Arcadia Foundation

Rory Carrol, journalist for The Guardian, below covers the story of Eligio Cedeño’s release and the subsequent jailing of the judge who issued the order, the latest chapter in an intriguing case of corrupt leaders using corruption itself as a scapegoat for stifling political will. International attorney  Robert Amsterdam is interviewed below on the arrest and its ramifications:

Police arrested Judge María Afiuni, court bailiffs and a defence lawyers after her ruling allowed Eligio Cedeño, a banker facing corruption charges, to walk free last week.

Chávez, who has taken a close interest in the case, responded furiously, suggesting Afiunio had been bribed to facilitate an escape.

“A judge who frees a criminal is much, much, much more serious than the criminal himself,” he said in a televised speech. “This judge should get the maximum penalty… 30 years in prison. That judge has to pay for what she has done.”

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The United Against Nuclear Iran coalition, of which the Arcadia Foundation is a proud member, brought the following article from the Wall Street Journal to our attention.

Hugo Chávez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will address the U.N.’s climate summit in Copenhagen. Say what you will about these two gentlemen—the support for terrorists, the Holocaust denial, the suppression of civil liberties—at least nobody can accuse them of being global warming “deniers.”

On the contrary, the two leaders, who met in Caracas last month for at least the 11th time, have been nothing if not cooperative when it comes to environmentally friendly and carbon-neutral technologies. Bicycles, for instance: In 2005, Chávez directed his government to “follow seriously the project of manufacturing Iranian bicycles in Venezuela.” An Iranian dairy products plant (no doubt ecologically sensitive) also set up shop hard on the Colombian border, in territory controlled by Colombia’s terrorist FARC.

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The tiny Pacific island of Nauru recognized the rebel Black Sea region of Abkhazia on Tuesday, throwing its weight behind a Russian drive to win international recognition for Georgia’s breakaway territories.

The island of 14,000 people joined Russia, Nicaragua and Venezuela in recognizing Abkhazia, following a five-day war last year between Russia and Georgia over breakaway South Ossetia.

“We have established relations with the world’s biggest nation (Russia), and now with the smallest,” Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba told Reuters.

However, Georgia said Russia had “bought recognition.”

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Below, Arcadia Foundation founder Robert Carmona-Borjas talked about the right of Hondurans to decide to keep an American military base in Honduras (Palmerola) and denounced Hugo Chávez´s intervention in the matter. E HRN 6-25am (Robert Carmona-Declaraciones de Micheletti) 11-12-09

The Arcadia Foundation has denounced many ongoing cases in the region of Honduras. One of them is about a Judge that ruled (violating the law) to favor the law of Mr. Zelaya and give him the majority ownership of stock in a coffe company in Honduras. The Supreme Court expelled the judge from the judiciary system and now this ex-judge is on trial, accused of acting out of his authority.

We strongly suggest our Spanish-speaking friends read the latest article in El Heraldo. To our English-speaking friends, we suggest you visit BabelFish and translate the page, as it is truly a worthwhile and intriguing read.

Nearly two decades after the global arms race of the Cold War ended, many Latin America watchers today are worried about a new military standoff: between Colombia and Venezuela. As before, Washington is integral to the debate.

Tensions on both sides of the border have run high for several years, but a joint U.S.-Colombia military cooperation agreement signed on Oct. 30 seems to have escalated them to new heights. Critics of the agreement, including Venezuelan officials, accuse the United States of imperial ambitions, while Colombia defends its decision as a means to combat drug trafficking and terrorism.

With accusations of bad faith multiplying, Foreign Policy magazine listened to both sides of the story, and journalists Bernardo Alvarez Herrera and Carolina Barco together comprised insightful articles on the context underlying these tensions, one the United States has yet to fully comprehend. Both we have featured below, and we encourage you to read on.

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Billionaire Sebastian Pinera led Chile’s presidential vote and is seen the favorite to win a run-off and lead a political shift in Latin America’s most stable economy after 20 years of leftist rule.

Pinera, an airline magnate who ranks No. 701 on Forbes’ global rich list, won 44 percent in Sunday’s voting, shy of the more than 50 percent needed for an outright victory, according to nearly complete official results.

It was the first time in decades a rightist has taken the most votes in a presidential race in Chile, a copper-mining powerhouse and a major exporter of fruit, wine and salmon.

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Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe says the fragile power-sharing government in his country “was given a short life” and he intends to reclaim control through new elections.

“Elections are not far off,” Mugabe told his Zanu-PF party Saturday. “The inclusive government was given a short life. The remaining part of it is short. In fact it has lived more than half its life.”

Mugabe’s remarks come amid renewed tension between him and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. The two formed a power-sharing deal after a disputed presidential election that prompted months of controversy. The unity government has bickered constantly since it was formed in February, and Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change party has accused Mugabe’s Zanu-PF of human rights violations.

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Nigeria’s Port Harcourt International Airport is buzzing with unusual activity. According to an article from CNN, “perhaps for the first time it’s not the departure hall that is attracting all of the attention“.

Over the last few years, the world’s lens has focused mainly on the mass crowds of people fleeing Port Harcourt, situated in the heart of the Niger Delta, amid escalating violence between government troops and armed gangs.

But now the oil-rich city is determined to turn the spotlight back on its cultural heritage as it gears up to welcome an array of international film directors, actors and industry executives, at this week’s annual ION International Film Festival.

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Liu Xiaobo, one of China’s best-known dissidents and a principal author of a pro-democracy manifesto that has attracted more than 10,000 signatures from Chinese supporters, was indicted yesterday on charges of trying to subvert the state, according to the New York Times.

Mr. Liu was expected to be tried in four to six weeks, the lawyer, Shang Baojun, said this morning.

The authorities disclosed the decision to prosecute Mr. Liu — a step that almost invariably ends in imprisonment — exactly one year and a day after the manifesto, Charter 08, was published. Other Charter 08 signers said in interviews that the government was using Mr. Liu’s case to send a strong message to Chinese intellectuals that it would not tolerate organized, independent efforts to foster democracy.

“The government is trying to tell us to stop trying to push for human rights and democracy in China,” said Xu Youyu, a Charter 08 signer and philosophy professor who recently retired from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “Secondly, he has been the biggest threat inside of China, and they want to get rid of him.”

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