Manuel Noriega

ARGENTINA & VENEZUELAThe mystery of the Venezuelan suitcases The scandal over the arrival to Argentina of a Venezuelan businessman carrying $800,000 in undeclared cash on a government hired jet has had its first victims. Claudio Uberti, the head of the

France has applied to extradite 71-year-old former Panama dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega from the United States, where he is due to be released from prison on September 9, 2007 after serving nearly 18 years of a 30-year prison sentence for drug-trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering.

ARGENTINA: Towards the End Of a Tragedy; BOLIVIA: Agrarian Reform; COLOMBIA: More Requirements for PEP Accounts; From Legislative to Presidential Elections; REGIONAL: Pre-paid Cards Under ScrutinY; MEXICO: Corruption and Water; Extraditing Informant; PANAMA: News from Noriega; VENEZUELA: Agrarian Reform Gone Sour.

ARGENTINA The bankers' parade Michael Smith, of HSBC, declared before judge Claudio Bonadío that bribes were somewhat customary in Argentina. Smith—a British citizen who has been only months in the South American country—was testifying in a new case of alleged

Corruption in Argentina Since it was founded in 1999, the Argentinean Anti Corruption Office has handled 1,784 cases that generated 489 complaints but none of them has produced a sentence. The last index by Transparency International — which classifies countries