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INTERNATIONAL EDITION
FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2012
109TH YEAR I ©2012 THE MIAMI HERALD
Romney’s riches invite a wealth of scrutiny
Woman with Italy ship captain defends his actions
BY NICHOLAS CONFESSORE, DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI AND MICHAEL LUO New York Times Service
With a fortune estimated to be as large as a quarter of a billion dollars, Mitt Romney is among the wealthiest men ever to run for president. But attacks from Democrats and Republicans over his career in the leveraged buyout business and his reluctance to release his tax returns have underscored another central fact about Romney: The wealth that has helped underwrite his career in politics remains shrouded in considerable secrecy, which now poses a major political risk on the campaign trail. Romney’s finances are complex and far-flung. He and his wife, Ann, have reported holdings in dozens of publicly traded companies, mutual funds and high-end investment partnerships, with much of their family wealth held in blind trusts that conceal their full size from public view. Romney’s disclosure on Tuesday that he pays an effective tax rate of about 15 percent on his income focused new attention on some aspects of his finances, including his millions of dollars in donations to the Mormon Church and his continuing compensation from Bain Capital, the private equity firm he left more than a decade ago. Just three days ahead of the South Carolina primary, Romney’s opponents on Wednesday vigorously exploited uncertainty about his finances by demanding that he release his tax returns before their party picks a nominee, while Democrats, previewing likely attacks in a general election campaign, accused Romney of having something to hide. The matter is also leading to more scrutiny of his tax proposals. “We can’t fire our nominee in September,” Gov. Rick Perry of Texas said on Wednesday on Fox and Friends. “If we’ve got a flawed candidate going forward who’s going to get eaten alive either because of business practices or because of • TURN TO ROMNEY, 2A
BY NICOLE WINFIELD AND ALISON MUTLER Associated Press
New York Times Service
20PGA01.indd 1
• TURN TO ITALY, 2A
In Haiti, former dictator thriving BY WILLIAM BOOTH
Washington Post Service
PORT-AU-PRINCE — For a notorious former dictator facing charges of crimes against humanity, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier is living a nice life here after his sudden return from exile a year ago. Although technically under house arrest, the onetime “president for life” dines with his many admirers at the chic bistros of Petionville, where he can be found at Quartier Latin, having his poulet creole. His faltering health has improved enough for a little red wine. His portrait, a very flattering one, is sold on the streets. If money can be laundered, so can dictators. Duvalier was the commencement speaker last month at the law school in Gonaives, an appearance that the university’s president called “totally inconceivable.” The students cheered. Last week, Duvalier drove himself — with a police escort — to the government’s memorial ceremony to mark the second anniversary of Haiti’s cataclysmic earthquake. The audience, which included Haiti’s President Michel Martelly, his prime minister and former U.S. President Bill Clinton, rose to greet him.
RODRIGO ABD/AP
A vendor walks past graffiti that reads in French, ‘Welcome back J.C. Duvalier,’ in Port-au-Prince. Duvalier is back in Haiti, and it is very possible that he will never be tried for the crimes that his alleged victims and international human rights groups assert — forced disappearances, illegal detentions, intimidation, torture, and executions of journalists, activists, political opponents and others. “I cannot believe my eyes,” said Boby Duval, who spent nine months in the mid-1970s
Keeping strait open won’t be easy for West BY TONY CAPACCIO Bloomberg News
The spreading violence, believed to largely reflect a widening turf war between two of the biggest criminal organizations in the country, has implications on both sides of the border, putting added pressure on political and law enforcement leaders who are already struggling to show that their strategies are working. “It is a situation ever more complicated and complex,” said Ricardo Ravelo, a Mexican journalist who has written several books on criminal organizations. “Resources are and will be stretched to deal with this.” U.S. officials here acknowledge that the mayhem is unpredictable but contend that they have a way to help tackle it, spreading word that the $1.6 billion Merida Initiative, Washington’s signature anti-drug program, will step up training and advising for the Mexican state and local police and judicial institutions this year, rather than emphasizing the delivery of helicopters and other equipment. In a year in which President Felipe Calderon’s party, in power
MEXICO CITY — The Mexican drug war that has largely been defined by violence along the border is intensifying in interior and southern areas once thought clear of the carnage, broadening a conflict that has already overwhelmed the authorities and dispirited the public, according to analysts and new government data. Last week, two headless bodies were found in a smoldering minivan near the entrance to one of the largest and most expensive malls in Mexico City, generally considered a refuge from the grisly atrocities that have gripped other cities throughout the drug war. Two other cities considered safe just six months ago — Guadalajara and Veracruz — have experienced their own episodes of brutality: 26 bodies were left in the heart of Guadalajara late last year, on the eve of Latin America’s most prestigious book fair, and last month the entire police force in Veracruz was dismissed after state officials determined that it was too corrupt to patrol a city where 35 bodies were dumped on a road in September. • TURN TO MEXICO, 2A
BILLIONAIRE TO GIVE MILLIONS TO HELP FIX WASHINGTON MONUMENT, 3A
• TURN TO HAITI, 4A
THE MIAMI HERALD
Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier is back in Haiti, and it is very possible that he will never be tried for the crimes that his alleged victims and human rights groups assert.
Mexico drug war bloodies areas once thought safe BY RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
in Fort Dimanche, one of three prisons known as “the triangle of death” during the long reign of the Duvalier family — father and son, Papa Doc and Baby Doc — and the Tontons Macoutes, their paramilitary enforcers and secret police. Duval, a bear of a man who now runs a popular soccer
ROME — A young Moldovan woman who translated evacuation instructions from the bridge after the Costa Concordia ran into a reef emerged as a potential new witness Thursday in the investigation into the captain’s actions on that fateful night. Italian media have said prosecutors want to interview 25-yearold Dominica Cermotan, who had worked for Costa as a hostess fluent in several languages but was not on duty when she boarded the ship Jan. 13 in the Italian port of Civitavecchia. The $450 million Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into well-marked rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio on Jan. 13 after the captain made an unauthorized diversion from his programmed route. The ship then keeled over on its side and is still half-submerged nearly a week later. In interviews with Moldovan media and on her own Facebook page, Cermotan said she was called up to the bridge of the Concordia after it struck the reef to translate evacuation instructions for Russian passengers. She defended Capt. Francesco Schettino, who has been vilified in the Italian media for leaving his ship before everyone was evacuated safely. “He did a great thing, he saved over 3,000 lives,” she told Moldova’s Jurnal TV. Schettino, who was jailed after he left the ship, is under house arrest, facing possible charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship. Eleven people have been confirmed dead in the disaster and 21 others are still missing. Divers searched for the missing Thursday after a day-long break and a new audiotape emerged of the Concordia’s first communication
WASHINGTON — The United States and its allies would be able to reverse any Iranian attempt to block oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz within weeks, according to the authors of a report on Persian Gulf strategy. Reopening the shipping lanes may prove harder in future years, they found. “Iran has some capabilities today, in terms of anti-ship cruise missiles, in terms of mines and swarming boats, that can create a significant problem for us,” said Mark Gunzinger, co-author of the report issued Tuesday by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington. “Can we counter that challenge today? Yes. No question about it.”
PERRY DROPS OUT OF GOP RACE AND ENDORSES GINGRICH, 5A
Iran’s Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said on Dec. 27 that his nation may close the Strait, the passageway for about a fifth of globally traded oil, if the United States and its allies impose stricter economic sanctions in an effort to halt his country’s nuclear research. Reopening the narrow channels would take as long as a month if Iran laid thousands of mines and fired at U.S. vessels with shore-based antiship cruise missiles and small boats, Gunzinger and colleagues said in a briefing. “We have no current indications that Iran is trying to impede or halt maritime transits through the Strait of Hormuz, which
SEVEN CHARGED IN $78M INSIDE TRADING CASE, BUSINESS FRONT
is an international waterway,” George Little, a Pentagon spokesman, said Wednesday in an e-mailed statement. The report focused on Iran’s future capabilities, finding that reopening the Strait will be much more difficult by 2021 if Iran continues to improve the quantity • TURN TO IRAN, 2A
BECKHAM SIGNS NEW DEAL WITH L.A. GALAXY, SPORTS FRONT
ISNA/AP FILE
An Iranian navy vessel launches a missile during a drill at the sea of Oman.
INDEX NEWS EXTRA ..............3A WORLD NEWS............6A OPINION........................7A COMICS & PUZZLES ...6B
1/20/2012 4:25:36 AM
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