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Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Venezuela death toll rises to 34 as troops and protesters clash

Venezuela death toll rises to 34 as troops and protesters clash
Sunday March 23rd, 2014 at 7:58 AM

CARACAS (Reuters) - Three Venezuelans died from gunshot wounds during protests against socialist President Nicolas Maduro, witnesses and local media said on Saturday, pushing the death toll from almost two months of anti-government demonstrations to 34.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

BBC News - Puerto Rico seeks citizens' advice on economy | Rusia prueba política exterior de Obama – Metro

BBC News - Puerto Rico seeks citizens' advice on economy
Thursday March 20th, 2014 at 8:00 AM

BBC News - Latin America & Caribbean

19 March 2014 Last updated at 20:09 ET

People line up at an unemployment office of the Labor Department in San Juan March 13, 2014.

Puerto Rico's economy has been shrinking since 2006 and suffers from a dwindling population and high unemployment

The government of Puerto Rico has asked its citizens to send in their ideas on how to revive the economy.

The chief of staff of the Caribbean island, Ingrid Vila, said Puerto Ricans could submit "specific and viable" proposals on a government website.

Ms Vila said she welcomed ideas on how to prevent the exodus of skilled workers and how to tackle the large informal economy, among other issues.

She said more than 450,000 people had left Puerto Rico in the past decade.

The US territory has been in a recession since 2006.

Official figures put the unemployment rate at 15.2%.

Online platform

"We have agreed to open a wider process of public participation, calling on the whole country to submit ideas," Ms Vila told a news conference in the capital, San Juan.

"To achieve this, we have created an online platform that will receive a greater number of proposals," she added.

The government has set up a committee to evaluate any proposal received to "identify and recommend those that best meet the criteria, including feasibility, equality, social justice, sustainability and benefit to the greatest diversity of interests in the country".

Some ideas that were submitted shortly after the website was launched include proposals to build affordable housing and attract foreign investment.

However, there were also calls to scrap a public television channel and to legalise marijuana.

According to official figures, Puerto Rico's labour force participation rate is 41%, compared to 63% in the United States, and the informal economy contributes to about 30% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The self-governing US territory has a population of less than four million.

Read the whole story

· · ·

Rusia prueba política exterior de Obama – Metro
Thursday March 20th, 2014 at 7:53 AM

Metro - Últimas Noticias

WASHINGTON (AP) — Para el presidente Barack Obama, la agresiva anexión de Crimea a Rusia pone a prueba los principios de la filosofía de su política exterior: su convicción en el poder de la diplomacia directa, su preferencia por el uso de sanciones económicas como castigo y su inclinación a proceder con cautela a fin de evitar la creación de mayores problemas a largo plazo.

El asunto que enfrenta la Casa Blanca ahora es si las acciones que han hecho poco para detener a Rusia de anexarse a Crimea son lo suficientemente duras para detener una mayor intensificación por parte de Moscú. Y si continúan siendo insuficientes, ¿qué más está dispuesto Obama a hacer para modificar los cálculos de Vladimir Putin?

La gama de opciones adicionales parece ser limitada. La Casa Blanca señala que no se está sopesando una respuesta militar, y hasta el momento los funcionarios se han negado a aceptar las exhortaciones para que suministre equipo bélico al debilitado gobierno de Ucrania. En cambio, es probable que Estados Unidos se centre en brindar asistencia financiera a Ucrania e intensifique las sanciones económicas contra los funcionarios rusos a quienes la Casa Blanca considera responsables de la crisis.

El portavoz de la Casa Blanca, Jay Carney, prometió el miércoles que "se tomarán más acciones". Indicó que las sanciones financieras podrían ampliarse al sector de armas ruso, a millonarios oligarcas y a otros funcionarios del Kremlin.

Y el vicepresidente Joe Biden, mientras trata de aplacar las preocupaciones en las fronteras de Rusia, dijo en Lituania que Estados Unidos responderá ante cualquier agresión contra un aliado de la OTAN. Declaró: "estamos juntos en esto con ustedes".

Pero hasta el momento, las sanciones impuestas tanto por Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea han hecho poco para detener al presidente ruso Putin.

"Si uno presiona un resorte demasiado fuerte, en algún momento se soltará de regreso", destacó el líder ruso en un fiero discurso el martes. "Siempre tienen que recordar esto".

La crisis de Crimea se ha convertido en un punto crítico de una nueva pugna entre Oriente y Occidente. Rusia envió sus tropas a la península después que el presidente ucraniano Viktor Yanukovich, respaldado por el Kremlin, huyó de la capital Kiev en medio de protestas por su decisión de abandonar los planes para profundizar las relaciones con Europa. El domingo los votantes en Crimea apoyaron mayoritariamente la posición de unirse a Rusia. El miércoles, las fuerzas rusas tomaron las instalaciones militares en toda Crimea.

La Casa Blanca denunció que las maniobras de Moscú constituyen una violación del derecho internacional y no reconoce la anexión de Crimea a Rusia.

Las acciones de Putin han expuesto a Obama a nuevas críticas de los republicanos, que alegan que el presidente en su segundo mandato, ya de por sí debilitado políticamente en su país, ahora se ve endeble en el escenario mundial.

Los senadores republicanos John McCain de Arizona y Lindsey Graham de Carolina del Sur han instado a Obama para que brinde asistencia militar a Ucrania en forma de armas pequeñas y municiones, al igual que asistencia no letal al gobierno de Kiev.

"Occidente debe imponer costos reales a Rusia por su agresión en Ucrania. Pero al no hacerlo, sólo invitamos a una mayor agresión en otros lugares", destacaron los dos senadores en una declaración.

Las naciones europeas, entre ellas la poderosa Alemania, tienen profundos vínculos económicos con Rusia y temen que Putin pueda tomar represalias financieras si la UE intensifica las sanciones. Estados Unidos también depende de Moscú para mantener abiertas las rutas que el Pentágono usa para retirarse de Afganistán, y se apoya en la cooperación de Putin en un acuerdo para despojar a Siria de sus arsenales de armas químicas.

Y quizá aún más apremiante para Obama es el pacto con Rusia sobre las tensas negociaciones internacionales con Irán, con el objeto de poner fin al programa nuclear de la república islámica.

Un alto diplomático ruso dijo el miércoles a la agencia de noticias Interfax que Moscú modificará su posición en las conversaciones nucleares en respuesta a las acciones tomadas por Estados Unidos y Europa.

___

Julie Pace está en Twitter como: <a href="http://twitter.com/jpaceDC" rel="nofollow">http://twitter.com/jpaceDC</a>

An AP News Analysis

Venezuelan Agents Arrest Mayor of Opposition Bastion Town

Venezuelan Agents Arrest Mayor of Opposition Bastion Town
Thursday March 20th, 2014 at 6:02 AM

March 19, 2014 11:58 p.m. ET

The mayor of San Cristóbal, Venezuela, Daniel Ceballos, appeared at a rally on Tuesday. European Pressphoto Agency

CARACAS, Venezuela—Venezuela's secret police arrested the mayor of an opposition bastion on Wednesday as President Nicolás Maduro's administration extended a crackdown on protests that have shaken the oil-rich country for six weeks.

Agents arrested Daniel Ceballos, the mayor of the western city of San Cristóbal, where demonstrations against the government began in early February. The city has become the site of the fiercest showdowns between street protesters and security forces, even as the size of demonstrations decline and show signs of fatigue in other places like the capital, Caracas.

"It's an act of justice against a mayor, who not only stopped complying with his obligations under the law and constitution, but facilitated and helped all the irrational violence in San Cristóbal," Interior Minister Miguel Rodríguez said on state television, announcing the arrest. He said Mr. Ceballos would be charged in court.

Mr. Ceballos "has nothing to hide," his lawyer, Ana Leonor Acosta, said in a statement put out by the mayor's political party, Popular Will. The party condemned the arrest as a "kidnapping." They said he was taken away by several armed officials with their faces covered, on unclear charges, as he was taking part in a meeting at a hotel in Caracas. The party called it an "arbitrary" action and said that it followed a series of arrest orders put out for officials of the political movement.

Analysts say the arrest could inflame the opposition and breathe new life into the protest movement, which has claimed about 30 lives. Rights groups say the majority of the victims have been demonstrators killed at the hands of police and pro-government forces.

But security forces, too, have suffered casualties. On Wednesday, the attorney general's office said it was investigating the death of a 23-year-old National Guardsman, who was shot and killed while breaking up a protest outside of a military university in San Cristóbal.

Mr. Ceballos is the second high-profile opposition politician to be jailed for allegedly inciting the civil unrest gripping the country. Last month, Leopoldo López, another top opposition official, was arrested and remains in a military prison for allegedly inciting the protests. Critics say Mr. Lopez's detention is an attempt by Mr. Maduro's regime to reverse the antigovernment movement.

"What does the government want with the fascist detention of San Cristóbal Mayor Daniel Ceballos, peace or war?" opposition leader Henrique Capriles, said in a message on Twitter. He warned that the decision would intensify the conflict and accused Mr. Maduro of wanting "more confrontation and to promote violence in the whole country."

On Tuesday the National Assembly, dominated by Mr. Maduro's Socialist Party, requested the attorney general's office strip opposition congresswoman María Corina Machado of parliamentary immunity to begin an investigation of her alleged involvement in inciting the recent violence.

Ms. Machado has been among the most vocal critics of the government, calling for Mr. Maduro's immediate exit and pushing for international condemnation of the Venezuelan government's crackdown. On Friday, Ms. Machado is scheduled to speak at the Organization of American States in Washington.

Protests began in the western state of Tachira last month as students voiced frustration with Venezuela's rampant crime problem, but the movement has since grown to address what the opposition says is the government's economic mismanagement, which has resulted in an inflation rate approaching 60% and widespread shortages of food and basic goods.

A parking attendant at the hotel said Mr. Ceballos was whisked away by four to six men in dark clothing.

In the upscale Caracas districts of Altamira and Chacao, news of Mr. Ceballos's arrest sparked an immediate reaction, with residents marching and banging on pots and pans, a comment form of protest in Latin America.

"What is he accused of? Why is he arrested? From what I can tell his only crime is thinking differently from the government," said a resident, Roger Vargas. "If the government keeps tightening the noose, there won't be peace in this country."

Mr. Rodríguez, the interior minister, said Mr. Ceballos' detention would be a step toward restoring calm and normalcy in the country.

"The path to peace is justice," he said.

Some outside observers had a different perspective...

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