By Christian Bourge <a href=www.upi.com>UPI think tanks correspondent From the Think Tanks & Research Desk Published 5/1/2003 7:11 PM

WASHINGTON, May 1 (UPI) -- Washington has returned to its long-standing tradition of paying too little attention to the problems of Latin America, and this may work to the detriment of United States interests in the region, according to think tank policy analysts.

Ian Vasquez, director of the Project on Global Economic Liberty at the libertarian Cato Institute, said that the Bush administration's level of interest in Latin America has been disappointing, especially considering the high expectations for greater engagement with the region.

"I think basically the United States is not paying attention to Latin America," Vasquez told United Press International. "In a sense, policy is being conducted in an ad hoc manner, often in reaction to events in the region. It has been that way for a long time, this is not something new for Washington."

Marc Falcoff, a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, writes in his recent paper, "The Return of the U.S. Attention Deficit toward Latin America," that the current treatment of Latin America by Washington policymakers is comparable to the U.S. response to the region in the early days of the cold war. Following the end of World War II, the focus of American foreign policy suddenly shifted away from war to European reconstruction, a move that took most Latin American countries by surprise.

With the exception of Argentina and Chile, most countries in the region had strongly supported America's wartime foreign policy and expected Washington's attention to swing back to the Western Hemisphere after the war, only to find themselves on the policy back burner. Although countries in the region received individual attention when crises erupted, the attention the United States gives to the nations below its southern border has never equaled the attention it gives to its post-war European allies.

When the cold war ended, many again assumed the United States would redirect attention to its own hemisphere. With the rise of the European Union and liberalization of economies across Latin America in the ensuing years, free trade between the countries of Latin America and the United States was seen as a natural course of action for American policymakers.

Today the only major example of this is the North American Free Trade Agreement, known as NAFTA, whic is an agreement between Mexico, Canada and the United States, now almost 10 years old. The promise of economic and other types of cooperation between the United States and Latin American countries has yet to reach the level for which many have hoped.

Although President George W. Bush made it clear that he planned to make Latin America a high priority for his administration, Falcoff and other analysts say the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have made it clear that this is not the case.

Nancy Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development at the liberal-centrist Brookings Institution and a nonresident senior fellow in economics there, said that before Sept. 11, there were growing signs of hope for increased American interest and involvement. The Clinton administration paid some attention to democracy-building and the liberalization of the economies in the region and President Bush promised a strengthening of ties, especially with Mexico.

"Post Sept. 11, I think their was a big shift away (from Latin America)," Birdsall told United Press International. "There has been a return to a U.S. attention deficit."

Latin American countries are facing a roster of difficult challenges. In the oil-rich nation of Venezuela, an acute political crisis has surrounded president Hugo Chávez. Argentina's economic collapse has reduced the region's richest nation to an economic shambles and resulted in the destruction, at least in the short term, of its once-solid middle class. Brazil, the largest economy in the region, faces massive international financial obligations that it will not be able to meet without international assistance.

Although Colombia has a strong commitment from the United States to help fight the country's ongoing problem with opposition guerrillas and drug trafficking, the country's handling of the war is a cause for some concern. Falcoff said in his brief that the only reason critics are not raising a bigger fuss about America's involvement in Colombia as "another Vietnam" is because they are preoccupied with attacking the administration on matters related to the Middle East.

However, not all the news on Latin America is bad. For instance, Mexico is expected to have economic growth of 3 percent in 2003. Although a much higher growth is needed for the country to ensure it economic vitality, this is high for the region.

The analysts said various dangers may arise from the American attention deficit toward the difficult challenges faced by Latin America. One fear is that the regional feeling that Latin America will always remain an afterthought for Washington policymakers may develop into a deep resentment of the United States and undermine U.S. goals for trade and economic development.

Birdsall said that during the 1990s, many people in the region came to see the United States as a beacon of political reform and economic liberalization. But the failure of Argentina's economy -- which was a poster child for economic liberalization -- and widespread opposition to the war in Iraq have had a chilling effect on that view of the United States in the Latin America.

"For political as well as economic reasons, that is now not true anymore," she said. "I think the most important implications are that we are neglecting the potential dangers associated with a rise in anti-Americanism in Latin America. That is going to make the lives of the reform politicians in the region more difficult than they would otherwise be."

Riordan Roett, director of Western Hemisphere studies at the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, known as SAIS, said Treasury Secretary John Snow's recent trip to Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia indicated some hope for greater interest in Latin America by U.S. policymakers. In addition, the trip was well received in the economic community, a good sign for investment in the region.

At the annual Council of the Americas conference on Monday, Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged that despite the promises by the United States that embracing democracy would better Latin American nations, many citizens there felt that had not come to pass. Powell's comments represented the first time in months that a ranking Bush administration official had publicly focused on Latin America. In addition, Snow said at the conference that it is necessary to speed up the slowed effort to enact a Free Trade Area of the Americas by 2005.

The Bush administration has made some efforts to bring free trade to the region, including the development of a bilateral free-trade agreement with Chile. However, some analysts questioned the administration's overall commitment to free trade there.

"I thought that (trade) policy was starting to get back on track with Chile and I think that is a really good sign of what can come out of Washington," said Vasquez. "But it is not clear how much the (Bush) administration is going to push for ratification in Congress now that it seems to be upset with Chile over its behavior regarding Iraq."

He added that it is a "tremendous mistake" to mix economic policy and the issue of free trade in the hemisphere with disagreements over Iraq. Vasquez said that tactics like punishing Chile for its opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq paves the way for dangerous and heavy-handed policies, such as ignoring countries that do not adhere to the U.S. foreign policy line.

Although there are clear economic issues at risk in the region, Birdsall said the lack of a clear security component to the problems in the region helps explain why the United States seems to be marginalizing Latin America.

"I think the costs of this for the United States have more to do with lost opportunities," she said. "The 21st century could really be the century of the Americas in terms of growing (social and economic) prosperity, growing stability, open market economies and democracy. That opportunity could be lost."

Son muchas las cartas que he recibido con respecto a “La Guarimba”, gran parte de las preguntas son similares.  He aquí las que más se repitieron:

  1.      ¿Cuándo llamará el M.D.R. a “La Guarimba”?

RESPUESTA DEL M.D.R. – Nuestro “Movimiento de Defensa Radical” (M.D.R.) no es quien llamará a “La Guarimba”.  Nuestra labor, por ahora, es simplemente sugerirla y explicar el plan.  Será la propia sociedad quien decidiría – en todo caso -- cuándo llega la hora de llamar a “La Guarimba”.

  2.      ¿Dónde está el líder que convocará a “La Guarimba”?

RESPUESTA DEL M.D.R. – El M.D.R. no cree en la necesidad de un líder específico.  De hecho no estamos contando con la aparición espontánea de un líder que nos guíe hacia la defensa radical de nuestra patria.  Creemos que la sociedad toda tiene capacidad de liderazgo.  En la medida en que nuestros “líderes naturales” sigan “poniendo la torta”, como la que acaba de poner Salas Römer -- lanzándose como candidato para unas elecciones que ni existen ni existirán -- la sociedad civil como un ente vivo, asumirá con mayor fuerza ese liderazgo colectivo.

3.      ¿Cuánto debe durar “La Guarimba”?

RESPUESTA DEL M.D.R. – El tiempo que sea necesario para sacudirnos de un gobierno anticonstitucional.  Ese es otro de los problemas.  Una vez convocada “La Guarimba”, no debe suspenderse hasta que se logre el sagrado objetivo de recuperar la patria y nuestra dignidad nacional.

4.      ¿Cómo “guarimbeamos” aquellos que vivimos en urbanizaciones como Prados del Este, es decir, apartadas del casco de la ciudad?

RESPUESTA DEL M.D.R. – “Guarimbear” en urbanizaciones apartadas del casco de la ciudad no tiene tanto sentido como en sectores céntricos, sin embargo, se pueden tomar las vías principales más cercanas a nuestras “guarimbas”, la autopista de Prados del Este, por ejemplo.

  5.        ¿Qué debemos entender por “defensa radical”?

RESPUESTA DEL M.D.R. – El radicalismo tiene tantas interpretaciones como intérpretes haya.  Para muchos la desobediencia cívica a ultranza es una forma de radicalismo.  Otros entienden la “defensa radical” de manera más radical, es decir empleando la violencia si fuese necesario.  Cuando nuestro Libertador Simón Bolívar llamó a la guerra a muerte, estaba asumiendo una postura radical. 

6.        ¿Se debe aplicar “La Guarimba” conjuntamente con una acción militar?

RESPUESTA DEL M.D.R. – El M.D.R. no condiciona “La Guarimba” a una acción cívico-militar, aunque les da la bienvenida a los militares que se sientan inclinados a defender la patria de la agresión extranjera del CASTRO-COMUNISMO INTERNACIONAL.  Creemos, eso sí, que “La Guarimba” propiciará la definición en cada cuartel.  Allá el militar que decida cuadrarse con Castro en contra de sus hermanos venezolanos... su conciencia y la patria le terminarán reclamando la abominable traición.

7.        ¿Y después de “La Guarimba”, qué?

RESPUESTA DEL M.D.R. – Después debemos estar alertas sobre a quién nos pongan al frente del Estado.  Lo mejor que le pueda pasar a Venezuela es sacar a un gobernante ilegítimo por la vía de “La Guarimba” ya que todo aquel que en un futuro intente desviar su gobierno por la vía anticonstitucional podría ser igualmente “guarimbeado” de su cargo.

8.      ¿Hay algún apoyo externo a “La Guarimba”?

RESPUESTA DEL M.D.R. – No que sepamos.  Sabemos de personajes de mucho prestigio en el exterior que apoyan “La Guarimba” y que llegado el momento estarían dispuestos a presionar a los organismos internacionales (ONU – OEA) para que intervengan directamente si fuese necesario. 

  9.      ¿Tendrá “La Guarimba” cobertura de los medios?

RESPUESTA DEL M.D.R. – Si para cuando comience el “guarimbeo” todavía están vivos y activos los medios de comunicación social, suponemos que le darían cobertura nacional a “La Guarimba”.

  10.  ¿Cómo piensa el M.D.R. divulgar “La Guarimba” en todos los niveles de nuestra sociedad?

RESPUESTA DEL M.D.R. – En primer lugar, pidiéndole apoyo a las redes cibernéticas de oposición.  Es importante que divulguemos “La Guarimba” hasta la saciedad.  Luego sería muy interesante si los personajes públicos que generan opinión – así como los comunicadores sociales dignos -- se sumaran a la divulgación masiva del plan de defensa radical y por último, que los medios de comunicación social se sumen a la campaña de divulgación.

  11.  ¿Se ha aplicado “La Guarimba” en otros países, en casos similares?

RESPUESTA DEL M.D.R. – No que nosotros sepamos.  Sí ha habido acciones anárquicas que han brindado frutos, pero lo que hace “La Guarimba” especial y muy de nosotros, es el hecho de tomar posición en nuestro propio territorio, frente a nuestras viviendas.  Al hacer esto no tenemos que movilizarnos a sitios lejanos.  Si nos dan ganas de ir al baño, entramos en nuestras propias viviendas y ya... Podemos turnarnos en las calles y descansar en nuestras propias camas. “La Guarimba” podría durar varios días, así que la logística no sería problema alguno, siempre que el momento de la verdad nos agarre preparados.

12.  ¿Se trata de un plan ilegal, anticonstitucional?

RESPUESTA DEL M.D.R. – Nada de eso.  La propia constitución bolivariana de Venezuela NOS OBLIGA a defenderla de verse comprometida y violada por un gobierno forajido.   Entendemos que burlarse del referendo revocatorio sería una violación flagrante de la constitución y una justificación al llamado de la sociedad civil organizada.  Regalar nuestro petróleo podría considerarse una violación a la constitución, por ejemplo.

  13.  ¿Se trata de un plan terrorista?

RESPUESTA DEL M.D.R. – Los únicos que sentirían terror serían los militares que intenten darle la espalda al pueblo y a la constitución para ponerse al lado del CASTRO-COMUNISMO INTERNACIONAL.  Suponemos que también se aterrorizarían el señor presidente y sus acólitos.

14.  ¿Cuáles organizaciones apoyan “La Guarimba”?

RESPUESTA DEL M.D.R. – Hasta donde sepamos, “Tierra de Gracia” apoya “La Guarimba”.  De hecho fueron ellos quienes comenzaron a hablar del plan hace ya un tiempo.  Hay otras organizaciones cibernéticas que entendemos apoyan el plan, pero preferimos que sean ellos quienes lo anuncien y se comprometan con su divulgación.

  15.  ¿Cree el M.D.R. en un “Día D” para aplicar “La Guarimba”?

RESPUESTA DEL M.D.R. – Nosotros no estamos muy seguros de que se pueda establecer un “Día D” para la aplicación de “La Guarimba”.  El “Día D” podría perfectamente ser el 19 de agosto si para entonces corroboramos – más allá de toda duda -- que este incipiente régimen CASTRO-COMUNISTA no tiene intenciones de acudir al referendo revocatorio.  Sin embargo, por ahí podría salir una que otra organización “opositora” con un invento de “auto-guaraleo” como sugerir una constituyente, por ejemplo… o comenzar a decir que habrá elecciones generales dentro de varios meses, etc.  Eso le daría oxígeno al régimen CASTRO-COMUNISTA y eliminaría la posibilidad de un “Día D”.

16.  ¿Debemos entender “La Guarimba” como un “Plan B”?

RESPUESTA DEL M.D.R. – No.  Nosotros no creemos en planes “B”.  Solamente aquellos que creen en que Chávez irá a un referendo tienen en mente un “Plan B”.  Nosotros ESTAMOS SEGUROS de que no habrá referendo.  El “Plan B” podría ser coger el monte o abandonar el país rumbo al exilio, con la cabeza baja y en total derrota para jamás regresar a Venezuela y morir en tierra extranjera.

17.  ¿Podría “La Guarimba” producir muertos?

RESPUESTA DEL M.D.R. – Toda acción radical podría producir muertos, sin embargo, las bajas se reducirían al mínimo en la medida en que “La Guarimba” se ejerza al UNÍSONO y a nivel nacional.  Mientras más seamos los “guarimberos”, menos serán los muertos.  Debemos convencer al régimen – y a las Fuerzas Armadas -- de lo innecesario que sería producir muertes, sobre todo cuando el país entero está “guarimbeando”.

18. ¿Cómo llevar el concepto de “La Guarimba” a aquellos que no tienen acceso a la Internet?

RESPUESTA DEL M.D.R. – Si cada cibernauta se propusiera sacar al menos CINCO COPIAS a nuestro “alerta” titulado “La Guarimba” (abajo incluido) y repartirlo entre aquellos amigos que no tienen acceso a la red, estaríamos propagando la voz.  Tal vez se pudieran pegar algunos ejemplares en las bodegas, farmacias, etc.  Hay que contar con que no tenemos mucho tiempo.  En cualquier momento este régimen pudiera “darle el palo a la lata” e intentar dejarnos como pajarito en grama.  Debemos esperar “algún invento” por parte del régimen antes de agosto de este año, cuando se tendría que definir el referendo.  Ya sabemos – sin embargo -- que el régimen ha dicho que es A PARTIR del 19 de agosto de 2003 cuando se pudiera convocar al referendo revocatorio.  Eso podría significar que será dentro de 99 años A PARTIR de esa fecha, no antes... por supuesto.

19. ¿Qué pasaría si “La Guarimba” fracasa y el régimen aprovecha para declara un estado de excepción o de emergencia… o de sitio y se produce un “auto golpe”?

RESPUESTA DEL M.D.R. – He ahí un grave peligro.  De hecho, el mayor peligro que correríamos de fracasar “La Guarimba”.   Es por esa razón – entre otras – por la que la respuesta de la sociedad civil organizada tiene que ser masiva, al UNÍSONO y A NIVEL NACIONAL, de lo contrario podríamos perder no solo la batalla: ¡la guerra!

  20. ¿Por qué creen ustedes que “La Guarimba” podría tumbar un gobierno forajido?

RESPUESTA DEL M.D.R. – Porque fomentaría un caos anárquico impresionante y materialmente imposible de controlar.  El generalato se vería en la obligación de ordenar el “Plan Ávila” u otro parecido tan criminal como el primero.  Estamos seguros que un plan de asesinar a la mayoría del pueblo no va a ser acatado por nuestros oficiales, como no fue acatado el 11 de abril de 2002.  La desobediencia a masacrar al pueblo significaría una insubordinación militar la cual crearía un caos aún mayor.  No debemos olvidar, también, que quienes conducen las tanquetas son los tenientes de nuestro Ejército, los oficiales más puros de nuestras Fuerzas Armadas… unos jóvenes recién graduados sin vocación de sangrientos asesinos. 

En el caso de no ordenarse el “Plan Ávila” entonces el generalato al servicio del CASTRO-COMUNISMO INTERNACIONAL perdería “el cartel” y cualquier soldado le tocaría las nalgas.  Eso crearía todavía un CAOS PEOR que invitaría a los oficiales dignos – AL SERVICIO DE VENEZUELA, DEL PUEBLO Y DE LA CONSTITUCIÓN -- a tomar el control de la situación de inmediato y con la ayuda de Dios y DEL PUEBLO EN GENERAL se generaría un movimiento cívico-militar que se adueñaría de la situación en cuestión de horas. 

Justamente era exactamente eso lo que supuestamente se buscaba con el llamado al paro general, pero nuestros líderes no fueron capaces de radicalizarlo y terminó siendo un “garabato” que perjudicó profundamente la economía nacional y benefició inmensamente al incipiente régimen CASTRO-COMUNISTA de Hugo Chávez y Fidel Castro.  De habernos parado como era debido -- sin agua, sin luz, sin gasolina, sin comida, sin “na” -- posiblemente ya estuviéramos hace rato camino hacia una Venezuela productiva y feliz.

Un fuerte abrazo solidario, radical y “guarimboso”

ROBERT ALONSO robertalonso2003@cantv.net

La colección completa

TORONTO, Ontario, Canada, May 1, 2003 (ENS) - Materials that form the gem diamonds mined in Guaniamo, Venezuela, originated on the ocean floor, according to a Canadian geologist who developed a new procedure to examine tiny inclusions in the gems.

Daniel Schulze, a geology professor at the University of Toronto at Mississauga, published a study today in the journal "Nature" which describes how diamonds are formed beneath the ocean deeps.

The diamond formation process begins, Schulze explains, when the Earth's mantle, the interior layer between the Earth's core and its crust, forces lava up onto the ocean's floor. The lava then solidifies into a volcanic rock called basalt.

Geology Professor Daniel Schulze specializes in study of Earth's upper mantle.(Photo courtesy University of Toronto) When the basalt interacts with sea water, its oxygen composition changes, Schulze says. "The volcanic rocks are altered to form new minerals. It's like the steel in your bicycle changing to rust in the rain."

Geological processes then move this altered basalt under the Earth's continental plates where heat and pressure turn the basalt into eclogite - red and green rocks that may contain diamonds, if carbon is present.

Over time, as the eclogite remains in the mantle, it eventually takes on the oxygen composition found in this environment.

"This process can erase or modify past evidence of the ecolgite's oceanic origins," says Schulze. "But because diamonds [contained within the eclogite] are impermeable, they act as time capsules, preserving inside themselves a record of conditions that existed during diamond formation."

In his study, Schulze and his team developed a new procedure using an ion microprobe to analyze tiny minerals, called coesite, in the diamonds.

Comparing these minerals to those in ocean altered basalts and mantle eclogite, the researchers found the coesite's oxygen composition a close match to that of the altered basalt, rather than the eclogite.

"This proves these diamonds have an oceanic heritage," Schulze says.

The fact that most minerals included in diamonds are very small - typically ten to a few hundred micrometres - has limited the variety of techniques that can be applied to diamond inclusion investigations, and until recently precluded oxygen isotope studies, the researchers say in the Nature paper.

It is the small beam diameter and high sensitivity of an ion microprobe that allows data to be collected from samples as tiny as minerals included in diamonds, and permits analysis of grains that are orders of magnitude smaller - nanograms - than possible by other methods, the scientists say.

"Using an ion microprobe and secondary-ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), we have now determined the oxygen isotope composition of mineral inclusions in eclogite-suite diamonds from the Guaniamo region of Venezuela, located on the Guyana shield," they write.

The Guaniamo area, located in western Bolivar State, Venezuela, is one of the most promising diamondiferous areas in South America, according to the Caracas based Guaniamo Mining Company which is now drilling in the area.

X-ray computed tomographic image of diamond bearing eclogite (Image by Diana Wiese courtesy U. Toronto)

The research team, which includes scientists from the geology departments at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Edinburgh as well as from the Guaniamo Mining Company, chose to examine this suite of materials because a number of features mark it as unusual, they said in the paper. "These include the facts that diamonds from this locality overwhelmingly belong to the eclogite suite, that coesite is unusually abundant as a diamond inclusion mineral, and that many of the diamonds have unusually low carbon isotope values."

Their analysis explains why mantle eclogites have an unusual oxygen composition compared to the surrounding mantle. "Although, over time, the eclogite assumes most of the mantle's oxygen characteristics, it may not have completely lost the oxygen composition it inherited as ocean altered basalt," says Schulze.

In addition, these particular diamonds, he says, seem to have "biogenic" carbon signatures, indicating that some of the carbon that formed the diamonds came originally from living organisms, such as ancient sea floor bacteria.

"Attached to the altered basalts, this carbon would have, in essence, gone along for the ride as the rock was thrust under the continents," the geologist explains. Heat and pressure would have turned the organic carbon into pure carbon in the form of graphite and, then finally, into diamond, he says.

Studying diamonds is one of the only ways scientists can learn about what is found deep beneath the Earth's crust and also the history of the early Earth and the environmental conditions that existed when the diamonds were formed.

"These tiny time capsules have indeed provided the missing link between the mantle and the crust," said Schulze.

Funding for this study was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the National Science Foundation.

Schulze is also researching diamond materials from Canada, United States, southern Africa, and Russia.

By Alex Kennedy

Caracas, May 1 (<a href=quote.bloomberg.com>Bloomberg) -- Venezuelans opposed to President Hugo Chavez clashed with his supporters near the presidential palace. One person was shot dead by a passing motorcyclist, and another was injured, police said.

``Out of nowhere, there were five shots fired,'' Leopoldo Lopez, an opposition leader and mayor of the Chacao municipality in Venezuela's capital, told Globovision television station.

The shooting took place at the end of a march by tens of thousands of Chavez supporters and opponents who threw rocks, bottles and explosives as police used tear gas to try to disperse the crowds. Police arrested a man after the shooting, Henry Vivas, the Caracas police chief, said on Globovision.

A shootout at an opposition march in Caracas a year ago led to the deaths of 19 people and sparked a military coup that removed Chavez from office for two days. In early December, his opponents staged a two-month nationwide strike aimed at removing the president from office. Chavez since has restricted Venezuelans' access to dollars, causing shortages of food and other goods. Last Updated: May 1, 2003 15:57 EDT