The Lugar Report Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

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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The Groundhog Day Carnival of Latin America & the Caribbean

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

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 Argentinian economy Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

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 Ecuador default Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

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

This week's 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 day-before-the-presidential-election Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Crossposted
Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. If you would like your posts included in 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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FARC you, say Howes, Stansell and Gonsalves

John Hinderaker posts the possibility that Nancy Pelosi was indirectly contacting the FARC for a hostages-for-terrorists swap. Hindreaker states,

If this report is correct, Nancy Pelosi was carrying on her own foreign policy in opposition to that of the United States, trying to work with the socialist Hugo Chavez and the Communist FARC terrorists to undermine America's ally, Colombia. In normal times, this would be unthinkable. Given the crazed state of today's Democratic party, I'm not so sure.

Considering that this information was found in the FARC computers and that Nancy has been known to carry out her own brand of Hermes scarf diplomacy, this is not mere speculation on John's (or Mary O'Grady's) part.

Colombian president Alvaro Uribe is well aware of Nancy's duplicity and has called her bluff at least once.

Complicit also with the FARC are many of the NGOs - so much so that the ">FARC didn't question that an NGO would facilitate the helicopter used by the Colombian army to carry out the rescue.

The spotlight rightly belongs to the former hostages. Flopping Aces has the video of Marc Gonsalves speaking at yesterday's press conference:


Gonsalves said,

"I have seen how even their own gorillas commit suicide in a desperate attempt to escape the slavery that the FARC had condemned them to.

The majority of the FARC forces are children and young adults. They come from extreme poverty and have very little or no education. Many of them can't even read. So they're usually tricked into joining the FARC and they're brainwashed into believing that their cause is a just cause."

Keith Stansell proposed marriage last May to his girlfriend while he was still a captive, through another hostage who was released earlier,

But in a hopeful twist to Colombia's bleak kidnapping saga, Stansell, 43, grasped on the recent release of a fellow hostage, Colombia's former lawmaker Luis Eladio Perez, to carry the marriage proposal to his girlfriend.

Medina met the lawmaker at an airport, amid a throng of well-wishers, soon after his release. She had approached him for any scrap of information about her hostage boyfriend.

Instead, Perez plucked a flower from a bouquet he was holding and handed it to her. He proposed on Stansell's behalf.

"The tears came out of me... and he hugged me," recalled Medina, 36, a petite brunette who lives in Bogota and met Stansell on the job, as an air hostess. "I was sleepwalking, with the rose."

She said yes.

Thomas Howes has reunited with his family

The Americans, including Marc Gonsalves and Keith Stansell, were taken hostage after their light aircraft crashed in the jungle on a counternarcotics operation. A fourth contractor, Tom Janis, was killed by the FARC shortly after the crash, the company said.

I believe Keith Stansell is the man in the video I translated who said to the reporter,

"Tell my family, my family, the whole world."

The FARC is still holding 700 innocent people hostage. Ingrid Betancourt is exhorting Uribe to "rectify [his] radical, extremist, vocabulary of hate." Undoubtedly suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, Betancourt would do well instead to insist that the FARC release all their hostages or suffer the consequences of their horrible crimes.

(special thanks to Larwyn and VCrisis)

IN TODAY'S PODCAST at 11AM Eastern
You can listen to the podcast Here.
Our guest Jon Perdue, director of Latin American studies programs of the Fund for American Studies, will talk about the hostage release and what it means for the region.

Chat opens at 10:45AM and the call-in number is 646 652-2639. Join us!



UPDATE, Wednesday July 9
Chávez, Seeking Colombia Role, Distances Himself From Rebels

Crossposted



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The Colombian hostage rescue: Aftermath

UPDATED WITH VIDEO TRANSLATION
Please scroll down
Yesterday I stated that the hostage rescue by Colombia's military has changed the political landscape in South America. Last Wednesday Investor's Business Daily looked at some of the actors.

It's really early to explore the implications, but here are some of the more immediate:

1. Colombia has undermined the FARC to the point of having it on the run, killing its top leaders, and infiltrating its topmost ranks. At its height, the FARC controlled over 30% of Colombia's territory and terrorized the entire country. Colombia is about to end its decades-long civil war, and the good guys are winning.

While the really hard work is about to start - i.e., ending the stranglehold of the cocaine trade - the victory opens the possibility that that, too, can be attained.

2. The FARC started as the military wing of the pro-Moscow Colombian Communist Party and has remained aligned with Communists in Latin America, including Hugo Chavez.

(Please don't come telling me that Chavez is not a Communist. He declared himself a Communist on January 2007, as this laudatory article at the Guardian states,

"Socialism or death - I swear it," he said last week, and declared himself a communist.)

This is a blow to Communism in Latin America. To use Esteban Lijalad's words, "Today Che died".

3. Appeasement never works, and the only way to defeat terror is through relentless, calculated, strategic, effective force. This carries great implications not only for Colombia and Latin America, but also on the war on terror.

The BBC

The rescue has vindicated Mr Uribe's uncompromising position with respect to negotiating with the Farc and justified his refusal to make concessions in order to gain the release of hostages.

4. Hugo Chavez's dream of heading a Bolivarian empire in Latin America has been dealt a huge blow. The FARC, one of his key allies, is defeated. As Ingrid Betancourt herself said,

"agradezco los esfuerzos de Chavez, pero debe saber que los Colombianos elegimos a Uribe, no a las FARC".
(my translation:) "I appreciate Chavez's efforts, but he should learn that we Colombians elected Uribe, not the FARC."

5. Just as the bad guys get together - as Chavez supports the FARC, Hezbollah, and Iran - the good guys also get together for training and technology: The US has funded the Colombian government's efforts in its war against terror to the tune of $600 million/yr in security and antinarcotics aid (h/t Betsy), and Israel (h/t Atlas) provided training:

The Israeli consultation was focused mainly on intelligence issues, special operations and integration and coordination between different security elements. This was in order to prepare them for a coordinated and productive campaign within a short period of time.

6. However, it can not be emphasized enough that it was the Colombians themselves who actually planned, executed, and succeeded in a months-long operation, and who will continue to do the heavy lifting.

Clarification: To give you an idea of why point #6 is so very important, Simon Romero of the NYT summarizes the situation in one sentence:

The mission would require near perfect execution by a military that only a few years ago could rarely be trusted.

That is a hugely significant development, both in the symbolic sense, and in the strategic implications. It marks a new stage in the history of Latin America.

UPDATE
As to the rumors circulated by Swiss public radio and their unnamed sources, clearly the Swiss should stick to reporting on cuckoo clocks. Daniel casts a jaundinced eye on the Swiss.

UPDATE 2: Translation of Operation Check: Images from Ingrid Betancourt's rescue
Macker sent this video of the rescue, asking that I translate it:


Translation: Please credit me if you use this translation. Thank you.

Operation Check (as in chess): Images from Ingrid Betancourt's rescue
13:23:00 [Voice off camera] "...from this side... hold...hold...backlighting...backlighting..."

13:24:00 [Reporter, now in front of camera, approaching man in long-sleeve t-shirt] "Commander, may I ask you only one question?"
[FARC commander] "No, no, there's a rule and I'd be violating a rule."
[Reporter] "Allow me, only one question. Only one question, yes?"
[FARC commander] "Ask me in the helicopter." (chuckles)
[Reporter] "But it'll be too noisy. Let me ask you a question, so it shows."
[FARC commander] "No, it is..."
[Reporter] "Real easy one, Commander."
[FARC commander] "It's against the rules."
[Reporter] "Commander, one question, please."
[FARC commander, laughing] "No, it'd really be a mistake for me to give a..."

Video cuts him off.

Camera zooms to the hostages: man wearing black t-shirt, Ingrid Betancourt wearing hat, tall man in sleeveless t-shirt & baseball cap.

[Reporter, again off camera, while the tall man's hands are tied] "...of prisoners at the hands of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces [i.e., the FARC]. the people's army. We'll have the chance to talk with the three Americans being held by the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces. On politics, we can't talk about politics. Get closer [to the tall man], get closer."

13:27:30 [Tall man, getting closer to the camera] "Tell my family, my family, the whole world." [gets taken away]
[Reporter] "On politics, we can't broadcast, we can't have the group of prisoners at the hands of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, we can't..."

13:27:45 [Hostage with mustache, approaching reporter] "Yes, excuse me. I only have one thing to say: I have been chained for ten years. I am Lieutenant Malagon, of the glorious Colombian National Army, [voice breaks] kidnapped for many reasons by this guerilla."

13:28:01 [Reporter] "Words by Lieutenant Malagon. We can't broadcast them directly, we can't quote them but we know the suffering."
[Lt. Malagon] "They should be broadcast, because I have something very important to state...."

Gets cut off.

13:28:29 [Walking to helicopter]

13:29:11 [Lt. Malagon says something, voice drowned by helicopter noise.]

13:29:12 [Reporter] "We understand, but the restrictions, the press is restricted, it's not allowed."

13:29:31-13:31:49 [Sound off]

Once in the helicopter, Betancourt crying, hostages laughing, hugging, thumbs up. Betancourt & other hostage holding each other. Helicopter noise, unintelligible voices.

[Man's voice] "My God, man, thanks."
[Betancourt] "Let's give thanks for this moment."
[Man] "Who do you give thanks to, mother?"

Betancourt shakes her head.

[Man] "I always expected this, always. Ten years waiting! Ten years expecting it!"

Sound gets cut off.
13:38:45 Video ends.

Welcome, Power Line, American Power, Dr Melissa Clouthier, Conservative Syndicate, Irish Spy and Belmont Club readers!

Crossposted



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The Colombian hostage rescue video

Five people emailed me the video filmed by Colombian security forces during their rescue of Ingrid Betancourt, Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and the eleven other hostages:


Sam also sent a link to the BBC's article on the Rescue's political impact. The WaPo ponders Vindication for Colombia's Uribe

Much more (in Spanish) at Noticias24, including the full Press conference.

Cross-posted here.



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"Hostage Rescue Is Happy Coincidence for McCain in Colombia"...

UPDATE
The Colombian hostage rescue video
... says Elizabeth Bumiller of the NYT. The title of that article implies that McCain's visit had been planned to coincide with the hostage rescue.

Like any other conspiracy theory, that one is easily rebuked. Commenter Pat Patterson, at my Pajamas Media article, deftly and with a good measure of sarcasm points out the obvious:

That's right the Colombian government spent months arranging the infiltration of its agents, getting the intel on the location of the fifteen hostages and then sat around twiddling their thumbs until Sen. McCain showed up for a photo op. But since there are no pictures of Ingrid Bettancourt or the Americans holding flowers and shaking hands with the senator from Arizona then the whole plot seems like a terrible waste of energy. Maybe it was a conspiracy by FTD and not the CIA?

Moe Lane expands,

If you're wondering why a big counter-terrorism strike just happened to take place during Senator John McCain's visit to the region*, stop wondering: it was a no doubt deliberate decision on Colombia's part. Note that while they briefed the American delegation prior to the event, the actual operation took place while McCain was en route to Mexico. President Uribe wants good relations between Colombia and the USA, but he also wants to establish a certain separation. Bringing off a major counter-terrorism operation during, but independently of, a working visit by three US Senators should fit the bill.

Aside from the silly title, Bumiller's article makes a good point:

The timing of the rescue, which occurred while Mr. McCain was in Colombia, was in many ways a fortuitous turn of events for a presidential candidate who is using a three-day trip to South America and Mexico to try to show that he is a more agile foreign policy hand than his Democratic competitor, Senator Barack Obama. Although the timing of the rescue was a coincidence and Mr. McCain’s trip to Colombia had nothing to do with it, the event nonetheless put him in the middle of classified talks about covert operations with the head of another government.

What is no coincidence is that McCain's foreign policy experience outshines that of his rival. McCain's statement on the rescue highlights the importance of the operation while still reminding us of the hundreds of remaining hostages:

McCain, who was in Colombia Tuesday and Wednesday, said that President Alvaro Uribe and the Colombian defense minister had told him of the rescue plans.

"I'm pleased with the success of this very high-risk operation," McCain said in a release. "Sometimes in the past, the FARC has killed the hostages rather than let them be rescued. So I congratulate President Uribe, the military and the nation of Colombia. It is great news. Now we must renew our efforts to free all of the other innocent people held hostage. With regard to the three Americans and Ingrid Betancourt — they had been held many years, as many as six years."

Additionally, McCain supports the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, which Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat congress has been blocking.

The clear winners in this operation are Alvaro Uribe, all the hostages released, and the people of Colombia. The very big loser? Hugo Chavez. This hostage rescue has infinite repercussions in international politics.

Der Spiegel:

Indeed, it is Chavez who has been the big loser as a result of the positive developments in his neighboring country. With the fall of FARC, he has lost an important ally. His dream of a cross-border Bolivian revolution has failed, and at home he is fighting for his political survival.

There's a second loser in this drama: Nicolas Sarkozy. The French appeared to have been just as surprised as Chavez to hear about Betancourt's release on Wednesday. Paris had only just managed to establish fresh contact with the new FARC leader Alfonso Cano. Sarkozy had hoped that the French could score a coup by negotiating Betancourt's release and flying her directly to Paris. Colombian government officials had spoken reproachingly about what they often deemed to be politically motivated attempts at intervention on the part of the French.

Erik Svane notices that the French didn't take it gracefully: Frenchwoman: What Freed Ingrid Bétancourt Was Not President Uribe, But… "International Pressure" on President Uribe!, with "international pressure" meaning the French government, of course. They'd like to take credit for the release of one of their citizens, having failed at procuring the release itself.

The rescue itself was extraordinary: Counterterrorism blog calls it an Operation Right Out of Spy Thriller

This is a classic demonstration of how a country can use a mixture of law enforcement, intelligence, military, diplomatic and other mechanisms together, with a great deal of patience and tenacity, to achieve profound results against terrorism. It's an operation that needs to be studied, understood, to see what its lessons are for handling other hostage situations and other terrorist groups.

The political map has changed for South America. Let's hope the Dems in Congress get around to realizing that. For sure, the Dems claim that Pres. Bush has been ignoring Latin America flies in the face of this fact:

The US ambassador to Colombia, William Brownfield, said there had been "close co-operation" from the Americans, including the sharing of intelligence, equipment and training advice.

This Ain't Hell has Betancourt's first press conference


Venezuela News and Views reacts to the press conference

Betancourt has now been reunited with her family. Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes are back home, too.

Others blogging on the rescue:
Gateway Pundit

Prairie Pundit

The New Editor

Poliblog

In Spanish ElTiempo's report

Much more at Memeorandum

Special thanks to Larwyn and Siggy.



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