[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 111 (Thursday, August 2, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1503-E1507]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        U.S. RELATIONS WITH PERU

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, August 1, 2001

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, U.S. relations with Peru have recently become 
a matter of concern due to the shoot-down of the U.S. missionary plane, 
with the death of two U.S. nationals, a mother and her child, and the 
continued imprisonment of Lori Berenson. At the same time, we have been 
witnessing the growing accusations of corruption and human rights 
abuses stemming from the arrest of former Peruvian spy chief Vladimiro 
Montesinos. The fact that Berenson was arrested and convicted at a time 
when Montesinos virtually controlled the country's judiciary system is 
enough to arouse suspicion over the country's ability to have fairly 
administered justice.
  Berenson's recent sham retrial, under Peru's current provisional 
government, has served to bolster those suspicions. As a result of the 
judiciary's long ties to the country's corrupt political system, 
Berenson's second trial before a civilian judge, which sentenced her to 
twenty years in prison, marked only a slight improvement over the 
original 1996 military trial in which a hooded judge sentenced Berenson 
to life imprisonment.
  On the eve of a potential new era of politics in Peru, the time to 
act on the Berenson case is now. On July 28th, president-elect 
Alejandro Toledo will be sworn in as Peru's new president and the 
country, which had been gripped by autocracy for the last ten years 
under now-disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori, will be given a 
genuine opportunity to break with its corrupt past. President Bush and 
the U.S. Congress should do all that they can to assist President 
Toledo and the whole of Peru in their recovery from ten years of 
corrupt leadership, if the new administration ensures that Lori 
Berenson be granted justice. Regarding the Berenson case, we would like 
to know if the State Department did enough to protect this U.S. 
national and what exactly were the ties between this country and 
Montesinos, and did we do enough to publicize the villainy of this man. 
I'm afraid the answers to these questions may prove embarrassing.
  Beyond the moral obligation to intervene on Berenson's behalf, the 
President has a legal obligation to seek Berenson's release. Under U.S. 
Code 22 Section 1732, the President must do everything in his power, 
short of acts of war, to obtain or effectuate the release of a U.S. 
citizen wrongfully incarcerated by a foreign government.
  The following press memorandum was authorized by Mariah Freark and 
Sabrina Blum, Research Associates at the Washington-based Council on 
Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), an organization that has been long-
committed to addressing issues associated with democracy and human 
rights throughout the hemisphere. COHA's researchers have often spoken 
out about controversial issues regarding U.S. relations with Latin 
America. The attached press memorandum addresses information concerning 
Lori Berenson and Peru, and should serve to enlighten us.


[[Page E1504]]



               [From the American Prospect, May 25, 2001]

                        Our Man in Little Havana


   The secret Cold War history of Otto Juan Reich, George W. Bush's 
    Frightening Nominee for Assistant Secretary of State of Western 
                           Hemisphere Affairs

                            (By Jason Vest)

       It was the summer of 1985 and John Lantigua, then The 
     Washington Post's Nicaragua stringer, discovered he had a new 
     nickname, at least among American right-wingers: ``Johnny 
     Sandinista.''
       For many senior politicos in the Reagan Administration, 
     Nicaragua was a black and white issue. If you weren't pro-
     Contra and anti-Sandinista, you were a dupe of two malevolent 
     forces: What one senior official euphemistically called ``the 
     source'' of evil in this hemisphere--Cuba--and the power 
     behind Cuba that then Director of Central Intelligence 
     William J. Casey held was the center of all world terrorism 
     and subversion: the Soviet Union.
       John Lantigua's reporting didn't reflect such a Manichean 
     worldview, and for that, the Administration would try to 
     smear him and others who didn't ``come on-side.'' In a 
     ``report'' produced by the far-right ``media watchdog'' group 
     Accuracy in Media, Daniel James--identified only as a ``Latin 
     America expert,'' but, in fact, a longtime CIA contract 
     propagandist--reported that, according to unnamed U.S. 
     government officials, Lantigua was being furnished with live-
     in female Sandinista sex slaves in exchange for penning 
     Sandinista agitprop.
       To those who covered Central America, the charges were 
     absurd: Not only was Lantigua living with his American 
     fiancee, but he was in the middle of a freeze-out by the 
     Sandinistas, who, along with the Reagan Administration, 
     sometimes found Lantigua's reporting to be inconvenient. 
     Lantigua got a kick out of the item, assuming that it had 
     originated with Otto Reich, a particularly ideological State 
     Department official who Lantigua and his Newsday colleague 
     Morris Thompson had met for lunch when Reich had made a brief 
     visit to
       In the view of Larry Birns, the head of Washington's 
     Council on Hemispheric Affairs, the combination of Reich's 
     hard-line views, current business connections, and Iran-
     Contra past would make him a disastrous choice to be the 
     United States' point person for Latin America. ``It would be 
     of interest to anticipate the violent polemical struggle 
     between Fortune 500 U.S. multinationals, most of whom 
     denounced Helms-Burton for interfering with trade with Cuba, 
     and the State Department's Latin American office under an 
     ideologically driven Reich.'' (Birns is also alarmed at the 
     prospect of Roger Noriega, another Jesse Helms favorite, 
     being named Ambassador to the Organization of American 
     States.)
       ``If confirmed, [Reich's] tenure will inevitably be 
     littered with hemispheric vendettas, abusive run-ins with 
     strong-willed regional leaders, and a cheerful indifference 
     to state department rules and regulations,'' Birns says. 
     ``During his years in the public sector, Reich seemingly has 
     found it against the very marrow of his personality and basic 
     nature to be able to walk down a straight path. If [Secretary 
     of State Colin] Powell continues to maintain that Reich and 
     Noriega are the best qualified candidates to fill the 
     vacancies, then the Secretary of State can expect to soon be 
     hearing from Saturday Night Live.''

                                  ____
                                  

                 [From the News Mexico, Jan. 20, 2001]

                  Farewell to Clinton, Welcome to Bush


            Bush Seen As Man Who Can Do Business With Mexico

                           (By Krista Larson)

       WASHINGTON--Throughout his campaign, the former Texas 
     governor who will become the 43rd president of the United 
     States on Saturday emphasized his experience leading a border 
     state with strong economic ties to its southern neighbor. He 
     even demonstrated his Spanish in stump speeches.
       As George W. Bush is inaugurated, experts say there appear 
     to be new opportunities for improved bilateral relations 
     between neighbors, but that potential obstacles also lie 
     ahead.
       ``Obviously Mexico is going to be predominate on the radar 
     screen, and that can result in more activity,'' said Armand 
     Peschard-Sverdrup, director of the Mexico Project at the 
     Center for Strategic and International Studies. ``With the 
     more activity, chances are you could also have points of 
     tension.''
       There is an image that Bush will be a ``bigger ear in 
     Washington'' for Mexico-U.S. relations than in the past, said 
     Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs.
       ``It may not easily play out in specific policies, but 
     certainly in lingo and rhetoric the White House is going to 
     refer to its relations with Mexico as being all-important,'' 
     Birns said.
       Bush's experience in Texas was cited by Peschard-Sverdrup 
     as significant. ``The border is definitely the frontline of 
     the relationship,'' he said. ``With Bush being a former 
     border governor, he definitely has first hand experience of 
     managing the relationship at the state level, and I think 
     that's gong to give him a better perspective than someone 
     from a state that obviously doesn't have as much interaction 
     with Mexico.''
       Bush has already met with President Vicente Fox when Fox 
     traveled to the United States shortly after his July 2 
     presidential victory.
       ``The good thing is at least at the level of the 
     presidency, there's an affinity toward each other's country 
     and they personally seem to get along,'' Peschard-Sverdrup 
     said. ``Once you have that type of engagement at the 
     presidential level, you would expect that would then 
     transcend down to the Cabinet.''
       During his campaign, Bush said he had a vision for the two 
     countries and declared that the United States is ``destined 
     to have a special relationship with Mexico, as clear and 
     strong as we have had with Canada and Great Britain.'' He 
     pledged in August to look south ``not as an afterthought, but 
     as a fundamental commitment of my presidency.'' And he said 
     he'd ``fulfill the promise of hemispheric free trade'' by 
     building on the North American Free Trade Agreement and other 
     regional trade initiatives.
       That doesn't mean the new administrations won't be without 
     potential disagreements. ``There are disruptive issues out 
     there,'' said Birns, noting there will be pressure to address 
     the certification process that has been an irritant to 
     Mexicans for years. ``Republicans are much less likely to 
     eliminate the drug certification process than the Democrats 
     would have been.''


                           BUSH ON KEY ISSUES

       Trade: Bush wants to restore fast-track negotiating 
     authority and said his priorities will include expanding free 
     trade ``within our own hemisphere.'' Also plans to 
     ``vigorously enforce'' anti-dumping and laws to combat unfair 
     trade practices.
       Immigration: While Bush is strongly opposed to illegal 
     immigration, he has said more should be done to welcome legal 
     immigrants. He supports expanding temporary agricultural 
     workers program and increasing the number of high-tech worker 
     visas. He favors a six-month standard for processing 
     immigration application and would encourage family 
     reunification. He has said he would support legislation to 
     divide the immigration and Naturalization Service into 
     separate agencies for naturalization and for enforcement. He 
     has also pledged that ``with expanded patrols, we can make 
     our borders something more than lines on a map.'' Wants to 
     hire more agents and focus a reformed INS ``on the job of 
     defending our border.''
       Drugs: Bush has said that the United States is the market 
     that sustains the narcotics trade and has pledged to improve 
     interdiction. His ``Southwest Border initiative'' would 
     provide 5 million dollars annually to reimburse border 
     counties for prosecuting federal drug cases and would appoint 
     a coordinator responsible for working with federal and local 
     agencies.

                                  ____
                                  

                 [From the New York Times, May 6, 2001]

                 New Challenge to the Bogota Leadership


     Poor Region's Governors Unite to Oppose Drug Plan and Seek Aid

                            (By Juan Forero)

       Ibague, Colombia--Normally, Guillermo Jaramillo, governor 
     of a poor and debt-ridden province, could expect to be 
     ignored by Colombia's highly centralized government in far 
     off Bogota.
       It has been this way since colonial times, with the 
     capital, high in the Andes, dictating policies as it sees 
     fit, often regardless of the wishes of local officials.
       But these days, Mr. Jaramillo and five like-minded 
     governors--all from southern provinces mired in civil 
     conflict and where most of the country's illicit drug crops 
     are grown--have not only attracted the attention of Bogota 
     but also angered entrenched politicians who frown on insolent 
     regional leaders.
       The reason is that the governors, all of whom won office 
     last October, have organized into a formidable political bloc 
     that has harshly criticized the central government for 
     everything from the handling of finances to the drug war.
       That has embarrassed officials in Bogota and highlighted 
     the lack of support in rural Colombia for an American-
     financed program that largely relies on aerial defoliation to 
     stamp out drug production.
       Indeed, the governors have gone as far as Europe and 
     Washington to criticize the program, which has destroyed coca 
     fields across southern Colombia but displaced and alienated 
     farmers.
       The governors instead propose their own voluntary 
     eradication program of coca and heroin poppy fields, and have 
     sought out foreign governments for financing and technical 
     expertise.
       Most troubling to Bogota, some of the governors have 
     expressed the desire to hold their own talks with 
     insurgencies that have been at war for years, leftist rebels 
     and right-wing paramilitaries. Some in Bogota, however, see 
     such a proposal as nothing short of treason, since peace 
     negotiations are held under the sole mandate of President 
     Andres Pastrana.
       ``This is a threat against the Constitution and against the 
     peace process,'' said Robert Camacho, a Bogota congressman.
       Some Colombia experts say that the governors' efforts, 
     while understandable in a

[[Page E1505]]

     country whose rural regions have long been forgotten, could 
     prove damaging to the country as a whole.
       The governors' movement, called the southern bloc, has 
     stirred enough concern that new life has been injected into 
     proposed congressional legislation that would sanction local 
     officials who are seen as meddling in the peace process. The 
     bill was first proposed last fall, before the governors took 
     office.
       ``These governors are popularly elected, and they are 
     realizing a program contrary to their duties: dividing the 
     state,'' said Fernando Giraldo, dean of the political science 
     department at the Javeriana University in Bogota.
       Because of the southern bloc, said Mr. Giraldo, Colombia is 
     ``before the international community displaying a fragmented 
     voice, the president on
       In interviews, the governors said their goal is not to 
     destabilize. Rather, they said, the aim is simply to draw 
     attention to their region's problems and to obtain resources 
     for regional public projects and agricultural development 
     programs seen as alternatives to defoliation.
       If the aid comes from Bogota, so be it, the governors say; 
     but they say they will continue to appeal to foreign 
     governments, too. The southern bloc's proposals are still in 
     the planning stages, and little financial support has gone 
     their way.
       ``What we want for the regions, for the provinces as well 
     as the towns, is the possibility to express ourselves,'' said 
     Mr. Jaramillo, speaking in his office overlooking a public 
     square here in Ibague, the capital of the province of Tolima. 
     ``That is why we've gone out to explain our ideas, and 
     present what we think is a bit different from the national 
     government's concepts.''
       The governors said that they supported Mr. Pastrana's peace 
     efforts and respected his authority when it came to 
     negotiating, but they said they wanted the particular 
     concerns of their provinces to be aired by local officials in 
     those talks with the insurgencies.
       The governors and other provincial officials also hinted, 
     as many local officials in Colombia do, that the government 
     should open dialogue with paramilitary groups, something Mr. 
     Pastrana's government has refused. Recently, in fact, Mr. 
     Jaramillo met with the paramilitary leader, Carlos Castano, 
     and also paid a visit to the rebels.
       ``What we've said is we cannot sign a peace pact, but we 
     can do a peace process,'' said Floro Tunubala, the governor 
     of Cauca. ``And to do a peace process means talking.''
       The southern bloc is a mixture of traditionalists and 
     upstarts. They include Parmenio Cuellar of Narino, a former 
     senator and minister of justice, and Mr. Jaramillo, a 
     pediatric heart surgeon who has operated on 1,200 children.
       ``This is something that can jeopardize the country's well-
     being,'' added Mr. Camacho, who in recent speech said the 
     governor's bloc is akin to a secessionist movement. ``It is 
     about war and peace and too delicate for them to do what they 
     want.''
       The group also has the most unlikely governor in Colombia, 
     Mr. Tunubala a Guambiano Indian who won office in a province 
     well known for discrimination and social inequality. Mr. 
     Tunubala's political movement--composed of Indians, union 
     leaders, poor farmers, intellectuals and others outside the 
     province's circle of power--has already angered some people 
     in Cauca and prompted death threats.
       The other governors, longtime local politicians, are from 
     Huila and the two provinces where most of Colombia's coca 
     grows, Putumayo and Caqueta.
       The governors acknowledge that local officials have more 
     control since the country's 1991 Constitution gave regional 
     leaders more decisionmaking powers and resources.
       But revenue is still raised by the central government. The 
     six provinces, the size of Kansas and with a combined 
     population of six million, also remain desperately poor and 
     rural in a largely urban country.
       The region also contains three-quarters of the country's 
     coca crops and nearly all the poppy fields, employing 335,000 
     people in all.
       The very fact that an alliance exists is ``essentially a 
     cry for help, a collective petition for the government to do 
     something,'' said Larry Birns, a Colombia expert and director 
     of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs in Washington. ``These 
     are governors that, because they come from peripheral states, 
     have been neglected.''
       The issue that most unities the governors is their 
     opposition to defoliation, which they warn alienates their 
     constituents without resolving the problems, that lead 
     farmers to cultivate illegal crops.
       Juan de Jesus Cardenas, governor of Huila, said regional 
     leaders across the south believed that defoliation would 
     simply drive farmers to cultivate coca and poppies in other 
     regions.
       ``That is what has happened with defoliation of Putumayo, 
     with the movement of displaced people into Narino,'' said the 
     governor, whose province serves as a corridor for drugs and 
     rebels.
       The governors want to replace illicit crops by prodding 
     farmers to eradicate in exchange for subsidies and markets 
     for their products. The Colombian government, with American 
     money and expertise, is running such a program, but the 
     governors said they were working to tailor their own programs 
     to meet the needs of farmers in their provinces.
       ``We need gradual eradication,'' said Mr. Tunubala. ``We 
     need to put in new crops, and we need to look for markets 
     nationally and internationally.''
       That was the reason for Mr. Jaramillo's recent trip to a 
     mountainous rebel-controlled region in southern Tolima. 
     There, Mr. Jaramillo meet with farmers to urge them to 
     participate in the eradication program financed by the 
     Americans. It was not easy. Most had felt ignored by a 
     central government they view as inept and unresponsive.
       Several farmers, after meeting with Mr. Jaramillo, said 
     they would not have agreed to meet with or participate had it 
     not been for the governor, whom they view as independent from 
     Bogota. Leftist rebels who showed up uninvited--and had the 
     power to quash any government plan in the region--allowed 
     farmers to move forward in part because of Mr. Jaramillo's 
     involvement.
       ``He from these lands,'' said one farmer, Ramiro Perez, 38 
     standing on a steep mountain where he grows poppies. ``We've 
     seen him here. He has worked hard to get here. Maybe that 
     means good news.''

                                  ____
                                  

               [From the Berkshire Eagle, Sept. 2, 2000]

                        Some American Struggles

                            (By Mark Miller)

       Pittsfield--This week, the president of the United States 
     spent part of a day in Cartagena, Colombia, talking about the 
     drug trade and democracy. The president of Peru announced a 
     new trial for an American serving a life sentence as a 
     convicted terrorist. Venezuela's politics were eclipsed by 
     reports of lawsuits over defective Firestone tires there. 
     Nicaragua continue to be absent from our news while, as 
     usual, we Americans could walk into a discount store and get 
     bargains on back-to-school clothes stitched in Nicaragua.


                  washington report on the hemisphere

       Washington Report on the Hemisphere is a biweekly 
     newsletter from the Council on Hemispheric Affairs that keeps 
     a sharp eye on the rest of the Americas outside the United 
     States. The Aug. 7 and 16 issues (COHA is no slave to the 
     calendar) both lead off with updates on the exploits of Hugo 
     Chavez, Venezuela's immensely popular though unconventional 
     president. I'd forgotten he had engineered the renaming of 
     his nation the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, after Simon 
     Bolivar, the Venezuelan leader in early 19th-century South 
     American struggles for independence from Spain.
       Chavez ``made a healthy start on his campaign promise to 
     weed out the systematic corruption infesting the ranks of the 
     bureaucracy, by sacking hundreds of judges from all layers of 
     the country's notorious judiciary that was plagued by 
     unabated nepotism and inefficiency. His next move was to 
     bring about some badly needed new management to this state 
     oil company (Petroleos de Venezuela) that, as stated in the 
     new constitution, will forever be insulated from 
     privatization.''
       Business investors are unenthusiastic about Chavez. Note is 
     made (crediting an Economist Intelligence Unit report) of 
     ``the rapid rate at which foreign firms are packing up and 
     leaving over concerns of an increasingly hostile business 
     climate. Historically, foreign investment has been an 
     Achilles heel for Venezuela, averaging a mere 2 percent of 
     its [gross domestic product] over the past decade.''
       Chavez has visited Cuba five times since 1998, recently 
     praising Fidel Castro's ``visionary work,'' and has been 
     cultivating leaders in ``oil-exporting hubs including Libya, 
     Iraq and Iran in an effort to convince these OPEC nations to 
     sustain the high price of gasoline . . '' Chavez has been 
     criticized within his own country for his bold moves to 
     freely associate himself with rogue nations, thereby going 
     out of his way to damage relations with the U.S., which 
     remains the largest importer of Venezuelan oil.''

                                  ____
                                  

                [From the New York Times, Dec. 18, 2000]

             Latin America Is Priority on Bush Trade Agenda

                          (By Anthony DePalma)

       He may not be comfortable discussing unrest in East Timor, 
     or pronouncing the name of the leaders of Turkmenistan, but 
     President-elect George W. Bush considers the rest of the 
     Western Hemisphere ``our backyard'' and will have several 
     opportunities in his first year in office to make Latin 
     America a trade and foreign policy priority.
       During the campaign, Mr. Bush said he would kickstart the 
     stalled process of getting a free trade agreement of the 
     Americas signed by 2005. The agreement would build on the 
     North American Free Trade Agreement, which went into effect 
     in 1994, and would unite 34 of the countries in North, 
     Central and South America into what President Clinton once 
     said would be `the world's largest market.'
       The first order of business would be a bruising battle in a 
     divided Congress over fast-track authority, the legislative 
     tool that Mr. Bush will need to negotiate a comprehensive 
     trade deal. Under fast track, trade deals are brought to 
     Congress for approval only when complete. Congress then votes 
     on the agreement without having the chance to add amendments 
     that suit the needs and wishes of individual members.

[[Page E1506]]

       ``I'd expect that within the first 100 days in office he'll 
     propose approval of fast-track authority,'' said Sidney 
     Weintraub, an economist at the Center for Strategic and 
     International Studies and a former deputy assistant secretary 
     of state for international finance and development.
       Even though Republicans narrowly control the House of 
     Representatives, Mr. Bush will need to reach across the aisle 
     to Democrats for help in getting fast-track authority 
     approved. Mr. Weintraub expects that the need for bipartisan 
     cooperation will provide Democrats an opportunity to attach 
     environment and labor standards to the bill, although Mr. 
     Bush has made it clear that he does not support such 
     standards if they are too rigidly drawn.
       In negotiating a trade deal, Mr. Bush would also have to 
     heed strongly voiced opposition to such side agreements from 
     some Latin American nations, led by Brazil, that fear that 
     labor and environmental standards attached to a trade deal 
     could be used as protectionist shields by American businesses 
     that feel threatened by Latin American competition.
       In a campaign speech in Miami in August, Mr. Bush said the 
     Clinton administration dropped the ball on Latin America 
     after losing the legislative battle to win fast-track 
     authority. In the speech, he said that by the time the third 
     Summit of the Americas meets, a fast-track bill will already 
     have been introduced in Congress.
       `When the next president sits at the Americas Summit in 
     Quebec next April, other nations must know that fast-track 
     authority is on the way,' he said during the campaign.
       Although Mr. Bush criticized President Clinton for stalling 
     the drive for a free trade agreement of the Americas, the 
     process has actually been chugging along, though largely out 
     of sight. Negotiating teams have continued to work on 
     technical details, and when trade officials gather in Quebec, 
     a substantial framework for the trade negotiations leading to 
     a 2005 deal will be in place.
       `The 2005 date was set at the first Americas Summit in 
     Miami in 1994 and reconfirmed at the second in Santiago.' 
     said Richard E. Feinberg, a former senior director of the 
     National Security Council's Office of Inter-American Affairs 
     under President Clinton and now a professor at the graduate 
     school of international relations at the University of 
     California in San Diego. ``All the major players remain 
     committed to the 2005 date.''
       During the campaign, Mr. Bush talked
       As governor of a border state, Mr. Bush has had a front-row 
     seat on the expansion of international trade, and the effect 
     on Texas has been substantial. According to a recent study by 
     the Council of the Americas, Texas exports to Mexico have 
     more than doubled since Nafta came into force in 1994.
       Mr. Bush will not have to worry about union opposition to 
     new international trade deals as much as Vice President Al 
     Gore would have, but there is a segment of the Republican 
     Party that has become increasingly protectionist and could 
     complicate any trade deal. That could force Mr. Bush to take 
     a page from Mr. Clinton's playbook and cast increased trade 
     in political and strategic terms, as Mr. Clinton did in 
     winning a trade vote on China.
       Mr. Bush had promised to meet with Mexico's president, 
     Vicente Fox Quesada, even before Mr. Fox was inaugurated on 
     Dec. 1, a signal that the administrations of both countries, 
     starting at roughly the same time, would work in tandem to 
     resolve common problems like illegal immigration, illicit 
     drugs and environmental pollution. Because of the 
     extraordinary delays in the American election, the meeting 
     never took place, but Mr. Bush sent a congratulatory message 
     to Mr. Fox on the day of his inauguration.
       Mr. Fox has already taken a preemptive lead on some of 
     these areas. During the summer he visited Mr. Clinton and 
     both presidential candidates, and talked freely about his 
     ideas for deepening Nafta and taking measures to reduce 
     barriers that prevent Mexican workers from entering the 
     United States to find work.
       Mr. Fox's ideas were not warmly embraced by either 
     Democrats or Republicans, and a close relationship with him 
     and Mexico could put Mr. Bush into a difficult position with 
     members of his own party.
       ``He will, as he said, have a `special relationship' with 
     Mexico, but the question now is what kind of relationship 
     will it be,'' said Larry Birns, director of the Council on 
     Hemispheric Affairs in Washington, who supported Mr. Gore. 
     ``Here is where a Bush presidency might run into real 
     trouble.''

                                  ____
                                  

                 [From the Miami Herald, May 30, 2001]

                         Giving Haiti a Chance

                   (By Larry Birns and Sarah Townes)

       Haiti's seemingly eternal malaise is, if anything, 
     worsening as a result of disruptive local politics, shrill 
     rhetoric and the near elimination of overseas assistance.
       Even though President Jean-Bertrand Aristide (who last 
     November again won the presidency by a huge margin) agreed to 
     a number of mischievous conditions for U.S. aid to resume, 
     Washington has given no indication that it would be 
     forthcoming. The U.S. campaign of economic asphyxiation and 
     political isolation is not only unseemly, but also gravely 
     damaging to U.S. interests.
       If this policy continues unaltered, it could bring added 
     turmoil to the island, inevitably followed by renewed efforts 
     of desperate Haitians willing to risk the dangerous 800-mile 
     voyage to Florida.
       Such an exodus would greatly embarrass the Bush White 
     House, just as it did the Clinton administration, 
     particularly as the interdiction pact has now lapsed.
       The ``Democratic Convergence,'' a 15-party coalition of 
     mainly micro-factions that vehemently reject Aristide's 
     legitimacy based on charges of electoral fraud in last May's 
     senatorial balloting, has named Gerard Gourgue ``Provisional 
     President.'' This is bringing chaos closer. Gourgue called 
     for the return of the commanders of Haiti's repressive armed 
     forces, expelled by the U.S. military in 1994.
       Despite its modest popular standing, the convergence 
     effectively has been awarded a crippling de facto veto by 
     Sen. Jesse Helms, Aristide's relentless avenger, with U.S. 
     policymakers also insisting that it is the democratic 
     alternative.
       The convergence is the main obstacle to negotiations and 
     the resumption of aid. Aristide first met with its leaders in 
     February to discuss possible solutions to the stalemate. 
     Regrettably, his offer to include some convergence leaders in 
     his government and appoint a new impartial electoral body 
     were peremptorily rejected. Aristide's call for initiating a 
     dialogue also was rejected by the convergence, though he has 
     offered to move up the next round of legislative elections.
       The State Department and National Security Council always 
     have viewed Aristide as a liability rather than as the 
     island's principal political asset. Allegations against him 
     routinely understate his wide support. Aristide towers over 
     potential alternatives and has worked hard to cooperate with 
     Washington's often arrogant demands.
       In December, the Clinton administration agreed to restore 
     aid once the Haitian leader adopted eight conditions that 
     addressed electoral and economic reforms along with narcotics 
     smuggling, illegal migration and human-rights violations. 
     Later, Aristide agreed to all of them.
       After several requests by Haiti for help in addressing the 
     election issue, the Organization of American States belatedly 
     decided to dispatch a delegation to discuss election reforms. 
     Since Washington largely determines OAS Haiti policy, its 
     initiative's bona fides will require scrutiny.


                             LITTLE SUPPORT

       There is a danger here, which comes far less from the fact 
     that relatively few Haitians have any respect for the 
     opposition coalition. Any outside imposed government and 
     revitalized military, as hinted by Gourgue, could destroy the 
     country's fragile human-rights situation, its enfeebled 
     judicial system and its lame democratization process.
       The Bush administration would do well to honor the 
     commitments made by President Clinton.
       Failing to display some basic amity to Haiti's population 
     will only add more yellowed pages to the profoundly jaundiced 
     and mean-spirited links to Port-au-Prince, which historically 
     have been characterized by condescension rather than respect.

                                  ____
                                  

      [From the Columbia, Missouri, Tribune Online, July 8, 2000]

         Citizens of Peru Left To Fight for Nation's Democracy

       Editor, the Tribune: Scores of women, clad in black and 
     carrying coffins symbolizing the death of democracy in Peru, 
     Marched through the streets of Lima on June 28m demanding new 
     balloting in protest of President Alberto Fujimon's scandal-
     ridden re-election. As the march headed toward the hotel 
     hosting the Organization of American States delegation, the 
     women faced a barrage of tear gas from the security forces. 
     The OAS, much like the United States, has been largely 
     ineffective in trying to promote democracy in what has become 
     Fujimon country. Like a couple of ill-whelped dogs, the OAS 
     and the United States have skulked away from the indignant 
     attitude of ``El Chino'' and left the Peruvian people to be 
     the sole defenders of the nation's democracy.
       Even with the recent OAS proposal to reform the system, 
     there are no guarantees that the government will follow the 
     guidelines. In fact, Fujimori has amply shown that he has 
     nothing but contempt for both OAS secretary-general Cesar 
     Gaviria and the Clinton administration, but as the police 
     attack on the women's march reveals--and as Bastille Day 
     approaches--he does indeed have good grounds to fear the 
     citizenry who will no longer tolerate his false claims to 
     power. Where else can change begin but at home? Hopefully, 
     the recent mass demonstrations will spark positive change 
     toward democratic reforms even if a feckless OAS is unable to 
     mandate new elections.


[[Page E1507]]



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