Posted on Sun, May. 04, 2003 From Herald Wire Services

BOGOTA - Colombian rebels were transporting drugs, injured comrades and kidnap victims in four airplanes seized by authorities earlier this week, RCN television station reported Saturday.

Police officers and soldiers discovered the Cessna airplanes on Thursday during raids throughout eastern Arauca state near the border with Venezuela.

The planes allegedly belonged to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

The rebels also were using the planes to transport commanders and money to bribe local officials, RCN reported. Officials reached Saturday from the army, police and the attorney general's office could not confirm the report.

Last year, soldiers destroyed an aircraft packed with explosives that allegedly belonged to the FARC.

Authorities also believe the rebels could be using stolen helicopters in their nearly four-decade insurgency against the government.

JAMAICA

ANGRY CROWD SETS FIRES

TO PROTEST BOY'S DEATH

MONTEGO BAY -- Angered by the killing of a 14-year-old boy by police, a crowd of residents set fire to four buildings Saturday as they took to the streets of a town in western Jamaica, police said.

The boy, Omari Wedderburn, was shot by police Friday night in Negril, which is fringed with some of the Caribbean country's premiere tourist resorts. The next day, more than 300 people gathered to protest, police said.

The crowd had largely dispersed by Saturday night, but some were still blocking roads, police said. During the day, protesters' road blocks forced police to divert traffic.

BRAZIL

SWAT TEAM HUNTS

SUSPECTS IN JUNGLE

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Police SWAT teams scoured back roads of the Amazon jungle Saturday searching for some 30 armed men who held up two banks, took several customers hostage and terrorized a northern Brazilian city, authorities said.

The suspected robbers fled Friday with five hostages from the eastern Amazon city of Redencao, police spokesman Sidney Dantas said by telephone.

The hostages later were released unharmed. Police recovered the two pickup trucks used in the getaway, Dantas said.

VENEZUELA

RIGHTS GROUP BLAMES

VIOLENCE ON LAX SYSTEM

CARACAS -- A leading rights group said Saturday that the country's lax justice system has contributed to rising political violence.

The group, which called itself Cofavic, condemned the slayings of Jorge Nieves and Ricardo Herrera, who were killed during a May Day march in Caracas.

Since April 2002, ''57 people have been killed and over 300 injured by gunfire in a context of political violence,'' Cofavic said in a statement.

It said the violence has been characterized by ''total impunity,'' because those responsible for the aggression are rarely brought to justice.

• Souza Cruz, one of the five most powerful groups in Brazil, commemorates its centenary by opening in Rio Grande do Sul the largest cutting-edge cigarette factory in Latin America, and whose importance has embraced governors and entrepreneurs in a climate of confidence which, four months into the Workers Party government, ranges from the particular to the general

BY GABRIEL MOLINA granma

PORTO ALEGRE.— The centenary of the powerful Souza Cruz (SC) cigarette company has had an unexpected result: the coming together of the federal government and Brazilians of one state with an entrepreneurial interest, which has revealed itself as a common one, and goes far further.

Statements from key Brazilian representatives at the opening of the giant cigarette factory in this city, coinciding with the company’s centenary, opened up promising prospects. Flavio de Andrade, president of Souza Bravo; Germano Ribotto, governor of Rio Grande do Sul, from the opposition PSBD; and PT leader Jacques Wagner, minister of Labor and Employment, representing President Lula, characterized — at least for now — a distinct dynamic in the Brazilian political process, given the chaos created in Venezuela on account of the conflict between the government and the entrepreneurs federation, allied to foreign forces and the opposition, still fresh in people’s memory.

Lula apologized for not attending as he had to receive President Chávez in Pernambuco for a six-hour meeting that day, involving 10 Brazilian and eight Venezuelan ministers; the presidents of PetroBras and the PVDSA; Jarbas Vasconcelos (PMDB), the governor of Pernambuco; and Joao Julio of the PT, the mayor of Recife.

"How I envy you," Chávez told Lulu, according to the Zero Hora daily, "because with the political radicalization in Venezuela, it’s almost impossible to meet with governors."

The contemporary plant project was initiated in 1997, in the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, with Antoni Britto, then governor of the state, who fought hard for its construction there. Anthony Garotinho, the subsequent governor and current government minister, continued its work. The project was finally inaugurated during the term of the third governor, Germano Rigotto.

BRITISH TOBACCO COMPANY PRESIDENT PREFERS CUBAN CIGARS

At a lively press conference given by Andrade on the eve of the inauguration, the industrialist announced that the next morning, April 26, the Souza Cruz Company would celebrate its 100th anniversary by inaugurating Latin America’s most modern tobacco plant in the Cachoeirinha municipality, 30 kilometers from Porto Alegre, capital of Río Grande do Sur.

Martin Broughton, president of the British Tobacco Company, informed the press at the inaugural reception that the new plant is the world’s oldest and most modern tobacco production center.

In response to criticisms concerning smoking, Broughton commented that he never smokes cigarettes, only cigars. He enjoys a Cuban cigar at night after a good meal and believes in the Group’s public statement that smoking is a personal matter.

Flavio de Andrade spoke to journalists of his firm’s plans and the difficulties he has had to confront. For example, he underscored the company’s losses due to fraudulent brands coming out of Asian countries. Since 1998, the company has also incurred losses due to contraband from Paraguay and Uruguay. A third of the 150 billion cigarettes sold annually in the country are illegal. For this very reason, not only have producers been hit hard, to the tune of $466 million USD, but so has the state. In the final analysis, smugglers have out-maneuvered the tax office and reduced its income.

On the other hand, the high taxes recommended by the World Health Organization to reduce consumption have produced a doubling of cigarette prices over the last three years. Andrade pointed out that raising taxes doesn’t really solve the health problem associated with smoking, but rather forces consumers to buy the product at lower prices on the black market. Nevertheless, Brazil has displaced the United States as the world’s main cigarette exporter. In 2002, Brazil exported 472 million tons, 26% of Brazil’s export total, in comparison with 185 million tons from the United States, also hit by price rises.

He added the counterbalance to tax increases in Brazil would be to facilitate beneficial negotiations and operations for the Rio Grande do Sur government and the S.C.

THE TREASURY AND PRIVATE ENTERPRISE NEED TO FIGHT CONTRABAND TOGETHER

Andrade also explained the difficulties the company is facing in making an complementary investment of a further 500 million reales (more than $166 million USD), along with federal and state aid, to construct a research center in Rio Grande do Sur. The institution will constitute one of the British corporation’s four most important world research centers.

The recent inauguration of the project in Cachoeirinha, an underdeveloped town in Porto Alegre, involved state participation through the now defunct Enterprises Operation Fund. A new form of investment funding is currently being debated in the Legislative Assembly, which only renounces one part of the future taxation recipe, such as rates on the circulation of merchandise and services.

That aid would serve as an example of the beneficial operations mentioned, given that the new plant’s original project, involving an increased production capacity of 80-100 billion cigarettes annually, was reduced to 45 billion due the previously discussed economic problems. Only a successful campaign against contraband, added Andrade, can bring product production capacity up to its original figure, as there are currently idle capacities in the cigarette-manufacturing complex.

Souza Cruz’s president opened the lavish celebration for 2,000 guests by describing negotiations in progress with Governor Irgotto regarding the awaited funding as "very advanced." While he left his audience in suspense on their reach, he did reiterate his denouncement of contraband, which he called disloyal competition. He highlighted how profits garnered from the taxes collected by the Treasury could be invested in schools, housing and hospitals.

SOUSA CRUZ SUPPORTS LULA PLAN TO PAY TREASURY OVER HALF OF PROFITS

Financial statistics offered by SC on the tax issue are impressive. As one of the top five private Brazilian enterprises, SC makes over 6.1 billion reales annually (some $2 billion USD), of which 3.3 billion goes to the Treasury, over half. The firm employs 4,500 people directly, and 380,000 indirectly.

Andrade noted the common interests between his company and those of the Brazilian government, such as the fight against illegality soon be initiated by the government. He supported Lula’s calls to advance tax, social and educational reforms. He added that the Zero Hunger Program requires the backing of all Brazilians and revealed that Souza Cruz plans to donate 1,200 tons of food per year.

"We going to make the impossible possible, as Lula says," he stated emphatically.

The SC president likewise referred to the group’s concern for the environment, confirmed by the decision to use only 10% of the project surface area for actual factory space taking up only 208 hectares. The remaining area will be used for an ecological park dedicated to regional wildlife preservation.

In his speech, Germano Rigotto, the Rio Grande do Sul governor alluded to by Andrade, stated that he would not measure efforts to transform Souza Cruz’s intentions into reality in his state. He added that the decision would lend continuity to the logic of recent investments by the group in the country.

He also lauded community integration by the SC group, its social and educational programs, highlighting the chain as one of the best articulated and consolidated within the state, operating directly with 45,000 families of small gaucho farmers.

For Rigotto, one of his government’s main actions consists in strengthening existing productive chains and organizing new ones "as a way of overcoming difficulties, integrating efforts, destroying obstacles and promoting a fair repartition of operational results."

GOVERNORS CAN HELP CONSIDERABLY IN THE TRANSFORMATION OF SOCIETY

Rigotto added that he has reinforced his defense of the tax reforms proposed by the federal government, a position to be transmitted to Lula by his labor and employment minister, present at the act. Just before, he stated to the press that state governors could play a large role in aiding the president in the transformation of society.

In his speech, he added that the Tax Reform mechanism would be used in terms of the investment in question as soon as possible. He also stated that actions are being integrated among federal and state public ministries, as well as both security apparatuses, to combat piracy and contraband.

In a brief interview with Granma International, Rigotto characterized as attractive economic and social relations between Cuba and Rio Grande do Sur, a veritable country in extension, population and resources, and asked Andrade to arrange a possible trip to Cuba to that effect.

In relation to the federal giant, Brazil, Minister Jacques Wagner also evaluated for Granma International the theme of Cuba, a country he has visited various times, affirming that the relations of friendship and affection with the Cuban people open up wide-ranging prospects of increasing economic and trade relations.

Addressing the opening event, Wagner highlighted the importance of having attained such an important project, initiated by the state governor in 1997 and concluded by another governor from a different political party, which he described as a display of democratic stability.

On behalf of the Brazilian president, Wagner greeted the president of the British Tobacco Company’s administration council, thanked Andrade for his public commitment to the Zero Hunger Program and expressed his desire for greater support from the SC for this and other social programs.

He also reiterated the government’s commitment to combating contraband cigarettes, drinks and other illegalities.

"I want to give you the good news that the factory’s expansion will be necessary when the fight against contraband begins to show results," he concluded.

TRUST SUBSTITUTES FEARS

In light of the elections four months ago, bringing to power the first leftist politician in Brazil, the events at Porto Alegre represent a tangible climate of trust, as opposed to fear, by the private sector in relation to investment.

Mainstream newspaper headlines have reported on the strength of the Brazilian currency, calling it an excellent sign. At the end of April, the real rose to three to the U.S. dollar.

On April 16, the U.S. news agency AP affirmed from Sao Paulo that hardly anyone now believes that the Brazilian economy will become uncontrollable like that of neighboring country Argentina. It added that last year, the situation in Brazil came close to doing so when investors’ fears over the possibility that da Silva would gain the presidency made the local currency fall by 35% against the dollar, encouraging national and international investors to withdraw thousands and thousands of dollars from the country. The dispatch continued by describing how even the International Monetary Fund is praising the former trade union leader.

No matter what, Lula is facing an imposing challenge. The Economist states that the president has been obliged to modify government employees’ pensions perceived by some as the most generous in the world. Lula is seeking a consensus for tax and other reforms that some persons in his own ranks are unsure of.

Organized crime — fed by fabulous sums from drug trafficking — has declared war in reprisal for the anti-corruption measures.

The authorities have named Fernandinho Baira-Mar as responsible for planting explosives in Rio. He is running his drugs business from prison, using a cell phone. After he was transferred to a higher-security prison, two judges were assassinated in March: Antonio José Machadao Dias from Sao Paulo and Alexandre Martins de Castro, from Espirito Santo.

Meanwhile, observers note how Brazil has taken on a role that corresponds to its importance, filling the vacuum that others have left empty.

Its steps are balanced, yet firm. This Souza Cruz centenary, in the words of its president Flavio de Andrade, "born in Rio de Janeiro but with a Gaucho heart," was impressive and I admired the organizational level, free from any failings. The only thing that I missed was not having seen and heard any samba. Not even that created especially for the occasion by Gilberto Silva. I had to put up with seeing good Irish rock Beatles-style at the Cardápio Cherry Blues. I hope that this isn’t symbolic, Allah willing.

newsobserver.com Saturday, May 3, 2003 12:00AM EDT By JOHN ZEBROWSKI, Staff Writer

ZEBULON -- The voice of Ismael Quintana, better known as Pico de Oro to the listeners of La Super Mexicana radio, comes at a furious pace, an excited stream of words touching on everything from pop singers to sports to the rising temperature outside. He speaks in Spanish, but even someone with no understanding of the language can pick up on certain phrases: enfermedades transmitida sexualmente, prevencion de abuso infantil, sifilis.

Then, there's this: Wake County Human Services.

It's 2 p.m. and this week's topic is about how mothers deal with unruly children. Quintana introduces his guest, a petite woman originally from Venezuela named Niosoty Baptista Paparella, a county especialista de salud mental (or mental health specialist). He asks her how parents should discipline their children.

"It isn't just about punishing children," Paparella said. "Some people think that discipline is to beat the children. We need to understand that children aren't property."

The show goes on for nearly 45 minutes, as mothers call in and Paparella gives advice and plugs the services offered by Wake County for the growing Latino population. Each Wednesday, a different expert on women's health sits in the cramped studio of WETC, a 15,000-watt AM station that can be heard throughout central North Carolina and southern Virginia.

Future up in air

The half-hour program runs through September, when its future becomes uncertain. The March of Dimes, which has provided the $10,000 budget the past three years, is looking for other sponsors to help fund the show.

For Wake County, the show is part of a push to better reach the Latino population, which is often kept by language and cultural barriers from using county services.

Over the past decade, the number of Latinos in Wake grew more than five-fold to nearly 35,000, outstripping the county's ability to provide the necessary help. To catch up, Human Services has hired interpreters and printed health materials in Spanish. Each year brings greater focus on Latino health issues.

But it still isn't enough, said Maria Robayo, a county public health educator who produces "En el Aire" ("On the Air"), as the program is called. Robayo was raised in Colombia and has lived in North Carolina for four years. She assigns the topics -- diabetes, hypertension, child immunization, depression -- for each week, books the guests and tries to direct them to the one-story cinderblock studio, which sits underneath four huge radio antennas in a clearing about a half-mile down a narrow dirt track from Riley Hill Road.

Robayo is also a presenter, doing two shows on sexually transmitted diseases. After her first program in March, which focused on gonorrhea and chlamydia she said about 60 people called her office seeking advice. "The response was wonderful, but it shows that people are looking for help and don't know where to go," Robayo said.

Radio a connection

For many Latinos spread around the Triangle, life is an isolated rural existence without the community support English-speaking residents take for granted. Even something as basic as watching television is complicated by the fact Spanish-language channels are available only through satellite or cable systems.

Wake Human Services works with local print media such as the Spanish-language newspaper La Conexion. But, said Martha Olaya-Crowley, Human Services' director of project management and development, the fact many area Latinos are poorly educated makes radio the best way to reach people. She said it is no coincidence that a popular English-language FM station in Raleigh recently converted to Spanish.

"People really rely on Spanish radio to stay informed," she said. "They can call in and ask a question and get an immediate response. You can hear how much they appreciate this."

On this afternoon, the caller is Maria, a mother of two whose husband abandoned her. When Maria was young, she said her own parents used to beat her. Now, she treats her own daughters roughly.

"I realize listening to you that how I'm acting is wrong," she told Paparella. "I don't want my children to be afraid of me. How can I be a more loving mother to my children?"

Robayo smiled as Paparella responded by congratulating Maria for wanting to change her behavior and telling the young mother about the classes on parenting she teaches. Each week Robayo said a similar scene is repeated over the airwaves, with women who have felt alone in a new and frightening place making contact with people who understand them.

With Univision, the national Spanish-language cable network, announcing it will soon broadcast a statewide local channel from Charlotte, Robayo is working with other counties' public health officials to see if they can pool resources to create a similar program for the television.

"We do that," she said as the phone in the studio rang with another question, "and we can help even more people."

Staff writer John Zebrowski can be reached at 829-4841 or jzebrows@newsobserver.com.

<a href=www.sfgate.com>SFGate.com Friday, May 2, 2003
(05-0) 16:39 PDT MEXICO CITY (AP) --

Mexican stocks closed higher in active trade Friday despite a semi-holiday trading atmosphere.

The market's key IPC index closed up 81.04 points or 1.2 percent to 6,590.92. Volume totaled 83.8 million shares traded worth 1.01 billion pesos (10.20 per dollar).

Heavy trading in broadcaster TV Azteca accounted for more than 30 percent of the volume on a day when many traders were absent between a Thursday holiday and the weekend.

TV Azteca CPOs rose 1.9 percent to 3.73 pesos with 27.4 million shares traded, apparently due to plans for a US$140 million this year.

Wireless communications company America Movil's L shares gained 3.6 percent to 6.39, phone operator Telmex's L shares rose 3.1 percent to 16.08 and retailer Comercial Mexicana's UBC shares advanced 2.2 percent to 6.39.

Losing ground were shares in retailer Elektra, which dipped 0.8 percent to 27.65.

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- Brazil's stock prices rose Friday as the country's C-bond hit levels unseen since the mid-1990s and the trade surplus for April came in at its widest point ever.

The main Sao Paulo index finished 2.0 percent ahead at 12,810 points compared with 12,556 points at Wednesday's close. The market was closed Thursday.

A lower outlook for inflation encouraged most investors. Brazil's benchmark C-bond, its most liquid foreign debt instrument, rose to 89 percent of face value and debt spreads measured by the J.P. Morgan EBMI+ index fell Friday.

The real, however, fell about 1.7 percent after a week of big gains.

Bellwether Telemar rose 4.3 percent to 32.55 reals (2.96 per dollar) after first-quarter results showed fast growth in its wireless unit but a wider-than-expected loss.

Eletropaulo's shares lost 4.1 percent after news the AES unit again failed to resolve debt talks with the national development bank.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- Despite plummeting 8.6 percent Monday, the large-cap Merval Index rose Friday to end almost flat from its close of a week ago.

The Merval climbed 3.5 percent, or 22.30 points, closing at 658.25 points Friday. The broader General Index was up by 2.5 percent, or 738.32 points, at 30,121.98 points.

Banco Frances was up 2.9 percent at 5.35 pesos (2.795 per dollar). Grupo Financiero Galicia was up 4.0 percent at 87.6 centavos.

Steel firm Acindar was up 5.3 percent to 1.80. Carmaker Renault soared 6.0 percent to 1.59.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- Blue-chip share prices on the Santiago Stock Exchange closed sharply higher again Friday after positive earnings reports.

Chile's blue-chip Ipsa index rose 1.8 percent to 1,184.35 points from 1,164.12 Wednesday. The narrower Inter-10 index of more liquid internationally traded Chilean shares rose 2 percent to 115.86 from 113.59.

Volume dropped to 20.00 billion pesos (698.30 per dollar).

Airline LanChile jumped 12 percent to 1,120.00 pesos after rising 13.4 percent Wednesday. Retailer D&S rose 6.0 percent to 530.01.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuelan shares ended mostly unchanged Friday in thin trade with investors out of town for a long weekend.

The IBC General Stock Index closed at 8,594 points, down 37 points, or about 0.43 percent, in an equivalent of about US$60,000 in total trades.

The market's biggest stock, CA Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela gained 15 bolivars (1,598 per dollar) to close at 2,420.

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."