by the El Reportero’s news services
Sebastián Piñera
Sebastián Piñera won election in Chile on 17 January, becoming the first right-wing presidential candidate since 1958 to come to power by the ballot box. Piñera defeated Eduardo Frei, of the ruling Concertación, which will see its 20-year stranglehold on power since the return to democracy come to an end when Piñera dons the presidential sash on 11 March. Chile was the only Latin American country not to have experienced a post-dictatorship alternation of government. Piñera’s big challenge will be preserving cohesion in his Coalición por el Cambio. He borrowed a lot of social-democratic rhetoric during his campaign and presented himself as a pragmatic centrist, but the ultra-conservative Unión Demócrata Independiente (UDI) is the senior partner in his coalition.
Bolivia’s Morales sworn in for second term
Today (22 January) Evo Morales will be sworn for a second term as president.
Morales begins his second term with a massive mandate leaving him well placed to achieve his main priority – the implementation of the new constitution which strengthens state control of the economy; enshrines indigenous rights and provides for greater decentralisation.
U.S. accused of ‘occupying’ Haiti as troops flood in
HAVANA: Retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro today called on the United Nations to assume a monitoring role in Haiti, and he decried the US military “occupation” of the quakeravaged Caribbean country.
Castro, in an opinion article published in the local newspapers, said that neither the United Nations nor Washington have given a proper explanation of the US military role in the wretchedly poor nation.
“Amid the Haitian tragedy, with no one knowing how or why, thousands of (US Marines) and paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division and other military forces have occupied Haitian territory. Even worse, neither the United Nations nor the (US government) has offered an explanation… of this movement of forces,” Castro wrote.
Castro, 83, said that the announcement of other countries to send more troops to Haiti will contribute to chaos “and complicate the international cooperation, already a complicated task.”
In other related news: France accused the US of “occupying” Haiti on Monday as thousands of American troops flooded into the country to take charge of aid efforts and security.
The French minister in charge of humanitarian relief called on the UN to “clarify” the American role amid claims the military build up was hampering aid efforts.
Alain Joyandet admitted he had been involved in a scuffle with a US commander in the airport’s control tower over the flight plan for a French evacuation flight.
“This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti,” Mr Joyandet said.
Geneva-based charity Medecins Sans Frontieres backed his calls saying hundreds of lives were being put at risk as planes carrying vital medical supplies were being turned away by American air traffic controllers.
But US commanders insisted their forces’ focus was on humanitarian work and last night agreed to prioritise aid arrivals to the airport over military flights, after the intervention of the UN.
