A package of news briefs from the Caribbean

SURINAME: President: US defense chief pitches jungle facility to test military vehicles

PARAMARIBO, Suriname (AP) _ Suriname's president said Saturday that the United States is proposing to build a facility in the South American country to test the performance of U.S. military vehicles in dense jungle.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates spoke about the proposed site during a meeting with President Ronald Venetiaan at the close of a five-day, five country swing through the region, Venetiaan told reporters.

Venetiaan said his administration has previously discussed the facility with U.S. military leaders.

"If the U.S. wants to test military vehicles under jungle conditions, we have those conditions here and we can accommodate them," Venetiaan told reporters shortly after emerging from his meeting with the U.S. defense chief.

Venetiaan was not more specific about the U.S. military site or when it could feasibly be built in the Dutch-speaking nation on the north shoulder of South America.

Before their private meeting at the presidential palace, Gates visited a huge U.S. Navy hospital ship docked in Suriname's territorial waters as part of a regional goodwill mission.

Medical volunteers on the USNS Comfort, a 900-foot (274-meter-long) floating hospital built for wounded U.S. soldiers, has provided free vaccinations, eye exams, dental treatment and surgical procedures to some 85,000 patients in a dozen countries during their tour of Latin America and the Caribbean.

GUANTANAMO: A second Army officer says 'enemy combatant' tribunals flawed

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) _ A second Army officer who sat on the "enemy combatant" tribunals at Guantanamo has come forward to criticize the panels, saying in court papers that the proceedings favored the government and commanders reversed some decisions.

The criticism, in an affidavit filed Friday by attorneys for a Sudanese detainee, echo some charges made in June by Army Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham, the first insider to publicly fault the proceedings.

At issue are the Combatant Status Review Tribunals, which the military held for 558 detainees at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay in 2004 and 2005, with handcuffed detainees appearing before panels made up of three officers.

Detainees had a military "personal representative" instead of a defense attorney, and all but 38 were determined to be "enemy combatants" who could be held indefinitely without charges.

In the new affidavit, an Army officer whose name is redacted from a version provided to The Associated Press, says panels relied on insufficient evidence.

He also said in six cases the panels unanimously declared the detainee was not an enemy combatant _ but commanders ordered new hearings and the finding was reversed without sufficient new evidence.

A Pentagon spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the affidavit, but military officials have consistently defended the tribunals and said they assured greater protections for people captured in wartime than have ever been provided.

PUERTO RICO: Authorities arrest fugitives wanted in New Jersey, Massachusetts

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) _ Fugitives sought by authorities in New Jersey and Massachusetts have been captured in this U.S. Caribbean territory, the U.S. Marshals Service said Saturday.

Warren Villalta, who was sought by New Jersey authorities for the 2003 killing of a 21-year-old man in Paterson, was arrested in the northern Puerto Rican city of Arecibo.

Villalta, who was recently featured on the television show "America's Most Wanted," was charged as a fugitive from justice and was jailed pending an extradition hearing on outstanding warrants for murder and related charges.

A tipster who saw the TV show contacted authorities and said Villalta was spotted in the Arecibo area, according to a U.S. Marshals statement.

Early Saturday, another U.S. fugitive, Eileen Colon, was arrested in a public housing project just west of the Caribbean territory's capital of San Juan and jailed pending extradition to Massachusetts.

Colon was wanted by police for warrants including weapons law violations and possession with intent to distribute heroin in the Holyoke area, the statement said.