Ibero-American Summit: Mainstream News Roundup Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Mainstream News Round-Up: Ibero-American Summit - Summit Tackles Terror, Economic Crisis - Mexico's Fox to Visit Cuba Early Next Year - Colombia Hints at Another FARC-UN Meeting - Summit Fights Poverty and Terror Sunday November 25 1:16 AM ET (via yahoo) Ibero-American [Summit] Tackles Terror, Economic Crisis By Jude Webber LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal wrapped up a summit in Lima Saturday vowing their "maximum commitment" against terror and support for Argentina as it battles to avert devastating debt default. At a ceremony in Peru's renovated government palace, the representatives of 23 countries signed declarations pledging to combat terror, shore up the fragile world economy and support peace in Colombia. In other documents, they praised Peru and Nicaragua for clean elections and urged Britain and Argentina to settle a sovereignty dispute over the Falkland Islands. "The time has come to act together, to advance our integration," Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, host of the Ibero-American Summit, told a closing ceremony. "All our reflections have and must have a central aim -- sustained economic growth generating decent jobs and an all-out war on poverty," he said. Toledo billed the two-day annual meeting as a chance for leaders to roll up their sleeves behind closed doors and get down to core issues for the region. "We have reaffirmed our rejection of terror, violence, crime and killing as a means of defending ideas or political positions," Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said. "This is a maximum commitment ... Our fundamental obligation is to defeat terrorism." After the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States and the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan to catch or kill Islamic militant Osama bin Laden, who is blamed for them, world security and the struggle against terrorism loomed large on the summit agenda. The murder on Friday of two police officers in Spain's Basque region -- blamed on separatist guerrillas ETA -- and four decades of strife in Colombia between leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitaries and the army provided a stark backdrop for the summit's resolve to crack down on terror. Economic crisis was the other theme of the meeting, this year lacking its usual star, Cuban President Fidel Castro, who unexpectedly stayed home to direct hurricane recovery efforts. Castro got a boost when leaders approved a motion urging the United States to lift its Helms-Burton act entrenching a U.S. embargo slapped on Cuba after the 1959 communist revolution. ARGENTINA SAYS 'DON'T WORRY' Argentina, Latin America's No. 3 economy, sought to reassure its peers as it proceeded with a high-stakes debt swap designed to ease crippling interest payments on its $132 billion debt, which have pushed it to the brink of bankruptcy. Many fear default will torpedo fragile economies elsewhere. "Don't worry, Argentina is safe," said Argentine President Fernando de la Rua, who left the summit early to fly home where an International Monetary Fund team was due on Sunday. "We are seeing ... a separation of the Argentine situation from the other countries, and this is very positive," Chilean President Ricardo Lagos told reporters. The summit's stance on terror could have raised prickly issues for Castro -- Cuba is one of seven nations blacklisted by the United States as alleged sponsors of terrorism. At last year's summit in Panama, Castro alone refused to sign an anti-terrorism motion he called hypocritical. But Cuba said this terror declaration was acceptable. "What enabled us to sign is that this declaration includes word for word what Cuba proposed at the Panama summit ... so we signed," Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage said. Castro's friend-turned-foe, noted Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, appeared to take a dig at Castro on Friday. [?? see comment below] "For the first time in its 11-year life, (this summit is taking place) only with the assistance of democratic representatives born of free elections and respectful of legality and liberty," he told a gala dinner for leaders. Lage, who took Castro's place, said they had "nothing to do with Cuba because in Cuba there is a revolution which is the supreme expression of democracy." [??? Indeed, it's hard to imagine why Webber made this weird interpretation of Vargas Llosa's comments, since both Carlos Lage and Felipe Perez Roque participated for Cuba. It's much more likely that he was referring to the fact that a new legally elected government has replaced Montesinos and Fujimori in the host country, Peru.-- NY Transfer] The summit also urged Britain and Argentina to resume talks to settle sovereignty of the Falkland Islands -- Las Malvinas in Spanish -- over which they briefly went to war in 1982. Argentina called the move "frankly positive." * Saturday November 24 9:02 PM ET (via Yahoo) Mexico's Fox to Visit Cuba Early Next Year By Antonio de la Jara LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Mexico's President Vicente Fox will make his first state visit to Communist Cuba early next year amid a faltering friendship between the two nations, Mexico's foreign minister said on Saturday. "Without a doubt (the visit) will take place the first quarter of next year," Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda told reporters during a summit in Lima of leaders from Latin America, Spain, and Portugal. Cuba's President Fidel Castro, 75, was for the first time absent from the annual Ibero-American Summit that this year focused on a united front against terror as well as worldwide economic crisis and the specter of debt default in Argentina. The veteran leader, who typically steals the show at the gathering, sent a last-minute letter saying he would stay home to direct recovery efforts after a devastating hurricane swept through the Caribbean island on Nov. 4. Castaneda said an exact date for the Cuban visit would be set within weeks. Mexico, Latin America's No. 2 economy that is the United States' second-biggest trade partner, has long been a key ally of Cuba, Latin America's sole Communist country. Castro launched his 1959 revolution after sailing from Mexico's gulf in 1956 and for decades the two countries defended each other in disputes with the United States. But relations have deteriorated. A recent new hardened stance on Cuba's human rights situation by Mexico drew strong rebukes from Havana, while Cuba's foreign minister has characterized the controversial Castaneda as disloyal and "dazzled" by his powerful northern neighbor, the United States. But during the summit, at which Cuba was represented by Vice President Carlos Lage, Castaneda said bilateral ties with Cuba were rosy. "The relations between Cuba and Mexico are excellent," he said, adding that Fox and Castro had been scheduled to dine on Saturday night until the Cuban leader canceled. The minister said that Mexico was sending a ship of aid material for to Cuba recover from Michelle, the worst hurricane to hit it in more than 50 years. * Saturday November 24 6:25 PM ET (via Yahoo) Colombia Chief Hints at Another FARC-U.N. Meeting By Missy Ryan LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Colombia's president said on Saturday that the country's largest leftist rebel group could meet a U.N. envoy again within days in an attempt to rekindle a guttering peace process. "The possibility of another meeting next week between members of the (rebel group) FARC and the U.N. envoy is ... very important," Andres Pastrana told reporters during a summit in Lima of leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Jan Egeland, the special U.N. envoy for Colombia, met with members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- known by the Spanish acronym FARC -- on Thursday in their southern enclave in an attempt to revive stalled peace talks. The diplomat said after the FARC meeting that efforts to clinch peace, while difficult, must continue. For nearly four decades, Colombia has been involved in war. Forty thousand people have been killed in the last decade alone. Pastrana had set a Jan. 20 deadline for a cease-fire with the FARC, but the 17,000-member group has refused to restart peace talks. It is demanding that the government reduce military monitoring and stop calling the FARC "terrorists." The president also said representatives of the so-called Group of Friendly Countries -- Cuba, Switzerland, France, Spain and Norway -- would meet FARC rebels in the coming days in the enclave ceded to the rebels nearly three years ago as part of a deal to launch peace talks. Pastrana said talks with the 5,000-strong National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia's No. 2 rebel group, were also crucial. The government and the ELN met this week in Cuba for the first time since August -- in meetings described as "cordial" -- to try to revive peace talks. "Restarting talks with the ELN and progressing in meetings with the FARC is going to be very important," Pastrana said. After the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States and the launching of a U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan, the fight against terror has been high on the agenda at the Ibero-American Summit in Lima. Leaders were due to adopt a declaration at the meeting's close later on Saturday condemning "terror in all its forms, wherever it manifests itself and by whomever it is committed." Peruvian Foreign Minister Diego Garcia Sayan said they would also approve a special declaration "calling for a peaceful solution to the internal war affecting our neighbor Colombia." "For Colombia ... the Ibero-American Summit's reiterated support of the peace and negotiation process is very important," Pastrana said. * BBC - 24 November, 2001, 13:58 GMT http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1673000/1673916.stm Summit fights poverty and terror The fight against terror and the battle for economic growth are dominating the 11th Ibero-American summit being held in the Peruvian capital, Lima. Leaders of more than 20 Latin American countries, plus Spain and Portugal, are holding the 11th annual Ibero-American summit, from which the Cuban president Fidel Castro is absent for the first time. Mr Castro sent a last-minute letter to Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo saying he needed to stay in Cuba to lead reconstruction efforts after the devastation caused by Hurricane Michelle earlier this month and he is being represented by Vice-President Carlos Lage. The participants are to sign a statement condemning acts of terrorism wherever they occur and whoever commits them, and undertaking not to allow their countries to harbour terrorists. Export markets The other main issue to be discussed in a closed session on Saturday is the effort to boost Latin American economies. Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo called for the United States and Europe to open their markets to Latin American exports. "Europe subsidises farmers, as does the United States. We are told to practice free market policies while they put barriers up. We hope they will open their market to our products," said Mr Toledo, who is hosting the gathering. More than 20,000 police officers have been deployed to guard the leaders, who are meeting in a hotel complex near the centre of Lima. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-11.25.01-05:32:08-16675