The miami herald Posted on Tue, Apr. 29, 2003 BY TIM JOHNSON tjohnson@herald.com

Secretary of State Colin Powell

WASHINGTON -In a series of grim reviews, senior Bush administration officials Monday warned of entrenched poverty and heavy debt levels in Latin America, and said many citizens feel that democracy has not brought better lives.

''We told them that democracy would work. . . . We made many promises,'' Secretary of State Colin Powell said.

''If we collectively do not deliver, then democracy has no meaning, the free-market system has no meaning,'' Powell told business leaders.

Powell joined Treasury Secretary John Snow and Otto Reich, the White House special envoy to the hemisphere, in telling business executives gathered for the annual Council of the Americas conference that discouraging setbacks overshadowed progress in many areas in the past year.

GENERAL OUTCRY

Their comments represented the first time in months that ranking officials of the Bush administration have focused on Latin America, amid a general outcry in the hemisphere that U.S. policy has neglected a region President Bush once called a fundamental U.S. priority.

At one point, Powell focused on Cuba, the only nondemocracy among the hemisphere's 35 nations. He called a 6-week-old crackdown by the Fidel Castro regime on leading dissidents a ''vain effort to stamp out the Cuban people's thirst for democracy'' and said U.S. policy toward Cuba is under review.

In Latin America, Powell and other officials said, poverty and corruption sap the aspirations of people.

A third of the people in Latin America ''are living on less than $2 a day, poorly fed, poorly housed and poorly educated,'' Reich said.

The ''trend lines overall may be positive'' in the region, Reich added, but ''entire regions are struggling'' with recession, crime, issues of injustice and other problems.

Snow, who recently returned from a trip to Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia, said he was struck by the ``huge problem of debt and the need to work down debt levels . . . in ways that don't tip the apple cart.''

BRAZIL'S SURPRISE

Amid their somewhat glum assessments of the region, Powell and Snow brightened in speaking of Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a former trade union leader who has surprised the business community since taking office Jan. 1.

Snow described Lula's ''great political skill'' in combining sound economic policy with strong social goals aimed at easing poverty. At a recent talk to Sao Paulo's chamber of commerce, Snow said he reminded the attendees of the fears they had of the populist Lula before he came to office and his subsequent success in revaluing the currency and calming financial markets.

The region as a whole, Snow said, ``needs growth. Latin America's growth rates are too low.''

He said slow economic growth, however, is a global matter, and that the nations of the hemisphere should redouble efforts to reach a Free Trade Area of the Americas by 2005, a goal set during the Clinton administration.

''We're anxious to get the negotiations moving. They are not moving at a rapid enough pace,'' Snow said.

`NO ILLUSIONS'

Reich, a Cuban-born former ambassador to Venezuela, noted that the Caribbean region has been hard hit by terrorism-related declines in tourism, and that Andean countries have ''suffered reverses'' in fighting narcotics, achieving economic growth and respecting the rule of law.

''We have no illusions about the challenges in the hemisphere today. There have been setbacks,'' Reich said.

Snow praised Ecuador's new president, Lucio Gutiérrez, but noted that his nation faces ``a thoroughly tough, tough, difficult environment [with] heavy debt overload problems.''

The White House's nominee to become assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, Roger Noriega, criticized Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide as two populist leaders who have ''willfully contributed to a polarized environment'' in their countries.

Attorney General John Ashcroft, responding to a question about Colombia, whose leader, Alvaro Uribe, meets with President Bush this week in Washington, said he believes governments should enter peace talks with outlaw groups involved in criminal activity ''with the highest level of caution -- maybe never.'' The remark brought applause. Uribe, a law-and-order leader, faces a demand by insurgents to enter a new round of negotiations.

REFORMS

Many leaders in the region have implemented reforms that have ameliorated the economic crises that once buffeted the hemisphere.

''The old demons are gone,'' Powell said. ``Inflation is largely tamed. Countries are increasingly open to foreign trade and investment.''

But Powell said average citizens still do not savor many of the benefits of democracy.

''People have sacrificed, and they want to see the results in their pocketbooks, in their pay packets and in their polling places,'' he said.

RELATED LINKS Powell condemns Cuba for 'human-rights situation'

Last Updated: Tuesday, 22 April, 2003, 09:22 GMT 10:22 UK
By Peter Greste BBC News correspondent in Buenos Aires

John Snow became US Treasury Secretary in December 2002

The US Treasury Secretary, John Snow, is on his way to South America for the first foreign trip in his new job.

Analysts say the visit to Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia is an attempt to re-engage in the region, amid signs that the Bush Administration is concerned about a perceived political shift to the left.

Many on the continent also believe Washington has abandoned it in favour of the war on terror.

John Snow might not be the most senior figure in the Bush Administration but his four-day visit is the most significant US foray into Latin America in six months.

Concerns

According to the official press release, Mr Snow will learn how Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia are building strong economic policies, addressing social problems and promoting economic growth.

But he'll also be trying to re-engage with the US' own backyard a year and a half after it turned away from the region in the war on terror.

Brazil first raised concerns late last year when it elected as president the left-wing Workers' Party candidate, Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva.

Lula has often spoken strongly against US domination of regional trade.

Then Ecuador did much the same by installing another leftist, former coup leader Colonel Lucio Gutierrez, as its president.

Washington is still eyeing both with a degree of suspicion along with similar left-wing trends in Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela.

Colombia has always worried the US with its ongoing war against both drug-traffickers and guerrillas.

This trip isn't the start of any grand new era in US regional policy, but it does indicate that Washington is ready to think again about its neighbourhood.

<a href=www.sfgate.com>SFGate.com Jim Doyle, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, April 18, 2003

Gabriele Mariotti has always had nimble hands, an amazing eye for detail, and a knack for drawing the most out of a fine swath of cloth.

But these days, the Italian tailor speaks with hesitation. He has difficulty moving his left hand and shoulder. He needs help climbing the stairs of his home in the Sunset District of San Francisco.

In mid-March, a sign was posted on the window of his shop in Mill Valley, announcing its closure due to a family emergency. A stroke had paralyzed the left side of his body. He has since regained some movement, but his body is stiff and his hand feels clumsy.

His health had been excellent -- no history of high blood pressure or high cholesterol -- but his father and grandfather had strokes.

"It's like a car that runs all the time for years," he said. "And then one day it doesn't work anymore."

Mariotti, 70, grew up in poverty in an Italian village. In the early 1960s, he moved to the Bay Area and became a success story. For 36 years he has run his small shop, Giovanni of Italy, at the Strawberry Village shopping center --

serving customers in southern Marin. It was too costly to change the name of the shop when he bought it from another tailor, so many of his customers assume that Giovanni is his first name.

"He has beautiful hands. His hands did such wonderful work. . . . He put my daughter through school," said the tailor's wife, Ana Maria. "Your hands have to be very precise, like a painter's. It's an art, I think. And if you enjoy it, you do it with passion."

She is struggling to pay the bills, including the rent on his shop, while he tries to recuperate with physical therapy.

"He's a very determined man. He loves his trade," she said, trying to stay calm. "He'd love to go back to work, but it's a lot of pressure to be in business, and I don't think he needs that."

The tailor views the shopping center beside Highway 101 as a village -- a place where he feels at home with shopkeepers. "When I go there, everybody knows me and I know them," he said. "I like the interaction of the customers --

good and bad. People come in, they talk about movies. We tell stories. We make a funny." Some of his customers are from families who have brought clothes to him for three generations. Mariotti loves seeing a high-quality fabric or finely stitched piece of clothing. "Molto bene," he would whisper and nod. Very well done.

He misses the simple things: stopping by the deli for coffee, buying a Lotto ticket at the market, dickering over the price with a customer.

"Have you ever known a tailor to die rich?" he would ask.

He was also in the habit of stopping by an Italian bakery in North Beach to buy amaretti. And he would show up at Marin Joe's restaurant in Corte Madera to sip a glass of wine and banter in Italian with the owner, Romano Della Santina.

"He's a simple guy, very conscientious. A hard worker. He was doing beautiful work and didn't even charge that much," Della Santina said. "He's a terrific guy with a lot of talent. I love the guy."

Although frustrated, the tailor has clung to his sense of humor.

"He's the authentic Italian," his wife said. "No matter how old he is, he's always looking at girls. He's very flirtatious with the nurses. They know he just likes to do that for fun."

And he still has a flair for language. His native tongue is Italian, but he also speaks Spanish and English. "The beautiful thing is that he speaks the three languages together at the same time," his wife said. "People would really laugh about it. He would laugh, too."

One client, Suzanna Schomaker of San Rafael, dropped by his shop with her alterations on the way to her office in San Francisco. Mariotti wouldn't charge her for quick and easy items like fixing a shoulder strap on a bra.

"The very funny thing about him was that he was so hard to understand. His wife would be the interpreter," Schomaker said. "And they're so in love. Imagine working with someone 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- and still acting like they just met."

Mariotti's wife calls him Amore. They talk mostly in her native tongue: Spanish.

He grew up in the village of Loreto Aprutino in the Abruzzo region in central Italy. He was the eldest of three children. His father served in the Italian army in World War II and was taken prisoner in Africa. At age 9, Gabriele became the man of the house.

His village was occupied by the Germans. Food was scarce. His mother made bread to feed the family. Gabriele picked fruit and divided it with his mother,

brother and sister.

After the war, his father returned home and sent Gabriele to a village tailor, where he served an apprenticeship for eight years.

"Tailoring is like an art. You never finish learning," Mariotti said. "You keep learning from the new styles coming."

At 21, he moved to Caracas, Venezuela, in search of work and fun. "Going to South America, I felt free, because the customs for men and women are very free," he said with lust in his eyes. "It's not like living in a village."

Several years later, he returned to Italy. In 1963, he boarded a passenger ship for America, landing in New York. He stayed in Baltimore for four months before heading to the Bay Area.

He lived in San Mateo and worked for a year for a custom tailor who made suits for the elite. He also worked for a year in Belmont, and then briefly as a manager at Macy's in Palo Alto.

Ana Maria grew up in El Salvador. In 1957, she joined her mother in San Francisco, where she went to school and worked for an insurance firm before snagging a long-term job with Wells Fargo.

Mariotti met his future wife at a party in San Francisco in 1969. "At the time, I was like a butterfly. But I kept looking at her," he said.

"He didn't speak Spanish very well. Just the bad words," she joked. "I straightened him out."

She took him to the opera, but he was asked to leave because of his snoring.

They ate at their favorite restaurant, Fugazzi, and then went dancing. They hiked in the hills and watched sunsets.

In 1972, they were married at her mother's house in the Sunset District. A year later, they bought a house on Lawton Street, where they have lived for 30 years. They have one daughter: Rosanna Maria Mariotti, 26, a science teacher at San Francisco's Lincoln High School.

"My husband was a very hard-working man. He worked for at least 12 hours a day," his wife said. "It saddened me that he came home very late. I didn't know that something worse was going to happen. That's life."

At his shop, Mariotti's wife handled most of his paperwork and customer relations. "If he wasn't satisfied with his work," she said, "he'd tell the customers, 'I want to do it over again. Would you mind waiting a few days?' "

Before his stroke, the tailor used to enjoy walking in Golden Gate Park. He loved to garden and work on his daisies. Once in a while, he would meet with a handful of other Italian tailors in the city. Mariotti used to wear a business suit to work. In recent years he had become more casual, but he still made a point of wearing a tie each day.

"We would have lunch once in a while. He did a lot of work for me," said customer Henry Timnick. "There's something about Old World competence. The tailors are gone, and it's a shame. The last of the great artisans with their hands."

The stroke hit on the morning of March 14, when Mariotti was at home. The tailor spent the next three weeks at St. Mary's Medical Center on Stanyan Street, where Dr. Stanley Yarnell presided over his care.

"He couldn't move his left side. He couldn't see. He couldn't eat. He was more vegetable than anything," his wife said. "For a while he couldn't even drink liquids. They had him on an IV . . . After a few days, he was beginning to move his hand. It's a blessing. He could barely speak, but his mind was sharp. He was remembering all the customers, and he felt bad that he wasn't able to have their pieces ready for them."

He was put on a rigorous program of occupational, speech and physical therapy. Medicare and supplemental insurance paid for his hospital stay, but he does not have long-term disability insurance.

Two weeks ago, he returned home, where he receives physical therapy four mornings a week. He has been able to start flexing his left hand, but it is not agile. "I can probably do an easy job, but not what I'm used to," he said. "To do a fine job, the tailoring is very precise. I need my left hand."

Mariotti insists that he will be back to work in a matter of weeks or months. But his wife doesn't know if he will ever work again.

"I keep him walking and doing exercises. I keep him engaged in conversation.

He's learning to go up and down the stairs," she said. "In about a year, God willing, he'll be fine."

When he gets discouraged, Mariotti cuddles Bebe, a stray cat that showed up at the house nine years ago. Bebe's tigerlike coat reminds him of a cat that was lost in the war when he was a boy.

"Each day I feel a little more equilibrium," Mariotti said after walking across the living room with a cane and his wife's arm to steady him. "What I couldn't do yesterday, I can do tomorrow."

So the shop lights remain off. A couple of potted plants and a small American flag sit in the window. A few unclaimed alterations wait on hangers.

"We may have to close the store for a while, and if, God willing he goes back to work, we'll reopen it. And hopefully the shopping center will have a space for him," she said. "At least those are his dreams. And I say, 'Yes, that will happen.' He has to have something to dream about."

E-mail Jim Doyle at jdoyle@sfchronicle.com.

<a href=www.americandaily.com> The American Daily By Edward Daley on Thu Apr 17, 2003 6:09 pm

Well, the list of Democratic Presidential candidates is beginning to swell heartily now with the fairly recent inclusion of individuals such as Joe Lieberman and John Edwards, and as I watch these leftist hopefuls maneuver for breathing room within the pack, I am reminded of just how useless most of them have been to us over the years. I won't go into all the particulars at this time, suffice it to say that trying to enumerate what each of these people has done (or failed to do) while in elected office would take weeks to accomplish and fill up hundreds of single-spaced, typed pages. Frankly, I don't think I have a strong enough constitution to subject myself to that sort of hell. I mean, who really wants to think that much about liberals after all? I will say though that not one of these Democratic leaders has the wherewithal to run a wiener stand effectively, let alone the country, yet that won't stop them from seeking the highest office in the land. Soon these close political allies will be attempting to bump each other off, metaphorically speaking, using any means necessary, as they hop on their respective stumps and lie their asses off to the American people for the next 19 months or so. This should be as troubling to you as it is to me, and it's because I do indeed cringe at the very thought of one of these babbling fools possibly becoming President of the United States that I have decided to take a good look at their party, and pick apart a few of the policies which they all have in common.

Let me start by saying that the vast majority of modern American liberal voters have been so brainwashed by the these primarily socialist politicians that they are completely ignorant with regard to the manner in which a Capitalist society is supposed to work. They lack any real education in economics and are, consequently, not aware of the fact that they themselves are embracing socialism. Even if they were able to grasp that concept, they likely would not be cognizant of the dangers to our society which socialism represents, because they are as deficient in knowledge of world history as they are rational instruction in practically all other disciplines. Most of them cannot articulate intelligently why they believe what they do, yet they emotionally proclaim their views to be superior to those which are demonstratively more sound in nearly every respect. They promote feel-good policies which, more often than not, prove to be counter productive to the very aims to which they aspire; aims not entirely dissimilar to the aims of conservatives, by the way.

After all, every American, indeed, every human being wants clean air and water, abundant resources, equal opportunity, effective education for their children, better jobs, true justice, etc.. Yet the people of the left believe that they can micro manage the country into some sort of ideated utopia using the oppressive power of government to achieve their goals. Conservatives realize that such an idea is utter fantasy at best and dangerously authoritarian at worst. They would rather just work hard to achieve a better life for themselves and their families, and their idea of utopia is being left the hell alone by the government as much as possible.

Here are just a few examples of how liberals, after being prompted by people like Al Sharpton and Dick Gephardt, approach America's problems and the solutions they've devised. The left's idea of saving the environment, for instance, is to prohibit people from utilizing natural resources as much as possible. Of course, anyone with any intelligence at all understands that exploiting a certain amount of those resources is essential to keeping a balance in nature while avoiding economic catastrophe. Just consider the way these do-gooders have tried to "save the forests" in the western US over the past decade. They did everything in their power to stop logging in states like California and Colorado. They were successful to the point of preventing people from clearing out dangerous overgrowth and putting fire roads into place. The result was a rash of unmanageable forest fires which destroyed more trees in one year than loggers could have cut down (and used productively) in a century!

Furthermore, they have attempted to prevent potentially harmful oil spills caused by US companies drilling in places like the frozen tundra of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, by banning any procurement there altogether. This, of course, has forced the US to buy more oil from other countries, such as Mexico and Venezuela, which do not adhere to our standards of environmental protection during drilling and transportation operations, actually increasing the likelihood of damage to the environment and hindering America's ability to become less dependent upon other nations for oil (it's potential enemies included) at the same time.

The liberal method of promoting equality among the races is bizarre to say the least, because it involves embracing the most divisive policies imaginable. These people actually believe that the best way to get to a "color blind" society is to effectuate different employment and educational standards for people based solely upon their race! They are the first to state that we need to have constant "dialogue" with regard to ethnicity, yet they do not explain how focussing on our differences at every turn will ever lead to the sort of racial equality they say they want. Clearly, if all people do is endlessly preach about ethnic divergences and are only considerate of others based upon their skin color, they can never be color blind! It's a completely self-defeating strategy.

Liberals also espouse the idea of wealth redistribution by the government. They fail utterly to take into consideration certain basic economic truths. One is that it's not the government's money! The second is that the government is incapable of creating economic productivity through taxation. The money which people make and spend on goods and services is what fuels an economy, not the money that the government takes in. The third thing is that the government runs deficits because it spends more money than it receives in revenues. Since raising taxes can only be injurious to the economy, because doing so takes money out of the hands of the people who make the economy work, cutting spending on unnecessary government projects, as well as reducing the amount of waste inherent in governmental activity, is the only effective way to balance a budget without causing a recession. The forth and final economic truth which is always overlooked by liberals is that lowering taxes actually increases revenues to the government over time. That has proven to be the case every time it's been tried in modern history, and there's no reason to believe it won't continue to happen in the future! Instead of looking at tax cuts for what they are, which is an investment in our economy, these uneducated twits constantly refer to them as a liability!

Their idea of dealing with vicious dictators is to placate them by giving them whatever they ask for. Liberals make deal after deal with tyrants the world over, yet the only way they can see to handle these two-bit thugs when they break those agreements is to offer them more deals and hope they eventually decide to play nice! This policy of appeasement so readily adopted by people like Jimmy Carter and Jaques Chirac is absolutely ludicrous. It is the primary reason we find ourselves faced with a nuclear North Korea and a Syrian regime which is one of the most virulent terrorist supporting governments on the planet. How ironic is it that these leftist pacifists seem to be just fine with megalomaniacs possessing weapons of mass murder, but are absolutely outraged at the idea of peaceful American citizens owning handguns?

The list of these chronically ill conceived and often detrimental policies goes on and on, yet no liberal I know, be they elected representatives or working-class constituents, can explain to me in any reasonable way why they insist upon clinging to such socialistic and/or defeatist ideas; ideas which run contrary to all historical evidence and, in most cases, basic common sense. Their propaganda is as ceaseless as it is foolish, and it is reiterated in lemming-like fashion by the most dimwitted people this country produces. A collection of Marxist politicians who call themselves Democrats sets the agenda, their cronies in the news media repeat it ad nauseam, and the liberal masses follow it religiously. Liberal voters parrot the talking points of their often condescending and hypocritical leaders without question and then characterize anyone who disagrees with them as being a "right-wing fanatic" or worse. They tend to regard pragmatic conservatives as extremists, moderates as conservatives and themselves as mainstream, in spite of the fact that the ideas which they promote are not readily accepted by the majority of Americans.

Perhaps liberalism is, as I have heard radio personality Michael Savage hypothesize on more than one occasion, a mental disorder. And no, that isn't meant to be droll or foment resentment in people. I really wonder! As I look at the names of the people currently running for President on the Democratic ticket, I am hesitant to guess which one of them may turn out to be the 2004 front-runner. Does it really matter? Aren't they all basically the same animal, repeating nearly identical anti-American phrases and promoting the same cookie-cutter, socialist agenda? Who among them will be able to honestly point at any other one of them and state that their fellow liberal is trying to do something potentially damaging to our society which they themselves aren't trying to do, or haven't done in the past? I certainly can't answer that questions, but I will tell you this, I thank God every day that we have a fairly conservative Republican in the White House at this particular time in history. Just thinking about the alternative is more frightening to me than any terrorist could be.

Scoop Tuesday, 15 April 2003, 9:43 am Speech: US State Department

Remarks at the OAS celebrating Pan American Day Celebrating Pan American Day

Ambassador Peter DeShazo, U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States Remarks to Organization of American States Washington, DC April 14, 2003

As President George W. Bush has stated, "This hemisphere is on the path of reform, and our nations travel it together. We share a vision - a partnership of strong and equal and prosperous countries, living and trading in freedom. We'll maintain our vision, because it unleashes the possibilities of every society and recognizes the dignity of every person."

We can be proud that we have advanced that common vision in these Halls. We have taken steps that will help make lives better for the people we serve.

In just the last two years, we have worked as partners to approve the Inter-American Democratic Charter, a bold roadmap for promoting and defending democracy in the Hemisphere.

We negotiated and signed an Inter-American Convention Against Terrorism, a legally-binding document which calls for coordinated action against terrorism by the states of the Americas.

We have revitalized the Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism, engaging all of our neighbors in practical steps to fortify our Hemisphere against terrorism.

We have played an activist role in promoting democratic development in Venezuela and Haiti.

And we have bolstered OAS activities in key areas such as human rights, scholarships, conflict resolution, democracy-building and agricultural development.

Our work continues. We have laid the groundwork for a Hemispheric Security Conference, to be held in Mexico in early May, that will review the threats to our region and undertake new commitments to face them together.

The OAS General Assembly in June already promises to be a productive session in which we will recognize the inexorable link between good governance and economic growth.

This Assembly will help orient the work of our heads of government who have agreed to meet at an interim meeting later this year.

This is multilateralism that works for all of us. It works because of our common values and our mutual respect.

My friends, the Pan American spirit - which is the firm foundation of this grand old building - is alive and well in these halls.

It embraces countries large and small, who have an equal right to speak and to be heard. That is the essence of Pan American spirit. [End]

Released on April 14, 2003