The nuclear Venezuela Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Crossposted

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

The big news this week:
Alvaro Uribe visited the US and spoke at the UN. The American media paid no attention to the US's greatest ally in the hemisphere.

A new oil field recently found in Colombia is larger than expected.

Chavez is back from his tour of China, Portugal and Russia promising he will develop nuclear power "for peaceful purposes" with Russia's help

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had offered help with a reactor, adding that "we already have a commission working on this issue."

From China, Chavez got agreements on oil, producing oil tankers and a refinery, and launching a Venezuelan telecommunications satellite from China.

A more important result from the trip is that $1 billion military loan and a new oil consortium from Russia. Putin doesn't send you $1billion without expecting really big results: Russia is bankrolling an arms race right in our hemisphere, folks.

In other news, Ecuador's new constitution was approved by a margin of 65%. I predicted yesterday that it would pass by 60%, only because Soviet-style 99%+ margins have gone out of fashion. This is probably the first Constitution in the world which grants inalienable rights to nature

Ecuador’s proposed constitution includes an article that grants nature the right to “exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution” and will grant legal standing to any person to defend those rights in court.

Conveniently so, considering how it'll be yet another weapon against foreign corporations and political enemies.

And now for the Carnival
LATIN AMERICA
Today's Brazil, Peru, Argentina: Latin America Bond, Currency Preview at Bloomberg.

ARGENTINA
Better late than never: Ms Fernández tries to charm the markets by revisiting the 2005 debt swap

BOLIVIA
The Last Days of a Nazi-Era Photographer

Via IBD Blog, U.S. moves to suspend trade benefits for Bolivia

Bolivia es un paraiso de narcotraficantes

Evo Morales Supports Terrorist Groups

US-Bolivia economic relations hit the skids

BRAZIL
Brazil Booms by Going Lula's Way

Brazil unveils deforestation plan: The Brazilian government has pledged to end net deforestation by 2015.

Brazilian speeder gets $1.9m fine

Real-politik: Why elections, even to lowly office, are so expensive

Lula’s oil dream

CHILE
A force for good, now: A newly streamlined army polishes its democratic credentials

What We Can Learn From Chile's Financial Crisis. I'll add the video as soon as the code is available.

COLOMBIA
80%'er Meets 80%'er at UN Photos: Sarah Palin meets with Uribe

Solana Says Oil Field in Colombia May Be Larger Than Estimated

New NEFA Report on the FARC's International Support Network

CUBA
Proposed Russian-Cuba-Venezuela Space Cooperation Raises Many Questions

Cuba silent on latest U.S. aid offer
The United States made another offer of aid to Cuba, this time in the form of $6.3 million worth of construction materials. Cuba has yet to respond.

Via Lucianne, Castro’s arrogance blocks aid

Back to normal, also at Babalu

Cuba's ambitions for growth laid to waste yet again.

ECUADOR
Correa's Communism Set to Win on Sunday: Opposition Failed to Tell the Truth; Carter Center Lies about Ecuadorean Constitution

Ecuador Seems Likely to Clear Constitution

Ecuador: New laws, new conflicts

GUATEMALA
U.S. Coast Guard Sinks 60-Foot Cocaine "Submarine" off Guatemala-Mexico Coast

MEXICO
1,000 slain: Juárez drug war death continue to mount

Mexico on the brink?

NICARAGUA
Rewriting the book of Daniel

Nicaragua's stellar record of treatment of dissenting opinions

PARAGUAY
Critters!

PERU
Mitsui Mining to Restart Copper Production at Mine in Peru

VENEZUELA
Chavez says Venezuela will develop nuclear power

The Miami Venezuelan Maletagate trial part X: A Venezuelan court orders the assets of Maionica and Kauffmann seized

Some possible leftovers from the Vene-Russian love affair

Putin says ties with Latin America a top priority

Chavez: Latin States Should Partner With Russia Against U.S.

Venezuelan president arrives in China

Venezuela: Iran to finance 25 factories

Downright lunacy, via IBD Blog, US Department of Energy to deliver oil from strategic reserve to Citgo

La oposición venezolana acusa a la Policía de idear un falso complot para matar a Chávez

Russia, Venezuela to Form Oil Venture, Spend Billions

Newly installed in Caracas: a monument to the FARC’s founder, Manuel Marulanda, who died of a heart attack last March.


AMERICAN POLITICS
Republican quits in Hispanic row

Moscow on the main

Change for Change's Sake isn't Enough

This week’s podcasts and posts


Uribe, Brazil, and the UN: 15 Minutes on Latin America

Special thanks to Eneas, GoV, Larwyn, Maggie and Maria.


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The "flying from Caracas" Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Crossposted

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

This week's big story: The Russian fighter jets leave Venezuela, Chavez expells the HRW director, and Chavez decides to make a last-minute stop in Russia on his way to China.

I'll talk about this in today's podcast at 10AM Eastern. Chat's open by 9:45AM and the call-in number is 646 652-2639. Join us!



ARGENTINA
Argentine rallies for missing man

Suitcase full of cash adds to Chavez corruption claims
Rights activists kicked out amid Washington accusations that Venezuela illegally gave funds to Kirchner

BELIZE
Taiwan, Belize to sign oil exploration deal

BOLIVIA
Possible deal in Bolivia

Now put it back together
A political standoff turns deadly, but bloodshed may bring both sides to their senses. At least they have agreed to start talks

Bolivia on the Brink

BRAZIL
The Islamization of Brazil

Brazil Wants to Build 50 Nuclear Power Plants, Nuclear Submarines, More?

New fleet may mean U.S. covets Brazil's oil: Lula

CARIBBEAN
BBC Caribbean report (audio)

COLOMBIA
Uribe asks Hill to OK trade pact
Held up over rights concerns

Detienen a supuesto jefe de FARC cuando intentaba comprar armas a venezolanos

CUBA
The Cuban “Katrina”

Bloodied, but unbowed
Desperate for international aid, hurricane-torn Cuba turns down any relief from its old foe, the United States

Secretary Gutierrez Statement on Announcement of a FOURTH Offer to Cuba for Humanitarian Assistance

Fidel Castro: It's good to be dictator

Castro brothers reject US hurricane aid while manipulating essentials for sale

The Real Cuba has lots more on the hurricanes’ damage

Music video (language warning in Spanish):



ECUADOR
A Superb Reason to Stay this Madness and VOTE NO!

Secretary of the Bishops’ Conference asks that Bishops and priests be respected in voicing their opinion, even if they are not shared by others

HAITI
Haiti 'overwhelmed' after storms

JAMAICA
Jamaica News Bulletin Partners With Brewer Investment Group, LLC

MEXICO
Delegitimization of Mexico through lower oil prices

7 killed in Mexican Independence Day attack

Mother suspects Juárez police in son's slaying

PDF file Mexico’s Drug Cartels:
Congressional Research Service, Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade Division

Mexico plans anti-kidnap police

NETHERLANDS ANTILLES
Denny's blogging his vacation: Bonaire 2008 Day 1

PARAGUAY
Lino Oviedo acusa a Lugo de estar muy supeditado a Hugo Chavez

PERU
Perú espera respuesta a presunta presencia de sicarios peruanos en Bolivia

Alan García bate records de impopularidad: sólo 19 %

PUERTO RICO
Caribbean officials working to lure visitors back

URUGUAY
Uruguay: Bills, Bidets, and Boundaries

VENEZUELA
Missile cruiser "Peter the Great" heading for Venezuela

El 80% de los militares rechaza el proyecto de Hugo Chavez

The Chavez bagman trial

Back on his old hobby-horse
But there are limits even to Hugo Chávez’s anti-Americanism

Talking to Chavez

The Venezuelan 2008 election: update 7. Still these many homeless?

Chavez unstable by the truth about Human Rights Watch report

Dog meat for USAF

Sobre Chávez pende la espada de la justicia globalizada"/"The sword of the international justice hangs over Chávez"

US POLITICS
Who’ll back Monroe Doctrine?

McCain rules out negotiations with the Venezuelan government

Special thanks to Eneas, GoV, Maria and Maggie.

This week’s podcasts and posts:
Russian jets leave Venezuela 3 weeks ahead of time; Chavez heads to Cuba for the weekend

Obama es un descarado

Bolivia: 15 Minutes on Latin America





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"The Russians are leaving" Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Cross-posted

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. If you would like your posts included in the next Carnival, please email me: faustaw2 “at” gmail “dot” com.

Two big stories this week:

1. Hugo Chavez expelled the American ambassador and the US expelled the Venezuelan ambassador, while Russian bombers are flying out of Caracas. Going unnoticed: the news that PDVSA is $12billion in the red since last year.

2. Eastern Bolivia is now under martial law as it lapses into what can become a full civil war. 38 people died following rioting in northern and eastern areas of Bolivia in reaction to Evo Morales plans to re-distribute the country’s wealth. Bolivian troops fired into crowds. Bolivia also expelled the American ambassador.

The embassies in all the countries involved remain open and functioning, as of the writing of this post.

In today’s podcast at 10AM Eastern Monica Showalter of IBD talks about these stories.

LATIN AMERICA

Latin America wants free trade

The perils of US protectionism:

ARGENTINA

Argentina’s other drug problem

El FMI dejaria de usar las mediciones del INDEC - Perfil.com

BOLIVIA

La rebelion por la libertad ha comenzado

Bolivia declares martial law in protest hit region

Bolivia rivals ‘reach agreement’

Bolivia’s government has said it has reached a basic agreement with the opposition on ending the violence which officials say has left 28 people dead.

Interior Minister Alfredo Rada said a further 10 bodies had been found in Pando province following the “massacre” of pro-government farmers on Thursday.

Pando Governor Leopoldo Fernandez has been accused of ordering the attack.

La Guerra intestina

Fresh violence in Bolivia stokes civil war fears

El responsable y los complices

Anti-Morales protests intensify in Bolivia

BOLIVIANOS - EN BOLIVIA - TORTURADOS POR VENEZOLANOS Y CUBANOS

Enraged Bolivians burn Venezuelan flags

Here’s video of the military firing into a crowd

BRAZIL

Half the nation, a hundred million citizens strong: What the middle class plans to do with its money - and its votes

CHILE

Chile Calls for Summit to Discuss Bolivian Crisis

CUBA

Cuba and Russia: Together again

Open A GiTMO Relief Center for Cuba, Haiti Hurricane Victims

Yordis García Fournier and Izael Poveda Silva, Cuban Political Prisoners of the Week, 9/14/08

It’s simply criminal

ECUADOR

Death Threats [Against] Archbishop and HLI Leader in Ecuador for Opposing “Abortionist” Constitution

Chevron Lawyers Indicted by Ecuador in Oil-Pit Cleanup Dispute

Willfully Ignorant, Chevron Committing Suicide the Ecuadorean Way: UNASUR will Complete their Demise

HAITI

What Haiti needs

HONDURAS

Expulsions stoke US-LatAm dispute

MEXICO

Key gulf cartel leader captured

Mexico’s failure to sort veggies may have led to outbreak

PERU

Connecting to the world: A president goes to market

VENEZUELA

An Empty Revolution

The Unfulfilled Promises of Hugo Chávez

Pdvsa to get USD 1.2 billion loan from a Japanese bank

Morales, Chávez resort to tired tactics

OUR OPINION: UNCLE SAM BECOMES SCAPEGOAT FOR INTERNAL PROBLEMS

Mary Anastasia O’Grady on the Russian bombers:

This week in weapons

Venezuela Plays The Russia Card

Russia says to send nuclear warship to Caribbean

Venezuela’s interior minister, whose ideological sympathy with Colombia’s FARC guerrillas raised serious concerns, is resigning.

Drug flights operate out of Venezuela, U.S. report says

Bush Tightens Squeeze on Chavez With Rebel Aid Charge

Venezuela’s traffic: Jam today

The Russians are here

AMERICAN POLITICS

McCain Attacks Obama Over Venezuela

There is no US sphere

Mexicans vs. Muslims in Greeley

Efecto-Palin

THIS WEEK’S PODCASTS AND POSTS

Venezuela: Russian bombers going bye-bye

Pdvsa to get $1.2 billion loan from a Japanese bank

The US replies to Chavez and expels the Venezuelan ambassador to the US; Honduras joins in the fray. Oil drops.

Mexican Makes NY Times Investment No American Will Do

Venezuela throws out American ambassador, recalls Venezuelan ambassador to the US

Bolivia: Evo Morales Says He’ll Expel U.S. Ambassador From Bolivia

Following up on the Russian/Venezuela military maneuvers in the Caribbean story: Cold War II in time for the election

More on Chavez’s naval excercises with Russia

Special thanks to Eneas, GoV, Kate, Pat, Larwyn and Maggie.

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I remember: Jospeh Angelini, Jr.

(Note: This post will remain at the top of the page until 9/12.)

Joseph Angelini Jr., age 38 of Lindenhurst, NY, died heroically on September 11, 2001 in the World Trade Center terrorist attack. He was a New York firefighter with Ladder Co. 4



Joseph Angelini Jr.
A Firefighter Passionate About Family, Gardening

October 22, 2001

Joseph Angelini Jr. may have lived for the New York City Fire Department, but he didn't hang around when his tour ended.

"Gotta get home to the kids," he'd tell the guys in Manhattan's Ladder Co. 4 before heading to the 6:33 p.m. train to Lindenhurst.

Angelini's wife, Donna, has scheduled a memorial service for today to help 7-year-old Jennifer, 5-year-old Jacqueline and 3-year-old Joseph Angelini III to finally understand that he won't be coming home anymore.

"My son asks everyone he sees in uniform, 'Did you find my daddy, did you find my daddy?'" Donna Angelini said Friday.

The seven-year department veteran followed in the footsteps of his father, Joseph Angelini Sr., 63, who was the senior member of Brooklyn's Rescue Co. 1 and also perished in the World Trade Center attacks.

The younger Angelini, 38, was assigned to a house that protects New York's theater district. Its motto: "Never miss a performance."

But at home, he was a cook, craftsman and avid gardener who grew pumpkins, zucchini, eggplants and hot peppers and filled the house with the smells of pizza and focaccia.

"He was the air in my lungs, and now that air is taken away from me," Donna Angelini said. "I keep waiting for him to come off a 24 [hour shift] and come through the door and say, 'You wouldn't believe what happened to me today.'"

Angelini also is survived by his mother, Anne, a grandmother, Mary, sister Annmarie Bianco and brother, Michael, all of Lindenhurst; sister Mary Angelini of Washington D.C.; and by seven nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held today at 11 a.m. at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church in Lindenhurst.
-- Elizabeth Moore (Newsday)

CNN.com profile of Joe Jr.

Living Tribute to Joseph Angelini, Jr.

Joe's father, Joe Sr. also died that day:
The Veteran and His Son

Joseph J. Angelini Sr. and his son, Joseph Jr., were firefighters, and neither survived the twin towers' collapse. "If he had lived and his son had died, I don't think he would have survived," said Alfred Benjamin, a firefighter at Rescue Company 1 in Manhattan who was partnered with Mr. Angelini for the last six months.

The elder Mr. Angelini, 63, was the most veteran firefighter in the city, with 40 years on the job. He was tough and "rode the back step" like everyone else. His 38-year-old son, who worked on Ladder Company 4 on 48th Street, was on the job for seven years.

"If you mentioned retirement to Joey, it was like punching him," Mr. Benjamin said. Joseph Jr. was proud of his father's reputation and tried to copy him any way he could, said Joseph Jr.'s wife, Donna.

And they never gave up their tools. "Think about climbing 20 stories with bunker gear, ropes, hooks, halogens and other different types of tools and somebody wants to borrow a tool -- no way," Mr. Benjamin said. "You ask them what they need done and you do it for them. You carried that tool all the way up there, so you're going to use it. If they thought they were going to need a tool, they should have carried it up. Joey Sr. always said carry your own weight. He always carried his."

Joseph Jr. applied to the department 11 years ago. He got called seven years ago. "It was the proudest day for my father-in-law. It was a great opportunity," said Donna Angelini. "His father was a firefighter and he wanted to be one, too."

Mr. Angelini, who had four children, taught Joseph Jr. carpentry. Often they worked on projects together, including a rocking horse. Joseph Jr., who had three children, had started building a dollhouse for one of his daughters. Unfinished, it is sitting on his workbench.

Joseph Angelini, Sr.
The quilt

A brother, Firefighter Michael Angelini, was there as well, but, in a move that probably saved his life, left when asked to help carry out the body of the Rev. Mychal Judge, the fire department's chaplain.

From Newsday:

Between Funeral and 'Pile'

September 21, 2001

Michael's choice: remain with his mother, Anne, in Lindenhurst and support his family during the wake, today, and the funeral, tomorrow, for his father, New York firefighter Joey Angelini, 63; or, return to The Pile to continue searching for his missing brother, New York firefighter Joey Angelini Jr., 38.

Michael, 33, knew yesterday that his mother and Joey Jr.'s wife, Donna, his two sisters and his nieces and nephews needed him, needed a strong, grown, male Angelini nearby, perhaps as much or more than he needed to be nearer his brother. "It's hard to figure out what's the right place to be in," he said, already having decided to stay with the family. "I want so much to go back there."

Michael works for the Fire Patrol of New York, which operates under the New York Board of Underwriters, protecting the interests of insurers during and in the aftermath of commercial property fires. Wearing the same firefighting gear, except for the distinctive red helmet that denotes Fire Patrol, he responded to the World Trade Center disaster last Tuesday morning, as did his father, a 40-year FDNY veteran assigned to Rescue 1, and his brother, of Ladder Co. 4 in the Theater District. "We were all in the same area, and none of us knew it," he said.

In the lobby of one of the stricken towers, a fire supervisor suddenly ordered him out of the building. They passed firefighters who had just encountered the body of department chaplain Father Mychal Judge. Michael helped carry Judge away. "... but then my officer grabbed me and said, 'Let's go!'" he said. "We ended up a block or two north on West Murray Street."

Michael entertained a slender hope that his brother might have finished his tour early and gone home. He suspected otherwise, and he learned later that afternoon that Joey had done what his father would have done and what so many other firefighters did who were supposed to be ending their tours at 9 a.m. They went to work.

Once a jokester and a partygoer, Joey Jr. had undergone personality changes increasingly noticeable to Michael during the past seven years, since he had joined the department and Donna gave birth to the first of their three children, Jennifer. He had worked previously as an electrician with the Transit Authority. "I didn't want him to leave Transit," said his mother, "because they were about to make him a foreman. But, for some reason, he switched over to the fire department."

"Since then," Michael said, "I saw him taking on more and more of my father's traits. Before, we used to go out a lot, he and I. He was silly, funny. Now, getting him to go out was like pulling teeth. I tell old stories to guys he worked with, and they'll look at me like I'm talking about somebody they don't know. He had become so, like, straight. He just wanted to be with his family. He was showing more and more of that integrity, that seriousness, like my father.

"Three things were important to my father: his family, the church and the department, and I'm not sure in what order. My father was honest to a fault, religious. I remember walking back from the store with him. I was only little. He realized that the counter girl had given him 30 cents too much in change, and we had to walk all the way back. I mean, it was almost ridiculous. Joey was becoming more like that. It was good to watch, but it's hard to live up to."

The elder Angelini was in special operations that morning, and Michael hoped he too might have been sent elsewhere, but he really knew better. His father was legendary in the department for loving the work, for loving "to get dirty," for loving "making a grab [rescuing somebody]," for routinely walking out of a mostly extinguished inferno and lighting a cigarette while younger firefighters lay sprawled around him, exhausted.

Earlier this year, at a Holy Name Society communion breakfast tribute for his 40th anniversary as a firefighter, the short, wiry, gray-haired Angelini resisted efforts by his fellow firefighters to get him to wear more of his medals. "They convinced him to put on maybe a third of them," Michael said. "Then he said, 'Stop. I'm tired of pinning these on.'

"He kept them in the back of a drawer, in a box," Michael said. "He didn't tell us about half of them. He didn't talk about what he did. You would be eating dinner across from him and notice that he looked dif- ferent, like, strange, and then you would realize that his face was all red, and his eyebrows were completely gone, and his hairline had receded. He was burned. You would say, 'What happened to you?' And he would say, 'Aw, something flashed over me.'

"At the site, all week, guys were joking about him finding a pocket and eventually walking out. They said to me, 'He was probably buried in a void, and as soon as he runs out of cigarettes he's gonna come walking out.'"

Rescue workers found the body of Joey Angelini on Monday. He had been listed as missing since the day after the attack. Joey Jr. still is missing. After tomorrow's funeral Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Lindenhurst, Michael probably will return to the site.
--Ed Lowe (Newsday Columnist)

Attacked.