[Peace-discuss] Just Foreign Policy News, October 16, 2006

[Robert Naiman]

Just Foreign Policy News
October 16, 2006
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/newsroom/blog/

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Summary:
U.S./Top News
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Saturday to condemn North
Korea and impose stiff sanctions on it in response to its nuclear
test. North Korea's ambassador rejected the council's demand to
dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

Air samples from North Korea confirm that a nuclear explosion was
carried out a week ago, US intelligence officials say.

President Bush keeps revising his explanation for why the U.S. is in
Iraq, moving from narrow military objectives at first to
history-of-civilization stakes now, writes Tom Raum for the Associated
Press.

Questions over the effectiveness of the Security Council's sanctions
on North Korea grew Sunday, as both South Korea and China, the North's
two most important trading partners, indicated that business and
economic relations would be largely unaffected, the New York Times
reported.

The Bush administration has made headway in cutting off North Korea
and Iran from the international financial system, the New York Times
reports. As a result of the American campaign, some foreign banks are
cutting ties with North Korea and Iran. Some say the moves against
Iran could damage US economic interests if Iran switched to currencies
other than the dollar for its large oil trades. [Many Americans, like
workers in export industries, would actually benefit from a lower
dollar -JFP.]

Representative John Murtha, writing in the Washington Post, confesses
to being a "Defeatocrat," if that means taking a good hard look at the
administration's Iraq policy and determining that it's a failure. It's
time that the White House and the GOP start working with Democrats to
come up with a reasonable timetable for withdrawal, he says.

Iran
The US Sunday used new U.N. sanctions against North Korea to warn
Iran, AP reports. Western powers have agreed to start working on U.N.
sanctions against Iran next week, but have yet to bridge differences
on how harsh the penalties should be. Iran called threats of sanctions
''psychological warfare'' and said it would not be intimidated.

Iraq
A video posted on the internet in the name of one of Iraq's largest
insurgent groups called for the creation of a separate Sunni Islamic
state in the country. This may indicate a shift in strategy for parts
of the Sunni Arab insurgency. The video claimed for the new state
areas of Iraq, such as Kirkuk, sure to be the scene of bloody contest
if there is a partition.

Reconstruction funds are drying up and US builders are pulling out of
Iraq, leaving completed projects and unfulfilled plans in the hands of
an Iraqi government unprepared to manage them, AP reports. Many Iraqi
government ministries aren't able yet to pick up where the Americans
leave off, the reconstruction chief at the U.S. Embassy said.

British army internet forums were full of praise for the army chief's
comments that British troops should leave Iraq soon, the London Sunday
Times reports.

Iraq's democracy is being challenged by calls for the formation of a
hardline "government of national salvation", the London Sunday Times
reports. The proposal, being widely discussed in political and
intelligence circles in Baghdad, is to replace the government with a
regime capable of imposing order and confronting the sectarian
militias.

Thousands of Iraqis are fleeing the country every day, in what the
UN's refugee agency describes as a steady, silent exodus, BBC reports.
UNHCR also says the number of internally displaced is growing, with
some 365,000 Iraqis uprooted this year.

Israel
The governments of Israel and the US, in close cooperation with
Europe, are engaged in a experiment in order to see if is it possible
to force a whole people to submit to foreign occupation by starving
it, writes Israeli journalist Uri Avnery. The laboratory for the
experiment is the Gaza Strip, and the guinea pigs are the million and
a quarter Palestinians living there.

China
A senior State Department official said today that China had begun
inspecting trucks crossing its border with North Korea. AP reported
that Chinese customs inspectors examined cargo trucks bound for the
North more closely today than they did last week.

Ecuador
A banana magnate and a young economist close to Venezuela will face
each other in a presidential election runoff on Nov. 26 after neither
obtained enough votes to win in a first round Sunday, writes Juan
Forero for the Washington Post. Rafael Correa, the economist, promises
to overturn Ecuador's old economic order and calls for a
constitutional assembly. Correa, who obtained his PhD in Economics
from the University of Illinois, is influenced by Keynesian thought,
which sees a central role for government in managing the economy, and
by contemporary economists such as the American Nobel Prize winner
Joseph Stiglitz, who argues that unchecked globalization harms poor
countries, Forero reports.

Venezuela
Venezuela gained votes but still lagged behind Guatemala on Monday in
the fourth round of secret balloting for an open Latin American seat
in the U.N. Security Council for the years 2007-2008, Reuters reports.

Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) U.N. Votes To Impose Sanctions On N. Korea
Council Demands End To Nuclear Program
Colum Lynch & Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, Sunday, October 15, 2006; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/14/AR2006101400354.html
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Saturday to condemn North
Korea and impose stiff sanctions on it in response to its nuclear
test. North Korea's ambassador rejected the council's demand to
dismantle its nuclear weapons program and threatened to respond to the
escalating pressure with unspecified "physical countermeasures."

The council's action highlighted the outrage that followed North
Korea's claim of having tested a nuclear bomb Oct. 9. It also marked a
rare willingness by North's Korea council allies, China and Russia, to
impose sanctions on North Korea. But to secure their support, the US
was compelled to water down key measures designed to ensure that the
sanctions could be enforced. And China, which shares an 880-mile
border with North Korea, said after the vote that it would ignore a
critical provision, which calls on governments to inspect goods
entering or leaving North Korea.

2) US confirms N Korea nuclear test
BBC News, Monday, 16 October 2006,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6056370.stm
Air samples from North Korea confirm that a nuclear explosion was
carried out a week ago, US intelligence officials say. Director of
National Intelligence John Negroponte said the findings came after
analysis of radioactive debris detected at the site of the test.

This the first official US confirmation that a nuclear detonation took
place.  The apparently small size of the explosion had led to doubts
over the veracity of North Korea's claim. But the short statement from
Negroponte's office confirmed that a nuclear explosion with a yield of
"less than a kiloton" took place.

3) Bush Keeps Revising War Justification
Tom Raum, Associated Press, Sunday, October 15, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1015-07.htm
President Bush keeps revising his explanation for why the U.S. is in
Iraq, moving from narrow military objectives at first to
history-of-civilization stakes now. Initially, the rationale was
specific: to stop Saddam Hussein from using what Bush claimed were the
Iraqi leader's weapons of mass destruction or from selling them to
al-Qaida or other terrorist groups.

But 3 1/2 years later, with no weapons found, still no end in sight
and the war a liability for nearly all Republicans on the ballot Nov.
7, the justification has become far broader and now includes the
expansive "struggle between good and evil." Republicans seized on
North Korea's nuclear test last week as further evidence that the need
for strong U.S. leadership extends beyond Iraq. Bush's changing
rhetoric reflects increasing administration efforts to tie the war,
increasingly unpopular at home, with the global fight against
terrorism, still the president's strongest suit politically.

4) Questions Grow Over U.N. Curbs on North Korea
Norimitsu Onishi, New York Times, October 16, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/16/world/asia/16korea.html
Questions over the effectiveness of the Security Council's punitive
sanctions on North Korea for its claimed nuclear test grew Sunday, as
both South Korea and China, the North's two most important trading
partners, indicated that business and economic relations would be
largely unaffected.

A day after the Council unanimously passed the resolution, following
nearly a week of intensive diplomatic negotiations, the South Korean
government said it would still pursue economic projects with North
Korea, including an industrial zone and tourist resort in the North.
Those projects are not explicitly covered by the Security Council
resolution, but they are an important source of hard currency for the
North.

China, which shares a 870-mile porous border with North Korea and is
perhaps its most critical economic gateway to the outside world, said
Saturday that it had no intention of stopping and inspecting
cross-border shipments, as called for, but not specifically required,
in the resolution. The Chinese government said nothing on Sunday about
how it intended to carry out the sanctions, and American officials
said they would be focused on whether the normal trade flow across the
border was slowed.

The relative silence on Sunday about how the resolution would be
enforced, coupled with the vagaries of the resolution itself, raised
concerns that the Security Council action would not have much of an
impact for the foreseeable future.

5) U.S. Pursues Tactic of Financial Isolation
Steven R. Weisman, New York Times, October 16, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/16/world/asia/16sanctions.html
As debate swirls about whether new international sanctions against
North Korea will be effective, the Bush administration appears to have
made some headway in using new American legal tools to cut off both
North Korea and Iran from the international financial system. The
American campaign to use its own financial regulations to put pressure
on North Korea and Iran has been a mix of implicit threats backed by
explicit action, American officials and banking experts say.

Over the last year, American officials have met with many private
banks overseas to warn them of the risk of doing business with certain
Iranian and North Korean trading companies and businesses the US says
have been tied to terrorist groups or to the spread of nuclear
materials. One of the main unspoken messages of the visits, experts
say, is that the US may eventually bar American banks from working
with financial institutions doing business with groups tied to
terrorism.

This campaign of pressure has been backed up by specific actions. The
most notable was when the US last month barred American banks from
facilitating certain transactions, including the sale of oil, for a
leading Iranian bank with reputed ties to terrorist groups. As a
result of the American campaign, banking officials and experts say
that some foreign banks are cutting ties with North Korea and Iran.

But while achieving some unilateral success in economically punishing
North Korea and Iran for their nuclear ambitions, some experts say the
moves against Iran could damage American economic interests if that
country switched to currencies other than the dollar for its large oil
trades.

The ban on American transactions with the Iranian bank, Bank Saderat,
means that it will no longer be able to obtain American dollars for
its dealings with any other bank in the world. Bank Saderat is one of
Iran's half-dozen largest banks.

Many American banking officials predict that, in coming months, the US
will ban American bank involvement in transactions involving the other
leading banks in Iran. That is because there is a widespread
assumption among bankers that all of Iran's state-owned banks engage
in the same activities as Bank Saderat. The likely result is that Iran
will have difficulty selling its oil for dollars, the international
medium of exchange for all oil sales.

"This is a pretty dramatic uptick of pressure from the US," said
Judith Lee, a law partner specializing in economic sanctions. "It is
going to create significant difficulties for European banks and
European countries." American officials decline to say whether the
move against Bank Saderat would apply to other Iranian banks.

Stuart Levey, under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and
financial intelligence, has traveled to several countries in Europe to
exert pressure on Iran. Several European banks, including Credit
Suisse and UBS in Switzerland, HSBC in Britain and ABN Amro in the
Netherlands, have announced curbs on dealings with Iranian banks and
businesses.

"We are seeing a whole series of banks not doing business with Iran,
restricting the flow of funds into Iran significantly," said Edward
Morse, chief energy economist at Lehman Brothers. Last month, Treasury
Secretary Paulson suggested that banks around the world should stop
doing business with more than 30 Iranian companies and government
enterprises that American intelligence had linked to various illicit
activities.

Evidence that American moves against Iran might be having an effect
came when Ebrahim Sheibany, the Iranian central bank governor, said
Iran would have "no choice" but to shift its sale of oil away from the
dollar and to the euro or Asian currencies.

Whether that shift away from dollars could have the unintended effect
of hurting the US is a matter of debate. Some experts say there is a
danger that if Iran does shift currencies, it could weaken the
standing of the dollar as a reserve currency, forcing the US to raise
interest rates to attract dollar purchasers. [Many Americans would
benefit from a lower dollar, such as manufacturing workers whose
employment and wages might be improved by the increase in exports and
decrease in imports associated with a lower dollar - JFP.]

6) Confessions of a 'Defeatocrat'
John Murtha, Washington Post, Sunday, October 15, 2006; B01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101301425.html
The Republicans are running scared. In the White House, on Capitol
Hill and on the campaign trail, they're worried about losing control
of Congress. And so the administration and the GOP have launched a
desperate assault on Democrats and our position on the war in Iraq.
Defeatists, they call us, and appeasers and - oh so cleverly -
"Defeatocrats." Vice President Cheney has accused Democrats of
"self-defeating pessimism." Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has faulted us
for believing that "vicious extremists can be appeased." The White
House calls Democrats the party of "cut and run."

It's all baseless name-calling, and it's all wrong. Unless, of course,
being a Defeatocrat means taking a good hard look at the
administration's Iraq policy and determining that it's a failure. In
that case, count me in. Because Democrats recognize that we're headed
for a far greater disaster in Iraq if we don't change course - and
soon. This is not defeatism. This is realism.

Our troops who are putting their lives on the line deserve a plan that
matches our military prowess with diplomatic and political skill. They
deserve a clear and achievable mission and they deserve to know
precisely what it will take to accomplish it. They deserve answers,
not spin.

Our military has done all it can do in Iraq, and the Iraqis want their
occupation to end. I support bringing our troops home at the earliest
practicable date, at a rate that will keep those remaining there safe
on the ground. It's time that the White House and the GOP start
working with Democrats in Congress to come up with a reasonable
timetable for withdrawal and for handing the Iraqi government over to
the Iraqis.

Iran
7) U.S. Uses Korea Sanctions to Warn Iran
Associated Press, October 15, 2006, Filed at 5:35 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-US-NKorea-Iran.html
The US Sunday used new U.N. sanctions against North Korea to warn
Iran, another country with nuclear ambitions. John Bolton, the U.S.
ambassador to the UN, said Iran should pay attention to Saturday's
U.N. resolution against North Korea for its claimed nuclear test last
week. The six powers have agreed to start working on U.N. sanctions
against Iran next week, officials have said, but they still have to
bridge differences on how harsh the penalties should be.

Iran on Saturday called threats of sanctions ''psychological warfare''
and said it would not be intimidated. Iran contends its nuclear
program is for generating electricity; the U.S. and some of its allies
allege Tehran is trying to develop atomic weapons.

Israeli Prime Minister Olmert told Israeli Cabinet ministers Sunday
that Iran remained the greatest threat to Israel and he was concerned
about the precedent set by the nuclear test conducted last week by
North Korea. ''Whoever takes the Korean matter lightly will soon find
a nuclear weapon in Iran and ultimately a nuclear weapon in
al-Qaida,'' he said, according to an official who attended the
meeting.

Iraq
8) Call for Sunni state in Iraq
Stephen Negus, Financial Times, October 15 2006 17:45
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/e239159e-5c6a-11db-9e7e-0000779e2340.html
A video posted on the internet on Sunday in the name of one of Iraq's
largest insurgent groups called for the creation of a separate Sunni
Islamic state in the country. If authentic, it could indicate a shift
in strategy for parts of the Sunni Arab insurgency. "Your brothers in
the Mutayibeen Coalition herald the establishment of the Islamic State
of Iraq," said a spokesman.

He said it should encompass the governates of Baghdad, Anbar, Diyala,
Kirkuk, Salahedddin, Nineveh and parts of Babel and Wasit – a swathe
of central and western Iraq where most Sunni Arabs live. [But where a
lot of other folks live too - for example, Kurds and Turkmen in
oil-rich Kirkuk, many of whom can be expected to vigorously resist
such a border - JFP.]

It is rarely clear whether internet statements represent a coherent
stance by insurgents or a splinter group, or indeed if they are
authentic at all. But if a separate state is really now a goal of
radical Sunni Islamist guerillas, it would put them at odds with
mainstream Sunni politicians and many other insurgent groups. They
tend to look askance at partition, which they claim would deprive
their oil-poor central Iraqi heartland of resources.

9) Much of Iraq still in ruin as U.S. builders leave
Local officials will be faced with running plants and finishing jobs
left by big companies
Charles J. Hanley, Associated Press, Oct. 15, 2006, 12:07AM
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4258694.html

Close behind U.S. tanks and troops, America's big builders invaded
Iraq three years ago. Now reconstruction funds are drying up and
they're pulling out, leaving completed projects and unfulfilled plans
in the hands of an Iraqi government unprepared to manage either. The
Oct. 1 start of the U.S.' 2007 fiscal year signaled an end to U.S. aid
for new reconstruction in Iraq. "We're really focusing now on helping
Iraqis do this themselves in the future," said Daniel Speckhard,
reconstruction chief at the U.S. Embassy.

Many Iraqi government ministries aren't able yet to pick up where the
Americans leave off, he said: "They're very bad at sustainment in
terms of programs and projects." In 2003, Congress committed almost
$22 billion to a three-year program to help Iraq climb back from the
devastation of war, the looting that followed and years of neglect
under U.N. economic sanctions and Saddam Hussein's rule.

The money was invested in thousands of projects, large and small, such
as rebuilt oil pipelines and upgraded power plants, schoolbooks, new
ambulances and nurseries to replenish Iraq's groves of date palms. But
U.S. and Iraqi planners, engineers and construction crews faced major
obstacles in a landscape wracked by anti-U.S. insurgency and
Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence, in an economy bled by corruption, and in a
nation abandoned by thousands of its skilled hands and shunned by much
of the world.

In this dangerous climate, almost $6 billion of the U.S.
reconstruction aid was diverted to training Iraqi police and troops
and to other security costs, adding to what U.S. auditors now dub a
"reconstruction gap." Fewer than half the electricity and oil projects
planned have been completed, internal documents of the U.S.
reconstruction command show.

Scores of other projects were canceled, and the "gap" can be seen on
the streets of Baghdad, where people spend most of their day without
electricity, and spend hours in line for gasoline and other scarce
fuels. Although the Americans will complete jobs already under
contract, probably into 2008, many participating in the U.S. program
are disappointed Congress chose not to underwrite essential new
projects.

10) Focus: In the line of fire
The head of the British Army says our troops are doing more harm than
good in Iraq. Is he right? And should he have said it?
Michael Smith, Sunday Times, October 15, 2006
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2404819_1,00.html

In making his case for Britain's mission in Afghanistan, General
Dannatt contrasted Afghanistan with the quagmire of Iraq. The more he
drew the contrasts, the more he shot holes in the policies of Tony
Blair and his government. The planning for the aftermath of the Iraq
invasion, he said, was "poor, probably based more on optimism than
sound planning". The British military presence in Iraq "exacerbates
the security problems".

He blamed the situation in Iraq for making matters worse elsewhere,
directly contradicting Blair. "I don't say that the difficulties we
are experiencing around the world are caused by our presence in Iraq,
but undoubtedly our presence in Iraq exacerbates them," he said. To
cap it all, he pointed out that British troops went to Afghanistan at
the invitation of its elected government; in Iraq the "military
campaign we fought in 2003 effectively kicked the door in".

He added: "The original intention was that we put in place a liberal
democracy . . . Whether that was a sensible or naive hope history will
judge. I don't think we are going to do that. I think we should aim
for a lower ambition." British troops, he concluded, should leave Iraq
"soon".

The army internet forums were full of praise. "I think it's bloody
brilliant a CGS (Chief of the General Staff) gets up and says 'For my
lads'," one soldier wrote. "The General has obviously decided to stake
his job on this," another added. "At last, someone who has integrity
and genuine concern for his men and his country."

11) Iraqis call for five-man junta to end the anarchy
Marie Colvin, The Sunday Times, October 15, 2006
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2404311.html
Iraq's fragile democracy, weakened by mounting chaos and a rapidly
rising death toll, is being challenged by calls for the formation of a
hardline "government of national salvation". The proposal, being
widely discussed in political and intelligence circles in Baghdad, is
to replace the government with a regime capable of imposing order and
confronting the sectarian militias. Saleh al-Mutlak, a prominent Sunni
politician, travelled to Arab capitals last week seeking support for
the replacement of the present government with a group of five
strongmen who would impose martial law and either dissolve parliament
or halt its participation in day-to-day government.

Other Iraqis dismissed the idea that a unilateral change in the
leadership would be desirable or even possible. "The only person who
can undertake a coup in Iraq now is General Casey (the US commander)
and I don't think the Americans are inclined to go in that direction,"
said Ahmed Chalabi. Any suspension of the democratic process would be
regarded as a severe blow to American and British policy.

The establishment of democracy has been its cornerstone and successful
elections in December last year were hailed as a cause for optimism.
However, Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and
International Studies in Washington, said there was a "very real
possibility" that Maliki could be toppled in the coming months.
"Nobody in Iraq has the military power to mount a traditional coup,
but there could be a change in government, done in a backroom, which
could see a general brought in to run the ministry of defence or the
interior," Cordesman said. "It could be regarded as a more legitimate
government than the present one as long it doesn't favor one faction."

This weekend Mutlak, who leads the Iraqi National Dialogue Front, the
fifth largest political group in the national assembly, vowed to press
ahead with his plans. "Maliki must step down. He has done nothing up
to now. Hundreds of Iraqis are being killed almost daily and thousands
are being removed from their homes in sectarian purges, and he takes
no action." The main focus of a new regime, Mutlak said, would be to
bring security back to Iraq by "cleaning out" the ministries of
defence and the interior, widely seen as having been infiltrated by
sectarian militias. He said he had the support of four other parties
including al-Fadila, a Shi'ite party based in Basra.

12) Iraqis 'fleeing rising violence'
Pam O'Toole, BBC News, Friday, 13 October 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6049174.stm
Thousands of Iraqis are fleeing the country every day, in what the
UN's refugee agency describes as a steady, silent exodus. The number
of Iraqis claiming asylum in the West is growing, says the UNHCR. The
agency also says the number of internally displaced is growing, with
some 365,000 Iraqis uprooted this year. Earlier this week the Baghdad
government estimated that about 300,000 people had been internally
displaced since February.

"UNHCR is monitoring the border in Syria, for example," said UNHCR
spokesman Ron Redmond. "Our staff [are] seeing about 2,000 people a
day coming across, so it's more than 40,000 people a month just into
Syria." There are also increasing numbers of people leaving their
homes but staying in Iraq. "The estimate now is something around
50,000 people per month are joining the growing numbers of internally
displaced inside Iraq," Redmond said.

Israel
13) The Great Experiment
Uri Avnery, Gush Shalom, 14-10-2006
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1160914974/
Is it possible to force a whole people to submit to foreign occupation
by starving it? That is, certainly, an interesting question. So
interesting, indeed, that the governments of Israel and the US, in
close cooperation with Europe, are now engaged in a rigorous
scientific experiment in order to obtain a definitive answer. The
laboratory for the experiment is the Gaza Strip, and the guinea pigs
are the million and a quarter Palestinians living there.

China
14) China Said to Start Enforcing North Korea Sanctions
John O'Neil & Norimitsu Onishi, New York Times, October 16, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/16/world/asia/17koreacnd.html
A senior State Department official said today that China had begun
inspecting trucks crossing its border with North Korea, despite
statements by Chinese officials over the weekend that that the country
would not let the UN sanctions adopted on Saturday interfere with its
trade with North Korea. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary for political
affairs, said there were "some indications" that "the Chinese are
beginning to stop trucks along their 800-mile border and to inspect
all of them."

In a dispatch from Dandong, the main crossing point between China and
North Korea, AP reported that Chinese customs inspectors examined
cargo trucks bound for the North more closely today than they did last
week. It was not clear whether the inspections were stringent enough
to achieve the sanctions' purpose of cutting off the flow of illicit
materials. The Chinese guards were opening the back of each truck and
looking at its cargo, but not opening individual boxes or bags, AP
said.

Trading companies in Dandong and another border city, Tumen, said that
the inspections were not interfering with their shipments, the A.P.
said. Reporters who visited the border post last week did not see
inspectors open any trucks.

South Korean officials today confirmed media reports that China is
erecting a barbed-wire fence along the border, although they stressed
that the project began before North Korea's report last week of a
nuclear test, and that it was aimed at controlling smugglers and
refugees. Some banks in China near the border have begun refusing to
handle cash remittances to and from the North, South Korean news
outlets reported today.

"We don't think the banks are acting under instructions from the
central Chinese government," a senior official at the Foreign Ministry
of South Korea said. "But the banks might be acting on their own
initiative, to protect their interest and minimize potential risks of
doing business with North Korea." The official said he strongly
doubted that China would crack down on nonmilitary trade with North
Korea.

While officials in Beijing were clearly incensed by North Korea's
announcement of a nuclear test, China agreed to back Security Council
sanctions only after the US revised them three times to make them less
rigorous.

Ecuador
15) Presidential Race In Ecuador Heads To Second Round
Juan Forero, Washington Post, Monday, October 16, 2006; A15
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/15/AR2006101500451.html
A banana magnate who portrays himself as a friend of the poor and a
young economist close to Venezuela's leader, Hugo Chávez, will face
each other in a presidential election runoff on Nov. 26 after neither
obtained enough votes to win in a first round Sunday. With 60 percent
of the vote counted, Alvaro Noboa, one of the wealthiest men in Latin
America, had 27 percent of the vote to 22 percent for Rafael Correa, a
charismatic former finance minister who has sharply criticized the
Bush administration.

The election in this country of 13 million has attracted attention
beyond its borders because of the rapid rise of Correa, an economist
who promises to overturn Ecuador's old economic order and calls for a
constitutional assembly that could dissolve the National Congress.
Calling himself a friend of Chávez, who has become Washington's
leading antagonist in Latin America, Correa says his government would
shutter a U.S. military base in Ecuador, crack down on multinational
companies and possibly declare a moratorium on payment of the
country's $10 billion foreign debt. If he wins next month, he will
join a growing list of left-leaning leaders elected in Latin America
since 2002.

On Sunday evening as results began to come in, Noboa charged that
Ecuador would become another Cuba under Correa. "Rafael Correa's
posture is communist, dictatorial," he said. He denied that he employs
child laborers on his banana farms, an accusation made in a Human
Rights Watch report in 2002. "I don't have child workers in my
companies," he said.

Correa has appealed to Ecuadorans who are tired of a chaotic and
corruption-riddled political system. Even though Ecuador is the
continent's second-largest exporter of oil to the US, after Venezuela,
most of its people are poor and underemployed. "He's not offering
housing, a new health system or education - he's offering renewal of
the political system," said Adrian Bonilla, director of the Ecuador
branch of the Latin American Faculty for Social Sciences.

Bonilla argued that, despite Correa's super-heated oratory, he is far
from being a knee-jerk radical who would upend Ecuador's economy.
Instead, Bonilla said, Correa is influenced by Keynesian thought,
which sees a central role for government in managing the economy, and
by contemporary economists such as the American Nobel Prize winner
Joseph Stiglitz, who argues that unchecked globalization harms poor
countries.

Venezuela
16) U.N. still at impasse on Guatemala-Venezuela vote
Evelyn Leopold, Reuters, Monday, October 16, 2006; 2:07 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/16/AR2006101600463.html
Venezuela gained votes but still lagged behind Guatemala on Monday in
the fourth round of secret balloting for an open Latin American seat
in the U.N. Security Council for the years 2007-2008. Guatemala,
supported by the US, received 110 votes, down from 116 in the third
round, while Venezuela got 75 votes, up from 70 in the third round.
Six nations abstained. But Guatemala did not get the two-thirds
majority needed for victory in the 192-nation body.

Further rounds of balloting are necessary during which a new
compromise candidate could emerge. However, Brazil's U.N. ambassador,
Ronaldo Sardenberg, said it was still premature to think of a
substitute candidate until the trend became clearer. Venezuela and
Guatemala are vying for the Latin American seat being vacated by
Argentina while Peru stays on the Security Council until the end of
2007 along with the Congo Republic, Ghana, Qatar and Slovakia.

Several ambassadors said that President Chavez's September speech to
the U.N. General Assembly did not win him friends. Chavez called
President Bush a "devil" and said the American leader had left the
smell of sulfur hanging in the chamber. "Many people felt it was bad
taste," said Tanzanian Ambassador Augustine Mahiga. But he said
Guatemala might have won the seat outright had the US not lobbied so
hard on its behalf.

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Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org

Just Foreign Policy is a membership organization devoted to reforming
U.S. foreign policy so that it reflects the values and interests of
the majority of Americans.