O U R   A M E R I C A

• U.S. prepared to do anything to prevent change
September.15.08
FOR those who still had doubts, I think that they must have been dissipated. United States imperialism, represented on this occasion by the fundamentalist Republican administration of George W. Bush, is prepared to do anything to avoid the development of national-liberation processes taking place with increasingly greater strength in Latin America and the Caribbean.

• Fidel warns that it would be a disaster if Chávez was assassinated
September.15.08
CARACAS.—The assassination of President Hugo Chávez would be a disaster for the homeland of Simón Bolívar, warned Cuban leader Fidel Castro in a letter read out on television by the Venezuelan president on Sunday, September 14.

• U.S. ambassador expelled from Venezuela
September.12.08
CARACAS, September 11.—Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has ordered the U.S. ambassador in Caracas, Patrick Duddy, to leave the country within 72 hours, a measure that was adopted in solidarity with Bolivia, and at the same time informed Washington of Venezuela’s decision to cut off supplies of crude oil to that nation, the AFP reported.

• Evo orders expulsion of U.S. ambassador to Washington
September.11.08
LA PAZ, September 10.—Bolivian President Evo Morales stated on Wednesday that he had ordered the expulsion of Phillip Goldberg, the U.S. ambassador, whom he accused of backing conservative opinion and seeking division in the country, Reuters report. “The person conspiring against democracy and, above all, seeking to divide Bolivia is the U.S. ambassador,” affirmed Morales in a meeting at the Government Palace, in which he strongly condemned the wave of violence, including attacks on gas pipelines, unleashed by the opposition in various regions.

• Tragedy in Haiti following passage of Hanna
September.4.08
PORT-AU-PRINCE, September 3. — At least 38 people have died in several towns in Haiti that were flooded after Tropical Storm Hanna passed over the country, reported AFP.

• Lage highlights internationalist spirit of Cuban cooperation personnel
August 27.08
TECUCIGALPA.—After bilateral talks with Honduran President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage Dávila met with a representation of the 394 Cuban cooperative personnel working in that Central American country.

• “We don’t have to ask imperialism for permission”
August 26.08
TEGUCIGALPA.—“Honduras has inherited sufficient independence and sovereignty from our national heroes, as well as the daily efforts of many decades, to be able to say to the whole world that we are not asking for permission from imperialism to join the ALBA (Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas), out of patriotic and pro-Latin American sentiments. We are doing so armed with ideas of liberty.”

• Chávez acknowledges Cuban cooperation
August 25.08
CARACAS, Venezuela.—Since its creation five years ago on April 16, 2003, the Mission Barrio Adentro 1 has offered a total of 308 million medical consultations, of which 136,000 were given on the ground, in the barrios and communities.

• Chávez announces socialist development project
August 22.08
CARACAS, August 21.—Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has announced the Orinoco Socialist Development Project, the central objective of which is to give integral impetus to the area in which Venezuela’s oil reserves are located – on the banks of this river – the ABN agency reports.

• More Bolivian cities free of illiteracy
August 20.08
THE National Literacy Program is to declare the Bolivian city of La Paz free of illiteracy within the next few weeks. Javier Labrada, Cuban coordinator of the project, said that 9,000 students currently attending classes in La Paz have yet to graduate, according to the Cuban Foreign Ministry’s web site.

• Evo ratified
August 11.08
LA PAZ, August 10.— President Evo Morales of Bolivia was ratified in the recall referendum held on Sunday in Bolivia with more than 60% of votes in his favor, according to exit polls by various news agencies and survey takers. Meanwhile, Morales said that the referendum was a popular success, and he praised citizens’ conduct. Speaking at a trade union hall in the central...

• Evo: Bolivia is no longer a beggar state
August 7.08
LA PAZ, August 6.—Bolivian president Evo Morales today highlighted the changes that his government has been promoting since January 2006, a result of the historical struggle for justice and social equality, PL reported.

• Chávez: empire desperate over recall referendum in Bolivia
August 6.08
BUENOS AIRES, August 5.— According to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, just a few days before the democratic referendum in Bolivia, it would appear that the empire is desperate. He went on to describe the violent course of events in that South American nation as “painful,” placing responsibility for the violence on the oligarchy and the fifth column, both of which are serving Washington’s interests.

• Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil
New steps toward South American integration
August 5.08
BUENOS AIRES, August 4.—The presidents of Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela: Cristina Fernández, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva and Hugo Chávez , respectively, had a brief trilateral meeting in Buenos Aires today, which contributed to confirming regional energy projects as well as the political alliance among these leaders. During the meeting in the Argentine Foreign Ministry, Chávez reintroduced the proposal of the South gas pipeline linking Caracas and Buenos Aires and passing through Brazil, ANSA reported The Venezuelan leader also called for endowing regional integration with content, with tangible projects.

• Media invents Russian military bases in Venezuela
August 1.08
"CHAVEZ offers Russia site for military base in Venezuela," read the headline of Venezuela’s El Nacional daily. And inside the paper, a report confirmed:

• THE RECALL REFERENDUM IN BOLIVIA
A boomerang for the opposition
August 1.08
THE countdown has begun for the recall referendum to which the president and vice president of Bolivia and the country’s departmental governors are voluntarily submitting, as the result of a maneuver in which political and economic right-wing forces attempted to corner Evo Morales.

• PARAGUAY
Food crisis places 270,000 more people in extreme poverty
August 1.08
RISING food prices forced another 270,000 people into the category of extreme poverty last year, despite the highest rates of growth registered in recent years, according to a report released in Asuncion, Paraguay, by the campaign "Invest in the People of the United Nations (UN)."

• Intellectuals of the world affirm support for Bolivian process
July 30.08
LA PAZ, July 29.—National and foreign academics have ratified their support for the process of change taking place in Bolivia by signing today the La Paz Declaration at the Meeting of Intellectuals and Artists in defense of this Andean nation, reported PL.

• Chávez congratulates Cuba on the 26th of July
July 28.08
CARACAS, July 27.—Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez today sent congratulations to the Cuban people on the 55th anniversary of the assault on the Moncada Garrison.
-  Letter to Fidel from Chávez

• Only unity and integration will lead to victory
July 21.08
MANAGUA.— Only unity, peace and integration of the peoples will lead to victory in the face of the complex and difficult situation affecting the entire world, said Esteban Lazo, vice president of the Council of State, during a commemoration of the 29th anniversary of the Sandinista People’s Revolution on July 19

• Historic meeting this Friday between Morales, Lula and Chávez
July 17.08
LA PAZ.— Juan Ramón Quintana, the Bolivian presidential minister, has described as historic this Friday’s meeting of the Presidents of Bolivia, Evo Morales; Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva; and Venezuela, Hugo Chávez.

• 10oth anniversary of Allende’s birth celebrated in Cuba
July 16.08
ONE hundred years after the birth of Salvador Allende, his example extends across Latin America, said Fernando Remírez de Estenoz, head of the Central Committee’s Department of Foreign Relations, highlighting the relevance of the deceased Chilean leader’s thinking during a ceremony this Tuesday in Havana’s Astral Theater...

• In Ecuador, Chávez calls for Latin American unity
July 14.08
MANTA, Ecuador.— Shortly after his arrival in this city in western Ecuador, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez made a call for unity among Latin American nations in order to construct the greater homeland, reported PL. The Venezuelan leader stated that in this world of imperialism, neocolonialism, U.S. and capitalist hegemony, we have to achieve unity in order to construct our nations, with a 21^st century socialism. “We have to advance towards the political, economic, cultural and technological liberation of countries.”

• PETROCARIBE must become a shield against crisis and hunger
July 14.08
MARACAIBO, Venezuela.— Cuba and Venezuela put their Energy Revolution experience at the disposal of PETROCARIBE member nations, so that they can move ahead in the development of efficiency measures and policies, contributing to conservation and the rational use of energy resources.

• Transparency in Bolivian referendum guaranteed
July 14.08
LA PAZ, July 13.—The Bolivian National Electoral Court (CNE) today vouchsafed the transparency of the presidential recall referendum scheduled for August 10, and highlighted the work of the departmental agencies involved.

• Chávez calls Europe’s immigrant deportation law outrageous
July 1.08
TUCUMÁN, Argentina, June 30.–– President Hugo Chávez of Venezuelan said the so-called Returns Directive law passed recently by the European Union is “outrageous,” in comments after arriving in the northern Argentine province of Tucumán to attend the Mercosur Summit, the AFP reported. 

• Evo Morales supports expulsion of interventionist U.S. agency from Bolivia
June 27.08
LA PAZ – Bolivian President Evo Morales has expressed his support for the decision by coca growers in the Chapare region of Cochabamba to expel the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and reaffirmed that he would not "kneel down before the empire."

• More than 25,000 Operation Miracle surgeries in Nicaragua
June 24.08
MANAGUA, June 23.— Cuba’s Operation Miracle specialists today surpassed the 25,000 mark in surgeries performed on Nicaraguan patients with vision problems, according to statistical reports.

• Venezuela asks U.S. to arrest Posada Carriles
June 4.08
MEDELLIN, Colombia, June 3.— Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro today demanded once again that the United States "arrest the fugitive Luis Posada Carriles," the international terrorist accused of blowing up a Cuban airliner in 1976, killing all 73 people on board.
- Posada Carriles

• Bolivia nationalizes hydrocarbon transport company
June 3.08
LA PAZ, June 2.–– The Bolivian government today nationalized the TR-Holdings company, which owns 50% of the stocks of the Transporte de Hidrocarburos Sociedad Anónima (Transredes) company, consolidating the process begun on May 1, 2006, the ABI news agency reported.

• United Socialist Party of Venezuela selects candidates for local elections
June 2.08
CARACAS.—Real democracy is that which comes from the people, affirmed Hugo Chávez, Bolivarian leader and president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), on evaluating the grassroots elections held to select the party’s candidates for upcoming November elections for governors and mayors.

• Che statue tours the Argentine capital
May 28.08
BUENOS AIRES – With cries of "Warning, warning, Che Guevara is walking the streets of Argentina," a group of demonstrators on Tuesday carried a statue of Ernesto Che Guevara around the city to the Obelisk.

• Venezuelan foreign minister arriving in Cuba today
May 27.08
NICOLAS Maduro Moros, Venezuelan People’s Power minister of foreign affairs is to arrive in Cuba today, responding to an official invitation.

• Bolivia calls for legal action against perpetrators of violence in Sucre
May 26.08
LA PAZ, May 25.— The Bolivian government called for action today on the part of the legal authorities or, in their absence, by international human rights organizations, given the violence unleashed yesterday in Sucre, the constitutional capital of the country, reported PL.

• Cuba calls on Europe to make greater commitment to poor countries
May 16.08
LIMA.— Cuban First Vice President José Ramón Machado Ventura has called on Europe to support concrete initiatives to address the misery currently suffered by Third World countries.

• BOLIVIA
Drawing the wrong conclusion
May 15.08
IN a commentary prior to this May 4, we stated that the separatist oligarchy in the department of Santa Cruz could only win the illegal and unconstitutional referendum by using fraud and violence. We were not mistaken.

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