Redirecting subdirectory in a Wordpress App.

Hi,

I'm migrating an old domain to Webfaction from a prior web host. I want to host the new site as a Wordpress blog, so I've installed a Wordpress site on a temporary domain to get it setup before I shift the domain.

There will be links to locations on the old site, which will not match on the new site. I figure .htaccess is my friend here, I can just redirect the incoming links to new locations.

To test it, I edited the .htaccess in the Wordpress root folder and added the last RewriteCond and RewriteRule. My aim is to redirect all http://af.openfutures.net/nuevo/blahblahblah links to http://af.openfutures.net/blahblahblah

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
**RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^af.openfutures.net
RewriteRule ^nuevo/(.*)$ http://af.openfutures.net/$1 [L,R=301]**
</IfModule>

# END WordPress

Totally fails. When I try to access /nuevo, I get a 404. I don't have any cache plugins in Wordpress.

So... I'm asking for help.

1. Is the Rewrite rule just wrong (I'm not expert, I copied it from someone)?
2. is the .htaccess in Wordpress root the wrong place to put this rule?
3. am I missing something else?