by the El Reportero’s news services
Laura Chinchilla
Six Nicaraguan banana workers who Dole Food Co. attorneys have accused of fraud will get a chance to explain their position on Tuesday when their attorneys speak before a California judge at a hearing.
The men, who claimed in the lawsuit that exposure to pesticides made them sterile, received $2.3 million after a 2007 jury verdict. But the judge in the case is considering reversing the award.
Attorneys for Dole on Monday suggested that the men were part of a ‘’fraud army’’ coached in their testimony by an American and Nicaraguan lawyer with a plan to extort billions from the giant food company in multiple lawsuits.
Judge Victoria Chaney, who has been elevated to the state appellate court since she presided over the 2007 trial, has returned to Los Angeles Superior Court to consider dismissing the verdict. The case is closely related to one that Chaney dismissed last summer on grounds of fraud.
Chinchilla takes office in Costa Rica
Laura Chinchilla became Costa Rica’s first female president on Saturday, taking the oath of office in an open-air public ceremony with thousands of supporters cheering her on.
The new president swore to uphold Costa Rica’s constitution and accepted the presidential sash that moments before had been worn by Oscar Arias, the twice elected president who won the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize for helping 5end civil wars in Central America.
The 51-year-old Arias protegee became president after winning the February 7 presidential election representing the centre-left National Liberation Party (PLN).
She is the third female president in Central America, after Violeta Chamorro of Nicaragua and Mireya Moscoso of Panama.
No Unasur-Obama meeting until members firm up a consensus
As the leaders of Unasur open their summit in Buenos Aires on May 4, there is one item they know will be absent from their agenda: an agreed schedule for their long-awaited meeting with U.S. president Barack Obama (and, consequently, a tentative date for that meeting).
It does seem clear that the US government wanted to wait and see what emerged from the summit before committing itself, particularly since Unasur has said that what it wants is to discuss the regional security implications of the U.S.-Colombia agreement on base facilities. And on this, as on other key matters, Unasur has yet to reach a solid consensus.
Tele-presidents embrace new media in information war
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez, who leads the way in his embrace of new media in Latin America, now has his own account on the social networking site Twitter. He immediately extolled the virtues of Twitter to his Bolivian peer Evo Morales, who he received in his home state of Barinas last week, and invited all revolutionaries to use Twitter for the “ideological battle”. Chávez pioneered a new style of presidential communication, and governance, with his weekly television and radio broadcast Aló, Presidente in 1999, since when other regional heads of state have followed his lead.
How Latin America could set China an example
The world’s biggest economic issue is how to end the undervaluation of the Chinese renminbi against the US dollar without disrupting trade and capital flows. The consquence of the undervaluation is China’s huge (dollar-denominated) trade surplus. At the moment the Chinese authorities recycle this surplus by investing in US government bonds and other securities. Another way of recyling would be to allow foreigners to borrow renminbi.
Cuba reiterated Tuesday that the unilateral making of lists by the US government accusing other countries of supposed support to terrorism is incompatible with the international right and the UN resolutions.
