The Easter Week edition of the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Welcome to the Easter Week Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean.

This week's big story: The mega-embassy in Bolivia

[Peruvian President Alan] Garcia -- who is no fan of his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chávez -- suggested in an interview with The Miami Herald's Andres Oppenheimer that Chavez is building a "general headquarters" in this Andean capital that would serve to coordinate Venezuela's joint operations in the region with its leftist allies Cuba and Nicaragua.

A minor media frenzy ensued, with television crews racing to the seven-story office tower in La Paz's middle-class Obrajes neighborhood.

Corralled by a television reporter, top Venezuelan diplomat Douglas PErez said the construction was simply an embassy, to replace the current rented office in a downtown high-rise.

The $500,000 building, he said, will also house an auditorium, offices of Venezuela's state energy company PDVSA and perhaps a branch of the country's development bank Bandes.

The reporter pressed on: What about the mural showing the flags of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia? Decoration, Perez answered with a shrug. The construction "looked a little ugly, so we hung that big picture up to cover it. That's it."

That will be in addition to the 200 pro-Chavez Casas del ALBA operating in neighboring Peru, which the Peruvian Congress is investigating for ties between the Bolivarian embassy compound in Bolivia, the ALBA homes in Peru, and violent groups in Peru.

In tomorrow's podcast at 11AM Eastern Matthew Vadum of the Capital Research Center will talk about how Enablers grease path for Chavez.
Matthew Vadum, Editor, Organization Trends and Foundation Watch

Formerly a CRC research fellow, Matthew Vadum is also a veteran journalist. During his seven years in the Washington bureau of The Bond Buyer, a daily financial newspaper based on Wall Street, he covered Congress, the Supreme Court, housing, and state and local finance. While a reporter for the Central Penn Business Journal in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he won an award for outstanding legal journalism from the Pennsylvania Bar Association for an article that focused on employment law. He holds an M.A. in American Studies from Georgetown University.

LATIN AMERICA
U.S. media lags in covering Latin America, which is why this Carnival is so popular.

ARGENTINA and BRAZIL
Brazil and Argentina
The tortoise and the hare: Why those wimpish Brazilians are catching up with Argentina's racier economy

BOLIVIA - PERU - VENEZUELA
The three países hermanos were clearly not enough for el macacón...

Megaembajada bolivariana se instala en La Paz

COLOMBIA
At Le Monde, Colombia's drug traffickers and kidnappers are victims, while those who fight against them are to blame

The FARC's Terrorist Diplomacy

FARC's uranium likely a scam

The FARC implosion

Via Instapundit, How To Beat an Insurgency

Venezuelan, Colombian militaries built differently

CHILE
Magnitude 5.6 - WEST CHILE RISE

CUBA
Free the Group of 56 in Castro's Prison

The Bay of Rigs

Consumer electronics in Cuba
Byte by byte
The inalienable right to a toaster - but not quite yet

Cuban government has lifted its ban on farmers buying their own supplies to improve agricultural production.

Ovacionan feligreses bautistas a los 75 presos politicos

Viva Castro's departure: Cuba in 2008 should be the Hong Kong or Singapore of Latin America. Yeah, right. It should be, but why isn't it?

They'd Get More Letters, But Nobody Can Afford Paper

THE CUBA EMBARGO: TOO SOON TO TEAR DOWN THE GOAL POSTS

The ultimate in Leftie cynicism: Cuba is not a country for capitalists – but people are still happy. Happy enough to venture shark-infested waters just for the hell of it.

ECUADOR
Just Say No to Chavez, the FARC, Correa and MARXISM

MEXICO
AMLO's baaack....The resurrection The return of a former opponent adds to the president's troubles; Lopez Obrador returns to Mexican spotlight

PARAGUAY
Elections in Paraguay: A Bishop-Candidate Favors the So-called "Socialism of the Twenty-first Century"

PERU
Peruvian officials accuse Chavez of bankrolling subversives

Embassy . . . or base for Chávez?

PANAMA
Key U.S. drug informant lands in prison
Nelson Urrego went from convicted trafficker to key informant to life on a Survivor island to prison

PUERTO RICO
Letter from Barack Obama to Puerto Rico

EL SALVADOR
Via Matt, who IM'd this from Paris just now, After deportation, illegals are determined to return

TRINIDAD TOBAGO
An Event-ful Weekend

VENEZUELA
An Empty Revolution: The Unfulfilled Promises of Hugo Chávez

The Chavez Media's predictable failure

The hopeless destruction power of the Chavez revolution

Chavez threatens to silence 2nd TV station

Hugo's Cuffs Removed

Special thanks to Maggie, Larwyn, Maria and Eneas.



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