-based Riggs Bank.

Lagos pointed out that it could not be justified that the money had come from private donations when Pinochet was commander-in-chief of the army, as alleged by Senator Marcos Cariola.

Cariola justified the millions of dollars by saying the money originated from private donations to finance Pinochet's legal defense when he was held in custody in London.

Lagos warned that "it seems it is not adequate" if it was proved that Pinochet received these funds when he was head of the armed forces. "That will have to be determined by justice," he added.

Lagos said these secret accounts in the name of the general were disclosed as a result of an investigation by the US Senate.

According to the US Senate investigation, Riggs bank helped Pinochet hide millions of dollars when he was detained in Britain in 1998, and Pinochet deposited some 4 million to 8 million US dollars in his Riggs accounts from 1994 to 2002.

Lagos indicated that a public figure should know where his or her income came from. He said that as a president, he could not afford to buy a new house.
 

Colombia's warlords address its Congress
Three right-wing warlords flew out of their rural safe haven for an unprecedented address Wednesday at Colombia's Congress, trying to convince a skeptical nation of their commitment to peace despite persistent killings.

Opposition lawmakers and critics condemned the government-backed trip, saying it bestowed political legitimacy on some of the worst killers and drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere.

"In Colombia today, nothing is more urgent and pressing than opening paths of peace and reconciliation," Salvatore Mancuso, the supreme commander of the 13,000-strong United Self-Defense Forces said in a speech to lawmakers.

Mancuso and commanders Ramon Isaza and Ivan Roberto Duque all shed their camouflage fatigues for dark suits and ties before boarding an air force plane to fly from their northwestern stronghold to Bogota. They were greeted by a massive police escort.

President Alvaro Uribe granted the men a two-day safe conduct pass, giving them immunity from arrest for their alleged roles in human rights abuses committed during their two-decade dirty war against Marxist rebels.

In his speech, Mancuso called his fighters "heroes" who for years protected the Colombian people from guerrilla attacks in the absence of state authority.

Washington has issued an extradition order against Mancuso on cocaine smuggling charges, while Isaza and Duque both appear on a U.S. Treasury Department list of "significant" drug traffickers.

Some 1,500 police and army troops, backed by bomb-sniffer dogs, took up positions in a wide area around the congressional building in downtown Bogota amid fears that rebels might try to launch an attack.

Dozens of people protested the warlords' visit outside Congress, many wearing white skeleton masks to symbolize those killed by paramilitary gunmen and chanting "never forget."

The peace process "is a capitulation to impunity and injustice in Colombia," said Ivan Cepeda, whose father, former senator Manuel Cepeda, was slain by paramilitary gunmen in 1994.

Vice President Francisco Santos, however, said the peace talks were necessary to remove some 13,000 fighters from a conflict that claims thousands of lives every year.

"What we hope is that when this government's term ends (in 2006), they will have demobilized," Santos said.

Congress is set to play a crucial role in the talks, however, as Uribe needs lawmakers to approve legislation that would give him the negotiating flexibility to offer United Self-Defense Forces leaders an amnesty or reduced prison sentences in return for laying down their guns.