For the third day in a row, news on Cuba and the OAS is the lead Americas story. In the Washington Post, the paper examines the behind-the-scenes disputes and negotiations between pro and anti-Cuba factions at the OAS. The WaPo writes: “Nicaragua and Venezuela were threatening to quit the group unless Cuba was readmitted after a 47-year-old ban, diplomats said. And there was a possibility that members could put the issue to a vote, leaving the United States alone on the losing side, which would have caused a backlash in Congress.” But, after much diplomacy, including a long-distance call from President Obama to Brazilian President Lula da Silva, the OAS’s 34 members agreed to lift the 1962 ban on Cuba. Left-wing Honduran President Manuel Zelaya also made a key phone call to Hugo Chávez, urging him and his allies to accept the resolution, writes the WaPo. Venezuelan diplomats had opposed the initial document on Tuesday but made an unexpected about-face regarding the matter on Wednesday. Meanwhile, in the Miami Herald, reaction from anti-Castro lawmakers. As Cuba said it welcomed the gesture but still would not return to the OAS, Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL) has introduced legislation to strip the OAS of U.S. funding, although many say it will be difficult to pass. The State Department has asked for $47.1 million for the OAS in its 2010 budget request -- nearly 60 percent of the 34-country organization's budget, says the MH. The compromise reached at the OAS was praised by many Cuba experts. William Leogrande, a Cuba scholar at American University, suggested the outcome was a “perfect compromise” with both the United States and its “antagonists,” particularly the leftist governments of Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua – all declaring victory.
In the New York Times, the AP wire reports on violence in Mexico, writing that 11 bodies were found by Mexican police in a car in the state of Sonora on Thursday. Most were without hands or feet, and the murders are being attributed to drug traffickers who also left a threatening message, the report says. The killings may be tied to an attack on the village of Plutarco Elias Calles where four people were abducted and assailants opened fire on the police station Wednesday night. Meanwhile, federal police announced Thursday that they have also captured two of the 53 inmates who escaped from a prison in northern Mexico in late May, as guards stood by and watched. In Michoacan, a state police officer was killed, as were two officers in Guerrero and one in Tarimbaro. And two more officers were arrested in a raid in Nuevo Leon in what was day 4 of raids against police stations suspected of being infiltrated by drug cartel collaborators.
The LA Times writes that Carlos Pascual has officially been nominated as the next U.S. ambassador to Mexico, after months of speculation. Pascual has served in government for 23 including in positions with the National Security Council and U.S. Agency for International Development. He was also ambassador to Ukraine from 2000 until 2003 and later coordinator for reconstruction and stabilization in the State Department. Most recently Pascual has been the director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution.
And, outside the major papers, the Washington Times had a report earlier in the week alleging that U.S. counterterrorism experts verified a video from an al Qaeda recruiter threatening to smuggle a biological weapon into the United States via tunnels under the Mexico border. According to the Wash Times, the video first aired on Al Jazeera in February and was later posted on several web sites. It shows Kuwaiti dissident Abdullah al-Nafisi telling a room full of supporters in Bahrain that al Qaeda is casing the U.S. border with Mexico to assess how to send terrorists and weapons into the U.S. al-Nafisi also suggests that al Qaeda might want to collaborate with members of native U.S. white supremacist militias who hate the federal government.
In other news, two more Cuba reports in the MH. First, the AP says seven Cubans failed in their attempt to make it to the United States in a rickety plastic foam boat, instead ending up in front of the U.S. Interests Section along the Malecon seafront boulevard. Also, the head of Cuba's central bank, Francisco Soberon, resigned yesterday “as President Raul Castro pushes ahead with a government reorganization amid signs of a cash crunch.” Ernesto Medina, head of Banco Financiero Internacional, one of Cuba's biggest banks, replaced Soberon who also asked to be removed from the Cuban Communist Party's policy-making Central Committee and as a parliament deputy.
The AP has another report on Venezuela in the MH, writing that Globovision president Guillermo Zuloaga was charged Thursday with usury after a police raid uncovered 24 Toyota vehicles outside his Caracas office last month. Zuloaga dismissed the charges saying “the government knows very well that shutting or closing down news media is no way to hide the reality of what is happening in Venezuela.”
And an opinion on Cuba in the MH today. Marifeli Perez-Stable writes that Cuba is not back in the OAS after the Wednesday’s resolution, ending Cuban isolation from the body, was passed in Honduras. Perez-Stable writes, “Now that Cuba's OAS suspension is history, Latin America and the Caribbean should take a deep breath. Neither Cuba nor the United States wants to mend their estrangement quickly. Cuba is facing daunting domestic challenges. So is the Obama administration, if of a different order altogether. The region should take its cues from Washington and Havana, and let them make progress, one step at a time.”
No comments:
Post a Comment