The plundered pensions 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 in the next Carnival please email me: faustaw2 "at" gmail "dot" com.

The week's big story: As the country is about to default again on its debt, Argentina’s leftist President Cristina Kirchner signed a proposal nationalizing the country’s private pension funds in what could be seen as a grab for cash and power amid the global economic crisis. Read more about it in the section for Argentina below.

LATIN AMERICA
The Hezbollah-Latin American Ties Become More Evident, also at Counterterrorism blog

ARGENTINA
Argentina Allows Pension Funds to Resume Trading

Juan Forero summarizes the suitcase trial in Miami, which is now gone to the jury: Court Case in Miami Casts Light on Corruption in Venezuela

If it feels good, do it!

Cristina's looking-glass world: A plan to nationalise private-pension funds looks like a cunning but short-sighted government effort to stave off another debt default

Asco de gente

BOLIVIA
While the US cuts off trade benefits with Bolivia because of cocaine, Evo Morales goes for nose surgery:
U.S. Cuts Off Trade Benefits to Bolivia Over Drugs

Via Lucianne, Bolivia's president to undergo nasal surgery

BRAZIL
Licensed to scribble: An end to journalism’s closed shop?

Brazilians vote in key city polls

CHILE
Consumer groups call on FDA to test Chilean salmon

COLOMBIA
Suspected Hezbollah Operatives Nabbed in South America, Congress Should Approve FTA

Huge cocaine bust in Colombia

Colombian army frees Farc hostage but he says he escaped with his guard: Farc hostage escapes with guard

Via IBD Blog, For every hectare of coca planted, 3 to 4 hectares of forest are actually cut down: POINT OF VIEW/ Francisco Santos Calderon: Colombia battling cocaine, preserving nature

Colombia's indigenous protest against Uribe

Small explosions wound 18 in Colombian capital

CUBA
Surprise! Cuban DGI helped Ayers and the Weather Underground

Hirám González Torna, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 10/26/08

ECUADOR
Vicious attack turns couple’s dream trip to nightmare: Oregon man critical but stable after being stabbed on Ecuadorian beach

Iran's Financial Scams: Ecuadorean Fiscal Astroturffing for Criminals

HAITI
Read about Fusion Technology's dealings in Haiti: Democrats for Despotism Party figures had a profitable relationship with Haiti's dictator. Video at the article.

JAMAICA
Illegal immigration, and Jamaican ganja for Haitian guns: Haiti and Jamaica's deadly trade

MEXICO
Declining conspicuous consumption for drug thugs

Mexican Senate Passes Energy Reform

PERU
Return of Peru's Shining Path as terror movement kills 19 soldiers

Jaime Bayly, in Spanish, talking about South Park’s Andean bands


PUERTO RICO
Via Jeremayakovka, The Republican Party of Pennsylvania and PA's Secretary of State are trading barbs over voter registration.

Nearly 1,000 pounds of coke seized in Puerto Rico

After the San Juan Star's closing, the government will be subsidizing a new English-language daily: English-language daily to debut in Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO - A group of journalists in Puerto Rico said Tuesday they are ready to launch the island's first cooperative-style newspaper this week with a $1 million boost from the government.

The new English-language tabloid would replace the Pulitzer Prize-winning San Juan Star, a nearly 50-year-old daily that closed two months ago amid declining revenues and disputes between the publisher and union over layoffs and benefit cuts.

Roughly 15,000 copies of the Puerto Rico Daily Sun will be printed on Wednesday and about 2,000 subscribers have already signed up, editor Rafael Matos told a news conference in the U.S. island's capital, San Juan.

The Puerto Rican Department of Labor and Human Resources will contribute $1 million to help cover salaries and benefits. Half that amount will be available under a local law that provides incentives to companies that create new jobs, Secretary Roman Velasco said.

Matos said the paper's objectivity would not be compromised by the government help.
"We are subject to the strictest of journalistic canons," Matos said. "This is not an investment from the government - it is a contribution."

Matos said 90 former Star employees agreed to buy a minimum of $200 in shares of the United Press Cooperative to help start the paper/

VENEZUELA
Via Grouchy Old Cripple, Chavez raises whisky prices


Via Venezuela News and Views, Sacrificios bolivarianos

U.S. Treasury Designation Targets Iran's WMD Financing, Alliance With Venezuela

News from Europe: thumbs down on Chavez

Chavez' folly: He owns and controls everything, but they don't work. It can only get worse

A letter to Sean Penn

AMERICAN POLITICS
"I was born in Colombia, but I was made in the USA"

The more things change: The neighbours’ tepid enthusiasm for Barack Obama

The Conservative Rebellion

Would There Be Change in Obama's Americas Policy?

More news on Latin America at Wall Street Journal en español and HACER

THIS WEEK’S POSTS AND PODCASTS
Chavez wants to jail rival Rosales
A suitcase full of money from Hugo to Cristina
OPEC cuts production, prices fall, Hugo sweats some more
Colombia smashes drug ring with Hezbollah ties
Argentina: Let’s plunder the pensions!
Sean Penn goes to Caracas



Special thanks to Eneas, Larwyn, Maggie and Maria.


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The “Cuban oil” 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 in the next carnival please email me: faustaw2 "at" gmail "dot" com.

This week's two big stories: Cuba and oil, and Obama on Colombia.
Cuba claims massive oil reserves.

The BBC ran the story last Friday, and the numbers come from - where else - the Cuban government, which claims more than double the previous estimate of oil reserves:

The US Geological Survey (USGS) recently estimated that as much as 9bn barrels of oil and 21 trillion cubic feet of natural gas could lie within that zone, in the North Cuba Basin.

However, Cubapetroleo exploration manager Rafael Tenreyro Perez said his company's estimate was higher because it had better information about Cuba's offshore geology.

"I'm almost certain that if [USGS officials] ask for all the data we have, their estimate is going to grow considerably," he told a news conference in the capital, Havana.

If correct, Cuba's oil reserves would be almost the same as those of the US - 21bn barrels, according to the Oil & Gas Journal - and nearly twice the size of Mexico's - 11.7bn barrels.

I asked oil industry expert and former PDVSA board member Gustavo Coronel his opinion on these figures and he replied,

No country can claim oil reserves unless some basic requirements can be met:
sufficient geophysical exploration,
successful exploration,
drilling,
sufficient number of confirmatory wells,
clear definition of the dimensions of the reservoir,
certainty that the production of the oil can be economically done.

All of this and more is necessary before a country can claim to have X barrels of oil reserves.

Cuba, so far, has done NO one of these things. In fact, one of the very few companies looking for oil in this area of Cuban territorial waters, SHERRITT, a Canadian company (I think) just CALLED IT QUITS, gave up its rights to continue exploration. Why would a company do this
if there were the enormous oil "reserves" claimed by Cuba?

Sherritt indeed has canceled its agreement for operations in Cuban waters, saying the ventures were not viable:

Sherritt's evaluation was that exploration activity was not worth continuing, an option available within its contract, said Cupet Exploration Director Rafael Tenreyro. "They have their reasons for not continuing," he said.

That's the same Rafael Tenreyro Perez who claims that Cuba has twice as much oil as anyone else's estimate. Earlier this year Sherritt had relenquished its deepwater blocks off Cuba because it could not attract a partner to share the development costs and risks.

So much for the facts on the Cuban claims. But don't be surprised if you hear about it in the media. After all, they keep praising Cuba's healthcare even when Fidel himself had to import a gastroenterologist/oncologist to save himself.

Oil? More like snake oil.

Obama Is Wrong About Colombia: Labor unions are much safer under Uribe.

It is far safer to be a union member today in Colombia than to be a member of the general population. This is a fact, and it would be interesting to know why Mr. Obama has repeatedly refused to acknowledge it.

Is it because of his heavy reliance on campaign contributions from the antitrade AFL-CIO? Or perhaps, like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Mr. Obama has an ideological bias in favor of Colombia's hard left. If it's the latter, then it is worth asking whether an Obama presidency would change U.S. foreign policy to look more favorably on insurgents of the FARC variety.

Here's Mary Anastasia O'Grady:



CARIBBEAN
Trade winds: Finally, a deal with Europe

LATIN AMERICA
Bad Bets: Currency worries in Brazil and Mexico

Rediscovering Latin America

ARGENTINA
Argentina faces court battle over airline

Live search maps for Argentina

BOLIVIA
Letter of the Civil Society of Cochabamba to the International Community - Comite Civico de Cochabamba

BRAZIL
Brazil's Future Going the Way of Oil

Police battle police in Sao Paulo. video

COLOMBIA
The FARC’s shrinking world

CUBA
Defector Recounts Escape: Alcantara One of Two Players to Leave Team During U.S.

Via Babalu, The Ghosts of Communism

The sounds of tyranny



ECUADOR
Ecuador’s New Constitution First to Guarantee Rights to Nature

Correa warns against “illegitimate” debt

Ecuador is not a democracy

Cardenal ecuatoriano ataca al gobierno frente al Papa

Ecuador vs. Democracy

MEXICO
Cae una importante red de narcos colombianos en México

Via LGF linkviewer, State Department warns against travel to Mexico: Deadliest drug zone invites Americans to tour 'land of encounters'

Mexico to deport Cuban migrants

NICARAGUA
Periodistas de Nicaragua cargan contra Daniel Ortega por “dictador”

PERU
Return of Peru's Shining Path as terror movement kills 19 soldiers

Peru’s unloved president: Pursued by the ghosts of the past

PUERTO RICO
A minor earthquake hit Puerto Rico on Saturday, Magnitude 3.0 - PUERTO RICO REGION causing no damage.

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
Enill: T&T has 64 years worth of oil and gas reserves

VENEZUELA
Just as the country is hit by a huge electrical blackout (the third one this year), Sean Penn is back in Venezuela for an unannounced visit: Sean Penn llega a Venezuela y se reúne con Hugo Chávez (+ Fotos) If you’re fluent in Spanish, you’ll love the comments (most not suitable for work!) .

Those exquisite little moments that bring you a big smile on your face

Oil-Fueled Nation Feels Pinch
As the Price of Crude Plunges, Venezuela Is Poised to Face a Lot of Pain

Venezuelans have no Electricity nor Water this October 19, 2008

Feeling the pinch: Chavez Says Oil Between $80 and $90 Is `Sufficient'

What will Chávez do without Castro?

Vivanco speaks out

Terrorist worship in Venezuela

Hugo Chavez Celebrates End of Free Markets, Demands Recipe for Chicken-Fried Bacon

NPR Touts Hugo Chavez, End to 'Free Market Fundamentalism'

Venezuela's government looking to establish new 6-hour workday

VIRGIN ISLANDS
Hurricane fears ease in Caribbean

AMERICAN POLITICS
Palin Thwarts The Gas Cartel

Stances on trade are worlds apart

On trade agreements, Obama's playing with fire

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



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The Colombus Day Carnival of Latin America & 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: the world-wide liquidity crisis. Via The Perplexed Investor, Latin American Banks Use Reserves to Save Currencies

Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Latin American central banks are being forced to draw on record foreign reserves built up during the six-year commodities rally to stop their currencies from sinking in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Brazil sold dollars for the first time in five years and Mexico sold $2.5 billion in the spot market between yesterday and today, helping their currencies pare losses. Chile may follow suit, Barclays Capital analyst Rodrigo Valdes said.

The worst currency meltdown in Latin America since the emerging-market economic crises of the 1990s is causing companies' dollar debts to swell as well as sparking derivatives losses, and may stoke inflation. The decision to intervene came after central banks in the U.S., Europe and Canada cut interest rates in a coordinated effort to boost confidence.

LATIN AMERICA
An Introduction to Spanish Irregular Verbs

ARGENTINA
Fishy business: Patagonia’s troubled waters

Argentina’s entry fee

Del dinero burbuja y otros ensayos

BOLIVIA
Bolivia Spirals Toward Crisis

Ecuador and Bolivia Do Not Deserve Preferential Trade Extension

BRAZIL
Pointers to the presidency: A good day for São Paulo’s governor

Brazil poised to be an oil superpower

COLOMBIA
Via IBD Blog, 'Colombia cheated negotiating guerrillas'

Soñar no cuesta nada

Diplomatic breach widens between Colombia, Ecuador

CUBA
In food crisis, Cuba limits sales so all can eat

US is racist, El Coma Andante declares

Fidel the blogger

ECUADOR
An Andean arc of crisis

USA Democratic Party Called Now to Declare Allegiances to Liberty or Andean Narco-communism

The New, Bizarre Constitution of Ecuador
[Analysis] Panentheism, political correctness, nationalized oil, and claims on Antarctica

JAMAICA
An article I missed from last month, McCain and the Caribbean

MEXICO
Hello, Mexico? We need advice

PERU
Protesters decry Peru corruption

PUERTO RICO
Strong quake shakes Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico

VENEZUELA
La flota rusa que viene hacia Venezuela ya está en Libia The Russian fleet heading to Venezuela stops over in Libya

Revisiting the China syndrome

The Miami Venezuelan Maletagate trial part XIII: The defense calls a friendly and unethical witness to help Duran

Ayers has not left radicalism behind

Protestas hoy en la UCAB

World War III knocking at our door

Dmitry's Diatribe
Chavez, Ahmadinejad, Medvedev.

Venezuela's oil production falls under Chavez

And one for Columbus Day, Chávez arremete contra Cristóbal Colón, pero pide que no “destruyan sus estatuas”

AMERICAN POLITICS
Obama - Soros - South American Socialism

Congressional Endorsements - Lincoln vs Raúl

What’s in a name?

Via IBD Blog, Venezuela's Chavez Says CIA Has Offices in State of Zulia

Report: Obama's Girlfriend Banished to Caribbean by Angry Michelle

Special thanks to Jeff, Kate, Larwyn, Maggie and Maria

This week’s podcast and posts
Bolivia, from bad to worse

Venezuela’s crackdown





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The second Monday in October Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Crossposted

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

This week's top story:
Two seeminly unrelated Venezuelan news stories,
First, Student opposition leader gunned down in Venezuela

Venezuelan authorities are investigating the fatal shooting of a student leader who helped organize protests against constitutional amendments proposed by President Hugo Chavez.

Julio Soto, a student leader at the University of Zulia, was killed Wednesday by unidentified gunmen in the western city of Maracaibo.

Local Police Chief Jose Gonzalez said he believes Soto was specifically targeted because the assailants sprayed his vehicle with gunfire and then fled without taking anything.

But Justice Minister Tarek El Aissami said federal authorities have not yet determined if the killing was a politically motivated hit.

Soto was a member of the Copei opposition party. Voters rejected Chavez's proposed reforms in December.

Hugo Chávez has ordered authorities to quickly solve the murder

Education Minister Hector Navarro told Venezuela's state news agency on Thursday that Chávez wants police to catch those who killed Julio Soto ``as soon as possible.''

In the second item, former Defense Minister Gen. Raúl Baduel, who was instrumental in defeating Chávez constitutional reforms last December, was detained by the authorities on Friday and is now barred from leaving the country:

Rafael Tosta, a lawyer for Mr. Baduel, who was released Friday night, said his client was also required to appear before a military tribunal every 15 days and was prohibited from publicly commenting on the accusations, which revolve around $14.5 million in missing funds.

Mr. Baduel, who helped reinstall Mr. Chávez after a brief coup in 2002, has gone from being a hero of the president’s socialist-inspired revolution to one of its outcasts. Mr. Baduel emerged as one of Mr. Chávez most vocal opponents since resigning as defense minister last year.

Here's the video of his arrest:



Baduel has been charged with robbery:

Military Attorney, Gen. Ernesto Cedeno, said the former minister has been charged with alleged robbery of National Armed Forces funds and properties during his term of over four years at the helm of the military institution.

In a press conference, Cedeno said the decision was taken in the wake of an investigation stemming from an accusation rather than from political reprisal, as stated by Baduel, who assumed opposition stances after his retirement.

"According to the investigation, there are over $31 billion bolivars missing (about $14.50 million), and out of a sense of justice and honor, he oughts to clear up the situation during his term as Defense minister," stressed Cedeno.

Baduel was recently shot at while driving his car but managed to get away.

Does this signal a new crackdown on the Venezuelan opposition? Stratfor sees it at attempts to destabilize the opposition:

A few months ago, the loosely organized and previously unpopular opposition parties began making major gains in public opinion as Venezuela’s economy began souring and Chavez’s socialist policies came under fire. With this in mind, Chavez has gone so far as to have the courts ban 272 opposition politicians from running for office, charging them with corruption.

Chavez has also moved to strengthen the central government ahead of the elections, including implementing a series of reforms rejected in the 2006 constitution vote. Most recently, Chavez — with the help of the National Assembly — enacted the Organic Law for the Organization and Management of the Territory, which gives the central government control over local and state-level governments. In doing so, Chavez effectively negates any gains the opposition leaders might achieve if they are able to score seats in the upcoming election.

LATIN AMERICA
Why Did the Chicken Cross Party Lines?

Latin American Economies: Keeping their fingers crossed

Cómo validar nuestra educación en Los Estados Unidos

Hard economic times may just be starting

World War III knocking at our door

ARGENTINA
Las maletas contenian 6 millones de dolares

BOLIVIA
Young Bolivians fight for their regions

The oppositions criticisms of Bolivia's draft CPE

COLOMBIA
Colombia, U.S. Ally, May Conclude Defense Agreement With Russia

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

A billboard for shelter

Cuba, FARC may be training guerrillas at Venezuelan camp
Cuban advisors and Colombian rebels are helping train paramilitary fighters, critics and former participants say

Going to hell on a financial handbasketcase: Fidel asesora creación de un nuevo sistema financiero, liderado por Venezuela e Irán Fidel's an advisor on a new financial system led by Venezuela and Iran (whom, by the way, years ago joined forces to undermine the US dollar)

ECUADOR
Nature as a Privileged Minority

US Problems Spread to Ecuador's Dollar Economy

Ecuador’s new constitution: In good faith

USA Backs Russo-Iranian-Soros Cartels running Venezuela and Ecuador; Abandons Honorable Uribe: Throwing Colombia to the Wolves of Deceit

HONDURAS
Protestan contra Ortega a su llegada a Honduras y él se escondió

MEXICO
North America Must Integrate for Trade, Calderon Says

9 bodies found dumped in Mexico

NICARAGUA
Just to make you chuckle a little bit about Nicaragua

Ortega targeting his ex-comrades
With a weakened right-of-center opposition, Nicaragua's president cracked down on former comrades on the left.

PUERTO RICO
Pork and rum? Rum Tax Break Report False, Says Distilled Spirits Council of the United States

There is confusion over a provision in the current financial rescue package which benefits the rum-producing territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. This is not a tax break for rum makers as has been reported in the press and claimed on Capitol Hill.

It is fundamentally a revenue sharing arrangement between the U.S. government and the governments of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, which Congress has voted to extend repeatedly over the last 20 years. Under this provision, the federal government rebates to the governments of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands most of the Federal Excise Tax collected on rum imported to the United States.

VENEZUELA
Democrats Shouldn't Coddle Chávez
The prospect of a nuclear Venezuela should be enough to unite allegiances in Washington.

Liberal fascism in Venezuela

Caracas, murder capital of the world

Student opposition leader gunned down in Venezuela

Via IBD blog, Venezuelan town ruled by Colombian guerrillas

Venezuela, France mull nuclear energy deal As IBD blog commented,

Well, why not? /s The U.S. is sending loud signals it doesn't care about Russian nuclear proliferation in the Caribbean, so the French are taking the cue that this is a 'for sale' sign. Or maybe something more negative is going on. France also says it wants Hugo Chavez, that glorious mediator to FARC (who was found to have used FARC contacts not to mediate but funnel cash and arms to the terrorists) now will mediate between the West and Iran. Wonder what he will funnel now? This is insane. Do the French never learn?

The South American nuclear genie

Venezolano con carné: the latest on the "valija gate"

How quickly does Hugo Chavez forget his fake beliefs in democracy or Venezuela, a democracy no more!

AMERICAN POLITICS
Via LGF Linkviewer, William Ayers and Hugo Chavez

Campaigns woo new Hispanic citizens as key bloc

Special thanks to Eneas, GoV, Maggie, Maria and Siggy


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