World Briefs: The Americas
COLOMBIA
Right-wing group cuts talks,
claiming young people massacred
PUERTO GAITAN --
Leaders of an outlawed right-wing paramilitary group ended
informal peace talks with the Colombian government Friday
after accusing army troops of massacring 12 young, unarmed
paramilitary members.
Also Friday,
hundreds of police swooped into a northern town in a guerrilla
stronghold and arrested 34 rebels, including fighters who blew
up the town hall earlier this year, a senior police official
said.
The army said the 12 paramilitary
members were killed during combat, and journalists who
traveled to the isolated area of eastern Colombia said the
dead were all adult fighters -- not children as the militia
group claimed.
An Associated Press
photographer said the dead looked like they were between 20
and 30 years old.
ARGENTINA
Government to release long-secret files
on bombing of Jewish center
BUENOS AIRES -- Argentina will release
long-secret intelligence files on the 1994 bombing of a Jewish
community center here, the government of President Nestor
Kirchner announced, opening a new chapter in the investigation
of the bloodiest act of anti-Semitism in Latin American
history.
Previous administrations
strongly resisted cooperation between the State Secretariat of
Intelligence and prosecutors investigating the bombing of the
Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, which killed 85
people.
"This
is the most important news of the last nine years of our
effort to find the truth," Abraham Kaul, president of the
association, said at a news conference late Thursday following
a meeting with Kirchner and the new Intelligence secretary,
Sergio Acevedo. "The president is determined to resolve this
case."
VENEZUELA
Lawmakers meet in part to give President
Chavez additional powers
CARACAS -- Meeting in a downtown park
to avoid their rivals, lawmakers loyal to President Hugo
Chavez adopted parliamentary procedures that allow them to
swiftly pass several new laws, including one that would
tighten restrictions on the media.
The
bickering boded more turmoil for Venezuela, a major oil
exporter to the United States convulsed by a brief coup in
2002 and a ruinous general strike earlier this year. It
threatened to further delay efforts in Congress to choose
election officials who would run a possible referendum on
Chavez's presidency.
PUERTO RICO
Caribbean leaders
want more help from United States in AIDS fight
SAN JUAN --
Caribbean leaders are pushing Congress to expand President
Bush's $15 billion AIDS-relief plan to include more nations,
saying broader help is needed to stop the spread of the
epidemic.
While they welcome the aid,
which targets Haiti and Guyana along with 12 African nations,
they liken the approach in the Caribbean to treating only two
organs in a body quickly being ravaged by cancer.
"Whatever happens in one specific
corner of the region will have an impact in other places,"
said Rafael Mazin, acting chief of the HIV/AIDS unit at the
Pan American Health Organization. "To be effective means (HIV)
needs to be prevented and contained in all places."
The Caribbean has the highest infection
rates for HIV outside of sub-Saharan Africa.
-----
Roger
Morton has reported from Argentina, Brazil, Canada and Mexico.
rmorton@sltrib.com
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