WORLD
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Peru’s president tells Trump
he prefers ‘bridges to walls’
LIMA, Peru (AP) — The
first Latin American presi-
dent to visit Donald Trump
at the White House told the
U.S. leader Friday he prefers
“bridges to walls,” sending
him a gentle rebuke of his
controversial proposal to
build a wall along the border
with Mexico.
Peruvian
President
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a
U.S.-educated former Wall
Street banker, has emerged
as an unlikely leader in
Latin America, taking a
strong stand against Trump’s
“America First” agenda
while many in the region
remain silent.
Kuczynski, 78, character-
ized his meeting with Trump
as “cordial and constructive”
and said he told Trump he
was interested in the free
movement of people —
“legally,” he emphasized
—and also spoke about trade
and economic development.
Kuczynski
harshly
criticized Trump during the
U.S. presidential campaign,
joking he would cut diplo-
matic relations with the
U.S. “with a saw” if Trump
followed through on his
pledge to build a wall with
Mexico, which he compared
to the Berlin Wall. On Friday,
he made a point of saying
“we prefer bridges to walls.”
Leaders in the region, even
staunch critics of the U.S.
like Venezuelan President
Nicolas Maduro, have largely
avoided rallying to Mexico’s
side for fear of jeopardizing
their own relations with the
Trump administration.
Despite such past crit-
icism, it will be hard for
Trump to dismiss Kuczyns-
ki’s advice, said Brian
Winter, vice president of the
regional group Council of the
Americas.
Kuczynski,
who
renounced U.S. citizenship
to run for Peru’s presidency,
speaks Trump’s language, not
just flawless English but that
of a successful businessman
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
President Donald Trump meets with Peruvian President
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in the Oval Office on Friday.
with deep influence in the
power circles of New York,
where he lived and worked
for years.
He is also bolstered by
Peru’s standout performance
creating jobs and growth.
Buoyed by high metal prices,
Peru’s economy has boomed
an average 5 percent each
year since 2000 — almost
twice the regional average.
“This is the positive side
of the Latin American story
that Trump may be unaware
of,” said Winter. “Because
of his biography, but also the
success of Peru, Kuczynski
may have more credibility
than any other president in
Latin America to talk straight
to Trump.”
In brief remarks in the
Oval Office before their
meeting, Trump said the two
men have known each for
some time and that it was
an honor to welcome him to
Washington.
“Peru has been a fantastic
neighbor,” Trump said.
“We’ve had great relation-
ships, better now than ever
before.”
Trump also announced
that he would authorize
the sale of U.S. military
vehicles to Peru — though
Kuczynski later downplayed
the purchases, saying his
government’s priority is not
acquiring military equipment
but providing clean water to
all Peruvians.
Peru is among a handful
of South American nations
with a free trade agreement
with the U.S. and Kuczynski
has not hid his admiration for
the United States. But despite
being ridiculed at home as a
“gringo,” Kuczynski has said
he worries the U.S. has been
taking Latin America for
granted. Not for nothing, his
first trip abroad after taking
office last July was to China.
One area where the two
men likely see eye-to-eye
is Venezuela — though
Kuczynski said the topic
only came up tangentially in
their conversation.
Kuczynski has been
outspoken criticizing Vene-
zuela’s socialist government,
calling for humanitarian aid
to the country and giving
visas to exiles.
Within 30 days of taking
office, Trump has already
slapped sanctions on Vene-
zuela’s vice president for his
alleged role in facilitating
large cocaine shipments
to the U.S., and met with
the wife of the country’s
most-prominent
political
prisoner.
If Kuczynski manages
to earn Trump’s respect,
it could pay bilateral divi-
dends. Earlier this month,
Kuczysnki
telephoned
Trump to ask him to deport
former President Alejandro
Toledo, who is believed to be
in the San Francisco area.
AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo
Costumed patients from the Nise da Silveira Mental
Health Institute wait for the start of their Carnival pa-
rade in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday.
office had told her and the
symbolic key-holding group
to come, but hadn’t said more
about the plans.
The
mayor
“should
separate
religion
from
politics at our Carnival,”
said Marisol Portela, a home-
maker who had come to the
sambadrome. “He will not
be missed. We will throw our
party anyway.”
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Page 13A
Vote on UN Syria sanctions could
come soon; Russia vows veto
UNITED
NATIONS
(AP) — Nations urging the
U.N. to ban helicopter sales
to Syria and impose other
sanctions over chemical
weapons use are pressing
toward a Security Council
vote shortly, saying the
body needs to take action
after attacks the U.S. envoy
called “barbaric.” But
Russia is vowing a veto.
Britain’s deputy U.N.
ambassador, Peter Wilson,
said after a closed-door
Security Council meeting
Friday that a vote will come
“as soon as possible.” He’d
said that diplomats aimed to
advance the measure “in the
coming days.”
Britain, France and the
United States have been
seeking sanctions after an
investigation by the United
Nations and an interna-
tional chemical weapons
watchdog
organization
determined last year that
the Syrian government was
behind at least three attacks
involving chlorine gas in the
civil-war-ravaged country.
Paris mayor fires
back at Trump for
insulting her city
PARIS (AP) — Paris
Mayor Anne Hidalgo
has pushed back at U.S.
President Donald Trump
for insulting the City of
Light in a speech.
Trump evoked his
friend Jim, “a very, very
substantial guy,” in an
address Friday at the
Conservative political
Action Conference. Jim
used to be a regular visitor
to Paris, Trump said, but
hasn’t made the trip in four
or five years because “Paris
is no longer Paris.”
Hidalgo tweeted a photo
of herself alongside Mickey
Mouse and Minnie and
said: “To Donald and his
friend Jim, from the Eiffel
Brazil’s Carnival kicks off with parades and parties
RIO DE JANEIRO
(AP) — Revelers all over
Brazil were getting Carnival
celebrations started Friday,
taking to the streets to dance
samba, drink beer and other
spirits, and blow off steam
at a time of economic angst
and fury with politicians
over a sprawling corruption
scandal.
In Rio, home to the world’s
most famous Carnival bash,
several so-called block
parties were underway by
the afternoon. Thousands
of revelers danced amid
90-degree heat with high
humidity, standard during
the Southern Hemisphere
summer.
At the “Camelitas” block
party, revelers dressed up
as nuns in Rio’s bohemian
neighborhood of Santa
Teresa. Many carried signs
with statements ranging from
insults against politicians to
calls for the legalization of
drugs.
“The lord says: you will
try all the herbs that came
from the seeds,” read one
banner.
“Carnival is a very nice
and democratic party,” said
partygoer Nilse Azevedo.
“Whoever wants to pray,
prays. Whoever wants to
have fun in the street has
fun.”
At the sambadrome,
where top league samba
schools begin competing on
Sunday, thousands poured
in expecting the traditional
handing over of the city’s
key to “Rei Momo,” or the
king of carnal delights. This
was always done with great
fanfare by former Mayor
Eduardo Paes.
However, Marcelo Criv-
ella, a retired Pentecostal
bishop who took power Jan.
1, has been coy in recent
weeks about whether he
would participate in Carnival,
or how he might do so.
Holding the symbolic
key was Maria Cristina, who
appeared like somebody who
had been stood up.
“I would also like to know
what is going on,” she said
when asked by an Associated
Press reporter about what she
would do with the key.
Cristina said the mayor’s
East Oregonian
In Sao Paulo, where
samba school competitions
got started Friday night, there
was heavy rain and thunder.
The annual Carnival cele-
brations come at a difficult
time for many Brazilians.
The economy is mired in
recession, leading to daily
announcements
of
job
cuts and much angst about
the future. Many states,
including Rio de Janeiro,
are so broke that thousands
of public workers are being
paid months late, if at all.
Latin America’s largest
nation is also recovering
from a brutal impeachment
fight last year that led to the
removal of President Dilma
Rousseff for illegal misman-
agement of the budget.
The probe also found the
Islamic State group was
responsible for at least one
involving mustard gas.
President Bashar Assad’s
regime denies using chem-
ical weapons in the war,
which has killed hundreds
of thousands of people and
displaced millions since
it began in March 2011.
Russia, Syria’s closest ally,
has questioned the investi-
gation’s conclusions linking
chemical weapons use to
Syrian government, and
Russian deputy ambassador
Vladimir Safronkov said
Friday that his nation would
veto the sanctions measure
if it came up for a vote.
“It’s a provocation,” he
said outside the Security
Council chamber.
In a sharp retort, U.S.
Ambassador Nikki Haley
said the measure “needs to
happen.”
“How much longer is
Russia going to continue to
babysit and make excuses
for the Syrian regime?” she
said. “People have died by
being suffocated to death.
That’s barbaric.”
The
remarks
were
the latest signals that
new President Donald
Trump’s
administration
aims to confront Russia
on some issues, while
also expressing interest in
improving relations. Earlier
this week, Haley reiterated
that U.S. sanctions on
Russia over its 2014 annex-
ation of Ukraine’s Crimean
Peninsula will continue
until the region is returned
to Ukraine.
Despite the promised
Russian veto, backers of
the proposed U.N. sanctions
see them as a moral and
institutional
imperative.
Previous council resolu-
tions called for “measures,”
under a U.N. charter chapter
that authorizes sanctions, if
chemical weapons are used.
“On the scale of the
threats to peace and secu-
rity, we are at 10 here,”
French Ambassador Fran-
cois Delattre said before
Friday’s meeting.
BRIEFLY
Tower, we’re celebrating
the attractiveness of Paris
with Mickey and Minnie.”
In another tweet, with
the hashtag #Donald&Jim,
Hidalgo said American
tourist reservations are up
30 percent in 2017 so far
compared to last year.
Nigerian kidnappers
demand $200,000 for
German scientists
KADUNA, Nigeria
(AP) — Kidnappers are
demanding a ransom of
60 million naira (about
$200,000) for a German
archaeologist and his
associate abducted this
week from a northern
Nigerian village, a
worker at the excavation
site said. Two villagers
were shot and killed in
the kidnapping, police
confirmed Friday.
The worker said he
heard a man make the
demand in a telephone
call Thursday to the site’s
supervisor.
The caller warned him
not to involve police or
security forces, said the
worker, who spoke on
condition of anonymity
because he was not
authorized to speak to
reporters.
Police special forces
and a special investigative
team for kidnappings have
been searching around the
village of Jenjela in the
state of Kaduna, where
gunmen on Wednesday
abducted Professor Peter
Breunig and his associate,
Johannes Behringer, and
walked with them into the
bush.
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