vips

LETTER N° 32

From 05 to 11 August

5
Mexico

(Aguascalientes)

Municipal and local elections. Results :

PAN (Partido Acción Nacional / National Action Party) 39, 75% ; PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional / Institutional Revolutionary Party) 34, 75% ; PRD (Partido de la Revolución Democrática / Party of the Democratic Revolution) 8% ; PT (Partido del Trabajo / Labour Party) 7, 52% ; PVEM (Partido Verde Ecologista / The Mexican Ecological Green Party) 5,19%.

5
Mexico

(Oaxaca)

Municipal and local elections. Results :

PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional / Institutional Revolutionary Party) 49.02% ; PRD (Partido de la Revolución Democrática / Party of the Democratic Revolution) 19, 36% ; PAN (Partido Acción Nacional / National Action Party) 19, 62% ; PT (Partido del Trabajo / Labour Party) 2, 26% ; PVEM (Partido Verde Ecologista / The Mexican Ecological Green Party) 1,99%.

5
Mexico

(Tabasco)

Municipal and local elections. Results :

Manuel Andrade of the Institutional Revolutionary Party with 50.5% of the vote, against 46% for Raúl Ojeda of the Party of the Democratic Revolution.

6
Vietnam

Duong Van Minh, four times South Vietnamese head of state (1963-64, 1964, 1964, 1975), dies.

Duong Van Minh profil : Born in 1916. Vietnamese army officer and political leader. A military adviser (1962&endash;63) to President Diem, he helped to overthrow Diem in 1963. He was head of government (1963&endash;64), after which he went into exile. Minh returned in 1968, serving as an opposition leader against President Thieu. A presidential candidate in 1971, Minh withdrew, charging election rigging. He returned briefly as president in 1975, in an unsuccessful conciliation effort but was placed in detention after the Communist takeover.

6
Bolivia

Bolivian President resigns office.

President Hugo Banzer, who is being treated in the United States for cancer, explains that he is too ill to continue in office. He hands over to Vice President Jorge Quiroga, an engineer-economist who is not expected to outlast the rough-and-tumble of Bolivian politics. Banzer, 75, led a dictatorship in Bolivia from 1971-78. He was elected president in 1997, but lost popularity with his Washington-pressed efforts to end coca cultivation and alleged repression.

7
Bolivia

Jorge Quiroga to Assume Bolivian Presidency

Jorge Quiroga Ramírez profil : born on May 5,1960 in Cochabamba city. He completed his higher studies in the U.S, in the University of Texas A&M- College Station,where he graduated with honors (Summa Cum Laude) in Industrial Engineering. He took part in the IBM MercadeoTraining program and received from Saint Edward University in Austin,Texas, a Master's degree in Business Administration,. He led a project for the design and establishment of a compilation system for the State. Served as Under-secretary for Public Investment and International Cooperation in the Ministry for Planning and was responsible with the yearly preparation of the Advisory Group in París for Bolivia. When he was 30 he held the position of Finance Minister under Jaime Paz Zamora's government. He served as an alternate Governor to the World Bank, Fonplata, Financial Cooperation of Investments and head of the Andine Corporation of Development. He also served as a National Secretary on Social Policy and main negociator for the reduction of external bilateral debt with the U.S. He was responsible with the preparation of the budget and enforcement of the Public Investment program at Cartagena II Summit. In the political party he is acting, Acción Democrática Nacionalista (ADN)(Nationalist Democratic Action),he was leader of the 1993 election campaign and is currently deputy leader of the political organization.At 38, Jorge Quiroga is the youngest Vice president in the present history of Bolivia, working with experienced President Hugo Banzer Suárez.

9
Comoros

A military coup on the the Comoro island of Anjouan, part of a three-island confederate archipelago off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean.

A military junta seizes power on the secessionist island of Anjouan. The next day the formation of a military-civilian commission is announced, led by Cmdr. Khalidi Chariff, Cmdr. Mohamed Abubakar, and Capt. Hassan Ali Toilha.

9
Indonesia

President Megawati Sukarnoputri announces her cabinet.

Minister of Finance - Bodiono ; Foreign Minister - Hasan Wirayuda ; Defense Minister - Matori Abdul Jalil ; Minister/National Development Planning Board chairman - Kwik Kian Gie ; Minister of State Enterprises - Laksamana Sukardi ; Home Affairs Minister - Hari Sabarno ; Minister Political and Security Affairs - Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ; Minister of Defense - Matori Abdul Djalil ; Minister of Trade and Industry - Rini Suwandi ; Minister for People's Welfare - Jusuf Kalla ; Minister of Justice and Human Rights - Yusril Ihza Mahendra ; Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Minister - Jacob Nuwa Wea ; Minister of Agriculture - Bungaran Saragih ; Minister of Social Affairs - Bachtiar Chamsyah ; Minister of Religious Affairs - Said Agiel Munawar ; Minister of Home Affairs - Hari Sabarno ; Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources - Purnomo Yusgiantoro ; Minister of Transportation - Agum Gumelar ; Minister of Research and Technology - M Hatta Radjasa ; Minister of Forestry - Mohamad Prakosa ; Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries - Rokhmin Dahuri ; Minister of Resettlement and Regional Infrastructure - Soenarno ; Minister of Health - Achmad Suyudi ; Minister Education - Abdul Malik Fajar ; Minister of Culture and Tourism - I Gede Ardika ; Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises - Alimarwan Hanan ; Minister of Environment - Nabiel Makarim ; Minister of Women's Empowerment - Sri Redjeki Sumaryoto ; Minister of Administrative Reforms - Feisal Tamin ; Minister of Development of Eastern Indonesia - Manuel Kaisiepo and Minister of Information and Communications - Syamsul Mu'arif.

Minister profil next week

10
UN

(UNHCR)

UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Ruud Lubbers announced the appointment of Kamel Morjane of Tunisia as Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees, replacing Soren Jessen-Petersen of Denmark.

Ambassador Morjane, 53, is long experienced within the United Nations, and assumed the position of representative for Tunisia to the Head Quarters of the organization in Geneva. Mr. Morjane also worked for 20 years to the UNHCR. More recently, he held the position of special Representative of UN General Secretary in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mr. Morjane is to take office on October 1.

10
Japan

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was unanimously re-elected president of the Liberal Democratic Party, securing a full two-year term as head of the LDP.

Koizumi had succeeded the unpopular Yoshiro Mori as president of the LDP and as the nation's prime minister in April.

11
Mexico

Former governor of México state (1969-75) and chief of government of the Distrito Federal (1976-82) Carlos Hank González dies.

Profil : Born à Santiago Tianguistenco, State of México, on Aug.28, 1927. Teacher of Primary school and higher education.Career : 1955-1957 Municipal Constitutional President of Toluca city. 1957-1958 Head of the Administration of the State ofMéxico. 1958-1961 Federal M.P during the XLIVth Legislature. 1961-1964 deputy manager for sales in the "Cía. Nacional de Subsistencias Populares", S.A.. 1964-1969 General Manager of de Conasupo, decentralizedOrganism. 1969-1975 Constitutional Governor of the State of México. 1976-1982 Head of the Department of the Federal District 1988-1989 State Secretary of Tourism. 1990-1994 State Secretary of Agriculture and Hydraulic Resources. 1992-1993 President of the Regional Council for Agrarian Cooperationof Central America, México, Panamá and the Dominican Republic (CORECA) 1992-1993 President of the International Regional Council for Food and Farming Health (CIRSA).

VIPS VISITS

09-11
Philippines President Gloria Arroyo visit Malaysia

The peace agreements which were signed by the Philippine Government and Muslim rebel groups are expected to help complete the peace process in southern Philippines. Topping the bilateral pacts meantime is the agreement to revitalise the East ASEAN growth area. Other economic pacts will establish more flights and port facilities, financial linkages, palm oil investments and more jobs for Filipinos and Malaysians alike.

11-12
Cuban President Visit Venezuela

Fidel Castro, making his first trip abroad since a recent scare over his health, arrived in Venezuela on to enjoy an early 75th birthday celebration with his friend and ally President Hugo Chavez. Castro's weekend visit to Venezuela, his third in three years, was to combine cooperation talks and a sightseeing trip to a jungle national park near the Brazilian border. The two leaders, accompanied by the head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Jacques Diouf, signed a cooperation accord aimed at increasing the farming of food crops in Venezuela. The accord foresees the participation of around 70 Cuban agriculture experts, who would join several hundred Cuban doctors and sports experts already working in Venezuela.

THIS WEEK'S STORY

August 9, 1788

Adoniram Judson is born

Adoniram Judson is born on Malden, Massachutess in August 9, 1788. The first Baptist foreign missionary from the United States. Son of a Congregational minister and a graduate of Rhode Island College (Brown University, Judson entered Andover Seminary in 1808. His thoughts soon turned to missions, and with other Andover students, he petitioned the General Association of Massachusetts for advice as to how they might realize the desire to take the gospel to "the heathen." In 1810 this Congregational group responded by organizing the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the first agency to send foreign missionaries from the United States. On Feb. 5, 1812, Judson married Ann Hasseltine, and two weeks later the couple sailed for India as missionaries of the Congregational board. On the long sea voyage Judson studied the New Testament mode of baptism. Shortly after landing in India, he became convinced of the Baptist position and in turn convinced his wife. The two were baptized in Calcutta on Sept. 6, 1812, by William Ward, an English Baptist missionary. Luther Rice, another American missionary who had sailed on a different ship, had a similar experience and was baptized on Nov. 1, 1812. Resigning from the Congregational mission, the Judsons wrote letters to Baptists in America, offering themselves as their missionary representatives, should Baptists see fit to organize for their support. As a result of this challenge and in response to the vigorous efforts of Luther Rice, who returned to the United States to advocate the world missionary cause, the General Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States for Foreign Missions was formed in 1814. This organization, popularly known as "the Triennial Convention," served as the agency for the support of foreign missionaries of American Baptists, both of the North and of the South, until the organization of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845. Forced out of India by the British East India Company, the Judsons settled in Burma in 1813. Judson, with "marked linguistic and scholarly gifts," early began translating the Bible into Burmese, completing the task in 1834. He also wrote several hymns, the most familiar of which is "Come, Holy Spirit, Dove Divine." After many trials the Baptist cause was firmly established in Burma. For many years this remained the major mission field of American (Northern) Baptists. Ann (Hasseltine) Judson died in 1826, and in 1834 Judson married Sarah Boardman, widow of missionary George Dana Boardman. Shortly after her death in 1845, Judson returned to America for his only furlough. Receiving a hero's welcome, he stimulated interest in foreign missions wherever he went. In 1846 he married Emily Chubbuck, a well-known writer, and later that year they sailed for Burma. Judson's latter years were spent largely in work on a Burman-English dictionary. Chronic illness became more severe, and in 1850 his death occurred on an ocean voyage which had been prescribed as his only hope for improvement. He was buried at sea in the Bay of Bengal, April 12, 1850.

ALSO SEE

Chiefs of State and Heads of Government Foreign Affairs World Parliaments Federated States and Provinces World Governments International Organizations

5 Mexico (Aguascalientes)		Municipal and local elections. Results : PAN (Partido Acción Nacional / National Action Party) 39, 75% ; PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional / Institutional Revolutionary Party) 34, 75% ; PRD (Partido de la Revolución Democrática / Party of the Democratic Revolution) 8% ; PT (Partido del Trabajo / Labour Party) 7, 52% ; PVEM (Partido Verde Ecologista / The Mexican Ecological Green Party) 5,19%.
5 Mexico (Oaxaca)		Municipal and local elections. Results : PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional / Institutional Revolutionary Party) 49.02% ; PRD (Partido de la Revolución Democrática / Party of the Democratic Revolution) 19, 36% ; PAN (Partido Acción Nacional / National Action Party) 19, 62% ; PT (Partido del Trabajo / Labour Party) 2, 26% ; PVEM (Partido Verde Ecologista / The Mexican Ecological Green Party) 1,99%.
5 Mexico (Tabasco)		Municipal and local elections. Results : Manuel Andrade of the Institutional Revolutionary Party with 50.5% of the vote, against 46% for Raúl Ojeda of the Party of the Democratic Revolution.
6 Vietnam		Duong Van Minh, four times South Vietnamese head of state (1963-64, 1964, 1964, 1975), dies. Duong Van Minh profil : Born in 1916. Vietnamese army officer and political leader. A military adviser (1962&endash;63) to President Diem, he helped to overthrow Diem in 1963. He was head of government (1963&endash;64), after which he went into exile. Minh returned in 1968, serving as an opposition leader against President Thieu. A presidential candidate in 1971, Minh withdrew, charging election rigging. He returned briefly as president in 1975, in an unsuccessful conciliation effort but was placed in detention after the Communist takeover.
6 Bolivia		Bolivian President resigns office. President Hugo Banzer, who is being treated in the United States for cancer, explains that he is too ill to continue in office. He hands over to Vice President Jorge Quiroga, an engineer-economist who is not expected to outlast the rough-and-tumble of Bolivian politics. Banzer, 75, led a dictatorship in Bolivia from 1971-78. He was elected president in 1997, but lost popularity with his Washington-pressed efforts to end coca cultivation and alleged repression.
7 Bolivia		Jorge Quiroga to Assume Bolivian Presidency Jorge Quiroga Ramírez profil : born on May 5,1960 in Cochabamba city. He completed his higher studies in the U.S, in the University of Texas A&M- College Station,where he graduated with honors (Summa Cum Laude) in Industrial Engineering. He took part in the IBM MercadeoTraining program and received from Saint Edward University in Austin,Texas, a Master's degree in Business Administration,. He led a project for the design and establishment of a compilation system for the State. Served as Under-secretary for Public Investment and International Cooperation in the Ministry for Planning and was responsible with the yearly preparation of the Advisory Group in París for Bolivia. When he was 30 he held the position of Finance Minister under Jaime Paz Zamora's government. He served as an alternate Governor to the World Bank, Fonplata, Financial Cooperation of Investments and head of the Andine Corporation of Development. He also served as a National Secretary on Social Policy and main negociator for the reduction of external bilateral debt with the U.S. He was responsible with the preparation of the budget and enforcement of the Public Investment program at Cartagena II Summit. In the political party he is acting, Acción Democrática Nacionalista (ADN)(Nationalist Democratic Action),he was leader of the 1993 election campaign and is currently deputy leader of the political organization.At 38, Jorge Quiroga is the youngest Vice president in the present history of Bolivia, working with experienced President Hugo Banzer Suárez.
9 Comoros		A military coup on the the Comoro island of Anjouan, part of a three-island confederate archipelago off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. A military junta seizes power on the secessionist island of Anjouan. The next day the formation of a military-civilian commission is announced, led by Cmdr. Khalidi Chariff, Cmdr. Mohamed Abubakar, and Capt. Hassan Ali Toilha.
9 Indonesia		President Megawati Sukarnoputri announces her cabinet. Minister of Finance - Bodiono ; Foreign Minister - Hasan Wirayuda ; Defense Minister - Matori Abdul Jalil ; Minister/National Development Planning Board chairman - Kwik Kian Gie ; Minister of State Enterprises - Laksamana Sukardi ; Home Affairs Minister - Hari Sabarno ; Minister Political and Security Affairs - Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ; Minister of Defense - Matori Abdul Djalil ; Minister of Trade and Industry - Rini Suwandi ; Minister for People's Welfare - Jusuf Kalla ; Minister of Justice and Human Rights - Yusril Ihza Mahendra ; Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Minister - Jacob Nuwa Wea ; Minister of Agriculture - Bungaran Saragih ; Minister of Social Affairs - Bachtiar Chamsyah ; Minister of Religious Affairs - Said Agiel Munawar ; Minister of Home Affairs - Hari Sabarno ; Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources - Purnomo Yusgiantoro ; Minister of Transportation - Agum Gumelar ; Minister of Research and Technology - M Hatta Radjasa ; Minister of Forestry - Mohamad Prakosa ; Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries - Rokhmin Dahuri ; Minister of Resettlement and Regional Infrastructure - Soenarno ; Minister of Health - Achmad Suyudi ; Minister Education - Abdul Malik Fajar ; Minister of Culture and Tourism - I Gede Ardika ; Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises - Alimarwan Hanan ; Minister of Environment - Nabiel Makarim ; Minister of Women's Empowerment - Sri Redjeki Sumaryoto ; Minister of Administrative Reforms - Feisal Tamin ; Minister of Development of Eastern Indonesia - Manuel Kaisiepo and Minister of Information and Communications - Syamsul Mu'arif. Minister profil next week
10 UN (UNHCR)		UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Ruud Lubbers announced the appointment of Kamel Morjane of Tunisia as Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees, replacing Soren Jessen-Petersen of Denmark. Ambassador Morjane, 53, is long experienced within the United Nations, and assumed the position of representative for Tunisia to the Head Quarters of the organization in Geneva. Mr. Morjane also worked for 20 years to the UNHCR. More recently, he held the position of special Representative of UN General Secretary in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mr. Morjane is to take office on October 1.
10 Japan		Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was unanimously re-elected president of the Liberal Democratic Party, securing a full two-year term as head of the LDP. Koizumi had succeeded the unpopular Yoshiro Mori as president of the LDP and as the nation's prime minister in April.
11 Mexico		Former governor of México state (1969-75) and chief of government of the Distrito Federal (1976-82) Carlos Hank González dies. Profil : Born à Santiago Tianguistenco, State of México, on Aug.28, 1927. Teacher of Primary school and higher education.Career : 1955-1957 Municipal Constitutional President of Toluca city. 1957-1958 Head of the Administration of the State ofMéxico. 1958-1961 Federal M.P during the XLIVth Legislature. 1961-1964 deputy manager for sales in the "Cía. Nacional de Subsistencias Populares", S.A.. 1964-1969 General Manager of de Conasupo, decentralizedOrganism. 1969-1975 Constitutional Governor of the State of México. 1976-1982 Head of the Department of the Federal District 1988-1989 State Secretary of Tourism. 1990-1994 State Secretary of Agriculture and Hydraulic Resources. 1992-1993 President of the Regional Council for Agrarian Cooperationof Central America, México, Panamá and the Dominican Republic (CORECA) 1992-1993 President of the International Regional Council for Food and Farming Health (CIRSA).