A package of news briefs from the Caribbean

HAITI: Ex-Haitian rebel in hiding after U.S.-led operation, loyalist says

LES CAYES, Haiti (AP) _ A former rebel leader and presidential candidate has gone into hiding after U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents launched a military-style operation to arrest him in this Haitian town, a member of his party said Wednesday.

Ronald Etienne, a deputy in Haiti's lower house of parliament, told The Associated Press that DEA and Haitian anti-drug agents raided Guy Philippe's home Monday but did not find him. Philippe has long denied accusations of ties to drug trafficking.

"He's in hiding and covering himself. It's normal under the circumstances because he feels his life is in danger," said Etienne, a member of the Front for National Reconstruction, a minor political party led by Philippe. Etienne declined to say how he knew Philippe was in hiding and said he did not know his location.

Shortly after dawn Monday, five helicopters, two airplanes and at least a dozen DEA and Haitian agents converged on Philippe's home, Etienne said in a telephone interview.

Haitian police said Tuesday that DEA agents carried out an operation in Les Cayes. But U.S. and Haitian authorities have refused to acknowledge if they are pursuing Philippe, who helped overthrow former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004.

Philippe ran for president last year and shortly afterward moved to a rural area of Les Cayes, Haiti's third largest town.

CUBA: Government rejects US charges in visa spat

HAVANA (AP) _ A top Foreign Ministry official on Wednesday rejected U.S. charges that the island's government is to blame for Washington's inability to meet its annual 20,000-visa quota for Cubans seeking to leave the island.

Failure to meet the quota will likely encourage more illegal immigration to the United States, Josefina Vidal, director of the Foreign Ministry's North American Department, told The Associated Press.

"The Foreign Ministry categorically rejects the affirmation by the U.S. Interests Section that we are obstructing the work of that office," Vidal said in an interview.

She dismissed complaints made Tuesday by the Interests Section _ the U.S. mission here _ that Cuba has failed to authorize essential personnel and materials. Washington's failure to meet its annual quota of 20,000 visas by Sept. 30 would be a "very grave violation" of migration accords between the two countries, she said.

The two countries signed accords in 1994 to halt a mass exodus of U.S.-bound Cubans by sea, agreeing to work toward safe and orderly migration. The United States said it would process an annual minimum of 20,000 emigration visas for Cubans in an effort to prevent dangerous sea journeys.

GRENADA: Premier calls for released coup prisoners to show remorse

ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada (AP) _ Prime Minister Keith Mitchell has called on three men released from prison last month for their roles in a 1983 coup to show remorse in order to help the southern Caribbean island close a painful chapter of its history.

Mitchell said in a national address Tuesday that old wounds were opened by the release of the men involved in a palace coup that led to the U.S. invasion of Grenada nearly 25 years ago.

"Earning the forgiveness of the Grenadian people must begin with a genuine sense of remorse which ... is long in coming," he said.

The men, including former Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard, were sentenced to death in 1986 for the killings of former socialist leader Maurice Bishop, four Cabinet members and six supporters.

But their sentences were thrown out in February by the London-based Privy Council, the highest court of appeal for the former British colony, and a judge released them last month after a resentencing hearing in Grenada.

Ten other coup leaders are still in prison and will serve less than two more years under the new sentences.

Six days after the 1983 slayings, thousands of U.S. troops stormed the Caribbean island on a mission that U.S. President Ronald Reagan said would protect American medical students and prevent a buildup of Cuban military advisers and weapons.

PUERTO RICO: FBI raids police station in corruption investigation

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) _ Several members of a police anti-narcotics unit in western Puerto Rico will face corruption charges for allegedly fabricating evidence, a U.S. prosecutor said Wednesday.

FBI agents seized evidence during a raid Tuesday night on the unit's precinct in Mayaguez. Some of the officers are suspected of threatening to frame people unless they paid a bribe, said Pedro Toledo, chief of police for the U.S. Caribbean territory.

The suspects will also face drug charges, U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez told a news conference.

Luis Fraticelli, special agent in charge of FBI operations in Puerto Rico, said arrests were imminent but he did not say how many of the 20 officers in the vice and narcotics unit would face charges.

"Right now we're in the process of identifying the officers," Toledo said. "Once they're arrested, then we will proceed administratively."

Residents said they have long complained about police abuses in southwest Puerto Rico. In the early 1990s, a band of corrupt officers infiltrated police stations across the western half of the island before they were broken up, Toledo said.

DOMINICA: PM presents new budget proposal to parliament

ROSEAU, Dominica (AP) _ Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit presented Dominica's parliament with a new budget on Wednesday, saying his proposals and the repeal of an income tax would improve the quality of life in one of the poorest countries in the Caribbean.

Skerrit, who is also the island's finance minister, proposed an Eastern Caribbean $342.6 million (US$99 million; euro77 million) budget, a roughly 7 percent spending increase from last fiscal year.

The premier recommended repealing income tax for islanders earning less than East Caribbean $18,000 (US$6,691; euro4,856) per year. He also advised parliament, which will begin its budget debate next week, to reduce by half a fuel excise tax for the island's sole electricity company, which Skerrit said will result in cheaper power bills for consumers.

His opponents said the proposed tax relief will not be enough to offset the effect that a 15 percent value-added levy on goods and services imposed last year is having on lower- and middle-income families in the former British colony of roughly 70,000.

Opposition chief Edison James, a former premier, called Skerrit's proposals "an admission of the level of poverty which has been visited upon the people."

Dominica's economy has been on the rebound since the government began an austerity program designed by the International Monetary Fund in 2002 to reduce the deficit and reverse a recession.

BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS: Tajik Aluminum sues Russian aluminum giant over fraud claims

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan (AP) _ Russian Aluminum giant United Company Rusal, which is preparing for an IPO this year, is being sued in the British Virgin Islands by Tajik Aluminum Co., or Talco, for allegedly defrauding it of millions of dollars, the Tajik company said Wednesday.

In a statement, Talco alleged that UC Rusal director Alexander Bulygin took advantage of a corrupt relationship between a Tajik businessman and a Talco manager to defraud the company in the course of supply and purchase arrangements.

Rusal's main shareholder, Oleg Deripaska, was also named in the suit according to a report by the Financial Times.

UC Rusal issued a statement saying it "categorically denies all charges filed."

Rusal said it had its own litigation for US$312 million (euro226 million) pending against Talco in arbitration in the Zurich Chamber of Commerce and the International Chamber of Commerce.

A number of Rusal's former partners have litigated against the company in various jurisdictions over the last few years. Most of the suits have either been thrown out or been settled.