Fausta’s Blog

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The big story of the week: Cristina Fernandez seized the Central Bank

After a month of wrangling, Argentine President Cristina Kirchner succeeded in sacking central bank President Martin Redrado last week. In his place she named Mercedes Marcó del Pont, a Yale-trained economist who has expressed the view that central bank autonomy ought to be limited.

The opposition howled at the news. Felipe Sola, former governor of Provincia de Buenos Aires, warned that the new bank president “is going to do what the executive decides and they are going to modify the bank charter to justify her doing what the executive tells her.”

Of course that would seem to be the point. Mr. Redrado was fired because he refused to turn over $6.6 billion in bank reserves to Mrs. Kirchner, who wants to pay foreign creditors but doesn’t want to use treasury revenues.Ms. Marcó del Pont, if she wants to keep her job, will follow the orders of the president.

UPDATE
Welcome, Instapundit readers!
Please also listen to the podcast, Argentina’s Cristina seizes the Central Bank

LATIN AMERICA
Obama and the FTAs

ARGENTINA
Argentina’s reserves and its debts
Central Bank robbery: The president gets her way, again, but at a price, and visit the blogs and articles featured below,

El riesgo país es el matrimonio

BOLIVIA
PDF file: Into the abyss: Bolivia under Evo Morales and the MAS

BRAZIL
Brazil’s possible next president
Serra waits, a bit too patiently, for the presidency
The front-runner in Brazil’s coming presidential contest has done a decent job running its biggest state. But to keep his lead he must get campaigning

CHILE
El impacto de un gigante: “Mi negocio queda al lado del Costanera Center”

COLOMBIA
Uribe Vows Calm as Colombia Awaits Referendum Ruling

Colombia’s health reforms
Shock treatment: President Uribe tries to push through some much-needed changes

COSTA RICA
Costa Rica Debt May Outperform on Chinchilla Poll Win, RBS Says

CUBA
“Guardian angels”

Kenneth, What Is the Frequency: How CBS and Dan Rather Set Up Elian Gonzalez

Rage against the Marxist machine

Commentary: No ‘common policy,’ as Europe grapples over its future ties with Cuba

Cuba 1963: Inside castro’s prisons

Orlando Zapata Tamayo and Juan Ramón Rivera Despaine, Cuban Political Prisoners of the Week, 2/7/10

ECUADOR
Ecuador at Risk: Drugs, Thugs, Guerrillas and the Citizens Revolution

Cocaine trafficking keeps Ecuador anti-drug authorities busy
Seizures set a record last year for the country, which is growing in importance as a hub for shipments to the U.S. and Europe

Ecuador president says cops overreacted to insult

Humor: Por atentado a la majestad del poder
¡Correa se mete preso a sí mismo!
Asesores le aconsejan no volver a salir a la calle

Indigenous Groups Confront Rafael Correa
Ecuador’s Neo-Liberal Model

GUATEMALA
Conferencia sobre Evolución en Guatemala

HAITI
“Trop loin du Bon Dieu”

Haiti’s Crisis: Oil, Oligarchs, and The Groundhog Day Manifesto

The evil genius of the U.S. plan to destroy Haiti

HONDURAS
Honduran amnesty and truth

MEXICO
Protection through Integration: The Mexican Government’s Efforts to Aid
Migrants in the United States

PANAMA
Facts and rumors

PARAGUAY
¡Sinvergüenzo!

PERU
Chocolate and coca

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rican nationalist pleads guilty to charges related to 1983 Wells Fargo robbery in Conn.

In Hartford, A Machetero Pleads Guilty To Role In 1983 Wells Fargo Robbery

VENEZUELA
Via Instapundit, Venezuela: Chavez equates Twitter with terrorism

DEL “TAS PONCHAO” AL 26/9: ¿ESCALERA, BARRANCO O TOBOGÁN?

Murderer Ramiro Valdes comes for the 18 years of Chavez bloody military coup

CIA Factbook Draws Chavez’s Ire

Government Expands Business Nationalization Powers

From 2007,

In today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern,

Globovision video report of the demonstration, where Caracas’s Metropolitan Police fired tear gas, water cannon, and rubber bullets at students who were demonstrating for civil rights:

The gutsy woman reporter was in the middle of the whole thing and even continued to report after she and her cameraman donned gas masks.

As I explained in yesterday’s podcast, the students were heading to the National Assembly to demand the right of freedom of speech.

Chavez’s other celebrations included a large rally of his red-shirted followers, and a military parade.

Related reading:
Venezuelan police break up anti-Chavez protest

Venezuelan Engineers’ Association warns against serious energy crisis

In today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern,
More student demonstrations are scheduled for today; on February 4, 1992, Chavez led a failed military coup against elected president Carlos Andres Perez, and was jailed after surrendering.

Related reading:
Venezuela, a Country in Flux
“You can not take pictures in public parks.”
Chavez turns to Cubans for help with energy crisis

Mary O’Grady on the censorship push,

Today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern,
As Hugo Chávez continues to close media outlets, nationalize the economy, and punish demonstrators, he strikes out.
We are witnessing The Chávez Meltdown.

Related reading:
AP’s Ian James’s Analysis: Chavez’s socialist project badly hobbled

At a baseball game in Caracas, the crowd chants, “One, two, three, Chávez you’re struck out”

The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean will be posted later today.

Howard Zinn is dead.
Babalu and Red State show him for what he was.

Red State: Indefatigable Enemy of the Republic Dies

Howard Zinn, an immensely influential enemy of our Republic, has passed away. I prefer not speak ill of the recently deceased, but I can’t ignore it either. A prolific writer and a history professor at Boston University, he helped root generations of unwitting Americans in marxist principles.

Zinn’s warm demeanor and charisma often disarmed the young and naive, who digested his palatable anti-Americanism. Few radicals have done as much to warp minds, promote revisionist history, and transform generations as Zinn. His vile and popular history book, A People’s History of the United States, stands as a blueprint for politically correct history.

John Silber, former Boston University president, once referred to Zinn as an example of a professor who poisoned the well of academia. I couldn’t agree more. He may be gone, but he left a legacy that will take years to destroy, and we will destroy it. Republicans must fight the Democrats, but conservatives must never relent in their fight against the Howard Zinns.

Now more than ever.

Once Denny gets back to blogging, he ought to award the AOTW to Chávez again, to Alain Joyandet, and to Chávez’s buddy Daniel Ortega:

Hugo Chávez says U.S. is using earthquake as pretext for occupying Haiti

Speaking on his weekly television show, Chavez opined that the U.S. mission in Haiti was a ruse to initiate military occupation.

“I read that 3,000 soldiers are arriving, Marines armed as if they were going to war,” Chavez said. “They are occupying Haiti undercover.”

Alleged pedophile and Hugo’s buddy Daniel Ortega last Sunday also warned of US deployment in Haiti

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega says that the United States has taken advantage of the massive quake in Haiti and deployed troops in the country.

“What is happening in Haiti seriously concerns me as US troops have already taken control of the airport,” Ortega said on Saturday.
…
The leftist Nicaraguan president denounced Washington’s move in deploying military forces in Haiti, saying “It seems that the bases (on Latin America) are not sufficient.”

“There is no logic that US troops landed in Haiti. Haiti seeks humanitarian aid, not troops. It would be madness we all began to send troops to Haiti,” said Ortega.

Ortega of course doesn’t give a damn about the security of medical and relief personnel arriving in the island, much less the safety of the Haitians themselves.

Alain Joyandet, the French minister in charge of humanitarian relief, called on the UN to “clarify” the American role amid claims the military build up was hampering aid efforts, because the US is in charge of air traffic control.

The humanitarian catastrophe in Haiti is turning out to be a classic illustration of anti-Americanism in seven easy steps (h/t via Instapundit), predictable as it can be: for some, the US can do no right.

You know the Chávez-Ortega-Joyandet accusations are insane when France’s former prime minister Lionel Jospin came to the US’s defense following the Chavez, Joyandet, and Ortega statements, explaining why the US is helping Haiti.

For that, Chávez, Joyandet & Ortega earned the AOTW so far, but the week is young, so all of them still have plenty of opportunity to further disgrace themselves.

In today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern,
Chávez Devalues Currency Amid Oil Fall
Following the announcement, he stated that the military will monitor prices, and threatened to expropriate business that raise prices after the devaluation, in spite of the fact that the devaluation means that

45,9% de los productos adquiridos fuera del país a 2,60 bolívares por dólar ­correspondientes a alimentos, medicinas, algunas remesas y maquinarias­ estarán sujetos a una inflación que no estará por debajo de 20,9%. El restante 54,1% de las compras en el exterior, que se realizan a través de Cadivi, presentarán alzas de precios superiores a 100%.

45.9% of the products coming from outside the country at 2.60 bolívares per dollar corresponding to medicines, foods, some remittances and machinery will be subject to at least 20.9% inflation. The remaining 54.1% of import purchases, which are done through Cadivi, will have price raises of 100%.

The announcement from last Friday evening, which was not made during Chavez’s cadenas, created chaos in Caracas.

Miguel Octavio is Looking beyond the devaluation in Venezuela (Or trying…) and foresees another devaluation next year:

Let me explain. Let us assume that oil holds up and PDVSA sells the Central Bank for example US$ 30 billion. PDVSA will get some Bs. 120 billion to spend. This means that monetary liquidity will grow by a similar amount more or less. That represents an increase of 50% in M2, i.e. even if this money does not multiply, like it will, but let’s keep the argument simple. This means that by December monetary liquidity will reach Bs. 360 billion. Assume that the Central Bank will save US$ 8 billion of the US$ 30 billion, international reserves will reach US$ 36 billion.

This means that for each 10 Bs. in circulation in Venezuela there will be one US$ in the Central Bank. In contrast, today, before Chavez removes the US$ 8 billion, the equivalent number is 6.55 Bs. per $ and in a month it will become Bs. 8.24 per $. Well, as you can see this represents too many Bolivars searching for too few dollars, much like today. There will be 50% (it is actually more, but who cares?) more Bs. in December than yesterday. This will drive inflation and devaluation, as simple as that.Nobody seems to have told Hugo, in contrast with Argentina, where a Court has voided a decree to use international reserves to pay debt and stopped the firing of the President of the Central Bank by Mrs. Kirchner over the issue. Gee, if Chavez had done that with reserves, Venezuela would have no international debt by now, but Argentineans realize it would debase the currency and create inflation, precisely what nobody seems to have explained to Hugo.

Adding to the problem is that now there are two official rates, something Venezuela did back in the 1980s.

WSJ: Venezuela Devaluation Helps Chavez; For Others, It’s Unclear
Bloomberg: Venezuela Bonds Rise to 3-Month High After Chavez’s Devaluation
Reuters: Colombia fears pain from Venezuela devaluation
* Colombia-Venezuela trade already hurt by diplomatic spat
* Venezuela’s Friday devaluation makes imports expensive
* Bi-lateral commerce problems weigh on Colombia’s economy

Spain’s oil company Repsol announced that Spanish businesses (among them Mapfre, BBVA, and Telefónica) will lose US$1.4 billion from the devaluation. Spain’s foreign minister hastened to deny any effect of the devaluation “on Spanish interests.” The devaluation erased more than $1 billion in profits Telefonica has locked up in the country.

For more on the devaluation, go to Miguel’s blog, The Devil’s Excrement, and read on.

The Carnival of Latin America will be up later today.

… says Oliver Stone,

“Stalin, Hitler, Mao, McCarthy — these people have been vilified pretty thoroughly by history,” Stone told reporters at the Television Critics Association’s semi-annual press tour in Pasadena.

Lovely touch of moral equivalence between two mass-murderer dictators who ruled with impunity and an alcoholic senator who was taken down by a journalist, isn’t it?

That’s exactly why we “need” Oliver Stoned to explain it all to us, do we?

“Stalin has a complete other story,” Stone said. “Not to paint him as a hero, but to tell a more factual representation. He fought the German war machine more than any single person. We can’t judge people as only ‘bad’ or ‘good.’ Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and its been used cheaply. He’s the product of a series of actions. It’s cause and effect … People in America don’t know the connection between WWI and WWII … I’ve been able to walk in Stalin’s shoes and Hitler’s shoes to understand their point of view. We’re going to educate our minds and liberalize them and broaden them. We want to move beyond opinions … Go into the funding of the Nazi party. How many American corporations were involved, from GM through IBM. Hitler is just a man who could have easily been assassinated.”

Of course! It’s all the evil American corporations’ fault! That must be it!

But why should anyone or anything be faulted? If Ollie really believes ” We can’t judge people as only ‘bad’ or ‘good,’” why bother have any judgment at all? Why not instead whore oneself with thugs, exactly the way Olly does with Hugo Chavez and that oil money.

Adolf and Stalin were not available for photo-ops

Stoned has the stones to refer to history as “events that at the time went under-reported, but crucially shaped America’s unique and complex history of the last 60 years,” such as,

President Harry Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan and the origins of the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

since, of course, the media didn’t bother on either two “event”. But it’s all about empathy with Olly,

“You cannot approach history unless you have empathy for the person you may hate”

Well, if you believe that, you’ll probably sit and watch Olly’s history rewrite… with empathy, of course.

Let’s just hope Ollie wasn’t the talent behind that FARC propaganda video doing the rounds which shows the lovely pastoral agrarian FARC “fighting capitalism single-handedly” because no one else does.

Here’s the video, if you don’t remember it from the other day,

After all, the FARC would tell you they have been “vilified pretty thoroughly” too.

It’s all about the empathy.

The headline reads, Venezuela Says Its Jets Intercepted U.S. Plane, but the real story is this:

Separately, Mr. Chávez announced a currency devaluation for the first time since 2005. The president said Venezuela’s currency, the bolivar, will now have two government-set rates depending on the use, either 2.60 to the dollar for transactions deemed priorities by the government or 4.30 to the dollar for other transactions. The currency’s official exchange rate has been held by the government at 2.15 bolivars to the dollar.

This is bad news for Venezuela. Noticias 24 refers to the devaluation as “Hugo Chávez’s Black Friday.”

Therefore, is anyone surprised that Chavez is making up stories about Venezuela’s air force capabilities?