Briefly

CANADA

Clinton in Canada for security talks

WAKEFIELD, Quebec | Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the foreign ministers of Canada and Mexico met Monday for talks focused on trade, regional security and fighting transnational crime.

Mrs. Clinton, Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon and Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa gathered in this small Quebec town near Ottawa to prepare for a meeting of their heads of state early next year aimed at increasing cooperation on those issues as well as tackling the threat from Mexican drug cartels.

U.S. officials said the three would focus on Central America and the Caribbean, including the situation in Haiti following disputed presidential elections there late last month and the country’s ongoing need for international aid in the wake of a devastating earthquake and cholera epidemic.

COLOMBIA

Cable: Uribe mulled attack on Venezuela

BOGOTA | Colombia’s then-President Alvaro Uribe considered military action against Venezuela in 2008 if Hugo Chavez expanded his socialist agenda in Latin America, a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable revealed.

“The best counter to Chavez, in Uribe’s view, remains action — including use of the military,” the U.S. ambassador to Bogota wrote in a classified memo citing discussions between the Colombian president and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen in a Jan. 17, 2008, meeting.

The recently released document was among some of the 250,000 U.S. cables that have been released by the anti-privacy website WikiLeaks.

Mr. Uribe, a staunch U.S. ally, said Mr. Chavez had a “five to seven year plan to advance his Bolivarian [socialist] agenda” across parts of South America and expressed concern that the Venezuelan leader would use rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to help him, the cable says.

HAITI

Officials seek to end election stalemate

PORT-AU-PRINCE | Haiti’s election commission gathered key parties Monday to unblock the impasse over presidential polls that President Rene Preval is accused of rigging in favor of a handpicked successor.

The outcome of the contested elections is crucial for a country struggling to recover from an earthquake 11 months ago that killed 250,000 people and forced 1.5 million others to inhabit increasingly permanent tent cities.

Haiti held its first presidential and legislative elections since the quake on Nov. 28 against the backdrop of a cholera epidemic that is starting to taper off but still claims 30 lives a day.

MEXICO

Legion removes images of disgraced founder

MEXICO CITY | The Legionaries of Christ is ordering images of its disgraced founder removed from its buildings worldwide as part of Vatican-mandated reforms.

The conservative order says photographs showing the late Rev. Marciel Maciel alone or with the pope must be removed from its installations.

Maciel founded the influential Legion in Mexico in 1941. He was dogged for years by claims that he abused seminarians. But it was only after his 2008 death that the order admitted the allegations were true and that Maciel had fathered three children.

The Legion also announced on its website Monday that it was prohibiting the celebration of Maciel’s birthday. It also banned the sale of his writings inside Legion centers.

PERU

Peru sought U.S. aid to battle rebels

LIMA | Peru sought U.S. military aid to counter a resurgent terror threat from Shining Path guerrillas in 2009, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable released to the media by WikiLeaks.

The U.S. ambassador to Lima, P. Michael McKinley, wrote that Peru was seeking helicopters, unmanned drones, intelligence-gathering equipment and training as part of “strong GOP [government of Peru] interest in expanding security cooperation with the United States.”

Mr. McKinley, in a confidential November 2009 cable to U.S. Southern Command head Gen. Douglas M. Fraser, said the commander’s upcoming visit “affords an opportunity to underscore [U.S. government] interest in supporting the GOP’s efforts to combat these threats in the several discrete areas where we are best positioned to help.”

• From wire dispatches and staff reports