www.guardian.co.uk Giles Tremlett in Madrid Tuesday January 21, 2003 The Guardian

From Buenos Aires to Bogota, the daily queues outside Spanish consulates have begun to stretch around the block as up to a million Latin Americans exploit a new law allowing them to become Spaniards.

The law, which came into effect 10 days ago, opens the doors of Spain and, by extension, of the European Union, to children and grandchildren of Spanish exiles and emigrants in the Americas.

The Spanish foreign minister, Ana Palacio, expects a million applications, equivalent to a 2.5% rise in the population.

Ms Palacio, from the ruling conservative People's party, said the law would help right the wrongs suffered by those forced into exile by General Franco. But it has also been seen as a way of ensuring that the next wave of immigrants are people who share its language and religion.

With its low birth rate and booming economy, Spain has reversed its status as a country of emigrants, attracting an influx of mainly Moroccans, east Europeans and Africans. It now takes almost 25% of the foreigners who moved to the EU last year.

With Latin America, especially Venezuela and Argentina, suffering a major economic crisis, Spanish consulates have been inundated with requests.

Argentina, Cuba, Uruguay, Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela have the biggest Spanish emigrant populations, and therefore the most applicants.

In Argentina, where some 300,000 people are eligible to apply, news of the law made it onto the front pages.

There is a long wait, however - up to 18 months before applicants even have their cases looked at.

But such is the demand in Buenos Aires that professional queuers are charging £1 a day to applicants who cannot afford the time to queue or who wish to escape the harsh summer sun.

The law rights some of the anomalies of traditional Spanish machismo, which allowed children of Spanish men born abroad to claim nationality but not those of women who married foreigners. It also allows the grandchildren of exiles or emigrants to claim nationality if they themselves have resided in Spain for more than a year.

The new measure has gone largely unremarked upon in Spain, which is beginning to get used to the idea that its economy will need the labour of millions of new immigrants.

www.guardian.co.uk Giles Tremlett in Madrid Tuesday January 21, 2003 The Guardian

From Buenos Aires to Bogota, the daily queues outside Spanish consulates have begun to stretch around the block as up to a million Latin Americans exploit a new law allowing them to become Spaniards.

The law, which came into effect 10 days ago, opens the doors of Spain and, by extension, of the European Union, to children and grandchildren of Spanish exiles and emigrants in the Americas.

The Spanish foreign minister, Ana Palacio, expects a million applications, equivalent to a 2.5% rise in the population.

Ms Palacio, from the ruling conservative People's party, said the law would help right the wrongs suffered by those forced into exile by General Franco. But it has also been seen as a way of ensuring that the next wave of immigrants are people who share its language and religion.

With its low birth rate and booming economy, Spain has reversed its status as a country of emigrants, attracting an influx of mainly Moroccans, east Europeans and Africans. It now takes almost 25% of the foreigners who moved to the EU last year.

With Latin America, especially Venezuela and Argentina, suffering a major economic crisis, Spanish consulates have been inundated with requests.

Argentina, Cuba, Uruguay, Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela have the biggest Spanish emigrant populations, and therefore the most applicants.

In Argentina, where some 300,000 people are eligible to apply, news of the law made it onto the front pages.

There is a long wait, however - up to 18 months before applicants even have their cases looked at.

But such is the demand in Buenos Aires that professional queuers are charging £1 a day to applicants who cannot afford the time to queue or who wish to escape the harsh summer sun.

The law rights some of the anomalies of traditional Spanish machismo, which allowed children of Spanish men born abroad to claim nationality but not those of women who married foreigners. It also allows the grandchildren of exiles or emigrants to claim nationality if they themselves have resided in Spain for more than a year.

The new measure has gone largely unremarked upon in Spain, which is beginning to get used to the idea that its economy will need the labour of millions of new immigrants.

www.startribune.com Fabiola Sanchez Associated Press Published Jan. 21, 2003 VENE21 

CARACAS, VENEZUELA -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter renewed efforts to mediate Venezuela's political crisis Monday even as violence surged between supporters and opponents of President Hugo Chavez. Gunfire during a protest march left one dead and 15 wounded, officials said.

Miranda state Gov. Enrique Mendoza, a Chavez opponent, said Chavez supporters attacked an opposition march in Charallave, about 20 miles south of Caracas, on the 50th day of a strike to unseat Chavez.

Raul Gonzalez, 38, said he and other Chavez supporters blocked a road as opposition marchers approached and both sides began throwing rocks and bottles.

"There were shots from all over. Everything was in confusion," Gonzalez said at an area hospital, where he was being treated for a bullet wound in his leg. He said he didn't know where the gunfire came from.

Opposition marcher Mayordina Morales, 52, said both sides were throwing objects at each other when police started shooting.

Officials identified the fatality as Carlos Garcia, about 30 years old.

Fifteen people were wounded by gunfire, said Milagros Toro, an official with the state epidemiology department. Twelve people incurred other injuries.

Six people have died in protests since Venezuela's opposition called the strike Dec. 2, crippling the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.

Carter met with Chavez, opposition figures and Cesar Gaviria, secretary-general of the Organization of American States (OAS). Gaviria has tried since November to mediate an electoral solution to the crisis.

"I have always hoped for a resolution, and I hope there will be one," said Carter, who was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. His Atlanta-based Carter Center is sponsoring the talks with the OAS and the United Nations.

Chavez has threatened to abandon the talks. On Sunday, he accused the opposition of trying to oust him even as its leaders sat at the negotiating table.

The National Elections Council has agreed to organize a Feb. 2 nonbinding referendum asking citizens whether Chavez should step down.

Chavez says the constitution only allows a binding referendum halfway through his six-year-term in August. The Supreme Court is considering the matter.

www.granma.cu BY JOAQUIN ORAMAS

THE threat of U.S. military aggression against Iraq and the situation in Venezuela provoked by a pro-U.S. opposition are the main focuses of attention for thousands of participants at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and the World Economic Forum, Davos. In a clash of interests, both meetings are taking place on January 23-28.

Tens of thousands of party leaders, non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) and other sectors are meeting in the Brazilian city, matched by an equal number of businesspeople representing the huge corporations taking part at the other meeting in the Swiss mountain tourist resort. All of them will be analyzing the international economic situation from their own point of view, but through a fundamental prism: Will there be war in the Middle East in the next few weeks? How can we deal with a situation originating with an increase in oil prices, given the consequences of the Bush administration’ threats against that Arab country and the opposition’s destabilizing campaign aimed at the Venezuelan government?

This time, the Davos and Porto Alegre camps will be in agreement that the acute crisis in the world economy was dangerously increasing even before the destruction of the Twin Towers.

Capitalists gathered in the Swiss ski resort will not be able todisguise that reality after the collapse of the Argentine economy, the U.S. Federal reserve’s consecutive and unheard of series of 11 cuts in interest rate, and the alarming situation facing Japan, where the economy has been stagnant for the last few years.

These will not be the only topics at the two forums, but the dangers that war and oil bring with them are so grave and universal that the negative consequences for everyone mean that the problems must be thoroughly analyzed.

Because if the great capitalist bloc is going to be discussing markets and investments in Davos, then it cannot avoid the damage to and loss of confidence in investments and other factors that enter into such negotiations.

In the conclave of the powerful, the United States will reiterate its official refusal to reduce its strategic oil reserves (600 million barrels) vis-à-vis the crisis in the supply of that resource and high prices. But that will not halt the lack of confidence.

Meanwhile, at the Brazilian forum, voices demanding measures enabling millions of people to receive the food they lack are becoming even louder.

Currently, hunger and poverty - the main enemies of Latin America and the Caribbean - are the consequences of erroneous national policies, successive international economic crises and U.S. restrictions on agricultural exports. These problems figure among the main causes of poverty for 65% of the region’s 516 million inhabitants, causing extreme poverty for 38% and malnutrition for 11%.

But this data, contained in a report from last June’s World Food Summit, excludes increased hunger in Latin America, a continent that over the last few years has been punished by earthquakes, hurricanes, drought and the level of its respective governments’ political and administrative corruption.

Haiti, where 62% of the population is suffering from hunger, must also be added to the list of countries experiencing serious economic problems. In Colombia and Peru, hunger affects one out of every four persons; in Mexico, 40 million out of a total population of 100,000 inhabitants suffer some degree of malnutrition in infancy.

The Latin American and Caribbean continent is no longer the main recipient for international aid. The end of 2002 saw the fifth year of low growth rate in the region, with a fall in GDP production to 0.1%; high inflation; and 9.1% unemployment: 50% of the workforce had no steady jobs.

Nor are there any sustainable regional or governmental projects to confront this scourge. The only exception is Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s Zero Hunger Program, the first measure taken by his government after his January 1 investiture.

Lula’s plan is a completely new idea in Latin America; it is an attempt not only to overcome hunger in Brazil, but also inaugurates sustainable programs with a view to creating employment and areas of production benefiting the poor.

The goal of the Zero Hunger Program is for those 22 million Brazilians affected by poverty to eat three meals per day within the next four years; a number that the independent Brazilian Forum for Food Security intends to double, equaling 16% of the country’s inhabitants.

Twenty-one lines of action combining structural policies such as agrarian reform and extending social provision to illegal workers have been developed, plus other specific and local plans including distributing food coupons and increasing snacks for school pupils.

The Brazilian leader is the only president attending both important international events in Porto Alegre and Davos, and he plans to inaugurate the former. Some 100,000 participants are expected, comprising trade union leaders, representatives from ethnic groups, NGO’s, political parties, and others.

The Porto Alegre forum is to discuss the situation created by the region’s poverty, advances in the battle against neoliberal globalization, development of environmental awareness and protest against the U.S. war campaign under the pretext of combating terror.

An essential aspect of the Brazilian agenda is the problems resulting from the region’s poverty. The topic has been suggested by different international organizations such as the World Food Program (WFP), which confirmed in 2002 that some 72 million Latin American and Caribbean citizens are in extreme need of foodstuffs and suffering from hunger, a situation that is set to worsen this year.

Among the important issues that analysts consider priorities is the threat of hunger affecting more than 200 million of the region’s inhabitants who are vulnerable to the announced worsening of the economy or to fresh natural disasters.

According to World Food Summit reports, Central America’s hungry population has grown from 17% to 19% over the last ten years; Caribbean figures show a rise of 26% to 28%. In the last 10 years, some 200 Central American children died of starvation, and over eight million people are affected in the poorest and most arid areas of the Isthmus.

Paradoxically, Latin America and the Caribbean contain 25% of the world’s cultivatable land, 23% of its livestock and around 30% of potable water reserves, according to UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) experts.

Via sustainable development, these resources could be used to obtain food for all the region’s inhabitants and provide hard currency and sources for developing other economic sectors, adds the FAO.

Argentina, for example, produces enough food for 300 million - 12 times the country’s population. However, hunger is chronic in the poorest communities and, after the December 21 debacle, things are becoming worse and moving into other social strata.

The nation’s state-run National Statistics and Census Institute (Indec) indicates that more than 52% of the 37 million Argentines are poor and 26% are extremely poor, that is to say do not have the minimum income needed to survive.

The most dramatic cases are found in the infant population. Indec data from 2001 indicates that every year, 11,000 under-ones die in Argentina. But 6,000 of these deaths are preventable - they are linked to poverty-induced diseases such as malnutrition and diarrhea.

The situation can only be compared with the consequences of a “war or natural disaster” despite the fact that neither situation is occurring in any of the region’s countries, pointed out Pablo Vincur, UN Development Program (UNDP) advisor.

The profound Argentine crisis has affected its neighbor Uruguay. Although the latter nation is an excellent food producer, there are currently severe problems of hunger in its infant population, 60% of whom live in poor homes.

Analysts reveal that Uruguayan food centers sponsored by non-governmental and religious groups and subsidized by international organizations have quadrupled in the last six year. That makes it certain that Porto Alegre will also be the venue for denunciations from the NGO’s of the nation once dubbed the Switzerland of the Americas and now another victim of neoliberalism.

www.granma.cu BY JOAQUIN ORAMAS

THE threat of U.S. military aggression against Iraq and the situation in Venezuela provoked by a pro-U.S. opposition are the main focuses of attention for thousands of participants at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and the World Economic Forum, Davos. In a clash of interests, both meetings are taking place on January 23-28.

Tens of thousands of party leaders, non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) and other sectors are meeting in the Brazilian city, matched by an equal number of businesspeople representing the huge corporations taking part at the other meeting in the Swiss mountain tourist resort. All of them will be analyzing the international economic situation from their own point of view, but through a fundamental prism: Will there be war in the Middle East in the next few weeks? How can we deal with a situation originating with an increase in oil prices, given the consequences of the Bush administration’ threats against that Arab country and the opposition’s destabilizing campaign aimed at the Venezuelan government?

This time, the Davos and Porto Alegre camps will be in agreement that the acute crisis in the world economy was dangerously increasing even before the destruction of the Twin Towers.

Capitalists gathered in the Swiss ski resort will not be able todisguise that reality after the collapse of the Argentine economy, the U.S. Federal reserve’s consecutive and unheard of series of 11 cuts in interest rate, and the alarming situation facing Japan, where the economy has been stagnant for the last few years.

These will not be the only topics at the two forums, but the dangers that war and oil bring with them are so grave and universal that the negative consequences for everyone mean that the problems must be thoroughly analyzed.

Because if the great capitalist bloc is going to be discussing markets and investments in Davos, then it cannot avoid the damage to and loss of confidence in investments and other factors that enter into such negotiations.

In the conclave of the powerful, the United States will reiterate its official refusal to reduce its strategic oil reserves (600 million barrels) vis-à-vis the crisis in the supply of that resource and high prices. But that will not halt the lack of confidence.

Meanwhile, at the Brazilian forum, voices demanding measures enabling millions of people to receive the food they lack are becoming even louder.

Currently, hunger and poverty - the main enemies of Latin America and the Caribbean - are the consequences of erroneous national policies, successive international economic crises and U.S. restrictions on agricultural exports. These problems figure among the main causes of poverty for 65% of the region’s 516 million inhabitants, causing extreme poverty for 38% and malnutrition for 11%.

But this data, contained in a report from last June’s World Food Summit, excludes increased hunger in Latin America, a continent that over the last few years has been punished by earthquakes, hurricanes, drought and the level of its respective governments’ political and administrative corruption.

Haiti, where 62% of the population is suffering from hunger, must also be added to the list of countries experiencing serious economic problems. In Colombia and Peru, hunger affects one out of every four persons; in Mexico, 40 million out of a total population of 100,000 inhabitants suffer some degree of malnutrition in infancy.

The Latin American and Caribbean continent is no longer the main recipient for international aid. The end of 2002 saw the fifth year of low growth rate in the region, with a fall in GDP production to 0.1%; high inflation; and 9.1% unemployment: 50% of the workforce had no steady jobs.

Nor are there any sustainable regional or governmental projects to confront this scourge. The only exception is Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s Zero Hunger Program, the first measure taken by his government after his January 1 investiture.

Lula’s plan is a completely new idea in Latin America; it is an attempt not only to overcome hunger in Brazil, but also inaugurates sustainable programs with a view to creating employment and areas of production benefiting the poor.

The goal of the Zero Hunger Program is for those 22 million Brazilians affected by poverty to eat three meals per day within the next four years; a number that the independent Brazilian Forum for Food Security intends to double, equaling 16% of the country’s inhabitants.

Twenty-one lines of action combining structural policies such as agrarian reform and extending social provision to illegal workers have been developed, plus other specific and local plans including distributing food coupons and increasing snacks for school pupils.

The Brazilian leader is the only president attending both important international events in Porto Alegre and Davos, and he plans to inaugurate the former. Some 100,000 participants are expected, comprising trade union leaders, representatives from ethnic groups, NGO’s, political parties, and others.

The Porto Alegre forum is to discuss the situation created by the region’s poverty, advances in the battle against neoliberal globalization, development of environmental awareness and protest against the U.S. war campaign under the pretext of combating terror.

An essential aspect of the Brazilian agenda is the problems resulting from the region’s poverty. The topic has been suggested by different international organizations such as the World Food Program (WFP), which confirmed in 2002 that some 72 million Latin American and Caribbean citizens are in extreme need of foodstuffs and suffering from hunger, a situation that is set to worsen this year.

Among the important issues that analysts consider priorities is the threat of hunger affecting more than 200 million of the region’s inhabitants who are vulnerable to the announced worsening of the economy or to fresh natural disasters.

According to World Food Summit reports, Central America’s hungry population has grown from 17% to 19% over the last ten years; Caribbean figures show a rise of 26% to 28%. In the last 10 years, some 200 Central American children died of starvation, and over eight million people are affected in the poorest and most arid areas of the Isthmus.

Paradoxically, Latin America and the Caribbean contain 25% of the world’s cultivatable land, 23% of its livestock and around 30% of potable water reserves, according to UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) experts.

Via sustainable development, these resources could be used to obtain food for all the region’s inhabitants and provide hard currency and sources for developing other economic sectors, adds the FAO.

Argentina, for example, produces enough food for 300 million - 12 times the country’s population. However, hunger is chronic in the poorest communities and, after the December 21 debacle, things are becoming worse and moving into other social strata.

The nation’s state-run National Statistics and Census Institute (Indec) indicates that more than 52% of the 37 million Argentines are poor and 26% are extremely poor, that is to say do not have the minimum income needed to survive.

The most dramatic cases are found in the infant population. Indec data from 2001 indicates that every year, 11,000 under-ones die in Argentina. But 6,000 of these deaths are preventable - they are linked to poverty-induced diseases such as malnutrition and diarrhea.

The situation can only be compared with the consequences of a “war or natural disaster” despite the fact that neither situation is occurring in any of the region’s countries, pointed out Pablo Vincur, UN Development Program (UNDP) advisor.

The profound Argentine crisis has affected its neighbor Uruguay. Although the latter nation is an excellent food producer, there are currently severe problems of hunger in its infant population, 60% of whom live in poor homes.

Analysts reveal that Uruguayan food centers sponsored by non-governmental and religious groups and subsidized by international organizations have quadrupled in the last six year. That makes it certain that Porto Alegre will also be the venue for denunciations from the NGO’s of the nation once dubbed the Switzerland of the Americas and now another victim of neoliberalism.