VENEZUELA: Profile: Hugo's Left Hand Woman... American Eva Golinger.

NYTIMES / SIMON ROMERO /

   Eva Golinger, 37, is a former New Yorker who is constantly writing about the threats to Chavez's “Bolivarian revolution.”
   She edits the English-language edition of Correo del Orinoco, Venezuela’s equivalent of the Cuban newspaper Granma,
     She has even recently traveled with Chavez to Iran, Libya and Syria.
    “I’m a soldier for this revolution. I’d do whatever asked of me for this country,”she said.
    “Golinger has systematically attacked defenders of human rights and freedom of expression by presenting them as puppets of Washington, something far from the truth,” said journalist Andrés Cañizález. “Paradoxically she uses a right established in the United States, of access to public information, which Venezuelans do not have.”

PERU: Lori Berenson: Scorned And In Limbo In Lima.

NYTIMES/ SIMON ROMERO/ INTERVIEW and PROFILE/

     After almost 15 years in prison, Lori  Berenson, 41, reflects on her old and new life from the fifth-floor walk-up where she lives in Lima.

    “People were on the street screaming that I was a child killer and things like that,” Lori Berenson said.

   “The other day someone came up to me and said, ‘You are damned, and he is doomed. You’re going to suffer your entire life, and he’ll make you suffer more.’ ” she said. “I totally understand that people feel a strong rejection to someone who represents terrorism. The problem is, I may not be the person they paint me to be, and they’ll never know that.”
       “I certainly am saddened, and I’m sorry that I have been part of something that was considered so damaging,” she said about her ties to M.R.T.A. “My participation has been collaborating. You know, I rented a house. I shared ideological things,” claiming she never had plans to participate in violence.

 FOR PREVIOUS INTERVIEW LINKS,SEE:

 http://thehypervigilantobserver.blogspot.com/2010/11/peru-rare-lori-berenson-interview-with.html

VENEZUELA: As The Middle-Class Exits, New Immigrants Arrive.

NYTIMES/ SIMON ROMERO/
    Many of the middle-class and wealthy are leaving as takeovers of private businesses increase, with 207 just this year.
    But hundreds of thousands of foreign merchants and laborers have arrived to take their place.
   “I feel like I can finally breathe again,” said a boat maker, who moved his operation to Colombia, creating more than 100 jobs there. “I’ve gone from a country where fear is constant over crime and state takeovers to a place that actually welcomes companies involved in something other than oil.”
   But the immigrants only see opportunity and continue to arrive, including about 4 million Colombians. “There’s work in Venezuela for those who want it,” said a Colombian laborer who moved to Caracas last year, finding jobs as a watchman and at a chicken-processing plant. “This place isn’t perfect, but it’s better than what I left behind.”

PERU: Profile Of Unpopular President Alan Garcia.

NYTIMES/ SIMON ROMERO /
"...in what might be considered his (President Garcia's) comeback term, a chance to rehabilitate his place in history, the insurgency is a shadow of its former self, the economy is booming — and he is still battling low approval ratings and heated criticism from his constituents."
AND: " Few leaders in Latin America embody the rise and fall of political fortunes like Mr. García, educated in Paris at the Sorbonne, where he studied sociology, and elected president in 1985 for the first time at age 35."
AND: " “We need someone strong to remove the criminals who infiltrate our government, not someone like Alan who talks pretty and does little,” said Ernán Cóndor, 22, a miner in the mountains above Lima."

VENEZUELA: Coping With A Homicide Rate Higher...Than Iraq's.

NYTIMES/ SIMON ROMERO/  With 9 fotos /
 The ever reliable Romero and the NYT are basically playing catch-up with the WSJ's Dan Molinski report of 21 Aug .

     With virtually the same population, last year in Iraq there were 4,644 civilian deaths from violence... while in Venezuela the number of murders climbed above 16,000...or almost FOUR TIMES as many! The nation has seen a decade-long surge in homicides, with about 118,541 since President Hugo Chávez took office in 1999. That compares unfavorably with the 22.7 per 100,000 people in Bogotá or the 14 per 100,000 in São Paulo.
Romero explores some of the reasons for the homicidal wave.
FOR THE WSJ REPORT WITH CHART, SEE:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703579804575441921817476204.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

LATIN AMERICA: Current Robust Growth Surprizing Many.

NYTIMES/ SIMON ROMERO/     "While the United States and Europe fret over huge deficits and threats to a fragile recovery, this region has a surprise in store. Latin America, beset in the past by debt defaults, currency devaluations and the need for bailouts from rich countries, is experiencing robust economic growth that is the envy of its northern counterparts.
     Strong demand in Asia for commodities like iron ore, tin and gold, combined with policies in several Latin American economies that help control deficits and keep inflation low, are encouraging investment and fueling much of the growth. The World Bank forecasts that the region’s economy will grow 4.5 percent this year."

PERU: Profile Of Freed "Terrorist" Lori Berenson.

NYTIMES/ SIMON ROMERO / Short Profile of Lori Berenson /

"Now that Berenson, 40, has been granted parole from a women’s prison in Lima, Peru’s capital, both she and the nation that imprisoned her have changed in significant ways. Though her past still looms large, prison officials and fellow inmates now talk about her baking skills, her teaching music to cellmates and her devotion to her 1-year-old son, Salvador." And..."What indignation,” said Peru’s vice president, Luis Giampietri, after hearing of the plan for her release. “The laws here are applied with a double standard."