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TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2011
INTERNATIONAL EDITION
THE AMERICAS
MiamiHerald.com
THE MIAMI HERALD
Chavez foes skeptical of reconciliation call BY CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER Associated Press
CARACAS — Venezuela’s opposition reacted warily to a call for conciliation from President Hugo Chavez, saying the socialist leader has spent years in office disparaging them as “bandits” and repeatedly stating that reconciliation was impossible. Chavez made the call for mutual respect Saturday during a marathon address to the new National Assembly, which includes a strong opposition presence for the first time in years. He also said he was willing to sharply reduce the period of time he has to enact laws by decree, a power that critics say undermines Venezuela’s democracy. “We have a president who spends 365 days a year lashing out at the media, the church, NGOs, fighting with everyone and then he tells us one day that he wants dialogue,” said Julio Borges, an opposition lawmaker who sat through the president’s 7-hour state-of-the-nation speech. “Dialogue is necessary for the country, we been asking for it for twelve years,” Borges told a news conference. Chavez, whose favorite taunts and labels for opponents include “squealing pigs,” “oligarchs,” “fascists,” “mafia bosses,” “coup mongers” and the term “little
Yankees,” should take action to demonstrate that he’s willing to open talks with critics, he added. During Saturday’s National Assembly session, Chavez shook hands and chatted with opposition politicians before offering to relinquish legislation allowing him to bypass the congress for 18 months. He called for dialogue and mutual respect between political rivals. “I’m happy to see you here, to welcome you,” Chavez told opposition lawmakers during his speech. “I request respect for all of you.” Chavez called on his adversaries to be respectful and reasonable with their criticism of his policies, saying much of their allegations have been unfair. And he surprised his audience by saying the country’s political opponents have an opportunity for dialogue despite their ideological differences. “Let’s not lose this opportunity,” he said. Chavez, a former army officer who is normally uncompromising when it comes to relations with Venezuela’s opposition parties, has come under increased criticism since a lame-duck Congress dominated by his allies granted him the decree power in December. Critics, including university students, leaders of
non-governmental organizations and representatives of the Catholic Church, among others, have accused Chavez of using the “Enabling Law” to sidestep congressional controls by lawmakers who were sworn in earlier this month. Chavez’s ruling party has a strong majority in the assembly, but opponents gained ground in September congressional elections, winning 67 of the assembly’s 165 seats. Their gains prevented Chavez allies from obtaining the two-thirds majority needed to pass some types of legislation. Chavez claims that he needs special legislative powers to swiftly approve disaster-relief measures after severe floods and mudslides that left thousands homeless in 2010. Congresswoman Vestalia Araujo said Sunday the assembly should have passed legislation to deal with the effects of the natural disaster rather than granting Chavez sweeping powers to legislate in a wide range of areas, including banking system, rural and urban land-reform initiatives, and Venezuela’s economic system. “The former assembly had the opportunity to approve laws to make those left homeless a priority,” but instead it “gave the president these broad decree powers,” Araujo said.
MAURICIO LIMA/AFP-GETTY IMAGES
IN RUINS: The region of Nova Friburgo, Brazil, above, has seen widespread devastation since last week’s mudslides, which claimed more than 600 lives.
Downpour affects search for Brazil mudslide victims BY ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO New York Times Service
SAO PAULO — Unrelenting rains for much of the weekend complicated the search for scores of people still missing after violent floods stirred mudslides that ripped through hillside communities around Rio de Janeiro, killing more than 600 people since last week. The hardest hit towns — Petropolis, Teresopolis and Nova Friburgo — have been scenes of widespread devastation since last week. Residents walked dazed through the mud, searching for missing family members and what remains of their belongings. Communications, electricity and potable water were still lacking in several areas, leaving disaster experts to lament Brazil’s lack of preparedness for deadly rains, which they say are becoming more common. The death toll climbed to 617 early Sunday, with nearly 14,000 reported homeless or having abandoned their
homes, according to Rio de Janeiro State officials. “We still haven’t found anyone,” said Adalberto Mota, 52, a store clerk who walked through a river of mud searching for five family members in the Vale do Cuiaba neighborhood of Petropolis. “I just want to leave,” he said. “This was a lovely area, a touristic spot, but it is impossible to live here now.” The tragedy around Rio was Brazil’s deadliest natural disaster. For much of its history, Brazil has been blessed like almost no other country to be almost free of such calamities. Earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, erupting volcanoes — none have proved threats to Brazil. Until recently, the most costly and best-known disasters were severe droughts, said Margareta Wahlstrom, the assistant secretary general for the United Nations’ International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.
“But in the last few years the increasing frequency of floods, high winds and storms has become part of the new normal of Brazil,” she said. “The political choice we have today is to not treat disasters as events that come and go, but decide that you plan for them and realize that they are very costly.” Brazil has experienced 37 disastrous floods since 2000, said Debarati Guha Sapir, a professor at the Catholic University of Louvain in Brussels who heads a World Health Organization collaborating center on disasters. The rain-related disasters have affected nearly 5 million people over the last two decades, she said. More than 280 people died in Rio State in flooding and landslides last year, and at least 75 more in Sao Paulo State. That followed the more than 130 who died during heavy rains in Santa Catarina State in 2008.
Duvalier meets with advisors as Haiti holds its breath JUAN BARRETO/AFP-GETTY IMAGES
URGING: ‘Let’s not lose this opportunity,’ Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez said at the Venezuelan National Assembly, in Caracas on Saturday.
Cuba says travel changes made by U.S. not enough BY PAUL HAVEN Associated Press
HAVANA — Cuba said the Obama administration’s decision to lift some travel restrictions on students, academics and religious groups and make it easier for U.S. citizens to send money were positive steps, but not nearly enough while Washington maintains its 48-year trade embargo on the island. The changes announced last week mean that students seeking academic credit and churches and synagogues traveling for religious purposes will be able to go to Cuba. Any U.S. international airport with proper customs and immigration facilities will be able to offer charter services to the island. The plan will also let any U.S. citizen send as much as $2,000 a year to Cuban citizens who are not part of the Castro administration and are not members of the
Communist Party. Previously, only relatives could send money. “Though the measures are positive,” Cuba’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday, “they are well below what was hoped for, have a limited reach and do not change [U.S.] policy against Cuba.” The ministry said most of the changes simply bring U.S. policy back to where it was during the Clinton Administration, before fornmer U.S. President George W. Bush toughened restrictions. They do not alter Washington’s trade embargo, which Cuba refers to as a “blockade.” “These measures confirm that there is no will to change the policy of blockade and destabilization against Cuba,” the ministry said. “If there exists a real interest in widening and facilitating contacts between our peoples, the
United States should lift the blockade and eliminate the restrictions that make Cuba the only country in the world to which North Americans cannot travel.” Under the embargo, American tourists are still prohibited from visiting Cuba and most trade with the island is barred. Obama had previously made it easier for CubanAmericans to visit family and send money home, and cultural exchanges had greatly expanded under his watch. Still, relations between the Cold War enemies remain frosty, in particular over the detention of a U.S. subcontractor held in Cuba since December 2009 on suspicion of spying. The changes, announced by the White House on Friday, will be put in place within two weeks. They do not need congressional approval.
Jamaican leader to revitalize capital KINGSTON, Jamaica — (AP) — Jamaica’s prime minister is pledging to clean up the long-neglected heart of the seaside capital. Bruce Golding cites initiatives such as the bulldozing of thousands of makeshift vending stalls as evidence that his administration
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is determined to fix downtown Kingston. On Saturday, the government opened a new bus hub that aims to ease traffic. In a statement Sunday, Golding promised further efforts to upgrade the central market district, where thousands sell produce,
clothing and other goods. Once a bustling economic center, downtown Kingston has fallen into disrepair over the years. Business owners say the government has not done enough to improve infrastructure, control traffic and crack down on illegal vendors.
• HAITI, FROM 1A
Crowds lined his route from the airport and, referring to the nation’s dismal conditions, chanted, “If JeanClaude had been here, we would never be like this,” the newspaper said. On Monday, Duvalier opponents began calling in to Haitian radio stations, to “remind” Haitians not old enough to remember his rule of the brutality that led him to be deposed. And Amnesty International urged the Haitian authorities to arrest Duvalier for human rights abuses committed during his rule in 1970s and ’80s. “The widespread and systematic human rights violations committed in Haiti during Duvalier’s rule amount to crimes against humanity,” said Javier Zuniga, a special advisor to the human rights group. “Haiti is under the obligation to prosecute him and anyone else responsible for such crimes.” An aide said President Preval was among those surprised by Duvalier’s sudden return. There were conflicting reports about how Duvalier was allowed to enter the country. Haitian officials said it appeared he made his way to Port-au-Prince on an expired diplomatic passport. But the Le Nouvelliste article said he had a Haitian diplomatic passport that was issued to him by the transitional government of 2004 to 2006. A senior aide to Preval said the French Embassy in Port-au-Prince told Haitian officials that Duvalier’s arrival only became clear after the Air France flight on which he was traveling took off for the Haitian capital from the Caribbean island of Guadaloupe. A senior French government official in Paris said,
however, that Duvalier had told the French authorities of his planned return to Haiti without specifying when he would arrive. The official declined to be identified, in keeping with protocol. French Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bernard Valero, said Duvalier’s Haitian passport was valid and he was “free to move around.” Preval had said in 2007 that Duvalier could return but would face justice for the money the government said he had looted from the Treasury, as well as for the deaths and torture of political opponents at the hands of the secret police. It was unclear if Duvalier would be arrested. The Haitian police chief, Mario Andresol, told The Miami Herald that he was not aware that any arrest warrant had been issued. Duvalier has long flirted with returning, telling reporters over the years that he would like to go home. His nickname derives from his being the son of Francois Duvalier, known as Papa Doc, a much feared dictator in the 1950s and ’60s. Jean-Claude
HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP-GETTY IMAGES
CONTROVERSIAL: Former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier arrived at Port-au-Prince on Sunday.
Duvalier succeeded his father when he was just 19. His departure from Haiti 25 years ago, which was arranged with the assistance of the United States, ushered in a period of halting democracy that has continued with tumultuous elections. On Sunday, the U.S. ambassador to Haiti, Kenneth Merten, embraced an international report that rejected the results of the presidential election in November, adding pressure on Haitian officials to reconsider the outcome. He urged Haitian officials to accept its findings, including the conclusion that one candidate might have been denied a rightful spot in a runoff. The report, delivered on Thursday to Preval and prepared by a multinational team of experts convened by the Organization of American States, confirmed Mirlande Manigat, a former first lady, as the leader in the first round of voting in November. She did not win enough votes to avoid a runoff. But the report said, based on a statistical analysis of ballot sheets, that Preval’s choice as his successor, Jude Celestin, had placed third, not second, as announced when the initial results were released in early December. Instead, the panel said, Michel Martelly, a popular singer, had won second place and qualified to face Manigat in the second round of balloting. Preval has not commented on the report. With the leadership of the country and billions of dollars of disaster relief in the balance, Jose Miguel Insulza, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, plans to visit Haiti on Monday to consult with officials. His trip was announced before news of Duvalier’s arrival.
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