Fausta's blog

The nationalized Venezuelan oil contractors Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

2009-05-11T16:36:00.002-04:00

Cross-posted

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean.

This week's big story: Chavez's nationalizing the oil contractors, removing books from public libraries, threatening Globovision, all for the purpose of consolidating power around himself, which was the subject of this morning's podcast. See the links under Venezuela below.

Another big story: while the OAS aims to legitimize the Cuban regime by granting it membership in the organization, the Cuban government rejected the idea via an article by Fidel Castro in Granma, the official organ of the Cuban Communist Party.

In other news, Peru is also granting asylum to Bolivian ministers who oppose Evo Morales. as you may recall, Peru recently granted political asylum to Venezuelan opposition leader Manuel Rosales.

ARGENTINA
U.S. Government Funds $400,000 Study on Gay Sex in Argentina Bars

BARBADOS
Commentary: Thompson's immigration declaration too harsh

BRAZIL
At least 31 dead, 50,000 homeless in Brazil flooding

Vale iron ore train in N. Brazil halted by floods

COLOMBIA
Colombia and Venezuela: Latin America Bond and Currency Preview

CUBA
At the Melia Cohiba

Castro le teme al huracán Obama

The OAS, Cuba and Memory Loss

Cuba Doesn't Belong in a Democratic Club
Castro's apologists make a move at the OAS.

ECUADOR
Deep in the Jungle, Ecuador Targets the FARC. Let’s hope so.

Ecuador's Correa until 2017?

FALKLANDS ISLANDS
A Small Place
Nearly half the Falkland Islanders are immigrants. What draws people to a grim chunk of rock in the South Atlantic?

GUATEMALA
Spanish think tank awards Manuel Ayau for his exemplary lifework in the defense of liberty

MEXICO
After Dems Bailout, GM To Move Out of US

The cracks opened up by the flu: As the swine-flu outbreak appears to subside, Mexico is left to contemplate the cost and to ponder the authorities’ response

MONTSERRAT
Frogs flown from Montserrat to flee deadly fungus

PANAMA
Panama and the decline of the Sao Paolo forum

Panama bucks the Latin American left

Super 09: A supermarket king defeats the Left

PARAGUAY
Paternity Makes Punch Line of Paraguay President

El video "personal" de Lugo

More!

PERU
Peru's Garcia Gives Asylum to Bolivian Ministers -- Bolivia's Morales Calls Garcia “Vulgar”

Nadine Heredia, esposa de Ollanta, recibe dinero de diario 'chavista'

Crime in Peru: Printing Money
Quantitative easing in a new capital of counterfeiting

VENEZUELA
Chavez accelerates the pace of destruction of Venezuela, taking over oil service companies.

Chávez Seizes Assets of Oil Contractors

Venezuela: Chavez's government seizes oil contractors Photos here

Chavez latest seizures will likely reduce production

Chávez seizures fuel Venezuela oil fears

El Día Mundial de la Libertad de Expresión visto desde los barrios

You do not need to be an economist to know that things are not going well in Venezuela

Globovision shakes chavismo early this morning

Eurocámara apoya a "perseguidos" venezolanos

María Conchita busca "desenmascarar" a Chávez

Venezuelans aim to kick crime out

Trade unions in Venezuela: Socialism v labour. Curbing opposition to chavismo

Hugo Chávez Attacks Media Opponents Again, Threatens to Withdraw Their Licenses

Special thanks to Maggie and the Baron. Congratulations to Eneas Biglione on his Leadership Award

The swine flu Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

2009-04-29T12:54:00.001-04:00

Cross-posted

Yes, everybody is talking about the Mexican swine flu, and ironically I had to delay this Carnival since I was down with a cold.

No need to panic over this flu, but make sure to take any flu seriously.

LATIN AMERICA
Final declaration of the Summit of the Americas

No mas venas abiertas para America Latina

The war on mining: Fighting back

Obama goes south: An analysis of the Summit of the Americas

Alvaro Vargas Llosa: The Idiot’s Bible

Selenium Overdose Caused Deaths of Polo Horses

FARC guerrillas charged with conspiracy to aid foreign terrorists

BOLIVIA
Chabad House in Bolivia raided by police

Croatia: Morales murder plot suspect 'wanted to form separatist army'

Biometric Voter Registration: the Ace Up the Sleeve of Evo Morales

BRAZIL
Ahmadinejad to Visit Latin America Next Month

Ahmadinejad no Brasil (link in Portuguese)

COLOMBIA
FARC guerrillas charged with conspiracy to aid foreign terrorists

Finnish connection found on computer of Colombian guerrillas

Kidnapping in Colombia How many hostages? More than the government claims

CUBA
The short night of the long knives

Venezuela names new envoy to Cuba

The Right Deal on Cuba

How Fidel Snookered Everyone: The summit exposed Castro's peers in Latin America, not Obama, as the real innocents abroad. Jorge Castañeda is an idiot - Part 2

Mijail Capote Aranda, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 4/26/09

Castro brothers' power struggle may doom Obama's overtures

ECUADOR
Ecuador president claims poll win

Ecuador's election: Revolution! Please give generously. Rafael Correa has his country’s politics firmly under control, its economy much less so

JAMAICA
Strangeways here we come

MEXICO
Is that an anti-aircraft gun in your pocket?

Experts probe deadly Mexico flu

The flu and the festival

Swine flu started at Vera Cruz pork processor?

Plan Would Deploy Guard Near Mexico
$350 Million Effort Aimed at Drug War

NICARAGUA
Judge throws out Dole “bananeros” cases, citing fraud

PARAGUAY
Lugo pide perdón por escándalo de paternidad

Paraguay President asks for forgiveness over paternity claim scandal
Fernando Lugo, the President of Paraguay and a former Roman Catholic bishop, has asked for forgiveness over a scandal in which he is facing paternity claims.

La telenovela que desconcierta

Fernando Lugo pede perdão por escândalo

Le président du Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, confesse avoir eu un enfant quand il était ecclésiastique

Bayly on Lugo (in Spanish):

And then Fernando Lugo’s brother, Pompeyo, on the rumors about Fernando and the Argentinian chorus girl, plus Alan Garcia’s poncho:

PERU
Peru grants asylum to Venezuelan opposition leader

TRINIDAD
The Fifth Summit of the Americas - Ego vs Cuba vs Rhetoric

VENEZUELA
Venezuela - Iran Foreign Relations

In praise of Rosales

In Defense of Appeasement

Government shows its true colors now that Rosales has been neutralized

No 10's Venezuelan 'workie' could write next Budget

Obama and the Pundits: Wrong on the handshake, wrong about Chavez

Surprise!... HuffPo Blogger Sean Penn Defends His Buddy Hugo Chavez

Interpol seeks arrest of opposition leader

Heroes

Red Notice for Rosales

Fist-bumping with despots

CULTURE
Poland 'to ban' Che Guevara image
The iconic image of Che Guevara found adorning students' walls and t-shirts across the world could be banned in Poland under a government proposal to outlaw materials that incite "fascism and totalitarian systems".

IMMIGRATION
Cyber Attacks and Our Southern Border

Special thanks to Ada, the Baron, Eneas,Larwyn, Maggie and SamK.

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

2009-04-06T13:55:00.002-04:00

Cross-posted
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.

There are lots of interesting stories today, but do not miss Mary O'Grady's excellent article in today's Wall Street Journal, Aid Keeps Latin America Poor: For real progress, they need the means to accumulate wealth. This should be required reading for everybody.

LATIN AMERICA
A meeting with Vladimir Bukovsky

Iran Setting Up Shop South of the Border

The Southern Front- Islamic Terrorism and Failed States, South and Central America

3 trends in Central American real estate as developers and buyers respond to market conditions

Why Biofuels Are the Rainforest's Worst Enemy

Obama administration 'comfortable' with Hezbullah?

Latin Governments are Resorting to Protectionism to Cushion Their Economies From Effects of Global Crisis, According to Analysis Piece by Reuters

Americas summit's draft declaration is hard to take seriously

ARGENTINA
Raúl Alfonsín, An Argentine democrat: A flawed politician of rare integrity

La coparticipacion de la violencia

BOLIVIA
Biggest cocaine lab found in Bolivia

Sin resistencia no habra democracia

BRAZIL
Brazil Constructs Walls Around its Slums and Sends a Message: “You’re doing it Wrong.”

Rudd stunned

Brazil’s ‘Teflon’ Leader Nicked by Slump

CHILE
The progressives' Chile summit: Home truths. A global alliance of the centre-left is (scratchily) back in business

COLOMBIA
From Medellin, Hopeful Signs For A Free-Trade Pact

COSTA RICA
La advertencia de Biden
La lucha de México contra la droga tendrá el efecto secundario de empujar a los traficantes hacia Centroamérica
Para desgracia de México, los esfuerzos por cerrar el corredor del narcotráfico en el Caribe tuvieron éxito

U.S. Promotes “Good Friends” Policy in Central America

CUBA
No to Penguins and Albatrosses, Yes to Supporting a State Sponsor of Terrorism

Brunswick, ME…Castro’s useful propogandists…

Power Line, How not to promote democracy in Cuba and at home

U.S to Lift Some Cuba Travel Curbs

'Hey! Let's ease restrictions on Cuba' – Lugar

Lugar favors a special envoy to Castro

House reps head to Cuba

Embargo myth #1

NYT Ignores Free Speech Activist Yoani Sanchez; Focuses on Lefties

ECUADOR
Correa Calls for Arrest of Journalist

EL SALVADOR
Subverting Latin Democracy
Hugo Chávez scores a victory in El Salvador. Is Panama next?

Obama curtails successful drug interdiction program in El Salvador

GUATEMALA
Zeta camp found in Guatemala

MEXICO
Mexican asylum seekers on rise in Vancouver
Large number of those hoping to stay in Canada are affluent professionals claiming to be on the run from warring drug cartels

Washington continues to play ostrich about Mexico (UPDATED 2X)

Mexican and U.S. Attorneys General Confer to Strengthen Cooperation on Drug Violence

Stepping up the fight in Mexico

Two from The Economist:
Taking on the narcos, and their American guns. Senior American officials are trooping to Mexico with assurances of support in its drug war. Will warm words be backed up by action?
The Mexico-US border: Fear of violence, But still pretty safe—on the northern side

PARAGUAY
Fundacion Libertad presenta a Franco un plan de impuesto unico

PUERTO RICO
FBI: Thousands of Puerto Ricans victims of ID theft

As many as 12,000 Puerto Rican schoolchildren, teachers and school administrators are believed to be victims of an identity-theft ring that sold stolen personal documents to illegal immigrants in the mainland United States, according to the FBI.

VENEZUELA
Prisoners from Guantánamo would be welcome in Venezuela

Miss Universe Displays Better Judgment than President Obama

Cuba’s style justice in Venezuela

Chavez completes repressive sweep, as April 2002 policemen are condemned to 30 years in prison

Chavez: Capitalism is 'the Road to Hell'

How squeaky clean is Teodoro Petkoff?

Meanwhile, in that other haven for narcos.......

Hoy se celebra audiencia de Baduel

Venezuela's Chavez: Capitalism Must End

IMMIGRATION
McCain loses temper with Hispanic immigration activists

Census Head to Use "Community Organizing" Groups to Count (or... "Count") Illegal Aliens

Special thanks to the Baron, Eneas, Larwyn and Maggie.

This week’s posts and podcasts:
Baduel’s arrest
How Chavez is subverting Latin Democracy
The Myth of 90 Percent: Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S
Ecuador: Who is Rómulo López and why does Correa want him arrested?
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart on the budget, easing restrictions with Cuba, and the US joining the UNHRC
At Real Clear World:
U.S to Lift Some Cuba Travel Curbs
Doha Brief: Chávez Invites Bashir to Venezuela

The “Who painted it?” Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

2009-03-30T09:45:00.004-04:00

Cross-posted
Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. If you would like your post included in next week's Carnival please email me, faustaw2 "at" gmail "dot" com.

I chose the "Who painted it?" theme for today's Carnival since it's yet another sign of the current administration's ignorance of the history and traditions of the region. "You have a marvelous virgin!" indeed.

LATIN AMERICA
Central America: An Emerging Role in the Drug Trade

The 'Axis of Lula' vs. the 'Axis of Hugo'

Nuclear Watchdog Inks South America Deals, U.S. Congress Should Scrutinize Closely

“New Eve” encounters her snakes?

Changes in Earnings in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico: Disentangling the Forces Behind Pro-Poor Change in Labor Markets

Biden travels South

Commentary: Can fading Caribbean island-states thrive in the world of alternative energy?

Latin political calendar puts recovery at risk

Americas summit's draft declaration is hard to take seriously

Has the G-20 Learned the Lesson?

ARGENTINA
Argentina's election: The Kirchners make a dash for it, Hoping it’s not the exit

BOLIVIA
Bolivia Military Makes Biggest Drug Bust in a Decade

BRAZIL
Lula knows he screwed up on Venezuela and Chavez

Via The Anchoress "Excommunication" in Brazil

Rogues Gallery – the PMDB Comes "Clean" at Last

Governors under fire: A rash of impeachment cases against state governors is probably a good sign

COLOMBIA
FARC plot to kill Colombia defense minister foiled

A un año de la muerte del "faraon" de las FARC

Colombia's FARC Drops Condition For Hostage Negotiations

The siege of “Mono Jojoy”

CUBA
Youth unemployment

No AARP in Cuba

Embargo stays but 'review' of bans is on

Ahhh..That Fiendish “Blockade!”

Rodolfo Barthelemy Cobas and Alejandro Jiménez Blanco, Cuban Political Prisoners of the Week, 3/29/09

ECUADOR
Correa Threatens Jail for Spreading Rumors on Ecuador Currency

Ecuador's Correa Rejects De-Dollarization; Warns On Rumors

Ecuador's Correa: Dolarization Stays

Correa Leads Ecuador Electoral Vote

EL SALVADOR
Obama curtails successful drug interdiction program in El Salvador

MEXICO
Another Blooper... Hillary Lays Flowers at Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine Asks "Who Painted It?"

Washington continues to play ostrich about Mexico

A Mexican standoff with reality

The Southern Neighbor

LOWRY: The big truck turnaround
Teamsters prove borders can be policed, despite treaties

Mexico Goes Medieval

Mexico's Juarez surge is working so far

Via Instapundit Obama targets flow of guns, profits from U.S. to Mexico

Via Instapundit, Drug cartels' new weaponry means war

Army desertions hurting Mexico's war on drugs

US to Boost Forces on Mexico Border

Mexico's Dinosaurs Exploit the Crisis
A cautionary tale for those who see an opportunity to take over key elements of the economy.

Hezbollah uses Mexican drug routes into the US.

Hillary's Mexican Reality Check

John Kerry:
Mexico's war must be our war
Helping Mexico take on the drug cartels helps us, but the effort will require unprecedented cooperation between our two countries.

NICARAGUA
The Many Stories of Carlos Fernando Chamorro

PUERTO RICO
Jury clears Puerto Rico police in Marine's beating

Puerto Rico Gets a Little Richer With New Quarter from U.S. Mint

VENEZUELA
Tirofijo honored in Caracas

Yes, Hugo cheated

Venezuela's budget cuts
Hard landing: President Chávez’s spending cuts will bite deeper than he admits

As expected swap market ground to a halt, here is why…

Venezuela to take over 30 fishing boats

Panic in the swap market

Alí, meet Bernie. Bernie, Alí.

Special thanks to Ada, Dymphna and the Baron, Eneas, Maggie and SamK.

The week's posts and podcasts:
If you can call it "vindication"
Hezbollah using Mexican drug routes into the US
"We won't pay for their crisis"
Hiding the story with the headlines
More on Lula's "people with blue eyes"
Lula: “White people with blue eyes” created the financial crisis
Venezuelan Military Takes Control of Transportation Hubs
Clinton: US shares blame for Mexican drug war
Today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern: Argentina Downgraded to Kazakhstan on Foreign Fund Restrictions
At Real Clear World
Lula's 'White People with Blue Eyes' Spices Up G20
Venezuelan Military Takes Control of Transportation Hubs

The Sarko in Mexico Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

2009-03-09T09:08:00.002-04:00

Cross-posted

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

The big stories last week were Hugo Chavez's nationalizing American food producer Cargill in Venezuela, and the change in the Cuban Communist regime. Developing this week: Nicolas Sarkozy's first state visit to Mexico, and Lula's visit to the White House on Saturday.

The Sarko visit, in today's podcast:
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni spent the weekend at the beach and touring Aztec ruins with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Sarkozi's first state visit to Mexico starts today. He's expected to discuss the upcoming G-20 meeting, economic crisis and the Florence Cassez case.

Other links from the international media on the Sarko visit:
Le Figaro: Mexique : Sarkozy et Calderon évoquent «l'affaire Cassez»
Libération: Affaire Florence Cassez : transfèrement «probable»
France24: Cassez case casts long shadow over Sarkozy's state visit
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is visiting Mexico on a mission to boost trade with the Central American country. He will also plead the case of Frenchwoman Florence Cassez, who is languishing in a Mexican jail on kidnap charges.
El Universal: Calderón-Sarkozy: una cita en tierra de dioses
Sin actos protocolarios, los presidentes de México, Felipe Calderón, y de Francia, Nicolas Sarkozy, recorrieron ayer las pirámides de Teotihucán
UK's Mail: Sarkozys' stay in £3,000-a-night Mexican villa sparks outrage in recession-hit France

LATIN AMERICA
Border lawmakers fear narco-nuke terrorism link

Bad news for Latin America

ARGENTINA
El kirchnerismo analiza nacionalizar el comercio de granos

BAHAMAS
Double digit unemployment recorded in Bahamas

BOLIVIA
Bolivia Exports Decline 32.9% in January From a Year Earlier

BRAZIL
Nine-Year-Old's Abortion Outrages Brazil's Catholic Church

Reaping the rewards of indolence:
Some of the unreformed aspects of Brazil’s economy are now helping to limit the damage from the world downturn—but its prudence in recent years is helping too

Brazil Said to Be Considering Reducing Primary Surplus. Reaction? Negative

COLOMBIA
We Recommend Shunning Shares of Ingrid Betancourt. The Revelations of the Three Americans Finally Break an Absurd Code of Silence

Via IBD Blog, Colombia says troops kill guerrilla commander

An article by Marc Gonsalvez: I Was Held Hostage in Colombia, and My Captors Should Face US Justice

An unmended fence: Colombia gained much and suffered little from its raid into Ecuador

CUBA
The Queen

Fidel not a hands-off political leader

CT Blog: Is Removal of Cuba From “State Sponsors” List Inevitable?

Richard Brown Pérez, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 3/8/09

Como vacas al matadero

Ex-ministers admit “errors”

The other Castro stamps his heel: Two senior figures are dismissed after tasting “the honey of power”

Obama will use spring summit to bring Cuba in from the cold
US companies are queuing up as the president moves to ease restrictions on travel and trade, raising hopes of warmer relations and an end to the embargo

Cuba regime purge may be defensive act

ECUADOR
Narcotrafico de las Farc se beneficio en frontera con Ecuador tras ruptura de relaciones

El Salvador
El Salvador's Presidential Election, March 15th 2009

MEXICO
Via the Baron, EXCLUSIVE: 100,000 foot soldiers in cartels
Numbers rival Mexican army

Make Mexico's War A Higher Priority

Mexican criminal insurgency comes to Houston

Mexico Finally Rises Near the Top of the Agenda

US Federal agent cautions travelers headed to Mexico

Lech Walesa receives the Legion of Liberty Award - IPEA

Hasta la vista, baby

The Financial Storm Hits Mexico : Their politicians aren't doing much to staunch the bleeding.

PERU
A rare victory in the judicial war in Peru

Las casas ALBA en el Perú

PUERTO RICO
Coast guard rescues 1 man, searches for another, while 11 others rescued in Puerto Rico

VENEZUELA
No more arepas for you

Government to “intervene” areperas?

Hugo Chavez Calls On Obama To Follow Path of Socialism

Zombie capitalism

Chavez tightens state control of food amid rocketing inflation and food shortages

Venezuela seizes Irish company's tree farm

Chavez Sets Up Showdown With Mendoza After Seizures

Venezuela May Take Over More Rigs to Allow Drilling to Proceed

Chavez sours Latin American investment climate

Inmates at Venezuelan jail play football with inmate's severed head

Special thanks
to Ada, the Baron, Eneas, Larwyn and Maggie.

The week’s posts and podcasts
In the face of the Cuban cosmetic change, Obama will use spring summit to bring Cuba in from the cold
Viva Maria Conchita
Chavez calls on Obama to follow the path of socialism. UPDATE: “Go wash your *ss, Mr. Obama”
Chavez’s full digestive cycle: First the rice, now the toilet paper - all in today’s podcast!
Today at 11AM Eastern: Unannounced Fidel Sightings
Chavez and the food supply
The real Ingrid Betancourt in captivity, and today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern
¿Por qué no te callas?, part 2

At RCW
The Cuban cosmetic change
Brazil’s Lula to visit Obama
Raúl Castro's House Cleaning

You can also find all the week's tango posts here

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

2009-03-02T11:47:00.003-05:00

Cross-posted

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

Don't miss this afternoon's podcast at 2PM. My guest will be Michael Moynihan.

LATIN AMERICA
The Stanford affair: An $8 billion scandal goes a long way
The allegation of an $8 billion fraud against Sir Allen Stanford is causing financial worries across the region, not least in Antigua, home to his main bank

Del "Informe Mattarollo" a la increible corrupcion en YPFB

Piracy of movies, songs thriving in Latin America

ARGENTINA
Argentine Creditors Said to Swap 3.5 Billion Pesos of Loans

BELIZE
New scholarship holders from Belize to study in Cuba

BRAZIL
The Brazilian Amazon: Preventing pillage in the rainforest
A scheme to regularise land holdings in the Amazon forest faces many obstacles

COLOMBIA
En fotos: estas son las cavernas donde se escondía el ‘mono Jojoy’

Via IBD blog, Colombian VP: Add ecological devastation to cocaine's toll

Spies in trouble: The domestic-intelligence agency is caught misbehaving again

Video: Colombia discovers Farc hideouts

CUBA
Castro's New Republican Friends

Arturo Magín Colomar Puig, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 3/1/09

Ill Castro 'takes walk in Havana'

Jeff Spicoli speaks…

Sanctions, Keeping Things in Perspective

The new Che, same as old

Raúl welcomes special French envoy

ECUADOR
Ecuador's Borja Says Dollarisation is 'Faltering.´ I Wonder What He Means -- Do These Ecuadorean Officials Want a Weaker Currency Than the Dollar?

Ecuador Profits from Dirty Financial & Drug Crimes

Meltdown response: Ecuador erects trade barriers, WTO fears spread of protectionism; Ecuador's response to crisis appears to be world's toughest

MARTINIQUE
French PM says order to be maintained in Martinique

MEXICO
Mexico needs Obama's eye

Mexico’s Foreign Embassies: A Terror Threat to America?
Travelers from Muslim countries are bribing Mexican foreign service workers for travel documents that will get them access to the U.S.

A Stimulus Plan for Mexican Gangsters
Obama's promise not to crack down on medical-marijuana use raises the stakes for traffickers.

PUERTO RICO
In Puerto Rico, Less Is So Much More

UBS in Puerto Rico Pension Gets Fee Bonanza Seen as Conflicted

VENEZUELA
Journalists in Venezuela

Bananas

Leftist Hero Hugo Chavez Takes Control of Rice Plants

Food supply is tied to Brazil, Argentina and Colombia
From 2005 to 2008, the value of food imports heightened 299 percent

Command economy fails in Venezuela

Chavez sends army to rice plants
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ordered the army to take control of all rice processing plants in the country.

Arria versus Weisbrot: Debate at American University

What to Do about Hugo Chávez: Venezuela’s Challenge to Security in the Americas

Chavez Orders Takeover of Venezuelan Rice Mills

Chávez, Ahmadinejad y la nueva "crisis de los misiles”

The Lugar Report Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

2009-02-23T09:32:00.003-05:00

Cross-posted

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. If you would like your link included in next Monday's Carnival, please email me, faustaw2 "at" gmail "dot" com.

Two big stories last week:
Allen Stanford, resident of St. Croix and holder of dual US-Antigua citizenship, managed to bilk thousands of investors across Latin America, and went missing for a few days. He eventually was located in Virginia. I did a background post for Real Clear World and will continue to follow the story in months to come.

The second big story is the (pdf file) "CHANGING CUBA POLICY -- IN THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL INTEREST" report by the committee headed by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Richard Lugar (Rep. - Indiana). The report - as the title says - recommends a change in US foreign policy with Cuba. Don't miss today's podcast on the Lugar report.

LATIN AMERICA
Reality intrudes on drug war

Is Obama Planning a North American Common Market?

CARIBBEAN
The restless Caribbean: Unhappy islanders
Troubles strike far-flung satellites of France and Britain

ANTIGUA-BARBUDA
$8bn 'missing' from Allen Stanford's offshore bank

ARGENTINA
Embarrados

Por qué tenemos el futuro hipotecado?

Argentine farmers start protest

BOLIVIA
Bolivia pays a high price for nationalization

Gobierno nacionalizará tres empresas eléctricas

BRAZIL
Lime Slime's Brazil: Skinheads and Celsos

Carnival queen sambas with Obama's face on thigh

CHILE
Fidel, Raúl at odds, Chilean editor says

Bachelet vexed by Fidel's article

Chile's economy: Stimulating
Cashing in the fruits of rigour

COLOMBIA
Colombia's Uribe Seeks Brazilian Oil, Milk, Beef Investments. Colombia Seems a Better Client than Ecuador, Venezuela or Bolivia for These Sectors

Hugo Chavez seguirá protegiendo a las FARC

Colombia police in wiretap probe
Colombia's secret police is under investigation over claims rogue agents may have intercepted phone calls and passed on information to criminals.

CUBA
Lugar, GOP Senate Report Urge Fresh Look at Relations With Cuba

PDF file Changing Cuba Policy – in the United States National Interest. Staff trip report to the Committee on Foreign Relations United States Senate

Still waiting

José Manuel de la Rosa Pérez, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 2/22/08

ECUADOR
Ecuador says expelled diplomat was 'CIA chief'

Hedge Funds for the Few & Socialism-Communism- Labor Union Populism for the Many

Ecuador Police Raid Stanford Office

EL SALVADOR
El Salvador and the Chávez Model
With the presidential election approaching, chavismo weighs heavily on voters' minds.

GUADALOUPE
Race, class fuel social conflict on French Caribbean islands

Economic Riots In Guadalupe Turn Racial

GUATEMALA
Presidente de Guatemala conoce proyectos con Chavez y aumenta nexos con Cuba

HONDURAS
Hallan avioneta venezolana abandonada en Honduras Authorities found Venezuelan airplane abandoned in Honduras. The plane was believed to have carried nearly a ton of cocaine.

MEXICO
Earth to President Obama: Our neighbor Mexico is in dire straits

Bret Baier Reports on Problems with Mexico, Drug Cartels, and Kidnappings (VIDEO)

Must-read report on the Mexican drug wars at the Wall Street Journal: The Perilous State of Mexico
With drug-fueled violence and corruption escalating sharply, many fear drug cartels have grown too powerful for Mexico to control. Why things are getting worse, and what it means for the United States.

The New York Times and Terror Tourism

Mexico's ceramics industry: A clean plate
A battle for lead-free pottery

NICARAGUA
Political tension in Nicaragua: The new Somoza
Daniel Ortega’s slide to autocracy

PANAMA
Chavez holds Venezuela

RV Caravan From Texas To Panama

PUERTO RICO
In Bronx, Little Houses That Evoke Puerto Rico

VENEZUELA
Abrogation of the soul

Chavez on despots' term-cutting edge

The consequences of the 2009 vote

Some parting shots on Chavez, Venezuela and Stanford

Antisemitism in Venezuela: troubling findings

Is a Venezuelan diplomat promoting antisemitism?

Venezuela: Expectations & Challenges 2009 - The Opposition's Perspective . Part 1 here, continues at YouTube

ENTERTAINMENT
Che's image and its perception

IMMIGRATION
EDITORIAL: Illegal-alien outrage

audio feature: How migrant workers from El Salvador risk their lives to get to the US

TRAVEL
Vacation Rental Homes in Costa Rica

Special thanks to Ada, the Baron, Eneas, Larwyn and Maggie

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Chavez, Now and Forever? Plus today's Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

2009-02-16T12:30:00.001-05:00

Cross-posted

My article, Chavez, Now and Forever? on Hugo Chavez's referendum victory, is up at Real Clear World. Please read it and leave a comment.

The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Undoubtedly the big story of the week is yesterday's Venezuelan referendum. Please scroll down to the Venezuela section for a roundup of posts and articles.

ARGENTINA
El día después

BOLIVIA
U.S. rancher at center stage in Bolivia land dispute

BRAZIL
Brazil's oil industry: Plunging in
Petrobras sets some ambitious targets

COLOMBIA
“The ‘Intellectual Bloc’ of the FARC”

IDEAGlobal Sees Mexico, Colombia Debt Prices Under Fire Due to U.S. Recession. Colombia Bond Yields Should Rise Further

CUBA
Te toca a tí

1971-2009: The Grey Millennium

Cuban human rights activist jailed

ECUADOR
Out of Ecuador, A Latin Lesson for Obama

'Difficult' for Ecuador to pay debt interest: minister

HAITI
Rebuilding Haiti: Weighed down by disasters
A modest success for the United Nations is threatened by nature and lassitude

MEXICO
Warrior in Drug Fight Soon Becomes a Victim
Mexican General Seized, Slain in Cancun

Video: Las parteras de Santa Teresa

1530: Tangaxuan II, the last Tarasco ruler

Via Instapundit, What does Slim want?

NICARAGUA
The pathetic political situation that is Nicaragua

VENEZUELA
Dictatorial reforms

NY Times: Chavez victory injects "fresh vibrancy into his socialist-inspired revolution"

Leftist Political Parties & Power

Welcome To The Revolution- No Term Limits For Chavez

Chavez Wins

Dictator for Life

No More Term Limits for Venezuela’s Chavez

Bye Bye Venezuela: Chavez Wins Referendum, Gets to Run Again

POLICE BEHIND SYNAGOGUE ATTACKS IN VENEZUELA

Chavez reports attempted coup

Views of Venezuela's Chavez Have Hardened in the Region -- and at Home

Chavez tries Mugabe style 'democracy'

Venezuela Expels EU Lawmaker for Comments on Election

Telling Venezuela how to vote
Hugo Chávez is abusing the resources of his petrostate to fund a campaign to ensure his presidential term is extended

Chavez Delays Valentine's Day for Referendum, Promises a Whole Week of Lovin Starting Monday

Venezuela opposition complains of Chavez tactics

Journalists' Association asks government to halt attacks

Hugo Chávez's Venezuela: Oblivious to the coming storm
In his first decade Hugo Chávez has presided over social programmes, inflation, crime and rising intolerance. Venezuelans will pay the price in years to come

Chávez Decisively Wins Bid to End Term Limits

Mr. Chávez vs. the Jews
With George W. Bush gone, Venezuela's strongman has found new enemies.

AMERICAN POLITICS
Chavez and Obama

Chavez power grab: is this our future, too?

IMMIGRATION
16 illegals sue Arizona rancher
Claim violation of rights as they crossed his land

Mending Fences

For more Carnival goodness
Shiny happy dhimmi - #13

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

2009-02-09T09:35:00.002-05:00

Crossposted

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

While Venezuela remains in the news since this week precedes next Sunday’s constitutional referendum, there are good news from the region. I’ll talk in today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern about how Uruguay’s favorable business environment is attracting foreign investment, and there are other stories – check top story under the Latin America header for more.

LATIN AMERICA
Tables turned: Latin America’s lesson for west

Latin America and the financial crisis

M.E. Times: Hezbollah in Latin America

TURKEY AIMS FOR USD 20 BLN TRADE VOLUME WITH SOUTH AMERICA

Latin America's Quiet Revolution
An unprecedented political and economic transformation is under way in most of the region

Populism: The Illusion that Won’t Go Away

ARGENTINA
Argentine seminary ousts Holocaust denier as leader

BOLIVIA
U.S. needs to end 'imperial attitude,' Bolivian says

BRAZIL
Bailing out...Brazil?

COLOMBIA
Ten new species of amphibian discovered in Colombia
A spiky orange rain frog and three poison frogs are among 10 new species of amphibian discovered in Colombia, scientists have revealed.

The FARC’s cynical stunt

FARC Hostage Released After 7 Years

FARC slaughtered 300 hostages (via IBD blog)

CUBA
Honoring victims of Castro, Che

Cuba’s Castro arrives in Moscow for talks - Financial Times

Omauris Rondón Rivero, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 2/8/09

Two agendas

You don’t say…

ECUADOR
“Caso Chauvín comprueba relaciones de Quito con FARC”

Correa Expels Sanity, Comity and Legitimacy

MEXICO
Mexican army runs joint patrols with Tijuana police

PANAMA
Es un milagro

Mexican Carrying $430,000 Arrested in Panama

PERU
Chinese mining group to invest 1 bln dollars in Peru

PUERTO RICO
Six Americans missing after plane crashes off Puerto Rico

Pregnant tourist kidnapped, killed

VENEZUELA
Central Bank musings: Printing money and going bankrupt

Allanada casa del estudiante Miguel Ponte y se lo llevan detenido

Campaña antisemita desde Venezuela

Chavez: Another Vote Possible on Term Limits

Chávez's biggest opponent: what's not on a dinner table
Food shortages and high prices are vexing Venezuela as President Hugo Chávez asks his countrymen to let him run for reelection indefinitely

Kristallnacht in Caracas

Venezuela detains 11 suspects, including 7 police officers, in synagogue attacks (via LGF Linkviewer)

Chavismo's Amazing Self-Refuting Referendum Argument

Un ejercito al servicio de Hugo Chavez - por Casto Ocando

Venezuela behind on payments to oil contractors

The NO march in Caracas

Preso por horas por hacer campaña por el “No”

Venezuela campaign gets rough

Grenade explodes at anti-Chavez party headquarters

US POLITICS
Pass the Colombia Free Trade Agreement

United States of Argentina
How inflation turned a rising power into a pauper

IMMIGRATION
LAT's Song Wails Dirge for Illegal Immigrant's Woes

Special thanks to Ada, Eneas, the Baron, Kate, Larwyn, Maggie and SamK.

This week’s posts and podcasts
Ecuador expels US embassy employee, and loses investor
Venezuelan blogger detained by police tells of his ordeal
Fidel Castro says Obama’s Cuba policy “lost its virginity”: 15 Minutes of Latin America
Venezuelan blogger detained by police
Ten killed in Brazilian slum raid: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Chavez’s 10th anniversary: Today’s 15 Minutes on Latin America
Bolivia’s lithium: Today’s 15 Minutes on Latin America

At Real Clear World
Of Beef and Money in Uruguay
Chávez’s 10th
A tale of two forums

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The Groundhog Day Carnival of Latin America & the Caribbean

2009-02-02T09:51:00.002-05:00

Cross-posted

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

The big news of the week is the alarming increase of the region, including Venezuela where the country's oldest synagogue was vandalized last Friday. Jews in Venezuela, who have for over two hundred years enjoyed tolerance and peace, over the past few weeks have suddenly found themselves in fear of attack and discrimination. Andres Oppenheimer, writing at Miami Herald points to other incidents in Argentina and Brazil. Meanwhile, Telesur broadcasts

a story entitled ''Gaza's Ruins,'' which accuses Israel ''and the world's Jews'' of failing to denounce alleged atrocities by Israeli troops and ''Jewish planes'' in Gaza

and Fidel Castro (or his amanuensis) writes in Granma, the official organ of the Cuban Communist Party that Obama supports Israeli 'genocide'.

I'll be talking about this disturbing trend in today's podcast at 11AM Eastern. Chat's open at 10:45AM and the call-in number is 646 652-2639.

LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN
The Caribbean economies
Lonely beaches: A fall in tourism, and other body blows

Aiming To Shoot Across America's Bow

Populism: The Illusion that Won’t Go Away

Rainforest Resurgence, and New Jungles Prompt a Debate on Rain Forests

Commentary: Is there disunity in CARICOM?

Don't miss also Market Memorandum's news roundup.

ARGENTINA
Fuga de capitales se triplico en el 2008

Women keep disappearing

Argentina Stalling Buenos Aires Bond Plan, Mayor Says

BOLIVIA
DEA presence ends in Bolivia
The last of the U.S. drug agents leaves on President Evo Morales' orders. The U.S. and Bolivia are in a bitter dispute over the South American country's anti-drug efforts.

Facebook will let anybody in these days

Bolivian Christian Group's Ad Against New Constitution

BRAZIL
Dig like Brazil

Lula Raises Brazil’s Minimum Wage 12% as of February

COLOMBIA
Bomb goes off in Bogotá, FARC suspected

Colombia FARC Frees Four Hostages to Opposition Senator Cordoba, three policemen and a member of the Colombian army; The Red Cross verified that the hostages were released; however, Colombia FARC Have Killed Many of Their Captives, Caracol Says

As many as 300 captives taken by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia are dead, Caracol Television reported.

The FARC, as the drug funded group is known, were thought to hold as many as 700 Colombians kidnapped for ransom, the TV channel said. Herbin Hoyos, founder and host of “Voices of Kidnapping,” a radio program that relays messages from family members to rebel hostages, said in an interview with Caracol he has the names of many of the victims and their burial sites.

The details were provided to Hoyos by demobilized members of the FARC.

During his state visit to Germany after his trip to Davos, Uribe insists he's not asking to stay in power in perpetuity, but that he wants his long-term policies to take hold (article in Spanish).

CUBA
Castro Betrayed Che With Moscow's Help, Says Former Guerrilla

The finer points of credit

The star that illuminates and goes missing*

Houston we have no problem

Manifestación en Barcelona

Orestes Paino Viera, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 2/1/09

Raúl Castro se reunió con Vladímir Putin en la sede del Gobierno ruso

GUYANA
British sunken ship discovered off Guyana

Hundreds of Guyanese waiting to be deported from Canada

MEXICO
Calderon Says Mexico May Need More Measures to Spark Economy

Killing the lawyers of Juarez

NICARAGUA
Nicaragua Strongmen's Pact Under Strain

PUERTO RICO
1st Puerto Rican astronaut, Ralph Acaba, carries pride in heritage

Puerto Rico's Democratic Party presents measure for tax relief

PERU
Mining in Peru
If a city's the pits, Then move the city

VENEZUELA
Chávez Grabs Again for Life Tenure
Intimidation is on the rise as a referendum approaches.

Synagogue in Venezuela Vandalized in Break-In Israel acusa a Chavez del ataque a sinagoga

Barbarians at the gate: the Caracas Synagogue is profaned

“The Threat closer to Home”: a book on Hugo Chavez's fake revolution

A long term view of monetary liquidity and international reserves in Venezuela

Former PDVSA President Giusti Denies Report of Madoff Losses

PDVSA maula

Here, There and Everywhere: Venezuela Trip Notes from Cartagena, Colombia
Here, there and everywhere

Bolivia's Evo Morales, Ecuador's Rafael Ortega, Honduras's Manuel Zelaya, and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, plus Cuba's vicepresident, Carlos Lage asisten a la cumbre extraordinaria del ALBA.

AMERICAN POLITICS
What Obama Can(Not) Do for Latin America

The Latino Republican Forum

The week's posts and podcasts
Meanwhile at at the World Social Forum in Brazil: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Maradona does Caracas
Brave Benicio ran away. Bravely ran away, away.
Today at 11AM Eastern: Iran’s “Subversive” Role in Latin America
Wonder why no countries like to do business in Cuba?
The Battisti asylum in Brazil: 15 Minutes on Latin America

At Real Clear World:
Venezuela: More Anti-Semitism
Gates: Iran's "Subversive" Role in Latin America

The Bolivian referendum Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

2009-01-26T09:51:00.002-05:00

Cross-posted

Welcome 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.

Yesterday's big news: Bolivia, the hemisphere's third poorest country after Haiti and Guyana, approved a new Constitution

Approval of the constitution, which caps a two-year campaign by Morales, will give expanded discretionary powers to the president, such as the ability to dissolve Congress. He will also be eligible to run for a second five-year term late next year. The earlier constitution did not allow consecutive terms.

Observers expect him to dissolve Congress and call for new elections ahead of scheduled December 2009 balloting.

As expected, voters in the western highland states such as La Paz with large indigenous populations overwhelmingly approved the new charter, according to the preliminary results, while voters in the four eastern states that passed autonomy measures last year were resoundingly opposed.

For many voters interviewed Sunday in the city of La Paz, the nation's capital, the most salient features of the new charter are the strengthened rights for Bolivia's three dozen ethnic groups, which make up about a third of Bolivia's 9.2 million population. The word "indigenous" appears 130 times in the new constitution.

According to clauses in the new document, those groups will now be able to eschew the traditional court system and resort to their own "community justice," claim some nationalized lands as their own and receive a greater share of royalties on minerals and energy developed on or beneath those lands.

I'm writing a post on the referendum for Real Clear World Blog, and will link to it here later.

Other news: Cristina Fernandez's trip to Cuba and Venezuela, and Mexico's Ominous Drug Wars

In today's podcast:
The Bolivian referendum, other headlines from today's Carnival, and a few words on Slumdog Millionaire from the context of third-world poverty. Chat's open at 10:45AM and the call in number is 646 652-2639. Join the conversation!

You can listen to the podcast here, live, or archived.

LATIN AMERICA
Mario Vargas Llosa: Atribuye la crisis al “despilfarro” y niega fin del capitalismo

ARGENTINA
Argentina to Swap Up to 11 Billion Pesos of Debt

BOLIVIA
Bolivia's new constitution
A passport to Utopia
Evo Morales campaigns for a great leap forward. Or back, say some

¿Evo perdió la chaveta?

Spilling Ink Instead of Blood: Bolivia Poised to Vote on New Constitution

Chavez envia tropas militares armadas a Evo Morales - Noticiero Digital

Bolivia nationalizes BP subsidiary

Bolivia poll won't end opposition

In Bolivia, vote unlikely to heal divide

BRAZIL
Fugitives from justice in Brazil
The madness of asylum
Why this indulgence for a convicted killer?

GM to Invest TARP Dough in Brazil

CHILE
División de los poderes públicos.

Wal-Mart sees price cuts, no job cuts at Chile D&S-paper

COLOMBIA
Las FARC despues de Marulanda: ¿extincion estrategica o transformacion organizativa?

CUBA
castro, inc. cancels Canadian Oil Deal

Obama: Stay the Course on Cuba
Dialogue with the Castro brothers is not an effective policy.

Oil shift: Canadians out, Russians in

Rafael Ibarra Roque, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 1/25/09

ECUADOR
El Loco Returns: How to Re Elect a Drug King Pin

HAITI
After Four Years, No Justice for Murdered Haitian Journalist

MEXICO
Mexico: The coming collapse

Economic policy in Mexico
Damage control
A Latin American country softens recession with counter-cyclical policies

DeFacto Legalization

Calderon seeks to dispel talk of 'failing state'

Remembering Enrique “Kiki” Camarena

The British method fails again…

The White House press release on the Mexico City Policy and Assistance for Voluntary Population Planning

Drug Gangs Have Mexico on the Ropes
Law enforcement south of the border is badly outgunned.

NICARAGUA
In Obama's Words, President Ortega Must 'Unclench His Fist'

PANAMA
Via Chiriqui chatter, Two Gems of Panama Spanish Colonial Period

PUERTO RICO
Six plead guilty in former Puerto Rico governor's case

VENEZUELA
Venezuela's León Let The Cat Out of the Bag: Public Finances Are in a Bind

After Chavez gives the green light to repression, wholesale attacks on the opposition begin

Recipe for No

Bistromatics, Venezuela edition

Venezuela’s Horse Not As High

Six of one, half a dozen of the other

Minc(i)ed Facts

GOSSIP
Ingrid Betancourt at the beach in Miami with her new boyfriend

AMERICAN POLITICS
Fatal Naivete On Free Trade

Letter to Obama Supporters
America’s enemies remain our enemies.

This week’s posts and podcasts
Hugo changes his tune
Hillary’s Fatal Naivete On Free Trade
Castro says he “probably won’t be around in 4 years”: Today’s 15 Minutes on Latin America
More student protests in Venezuela: Today’s 15 Minutes on Latin America
Obama Seeks Halt to Legal Proceedings at Guantanamo
At Real Clear World, and today at 11AM Eastern: Latin American headlines on the Obama inauguration
Chavez sanctions tear-gassing Papal nunzio?

At Real Clear World:
Latin America Headlines on the Inaugural
Bush's Foreign Policy Successes, No. 5 Colombia
Brazil: Lula Invites Bush for Fishing Trip

Special thanks to Ada, The Baron, Eneas, Maggie and Maria.

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The “smells like Bush” day Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

2009-01-19T09:46:00.001-05:00

Cross-posted

It's the day before inauguration day, and contrary to some overly optimistic expectations, t Hugo Chavez said on Saturday Barack Obama had the “stench” of his predecessor as U.S. president. While here in the USA "To trash Bush was to belong," the trend continues with Chavez and his minions. The carnival goes on!

In today's podcast I'll be talking about Pres. Bush's legacy in Colombia. Chat's open at 10:45AM.

LATIN AMERICA
“Lula marcó distancia ante la posición de Chávez” Lula distances himself from Chavez's position; Hillary and Obama aren't happy about Chavez's anti-Americanism, and other brief news today at Noticias24.

ARGENTINA
Argentine President Urges Consumers to Keep Spending while Cristina Fernandez visits Cuba

A U.S. Court's Threatening Ruling

Enrique Dumas, Who Took Tango to Television in Argentina, Dies

BOLIVIA
Oliver Stone entrevista a Evo Morales en La Paz

Book Review: "Los planes A y B de Evo Morales" de Paul Coca - Juventud y Analisis

BRAZIL
Brazilian church roof collapses

Iran wants Brazil’s support for trying Israeli leaders as war criminals

Ex- terrorist gets asylum in Brazil

Italy's Foreign Min Blasts Brazilian Decision On Fugitive

Brazil's army: But what is it for? A philosopher redesigns an army

COLOMBIA
Uribe's Voice: Transcript of a Call

CUBA
Another flare-up of Castro’s death rumors Signs keep adding up, while Fidel still active, Chávez now says yet Report: Fidel Castro in a coma

Come and live it

"Che" Director Has an Eerie Feeling. Wonder Why?

Medvedev hails renewed ties with Cuba

ECUADOR
Ecuador vows partial bond buy-back

GUYANA
Libya to establish People's Bureau in Guyana

MEXICO
Thick-billed Parrot: Mexico and beyond…?

They Kidnap Americans Don't They?

What If Mexico Loses Its Drug War?

Anarchy in Mexico

NICARAGUA
Bad news out of Managua, the Pacto lives on

PANAMA
Cocaine plane trail is open challenge for Obama administration

PARAGUAY
Fundacion Libertad contra el monopolio de internet

PUERTO RICO
University of Puerto Rico begins new environmental education programme

Separatist? PBS Can't Call a Terrorist a Terrorist

URUGUAY
Uruguay Minister Posts Photos of Her Taking Shower on FaceBook

VENEZUELA
Chavez to swipe US$ 12 billion in international reserves for his personal use

Chavez dysfunctional reality

Venezuela's Chavez takes stock

Chavez turns into Palestinian hero

Kuwaiti MP calls to move Arab League to Caracas
Waleed al-Tabtabai says Venezuelan President has proved he is more Arab than some Arabs.

Chavez - a worse threat than bin Laden?

Hugo Crawls Back

Chavez 'part of evil side of politics'

Chavez Chagrined: Will Oil Companies Return to Venezuela?

Hey, what's one little Order of Magnitude between friends?

Venezuela's indigenous people: A promise unkept. Indigenous Venezuelans get welfare but, so far, not much land

ENTERTAINMENT
Part II: “Che:” Bad Movie About A Bad Guy Gets Worse

US POLITICS
Did Barack Obama promise Mexico’s president he would open the borders?

Chavez to Assess Obama’s Policies Before Reaching Out

Obama’s Hispanic Agenda

Special thanks to Ada, the Baron, Eneas, Larwyn and Maggie.

The week's posts and podcasts:
Eeet steeenks...
Today’s 15 Minutes on Latin America, at 11AM Eastern: Chavez wants the oil companies back
A name from the past: Noriega
Begging after biting the hand that feeds him
Today at 11AM Eastern: That military report on Mexico
“U.S. military report warns ’sudden collapse’ of Mexico is possible”
Pres. Bush honors Tony Blair, John Howard and Alvaro Uribe
Today’s 15 Minutes on Latin America: Venezuela’s back-door currency devaluation

At Real Clear World Blog:
Venezuela: Can't Take "No" for an Answer
Venezuela: Currency Depreciation Through Back Door

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The Argentinian economy Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

2009-01-12T09:28:00.002-05:00

Cross-posted

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 stop stories:
Venezuela's support of Hamas, and Argentina's bleak economic outlook.

Last week Chavez expelled the Israeli ambassador to Caracas. Yesterday he was threatening to expel the American Charge d'Affaires in Caracas, John Caulfield, for going to a wedding in Puerto Rico. Chavez claims Caulfield was plotting against him...at the wedding.

Argentina's economic outlook is bleak, and not likely to improve over the short term. While the country has been invited to the G20 summit and may be distancing itself from Caracas's influence, government spending is out of control,

Argentina’s Ministry of Economics estimated in midsummer that the country was carrying about $150 billion in debt. The government has been borrowing from anyone who will lend — namely, the captive domestic bond market and regional ally Venezuela — at high interest rates to fund its populist programs, which include steep energy subsidies and the outright nationalization of six (now seven, counting Aerolineas) companies. Payments on Argentina’s debt will total more than $10 billion in the first six months of 2009 alone. At the same time, the government is assuming more and more responsibilities across the board and shows no sign of halting.

Because the 2009 government budget did not take the nationalized pension funds into account, it appeared at first blush that the government might have secured for itself some means of taking the bite out of debt payments with that appropriation. Given that the original budget was based on highly optimistic economic performance forecasts — the global downturn and the decline of Argentina’s agriculture industry notwithstanding –- it was possible to argue that the move was relatively prudent, despite the jitters felt by investors.

But the reality is that Fernandez is increasing spending at such a rate that the administration will quickly burn through the extra cash. This is not typical debt manipulation, but rather, as investors had feared, the outright commandeering of Argentines’ retirement savings to prop up the government’s populist policies.

Setting aside the emotional and financial impact to Argentine workers as they contemplate their futures, the government has ensnared itself in an accounting dilemma. If spending continues in the face of falling revenue and limited credit, Buenos Aires eventually will hit a wall. And so far, its only recourse has been to liquidate what few financial assets remain in-country. Although there could yet be a grand scheme that will compensate for this problem, the government has shown no evidence thus far that one exists. The odds of an outright debt default and a return to the economic crisis of 2002 are growing.

I'll be talking about Argentina's economy in today's podcast at 11AM Eastern.

LATIN AMERICA
The world of the FARC (Part I: Europe)

The world of the FARC (Part II: America)

Going South

Battle for Influence in Latin America

Political Risk Bulletin from Market Memorandum

Spain's Bets Sour in Latin America

ANTIGUA
Cuban-trained doctors in Antigua denied enrollment as medical practitioners

The Antigua Sun reported that the Antigua and Barbuda Medical Registration Board (MRB) refused to register the documents because, according to the Chairman of the MRB, David Dorset, the requirements were not satisfied that they could practice medicine by themselves.

Additionally Dorset said the applicants had not proven their entitlement to practice medicine in another country. Therefore, they would not be registered in Antigua and Barbuda under the Medical Act.

ARGENTINA
Housing in Argentina. Misery in their midst: A fight over an iconic shantytown

BOLIVIA
Sospechosa liberacion de narcos vinculados al MAS

BRAZIL
Lula's last lap: A freakishly popular president has only a year left before electioneering curtails his mandate. He will spend it reacting rather than reforming

COLOMBIA
Third term temptation: Álvaro Uribe pushes his luck

COSTA RICA
Death toll rises to 9 from Costa Rica quake

CUBA
Like Generation Y, Penultimos Dias got hacked.

The humble

Charts and figures

Change stirring in Cuba

Via The Real Cuba, Havana Cuba, 1930s

Cincuenta años de revolución cubana --2ª parte--

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Republic buys eight planes from Brazil

ECUADOR
Ecuador: Using OPEC Cuts to Take Over the Energy Sector

Ecuador is willing to talk with Colombia

Ecuador 14 January: The Studfather

More Financial Crimes Underway in Correa's Ecuador

JAMAICA
Jamaican residents forced to flee homes in face of violence

MEXICO
Via Instapundit, New reports about Mexico, the failing state on our border

Ten of Mexico's Most Notorious Drug Traffickers Extradited to U.S.

NICARAGUA
Ortega se apoya en Chavez y se enfrenta al mundo

PANAMA
Mail Going Outside of Panama

PERU
Peru: As corrupt as ever

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico union leaders meet with Economic Advisory Panel

Puerto Rico expands coastal reserve

ST KITTS-NEVIS
Return of the noose: St Kitts has just hanged its first man for a decade and believes it is the only way to beat violent crime

VENEZUELA
Dictatorship for Dummies: Learn how to quash dissent Chávez-style.

Moneda virtual “Sucre” será aprobada en diciembre por el ALBA

Crece el apoyo a Chávez en el Medio Oriente

Government reduces travel quotas for Venezuelan residents Travelers can take out even fewer dollars in order to conserve its US currency reserves.

Israeli Ambassador Expelled from Venezuela

Israeli Ambassador Booted by Hugo Chavez

According to this report, the embassies are closing Las últimas palabras del Embajador de Israel antes de su partida

Embajador Israel
by noticias24

El Loco outreach suspended in Boston

AP: Turkey Holds Iran Shipment to Venezuela

An open letter to the more than 100 Latin American "experts" who criticized the report on Venezuela by Human Rights Watch

Kristallnacht in Caracas?

Venezuela reducing oil to US refineries on OPEC cut

Via IBD: Drilling stops in 17 oilfields
The suspension affected oilrigs in Anaco, El Tigre and Campo Boscán

Crudo venezolano cerró la semana al alza con un precio de US$37.62

US POLITICS
Eric Holder and the FALN Pardons

10 Points for President-Elect Obama's Latin America Strategy

Special thanks to Ada, the Baron, Eneas, Kate, Larwyn, Maggie and Maria.

These week's posts and podcasts:
The Jews Face a Double Standard
Venezuela expels Israeli ambassador to protest Gaza offensive
Turkey holds Iranian explosives heading to Venezuela, transition purgatory, and other news items
At Real Clear World:
Argentina's Outlook: Bleak
Bolivia Launches State-Run Media
Podcasts:
Tango
Latin America and Israel
Venezuela expels the Israeli ambassador to protest Gaza offensive, and other headlines from Venezuela
Humberto Fontova talks about the Cuban Communist revolution: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Argentina runs out of change: 15 Minutes on Latin America

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The first 2009 Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

2009-01-05T08:58:00.004-05:00

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

Last week Cuba celebrated the 50th anniversary of its Communist revolution. Please check the posts listed under Cuba below for a roundup of articles and posts.

Tomorrow at 11AM Humberto Fontova will be my podcast guest and he'll talk about the anniversary; in today's podcast I'll touch on Bolivia's new TV station, sponsored by Iran and Venezuela, Argentina's change shortage, and other headlines.

ANTIGUA-BARBUDA
Antigua-Barbuda opposition criticises PM for taking funds from Venezuela

ARGENTINA
Argentina Is Short of Cash – Literally
Spare some change?

Buenos Aires Becomes IT-Wise
Buenos Aires invites ITC businesses to set up in its forthcoming world-class Technology District.

BELIZE
US Southern Command donates equpment to Belize

Equipment valued at US$27,000 was recently handed over to Belize's National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO). Ceremonies were held at NEMO’s Warehouse in Belmopan.

The equipment includes more than 500 folding beds commonly referred to as cots and more than 100 sleeping bags. This most recent donation is from the United States Southern Command, based in Miami.

On hand to make the presentation was United States Ambassador to Belize, Robert Deiter. In making the presentation, Deiter said the US, in assisting in the area of management this year alone, made other donations recently to the Belize Defence Force and the National Coast Guard, in addition to training in several villages across the country.

Deiter stated that he is proud of his Mission’s work with NEMO in a region where disasters can and do strike/

BOLIVIA
Catholics oppose Bolivia control freak government

Morales inaugurará diario y canal del Estado con ayuda de Irán y Venezuela

BRAZIL
The samba beat, with missteps: It may be the rising power in the Americas but Brazil is finding that diplomatic ambition can prompt resentment

Confiança da indústria é a menor desde outubro de 1998, diz FGV Business confidence at its lowest since October 1998, via Market Memorandum

CHILE
Chile, interest rates, inflation, Bachelet and the central bank

COLOMBIA
Colombia mata a un Jefe de Finanzas de las FARC y a sus 4 escoltas Colombia kills FARC finance boss and his 4 bodyguards.

Colombia's Leader Digs In
After U.S.-Backed Successes, Uribe Weighs Extending Reign

Helping the Hostage-Takers: Switzerland and the Reyes Computer Files (English translation)

CUBA
Abused

50 years with Fidel Castro: how many more years of misery for Latin America?

MSM Report Card for stories about 50th Anniversary of Cuban Revolution

Grief Marks Anniversary of Triumph of Castro, via The Corner

Cuban Stalinism at 50--and the Media Lies Continue

Cuba's Long Black Spring: Video

Castro’s Cuba at 50

“It goes without saying”

One hell of an achievement

Shame on U.S. Media for Idolizing Che Guevara

Cuban Stalinism at 50--and the Media Lies Continue

The Cuban revolution at 50: Heroic myth and prosaic failure

Ill winds: Hurricanes have added to the woes of the downturn

Where’s the “patria o muerte”?

WaPo's Booth Hails 'Half-Century of Revolution' in Cuba

Commemorating 50 Lousy Years

Two new films out this month give the full Hollywood treatment to two very different military and political heroes.

Castro's One 'Hell' of an Achievement

In Cuba, Cellphone Calls Go Unanswered
Growing Ranks Use Coveted Device for Less Costly Paging, Texts

Communism, Socialism Paradise, Cuba

Humberto Becerra Alfonso, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 1/4/09

Historia de una jinetera

ECUADOR
Equador determina pagamento de parte da dívida com o BNDES Ecuador paid $28.1 million of its $243 million loan to Brazil’s National Economic and Social Development Bank Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES), while Rafael Correa still says the loan is “illegal.” (h/t Market Memorandum)

MEXICO
In Mexico, Hope Lies With the Voters Leon Krauze’s Segunda Edicion broadcasts today at 2PM Mountain time.

Mexicanas sucumben al “sex appeal” de los narcos

Mexican criminal insurgency may spread to US

NICARAGUA
Nicaragua’s broken democracy

PANAMA
Home invasion in Boquerón

Elogia en La Habana a la revolución cubana Panamanian president Martín Torrijos praises the Cuban revolution in Havana.

PARAGUAY
¿El pueblo del Che Guevara? - por Eduardo Quintana

PERU
Shining Path Terrorists Threaten to Expand Attacks in Peru

PUERTO RICO
Trump development in Puerto Rico to be eco-friendly

Yahoo says Puerto Rico in top ten of world's favourite destinations

ST KITTS-NEVIS
Hanging them high: Don’t bother to reform, just execute

VENEZUELA
An open letter to the critics of the HRW report on Venezuela

2008: the year Hugo Chavez lost his democratic fig leaf

Socialism with cheap oil: Hugo Chávez embarks on a race against the impending impact of world recession

Venezuela halves travelers dollar allowance to $2,500

Chavez After the Oil Boom, also at Caracas Chronicles

The Wizards of Oil: As prices fall, so do the ambitions of Vladimir, Hugo and Mahmoud.

Tras 10 años de Gobierno, se le ocurre “reducir la dependencia del petróleo”

Estos son los nuevos aviones que comprará Hugo Chávez

US POLITICS
Housing Push for Hispanics Spawns Wave of Foreclosures

This week’s podcasts and posts
Denny and “the governor of all Puerto Ricans”
The disaster that is the Cuban revolution
Two photos
At Real Clear World Blog: Venezuela: 2008 in Review
Cuba: A Photograph as Metaphor

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The Brazilian diplomacy Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

2008-12-22T08:33:00.000-05:00

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.

This week's big story: Brazil continues its ascendance as a diplomatic powerhouse for the hemisphere. Last week thirty-three countries met in Brazil for the first Latin American and Caribbean Summit on Integration and Development. Today president Lula hosts French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who's visting the country to bring about bilateral cooperation in several areas, including the production of defense submarines. I'll be discussing Sarko's visit in today's podcast at 11AM Eastern, which you can listen to here.

LATIN AMERICA
Via Pat, Latin America’s Deafening Silence by Jorge Castañeda.

Interesting post (in Spanish) on the UnoAmérica pro-democracy NGO meeting in Bogota; their website here.

Only in Argentina

ARGENTINA
Nestor Kirchner is unwell

Argentina and the drug trade

Confuso triple juego hispano-ruso-argentino

ATFA Condemns Ecuador's Debt Default Decision Defaulting on Foreign Debt

Austroraptor cabazai: They Just Don't Make Big Scary Dinosaurs Like They Once Did

Argentina Seizes Assets of Iranian Terrorist-Diplomat

BELIZE
Commentary: One Belizean's perspective on agreement between Belize and Guatemala

BRAZIL
Slide show: Brazilians in Ireland

Comments on Bloomberg News' Brazil Defence Story

Brazil Fails to Earmark Budget Money for Sovereign Wealth Fund

CHILE
FruityRumPunch update

COLOMBIA
Pass FTA and amend Plan Colombia

Combined with a revamped Plan Colombia, the FTA can then promote both human rights and the overall quality of life in Colombia. One of the loudest proponents for the FTA is Asocolflores, Colombia's flower exporters association. Dependent on the U.S. market, its companies employ 200,000 Colombians. This and other export industries create jobs and opportunities that provide poor Colombians alternatives to growing coca, the plant used to make cocaine.

Real change will not come from bulletproof armor, helicopters, and tanks, but will depend on Colombia's institutional capabilities and the economic opportunities it can offer its citizens. The United States should focus Plan Colombia on improving justice and human rights, and pass the FTA to improve economic opportunities for both countries' citizens. President-elect Obama's campaign promised change; our regional partners could use some, too.

COSTA RICA
New World Post-pandemic Reforestation Helped Start Little Ice Age, Say Scientists

CUBA
Russian warships bound for Cuba in new show of strength

Blogger and Castro kin clash on the Web

EL SALVADOR
Will El Salvador Veer Left?

MEXICO
Iraq is safer than Mexico

Mexico - US – Italy cocaine connection

NICARAGUA
Now Nicaragua can't just blame the Empire

PANAMA
The Dry Season Has Arrived

PARAGUAY
¿Quiere Lugo imitar a Salvador Allende? - ABC Color

PUERTO RICO
Pharma-Bio acquires assets and operations in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico governor elect heads to New York to meet with credit agencies

TOBAGO
Now that the price of fuel is down, airline carriers are returning to the region: Non-stop Delta service returns to Tobago

VENEZUELA
OPEC cuts production, Venezuela lies, oil drops yet again

The Chavez permanent show: 170 hours of cadena

HRW v Hugo Chavez et sycophants

Yet another Russia-Venezuela joint venture: Government to install gold refinery at Las Cristinas – Venezuela

Chavez After the Oil Boom

Chavez Latin America Allies Escalate Rhetoric on Debt

Venezuela's foreign policy loses its gas

AMERICAN POLITICS
Fixing Border Security

ENTERTAINMENT
Che Guevara was a murderer and your t-shirt is not cool

Special thanks to Ada, the Baron, Eneas, Larwyn, Maria, Maggie and SamK.

This week’s posts and podcasts
Iran using Venezuela ties to duck UN sanctions
Latin America: Summits and Crisis, at Real Clear World blog
Report: Drug cartels move beyond borders
From the Mexican war zone: Kidnapping Negotiator Is Now a Victim in Mexico
Latin American and Caribbean Summit on Integration and Development excludes Bush, as China, Russia loom

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The Ecuador default Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

2008-12-15T09:25:00.002-05:00

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 big news: Ecuador defaults on its foreign debt, basically because it doesn't want to:

And while developing world economies have taken a sharp turn for the worse in recent months, Ecuador is ceasing payments not because the oil-rich country cannot afford to pay but because it has made a political decision not to.

The default is Ecuador’s second in a decade and seventh in its 178-year history. More links and posts below.

LATIN AMERICA
The Real Latin-American Left: One We Can Work With

Caracas Russians, Managua Misrule

Latin American Democrats Need U.S. Support
Free trade is one way to help prevent the resurgence of autocracy in the region.

ARGENTINA
Economic Storm Batters Argentina's Breadbasket
Sharp Price Drop Brings Sudden End To Good Times

BOLIVIA
Observatorio de Medios de Bolivia reveló que suman 245 los ataques a periodistas en el último año; alarmante crecimiento desde septiembre de 2008

Evo admite que la Unasur no es plenamente legal

Via American Digest, “Coca Si, Cocaina No”. Let’s hope Aldana Cohen is better informed about his topic than he is about Coca Cola. Coca Cola hasn’t contained any cocaine since 1929.

BRAZIL
Israel's El Al plans direct flights to Brazil

CHILE
A heroic pooch

COLOMBIA
Alleged Colombian coke kingpin in U.S.

Reputed one-time Colombian cocaine kingpin Diego Leon Montoya Sanchez is in Florida after being extradited from his South American homeland, U.S. officials say.

Known as "Don Diego," Montoya Sanchez allegedly once commanded the North Valley cartel, a narco-trafficking empire that exported at least 1.2 million pounds of cocaine to the United States. But Friday he was sitting in a tiny federal jail cell in Miami, The Miami Herald reported.

U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said the Colombian's extradition marked a historic point in efforts by the United States to smash the vast cartel, saying Montoya Sanchez's arrest was the most significant since the convictions of brothers Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, the 1980s leaders of Colombia's Cali cartel.

CUBA
Allegations of Biological Weapons Research in Cuba Need Clearing Up

Guantanamo’s Jihad: The Show Begins…

Elián González marks his 15th birthday

¿Cumpleaños o aniversario?

Obama Should Put the Castros in Their Place

Vladimir Alejo Miranda, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 12/14/08

Buques rusos atracarán en Cuba por primera vez desde caída de URSS Russian ships landing in Cuba for the first time since the fall of the USSR. Russian navy: Russian warships to visit Cuba

ECUADOR
The return of the 1980s?

Ecuador decides to stiff creditors

ECUADOR DEFAULTS ON FOREIGN DEBT

Ecuador Default May Hit ‘True Monsters’ Harder Than Argentina

What Did the U.S. Congress Do With Correa's Propagandists and Ministra Viteri?

HAITI
Nutritional value of World Food Program rice distributed in Haiti questioned

MEXICO
Arrested: Suspected Killers of Sheriff’s Deputy. But Was It Ordered by the Mexican Mafia?

Mexico: Growing Terror and Close to Collapse

NICARAGUA
More backyard fun

PARAGUAY
Urgent prayer request

PERU
Innocents Die in the Drug War

PUERTO RICO
Who let the big cat out of the bag? Puerto Rico searches for panther prowling suburbs

Wildlife officials patrolled streets and undeveloped lots in a sort of suburban safari Sunday, searching for a nocturnal predator that has mauled a sheep, ripped apart chickens and dominated newspaper headlines in the tropical U.S. territory since last week.

I didn't know there were any sheep or chickens in Rio Piedras, either.

VENEZUELA
Miguel Octavio was part of a Round Table discussion at the White House on Human Rights Day

Systematic abuse and compulsive lies

A great Venezuelan gets an award

The ultimate idiotic conspiracy theory: The US created credit crisis to get back at Hugo and other revolutionaries

Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape

Venezuela Debt Rating Outlook Cut to Negative by S&P

Black-Out Blights Venezuela for the 4th Time This Year
Power Outage in Caracas Brings Out Social Traits

Via Brazilian Neocon, Jaime Bayly on Chavez's Alo Presidente's diarrhea program, part 1 (in Spanish)

Part 2

AMERICAN POLITICS
Texas Hispanics upset with Democrats

ENTERTAINMENT
Killer Chic: Hollywood’s sick love affair with Che Guevara

Che what

Special thanks to Ada, Baron B., Eneas, Larwyn and Maggie.

This week's podcasts and posts
Obama makes it to the Nativity scene
Soderbergh’s Chegasm

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The low-oil-price Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

2008-12-08T08:49:00.003-05:00

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: Oil prices.
As of the writing of this post, oil is trading at $43.45. This signals a huge change in Latin American politics. Miguel makes a prediction on the internal effect in Venezuela in his post As oil cycle overshoots on the downside the worst effects of The Devil's Excrement will be in play, (via A Colombo-Americana)

LATIN AMERICA
Special Report: West Africa welcomes Latin America's drug barons

Canadian envoy does not foresee G-20 replacing G-8 as major forum

CARIBBEAN
A sea change in the Caribbean

ARGENTINA
Going pinker on the Plata: A new destination for gay tourists

In photos: Buenos Aires architectural details

BOLIVIA
Aumenta la pobreza con Evo Morales de presidente

BRAZIL
Fall of an opportunist: Justice for a controversial financier

Brazil's Decision on Deforestation Draws Praise

COLOMBIA
The Ingrid show

Love in the time of Cartagena

Via IBD Blog, FARC kill 8 Colombian police

CUBA
Saving the Revolution

Cuban political prisoner named RSF's Journalist of the Year

Castro Brothers Want to Meet Obama

Fine sand

From beyond the grave: Fidel offers to meet with Obama

We talk, you just listen and send money

Cuba tightens restrictions on bloggers

Cuba da su aprobación al Che de Soderbergh via Spanish Pundit

ECUADOR
Ecuador’s Novel Carbon Storage Method

Mean and Petty Ecuadoreans Swear Allegiance to Cartels and Denounce Each Other

Ecuador to Boost Trade in Iran

Iran to impart high technology to Ecuador And what kind of technology would that be? “space science and satellite technology.”

HAITI
Rape looms large over Haiti slums

MEXICO
Responding to Mexican Drug-Related Terrorism

Morgue is only safe place in Mexico

AP Feels Sorry for Mexico Over Drop in 'Money Sent Home' By Returning Illegals

Japan, Mexico agree on efforts to resist protectionism, climate change

NICARAGUA
Nicaragua and the MCC

PANAMA
First Russian warship uses Panama Canal since 1944

PERU
To the barricades: The politics of non-stop protest

PUERTO RICO
Illegal immigration from the Dominica Republic: 2 survivors bring relief to family, but 49 missing

Oscar De La Hoya leaves hospital, heads home to Puerto Rico. I don't know much about boxing, but it looks like De La Hoya should retire.

VENEZUELA
With revolutionary students like these who needs conservative old farts?

As Chavez attacks, the whole Venezuelan Government becomes offensive against its enemies

‘Boligarchs’ rise to top in socialist Venezuela

A Nuclear Venezuela

Chávez government handed out millions in exchange for votes

Opposition damns Chavez vote bid

Body of Cubs catcher Blanco found in Venezuela

US POLITICS
The Obama Administration and U.S.-Cuba Policy

NY City’s useful idiots

Pro-Amnesty Activist Joins Obama White House Staff

US Trade Representative nominee in cocaine pardon scandal

Special thanks to Ada, the Baron, Eneas, Larwyn, Maggie, Maria and SamK.

THIS WEEK’S POSTS AND PODCASTS
Yoani’s troubles: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Russian warship to cross Panama Canal
Hugo busts the opposition: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Rape in Haiti: 15 Minutes on Latin America
China sneezes; will Latin America catch a cold?

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

2008-12-01T08:47:00.005-05:00

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 focus: China's growing influence in our Hemisphere. I'll be podcasting on China's Latin American influence today at 10AM Eastern. Chat's open by 9:45AM and the call-in number is 646 652-2639.

LATIN AMERICA
China's Latin American Tango
A partnership with benefits for both sides.

Latin American diplomacy: Friends of opportunity
China, rather than Russia, is the new partner that matters

Pay attention to next-door neighbors

Latin America tops murder tables

Challenges in Latin America: Russians in Caracas, Misrule in Managua

Chávez, Correa propose new currency area

ARGENTINA
Harvesting pensions
A pre-election boost for Cristina

Kafka era argentino

Radiografía del kirchnerismo

In today's WSJ, Are Argentina's Cows Happy Eating Grain? This matters because grass-fed beef is Argentina's most famous export.

BOLIVIA
Bush Suspends Trade Accord With Bolivia in Anti-Drug Dispute

President George W. Bush suspended a trade agreement with Bolivia, saying the country provided insufficient cooperation in U.S. efforts against drug trafficking.

The president signed a declaration ending trade benefits under the Andean Trade Preference Act and the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement yesterday.

Cutting of trade benefits is the result of Bolivia’s “failure to cooperate with the U.S. counternarcotics efforts,” a condition of maintaining trade preferences, such as reduced tariffs, Perino said.

BRAZIL
Brazil floods are early sign of global warming, expert warns; meanwhile, Brazil mob attacks environmental police in Amazon

La crisis mundial del crédito frena el auge agrícola brasileño

COLOMBIA
DMG, which went under, has its own YouTube channel. The founder of DMG was arrested in Panama two weeks ago. This article (in Spanish) refers to DMG as a Ponzi scheme.

Colombia: Belle Of APEC's Ball

Betancourt makes Colombia return

CUBA
Faltan las marchas

Cuban landmark for Catholic friar

Via IBD blog, "Happy Thanksgiving!" from Fidel

ECUADOR
Ecuador: hopeless

Can pay, might not. Another debt default?

Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa is heading to Iran this week

Hopeless, Clueless and Hapless Correa & ALBA Come to Bury Capitalism: Not to Praise It

MEXICO
Mexico Has Made Big Strides on Economic Policy Calderón was smart enough to hedge against falling oil prices

Houston a weapons depot for Mexico criminal insurgency

WAR ON THE BORDER

Success in Mexico

Via Lucianne, House of shattered dreams: US deports more and more Mexicans

PERU
Garcia blames Mexican drug cartels for Peru violence

APEC summit divides bloggers, according to France24 news:

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico Governor Promises Changes

The recession now emerging in places like Florida and Ohio has been a fact of life in Puerto Rico for three years. Unemployment has climbed to nearly 12 percent. Taxes have gone up, purchasing power has declined, and the island’s roughly four million residents are unlikely to be patient with their new leader.
…
The structural challenges are immense. Government here plays an outsize role, employing 20 percent to 30 percent of workers on the island, and it is on the verge of bankruptcy. The current administration said this week that it would end the year with a $2 billion budget deficit. One official suggested it was struggling to make payroll, and some institutions — like the Center for Puerto Rican Studies — already report that they have not received government money they are owed.

VENEZUELA
Chávez Again Seeks to End Term Limits; Chavez renews reelection ambition
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announced a plan to seek a constitutional amendment to allow him to stand for reelection

Brief thoughts on Venezuela

The 2008 Venezuelan results: 3 - Yaracuy as the epitome of all that is wrong with the Venezuelan Political System

Hugo Chavez reverts to his usual self a day after the election, blaming everyone but his perfect self

Russia's Challenge On The High Seas

Russia Proposes Nuclear Reactor Plan to Chavez

The Real Hugo Chavez

Alvaro Vargas Llosa writes about Chavez’s Stumble

Venezuela’s regional elections: Checked, but not halted
Some satisfaction for Hugo Chávez but more for his opponents

ENTERTAINMENT
Che Movie Debuts Miami this Week (Dec. 4)

OTHER ROUNDUPS and news in Spanish
WSJ Americas
HACER
Noticias24

The week’s posts and podcasts
The Russia-Venezuela maneuvers in the Caribbean: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Chávez Lets Colombia Rebels Wield Power Inside Venezuela
Nuclear Latin America: Today’s 15 Minutes on Latin America

Special thanks to Ada, Maggie, Eneas, GoV, and Sam.

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The third Monday in November Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

2008-11-17T08:57:00.006-05:00

Crossposted

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

This week's big story: The G20 weekend meeting in Washington DC. While Washington commuters had to put up with the traffic jams, and the leaders pledged to work together to restore global growth, that pledge is probably worth the paper it was signed on (since it wasn't signed on paper), and nothing much else happened. On the bright side, oil is trading in the $56 range.

I'll be talking about the G-20 in today's 15 Minutes on Latin America podcast.

LATIN AMERICA
The Latinobarómetro poll
Democracy and the downturn
Latin Americans are standing up for their rights

ARGENTINA
Menem faces court over bomb probe

Decálogo del asaltado

BRAZIL
The Forest Jihad

COLOMBIA
Pelosi Serves Up Colombia To Europe

Last Chance for a Colombia Pact

UPDATE:UAW Won't Support Colombia Trade Pact For Big-3 Aid

FARC se infiltra en universidades para entrenar a milicianos

Rooting out cocaine production in Colombia

CUBA
To save the ants

From the official Communist party organ, Castro writes a book about Colombia

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominicans charged with organizing fatal journey

ECUADOR
Correa amenaza con incursionar y bombardear territorio de Colombia

ECUADOR
Soros's Narcostate Promotional Team Does Ecuador

JAMAICA
"Driven Life" and others in a dynamic conversation about faith and its impact on the world.
Spurning Europe, Caribbean pushes death penalty

MEXICO
Mexico's War: The Iraq Next Door

Mexico stock exchange says drug war scaring off IPOs

Criminal insurgency strikes Mexican media

NICARAGUA
How to steal an election
Daniel Ortega sets an ugly precedent

Preliminary thoughts on Nicaragua

U.S. Should Cut Foreign Assistance to Nicaragua

PARAGUAY
Landing on our airstrip

Meeting with other Paraguay bloggers in Paraguay

PERU
The Re-Emergence of the Shining Path: The Criminal-Terrorist Nexus

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico to eliminate Electoral Fund in 2009

URUGUAY
Uruguay head vetoes abortion bill

VENEZUELA
On Sunday, Venezuelans will be voting for 23 governors across the country. Mary O'Grady writes about Chávez's threat to bring out the tanks if people don't vote for his candidates: Dodd's 'Democrat' Tightens His Grip

Venezuela News and Views has been posting on the elections. Here's the latest: The Venezuelan 2008 election: update 16 - Holding Margarita

Chavez says Venezuela is moving toward developing nuclear power

The clueless and strange tale of the expelled Venezuelan Diplomats

US POLITICS
The only way is up
After eight years of neglect by Bush, relations between the US and Latin America can only improve under Barack Obama

The NYT has a lame article about how Obama's athletic abilities make him qualified to discuss foreign policy with the likes of cigar-yielding tyrant Castro (I wonder when was the last time Fidel even saw a baseball) and coca leaf growers' union leader Evo Morales, For Obama, a Scouting Report on Athletic Heads of State. James Joyner aims, shoots, and scores in his comment on the puff piece.

SCIENCE and EDUCATIONAL
The 'Secret Jews' of San Luis Valley

An introduction to Spanish nouns and genders

This week’s posts and podcasts
Today's 15 Minutes on Latin America: The G-20.

Huge weapons cache on Mexican border drug wars
“What Obama Might Do?”, on Latin America
Postcards from the edge: Sandalistas {heart} Hugo

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The Monday-after-election-day Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

2008-11-10T09:48:00.003-05:00

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.

While we were watching the election and its outcome, there were several big stories in the hemisphere:
The most dramatic, by far, was the airplane crash in downtown Mexico City last Tuesday at 7PM during rush hour. The airplane, which was carrying Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino, burst into flames. Amazingly, only fourteen people died. While Mexican authorities insist there was no foul play involved, many Mexicans are suspicious, since among the passengers was the country's former top anti-drug prosecutor Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos. Additionally,

The burst of conspiracy-theorizing came from more than the crash alone: Many Mexicans feel their leaders have lied so many times about so many things over the years that it's hard to believe them, even when they might be telling the truth.

Some of the most significant events in Mexico's modern history -- from the 1968 massacre of demonstrators in Mexico City to the 1994 assassination of presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio -- are synonymous with cover-up or farfetched official conclusions.

The long reach of drug gangs has heightened the public's sense of dark and powerful forces at work beneath the surface, usually in league with crooked police or government officials.

As readers of this blog know, Mexico has been fighting a drug war which has reached a crisis stage at this point.

Two other big stories in the Caribbean: A 3-story school building collapsed in Haiti last Friday, killing 92 people. The BBC has a Slideshow.
Hurricane Paloma, the fifth one this year, hit Cuba. Photos at Noticias24

Another big story that went underreported here in the US: the G-20 meeting in Sao Paolo, which will convene in Washington on Friday

In lighter news, narcissist-Lenninist Hugo Chavez claims that Obama's victory was gestated in South America. Meanwhile, Hugo took from the Canadians and gave to Russia (see below).

LATIN AMERICA
Iran’s Growing Penetration of the Americas, Courtesy of Latin American Leftist Leaders and Interests

Religion in Latin America
Hola Luther: A holiday that is a cultural milestone

New resource on Latin America: Centroamerica21

Don't miss also HACER's excellent roundup of Latin American news, in Spanish.

CARIBBEAN
Caribbean hotel bookings plunge as economy sags

ARGENTINA
A must-read, by Mary O'Grady: Hugo Chávez Spreads the Loot

The exposure of this thuggish behavior of the Venezuelan government is embarrassing enough. What is worse for Mr. Chávez is Mr. Antonini's testimony that he was told by a PdVSA executive that there was another $4.2 million on the same plane and that there had been other operations to smuggle cash into Argentina for political purposes. Kauffman further testified that the Venezuelan ambassador to Bolivia had told him he had "$100 million to spend on Bolivia." Kauffman said he had been negotiating the sale of $12 million of antiriot equipment to Bolivia, to be paid for by Venezuela.

CK viaja a EE.UU para participar en la cumbre del G20 Cristina Kirchner travels to the US for the G-20, but will also make stops in Argelia, Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

BOLIVIA
Non grata: A tit-for-tat tiff

Evo Morales demands a model against capitalism in Latin America

BRAZIL
Brazil's Lula calls for shake-up of global finance, which the WaPo phrased a little more delicately: Brazil's Lula Urges 'Global Solutions'
G-20 Session Stresses Developing Nations' Role in Solving Crisis

The credit crunch reaches Brazil, Inc. A big bank merger points to a tougher outlook for the private sector, but at least this time the public finances are not the problem

CHILE
Amnesty Int’l leader criticizes Chile

COLOMBIA
The Paradox of Colombia

CUBA
Via Drudge, HURRICANE PALOMA BECOMES 'EXTREMELY DANGEROUS' CATEGORY 4 STORM

Osvaldo Ricardo Díaz Sánchez, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 11/9/08

ECUADOR
Correa's Ecuador Bars Accountability, Transparency and Demands Dishonest Cartels

FALKLANDS ISLANDS
New Falklands constitution agreed
A new constitution for the Falklands has been agreed which the UK government says will "enhance local democracy" for the south Atlantic islands' residents.

GUATEMALA
PNC liga a narcos con muerte de 15

HAITI
Death toll climbs to 82 in Haitian school collapse

MEXICO
Video of the airplane crash site here Data found from Mexico crash jet

The ministry plane - a Learjet - came down during rush-hour in the financial district at about 1900 local time (0000 GMT), and burst into flames.

Zeta arsenal in Reynosa seized by Mexico

NICARAGUA
"Elecciones y perspectiva de la democracia"

From Centroamerica21, Elecciones en Nicaragua, on the municipal elections.

Nicaraguan pilots, soldiers to train in Russia

PUERTO RICO
My post on the election results: Fortuño’s fortune: A Republican’s resounding victory in Puerto Rico

EL SALVADOR
Keeping priests out of politics

THOMSON: A November surprise in El Salvador?

URUGUAY
Uruguayan microbrew

Uruguay’s Zonamerica, massive corporate park, growing despite economic crisis

VENEZUELA
Venezuela’s Houston consulate ordered closed

Venezuela to offer Russians Crystallex gold project

Venezuela said it will offer a joint venture to Russian-owned miner Rusoro (RML.V: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to operate the Las Cristinas and Brisas gold projects, currently under contract to two Canadian companies, Mining minister Rodolfo Sanz on Thursday.

He told a Russian delegation that a memorandum of understanding would soon be signed with Rusoro.

It appeared that Sanz intends to replace the Canadian companies who operate the projects that contain some of Latin America's largest gold deposits, with Rusoro, but he did not mention their names.

Obama owes to Chavez?

Russian the Ruffian tops himself in sucking up to Hugo Chavez

AMERICAN POLITICS
Via IBD Blog, How Obama should handle Colombia

Via Instapundit, A Chavista at the EPA? Follow the links.

Obama se convierte en el 4to presidente negro de los Estados Unidos, translated by Miguel here

More on Cuban-American Voting Patterns

Venezuela News and Views writes to president elect Barack Obama

To Mr. Obama: Great opportunities await in Latin America

This week’s posts and podcasts
Mark Groubert saw Che so you won’t have to
Pray for Cuba
Iran’s Latin America push
World newspapers’ reaction to the Obama victory

TODAY AT 10AM EASTERN:
Today's podcast at 10AM Eastern will be on last week's top stories in Latin America. Chat's open at 9:45AM and the call in number is 646 652-2639. Join me!

You can listen to the podcast here

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The day-before-the-presidential-election Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

2008-11-03T09:30:00.002-05:00

Crossposted
Welcome 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.

This week's big story: The US presidential election. If McCain wins, it'll be interesting if the Latin American media will acknowledge McCain's existence.

LATIN AMERICA
Latin America, Emerging Market Funds Suffer Brunt Of Global Financial Crisis

XVIII Cumbre Iberoamericana: Alan Garcia pone a Evo Morales en su lugar - Noticias24.com

Forecast for Latin America: Cold (War) Winds from Russia

ARGENTINA
Argentina: Ya no hay "doble comando": todo lo decide Nestor Kirchner

La “cultura” kirchnerista cuesta cara

Argentina’s new money grab, and it’s not the pensions.

Argentina Impoverishes Itself Again: What happens when government meddles with private wealth.

BOLIVIA
Bolivia halts US anti-drugs work

Hugo sent Evo 16 SUVs for his personal security: Venezuela le regala a Evo Morales 16 camionetas “último modelo” para su seguridad

BRAZIL
Los planes de Lula para crear una nueva OEA sin EE.UU. pero con Cuba

Brazil's Petrobras to search for oil offshore Cuba

CHILE
The writing on the wall
And it points to the right

Chile's right-wing gains electoral ground

COLOMBIA
Upping the body count
Not that hard, when any body will do

Via IBD Blog, Bush finally sends aid to Colombia

“Una llamada de la CIA anunció el ataque al campamento de Reyes”

CUBA
Claro Fernando Alonso Hernández, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 11/2/08

Cuban Digest: All Embargo All the Time

Cuban political prisoners were sent to Venezuela through secret deal
Under a secret deal, thousands of Cuban political prisoners and dissidents were expatriated to Venezuela in the 1970s, according to some who were involved.

ECUADOR
Ecuador terminates contract with Spanish oil company Repsol

Petroecuador OKs Transfer Of Rights From Petrobras To Teikoku

HONDURAS
Zelaya plays the Chávez card
Why Honduras wanted 4m light bulbs

JAMAICA
Jamaica may suffer ... If US lifts Cuban embargo

MEXICO
The drug war rages on:
Spot the drug trafficker
The arrest of senior officials shows the government’s resolve in fighting drug traffickers—and that the rot in law enforcement reaches the top

Policemen gunned down in Mexico

Fairness for emerging markets, an essay calling for yet more handouts, by the executive head of the U.N. Development Program.

NICARAGUA
Political Unity and Violence Precede Nicaraguan Municipals

Nicaragua Wants New Russian Toys, Risks Breaching Compact With U.S. Taxpayers

PUERTO RICO
Exclusive Public Opinion Survey

VENEZUELA
Chavez’s New Election Strategy: Threaten Opponents with Jail

You better believe the threat to jail or ban Manuel Rosales in the next few days

In praise of Punto Fijo and why is Chavez is so afraid of a Punto Fijo "bis"

UNA CARTA DE UN TRAEDOR CARABOBEÑO PARA EL TRAIDOR CHÁVEZ.

Chavez: Biz related to scandal may be expropriated

What’s up with Venezuela’s diamonds?

Army Intelligence Officials Are Among 6 Held in Student’s Death

ONU: Cargamentos de droga proceden más de Venezuela que de Colombia: The UN says that more drug shipments come from Venezuela than from Colombia.

OTHER TOPICS
Spanish Verb Conjugation

Improving Verbal English Speech Patterns

US POLITICS
Chavez anuncia que esta dispuesto a reunirse con Obama

Obama and FARC

Notes on Obama's Coming Caracas on the Potomac

Evita Peron Obama

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

THIS WEEK'S PODCASTS AND POSTS
Cubans, and Obama: Not your “typical Hispanic Democrat vote”

I was on Radio Caracol last night

Meanwhile, over in Ecuador...

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The plundered pensions Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

2008-10-27T09:09:00.004-04:00

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

2008-10-20T08:33:00.004-04:00

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

2008-10-13T07:13:00.002-04:00

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

2008-10-06T09:15:00.006-04:00

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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The nuclear Venezuela Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

2008-09-29T09:36:00.004-04:00

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

2008-09-22T08:05:00.003-04:00

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

2008-09-15T08:57:00.003-04:00

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.

2008-09-11T08:44:00.002-04:00

(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.

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

2008-08-25T09:42:00.001-04:00

Crossposted at Fausta's blog.com

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

TODAY'S PODCAST AT 11AM Eastern
How the Latin American media glamorizes Obama and ignores McCain.

ARGENTINA
Clouds gather again over the Pampas
After six years of rapid growth, Argentina’s economy is at a familiar turning-point, in which the president’s refusal to change course threatens to make it poorer

USA'08: Madonna, metete la lengua entre las piernas y cerralas

BOLIVIA
Bolivia set for anti-Morales strikes

Bolivia in turmoil over socialist leaders’ attempt to grab wealth

Evo Morales: “Fidel nos dijo: hagan lo que esta haciendo Chavez” - Radio Fides

Libia invertira $us 80.000 millones en Latinoamerica, incluida Bolivia

BRAZIL
Lobao Says Brazil Plans to Uphold Oil Contracts, O Globo Says

Not as violent as you thought: Contrary to stereotype, the murder rate is falling

COLOMBIA
FARC rejected by many of its members

COSTA RICA
Chere Tomayko: Another Battered American Woman Granted Asylum, This Time in Costa Rica, Because the U.S. Will Not Protect Her or Her Children

CUBA
Cuban student leader arrested

ECUADOR
Ecuador says to meet Chevron over $16 bln lawsuit

'Immune' to cancer: The astonishing dwarf community in Ecuador who could hold the key to a cure

MEXICO
U.S./Mexico Border Violence, Continues … and why it will not cease

Red Cross gets radio threats in Mexico border city

The Failure of the Social Contract

NICARAGUA
Ortega offers asylum to narco-traffickers

PANAMA
Panama creates controversial intelligence force

PARAGUAY
Paraguay leader replaces military

PERU
Fighting for Freedom in Rural Peru: "ALBA Houses" Threaten Democracy

Peru's army on standby as jungle unrest grows

Peru throws out Amazon land laws

PERU SUSPENDS CIVIL LIBERTIES AS 65 INDIGENOUS TRIBES STRUGGLE FOR THEIR LAND

PUERTO RICO
Más acusaciones contra el Gobernador
Visite nuestro sitio especial: Caso de Acevedo Vilá.

Corpse kept upright for 3-day wake in Puerto Rico (Yup, we’ve got pics) Insólito velatorio: Joven muerto es velado de pie en Hato Rey, según lo pidió a sus familiares.

VENEZUELA
Via IBD Blog, Mario Vargas Llosa: "RESTRAINING THE MEDIA BRINGS ABOUT DICTATORSHIP"

Venezuela Cement Takeover Widens Government's Control (Update2)

Chronology of Venezuela 's nationalization of key industries

Venezuela's Weak Strongman: Chávez does not speak for the South American left.

Vampire bats blamed for Venezuela rabies outbreak

Think progress

Are we under a legal military regime in Venezuela?

Where is the revolutionary gold?

Possibly the dumbest sportscaster ever, via The Real Cuba:

AMERICAN POLITICS
Bill Ayers, Barack Obama and Che Guevara

Miami Ethnic Clash May Preview U.S. Where `Minorities' Dominate

Bill Ayers gets the Chavista seal of approval

ENTERTAINMENT
In Brooklyn, Every Palate Is an Island

Special thanks to Eneas, Maggie, Maria and Siggy.

LAST WEEK’S PODCASTS AND POSTS

4.6 tons of cocaine seized in the Caribbean - port of origin: Venezuela
Latin American news media cover the Presidential campaign, and McCain is invisible
Bill Ayers gets the Chavista seal of approval
Puerto Rico’s governor faces new federal charges

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