Fausta's blog

Monday, December 24, 2007

The Christmas Eve edition of the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Welcome to thie Christmas Eve edition of the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. I wish all of you a very happy Christmas.

If you have a post or a news item you would like to contribute, please email me: faustaw -at- yahoo -dot- com.

The big story of the week: The bombing of the Argentine Jewish community center in 1994 and Iran, the NIE, and Rafsanjani.

SPANISH LANGUAGE WEBSITE OF THE WEEK:
El Cato

LATIN AMERICA
The Carnivorous and Vegetarian Lefts, by Carlos Alberto Montaner. This was his speech at the Opening Plenary Session, The Whitherspoon Institute, Princeton University, Dec. 6, 2007.
UPDATE: Speaking of vegetarian lefties, Chavez Faces Challenge From Former Comrade: Venezuela's New Hero Has Respect in Army; a Vegetarian Mystic

A South American arms race?

Latino-Islamic Terror: Hezbollah Shows Off Their Latin Bombers

De-Fence, De-Fence

Via Babalu, Chavez offers oil for bananas deal

The Changing Dynamic in Latin America

ARGENTINA
Iran's Nuclear Terror. More at Patterico's Argentina, Iran and nuclear weapons.

AMIA and the NIE

AMIA, the communal offices of the Argentine Jewish community, was struck by a massive suicide truck bomb on July 18, 1994 – 85 were killed and over 200 injured. Iran and Hezbollah were suspected from the beginning. The Argentine investigation has had several false starts and has been mired in corruption, but in recent years has gotten on track. Last month Interpol voted overwhelmingly to issue a red letter calling for the arrest of five Iranians (along with Hezbollah's external operations chief Imad Mughniyah) on the basis of the Argentine investigation. The publicly available report on the AMIA bombing offers tremendous insight into the Iranian regime's modus operandi and worldview.

Full Prosecutor: Argentina bombings ordered by Iran
The NIE & Rafsanjani
Cog in the Regime
ABOUT IRAN'S BUENOS AIRES BOMBINGS
The NIE's Iran finding was based on…an old laptop and the word of Rafsanjani?

Troubles for Argentina's New Evita

The suitcase full of Chavista money is also in the news:
Stung in Miami

Ballet star Bocca bows out in Buenos Aires

ARUBA
Natalee Holloway Case Officially Closed

BOLIVIA
Bolivia: $872,000 from Chavez with Love

A meltdown in Latin America

Bolivians fear political unrest as rivals face off

BRAZIL
Petrobras to Invest Up to $1 Billion With Bolivia State Company

Lula Says 2007 Was Exceptional, 2008 Will Be Better

COLOMBIA
FARC's Real Aim: Ending Democracy

Colombia protests over Nicaragua's FARC remarks

CUBA
Chavez deepens investment in Cuba

Via Gates of Vienna, Seven Questions: Castro's Decline

Cuban Refinery Inaugurated, With Chávez in Spotlight

Venezuelan leader Chavez presides over oil summit in Cuba

Chavez dice desde Santiago que Venezuela y Cuba son una misma nacion

Omnibus Includes $33.6 Million for Democracy Promotion in Cuba (Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen)

On a Purely Personal Note

Blogging from Cuba: Generacion Y?

Fidel hints at retirement

ECUADOR
Santa Claus Lives

MEXICO
Intifada On The Mexican Border

Running just to stand still: How to reform the flawed behemoth that is the world's sixth-biggest oil producer

NICARAGUA
Nicaraguan expats to join forces in opposition to Daniel Ortega

Iran making diplomatic inroads in Nicaragua

New friends in the neighborhood

Iran’s push into Central America

The Skunk Is Back In Nicaragua

PERU
Chavez: At it Again

PUERTO RICO
Puertorican politics remain the same as they were when I lived there: politicians continue to use the "status" as a smokescreen behind wich to hide the real underlying problems of the island:
Statehood topic tops all issues in Puerto Rico<: House panel energizes debate by calling for new referendum

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO — The governor is under criminal investigation, crime and unemployment are soaring and the economy is faltering as foreign firms are shutting down factories.

But to hear the politicians on this gem of a Caribbean island tell it, the only real issue on the public agenda is whether Puerto Rico should become the 51st state, ending its decades-old status as a U.S. commonwealth.

A bill calling for a referendum on the issue recently won approval in a U.S. House committee, triggering a new round of intense debate on the island, despite the fact that final congressional approval and an actual vote are still iffy propositions at best.

Some tiring of debate
After decades of rowdy argument, though, some Puerto Ricans appear to be tiring of the seemingly eternal debate over what is known here as the "status" issue.

Don't I know it.

VENEZUELA
Prodigality as state policy:
The case of Hugo Chavez

The Hallaca Effect: Chavez's Undoing

The Nixon Moreno case: Political Persecution is alive and well in Chavez' revolution

"Ironically, the United States is financing Chavez's Bolivarian revolution"

Che shirt wearing Cuban idiots booed in Venezuela, also at Citizen Feathers

El movimiento estudiantil, antídoto contra Chávez

Chavismo without Chavez?

Venezuela, redux

Venezuela falls behind the times

More Venezuela price caps may go
About time
And speaking of Chavez...

The 2007 result: the surprising abstention

Analisis psiquiatrico de Hugo Chavez:
Entrevista al Dr. Franzel Delgado Senior

HUMOR
Hillary Hires King Juan Carlos to Manage Husband

Beam me up, Hillary!

La Isla Bonita

BLOGGING ABOUT THE CARNIVAL
A colombo-americana's perspective

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For more Carnival fun, don't miss the Carnival of Christmas, 2007 Edition

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Labels: Argentina, Aruba, Bolivia, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Iran, Latin America, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela

Monday, December 17, 2007

The Bolivian secession edition of the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

UPDATE
Not secession - federalism, instead.
See below (*)

The big news this week in Latin America: The four richest Bolivian regions declared autonomy from the Morales government, on the same day as Evo Morales formally received a new draft Constitution.

(*) Clarifying: It's not secession; it's federalism
I just received an email from Alek Boyd of VCrisis

First off governors of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija have been democratically elected, as Morales. Ergo that rules out accusations about lacking democratic credentials the official propaganda machine is leveling against them.

Second, they are not seeking independence. Contrary to what the MSM is publishing the autonomic statute in first article states:

"Santa Cruz se convierte en Departamento Autónomo, como expresión de la identidad histórica, la vocación democrática y autonómica del pueblo cruceño, y en ejercicio de su derecho a la autonomía departamental, reforzando la unidad de la República de Bolivia, y los lazos de hermandad entre todos los bolivianos".

That is to say they are not proposing secession, what they are proposing is self rule in economic, education, tax and resource management issues.

Some of you may think that such a thing amounts to independence from Bolivia, however the prefectos have been very clear in that respect, their proposal is similar to the current system of autonomic regions in Spain.

Third, the issue of autonomic rule was presented to popular vote through referendum. In 4 out of the 9 departments (Santa cruz, Beni Pando and Tarija) the SI option, that is the one supporting autonomy, won. Ergo, said proposal is as democratic as Morales'-driven national constituent assembly from a strictly legal point of view, for if what Morales needed to rewrite the constitution was the approval of "the people" said approval was granted by "the people" to provincial statutes of self rule in those regions.

Fourth, Morales' constituent proposal has violated procedures, the most striking evidence of it is a) the seat of constituent assembly discussions to get the new charter approved was moved from Sucre to Oruro, so that Morales supporters could get it passed by simple majority [2/3 of votes were never reached], and b) the text approved in Oruro contained originally 408 articles as opposed to the one presented to Morales last Saturday which contains 411 articles. A drafting committee in charge of modifications has introduced 3 new articles which have not been approved
by the constituent assembly, therefore illegal.

Related links in Spanish: Gobierno Departamental de Santa Cruz, and Con los estatutos, prefectos controlan tierras y tributos. From reading this information it's clear that what the prefectos are after is a federal system like the USA's.

Special thanks to Alek for clarifying this question. My apologies for my mistake.

Previous post:
Links listed from most recent to older:

Bolivia set on collision course over autonomy

All the legislation - as well as a separate and especially contentious constitutional provision limiting the size of landholdings - has to be submitted to referendums that are expected to take place early next year.

"I am convinced that we will not retreat a millimetre nor move one step to the side," Ruben Costas, the governor of Santa Cruz, told tens of thousands of jubilant supporters waving the department's green and white flags. Mr Costas warned the central government not to send in troops or police. "This is a warning. Do not dare to invade us or militarise us."

Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando departments, which all announced autonomy on Saturday, form a half-moon shape around the solidly pro-government capital and heavily indigenous departments of La Paz, Potosi and Oruro. Two other departments - Cochabamba and Chuquisaca - are unhappy with the new constitution, railroaded through by an emergency session of a constituent assembly eight days ago by pro-government supporters. "The country has taken two different directions," said an editorial in El Deber, a daily newspaper published in Santa Cruz.

The deputies at the Constituent Assembly approved one version but Evo received a different one; VCrisis has the captures. The first version states that the power comes from the people while the second version stresses the preselection of candidates. Gateway Pundit has more.

At play? Natural gas, which Gazprom is eyeing, along with Brazil and Chile.

Ed Morrissey correctly points out

If these districts can secure themselves against the central government, this could get very, very ugly. Natural gas is their chief export and their resource for hard currency. If the breakaway districts can keep it for themselves and safely export it (mainly to Brazil), they can build a significant war chest while leaving Morales to feed the rest of Bolivia's poor in the west. That will prompt Morales to march on the east, perhaps assisted by Chavez in Venezuela, and a civil war will almost certainly erupt -- and sooner rather than later.

Publius Pundit, Blue Crab Boulevard are blogging on the story, while Marginal Revolution asks, What does Bolivia have to do to make the front page?

Bolivians Now Hear Ominous Tones in the Calls to Arms

Bolivia tense amid autonomy push

Cardinal Terrazas calls for peace in overcoming crisis in Bolivia

Bolivia Leader Is Mobilizing Armed Forces
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SPANISH-LANGUAGE WEBSITE OF THE WEEK
Two this week:
Penultimos dias, and Red Liberal Hispanoamerica

LATIN AMERICA and CARIBBEAN
The Bank of the South:
Bolivarian finance: The IMF can sleep easy

Caribbean nations, EU reach agreement on access to markets. The Caribbean countries are Jamaica, Barbados, Dominican Republic, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname.

Caribbean Net News is an excellent resource on the islands. Don't miss also HACER's weekly roundup

ARGENTINA
Marital bliss: A different Kirchner is in charge, but many of the policies remain the same

Irish Tourist Ronan Lawlor Missing in Argentina or Chile

ARUBA
OpenSEA adds members, promises smooth saling for 802.1x NAC

BRAZIL
Is Brazil changing its focus from income redistribution to income creation?

Energy: Brazil's not peaking

CAYMAN ISLANDS
Lesson 4: Not Every Disaster is a Disaster

CHILE
Insulza's Divided Attention

COLOMBIA
Pouty Hugo: "I Will Not Speak to Uribe For As Long As I Live"

FARC FAILS to Kidnap President Uribe's Two Sons

Uribe's anticorruption chief resigns

CUBA
Cuban diplomat seeking asylum in Spain

A Cuban diplomat who allegedly aided a dissident doctor in Mozambique has skipped a flight out of Paris to seek political asylum in Spain, Spanish daily El Mundo reported Sunday.

Lorenzo Menendez said he faces prison for helping the dissident but believes socialist Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will bow to pressure from Havana to deport him.

Zapatero is a weak leader, indeed.

BEATDOWN IN HAVANA!!... Castro Thugs Bash Democracy Protesters

video: Now you see the light

Huckabee does a flip-flop on Cuba

Huckabee Unaware of Issues Between U.S. and Cuba

Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty continue their campaign.

DOMINICA
One laptop per child project initiated in Dominica

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Pirate Captain William Kidd’s Ship, the Quedah Merchant, Possibly Found in the Caribbean

ECUADOR
Correa celebrates the Chavez coronation in Argentina: A faustian pact called bolivarianism

GUATEMALA
A post on Guatemala's new and more restrictive adoption law And Even More...

GUYANA
Relations between Venezuela and Guyana remain strained due to the continued incursions of Chavez's military into the other country, the latest of which was

Last November 15, a contingent of 36 armed Venezuelan military personnel, led by a general, forced the crew off of Guyanese-owned dredges and bombed the pontoons.

That was followed by unauthorised overflights by Venezuelan helicopters in Guyana’s airspace.