<a href=www.zwire.com>United Press International. April 04, 2003

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 04, 2003 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Brazil's state-run oil company is facing new hurdles in its proposed purchase of an Argentine energy firm, which would be one of Latin America's largest acquisitions in the past year. The Argentine government -- including President Eduardo Duhalde -- has been opposed to the deal, and the fight is taking on political undertones.

A ruling by an Argentine antitrust body regarding the majority-stake, $1.03 billion sale of Perez Companc to Brazil's Petrobras has been delayed and is now not expected for weeks.

But Duhalde and his team have been clucking ever more loudly in the past week, raising concerns of a Brazilian monopoly of key sectors within Argentina's borders.

A government spokesman told reporters that Duhalde informed top Perez Companc officials during a Thursday phone call that he disapproved of the sale.

Of particular concern to Duhalde and other members of government is a 32.5-percent share of the electricity distributor Transener that Petrobras would take if the deal went through as is.

Transener -- Argentina's largest supplier of high-voltage electricity -- is vital within "a strategic sector for the development of national industry," Duhalde told the company officials, according to presidential spokesman Luis Verdi.

A cynical Argentina watcher -- of whom there are a few -- might also note that this battle for national industrial pride is coming just three weeks before a presidential election.

Duhalde, not wanting to see yet another huge domestic company fall into the hands of foreigners, might just be drawing a line in the sand, at least one that won't blow away until after he sees his hand-picked successor elected on April 27.

Additionally, critics of Duhalde say his posturing is hypocritical, considering that more than 30 percent of Transener is already controlled by the U.K.'s National Grid.

Anibal Fernandez, Argentina's minister of production, told the La Nacion newspaper Friday that the government will emit a strong statement against the sale of the Transener stake next week.

He hinted that the government may expand its opposition to the deal as a whole, again citing control of a vital sector being in the hands of foreign company which is itself controlled by a foreign government.

It was last October that Petrobras announced it would pay $1.03 billion in cash and debt for a 58.6 percent share of Perez Companc.

The sale would transfer to Petrobras control of Perez Companc's vast holdings in the gas, oil and electricity sectors within Argentina, as well as Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador.

Argentine officials also point out that Perez's 38 percent stake in natural gas distributor Transportador de Gas del Sur would also end up in Petrobras' hands.

Duhalde has criticized the Petrobras deal before.

He registered concerns during a January visit to Brazil when he met with then newly elected President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

But Lula rejected arguments against the deal, according to Argentine officials, saying that the sale of Perez Companc shouldn't have restrictions placed on it.

But with the Argentine elections so close and growing political voices crying foul on the Petrobras buy, it is clear that Duhalde's team would like to see the deal disappear for some time, analysts say.

Fernandez told La Nacion that government officials are working hard to find a legal way to block at least the Transener part of the deal, which would make Petrobras Argentina's leading electricity distributor, according to the government.

Or alternatively, Fernandez said, Perez Companc could sell the stake in Transener to a domestic company.

Which likely gets a bit closer to the heart of the matter.

There has been speculation in the Argentine press that officials from other domestic energy companies -- Techint, Pescarmona, and Roggio & Cartellone -- are pressuring Duhalde to force Perez Companc to sell Transener to one of them.

None of those three companies has officially voiced any interest in Transener.

For now, the Rio de Janeiro-based Petrobras and Perez Companc officials are remaining silent on the troubles their deal is facing.

But Eloi Rodrigues de Almeida, president of Grupo Brasil, which represents Brazilian business interests in Argentina, said he thought the deal would win out in the end.

He chalked up Duhalde's opposition to the Petrobras deal as being payback for other business battles between Argentina and Brazil, namely recent scrapes over the trade of sugar and wheat.

"If a company wants to sell, who can stop it?" he said.

By BRADLEY BROOKS, UPI Business Correspondent

By Jon Jeter Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, March 31, 2003; Page A08

Failure of Political Parties to Address Economic Crisis Fuels a Deeply Rooted Cynicism

BUENOS AIRES -- "Who will I vote for?" Alberto Dima repeats the question with a tone of bemusement as he sits in the barber's chair. "I am torn," he says, "between Shaquille O'Neal and Homer Simpson."

"No, no," Omar Menendez says as he trims Dima's thick beard. "Bart Simpson. I like Bart Simpson for president." Menendez lifts the scissors for a moment and turns to his partner, Guillermo Fonzi, awaiting customers in the chair next to him. "Guillermo, who will you vote for for president?"

"You are both crazy," replies Fonzi without lifting his gaze from a magazine. "I am voting for Clemente," referring to a popular cartoon character here.

"Ah, this country," he adds with disgust. "We have this horrible economic crisis and our politicians give us nothing but clowns and crooks to choose from for our next president."

Perhaps the most jarring element of the gravest economic crisis this country has ever known is a lack of faith among Argentines in their politicians' willingness or ability to help. With less than a month left before they go to the polls to choose a new president, voters responding to public opinion polls here show only contempt and indifference toward the five front-running presidential candidates.

"People were angry initially," said Victor Abramovich, executive director of the Center for Legal and Social Studies. "But we've seen that anger dissolve into disgust and that disgust dissolve into apathy. There is this abiding cynicism in most of our politicians, our political parties, virtually all of our democratic institutions. People don't believe that they are going to make their lives better and you're really seeing this revolution of indifference in Argentina."

So far, no one candidate has been able to muster as much as 20 percent of voter support in any published opinion poll. According to election rules, a candidate must capture at least 46 percent of the vote or outdistance the next closest candidate by at least 10 percentage points to avert a runoff.

"People are hungry both for food and for leadership, said Dima, 54, a wholesale liquor salesman. "We have neither. And so there is this . . . gallows humor, that the people have adopted. We are not giving up but no one is placing their faith in our politicians to improve our situation even though they are responsible."

The apathy stands in contrast to the rage in December 2001 that led thousands of Argentines into the streets to protest after the government devalued the peso. Depositors' life savings were wiped out virtually overnight and the sometimes violent demonstrations forced the resignation of President Fernando de la Rua, and, in short order, three of his appointed successors.

There are signs that the country may start to rebound from its deep recession, but the situation is grave. Once Latin America's most prosperous country, Argentina has an unemployment rate of almost 20 percent. Government statistics indicate that since December 2001, the percentage of Argentina's 37 million people living on less than $250 a month has jumped from 38 to 58.

Many Argentines participate in nascent grass-roots efforts to provide the poor with jobs, health care and education rather than depending on the promises of political parties. Even the vaunted Peronist Party, founded by the late dictator Juan Peron and his wife, Eva "Evita" Peron, is in disarray.

A party feud between the caretaker president, Eduardo Duhalde, and his bitter rival, former president Carlos Menem, has led to an unprecedented electoral season in which no presidential candidate will appear on the ballot with the official Peronist endorsement.

Instead, three Peronists are running -- Menem; Duhalde's handpicked successor, Nestor Kirchner; and Adolfo Rodriguez Saa, who was driven from office after serving for only a few days as one of the caretakers appointed to succeed de la Rua. They will face off on April 27 against Ricardo Lopez Murphy of the opposition Radical Party and Elisa Carrio, a former Peronist who has now joined a small party called Alternative for a Republic of Equals.

Kirchner holds a slight advantage in the polls against Menem, who stepped down in 1999 after 10 years in office. His administration instituted a broad program of privatization and free-market reforms, but was marked by widespread charges of corruption.

With campaign slogans such as "Menem knows how to do it," the former president has managed to capitalize on the electorate's nostalgia but has been unable to surpass even 15 percent of voter support in the polls, typically trailing the moderate Kirchner by a few percentage points. The largest proportion of voters are undecided. The Duhalde government has acknowledged that voter apathy is high.

"The numbers on public participation are not the ones we would like to see," Interior Minister Jorge Matzkin told reporters recently.

Adults here are required by law to cast ballots, but in October 2001 midterm elections, nearly 40 percent of the electorate cast spoiled or blank ballots or voted for write-in candidates. Political analysts say that next month's election totals could easily rival that figure.

"Many of my friends say they will cast their ballot for Clemente," said Axel Kraefft, 21, a computer programmer, who said he would vote for Lopez Murphy.

"People really feel like our politicians are the same: out of touch or corrupt," he said. "I think probably the two most popular politicians in Argentina right now are Lula and [Rudolph W.] Giuliani," he said, referring to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil's newly elected populist president, and the former mayor of New York. Giuliani, known here for his crackdown on crime, is popular among Argentines weary of growing urban lawlessness.

Some say that the leadership crisis is a product of Argentina's history. Democracy returned only 20 years ago, following a brutal military dictatorship that came to power in a 1976 coup that created a vacuum in the development of democratic institutions.

Human rights groups have said as many as 20,000 people were killed in the "dirty war" of the 1970s, when the Argentine military abducted university students, teachers, intellectuals and labor organizers, all of whom became known as the disappeared.

"There is an entire class of our potential leaders gone," said Abramovich. "It is impossible to replace them, and so the consequence is a greatly diminished political body."

The impact of the dirty war has not been forgotten.

"We're essentially missing an entire generation of our best and brightest," said Menendez, the barber. "The bill has to come due sooner or later. Who can say how many people were among those . . . who disappeared who could have actually inspired Argentines?"

Andy Jackson Saturday March 29, 2003 The Guardian

The Latin American papers, positioned in what the US regards as its "backyard", have been divided over the war in Iraq. "This unilateral decision to attack Iraq is an unprecedented step," lamented La Nacion in Argentina. It felt the US had gone too far this time: "Even its regretful incursions into Latin American politics have been limited to supporting domestic groups."

In Mexico, Reforma questioned why its northern neighbour had blocked the signal of the country's Canal 40 TV station after it showed footage of dead Iraqi civilians. "One of the US's greatest strengths has always been its freedom of expression," said the paper. "But when it denies the right of its people to see what it is doing in their name, it does a great disservice to the principles it is trying to enforce in Iraq."

Less enthusiastic still was Gilberto Lopez y Rivas of La Journada, who wondered in the Mexican paper what principles the US was espousing. "The US has long used the pretext of liberty to commit crimes against the rights of Latin American people," he said. "They did not establish democracy in a single one of the countries in which they intervened - only fictional representations of that promise ... Now it is time for Iraq to be liberated, and Latin Americans know only to well what that liberation means."

Journal de Brasil noted that the war had caused the end of President Lula de Silva's political honeymoon. "The quarrel between George Bush and Saddam Hussein is of little consequence to us," it said. "What is currently at stake for Brazil is our democracy and, above all, our right to live in freedom from fear."

Venezuela has a turbulent and besieged leader of its own, and La Nacional wondered whether President Hugo Chavez could deal with his country's problems. Reports of Colombian guerrillas and drug traffickers operating within Venezuela led the paper to question Mr Chavez's defence policy. "The government can no longer continue on its ambiguous course," it said. "It is obsessed with the defence of Caracas as if it is there that our sovereignty is at risk. But concentrating troops in the capital puts the security of all the regions at risk. Under the indifferent gaze of the government, the rural population has been placed between the sword and the wall. If it is not already too late, our leaders must take responsibility, speak truthfully to the country, and preserve our nation from potentially damaging threats."

By Carmen Gentile <a href=www.upi.com>UPI Latin America Correspondent From the International Desk Published 4/3/2003 6:07 PM

SAO PAULO, Brazil, April 3 (UPI) -- U.S. and British diplomats in Brazil sought Thursday to justify the war in Iraq and smooth over differences between their nations and their host country, which is an ardent opponent of the U.S.-led attack.

U.S. Ambassador Donna Hrinak and British Ambassador Roger Bone appeared before Brazil's External Relations and National Defense Committee in the capital, Brasilia, to stress how hard both nation's worked with the international community to find a peaceful solution to Iraq's continued defiance of U.N. Security Council measures over the last 12 years.

Quoting in Portuguese to the assembled panel recent remarks made by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Hrinak reminded Brazilians that the United States and its allies did not ask for a conflict with Iraq and did everything they could to avoid it.

"In other words, force was not our first choice," said Hrinak. "We worked arduously with the international community to approve U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441, which gave to the Iraqi regime a last chance to disarm. ... The Iraqi regime rejected that chance, forcing the coalition to conclude that force was necessary to disarm them."

British Ambassador Bone concurred with his U.S. counterpart saying Iraq's reluctance was "historically one of constant obstruction."

Hrinak also appeared to also strike a conciliatory tone with the committee saying that in conversations with U.S. officials and the media she has attempted to better explain Brazil's opposition to Operation Iraqi Freedom, now in its 14th day.

"During the previous weeks I have been explaining to my bosses, to the Congress and the U.S. media why Brazil, our essential partner in the hemisphere, is not on our side in the conflict in Iraq," Hrinak said.

"I explained the firm belief of this country in working with the scope of multilateral institutions to solve problems," she said, adding that she had also expressed on Brazil's behalf its concerns about the possible economic impact a prolonged war would have on South America's largest nation and economy.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has repeatedly noted publicly his disapproval of the war in Iraq and even attempted to organize an emergency meeting of U.N. nations opposed to war prior to the first strike in the region on March 20.

Since then, Brazil has continued to call for a peaceful resolution to the fighting and recently denied a U.S. request to expel Iraqi diplomats from all nations with an Iraqi mission.

BY MARÍA VICTORIA VALDÉS-RODDA, -Granma International staff writer-

THE majority of Latin American governments have declared their opposition to Anglo-U.S. aggression against the Iraqi people. In the same way, they are fighting for a reactivation of the UN Security Council as the only expedite way to find a solution to any difference with Baghdad, and centrally reclaiming the restoration of international law as opposed to unilateral decisions that could seriously compromise world peace.

In Greece, five European foreign ministers as well as a significant number of their Latin American counterparts (19 in total) agreed on March 28 to continue insisting on a peaceful response to current and future conflicts. A dispatch from AFP adds that there is nothing better to achieve this end than the immediate end of the U.S. so-called "war for democracy"; a war that worldwide consensus deems barbaric.

Chile and Mexico have once again been highlighted as two key voices in the region’s conscience, protected by the moral authority of being non-permanent members of the Security Council, opposed from the outset to the belligerency of Washington and London.

LATIN AMERICAN STRUGGLE IN THE HEART OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL

The Chilean and Mexican representatives, after unsuccessfully attempting to put a brake on the war –deemed imminent since the middle of last month – lamented the war-mongering declarations of the White House.

Supporting this position, President Vicente Fox of Mexico adopted negotiation as the language of understanding as opposed to the use of force. "We are against the war," stressed the Mexican leader, "the use of force should be the last resort."

Prior to the announcement by George W. Bush and his British and Spanish allies that they would attack without UN approval, the Mexican president received the Spanish prime minister in a 24-hour flying visit to Mexico City, where he (unsuccessfully) tried to convince him of the unjust nature of the conflict.

Respected sections of the Mexican press such as Milenio, La Jornada and Siempre reiterated the prevalence of a pacifist position in Mexico’s foreign policy.

Meanwhile, Chilean president Ricardo Lagos wasted neither opportunities nor meetings to endorse the deployment of another group of international weapons inspectors as the best step towards Iraqi disarmament.

On March 12, he stated that despite the inevitability of the war, his country would continue to make every effort to achieve a peaceful solution to the conflict. "If this is not possible", he added, "I trust that the number of innocent civilian deaths is kept to a minimum and I remain adamant in my wish that the UN finds, from now on, a rapid end to the war."

Soledad Alvear, Chile’s foreign minister, spoke to the national press of efforts that had been made to avoid bloodshed. He emphasized the talks between Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and his Spanish and U.S. counterparts, Ana Palacio and Colin Powell.

FIRM OPPONENTS

"I deeply regret the attack on Iraq, particularly because it has been carried out without the express authorization of the UN Security Council and because multilateralism is the legitimate way to search for a solution to the crisis between the United States and Iraq," stated Brazilian President Lula Da Silva in a recent meeting with his Malaysian counterpart, Mahatir Mohamed.

Likewise from Caracas, Hugo Chávez stressed that joint efforts to solve the problem peacefully should not be abandoned. This was his official position before the attack. Once the U.S. signal to attack the Arab country had been given, the Venezuelan president reiterated his "defense of the multilateral system and the UN Constitution in the face of genocide."

Demonstrations against the arrogance of Washington and its military and political allies have found an echo throughout the hemisphere, most notably in MERCOSUR and the Association of Caribbean States (ACS).

Both organizations reject the attack on Iraq and affirm that commitments made within the international organizations responsible for safeguarding the peace should not be violated by the unilateral opinion of any state. For them only plural and majority will has the right to decide in the name of the international community.

SOME ALLIES AND LATIN AMERICAN RESISTANCE TO THIS POSITION

Despite extensive popular support for peace and a large No! to war, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua and El Salvador released a joint statement on March 19 backing Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Likewise, the presidents of Bolivia and Colombia, Gonzálo Sánchez de Lozada and Alvaro Uribe respectively, gave their backing warmongering proposals of those two powers.

Faced with the lamentable opinion of the Colombian president, local daily El Tiempo stated "the law exists as a civilized way to end situations like these and no country or trio of countries can assume the right to play the role of avengers for the world."

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, 1978 Nobel Peace Prize winner, went further saying, "The war against Iraq has a conductive thread to the Latin American situation. Hegemonic policies like this march over the people and the consequences for Latin America will be seen in re-militarization, Plan Colombia and the Plan Puebla-Panama: the imposition of U.S policy in the region." He urged the people of Latin America to unite in a new way of politics.

Guatemalan amongst the first victims

22-year-old José Gutiérrez, a U.S. immigrant of Guatemalan origin, was one of the first mortal victims in the attack of Iraq by his adopted country.

The Guatemalan consul in Los Angeles, Fernando Castillo, stated that since the conflict began he has received desperate calls from Guatemalan parents in the absence of news from their children.

21-year-old José Angel Garibay, the son of Mexicans resident in California, was also amongst those who died. His mother Simona fiercely criticized the conflict and appealed to Bush, "if you have any feelings for mothers like me, stop this war."

A study by the Pew Hispanic Center revealed that in 2001, 9.49% of the U.S. armed forces were of Latino origin. Alongside this fact came the revelation that in last century’s war on Viet Nam, 20% of the invading soldiers who lost their lives were of Latino origin.