Internet use grows in Latin America

More affordable computers and an expanding broadband network are two of the factors helping to push Internet use in Latin America, according to a survey conducted by Pyramid Research for Google.

The Miami Herald reports that the recent expansion of Internet users in Latin America has been dramatic.

In 2007, for example, Colombia added 5.4 million Internet users, or about 12% of its population of 45 million -- an 80% increase in the number of Colombia's Internet users that year.

Brazil added 7.4 million Internet users in 2007 (17% growth), Mexico more than 2.2 million (an 11% increase) and Venezuela 1.58 million (38% growth).

Read the full report through the link above.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Iran's Latin America push

John Kiriakou, now in the private sector, served as a CIA counter-terrorism official from 1998 to 2004. Today, he writes in Los Angeles Times Opinion about how he thinks Iran is making major diplomatic inroads into Latin America, right under Washington's nose.

It's amazing, really. Iran, after all, is regarded by most of the world as an outlaw country. Sanctions are in place on much of its military-industrial complex, and international loan guarantees are virtually impossible to come by. The Iranian economy is in tatters. Even while $100-plus oil was enriching most producers in the region, Iran's low-tech, outdated industry was barely profiting. In fact, 6% of the country's gasoline is imported.

Nevertheless, over the last year, Iran has worked diligently to expand relations with a host of Latin American countries, most of which have populist leaders who harbor a strong distrust of the United States and are looking for a powerful friend to help them rebuff Washington's influence.

Read the rest of "Iran's Latin America push" here.

— Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva criticizes U.S. over financial crisis

As his popularity has surged and his nation's booming economy has lifted thousands from poverty, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has largely refrained from the angry criticism of the United States that can be heard nearly any day from other South American leaders.

Not this time, reports Joshua Partlow for the Washington Post.

Last week, Lula told the U.N. General Assembly that the "boundless greed" of a few should not be shouldered by all, and on Monday, he said emerging economies had done their best to have "good fiscal policy" and "can't be turned into victims of the casino erected by the American economy."

"This crisis belongs to the American bankers, to the European bankers. It doesn't belong to the Brazilian bankers," Lula said Monday. "It's not fair for Latin American, African and Asian countries to pay for the irresponsibility of sectors of the American financial system."

Earlier this week, Chris Kraul reported from Ecuador on why Latin America should worry about the economic crisis in the United States.

Read the rest of the report from the Washington Post here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Latin America has reasons to worry about U.S. financial crisis

After being lectured for 20 years about the superiority of the free market, officials in Latin America see no small irony in the effort to bail out the U.S. banking system, writes Chris Kraul from Ecuador.

Latin America has several reasons to worry about the U.S. economic meltdown. Ecuador, for instance, fears the possible loss of duty-free export markets for its coffee, fish and flowers.

People here are also worried the crisis will cut into the $2 billion in annual remittances sent home by Ecuadoreans living in the U.S., and wonder whether the nation's use of the dollar as the national currency, a move made in 2000 to curb inflation, still makes sense.

But there is an undercurrent of schadenfreude when it comes to America's pain. Commentator Boaventura de Sousa Santos scolded the United States for its "ironhanded evangelizing" that free markets, privatization and deregulation were innately more virtuous than "corrupt and efficient" state-run economies.

"Millions were thrown into unemployment, lost their land and labor rights and had to emigrate," the Portuguese-born Santos wrote in an article widely distributed over the Internet.

Read more about how the United States woes are also Latin America's problems.

Click here for more on business.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: Stock traders negotiate at the Mercantile & Futures Exchange in Sao Paulo, Brazil, last week. Credit: Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images

Southern California's dual citizens see little conflict

Salvador Gomez Gochez was 25 when he first came to Los Angeles with $3 in his pocket and painful memories of his Salvadoran homeland torn apart by repression and war, reports Teresa Watanabe.

Working his way up from a parking lot attendant to a manager, he learned English, bought a home, volunteered for a Salvadoran community organization and became a U.S. citizen, grateful to the country he says saved his life.

But Gomez Gochez, now 54, also retained his Salvadoran citizenship. Now, as a dual citizen, he has made the dramatic decision to return to his impoverished hometown in El Salvador and run for mayor after nearly three decades away. His hope: to revive his town's agricultural base with his U.S. contacts and empower the villagers with U.S. practices of participatory democracy.

As international business, travel and communications explode, a growing number of nations are allowing dual citizenship, and more immigrants are claiming it. Some, like Gomez Gochez, aim to use their bilingual and bicultural experiences to infuse their homelands with U.S. values and strengthen bonds between both countries.

But the trend is also stirring some unease.

Read more about Americans with dual citizenship here.

Image: Mario Fuentes poses at outside of Trinity Episcopal Church that hosts his L.A.-based community organization. Fuentes, an immigrant from El Salvador, is a middle-class homeowner, fluent English speaker and labor and community organizer. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles International Latino Film Festival to begin Sept. 12

In the film "Paraíso Travel,” a young immigrant named Marlon finds himself lost and broke shortly after arriving in New York and being separated from his girlfriend, the cunning and sexy Reina, played by Angélica Blandón. He meets an older man, a fixer for new arrivals, who helps him find shelter and asks the naive illegal what else he might need, writes Agustin Gurza.

"How do I get rid of this fear?" asks Marlon, somewhat overplayed by Aldemar Correa.

Of course, the old man can't help him with the dread that haunts strangers in a strange land, except to say that in time it goes away. That small, intimate moment in this occasionally overwrought drama offers a glimpse into the emotional and mental toll of the immigrant experience, which is often seen through ideological eyes.

"Paraíso," the year's biggest box office hit in Colombia, will have its West Coast premiere during the 12th annual Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, which begins Friday. It's one of 132 films that will screen at the festival, co-founded by Edward James Olmos, Marlene Dermer and the late George Hernández to spotlight Latino films. Ironically, the festival has suffered from the very success it has sought as top Latino filmmakers now find themselves courted by other festivals. Still, many consider the festival (which counts The Times as a sponsor) as a special opportunity to show their work in the U.S.

Read more about the Los Angeles Latino Film Festival here.

For more on film on La Plaza, click here.

Image: The film, featuring Aldemar Correa and Angélica Blandón, middle, is one of seven from Colombia that is screening at the festival. Camilo George Jimeno / Grand Illusions Entertainment

Paraguay's new president alleges plot

Paraguay's president has warned of a possible coup plot against his new government, saying that rival politicians summoned a key military figure to gauge support for their political ambitions, reports the Associated Press.

Two alleged participants responded that the meeting never happened. But President Fernando Lugo said all Paraguayans need to be alert for coup attempts by ''antidemocratic and retrograde'' elements.

''We will not allow attacks on the freedom of our people,'' Lugo told reporters summoned to his offices Monday. "Those who intend to pursue conspiratorial projects will be met with all the tools the constitution gives me.''

Lugo accused retired Gen. Lino Cesar Oviedo, a former political rival who placed third in April's presidential election, of holding the meeting in his home on Sunday.

Read more about Lugo's allegations here.

For more about the Paraguayan president and his country, click here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: President Lugo. Credit: BBC

In Paraguay, Fernando Lugo sworn in as president; Hugo Chavez basks in his glory

Former Roman Catholic Bishop Fernando Lugo, whose election broke a six-decade legacy of dictatorship and one-party rule, was sworn in Friday as president of this poor, landlocked nation in the heart of South America, Patrick J. McDonnell reports from Asuncion.

"Today a new Paraguay is born," Lugo told thousands of supporters and various heads of state assembled outside the congressional palace in the normally sleepy capital. "Today marks the end of an exclusive Paraguay, a secretive, notoriously corrupt Paraguay."

Sharing the stage with Lugo on Saturday, when he travelled to San Pedro, was a euphoric Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, clearly viewing the newly installed Paraguayan chief of state as his newest ally in the Caracas versus Washington political battle that has split Latin America.

"For the first time, I feel wanted in Paraguay," the animated Chavez declared, after repeating his habitual refrain that the United States, which he calls el imperio yanqui (the Yankee empire), was to blame for the region's chronic underdevelopment.

Read here about Lugo's signing in, and here about Chavez tagging along.

For more on Paraguay, click here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Profile: Paraguay President Fernando Lugo

Tyler Bridges profiles Paraguay's recently elected President Fernando Lugo, for the McClatchy News Service.

His election was far-fetched, writes Bridges.

No priest in living memory had been elected president of a Latin American country, much less one who hewed to the Liberation Theology practice of agitating on behalf of the oppressed.

Lugo's election is historic for another reason: He defeated the Colorado Party, which had governed Paraguay since 1947. No political party holding power had governed longer anywhere in the world.

Click here to read on about Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo.

For more on Paraguay, click here.

Paraguay's president submits early resignation

Paraguay's President Nicanor Duarte Frutos submitted his resignation nearly two months before his term ends to assume a post in the Senate, but the opposition has threatened to block the move, reads this report.

Duarte won a Senate seat in April's general election. However, opposition leaders say the constitution prohibits him from running while still in power.

Both houses of Congress will meet today to debate whether to accept the resignation, writes the BBC. If they do, Vice President Francisco Oviedo will take over.

President-elect Fernando Lugo will be sworn in Aug. 15, ending more than 60 years of rule by the Colorado Party. Read about his election in April here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City