by the El Reportero’s news services
Hugo Chávez
Caracas, Aug 30 (Prensa Latina) The coup in Honduras was a test for a military escalation, which is continuously increased and boosted, with the new US military bases in Colombia, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned on Sunday.
Chavez expressed concern about the situation, which could start to cool off internationally and the pressure on the putschists could ease up, and he called on the international community to continue doing their best so that the Honduran people can retake their democratic path.
In his Sunday column, entitled “Chavez’ Lines”, he insisted that the coup was staged in open complicity with the US military base in Palmerola, where the plane that took President Manuel Zelaya away from Honduras landed.
“These have been two months of lessons: first, the openly interventionist power of important US sectors that are striving to change the people’s fate and secondly, the powerlessness of international bodies to enforce their own decisions,” said Chavez.
According to him, it is a terrible sign to the rest of the continent, “which may start to see that dishonor and injustice have become its daily bread.”
He said that to speak about an imminent threat to the entire region, mainly to neighbors in Colombia, is no overstatement. “We all risk a military intervention if we do not dance to the tune of the empire.”
Columbia squares up for Unasur showdown
The presidents from the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) held an extraordinary, and brief, summit in Bariloche, Argentina on Aug. 28, to discuss the proposed U.S.-Colombia deal allowing the U.S. enhanced access to military bases in Colombia.
The summit, which opens at 10 a.m. and ends with an offi cial photo and lunch at 13.30, will be a major test of Brazil’s dip lomatic clout and regional authority.
Despite Brazil’s steady efforts to engineer an agreement, the summit looks on course for at least a row, if not failure. What Brazil wants is for the newly created Unasur, or its defense council (composed of the region’s defense ministers), to vet, or monitor, all foreign military alliances entered into by Unasur members.
250 Mexicans killed trying to emigrate to U.S.A.
At least 250 Mexicans have died while trying to cross the border with the United States in the first seven months of 2009, according to Foreign Department figures revealed on Sunday.
Most deaths have taken place in Arizona, with dehydration as the main cause in people from 18 to 45 years of age.
A slight downward trend in the number of deaths has been experienced since 2005 in the mentioned area, where 443 cases were reported that year and 344 were registered in 2008, the Foreign Department said.
At least 500,000 Mexicans try to cross the border every year and die where the US authorities are building the long “wall of shame,” Many of them die in the desert or are killed by the organized crime, according to experts.
Fidel Castro looking good at 83
Fidel Castro just celebrated his 83rd birthday, as Hugo Chavez made a surprise visit for the occasion of Fidel’s birthday. No major events were held in Cuba to commemorate Fidel Castro’s birthday but he published a column in Granma about the global economic crisis that is hitting the country, vowing to “carry on.” Western corporate media strangely decided to announce a picture of a “healthy looking” Fidel Castro during his recent meeting with the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa Delgado.
At that visit, an extensive dialogue took place on economic matters, education and health. The two presidents also discussed international affairs, spoke of cultural and historical topics and the continued close friendship between both countries.
