Fausta's blog

Monday, July 28, 2008

The "kiss & make up" edition of the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Welcome to this week's Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. If you would like your posts included in the Carnival, please email me your links: faustaw2 "at" gmail "dot" com.

The big story? Hugo and King Juan Carlos of Spain patched their differences. After the King told Hugo to shut up last November, it took 10,000 barrels of oil/day at $100 for things to go back to chummy.

I'll be talking about this in my morning video podcast at Now Live at 11AM today. I'll be doing a video podcast at Now Live on Mondays, Wednesdays at Thursdays, and a regular podcast at Blog Talk Radio on Tuesdays and Fridays at 11AM Eastern.

ARGENTINA
Argentine Democrats Strike Back

Et tu, Julio? The president suffers a heavy defeat at the hands of her number two

BOLIVIA
Where is the outrage?

BRAZIL
Brazil news photographers threatened by drug gangs in Rio, forced to erase images

CAYMAN ISLANDS
News item: Cayman Islands under US Senate scrutiny. Blog commentary: Blood and manure.

CHILE
Los costos de una proclamacion

La irreflexiva proclamación de Ingrid Betancourt como candidata al Nobel de la Paz realizada por la Presidenta Michelle Bachelet evidencia tanto injustificada improvisación en las iniciativas internacionales de La Moneda como preocupante irrespeto por los mecanismos y procesos que requiere la diplomacia para sumar aliados y consolidar amistades en el mundo.

COLOMBIA
Winning the counterinsurgency battle in Colombia

FARC ‘co-ordinator’ held in Spain

Mossad Helped in FARC Hostage Rescue?

Suc kashs Euro-peace

CUBA
Parrot diplomacy: Having rescued Cuba with cheap oil, Venezuela is to be paid back in zebras

Bombers In Cuba, Bases In Venezuela

Cuban Bomber Crisis?

News item: Cuban leader warns of austerity Blog reaction: When the going gets tough…

ECUADOR
Highlights from Ecuador's draft constitution

Sensing a Negative Tide in DC, Ecuador Hires a DC Lobbyist

Ilegal Operations in Existence by and From Colombia's "Neighbors"

Ecuador Could Give Same-Sex Unions Parity With Marriage

MEXICO
Crude and oily: A controversial referendum and the future of the state oil company

This Time, It's Different
Global Pressures Have Converged to Forge a New Oil Reality

Early this month, Valero Energy in Texas got the unwelcome news that Mexico would be cutting supplies to one of the company's Gulf Coast refineries by up to 15 percent. Mexico's state-owned oil enterprise is one of Valero's main sources of crude, but oil output from Mexican fields, including the giant Cantarell field, is drying up. Mexican sales of crude oil to the United States have plunged to their lowest level in more than a dozen years.

Ted Kennedy's most recent award

NICARAGUA
El juego de Daniel Ortega

Nicaragua looks more and more like Venezuela each day

PERU
Where rebuilding is therapy

PUERTO RICO/VIRGIN ISLANDS
Virgin Islands weighs gas pipeline to Puerto Rico

SURINAM
STC plans to acquire land in Surinam, Indonesia

To tap the potential of jatropha bio-fuel for expanding product portfolio, STC plans to acquire vast tracts of land in Surinam and Indonesia to grow the plant and market the oil to end users.

URUGUAY
Uruguay Land Prices Double as Farm Policies Lure Soros, Marfrig

A third of Uruguay's agricultural property may now be owned by foreigners, according to Uruguay's Rural Association. They include farm companies PGG Wrightson Ltd. of New Zealand and Buenos Aires-based Adecoagro, which is backed by billionaire investor George Soros.

International buyers, seeking to take advantage of rising global food prices, are attracted by the South American country's relatively cheap land, policies that encourage foreign investment, and no tariffs on farm exports, said Roberto Vazquez Platero, a former agriculture minister. As a result, farm prices have more than doubled in three years.
…
In Uruguay, Argentine farmers don't face the same taxes and price controls as they do at home. After four months of protests, Argentina's producers forced President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to cancel a March 11 increase in oilseed export taxes to more than 45 percent from 35 percent. The scrapped tax would have made it unprofitable for many farmers, already stretched by the 35 percent levy, to grow soybeans, said Eduardo Buzzi, head of the Argentine Agrarian Federation.

By contrast, Uruguay, whose population of 3.3 million is less than a tenth of Argentina's, charges farmers a flat 25 percent tax on their income.

'Investment Was Welcomed'
"What Uruguay did was simply not to interfere,'' Eduardo Blasina, an agriculture analyst, said in an interview in Montevideo. "Investment was welcomed.''