by the El Reportero’s news services
Barak Obama
On 19 October, the 50th anniversary of the imposition of the US economic embargo on Cuba, President Barack Obama signalled in a White House press conference with Hispanic media that his government is happy to leave US Cuba relations on the back burner for now.
Obama indicated that Cuba, which has recently begun a process that could lead to the release of all the political prisoners on the island and last month announced the biggest shake up of its Communist economy in decades, needed to do more, leaving the ball firmly in Havana’s court. This wait-and-see approach suits Obama right now. US policy towards Cuba is largely dictated by the domestic agenda and with the ruling Democrats heading into congressional elections in which the conservative right-wing faction of the opposition Republican Party is expected to sweep up, now is not the time for politically risky gestures towards the government led by President Raúl Castro. However, the window of opportunity to turn the page on US Cuba relations is closing fast heading into 2011. In all likelihood, the next window will only open in 2012, when Obama (and the Democrats) will be seeking re-election.
Squatter seeks to evict Argentina’s presidential couple from Casa Rosada
He enraged the government of President Cristina Fernández the first time he did it and now he’s at it again. Vice-President Julio Cobos used his position as president of the senate on 14 October to cast the deciding vote in a crucial debate over pensions. Cobos was reviled by the government after performing the same role in July 2008 in a deadlocked vote on agricultural export taxes, which marked the first significant legislative defeat for Fernández or her husband and predecessor Néstor Kirchner in five years. Cobos said he was acting in the national interest, but he had a personal motive: to improve his prospects ahead of next year’s presidential elections. Fernández, who called Cobos a “squatter”, was forced to take the politically unpopular decision of vetoing the law and will need to find another way of courting Argentina’s 5.5m pensioners.
Zetas drug gang founders trained by U.S. Military
The Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas, implicated in a recent massacre of migrant workers, was founded by elite Mexican troops trained by the U.S. military, a former special operations commander told the Qatar-based news network Al Jazeera. Some of the cartel’s founding members were elite Mexican troops trained in the early 1990s by American’s 7th Special Forces Group or “snake eaters” at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, said Craig Deare, the former special forces commander who is now a professor at the U.S. National Defense University, Al Jazeera reported this week.
“They were given map reading courses, communications, standard special forces training, light to heavy weapons, machine guns and automatic weapons,” Deare said.
The Mexican soldiers who received U.S. training and later formed the Zetas came from the Airmobile Special Forces Group (GAFE), considered an elite division of the Mexican military and created in 1994 to fight the Zapatista rebels, Al Jazeera reported.
Guatemala receives Japanese loan
Guatemala received a $120 million loan from Japan to build roads, the Guatemalan president’’s office announced.
The loan was made official at a meeting between Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Friday, during the last day of Colom’s visit to Tokyo.
A press release posted on the Guatemalan government’s website noted the benefit of the new roads, as people will have better access to health services, education and commerce.
The loan will be paid in 25 years, including a seven-year grace period, at an annual interest rate of 1.4 percent.
