Fausta's Blog

While we’re wallowing in scandals in the USA, including the State Department’s Benghazi debacle, and while the Venezuelan people don’t even have toilet paper,

Venezuela Launches Cuban-Restored Missile

Yesterday, the Venezuelan government conducted the test launch of an Otomat missile, model MK2.

Eighteen of these missiles have been restored, thanks to Cuban specialists, for use by Venezuela’s Bolivarian Armed Forces.

Venezuela’s appointed leader, Nicolas Maduro, announced the launch (and Cuba’s support) with much fanfare, as well as the upcoming restoration of AMX 3 light tanks and EE-11 Urutú armored personnel carriers.

Nothing to look here; Of course, the countries within firing range and the users of the now-expanding Panama Canal may have reason to worry.

Surely the Venezuelan regime will claim it’s all for peaceful purposes, like their soon-to-be-nuclear pals the Iranians, who still have their direct flights to Caracas.

1. Last weekend Mariela Castro was in Philadelphia, where she received an award for her gay rights advocacy. Cashing in on the occasion, over in La Habana, the Communist regime allowed a calculated, state-sponsored rally to coincide with Mariela’s award.

2. Guillermo Fariñas is now traveling through the US and Europe to talk about human rights abuses in Cuba.

3. Six-day event in Pittsburgh targets discrimination in Cuba
Fidel Castro declared it nonexistent, but racism is still pervasive in a country known more for its rich culture

A group of Cubans attending AfricAmericas, a six-day event being held here through today, told stories that most U.S. blacks would find familiar, “but it is not like here,” said Manuel Cuesta Morua, who has been a tour guide, history teacher and a museum director whose political activism cost him his job. “In Cuba, we are all equal, but [blacks] can’t be in the media. We have the same education, but we can’t have that job.

“Here there are civic tools” and a justice system that can work, he said. “We have no political or symbolic representation, no access to the emerging economy” and no avenues to leadership positions.

4. Barbara Walters is retiring. Back in 1977 she spent 10 days in Cuba as Fidel Castro’s guest.

She came back with an interview that aired on TV, and a very persistent rumor that she boinked the dictator. Then she went back 25 years later, asked the same questions and got the same BS answers, like “we [Cuban Communists] don’t have the same notion of freedom as you”,

Since Fidel’s not available for interviews, but the regime needs money, expect more dissidents being allowed to travel abroad and that Mariela will get more awards.

The real test comes when the dissidents return to the island-prison. So far, it does not bode well.

The big news this week, Fascist Venezuela: The end of the National Assembly

ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires Lures Foreign Buyers
A hunger for stable U.S. dollars is creating opportunities for buyers to nab steeply discounted properties. As long as the properties are owned by sellers willing to do a foreign-account-to-foreign-account sale, that is.

BOLIVIA
Bolivia throws out USAID

BRAZIL
Dams in the Amazon
The rights and wrongs of Belo Monte
Having spent heavily to make the world’s third-biggest hydroelectric project greener, Brazil risks getting a poor return on its $14 billion investment

Shock over latest Brazil bus rape
Police in Brazil are looking for a man who raped a woman on a moving Rio de Janeiro bus, in a case that has shocked the host nation of the football 2014 World Cup.

CHILE
Statistics in Chile
How many Chileans?

COLOMBIA
Colombian government FARC peace talks, first 6 months

CUBA
Political Change in Cuba so that Everything Remains the Same

FBI Adds Cop Killer Joanne Chesimard To Most Wanted Terrorist List
She Was Convicted Of Gunning Down A New Jersey State Trooper In 1973

In poor health, Cuban prisoner of conscience Marcos Lima released from jail

COSTA RICA
Costa Rica Declares Obama Visit a National Holiday

ECUADOR
Judge dismisses $19B Ecuador judgment against Chevron’s Canadian subsidiary

MEXICO
Obama In Mexico Gives Cartels Short Shrift

Evolving U.S.-Mexico Relations and Obama’s Visit

Mexico’s Drug War and Booming Economy

THE GANG OF EIGHT’S TORRENT OF IMMIGRANTS: IS THE REAL NUMBER 57 MILLION?

NICARAGUA
Nicaragua cloud forest ‘under siege’
Indigenous communities say that illegal logging and land speculators are threatening Central America’s most important tropical forest.

PUERTO RICO
Another top university official in Puerto Rico resigns amid protest

URUGUAY
‘Breaking the wall of impunity’ in Uruguay
Uruguayan judges and prosecutors begin to defy the Supreme Court of Justice’s closure of human rights investigations.

VENEZUELA
For foreign non-illustrated media and chavista supporters: chavismo media lock up

Mario Vargas Llosa: La muerte lenta del chavismo
PIEDRA DE TOQUE. Al mismo tiempo que el Gobierno de Nicolás Maduro convertía el Parlamento en un aquelarre de brutalidad, la represión se amplificaba y se detenía a funcionarios por votar a la oposición

The week’s posts and podcast:
About cinco de mayo, the American holiday

Venezuela: 50 shades of crazy

Obama in Costa Rica

Cuba sheltering Most Wanted Terrorist

Venezuela: The Cuban perp?

Obama heads to Mexico

Fascist Venezuela: The end of the National Assembly

Bolivia: No term limit for Evo

Ecuadorian Ambassador to Peru allegedly kicks a woman in public

Cuba’s message to dissidents: You had your trip, now we’re coming after you

Immigration from south of the Mexican border

Podcast: In Silvio Canto’s podcast.

A meteor lit up the night last Sunday in Argentina, but the big news wasn’t the meteor, it was the courts. Mary O’Grady writes on how Kirchner Targets Argentina’s Judiciary

Congressional midterm elections are set for October and the kirchneristas are desperate to win a majority so that they can change the law to allow the president to run for a third term. To reach that goal, the government decided that more cooperation from the courts is in order.

Mrs. Kirchner’s government drafted and Congress has now approved a law that, among other things, does away with existing rules for picking members of the magistrate council, the body that chooses and can impeach federal judges. Those rules ensured that the council would be made up of a politically mixed group of individuals chosen by politicians, judges, lawyers and academics.

In their place, the reform stipulates that the council will be elected by popular vote in the same election that chooses the president—raising the likelihood that the executive will control the judiciary. If 51% of voters want judges who will strip the other 49% of their property, so be it. The reform also limits to six months any injunction against a government policy, conveniently destroying the protection that Clarin now enjoys. There will also be new appellate courts with judges appointed by the council.

Caudilla Cristina: divide the opposition, take control of all the institutions, demonize a foreign country to create a common enemy.
ARGENTINA
36 Hours in Salta, Argentina

BRAZIL
‘Problems’ as Maracana stadium reopens in Rio

CARIBBEAN
US tries new aerial tools in Caribbean drug fight (H/T DP)

COLOMBIA
Colombia’s FARC guerrillas thank US lawmakers for supporting Havana peace process

CUBA
Rosa Maria Paya, you have the Castro dictatorship’s attention

Note to AP: Mariela Castro is a Cuban Regime Official

Woman indicted in Cuba spy case is in Sweden and out of U.S. reach

ECUADOR
Government of Ecuador to sue newspaper La Hora for a third time

GUATEMALA
Guatemala’s genocide trial
Playing for time
The spectre of never-ending impunity returns to a divided country

MEXICO
USDA/Mexico Spanish-language flyer: Get kids on food stamps without showing documents

Thirteen die in Mexico prison battle
At least 13 people die and dozens are injured after fighting breaks out between rival groups of inmates at a prison in central Mexico.

PANAMA
Fossil of “most ancient” monkey of Americas found in Panama Canal

PARAGUAY
Paraguay’s elections
Return of the Colorados
A tobacco magnate promises change in one of South America’s poorest countries

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico Teams Take Top Spots at 20th NASA Great Moonbuggy Race

St. LUCIA
‘Miracle’ survival after St Lucia fishing boat sinks

VENEZUELA
Arrestan en Venezuela al ex general Antonio Rivero
El ex general denunció en el pasado la “cubanización” de las fuerzas armadas venezolanas y presentó ante la fiscalía casos de intromisión.

Viceroy Maduro swears fealty to his supreme overlord King Raul

INFORME ESPECIAL: Resumen de los principales casos de represión del Gobierno de Venezuela a Grupos Estudiantiles. Enero-Abril 2013

General Carlos Julio Peñaloza
CUBA CONTROLÓ ELECCIONES MEDIANTE RED SECRETA, pag.14

Escuchen a Diosdado Cabello dando instrucciones contra Capriles en reunión privada en Margarita

The Cubanization of Venezuela: Cuba creates 5-million Venezuelan voters out of thin air

Chavismo: from XXI century socialism to XXI century fascism

The week’s posts and podcast:
Venezuela: Maduro has US citizen arrested

Argentina: The high cost of not doing business

Cuba: no off-shore oil

Venezuela: Persecuting Capriles

Argentina: Sunday meteor

Mexico: Striking teachers dig in their heels

Venezuela: You call that an audit?

Podcast:
In Silvio Canto’s podcast, talking to Jon Perdue.

In Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, at least according to the chavista-controlled board of election, won last night. Henrique Capriles Radonski demanded a recount, asserting that electoral fraud had taken place. Here’s his speech last night (in Spanish),

In his speech, Capriles said he wants the Cuban military out of Venezuela’s government and institutions. As Mary O’Grady said, The Castro regime wasn’t going to allow an easy victory for the opposition candidate who has pledged to stop sending oil to Havana.

By now, ballot boxes are turning up,

(PHOTO) Found in dumpster boxes of votes that Chavistas stole from the centers RT #Venezuela2013 #VenezuelaSomosTodos twitter.com/IvonneKinser/s…

— Ivonne Kinser (@IvonneKinser) April 15, 2013

@douglirodil RT @cynthia823: Por favor RT! Estan botando las cajas! Terminamos d recoger 1 en avenida en Puerto Ordaz twitter.com/Cynthia823/sta…

— ricardo colon (@Riccolon) April 15, 2013

Maduro’s acceptance speech was a double dose of crazy.

ARGENTINA
Argentina’s economy
Gaucho blues
A dollar shortage bites

Via The Argentine Post, a link I missed when it was first posted,
Argentina’s Plan for Iran

BRAZIL
Brazilian state of Acre in illegal immigration alert
The Brazilian state of Acre has declared a state of emergency after a surge of illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bolivia and Peru.

CHILE
Chile poet Pablo Neruda’s remains to be tested in US
The family of the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda has agreed to send his remains to a laboratory in the United States for toxicology tests.

COLOMBIA
FARC links with Al-Qaeda?

Evidence has emerged of a link between the FARC and Islamist terrorist groups in the North African Maghreb after two Colombian nationals were arrested in Algeria last month by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Spanish intelligence services.

Colombian authorities row over Farc jail terms
Colombia’s attorney-general has said members of the rebel group Farc could escape jail terms should a peace deal be struck.

Colombia’s emerald king
Death of a tsar

COSTA RICA
Via DP, National holiday turns violent as families blocked from president’s speech
Costa Ricans outraged that they weren’t allowed to attend the annual Juan Santamaría Day festivities in an Alajuela park.

CUBA
In Spanish: Jaime Bayly entrevista al bloguero cubano Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo,

Time to Occupy Beyonce and Jay-Z

US Treasury OFAC: Send Beyoncé and Jay-Z an Anniversary Present

Rosa Maria Payá denounces death threats against her and her family.
Rosa Maria Payá holds the Cuban government responsible for whatever may happen to her and her family.

ECUADOR
Quito’s new airport
A tight fit

HONDURAS
Smoke from nearby forest fires forces 4-hour closure of airport for Honduras’ capital

JAMAICA
Puerto Rican jury rejects death sentence in police killing

MEXICO

Mexico Is Picking Up the Peso
Reforms, Search for Risk Are Boosting the Currency; ‘a Cultish Characteristic’

Mexican Proposal to Allow Foreigners to Own Coastal Property

PERU
Rural development in Peru
The Andean connection
Diminishing distance, falling poverty

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico protects top US turtle nesting site long eyed by developers

Puerto Rico Agrees To Pay More Than $35 Million In Back Wages To Thousands Of Workers

SURINAME
Politics in Suriname
Guerrilla, rapper, gold miner…president?

URUGUAY
Uruguay president ‘sorry’ for Fernandez ‘old hag’ quip
The President of Uruguay, Jose Mujica, has apologised for apparently referring to Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner as an “old hag”.

Luis Alberto Lacalle, abogado y presidente de la Republica Oriental del Uruguay de 1990 a 1995 envia un afectuoso saludo a la Fundacion HACER de Washington DC desde el 25 Aniversario de la Fundacion Libertad de Rosario

VENEZUELA
Maduro and Capriles: tale of two Venezuelan presidential candidates

Venezuela’s presidential election
Voting in St Hugo’s shadow
In his search for a popular mandate, Nicolás Maduro ascribes divine powers to his predecessor but offers few earthly policies

Venezuelan blogs for their complete coverage:
Caracas chronicles
Devil’s excrement
Venezuela Nr=ews and Views

The week’s posts and podcast,
Venezuela: Maduro wins

Venezuela: two election day live feeds

A word on elected Latin American dictators

Venezuela: How important is tomorrow’s election? UPDATED

If you are in Hialeah tonight: Rosa María Payá event

OLPL en el show de Bayly

G-r-o-s-s: Bolivarian “sanitary” towels

Venezuela: Capriles Campaign Chief killed

Venezuela: The meaning of April 14 UPDATED

Cuba this morning

Venezuela: Violent deaths per 100,000

Podcast:
Talking with Silvio Canto.

This blog’s mission, if you want to call it that, is to highlight the intersection of American and Latin American news and events.

The expansion of the Panama Canal is a crucial event that, for the most part, has been ignored by the American news media. It’s going on right now, and expected to be completed in April 2015. It will enable super-large ships, called “Post-Panamax,” to cross, but it necessitates that ports around the world, and especially in the Gulf states are deepend to accomodate them.

Roberto Roy, Panama’s Minister for Canal Affairs and Georgia Tech graduate, met with Georgia governor Nathan Deal,

“It is a critical issue for Georgia and for Savannah,” Roy said in an interview outside the governor’s office. “The reason is that the shipping fleet is totally changing. It is not only a matter of the ships being bigger. The key is that the most important variable is the fuel costs.”
Roy said the new ships can carry more containers, which makes them more energy efficient with significantly lower fuel costs per container.
“That is the game changer,” Roy said.
…
Georgia already has received the necessary federal approvals for the project, but it will need hundreds of millions of dollars in order to complete the deepening of the port. Reed has been working with state leaders to build support within President Barack Obama’s administration and other Democratic leaders for the project.
“Georgia needs to do a hard lobbying in Washington to get approval for this dredging,” Roy said. “The message is the fleet is changing, and we are already late.”

Let’s hope the bureaucrats in Washington are listening. An infrastructure project of this magnitude should have already started in the US ports, instead of those so-called “shovel ready jobs” that wasted the stimulus money.

ARGENTINA
Debt – Argentina’s long-festering wound

The Argentine Debt Saga Continues: A COHA Side-By-Side Report with The Pan-American Post

Argentine bonds
Argy-bargy

HPOA Defense: Oxford Ph.D. Claims He Was “Duped” Into Carrying Four Pounds of Coke By Promise of Meeting Lovely Woman

BELIZE
John McAfee ‘captured on Belize-Mexico border’
The mystery over the whereabouts of millionaire software tycoon John McAfee deepened on Sunday night after his blog suggested he had been captured by police in Belize only for officials to deny they had him in custody.

BRAZIL
Brazil Tepid Growth Disappoints

Brazil’s Image Takes a Beating
Gang violence, corruption, and blackouts have created a PR nightmare.

Rousseff acts on Brazil oil plan
Part of a law intended to share royalties from Brazil’s oil fields across the country’s 26 states is vetoed by President Dilma Rousseff.

COLOMBIA
Colombia pulls out of International Court over Nicaragua
Colombia has announced it no longer recognises the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, in The Hague.

Farc peace talks in Cuba adjourned for a week
The Colombian government and rebels from the Farc have concluded the first stage of peace talks aimed at ending five decades of conflict.

CUBA
Linguistic Reforms

Will a new German law cover Cuban prostitutes?

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
A rum do
The new president faces a tax revolt

Remembering the Mirabal Sisters

ECUADOR
‘Free speech champion’ Julian Assange silent on the assault on free speech in Ecuador

GUATEMALA
Probe finds horrific sexual, physical abuse in Guatemala psychiatric hospital

LATIN AMERICA
Briefing: Secretary of State Candidates and Their Views on Latin America

MEXICO
Departing Mexican Leader Leaves a Mixed Legacy

Border BFFs: Obama, Peña Nieto Bond as Agendas Remain Suspect
And two Republicans used the occasion to introduce their DREAM Act alternative: the ACHIEVE Act.

Mexico, In Hands of a New and Unknown PRI Commanded by Peña Nieto

PUERTO RICO
Camacho case spurs Puerto Rico to examine brain-death guidelines

The funeral: Matando Dos Pájaros De Un Tiro, Cafres Celebran Reunión Anual En El Velorio Del Macho Camacho

VENEZUELA
China’s Misguided Hugo Chávez Love Affair

Another ordinary night in Caracas…

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Battling Bone Metastasis, Report Says

The signs are piling, the end is near (?)

Chavez’ Authorized To Leave Country To Seek Health Treatment

Cancer at the Heart
With Hugo Chávez in Cuba for yet more medical treatment, will Venezuela fall apart without him?

Infrastructure in Venezuela
Cancelling Christmas
Inefficiency is promoting autarky, perhaps by design

The week’s posts and podcast,
Mexico: Obama not attending inauguration

Argentina: Broken Bad

Venezuela: Judge Afiuni’s detention UPDATED

Podcast:
As Silvio Canto’s guest.

ARGENTINA
Argentina ex-human rights official charged with embezzlement
A former top official with one of Argentina’s leading human rights movements has been charged with embezzlement.

UNC professor, jailed in Argentina, has his defenders

BRAZIL
Brazil’s economy
A bull diminished
The economy has slowed, but there are still opportunities around

COLOMBIA
Colombia’s Ecopetrol Tops Petrobras As Biggest Latin Company -Study

Colombia to send 50 percent more natural gas this year to Venezuela

Political violence in Colombia
A blast from the political past

Twitter wars: Uribe vs Santos, in Spanish,

CUBA
Cuba after Hugo Chávez

Foreign investment in Cuba
Come and see my villa
The regime has taken to locking up businessmen

Repression, beatings, arrests, and imprisonment of opposition continue

Cuban independent journalist awaits deportation back to his hometown

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Republic Holds Presidential Election

HAITI
Never the gentleman, ‘Pay the f*** up!’ Sean Penn turns the air blue in Cannes with expletive-ridden plea at Haiti Relief benefit

HONDURAS
Probe underway in remote area of Honduras after gunfight involving U.S. drug agents

Honduras prisoners riot at jail in San Pedro Sula
Officials in Honduras say inmates have taken control of a prison in the city of San Pedro Sula

MEXICO
Van Jones rips Holder over Operation Fast and Furious: ‘We just don’t value all life the same’

Mexico’s Drug War: 50,000 Dead in 6 Years

Mexico’s drug war
Storm clouds with silver linings
A series of choreographed horrors belies an overall drop in killings

Obituary:
Carlos Fuentes, man of letters, died on May 15th, aged 83

PUERTO RICO
Supreme Court turns away suit seeking Puerto Rico congressional vote

TRINIDAD
Jihad in Trinidad

VENEZUELA
Chávez: Radicalizando la Revolución

The Little Known Story Of How ExxonMobil Seized $300 Million From Hugo Chavez

VIRGIN ISLANDS
Alleged blood diamond financiers tied to Obama Virgin Islands bundler

The week’s posts:
The College for Defense of the Bolivarian Alternative of the America: Latin America’s school for dictators

Venezuela: Debt Falls as Chávez Fails to Back Down

Border security is national security

Spanish company Repsol (yes, the same one whose subsidiary got ripped off by Argentina’s Cristina Fernández) went digging for offshore oil off Cuba and came up … empty:
Oil well in Cuba comes up dry, raises questions about future exploration
After reporting that it found no oil in its well in Cuba, Repsol will likely now consider leaving the country.

Cuba’s dreams of an oil bonanza suffered a tough but possibly temporary setback Friday when the Spanish Repsol company confirmed it hit a dry hole when it drilled a well off the island’s northwest coast.

The dry well will put more pressure on Cuba’s dependence on Venezuelan oil and means the government of Raúl Castro needs to continue nurturing its tight relations with the ailing president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, one analyst said.

The development also may temporarily allay fears of an oil spill in Cuban waters that could foul the Florida Keys and the U.S. eastern seaboard, although several other foreign oil companies have options to explore in Cuban waters and Repsol had contracted to drill a second exploratory well.

Repsol spokesman in Kristian Rix confirmed to journalists in Havana Friday that the Scarabeo-9 floating drill platform found nothing in a well in more than 6,000 feet of water about 20 miles northwest of Havana. The well will be capped, he added.

The announcement was a tough blow to Cuba’s hopes for finding crude that could fuel its anemic economy.

Jorge Piñon, a University of Texas oil expert who keeps an eye on Cuba, said the dry hole was not surprising because such things can happen, yet surprising because modern technology has significantly increased the chances of hitting oil.

A key question now, Piñon added, is whether Repsol, already battered by the Argentine government’s nationalization of its YPF branch earlier this month, will decide to cut its risks and leave Cuba for more productive areas.

Leave for more productive areas that respect the rule of law and property rights, guys.

ARGENTINA
Argentine war heroes revealed to be henchmen in military dictatorship

BRAZIL
What’s Behind Brazil’s Slow Growth?
Politicians in Brasília are depressing investment by placating manufacturers.

VISIBLY ANNOYED OBAMA GETS LECTURE FROM FEMALE PRESIDENT OF BRAZIL

Army sergeant receives 2nd highest military honor

CHILE
Progress and its discontents
A popular student rebellion shows that, as Chileans become better off, they want the government to guarantee a fairer society. Politicians are struggling to respond

The rich are the best Communists, and the NYTimes loves them: Camila Vallejo, the World’s Most Glamorous Revolutionary

COLOMBIA
20 US agents could be involved in Colombian hooker woe

‘Colombian miracle’ takes off

Juan Forero’s Interview with Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos (transcript)

When will anyone in the Spanish speaking media tell Pres BO to stop speaking in tongues?

Obama promises to tackle immigration reform in second term

Obama Promises Immigration Reform in Second Term

CUBA
What Pope Benedict Got Wrong in Cuba

ECUADOR
Ecuador: Failing Universities to Close

GUATEMALA
Juan Forero’s Interview with Guatemala President Otto Perez (transcript)

HAITI
Vaccinations Begin in a Cholera-Ravaged Haiti

MEXICO
Mark me skeptical, Net illegal immigration from Mexico: zero

Mexico shaken by two earthquakes in 24 hours
A 6.9-magnitude earthquake has struck off Mexico’s Pacific coast, the second to hit the area in the last 24 hours.

Car-saturated Mexico City lets bicycle riders rule the roads on Sunday mornings

PERU
Peru rules out talks with Shining Path over hostages
The Peruvian government says it will not negotiate with Shining Path rebels, who kidnapped a group of gas workers in the south of the country on Monday

PUERTO RICO
GOP strategists: Puerto Rico Gov. Fortuno is a sleeper vice presidential pick

Pricey gossip glossy’s new edition: ¡HOLA! Puerto Rico joins the celebrity news family

Weird news of the week: Puerto Rico paramedics detained in fatal shooting

VENEZUELA
Crime in Venezuela
No immunity here
A spate of kidnappings has embassies on edge

Chavez Predatory Appetite Sets Its Sight On Ripping Off The Workers

Chavez says ‘doing well’ after latest cancer treatment
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says his battle against cancer is “advancing” after he returned from a third round of radiotherapy in Cuba.

Chavez rallies supporters marking coup anniversary

The week’s posts:
Annals of smart diplomacy: Obama calls the Falklands the Maldives UPDATED

Summit of the Americas update: Hillary ties one on

A view from the Summit: A warm kiss

Colombia: Obama heading to the Summit of the Americas

After Chavez, the narcostate?

Argentina: Oil drama queens, and a king

Brazil: Dilma at the White House, another Latin American head of state slighted