The first Monday in August Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

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

The big story of the week: Hugo Chavez enacts 26 laws that became effective immediately even when only the title of the laws (not the laws themselves) were made public. On the same day, he nationalized the Banco de Venezuela which was owned by Spanish Banco de Santander, saying that the bank's deposits will now be in the government's hands.

BLOGS OF THE WEEK
In Spanish: Disidente Cubano

In English: Financial Times Latin American Agenda

ARGENTINA
Waiting for revenge

Rural, final

BOLIVIA
New Paper Suggests Bolivian Conflict Revolves Around Lopsided Control Over Land, Natural Gas

Foley Hoag Wins Key Victory for Government of Bolivia in Investor Dispute over Nationalization of Telephone Company Entel

Carry on voting: Two reports, first from Bolivia and then from Ecuador on the radical socialists who hope that constitutional referendums will transform their countries

BRAZIL
Lula’s lieutenants cozy with FARC (in Spanish)

Brazil's Embraer aims to lead world executive jet market

Elite Squad demonstrates the point of police brutality, says José Padilha: José Padilha’s drama about corrupt cops in Rio has attracted controversy - deservedly so, says our correspondent

Brazil's Economy Lifting Rich And Poor

Brazilian Army to Permanently Occupy Indigenous Territories

Brazil rides wave of growth

COLOMBIA
Mario Vargas Llosa writes (in Spanish) about the rescue: Operacion Jaque

IBD blog:

While bank runs plague Venezuela next door as panicky depositors seek to withdraw their savings before Chavez can get his hands on them, Colombia is an investment magnet, drawing in a record $3.1 billion in the first quarter. If things stay steady, the country should draw at least $12 billion by the end of the year. It would be a 25% rise from 2007's record-setting $9 billion. See what happens when a country cleans up and follows free markets? The inflowing investment is proof of it, a belief in Colombia's future. Viva Colombia!

Colombia's share of world cocaine plummets

Colombia registers foreign investment record

Colombia’s capitalist communes

Good news from Colombia: coke production down, business up

Sainted, or Stockholmed?

Uribe to ask US for longer trafficking sentences

CUBA
A history lesson from Cuba

3rd anniversary of El Café Cubano…sad day

fidel castro says that Edmonton is a "dumping ground"

Don’t Get Too Excited About Cuban ‘Reforms’

Big Brother’s Shadow: Raul Castro preaches patience

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominicans' role in hunt for Alzheimer's cure

ECUADOR
Ecuador to shut down U.S. anti-drug operation

From the Tehran Times, Ecuador opens trade office in Iran

Ecuador’s Path to Dictatorship Continues Unchecked, ATPDEA Extension Should be Conditioned

Ecuador sticks with US dollar as currency

The good life for the president and for lawyers

GUATEMALA
Is is true what they say about Muso?

HAITI
Aristide’s American profiteers, especially at Fusion, whose board at the time (during the Clinton administration) “read like the who’s who of Democratic politics”

The chairman of Fusion's board was and still is Marvin Rosen, who was the finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the 1996 Clinton fund-raising scandals. During the late 1990s, Joseph P. Kennedy II and Thomas "Mack" McLarty, both prominent Democrats, were on the board. Fusion has previously denied any wrongdoing.

The Carnival continues later this morning.