How Latvia is struggling to break with its Russian-dominated past is the subject of an episode of “Up Close,” a Canadian television documentary program, airing this week on the Newsworld International channel. The program should be available to cable and satellite television subscribers across North America.

Hosted by Helen Mann, the episode features interviews with Latvian President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga and Nīls Muižnieks, an American-born Latvian who now serves in the government as minister for special assignments for society integration affairs.

“Memories of the Soviet occupation are seared into the soul of every Latvian,” say the program notes posted on Newsworld International’s Web site. “To Latvians they are what the Battle of the Plains of Abraham and the expulsion of the Acadians have been to generations of French Canadians. Here, though, these are not remembrances of a distant past. They’re the painful experiences of this generation of Latvians.”

According to the program schedule, “Up Close” is to air June 2 at 3:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. EST; June 3 at 12:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. EST; June 4 at 3:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. EST; June 5 at 10 p.m. EST; June 6 at 1 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. EST, and June 7 at 2:30 a.m. EST.

Further information is available from the program’s Web site.

The bass player for Latvia’s top pop group, Prāta Vētra, has been killed in an automobile accident, Latvian media report. Gundars Mauševics was killed May 24 about 10 kilometers from Rīga on the Rīga-Jelgava highway, the newspaper Diena reported.

The news agency LETA said it had confirmed the musician’s death. His body was found near an Audi 80 automobile that had run off the road into a peat bog. Police suspect the accident happened up to two days earlier, the news agency said.

Mauševics, known by the nickname Mumiņš, was one of five members of the band, whose lineup has not changed since the group formed in 1989. The band is known outside Latvia as BrainStorm.

Other members of the band are lead vocalist Renārs Kaupers, drummer Kaspars Roga, keyboardist Māris Mihelsons and guitarist Jānis Jubalts.

Road accidents have claimed or seriously injured a number of popular Latvian artists in recent years. Dainis Virga, drummer for the Liepāja rock band Līvi, was killed last July 27 along with sound operator Juris Jakovļevs when the vehicle they were riding in was involved in an accident near Daugavpils. The group’s guitarist Ainars Virga, who was driving, and bass player Jānis Grodums, were injured in the accident. Singer Igo (Rodrigo Fomins) was seriously injured in an automobile accident in May 2000 and spent several months recuperating. Singer Māra Kalniņa of the popular post-folk group Iļģi was killed in 1999 in an accident near Rīga.

Latvia has one of the worst traffic death records in Europe, according to several international organizations that monitor road safety. In the first quarter of this year, a total of 114 people died on Latvian roads, according to the national Road Traffic Safety Directorate.

Latvian President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga will spend the next two weeks in North America, half of the time on official business in Texas and Mexico, and half of the time vacationing in Canada, according to her press office.

The president is expected to meet May 25 with Houston-area business people and with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). On May 26, her schedule includes a visit to the Port of Houston, a stop at the Baker Institute and a meeting with Sen. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), the U.S. Senate’s majority leader.

Vīķe-Freiberga also plans to meet May 26 with Houston’s small Latvian community. According to the 2000 federal census, the greater Houston area is home to 525 persons who claim some Latvian ancestry.

This will be the president’s second trip to Houston. She lasted visited in 2002.

While Houston is not known as a major center of Latvian activity in the United States, it has several ties to the Baltic nation. Kārlis Ulmanis, the last pre-World War II president of Latvia, from about 1910-1912 lived in Houston and unsuccessfully ran a dairy, according to Edgars Dunsdorfs’ 1978 book, Kārļa Ulmaņa dzīve (The Life of Kārlis Ulmanis).

One of Latvia’s five honorary consulates in the United States is found in Houston, according to the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Stephen P. Payne, a lobbyist and business consultant, is the honorary consul.

Houston also is headquarters for Baltic International USA Inc., a company that was an early investor in the predecessor to Air Baltic, Latvia’s national airline. It sold the last of its interest in 1999 to Scandinavian Airline Systems for USD 2.1 million, according to a company press release.

From May 27-29, Vīķe-Freiberga will be in Guadalajara, Mexico, attending the European Union-Latin America and Caribbean Summit meant to foster closer ties between the two regions. The Latvian president also is expected to meet with Mexican President Vicente Fox.

After the conference, Vīķe-Freiberga heads to Canada for a week’s vacation. —Andris Straumanis

(UPDATED 02 JUN 2004)