www.sun-sentinel.com By Joe Kollin Staff Writer Posted March 16 2003

WESTON · With no controversies to debate, the most divisive issue in Tuesday's city election was the ethnic background of the candidates.

But those candidates appealing to Weston's large Hispanic population failed to win office.

"The campaigns trying to divide the city didn't work," Mayor Eric Hersh said. "Quite frankly, all that voters were looking at was the people who had the most to offer and they didn't vote along ethnic lines, and never have."

Daniel J. Stermer, who won 60 percent of the vote in his three-man race for the City Commission's Seat 3 -- which represents the north-central area of Weston -- agreed.

"My view is that the residents of our city consider not where you're from, but who you are," he said.

But Murray Chermak, who won Seat 4, which serves the Bonaventure area, said the candidates seeking the Hispanic vote influenced the outcome because "from whatever quarter, they pulled votes."

Two candidates, Don Gonzalez running for Seat 3, and Nino DiLoreto, who sought Seat 4, emphasized their Hispanic roots during the campaign. Gonzalez came in third in his three-man race, while DiLoreto came in third in his four-man race.

"I guess the Hispanic vote didn't materialize," said DiLoreto, whose business interests, including a cable television program he produces, target Hispanic audiences.

DiLoreto, who was born in Italy and raised in Venezuela, said he will turn his energies toward showing immigrants the importance of voting.

"They need to participate fully in the American system, which includes voting, which is the essence of the American system," he said. "I'll meet with Hispanics and educate them."

No breakdown of voting by ethnic group is available. Current figures show only that most voters stayed away from the polls, with 4,168 of the city's 29,685 registered voters, or 14 percent, bothering to vote.

The 2000 federal census showed Weston with a higher proportion of Hispanic residents than any other city in Broward County -- 30.2 percent, a proportion thought to be even higher today.

One resident of Hispanic descent, New Jersey-born Barbara Herrera-Hill, serves on the five-member commission. She was not up for re-election.

The winners in each of the two races also raised the most money.

In the Seat 3 contest, Stermer's $55,614 was no match for Gonzalez's $14,525 or James D. "Jim" Norton's $8,002.

"Quite obviously his money and the amount of personal support he had was tremendous and was more than I could overcome," said Norton, who also lost to Stermer in September when the two fought to fill the term of Alexander "Sandy" Halperin, who resigned from office.

In the race for the Bonaventure seat, Chermak's $37,909 overwhelmed incumbent Edwin Jacobson's $29,148; DiLoreto's $1,350; and Joseph Preite's $7,165.

Jacobson, who was elected in 1997 to the first City Commission after Weston was incorporated in 1996 and was re-elected in 1999, said his defeat doesn't mean he will quit working to serve the city.

"We wish Mr. Chermak good luck and we'll be around," he said.

Chermak was Jacobson's campaign manager in his first two elections, but the two drifted apart.

Hersh and City Manager John Flint say the election wouldn't have gone smoothly had the city not helped Broward County Supervisor of Elections Miriam Oliphant. The city provided and trained 23 people to serve as voting technicians in the city's 19 precincts and had more City Hall workers manning a phone bank to make sure voting went smoothly. Hersh and Flint said the city crews performed "flawlessly."

The only problem was the brief loss of electricity in Bonaventure, but the voting machines have battery backup and voting went on, the officials said.

"The city did a lot more work than it should have done for an election and, in some instances, taxpayers are actually paying twice for having Weston step in to ensure we had a fair and accurate election," Flint said.

The extra cost to taxpayers won't be known for a while but is expected to be minimal. Two private companies that have contracts to provide services to the city, Calvin Giordano & Associates and Severn Trent Environmental Services, provided the personnel, the officials said.

"We'll work out the cost later, that's the type of relationship we have with our providers," Flint said.

How much the city pays the supervisor's office isn't known, either. Hersh said the city had always paid the supervisor's office $250 per precinct, but Oliphant recently said she wants $500.

"We haven't been given any idea what she will bill us for," Hersh said.

Joe Kollin can be reached at jkollin@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7913.

www.news24.com 13/03/2003 12:31  - (SA)  

Mexico City - President Vicente Fox told reporters from his hospital bed after a spinal operation that US President George Bush tried to "insistently convince" him of the US view on Iraq, but that Mexico had not taken a decision yet.

Fox, who underwent surgery early on Wednesday for a slipped disk, said he was "somewhat" under pressure on the Iraqi issue, and had received calls from several countries, including Singapore, Japan, Colombia and Venezuela.

"Some are choosing one of the alternatives, while others are giving a lot of support to our efforts towards peace."

Bush was "very polite", Fox told television reporters in a telephone interview late on Wednesday. "Of course he defends his point of view and tries to insistently convince, but we have responded with firmness and sovereignty."

Fox refused to say how Mexico will vote in the UN security council for a US-British-Spanish draft resolution authorising the use of military force unless Iraq satisfies the world that it has disarmed by March 17.

Mexico is one of six undecided security council members whose votes could make or break the measure. Press reports here suggest that it is leaning towards a "no" vote. According to surveys, 70% of Mexicans oppose a US-led war on Iraq.

Fox stressed Mexico's choice on Iraq would be "more of a decision by the state rather than a personal one", adding that his government was strongly in favour "of peace and seeking peaceful solutions to conflicts through dialogue".

Asked if it was difficult to say "no" to Bush, Fox said: "Quite frankly, no, because we've built a friendship and a relationship that's different; its based on seriousness, on political maturity and the knowledge that we're neighbours, friends, partners, and also that we have to speak the truth to each other."

Fox said he did not expect any retaliation from the United States regardless how Mexico votes in the security council.

Fox, 60, who was to remain in the hospital for at least three days, delegated foreign secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez to lead Mexico's diplomatic representation at the United Nations.

www.sun-sentinel.com By Doreen Hemlock Business Writer Posted March 10 2003

Back in Argentina, business owner Eduardo Citcioglu operated without a credit card.

Like most Argentines, he bought and sold goods for cash or with checks, some postdated for deposit later. Few wanted credit cards anyway, since banks tended to offer them only to people with hefty collateral. And with Argentina's history of high inflation, interest rates were sky-high, often more than 30 percent a year.

So, it's understandable that when Citcioglu started exploring opportunities in South Florida five years ago, he failed to take a friend's advice and immediately establish credit. He focused on other pressing tasks: scoping out businesses and opting in 2001 to buy a dry cleaner/laundry in Davie, One Low Price Cleaners on South University Drive.

But Citcioglu is paying a price. When he bought his business, he paid a big cash down payment and financed the rest through the sellers -- at interest rates higher than at most banks. And while he now has a credit card, he had too low a borrowing limit and too little credit history to qualify for loans for a car. He recently had to ask a friend to co-sign for a car loan.

"I should have listened, but there was so much new to learn at once. Now, I understand that credit here depends on your payment record, not on your assets," said Citcioglu, 39. "When you come to the United States, it's like being reborn. You have to learn all over again."

Such woes are increasingly commonplace across South Florida. U.S. census data show that Greater Miami-Fort Lauderdale has the highest concentration of foreign-born residents of any major metropolitan area in the United States. And the immigrants tend to be wealthier and better educated than those in other areas, likely increasing the chances they'll start their own businesses.

Many missteps are predictable, however, as immigrants try to do business as they did back in their homelands.

For South Americans long used to high interest rates, mastering credit is but one common headache. Many also stumble by over-hiring, accustomed to far lower costs for labor. And too often, they act with little market research, coming from nations where business information tends to be tougher to get and more expensive than market data widely available in the United States, business consultants say.

"There's a joke going around, `How do you go back to Latin America with $1 million? Come up with $2 million and lose the first,'" said accountant María Antonieta Díaz of GBS Group in Weston, which specializes in immigrant businesses.

"I keep telling people, `This is a new beginning,'" she said. "It takes time and money to adapt. Folks have to be careful with every dollar."

Cutting the fat

Industrial engineer Carolina Rojas learned the hard way that Florida is more than just miles from Colombia, where her family makes beauty-treatment machines used in spas and gyms that lift and massage the skin and aim to reduce the appearance of cellulite.

Problems began for the family's Dermocell Inc. when an acquaintance from Colombia casually suggested he might help market the machines in the United States. But it turned out the equipment needed approval first from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration -- a process that took a year.

Unfamiliar with U.S. taxes, credit, labor laws and other business practices, the family then entrusted its U.S. start-up to a group of Colombians in Florida more experienced in U.S. business.

But that group ended up spending more on salaries and other start-up costs than the family liked. So the Dermocell group from Colombia ended that union and opted to operate the U.S. business directly.

"Our sin was confiding too much in other Colombians, because we were wary of a new system," said Rojas, 27, who splits her time between Miami and Bogota as her brother remains full-time in South Florida. "But now, we're getting advice, doing research, and getting training, so we can adapt to the U.S. market ourselves."

Helping out the Rojas family is a nonprofit group: the Americas Community Center in Weston and Miami, which helps immigrants, mainly Latin Americans, adapt in South Florida. The group has found that lots of newcomers, like the Rojases, stumble over government licenses and approvals, coming from nations where regulation and enforcement of rules tend to be less strict.

"Many times, folks successful in their home countries figure they know what to do -- until they face fines for not having the right paperwork or their business just doesn't take off," warned Colombian-born Fabio Andrade, the center's president.

Tour troubles

Venezuelan banker Alberto Sánchez-Banard learned a lesson in liability, customer protection and competition when he moved to South Florida in 1996 and decided to try his hand at the travel business.

Sanchez set up Fort Lauderdale-based Amazing Tours International to help his family market a small hotel they own on Venezuela's plains. He figured: "Venezuela's exotic. People will come."

But his South American homeland turned out to be a relatively expensive destination, with tourism networks little developed and sometimes unreliable. U.S. customers insisted on quick refunds if a taxi failed to show up or other things went wrong. Yet recouping cash from Venezuelan suppliers in the wrong proved a colossal frustration -- with customer protections far weaker in his homeland.

"When you're in Caracas, you have no idea how tough it will be," the 48-year-old banker said.

Sanchez eventually left the travel business and took a job as chief financial officer for a Latin music dot-com. But when the Internet bubble burst, he returned to his finance roots. He now owns a Fort Lauderdale mortgage brokerage, York & Goldman Mortgage Corp., and also works with several big financial groups, offering financial services largely to Latin American immigrants.

"You think it's all the American dream," Sanchez warned. "But it's not easy. If you have an accident or unforeseen problems, if you don't have insurance and lawyers, if you don't have money, it can be the American nightmare."

A helping hand

Indeed, so many immigrants have stumbled in starting businesses in Florida that there's a cottage industry developing to help the tens of thousands of Latin American newcomers.

Set to have its debut this summer, for example, is a Spanish-language guide to doing business in Florida, prepared by the staff at AmericáEconomía, the veteran Chile-based business magazine with South Florida offices. The book will cover such varied topics as visas, networking and market research, said Miami-based senior correspondent Carlos Molina, a Peruvian who also has lived and worked in Europe.

"Our goal," said Molina, "is to help Latin American immigrants navigate between two cultures."

Doreen Hemlock can be reached at dhemlock@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5009.

www.sltrib.com Compiled by ROGER MORTON THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

    * Brazil: A wave of invasions of farms and government offices in recent days has abruptly ended a truce between landless farmworkers and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Since March 1, farmworkers have occupied public and private property in five Brazilian states, loudly resuming their favored tactic to pressure the government to speed up agrarian reform.         * Ecuador: Ecuador and other nations neighboring Colombia should brand the rebels from the largest guerrilla group there as terrorists, the U.S. ambassador to Ecuador said Thursday. Last month's kidnapping of three Americans by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, "demonstrates that they are terrorists," Kristie Kenney told the newspaper El Universo.         * Peru: Nearly a century after a Yale professor became the first foreigner to reach the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, Peru is asking the university to give back artifacts he took with him. Hundreds of the ceramics and human bones dug up by expeditions led by Hiram Bingham between 1911 and 1915 went on display at the university's Peabody Museum in late January. The Peabody Museum's Web site says the artifacts became part of its collection "by agreement with the Peruvian government."         * Argentina: The Supreme Court declared unconstitutional on Wednesday a government decree that converted dollar bank accounts to devalued pesos -- a ruling that could ease the way for thousands of Argentines seeking to restore the value of their savings. Hundreds of people danced and hugged on the steps of the courthouse amid shouts of "Give us our money back!" Despite the celebrations, it remained unclear how far-reaching the impact of the court's decision would be on about $9 billion in bank deposits.         * Chile: Former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet underwent tests Tuesday to determine whether doctors should replace the pacemaker he has had for seven years, an aide said. No decision was immediately announced on whether the 87-year-old will need a new device to control his heart beat. Nearly 3,200 people were killed during Pinochet's 1973-90 reign.         * Mexico: President Vicente Fox defended his wife's political appearances and social work Thursday, saying he and the first lady are a "presidential couple." Martha Sahagun, the president's former spokeswoman, married him in July 2001. Sahagun resigned after their wedding and took an unpaid post as head of the charitable fund for Mexico's family welfare agency.

newsobserver.com Friday, March 7, 2003 9:33PM EST By ADALID CABRERA LEMUZ, ASSOCIATED PRESS

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) - Brazil's president promised Friday to help Colombia in its fight against drug traffickers and guerrillas, labeling the insurgents "terrorists."

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pledged the assistance at the end of a five-hour visit from his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe. "Brazil has committed itself to support Colombia in its fight against drug traffickers and terrorists," Silva said.

Silva's labeling the guerrillas terrorists came a day after the U.S. ambassador to Ecuador said nations neighboring Colombia could help Uribe by calling the FARC group terrorists because that's "what they are."

Brazil's first leftist president in 40 years, Silva has frequently been critical of the proposed Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, which is scheduled to take effect by 2005. Silva's opposition, as he leads South America's largest economy, could complicate approval of the agreement, which Bush supports. The agreement seeks to create a free-trade zone stretching from Alaska to Argentina.

Neither president provided details on Brazil's help, but diplomatic sources said it would probably include tighter controls along the 1,020-mile frontier between the two countries.

Brazil is also expected to provide Colombia with information obtained by its Amazon Surveillance System -a network of radars, surveillance airplanes and computers.

The $1.4 billion system was inaugurated last year to help Brazil unlock the economic potential of the vast Amazon region and fight intrusions from Colombian guerillas or drug traffickers.

"Terrorism destroys democracy, life and natural resources, including those of the Amazon (rain forest)," Uribe said. "If it is not dealt with, it will expand its activities across the border into Brazil."

Colombia's war, now in its 38th year, pits the FARC and a smaller rebel group against the government and outlawed paramilitary groups. The guerrilla groups and a rightist paramilitary operation all rely on drug trafficking to fund their operations.

The two presidents also discussed ways to strengthen relations between the Mercosur and Andean Community trading blocs. Mercosur is made up of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. The Andean Community is made up of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.