<a href=www.newsday.com>NewsDay.com By Reed Lindsay SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

May 18, 2003 Buenos Aires, Argentina - In the 1990s, no Latin American leader more unreservedly embraced the market-oriented policies promoted by the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. government than former Argentine President Carlos Saul Menem. So when Menem bowed out Wednesday from his campaign to win a new presidential term, his departure symbolized the end of an era of unrestrained economic liberalization in Argentina. Following the election of left-leaning presidents in Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuela, it also was the latest sign in South America of the political shift against U.S. policies. Menem's opponent in the election planned for Sunday, Nestor Kirchner, will assume office on May 25. He has vowed to pull Argentina out of one of the worst crises in its history by replacing a "model of economic concentration and financial sectors" with a large-scale public works program, subsidies for small- and medium-sized companies and increased social welfare. "This new model means taking a stronger position towards the IMF, rejecting the idea that the market will solve everything, and consolidating Mercosur," the South American free- trade bloc, said Torcuato Di Tella, a white-haired left-leaning Buenos Aires intellectual who has spoken in favor of Kirchner's candidacy. Kirchner has said he will give priority to relations with Brazil and the rest of Latin America, at the expense of the intimate ties Menem had knit with the United States. Kirchner has voiced opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which was hugely unpopular here, while praising outgoing President Eduardo Duhalde's decision to abstain on a U.S.-backed resolution in the United Nations to condemn Cuba for human rights violations. "I haven't come this far to make pacts with the past, or for this to all end in an agreement among the elite," said Kirchner, 53, at a news conference on Wednesday. "I'm not going to fall prey to the corporations." Governor for 11 years of the vast, sparsely populated Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, Kirchner has won praise for running an efficient administration that has stayed debt-free and has boasted relatively low poverty rates despite more than four years of recession in Argentina. Critics say that's the least that might have been expected from an oil-rich province where the government is the main employer. Kirchner's opponents in Santa Cruz say he held power through authoritarian methods and a system of political patronage. What is certain is that the president-elect, who has not held federal office, will face challenges far more daunting than he did as governor. These include a monstrous $130-billion debt, an entrenched political elite riven by factions, unprecedented levels of unemployment and poverty and a crisis-weary nation that has come to view its leaders, and even its institutions, with scorn. Worse, Menem's withdrawal prevented Kirchner from solidifying his mandate with an electoral majority. Kirchner was set to trounce Menem in a runoff Sunday, but won only 22 percent of last month's first-round vote - a record low for an elected Argentine president. "Kirchner has a strong discourse, but in Argentina people are used to leaders who say one thing and do something entirely different," said Graciela Ocaña, a legislator with the center-left ARI party. "He's got an enormous opportunity to make up for his lack of legitimacy by pushing through some of the popular measures he's promised." This opportunity will be limited, however, by a lack of money. While the economy has showed signs of rebounding in recent months, the Duhalde administration will leave some potentially explosive financial problems. Most grievous is the ever-rising external debt. To avoid default, Argentina will need a new deal with the IMF after a temporary agreement ends in August. "The IMF is going to demand a high budget surplus and a tough monetary policy to keep inflation low, but this could contradict with the government's plans for spending and growth," said Alejandro Vanoli, an economist at the University of Buenos Aires. Like Brazil's new president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, Kirchner has tempered nationalist rhetoric with assurances of fiscal responsibility to international investors and creditors. He has vowed not to renationalize the formerly state-owned companies privatized during the 1990s and has announced that Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna, who negotiated the last agreement with the IMF, will stay on. "Kirchner's not a leftist," said Buenos Aires-based analyst Analia Del Franco. "He isn't bringing a revolution. This is going to be a government of transition, which will be more nationalist than anything." According to Del Franco, Kirchner must win a consensus from a wide range of antagonistic sectors, both within and outside his long-dominant and much-discredited Peronist Party. Menem's supporters hold a significant minority in congress and in the provincial governments, and new anti-Peronist political leaders from both the left and right are gaining force after surprisingly strong showings in the first-round vote. Kirchner must consolidate support from the main Peronist faction, led by Duhalde, his most influential ally in the election. Analysts warn that Kirchner's need for alliances with Duhalde and other party bosses who backed his candidacy may compromise his vow to reform politics and fight corruption. For now, this seems a minor concern for Argentines who, like Ernesto Argento, yearn for normalcy. "We just want this mess to end," said Argento, 69, who runs a shoe-shine shop. "We want a president who will last four years."

Forbes Steve Forbes, 05.26.03, 12:00 AM ET

Theres another foreign policy problem brewing, this time in our own hemisphere--an attempt to make Venezuela a second Cuba. Strongman Hugo Chávez, who led an unsuccessful coup attempt in 1992, was elected president in 1998 in a popular vote of revulsion against the embedded corruption of the existing political elites. Since then, Chávez has been doing everything he can to turn his "presidency" into a dictatorship like Fidel Castro's. He used his initial popularity to gut constitutional checks on his power. Regime opponents now face arrest and even outright murder. Chávez is setting up vigilante committees in neighborhoods to inform on people. These committees also serve as an armed militia to back Chávez. 

Venezuela has been a democracy since 1958, when a courageous leader, Rómulo Betancourt established representative government following a dictatorship. In the early 1960s Betancourt beat back Castro's efforts to overthrow Venezuela's democracy. Now Chávez wants to turn back the clock. He's cozied up to terrorist groups around the world, including those waging a murderous guerrilla war in neighboring Colombia.

Venezuelans of all classes and occupations have taken to the streets to protest Chávez's actions. He was thrown out briefly in a coup last year, but the coup collapsed when it became clear that the old corrupt elites were going to return to their money-grabbing ways and would take their time restoring democracy. Chávez's smile, however, was soon wiped off his face as spontaneous protests continued. There was a general strike a few months ago, the effects of which sharply reduced Venezuela's oil production. But Chávez has clung to power.

Whether Chávez's rule should continue is supposed to be the subject of a referendum in August, but this Castro wannabe has made it clear he won't leave office voluntarily. He will either try to postpone the election or use his armed thugs to rig the results.

The U.S. has reacted gingerly lest Chávez play the anti-U.S. card--always an option in Latin America--to shore up his sagging popularity. The U.S. should make clear that a clean August vote must take place--that Chávez must not be allowed to set up a virtual dictatorship, even if that means oil prices go up because we embargo Venezuela's oil exports. When Venezuelans see that we're serious about Chávez, perhaps their army will do what it should have done a long time ago--send Chávez to Havana on a permanent vacation--and then promptly return to the barracks.

The Sun News, Posted on Sat, May. 17, 2003 By Jamie Kritzer (Greensboro, N.C.) News & Record

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Five months ago, Venezuela native Luisa Vann paid WXLV for a 30-minute time slot so she could launch "Luisa su voz Latina."

Recently, the ABC affiliate agreed to sell Vann a new time slot with twice as many viewers. Her program now airs at 12:30 p.m. every other Sunday, moving from its former slot at 6 a.m. Saturdays.

"Luisa" is just one of a growing number of media outlets that now compete for the attention of the Triad's Hispanic population.

During the past decade, the Triad has seen the startup of more than a dozen publications, TV programs and radio stations marketed toward Latinos.

The owners of those media outlets say they are trying to fill a need and tap into a market that represents a more significant part of the economy than a decade ago.

In the 2000 census, the Triad boasted the third-fastest growth rate for Hispanics of any metro area in the country during the 1990s. Its 62,210 Hispanics represented a ninefold increase from the 1990 census.

"Simply put, what's driving the growth of the Hispanic media is the growth of the Hispanic population," says Sheri Bridges, associate professor of marketing at Wake Forest University.

"Hispanic media are homing in on a specific need. ... We always want things that remind us of home, and the Hispanic media are providing that for the Hispanic population."

Moreover, the Hispanic-geared media are tapping into a market that spends an estimated $54 million each month in the Piedmont Triad, says Don Hild, who owns Hispanic Marketing Resources, a High Point company that does research for businesses trying to reach the Hispanic market.

In January 2002, Hild launched a semimonthly publication, TeleGuia, a TV guide for Latinos. His formula: market the TV guide in the Triad, Triangle and Charlotte and distribute the publication in Mexican restaurants, grocery stores and other places where the Latino community meets.

The results have been phenomenal, Hild says. In 15 months, the guide's circulation has grown 15 times, to about 30,000.

"The key to advertising is repetition, and we're in people's homes for two full weeks," Hild says. "If you can get exposed three or four times a day for two weeks it is supremely better than newspaper advertising that might not even be seen once."

On the back of most issues of TeleGuia is an advertisement for Fast Envios, a Wake Forest-based business that sells satellite dishes mostly to the Hispanic community. Since Fast Envios ads started appearing in TeleGuia in January 2002, business has doubled, from sales of about 25 dishes per week to 50, owner Rafael Obando says.

"It's been outstanding," he says. "We ask our customers where they heard of us, and half of them say TeleGuia."

Most of the Hispanic-geared media provide new immigrants, most of whom don't speak English, with their only outlet for local news and information, plus information on where to find local Latino entertainment.

Vann's TV program, too, aims to help Latinos.

She can't offer the splashy production or entertainment Hispanics in the Triad can now see on the 14 Spanish-language channels that have been added to Time Warner Cable's lineup in the past year.

But she can offer something those programs cannot: useful local information for Latinos who are far from home.

Embassy Row

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who threatens political opponents and represses the press, now feels threatened by a puppet show at the U.S. Embassy.

    Vice President Jose Vincente Rangel, in a news conference yesterday, denounced U.S. Ambassador Charles Shapiro, who hosted a reception Tuesday for International Press Freedom Day where he criticized government intimidation of the Venezuelan press.

    However, a hand puppet in a red beret, Mr. Chavez' trademark, is what really upset the government. A male comedian dressed as the popular female broadcaster Marta Colomina performed on stage with the puppet.

    "What we have here is an irresponsible U.S. ambassador," Mr. Rangel told reporters in the capital, Caracas.

    News reports said he called the puppet show a sign of provocation from the Bush administration, which has been highly critical of the left-wing Mr. Chavez.

    One diplomat said the comedian embarrassed Mr. Shapiro, who did not know in advance that the performer would ridicule Mr. Chavez.

    The embassy would not reply to Mr. Rangel but referred reporters to the ambassador's remarks posted on the embassy Web site, embajadausa.org.ve.

    "The situation in Venezuela is worrisome," Mr. Shapiro said, referring to attacks on 80 reporters in the past year. Some were attacked with guns and knives, he said.

    "The people responsible for these attacks have yet to be identified," he said. "There is no excuse to justify violence against reporters, editors or owners. ...

    "Freedom of the press in Venezuela has deteriorated over the past year and it is everyone's responsibility to guarantee that the situation be remedied."

    Mr. Shapiro conceded that he had been upset with the Venezuelan press when it criticized the United States without seeking comment from the embassy.

    However, he added, "You cannot allow debate and criticism to become mechanisms of pressure or intimidation."

    • Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297, fax 202/832-7278 or e-mail jmorrison@washingtontimes.com.     

boston.com, By Reed Lindsay, Globe Correspondent, 5/17/2003

BUENOS AIRES -- No political leader in Latin America more openly embraced the 1990s market-oriented policies promoted by the International Monetary Fund and the US government than former Argentine president Carlos Sal Menem.

Menem ended his latest quest for the presidency Wednesday when he bowed out of a runoff election rather than face a potentially humiliating defeat at the hands of fellow Peronist Nstor Kirchner.

The former president's early exit seems to mark the end of an era of economic liberalization in Argentina, and is the latest indication of rising anti-US sentiment and shifting political winds in the region, which include the electoral triumphs of left-leaning presidents in Brazil, Ecuador, and Venezuela.

Kirchner, who will assume office May 25, has vowed to pull Argentina out of one of the worst crises in its history by replacing a ''model of economic concentration and financial sectors'' with a large-scale public works program, subsidies for small- and medium-size companies, and increased social welfare.

''This new model means taking a stronger position towards the IMF, going against the thinking that the market will solve everything,'' said Torcuato Di Tella, a political analyst who endorsed Kirchner's candidacy.

Before a meeting earlier this month with President Luiz Incio ''Lula'' da Silva of Brazil, Kirchner told reporters that his foreign policy would make ties with Brazil and the rest of Latin America a priority, at the expense of relations that Menem had cultivated with Washington.

Kirchner also has expressed his opposition to the US-led war against Iraq, which was hugely unpopular in Argentina, while praising outgoing President Eduardo Duhalde's decision to abstain from voting on a US-backed resolution in the United Nations to condemn Cuba for human rights violations.

''I haven't come this far to make pacts with the past, or for this to all end in an agreement among the elite,'' said Kirchner, 53, at a news conference Wednesday. ''I'm not going to fall prey to the corporations.

''Argentines can be certain that the person speaking to them is determined to turn a page in history.''

Governor for 11 years of the vast, sparsely populated Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, Kirchner has won praise for running an efficient administration that has stayed debt-free.

But opposition forces accuse him of keeping a tight grip on power through an ingrained political patronage system.

As president, Kirchner will face a $130 billion debt, an entrenched political elite riven by factional disputes, unprecedented levels of unemployment and poverty, growing social movements that have become increasingly combative, and a crisis-weary public skeptical of its leaders and institutions.

To make matters worse, Kirchner will assume office after obtaining only 22 percent of the vote in the first-round April 27 election, two points fewer than Menem received and a record low for an elected president in Argentina.

Pollsters say Kirchner would have walloped Menem by more than 40 points, not so much because of overwhelming enthusiasm for his candidacy, but because of a generalized hatred of the former president, who is widely blamed for driving the nation into financial ruin.

''Hopefully, for everybody's sake, things will change,'' said Amrico Escobar as he leaned on an oversize shopping cart stacked with cardboard and parked on a Buenos Aires curbside. ''I'm 53, and look at the job I have. There is no work anywhere.''

Escobar and his 20-year-old son, Mario, are among thousands of jobless Argentines who have become self-employed trash scavengers in recent years. Escobar voted for Kirchner, whom he ''preferred a thousand times more than Menem,'' but he said his expectations of change are low: ''I'll believe it when I see it. They promise and promise and promise, but they never do anything, except steal like crazy.''

Kirchner's plans to spur growth through increased government spending and subsidies will be conditioned by the tight fiscal straits he will inherit as president. While the economy has showed signs of rebounding in recent months, the outgoing Duhalde administration has left unresolved several potentially explosive financial issues, especially Argentina's ever-rising external debt, which will involve striking a new deal with the IMF after a temporary eight-month agreement ends in August.

Like Brazil's leader, Kirchner has tempered nationalist and leftist rhetoric with assurances to international investors and creditors, including the announcement that current Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna, who negotiated the last agreement with the IMF, will continue in his post.

''Kirchner's not a leftist,'' said Anala Del Franco, an analyst based in Buenos Aires. ''He isn't bringing a revolution. This is going to be a government of transition, which will be more nationalist than anything.''