Chile reconhece o Estado palestino

O Estado de S. Paulo

SANTIAGO - O governo do Chile anunciou nesta sexta-feira, 7, que vai reconhecer a Palestina como um estado independente. A medida acompanha decisões tomadas por outros países latino-americanos, como Brasil, Argentina, Bolívia e Equador. O Uruguai deve formalizar o reconhecimento ainda este ano.

"O governo do Chile, que permanentemente tem apoiado o direito do povo palestino a coexistir em paz com Israel, reconhece o Estado palestino livrem independente e soberano", disse o ministro das Relações Exteriores Alfredo Moreno.

O anúncio acontece uma semana depois do encontro do presidente chileno, Sebastián Piñera, com o presidente da Autoridade Palestina, Mahmud Abbas, em Brasília, na posse de Dilma Roussef.

A maior parte do mundo ignorou a declaração de um Estado palestino feita por Yasser Arafat em 1988. Mas, com o processo de paz em crise, Abbas tem como plano B buscar o reconhecimento do Estado palestino nas Nações Unidas - embora ele tenha admitido que seja pouco provável conseguir o apoio dos EUA.


Em 1993, os acordos de Oslo constituíram a Autoridade Palestina, que controla as principais cidades da Cisjordânia. Israel, no entanto, detém ainda cerca de 60% do território. Em 2005, os israelenses saíram da Faixa de Gaza, governada atualmente pelo Hamas.

Obama assina lei que dificulta fechamento de Guantánamo e julgamento de seus presos

Folha de São Paulo

O presidente dos EUA, Barack Obama, assinou nesta sexta-feira um projeto de lei que inclui uma medida proibindo que suspeitos presos em Guantánamo sejam transferidos aos EUA para julgamento. A medida é um golpe nas promessas de campanha de Obama de fechar o complexo prisional e julgar os detidos em tribunais federais.

"Apesar de minha forte objeção a essas determinações, às quais meu governo tem se oposto de forma consistente, assinei essa medida por causa da importância de autorizar recursos para, entre outras coisas, nossas atividades militares em 2011", disse Obama em comunicado.

Segundo ele, a medida é um desafio "perigoso e sem precedentes" para o Executivo.

Os fundos para Guantánamo fora incluídos em um importante projeto de defesa que o Congresso americano aprovou nos últimos momentos de trabalho do ano passado. Obama evitou vetar o projeto, já que ele também autoriza bilhões de dólares em gastos para as guerras em curso no Afeganistão e no Iraque.

A lei inclui medidas que impedem que recursos sejam usados para transferir suspeitos da prisão de Guantánamo, em Cuba, para os EUA. Também restringe o uso de certos recursos para enviá-los a outros países, a menos que condições específicas sejam atendidas.

Isso deve tornar muito difícil para o governo Obama buscar julgamentos criminais para os suspeitos de terrorismo, incluindo o mentor dos ataques de 11 de Setembro, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, que deveria enfrentar julgamento em Nova York.

"Meu governo vai trabalhar com o Congresso para tentar derrubar essas restrições, vai tentar mitigar seus efeitos, e vai se opor a qualquer tentativa de estendê-las ou expandi-las no futuro", disse Obama.

Obama prometeu fechar Guantánamo em sua campanha eleitoral em 2008.

HISTÓRICO

A prisão de Guantánamo foi aberta em 11 de janeiro de 2002 pelo então presidente George W. Bush para os prisioneiros de sua 'guerra contra o terrorismo'.

Desde então, os Estados Unidos mantém centenas de pessoas presas sem julgamento, acusação ou acesso a advogados, em condições muitas vezes denunciadas por organizações de direitos humanos.

Atualmente Guantánamo tem 174 detidos, dos quais apenas três foram julgados.

Obama assinou um decreto em 22 de janeiro de 2009 para fechar a prisão em um ano, mas o Congresso o impediu de fazê-lo, permitindo apenas que os prisioneiros entrassem nos Estados Unidos para serem processados.

Montenegro: "Hoy es mucho más importante cuidar la vida de los porteños que ordenar los piquetes"

Clarín

Según las estadísticas oficiales, durante 2010 hubo 613 cortes de calles en la Ciudad. Los fiscales porteños denuncian a diario que la Policía federal mira para otro lado. La situación, que se agrava cada año, deja como rehenes a los automovilistas. El Gobierno porteño tampoco se involucra en el tema, al menos por ahora. El ministro de Seguridad porteño, Guillermo Montenegro, confirmó que no está en los planes inmediatos de la Policía Metropolitana la conformación de un cuerpo de Infantería para ordenar las protestas sociales.

"Hoy es mucho más importante cuidar la vida de los porteños. En las comunas donde estamos la gente siente que le ha mejorado la calidad de vida. La responsabilidad del control de los piquetes no es de la Policía Metropolitana, que fue hecha para otra cosa. Para lo otro hay fuerzas nacionales que hoy están preparadas", aseguró Montenegro en diálogo con Clarín.com.

-¿No se pueden hacer las dos cosas?

- Se pueden hacer, pero no es el momento. Además preparar un grupo de esas características lleva mucho tiempo, no es para una primera etapa de una Policía comunitaria, si para dentro de dos o tres años. Hay otras fuerzas de ordenar los cortes de calles.

En la entrevista con Clarín.com, el ministro también defendió la participación de la Metropolitana en el desalojo del Parque Indoamericano. "La orden de la jueza incluía más de 200 personas del Gobierno de la Ciudad que tenían que participar de ese procedimiento. No fue un error (mandar a la Metropolitana). El desalojo en sí no fue violento, después empieza un problema puntual que es diferente", explicó.

La investigación judicial por las muertes apuntó tanto a la Metropolitana como a la Federal, aunque todavía hay dudas sobre el origen de los disparos. "Al día siguiente era un feriado pero juntamos a la cúpula de la Policía, ordenamos un sumario y secuestramos las armas, pero no tenemos balas de plomo en las escopetas", reiteró Montenegro.

-¿Lo que pasó en el Indoamericano generó un replanteo sobre la función de la Policía?

- No, no hay un cambio de modelo. Apuntamos a una policía de proximidad. Lo que se modificó es el orden de las comunas a las que apuntamos. Decidimos que la cuarta comuna sea la de Lugano y Soldati. Este año entonces vamos a llegar a la comuna 4 (que abarca Barracas y La Boca) y luego a la 8. Y en junio planeamos terminar las comisarías de esas dos zonas.

Incrementa China su poderío militar

La Nación

PEKIN.- En una muestra de su creciente poderío militar, China anunció ayer que ha fabricado un prototipo de avión de combate casi invisible a los radares que realizará este mes sus primeros vuelos de prueba.

La noticia sobre la construcción del prototipo (conocido como J-20) se conoció cuando faltan apenas unos días para la visita a China del secretario de Defensa norteamericano, Robert Gates. Además, coincide con el anuncio de que Estados Unidos está reduciendo su gasto militar (ver Pág. 4) y demuestra que "el ejército chino está avanzando rápidamente en la modernización de su fuerza aérea y está incrementando sus esfuerzos por avanzar hacia el océano abierto", según afirmó ayer el diario japonés Asahi Shimbun . De esta manera, China podría amenazar el "equilibrio militar en el este de Asia", añadió el diario.

Por su parte, The New York Times afirmó ayer que, con la nueva aeronave, China está desplegando capacidades que sugieren que podría desafiar a las fuerzas norteamericanas en el Pacífico, a pesar de que ha negado durante años tener alguna intención de equiparar el poder militar de Estados Unidos.

El J-20, cuyas primeras imágenes se pudieron ver ayer en sitios web del país, es incluso más grande que el F-22 Raptor, el avión casi invisible al radar que posee la fuerza aérea de Estados Unidos. Con el reabastecimiento en pleno vuelo, puede llegar hasta la isla norteamericana de Guam.

Por otra parte, varios analistas ratificaron ayer que el momento en el cual China anunció la fabricación del J-20 está lejos de ser una casualidad y se conecta directamente con la inminente visita de Gates. El funcionario norteamericano se entrevistará con las principales autoridades militares del país, en un intento de resucitar las relaciones bilaterales en este campo, interrumpidas hace un año por Pekín en una reacción a la venta de armas estadounidenses a Taiwan.

"Esta es la nueva política de disuasión. Ellos quieren mostrar a Estados Unidos, y a Gates, su músculo", dijo desde Hong Kong Andrei Chang, editor en jefe del semanario especializado Kanwa Defense .

"El significado político de este avión es mayor que el militar", consideró por su parte el analista militar chino Song Xiaojun. "China está pidiendo un mayor respeto", añadió.

El J-20, que estaría operativo para 2017, es una muestra de la agresiva modernización que experimentaron en la última década las alguna vez débiles fuerzas armadas chinas, que está preocupando cada vez más al Pentágono y a países cercanos a China. Tanto es así que el organismo de inteligencia australiano cree que Pekín está escondiendo la extensión de su rearme militar y que el gasto en esta área llegó a 90.000 millones de dólares, el doble de los 45.000 millones anunciados oficialmente.

Además de la aeronave, se cree que China está reacondicionando un portaaviones ucraniano de la era soviética -es la primera vez que Pekín encara un proyecto de este tipo- que estaría listo para entrar en funciones en 2012. A esto se añade la capacidad de disuasión nuclear, estimada por los expertos en unas 160 ojivas, que se han desplegado en lanzadores móviles y submarinos. Se presume que el próximo paso será el uso de misiles de ojivas múltiples. Además, la flota china de 60 submarinos, la más grande de Asia, está siendo reequipada con embarcaciones supersilenciosas y equipadas con misiles balísticos de segunda generación.

"La definición de las capacidades de Pekín está cada vez más clara y cada vez más enfocada en limitar la capacidad norteamericana de proyectar su poder militar en el Pacífico occidental", dijo Abraham M. Denmark, un ex director de la oficina de Gates especializado en China.

El rearme es especialmente preocupante para Taiwan, considerada "una provincia rebelde" por China, y cuyo gobierno autónomo sólo se sostiene gracias al compromiso norteamericano de que será defendido si es atacado por Pekín.

"Los chinos no deben hacer nada en el futuro. Solamente con anuncios ya han arruinado el planeamiento estratégico de la acción norteamericana dentro y alrededor del estrecho de Taiwan", afirmó Lin Chong-ping, un ex funcionario del Ministerio de Defensa taiwanés.

Los chinos justifican su rearme en los supuestos planes norteamericanos de contener el poder militar de Pekín con alianzas con países cercanos como Corea del Sur, Japón y Taiwan. "Algunos creen que Estados Unidos completará el círculo en torno de China de este modo. Tenemos que preocuparnos, es natural", dijo Xu Qinhua, experto de la Universidad Renmin, de China, y asesor del gobierno.

Una ley para cuidar a los mayores
PEKIN.- Ante los numerosos problemas surgidos del creciente envejecimiento de su población, el gobierno de China se plantea la posibilidad de obligar por ley a sus ciudadanos a que visiten a sus padres ancianos. La prensa oficial china informa que la medida intentaría paliar el abandono que sufre el 50% de los 167 millones de chinos de más de 60 años. El proyecto tiene dos objetivos: cubrir las carencias del seguro social (que cubre a pocas personas) y restaurar los valores tradicionales de veneración de las personas mayores. La reforma ofrece la posibilidad de llevar ante los tribunales los casos en que no se respete esta obligación.

'Useful' U.S., China meetings on North Korea

The Washington Post

BEIJING - The top two U.S. specialists on North Korea issues met Thursday with their Chinese counterparts for discussions on a new round of six-party talks, as the Obama administration intensifies its efforts to coordinate a relaunch of dialogue with Pyongyang.

Stephen Bosworth, the State Department's special representative for North Korea policy, and Sung Kim, the U.S. ambassador for six-party talks, met with senior Chinese officials for what a U.S. spokesman later called "useful consultations."

Officials did not say whether the American diplomats sought information from China about a meeting last month between Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo and North Korea's reclusive leader, Kim Jong Il.

"Serious negotiations must be at the heart of any strategy for dealing with North Korea," Bosworth said at the start of his week-long trip, which began in Seoul, continued in Beijing and will wrap up in Tokyo.

In China, Bosworth and Kim met with Zhang Zhijun, China's vice foreign minister, and Wu Dawei, its six-party talks representative,

Though all countries involved in the six-party talks - China, Japan, the United States, Russia and both Koreas - have recently expressed an appetite for dialogue, the aid-for-denuclearization process remains a fraught subject, with disagreements about preconditions.

The United States is seeking signs that North Korea is sincere about disarmament. South Korea wants a commitment that the North will cease its provocations. The North, meanwhile, said Wednesday that it is willing to meet "anyone, anytime and anywhere" - an unconditional offer that Seoul swiftly rejected as insincere.

China, North Korea's chief ally, has also advocated talks without preconditions. But Beijing has come under increased pressure from U.S. officials in the past month to influence Pyongyang to change its behavior.

In March 2010, North Korea torpedoed a South Korean warship, killing 46, an international investigation has found. On Nov. 23, it shelled South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island, killing four and wounding 18.

The conciliatory posture that has followed those actions fits a long-standing pattern of brinkmanship by the North, analysts say.

[See photos of tense incidents between North and South Korea.]

How best to handle North Korea is likely to be a foremost topic of discussion later this month when Chinese President Hu Jintao meets with President Obama in Washington.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi for detailed discussions that included a focus on North Korea.

"No one wants to see additional tensions," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "We all want to move in a different direction."

He added: "North Korea has to meet its obligations under U.N. Security Council resolutions. We are prepared to respond to that. We are prepared to have dialogue that is based on a conviction that North Korea is willing to be constructive and to follow through."

Questions Raised on North Korean Succession

The New York Times

SEOUL — When he was introduced to the public in September, Kim Jong-un appeared destined to succeed his father, Kim Jong-il, as the leader of the irascible, destitute and nuclear-armed nation. But a growing number of experts in Seoul are beginning to question whether he has been fully certified, despite his elevation to high military rank and the urgency created by his father’s poor health.

“There are some minor but real reasons to ask if we are rushing our judgment about Kim Jong-un,” said Andrei Lankov, a professor and North Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul.

“The regime seems to be making preparations for the succession, but they haven’t reached the point of no return,” Mr. Lankov said. “Next year, they could very well say, ‘Kim Jong- un? Oh, he’s just one of 20 other generals.’”

Certainly, the Kim family has worked hard to make the succession appear inevitable. Despite having had no field experience in the military, the youngman was made a four-star general Sept. 28. His father also gave him two powerful posts in the ruling Workers’ Party.

Father and son appeared together the following week, reviewing a military parade in Pyongyang. The parade was shown live by several foreign broadcasters, a first for the notoriously secretive nation.

What the cameras showed was a rotund young man with an uncanny physical resemblance to his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the founder of North Korea. Jowls, smile, posture, tunic, haircut — all nearly identical, right down to the dainty and perfunctory way he clapped his hands.

But that is where the learning curve ended, and experts have been confounded by the younger Mr. Kim’s low profile in the ensuing months. Interviews with scholars, analysts, diplomats and recent refugees suggest that Mr. Kim, much like his country, largely remains a riddle. “We know more about distant galaxies than we do about North Korea,” a Western diplomat said privately.

A hundred days after his elevation, the regime’s powerful mythmaking apparatus has hardly mentioned the heir apparent, to the surprise of most North Korea watchers. Ordinary citizens seemingly know little about him, and his personal biography still contains the same large, unexplained gaps it has since he was first mentioned as a potential successor: he studied as a teenager in Switzerland, or so it seems; he speaks several languages, or maybe just the one; he’s married, or perhaps he’s single; he dearly loves his oldest brother, or has plotted with Chinese agents to have him killed.

It is still unclear whether he turned 28 or 29 on his birthday this Saturday.

When a Chinese delegation attended a dinner in Pyongyang in October, “young Kim was there,” said Robert Carlin, a former State Department intelligence analyst who has worked extensively on North Korean nuclear issues. “No doubt the Chinese were paying close attention to how he handled himself and his chopsticks,” Mr. Carlin said.

In November, during a trip to North Korea, Mr. Carlin and two American colleagues were shown a previously unknown uranium enrichment facility outside Pyongyang. Kim Jong-un’s name did not come up during the visit, Mr. Carlin said.

There is some evidence that the regime is taking steps to build up Kim Jong-un in the public consciousness. The young general was toasted by a North Korean official at a recent dinner gathering of foreign diplomats in Pyongyang, according to one of the guests who attended.

“That certainly suggests to me that he is ‘the next one,’ even if the public rollout is being carefully paced and scripted,” said the guest, who requested anonymity in keeping with protocol.

Recent North Korean refugees and defectors have reported that he is now being discussed during required Communist study sessions at offices and factories. “We also hear that Kim Jong-un-related propaganda is especially intense in the military,” said Brian R. Myers, a professor at Dongseo University in Busan, South Korea, and the author of “The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters.”

But it is noteworthy, experts said, that the son is not being hailed as the party “center” or “nucleus,” as his father was during his own carefully orchestrated rise to power.

On North Korean news broadcasts, Kim Jong-un’s name is not spoken with any special reverence, analysts said. When he accompanies his father on tours of farms and factories, the son is sometimes pictured next to the leader, but more often he is off to one side, almost as a bystander, or he is not shown at all.

“In the official news media, Kim Jong-un is no more prominent or celebrated a figure than Joe Biden is in our own,” said Mr. Myers, adding: “Let’s not forget, the official media has yet to state explicitly that Kim Jong-un is Kim Jong-il’s son,”

Mr. Lankov said there still were no billboards, posters, portraits or other noticeable displays featuring Kim Jong-un in the North. Reports of people wearing Kim Jong-un lapel badges are false, he said, noting that badges of Kim Jong-il himself are almost unknown in North Korea. The ubiquitous lapel pins feature only “the eternal president,” Kim Il-sung.

New North Korean calendars for 2011 do not mark Kim Jong-un’s birthday in red, as they do for his father and grandfather. And his name is not printed in boldface when it appears in North Korean dailies.

“Bold script — that’s important,” Mr. Lankov said.

But many North Korea scholars still consider Kim Jong-un’s elevation as a fait accompli, and that the slow roll out may be in deference to his father, who seems to have recovered to some extent from a 2008 stroke and does not appear ready to step aside.

“I don’t really see slogans for Kim Jong-un yet,” a North Korean trader, a man in his 40s, told a researcher from Human Rights Watch in November. “It’s because his father is still alive. Kim Jong-il is the sun of the 21st century. There cannot be two suns.”

Cheong Seong-chang, a researcher at the Sejong Institute near Seoul, is one of the closest observers of the succession drama in the North. He said Kim Jong-un, unbeknownst to the outside world, actually began his ascendance in 2006, upon his graduation from Kim Il-sung University. He was designated the heir apparent — at least for the regime’s ruling inner circle — on his birthday in 2009.

Guided by two trusted military aides to his father, Mr. Cheong said, Kim Jong-un was in effective control of the army by the end of 2009. He added that Mr. Kim’s very public appearance at the October military parade in Pyongyang “showed that he had been solidified as the No. 2.”

“That is what they wanted to show off — that stability — to the rest of the world,” Mr. Cheong said.

But the rest of the world was alarmed when North Korea shelled a South Korean island, Yeonpyeong, on Nov. 23. Four South Koreans were killed, and the peninsula suddenly seemed on the brink of war.

The incident seemed to raise the question: Had the newly minted general played a role?

“It’s highly likely that he was directly involved in directing the attack,” Mr. Cheong said. “It helped his image as the No. 2 and helped prioritize the military as a way to expand his own power.”

Unemployment in America: Still a U, not a V

The Economist

RETAIL sales, manufacturing activity and stock prices all show the American economy shook off its mid-2010 lethargy and picked up a head of steam as the year closed. But to anyone who thought a V-shaped recovery was taking hold, the December employment report is a sobering reality check. Non-farm payrolls rose by 103,000, or 0.1%. Private payrolls, a better gauge of the economy’s underlying momentum, rose 113,000; declining state and local government employment held back the total. That was rather deflating after a private tally on Wednesday predicted a gain of as much as 300,000.

The Labor Department revised up the totals for October and November by a combined 70,000, so the total report is mildly encouraging. Private employment has grown an average of 126,000 per month since July, comfortably above the roughly 75,000 to 100,000 needed to keep up with growth in the working-age population. (The government numbers have been heavily distorted by hiring and firing for the federal census.) But growth of more than twice that pace is typical of recoveries. This morning, Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, told Congress it could take four or five years "for the job market to normalize fully."

There was a bolt of unexpected good news in the unemployment rate, which plunged to 9.4% from 9.8%. It’s common for payrolls and the unemployment rate to behave differently because they’re drawn from different surveys (the first from a large sample of employers, the second from a much smaller sample of households). The unemployment rate dropped because household employment rose 297,000 while the number of unemployed dropped 556,000, meaning the overall labour force shrank. Such big changes to household employment and unemployment are routine and should be discounted. The unemployment rate, though, is quite stable, and a 0.4% drop is unusual, the sharpest since April, 1998.

It does not suggest the underlying economy has suddenly picked up momentum. If anything, other indicators from the household survey are frustratingly weak. An improving job market usually draws a flood of job hunters into the labour force, raising the participation rate—the share of the working-age population either working or looking for work. Instead, the participation rate fell to 64.3% in December, the lowest since 1984. True, the average work week ticked up to 33.6 hours, but evidence of latent demand for labour remains scant.

So why did the unemployment rate drop so much? Probably because it was inexplicably high to start with. A traditional macroeconomic rule of thumb known as Okun’s Law predicts that, given the performance of gross domestic product in the last few years, the unemployment rate should only be around 8.5%, reckons Alan Krueger of Princeton University. Why it reached 10% remains a mystery. In any case, December’s drop may be part of a long overdue return to a more normal level. Sometimes, the most powerful explanation for economic behaviour is reversion to the mean.

WikiLeaks cables prompt US to move diplomatic sources

The Guardian

The US state department has relocated a handful of foreign diplomatic sources identified in secret embassy cables released via WikiLeaks, and warned hundreds of others about their safety, American officials say.

It is not aware of anyone who has been detained or assaulted as a result of the 2,700 cables released so far through several newspapers, including the Guardian. But the state department has set up a 30-strong team to warn foreign officials, businesspeople and human right activists identified in the main cache of more than 250,000 cables.

According to the New York Times – also involved in the publication of cables along with Le Monde, El País and Der Spiegel – a few sources have been moved within their own country, and several others moved overseas. US officials declined to go into detail, the paper said.

Newspapers have been at pains to remove sections of the cables that could compromise or identify sources, but the state department was concerned about what might happen with the remaining bulk of the cables yet to be published, the Times said. US officials had been through most of these and sent many to relevant embassies for diplomats to check, it added.

Michael Posner, the assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour, who is in charge of the process, told the paper: "We feel responsible for doing everything possible to protect these people. We're taking it extremely seriously."

The repercussions for US diplomats, some of whom have written colourful descriptions of their host countries and leaders, have so far been relatively minor.

The US ambassador to Libya, Gene Cretz, was recalled to Washington last month after the publication of cables in which he described the domestic life of the country's leader, Muammar Gaddafi. His future has yet to be decided but Cretz is unlikely to return to Libya, the Times said.

The ambassador to Russia, John Beyrle, who was heavily critical of the country's president turned prime minister, Vladimir Putin, looked likely to remain in place, the paper reported.

It said officials believed the disclosure of the cables had affected contacts in some countries between US diplomats and human rights activists, who were now wary lest their names and views emerge in the future.

L'achat de dette souveraine dans la zone euro, une bonne affaire pour Pékin

Le Monde

L'achat d'obligations d'Etat européennes par la Chine est une bonne affaire, selon un communiqué publié vendredi par la banque centrale chinoise. "Sur la base de la diversification et du morcellement [des risques], l'investissement des réserves de change dans les dettes souveraines de la zone euro est non seulement bénéfique à la stabilité financière internationale et à celle de l'Europe, mais offre aussi un retour sur investissement raisonnable", précise le communiqué qui rapporte des propos tenus par le vice-gouverneur de la banque, Yi Gang.

C'est pourquoi ces placements devraient permettre "de garantir ou d'augmenter la valeur des réserves de change chinoises", d'après M. Yi qui s'exprimait durant la visite en Espagne cette semaine du vice-premier ministre chinois, Li Keqiang. Le communiqué de la banque centrale rappelle que la Chine "soutient fermement les mesures prise par l'UE et le FMI", ainsi que "la stabilité de l'euro". La dette publique espagnole reste au-dessous de la moyenne européenne, mais elle a grimpé de 16,3 % en un an.

La Chine n'a pas officiellement dévoilé le montant des obligations d'Etat espagnoles qu'elle avait l'intention d'acheter, mais selon le quotidien espagnol El Pais, jeudi, Pékin pourrait en acquérir pour six milliards d'euros, soit autant que ce que le gouvernement chinois aurait déjà acheté de dettes grecque et portugaise. Le vice-premier ministre avait indiqué dans une précédente édition de El Pais que son pays faisait "confiance au marché financier espagnol, ce qui s'est traduit par l'achat de sa dette publique, ce que nous allons continuer à faire".

L'intérêt de la Chine pour les obligations d'Etat européennes s'inscrit dans une tendance de fond pour Pékin, premier bailleur mondial avec des réserves de devises qui s'élèvent à près de 2 600 milliards de dollars selon les estimations de la CIA, et qui s'est engagée depuis plusieurs mois dans une vaste diversification de ses réserves, pendant longtemps cantonnées au dollar.

El líder electo de Costa de Marfil pide a La Haya que indague crímenes de su rival

El País

"Laurent Gbagbo tiene sangre en sus manos. Ha ordenado a agentes extranjeros el asesinato de ciudadanos", aseguró ayer Alassane Ouattara, el candidato vencedor de las elecciones del 28 de noviembre en Costa de Marfil y que continúa recluido en un hotel de Abiyán.

"Laurent Gbagbo tiene sangre en sus manos. Ha ordenado a agentes extranjeros el asesinato de ciudadanos", aseguró ayer Alassane Ouattara, el candidato vencedor de las elecciones del 28 de noviembre en Costa de Marfil y que continúa recluido en un hotel de Abiyán a la espera de que el actual presidente, Laurent Gbagbo, abandone el poder. "Por supuesto que tenemos pruebas. Ya he escrito al secretario general de Naciones Unidas para pedir que el Tribunal Penal Internacional envíe un equipo de investigación. Me han dicho que así se hará en los próximos días", declaró a la cadena de radio Europe 1.

Ouattara también ha alentado a las potencias internacionales a endurecer las sanciones económicas ya impuestas y las prohibiciones de viajar a Gbagbo y a sus colaboradores. Pero el presidente saliente, de momento, no cede. Es más, ha hecho llamamientos para que las fuerzas de Naciones Unidas abandonen Costa de Marfil. En vano. La ONU anunció el miércoles el envío de entre 1.000 y 2.000 militares más para que se sumen a los 10.000 ya desplegados en el país africano. Ouattara también ha reclamado a la Comunidad Económica de Estados de África Occidental (CEDEAO) que debe ser fiel a su advertencia de intervención militar si Gbagbo no entrega el poder, una apuesta complicada de ejecutar.

Mientras, el goteo de muertes continúa. Simon Munzu, jefe de la ONU en Abiyán, señaló ayer que la violencia ha causado 210 víctimas mortales desde el día de los comicios. Grupos de derechos humanos han informado de la presencia de mercenarios liberianos a las órdenes de Gbagbo y la ONU ha criticado que encapuchados a las órdenes del presidente derrotado impiden el acceso a los lugares donde, según sospecha la ONU, hay dos fosas comunes.

En el barrio de Abobó, al noroeste de Abiyán, saben algo de este estallido de violencia. Abobó está hecho de barro y chatarra, y en las aceras hay cientos de talleres mecánicos y tiendas improvisadas. Es un barrio pobre y musulmán, donde casi todo el mundo apoya a Ouattara. De aquí salió la manifestación que el 16 de diciembre acabó con una treintena de muertos por disparos de la policía de Gbagbo.

Miles de personas se echaron a la carretera para emprender un camino de tres horas a pie hasta la sede de la televisión estatal, a la que acusaban de utilizar propaganda y de difundir unos resultados de las elecciones manipulados. "No llegamos lejos", dice Bacarie, de treinta y tantos años. La entrevista con Bacarie y su colega Ahmed, ambos mecánicos, es en el interior de un coche porque temen llamar la atención si se le ve hablando con un periodista. "Todos estamos muy nerviosos desde lo que pasó. Las milicias de Gbagbo entran por la noche en Abobó y te llevan a la comisaría para interrogarte. Algunos han vuelto, pero otros no", relata.

"Yo salí ese día a las siete y media de la mañana. Era una manifestación pacífica. Ninguno llevábamos armas, como ha dicho la gente de Gbagbo. Ya hubo tiros en el primer puesto de policía, aquí a la salida, pero seguimos. Un poco más adelante nos topamos con un puesto de control más fuerte. Eran mercenarios. No eran de aquí. Empezaron a disparar y la gente salió corriendo. Dos colegas míos murieron a mi lado. Cuando llegué aquí me dijeron que mi hermano había muerto en otra parte de la manifestación".

Nabi, de 32 años y miembro del partido de Ouattara (RHDP), fue denunciado hace unos días por un hombre que vive muy cerca de su casa. Le acusaba de tener armas. "La policía vino a las tres de la mañana a registrar. No encontraron nada y se fueron. Sé quién me denunció. Aquí es así, sin pruebas alguien va y da tu nombre", dice Nabi.