Latin America Digest: Today's one-line news briefs

Livingston, Guatemala -- Descendants of African slaves who fled to Guatemala two centuries ago honored their ancestors Thursday in a celebration of the Black Carib Garifuna culture that included hundreds of people reenacting their forefathers' arrival by dugout canoe.

Manaus, Brazil -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said “gringos” should pay Amazon nations to prevent deforestation, insisting rich Western nations have caused much more environmental destruction than the loggers and farmers who cut and burn trees in the world's largest tropical rain forest.

Tegucigalpa, Honduras -- The Honduran Supreme Court recommended that lawmakers vote against restoring President Manuel Zelaya, concluding that Zelaya, who was ousted in a June 28 coup, should not return to the presidency while he has criminal charges pending against him, a spokesman said.

Havana, Cuba -- Cuba began its biggest military maneuvers in five years, with the state-run press quoting  military leaders as saying the nation needed to prepare for a possible invasion by the United States.

San Salvador, El Salvador -- An earthquake off El Salvador's Pacific coast sent people running from buildings in the nation and in neighboring Guatemala, though officials said there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

-- Times wire reports

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe missing 'Amazon Summit' in Brazil because of foot injury

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe today sent his regrets to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, saying he would be unable to attend the so-called “Amazon Summit” in Manaus, Brazil, on Thursday because of a foot injury.

Some hoped the Brazilian forum would help ease tensions between Uribe and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez,who is expected to attend. Chavez has threatened war with Colombia over Uribe’s decision to allow the Pentagon to use seven Colombian bases for flights to combat drug trafficking and insurgency.

Chavez has closed the common border to much trade, and Colombian exports to Venezuela tumbled by 49% during the most recent month for which figures are available.

Tension remains high after several recent border incidents, including the demolition last week of two border foot bridges by Venezuelan armed forces. Also last week, three Colombian citizens were killed in Arauca state, Venezuela. On Nov. 2, two members of the Venezuelan national guard were mysteriously killed. Last month, nine Colombians were kidnapped and killed by suspected guerrillas after a pickup soccer game on the Venezuelan side of the border in Tachira state.

Uribe has remained characteristically calm in the face of Chavez's bluster, which many see as an effort to divert Venezuelans' attention from domestic problems.

But in an interview this week with Bogota’s Semana magazine in which he criticized Uribe’s deal with the Pentagon, former Colombian President Ernesto Samper warned that the crisis is “not the delirium of a paranoid.” He blamed Uribe as much as Chavez for tensions.

-- Chris Kraul in Bogota, Colombia

Latin America Digest: Today's one-line news briefs

Mexico City — NASA astronaut Jose Hernandez, the U.S.-born son of migrant farmworkers, Tuesday lobbied Mexico to start a space agency and invest more money in science, technology and education.

Caracas, Venezuela — Opposition parties and Jewish community members criticized a visit by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, citing worries over his denial of the Holocaust, human rights violations and Iran’s nuclear program.

La Paz, Bolivia — Bolivian police said Indians in the remote Qaqachaca village held police at bay with dynamite blasts, allowing some to escape, and one officer was wounded in the leg by gunfire last week before authorities busted five cocaine labs.

Brasilia, Brazil — Rio de Janeiro’s posh beach neighborhoods lost power for hours in sweltering summer weather just two weeks after a massive blackout left more than 60 million people in the dark and raised questions about the nation's ability to host the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

— Times wire reports

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva welcomes Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva warmly received Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Brasilia today and defended Tehran's right to develop peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Lula, who has taken flak for hosting the controversial Ahmadinejad, said a "just and balanced solution" should be found to international concerns about Iran's nuclear development program. Iran says its program is for civilian energy purposes, but the U.S. and many other Western powers allege Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

"We recognize Iran’s right to develop a peaceful nuclear program in compliance with international accords," Lula said in a prepared speech at a news conference with Ahmadinejad, according to Reuters. The Brazilian leader then turned to his guest and said: "I encourage you to continue engaging interested countries to seek a just and balanced solution on the Iranian nuclear issue."

Lula said earlier that other nations should engage Iran in the pursuit of peace in the Middle East despite Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust and expressed desire to see Israel disappear.

"There's no point in leaving Iran isolated," Lula reportedly said on his radio program before the two leaders met. "It's important that someone sits down with Iran, talks with Iran and tries to establish some balance so that the Middle East can return to a certain sense of normalcy."

Iranian officials have said Tehran hopes to expand trade with Brazil in the petrochemical, energy, agricultural and medical fields.

— Chris Kraul in Bogota, Colombia

Latin America Digest: Today's one-line news briefs

Sao Paulo, Brazil -- Brazil's government should hear native Indians before deciding on the construction of a controversial $17.3 billion hydroelectric dam in the heart of the Amazon rain forest, rock star and environmental activist Sting said Sunday.

Brasilia, Brazil -- Hundreds of Brazilians protested the impending visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, citing his animosity toward Israel, his government's controversial nuclear activities and his declarations against homosexuals.

Caracas, Venezuela -- Venezuela has no interest in talking directly to Colombia to end months of tensions between the two countries but would support an effort by other South American nations to broker a solution, a top government official said.

Caracas, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez hailed the forthcoming arrival of 300 Russian-made tanks and armored vehicles, and urged civilians to join government-organized militias to be ready to defend Venezuela from a foreign invasion.

-- Times wire reports

Latin America Digest: Today's one-line news briefs

Salvador, Brazil — Brazil’s President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday joined visiting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in calling on Israel to stop building new settlements in areas claimed by Palestinians.

Bogota, Colombia — Six people, including two children, were killed when suspected Colombian FARC guerrillas stopped and set fire to a bus traveling in the south of the country, a state governor said.

Guatemala City — Guatemalan officials announced the resumption of international adoptions after a nearly two-year suspension prompted by the discovery that some babies were being sold.

Tegucigalpa, Honduras — A Honduran television station that backs deposed President Manuel Zelaya accused the de facto government of interfering with its broadcast signal, replacing news programs with cowboy movies.

Mexico City — Rising oil prices and increased exports are slowly dragging Mexico’s economy out of a severe recession, but the nation’s financial system still faces fundamental challenges, national leaders and experts said.

-- Times wire reports

Former guerrilla Cesare Battisti on hunger strike in Brazil

Former leftist guerrilla Cesare Battisti may be ready to die of hunger in a Brazilian prison rather than face multiple murder charges in Italy, his home country.

Battisti, who is wanted in Italy on four murder charges, reportedly went on a hunger strike and gave Brazilian Sen. Jose Nery a letter addressed to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva saying he favors death in Brazil.

“I am ready to die if I have to but never at the hands of my executioners,” Battisti's letter said, according to Reuters.

The 54-year-old Battisti denies responsibility for the deaths, which occurred in the 1970s when he belonged to a group called Armed Proletarians for Communism.

Battisti's judicial fate is in the hands of Brazil's Supreme Court, which is expected to make a decision on whether to extradite him.

Earlier this year Lula granted Battisti political refugee status, but Italy considers him a terrorist. He escaped from an Italian prison in 1981 and lived in France for years, then fled when his extradition was approved in 2006, Reuters reported. He was on the run when he was arrested in Brazil.

-- Efrain Hernandez Jr.

Mexican image of Brazil wins World Press Photo prize

Mexican photographer Carlos Cazalis was one of the winners in this year's World Press Photo contest. The photographer was given first prize in the Contemporary Issues section for this image he took in São Paulo, Brazil, last year.

Brazilian singer Ceu continues to experiment with diverse genres

On her sophomore project, "Vagarosa," Brazilian singer-songwriter Céu continues to embrace music from far and wide, reports Reed Johnson:

If you've set foot in a Starbucks lately, chances are you've caught a few bars of Céu's music. The Brazilian singer-songwriter's self-titled debut album was picked by the coffee chain to be the first release from an international artist featured in its Hear Music Debut CD series.

Critics showered praise, the disc rose to the top of Billboard's world music chart and Céu (pronounced say-u) scored a Latin Grammy nomination for best new artist of 2006 and a Grammy nomination for best contemporary world music album of 2007.

Céu's creamy vocals and camera-friendly looks helped make her the rare foreign chanteuse who can break through the English-language barrier that often blocks world music artists from the U.S. market (she sings almost exclusively in Portuguese). With her much-anticipated follow-up, "Vagarosa," to promote, she's back on tour and has a return engagement Friday at the Roxy.

Read the rest of this report here on the LATimes Pop & Hiss music blog.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Henry Ford's utopian adventure in the Brazilian rain forest

Historian Greg Grandin has taken what heretofore seemed a marginal event -- Henry Ford's failed attempt to establish a gigantic agricultural-industrial complex in the heart of Brazil's Amazon Basin -- and turned it into a fascinating historical narrative that illuminates the auto industry's contemporary crisis, the problems of globalization and the contradictions of contemporary consumerism.

For all of that, this is not, however, history freighted with political pedantry. Grandin is one of a blessedly expanding group of gifted American historians who assume that whatever moral the story of the past may yield, it must be a story well told.

"Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City" is precisely that -- a genuinely readable history recounted with a novelist's sense of pace and an eye for character. It's a significant contribution to our understanding of ourselves and engrossingly enjoyable.

Read the rest of Tim Rutten's review of Greg Grandin's book Fordlandia.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City