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World in brief
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 11, 2003
MEXICO CITY -- In the first Cabinet shuffle of his 2-year-old presidency, President Vicente Fox accepted the resignation Friday of Foreign Secretary Jorge Castaneda and replaced him with Economy Secretary Ernesto Derbez.
Fox credited Castaneda with increasing Mexico's stature abroad and thanked him for his "commitment, loyalty and professionalism."
Castaneda, a leftist academic who initially seemed an unlikely ally for the conservative Fox, grew to become one of the president's closest advisers. Castaneda was credited with increasing Mexico's stature abroad, while irking Mexican lawmakers and some traditional allies, including Cuba.
But as Castaneda acknowledged Friday, he was unable to achieve his greatest goal: striking a migration accord with the United States. Talks that once seemed promising were thwarted by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"I am disappointed that we haven't been able to achieve faster and more concrete results in migration," said Castaneda, who is returning to academia.
WASHINGTON -- Mexico will release at least 114-billion gallons of water from the Rio Grande to U.S. farmers this year, meeting the first year of a five-year obligation under a 1944 water treaty, the State Department said Friday.
Spokesman Richard Boucher said Mexico has made a firm commitment to provide the water, which is measured as 350,000 acre-feet, and possibly an additional 50,000 acre-feet if weather conditions permit by Sept. 30.
Under the treaty, Mexico is supposed to release an annual average of 350,000 acre-feet in cycles of five years, said Sally Spener, International Boundary and Water Commission spokeswoman.
An acre-foot is the amount of irrigation water it takes to cover 1 acre to a depth of 1 foot.
The announcement that Mexico had reached the "understanding" to release the water angered officials in Texas, where farmers blame crop damage on Mexico's failure to comply with the treaty.
KIGALI, Rwanda -- Rwanda began releasing hundreds of elderly and ill genocide suspects and other detainees Friday to ease overcrowding in its prisons, the attorney general said.
After President Paul Kagame called last week for the conditional release of some 40,000 prison inmates, doctors began examining the most seriously ill and elderly, recommending they be let out.
Those released will still be held accountable for their alleged crimes, and the decree does not cover organizers, leaders and supervisors of the 1994 genocide and those accused of rape during the 100-day slaughter, Attorney General Gerard Gahima said.
At least half a million people, most of them minority Tutsis, were slaughtered on the orders of an extremist government of the Hutu majority.
About 115,000 genocide suspects are being held in Rwandan prisons, representing between 90 and 95 percent of the prison population. Most have never been formally charged and were jailed on accusations made by friends and relatives of the victims.
CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez threatened Friday to send soldiers to seize control of food production facilities and fired 700 workers from the state oil monopoly, hoping to break a 40-day-old strike intended to oust him.
Chavez told soldiers to be ready "to militarily seize the food production plants" that joined the strike.
"This is an economic coup. They are trying to deny the people food, medicine and even water," Chavez told supporters. "They won't succeed."
The opposition wants Chavez to resign and call elections.
Rafael Alfonzo, president of Venezuela's food producers chamber, blamed food shortages on Chavez for refusing to cede to opposition demands. He insisted foodmakers are producing staples but said fuel shortages have hampered deliveries.
The strike also has paralyzed the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, where at least 30,000 of the state company's 40,000 workers are off the job.