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,

Following Pepe Lobo’s inauguration, Mel Zelaya left the country, but promises to return.

I’ll talk about this in today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern, and you can also read my post at Real Clear World.

Related reading:
La Gringa’s Outside interference and Honduran reaction.

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. Haiti continues to be the top story, but in Venezuela Hugo Chavez is now closing RCTV permanently, continuing to consolidate his power. Seven students from Universidad Santa María (USM), a private university in the state of Anzoátegui (northeastern Venezuela), were injured after the police broke up a demonstration outside the campus.

AMERICAN POLITICS
Univision’s Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Rep. Xavier Becerra regarding President’s Obama’s 1st year (link in Spanish)

ARGENTINA
New Twist in Argentine Currency Fight

Argentina: Cristina Against Everybody Else?

BOLIVIA
Fidel: Protect Morales from ‘the empire’

BRAZIL
Brazil’s presidential biopic
Lula, sanitized: A film for the campaign trail

CHILE
Chile’s presidential election
Piñera promises a gallop: After 20 years, a move to the right

And the winner is, Chile!

Las exitosas Bicicletas Públicas de Providencia

Open letter to Sebastian Pinera

Chile unlikely to lead anti-Chávez bloc

COLOMBIA
Ecopetrol proven oil reserves up 35%; share price falls

CUBA
More on the free healthcare: Twenty-Six Cuban Mental Patients Dead

Cuba: What Globalists Want You to Know

LEAVE CHE ALONE!!!…I MEAN it!!! (part 2)

José Daniel Ferrer García, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 1/24/10

Repairs

ECUADOR
Lawyers for the Government of Ecuador Engage in Revisionist History – Myth of Jurisdiction Exposed

Ecuador Should Stop Interfering With International Arbitration Mandated by Treaty

Humor: Nueva Ley de Comunicación
¡Prohíben photoshopear lluchas! Un grupo de asambleístas considera nocivo el retoque de fotos femenino de contenido erótico.

HAITI
The upside of Yankee imperialism in Haiti

Debate grows in aftermath of quake: Should U.S. let more Haitians immigrate?

Post-earthquake chaos in Haiti
A massive relief effort limps into gear: The world’s attempt to aid Haitians stumbles against extraordinary difficulties of transport and communications

U.S. Military in Haiti: A Compassionate Invasion

And the meme goes on

HONDURAS
Pepe’s deal with Zelaya

Hammering Honduras

Honduras’s new president
Lobo alone: Picking up the post-coup pieces

MEXICO
Mexico: Halting drug war corruption

PANAMA
Supreme Court to Noriega: Bon voyage

VENEZUELA
RCTV international cut-off

¡ESTE PUEBLO YA NO SE DEJA “CARIBEAR”!

Tonight’s baseball game of the final series a hotbed for protests

A January 23 harsh on democracy: RCTV out again and Globovision is the last network in Venezuela to present the opposition views, the rest are pro Chavez or “neutral”, that is, silent.

Venezuela President Chavez orders TV station off the air

Chávez closes down opposition media outlets

Venezuela Orders Cable Providers to Remove RCTV

Hugo Chavez: Circling the Drain?
The Venezuelan would-be dictator has put his country in an accelerating economic collapse.

How Hugo Chavez’s revolution crumbled

During the past two weeks, just before and after the earthquake outside Port-au-Prince, the following happened: Chávez was forced to devalue the Venezuelan currency, and impose and then revoke massive power cuts in the Venezuelan capital as the country reeled from recession, double-digit inflation and the possible collapse of the national power grid. In Honduras, a seven-month crisis triggered by the attempt of a Chávez client to rupture the constitutional order quietly ended with a deal that will send him into exile even as a democratically elected moderate is sworn in as president.

Last but not least, a presidential election in Chile, the region’s most successful economy, produced the first victory by a right-wing candidate since dictator Augusto Pinochet was forced from office two decades ago. Sebastián Piñera, the industrialist and champion of free markets who won, has already done something that no leader from Chile or most other Latin American nations has been willing to do in recent years: stand up to Chávez.

Piñera was only stating the obvious — but it was more than his Socialist predecessor, Michelle Bachelet, or Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been willing to say openly. That silence hamstrung the Bush and the Obama administrations, which felt, rightly or wrongly, that they should not be alone in pointing out Chávez’s assault on democracy. Piñera has now provided Washington an opportunity to raise its voice about Venezuelan human rights violations.

He has done it at a moment when Chávez is already reeling from diplomatic blows. Honduras is one. Though the country is tiny, the power struggle between its established political elite and Chávez acolyte Manuel Zelaya turned into a regional battle between supporters and opponents of the Chávez left — with Brazil and other leftist democracies straddling the middle.

The outcome is a victory for the United States, which was virtually the only country that backed the democratic election that broke the impasse. Honduras is the end of Chávez’s crusade to export his revolution to other countries. Bolivia and Nicaragua will remain his only sure allies. Brazil’s Lula, whose tolerance of Chávez has tarnished his bid to become a global statesman, will leave office at the end of this year; polls show his party’s nominee trailing a more conservative candidate.

Haiti only deepens Chávez’s hole. As the world watches, the United States is directing a massive humanitarian operation, and Haitians are literally cheering the arrival of U.S. Marines. Chávez has no way to reconcile those images with his central propaganda message to Latin Americans, which is that the United States is an “empire” and an evil force in the region.

The week’s posts and podcasts:
Bill for Haiti czar? 15 Minutes on Latin America
Hope among the ruins: the @USNSComfort VIDEO
Just what Haiti needs: John Edwards
Zeyala to go, Nancy rejects the Bill, and other roundup items with VIDEO
Anti-Americanism and the Haiti earthquake: 15 Minutes on Latin America

Post re-edited for omitted items.

Please note there will be no podcast tomorrow due to an appointment change.

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. I had planned to do a regular Carnival as usual, but today received this email from The Anchoress,

These most recent updates by this missionary are sounding very grim, indeed. You read them and realize you are reading a modern psalm – that these people are in the midst of an Old Testament crisis. The missionary’s camp, thirty miles from Port au Prince, has seen no help; thieves are being killed outright, as there is no law, no jails.

Also, the Team Rubicon stuff is fascinating. A small group of Marines, medical personnel and Jesuits managing to avoid the bureaucratic red tape and get to work. Yes, I am link whoring, not because I’m greedy but because Ed’s story needs telling and the Team Rubicon needs funding. If you could link, I would appreciate it very much.

You must go read her post, The Living Psalm of Haiti

As so many turn their focus to the special (and possibly controversial) election in Massachusetts, I continue to receive updates from a Haiti-stationed missionary named Ed (via DeLynn), some of which I have shared with you here and here and here, and which cannot be ignored. Ed is outside of Port au Prince, and I have been particularly interested in his reports because, while Port au Prince is getting massive attention, there are people even 50 miles away from that epicenter whose lives are also in a complete shambles. While we hear that supplies and help are on the ground in PAP, Ed writes of seeing helicopters pass by but no relief, “noting on the ground yet,” day after day.

You must go read the rest.

OTHER NEWS AND BLOGS ON THE HEMISPHERE:
ARGENTINA
Cristina Kirchner, el Jefe de Estado más impopular de América

CHILE
Chile mira adelante tras la elección presidencial de Piñera

What the left really fears about Chile’s new president

Won by a 52-48 percent margin: Piñera echoes calls by JFK, Obama

The Dominoes Begin to Fall: Chile’s Leftists Lose Presidency After 52 Years in Power

CUBA
Chemical and Biological Weapons in Cuba

ECUADOR
Ecuador’s president
Smile turns to frown: Blackouts of power and news

Ecuador: La prepotencia del poder – por Carlos de la Torre

Ecuador: ¿Tres o trescientos años? – por Antonio Rodríguez Vicéns

HAITI
Memo to President Obama: Haitians are asking for Marines, not the State Department

Haiti after the quake

Medics liken Haiti to a war-ravaged zone

Haiti’s earthquake
Catastrophe in the Caribbean:
One of the world’s most vulnerable countries is devastated by a murderous earthquake

Security fears mount in lawless post-earthquake Haiti

U.S. task force commander for Haitian relief says logistics remain stumbling block

Stop trivializing tragedies

Strong quake hits Haiti, collapsing hospital

HONDURAS
Micheletti awarded the Brass Balls Award La imagen: Micheletti homenajeado como el ‘héroe de los huevos de oro’

JAMAICA
Hillary Clinton says Jamaica has pivotal role in Haiti’s recovery

PANAMA
Rodelag Fire

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico: What you must see on a quick trip to the island

VENEZUELA
Venezuela’s devaluation
The weakening of the “strong bolívar”: In a harsher world Venezuela faces a reckoning

Milicianos cuestionan a Hugo Chávez

This week’s posts and podcasts
Chavez accuses US of using the earthquake as pretext for military occupation
The Haitian Exodus
Chile’s new president: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Chile: Runoff election today
Haitians granted Temporary Protection Status
Earthquake in Haiti? Blame global warming, and the USA
Earthquake in Haiti, UPDATED with VIDEO
The constitutional showdown in Argentina: 15 Minutes on Latin America

At Real Clear World,
Disastrous earthquake in Haiti

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. The two top stories of the week are the Venezuelan currency devaluation, and Argentina’s Central Bank dispute.

LATIN AMERICA
Threat of Terrorism in Latin America

Today’s roundup at The Americano

ARGENTINA
Argentine Leader Fights Bank Move

Argentina’s bank grab
The reserves, or your job: The president’s ultimatum to her Central Bank chief

BRAZIL
Brazil reflects on Lula’s last year

Lula and the generals
Don’t look back: The army blocks a truth commission

CUBA
The Vigil brothers, Cuban Political Prisoners of the Week, 1/10/10

En memoria de Gloria Amaya

Reggaeton

U.S. says contractor arrested in Cuba is no spy

500 Cuban Doctors Manage to Defect Via Venezuela

ECUADOR
Flota aerea Taura trasladada desde ayer a la base de Manta

Ecuador Orgs Reiterates Solidarity with Cuba

HONDURAS
Guest blog: Diaspora, remittances and immigration

MEXICO
A peaceful getaway or a lawless frontier?

Mexican Cartel Skins Rival’s Face, Stitches It on Soccer Ball

Tijuana reels amid a surge of violence
After some gains in Mexico’s drug war in 2009, Tijuana has had a bloody turn of events in the new year. More than a dozen people, four of them students, were reported slain in the last week.

Organised crime in Mexico
Outsmarted by Sinaloa: Why the biggest drug gang has been least hit

A Mexican cult
Death in holy orders: Syncretism in the era of the drug baron. There is a novel on this, named La Virgen de los sicarios, and a movie of the same name.

NICARAGUA
Foto (del abuso) familiar

PANAMA
How to be a wheeler-dealer

PARAGUAY
Señor Topocho

PERU
Peru’s Interbank Names Interim General Manager

PUERTO RICO
Good news: Puerto Rico to Become Cruise Ship Hub of Caribbean

VENEZUELA
Chavez’s 3-Tiered Currency System May Spur Inflation

Venezuelan devaluation and Giordani for dummies!

Chavez Says Dollars Were Sold Very Cheap at Old Rate

By subscription: Chavez To Activate $1 Billion Fund

Chavez’s Devaluation Leaves Venezuelans Jittery About His “Socialism of the 21st Century”

Special thanks to the Baron, Eneas, Maggie and Vlad

The week’s posts and podcasts:
Chavez devalues the currency: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Oliver Stone: “We can’t judge people as only ‘bad’ or ‘good.’”
Chavez devalues currency, creates a distraction
Court reinstates head of Argentina’s Central Bank
Argentina’s central bank impasse: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Al-Qaeda and the FARC – together? 15 Minutes on Latin America
Argentina’s Central Bank director resigns: 15 Minutes on Latin America

Michael Fumento reviews Barbara Ehrenreich’s book, Bright Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America, in his article, The Negative Side Of Positive Thinking

Unhinged optimism is pervasive, but the real culprits are those who profit from it: motivational speakers and writers, “life coaches” and various gurus, as well as the “pastorpreneurs” of the “prosperity gospel” movement. These chuck aside Christ’s teachings to declare that “God wants us to … have plenty of money to fulfill the destiny He has laid out for us.”

Yet all these scoundrels themselves admit positivism is a mass delusion, describing it variously as “self-hypnosis,” “mind control” and “thought control.” In other words, says Ehrenreich, “it requires deliberate self-deception, including a constant effort to repress or block out unpleasant possibilities and ’negative’ thoughts.”

If it isn’t obvious to you why blissful ignorance isn’t a good goal, Ehrenreich provides numerous reasons.

For the cancer patient who’s told malignancies can be eliminated with cheerfulness, “failure” weighs “like a second disease,” she says. Indeed, while you constantly hear that you can have it all if only you believe that you can, Ehrenreich says, “there is the darker message that if you don’t have all that you want, if you feel sick, discouraged, or defeated, you have only yourself to blame.”

Likewise, in our moral system, says Ehrenreich, “either you look on the bright side, constantly adjusting your attitude and revising your perceptions—or you go over to the dark side.” As Anthony on the Twilight Zone would have put it, “You’re a very bad man!” Next thing you know, you’ve been whisked away to the corn field.

You see, negative attitudes not only drag you down but are contagious, hence the advice of many motivational speakers and writers and “life coaches” to, as one book exhorts, “GET RID OF NEGATIVE PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE.” But eschewing realists and pessimists is dangerous because they act as a brake on irrational exuberance. Maybe your mood should be deflated.

I have had to distance myself from negative people, but it was not because they “acted as a brake on irrational exuberance”; it was because they were undermining actively every damn thing I attempted to do. There’s a difference.

I read Ehrenreich’s book, recommend it, and agree with Michael and his conclusion,

The Serenity Prayer’s invocation to have “courage to change the things I can” and “to accept the things I cannot” is a much better guide than anything Dale Carnegie ever wrote or that your life coach has to offer. Just remember that while life can be beautiful, pretending it is doesn’t make it so.

Not unrelated, ShrinkWrapped’s post, The legacy of teaching “self-esteem” in our schools

Here we have the legacy of the “Self Esteem” movement that has swept through Academia: It is bad enough that we are being led by a collection of overmatched, overeducated, under-experienced collection of empty suits; now we should also be expected to give them credit for how hard they are trying.

And, on top of that, we should be repressing negative thoughts about what a lousy job they are doing.

Joe Lima sent a link to Storyboarding the News: How the MSM Turned the Honduran Crisis into A Comic Book:

That is a storyboard that President Obama knows well and, as the Harvard law school graduate seems to prefer, one that requires little prudence and scant knowledge of the specific case at hand.

So on the day after a unanimous (15-0) ruling of the Honduran Supreme Court, a majority being justices from Mel Zelaya’s own party including those appointed to the court by Zelaya himself, U.S. President Barack Obama declared to a TV news camera that the Honduran “coup” was “not legal.”

No evidence was presented nor expected. On an MSM storyboard, balanced legal analysis is confusing, it hobbles the narrative. An easier fit is to offer news converted into a comic strip. Only pictures matter.

Because it’s all about the comic strip, the “feel good”, the quick fix – and the failure to admit failure.

Let’s not forget the attitude in the Obama administration that they are acting from a higher moral plane, and we ought to follow their dictates blindly.

On that subject, listen to Thomas Sowell talk about intellectuals and vision, at Uncommon Knowledge.

Welcome to the first Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean of 2010. I hope you had a joyful holiday season and wish you a prosperous and happy year.

LATIN AMERICA
U.S. diplomacy stumbles in Latin America
The Obama presidency was expected to herald closer ties after years of perceived neglect under Bush. But relations have soured amid the Honduran coup and Iran’s increasing ties in the region.

A Look Back at U.S. Engagement in the Western Hemisphere

Wal-Mart Picks New Latin American Chief

BRAZIL
This week’s must-read: 2010 for Latin America (the failure of Lula?)

Brazil Steers an Independent Course
Washington needs to rethink its assumptions on South America.

CAYMAN ISLANDS
Investors could only lose in Goldman’s Caymans deals

COLOMBIA
Álvaro Uribe’s Colombia
Not yet the promised land: A safer and richer country, but one that needs more jobs and better socioeconomic policies—as well as constant vigilance

Bombardment kills at least 18 Colombian rebels. Rebels my foot. They were terrorists.

CUBA
Why they want to end the embargo NOW!

The color of the highway

The New York Times: Carrying Water For Castro, Again
An inexcusable piece hails a Cuban musician’s Castro-approved visit to the States. No mention that Cuban dissidents receive beatings instead of visas.

A Black Market Finds a Home in the Web’s Back Alleys

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Police colonels jailed as Puerto Rican fugitive case widens

ECUADOR
The B-Cast: Ecuador, Hollywood & Trial Lawyers vs. Chevron = Liberal Hypocrisy

GUATEMALA
Hoping Luis makes it: OMG, I may be going to NASA’s Singularity University in 2010!

HONDURAS
2009 Rainfall Data, La Ceiba, Honduras

MEXICO
Earthquake near Mexicali

Drug Gangs: The Brutal Beast South of the Border

Insidious rise of Gulf Cartel
Interviews, files and court records trace a syndicate’s growth from small-time pot smuggling to a mega-empire with a hub in Houston

PUERTO RICO
Three Kings celebration observes birth of Christ

SURINAME
Racially charged violence claims lives in Suriname
A murder on Christmas Eve sparked vicious riots in the Surinamese town of Albina. Locals took to the streets battering, raping and even killing Brazilian and Chinese immigrants.

VENEZUELA
Highlights of Hugo Chavez’ wisdom in 2009

Invading Venezuela

NI GOBIERNO NI “OPOSICIÓN” PODRÁN FRENAR LO QUE VIENE…

Venezuela begins 2010 with electricity rationing; Chavez’s ‘Bolivarian revolution’ appears to be getting results.

This week’s posts and podcasts:
Bolivia’s prez wants to produce Coca Colla
If it’s cold in Peru, it’s global warming
The insidious rise of the Gulf Cartel: 15 Minutes on Latin America

At Real Clear World:
Hugo Chávez: Now It’s Time to Annoy the Dutch

Still cooped up in the tin-foil lined room at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, deposed president Mel Zelaya celebrated Christmas in Honduras as he sang some tunes into his cell phone. Noticias 24 has a slideshow.

Zelaya had plenty of visitors. La Gringa points out,

Several articles were written about US Ambassador Hugo Llorens’ visit to Zelaya over the weekend, but only the Honduran La Prensa and El Heraldo newspapers noted that he was accompanied by Zelaya’s three Guaymuras negotiators. Maybe the others didn’t realize the significance of that.

With all of Zelaya’s claims about what the Tegucigalpa Accord was “really” supposed to do (return him to office, as dutifully and erroneously reported by all of the news media outside of Honduras), no one seemed to notice that the three Zelaya negotiators never backed up his claims. They have been completely out of the public eye since the Accord was signed.

To me, that signifies that they were completely aware that there was no guarantee that Zelaya would be returned to office and that they only agreed to the congressional vote and the removal of any amnesty provision precisely because Zelaya demanded it.

For the time being, Zelaya’s stuck at the Brazilian embassy until a country offers him political assylum.

Which, by the way, the Brazilians are not about to do.

And no, he did not go to Copenhagen. Whoever organizer was who misled the public into thinking he was there, lied.

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The story of the week: the Copenhagen Climate Talks.

LATIN AMERICA
The ALBA’s sucre bill is no such thing

Noteworthy article from last February’s WaPo: Latin America’s Document-Driven Revolutions
Team of Spanish Scholars Helped Recast Constitutions in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador

ARGENTINA
Argentina’s Dirty War Orphans

BOLIVIA
Bolivia seizes land from TV network owner

Bolivia Pres Morales Calls For Billions In Climate Reparations

‘Mr. Bolivia’ wins world’s most handsome man contest

BRAZIL
Los pensamientos de Lula

Brazil – a hug from Lula

Roubini Says Brazil Real Overvalued, New Laws Needed

Resource-rich Brazil puts up its guard
The nation is reviving its space program as part of a push to secure its territory. ‘In the coming era of scarcity, we’re going to have to defend what we’ve got,’ a consultant to the Defense Ministry

CHILE
Another Test for the Chilean Model

Frei’s strategy

Chile’s presidential election
Piñera flies the flag: Sebastián Piñera, an airline tycoon, is well placed to break his country’s political mould. But he promises less change than meets the eye

COLOMBIA
Security in Colombia
Calling freedom: How mobile phones may help to deter kidnaps

Colombia to Build Military Bases on Venezuela Border

CUBA
Tell me again how American tourists can make a difference in Cuba?

For those of you who think Cubans actually own a house in Cuba, Karina’s patio is neither private nor special*

Before he left for Denmark, Hugo stopped in Havana: Fidel gives Chávez a breakfast sendoff

ECUADOR
Ecuador Parliament Discusses Education Law

GUATEMALA
Rash of public lynchings hit Guatemala
Mistrust of justice system to blame, experts say (h/t Islam in Europe)

HONDURAS
Guest blog: Enough is enough!

Manuel Zelaya: Eligible to lose Honduran citizenship

MEXICO
Mexico City backs gay marriage in Latin American first

Via Gates of Vienna, Islam is the new religion in rebellious Mexican state Chiapas

The City That Went to Hell

NICARAGUA
Pro-Iranian Chavista Daniel Ortega overturns term limits

PANAMA
Birds of a feather (sort of)

PUERTO RICO
Sotomayor disappointed by ‘wise Latina’ souvenirs. Let’s hope no one’s bought her one of the NY Times t-shirts for peoples of color as a Christmas gift.

VENEZUELA
As the adoring crowd cheers Chavez in Copenhagen, the environmental record of the revolution is abysmal

That “inherited” excuse getting popular with Leftists these days

VIDEO Chavez declares himself a Marxist:

Losers of the world unite – in Denmark

All you really need to know about them

Venezuela Imprisons Judge Who Freed Banker Without Trial

Venezuela’s Chavez accuses Dutch of aggression

Venezuela passes banking law raising government control

Morning Bell: The Hugo Chavez Case for Cap and Trade

Daily Gut: Green–It’s the New Red

Anunciantes que abandonaron a Tiger Woods acuden al Presidente Chávez

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
Putting our economy in the hands of Chavez fans

The week’s posts and podcasts:
Jake Tapper picks up the scent of Chavez’s sulfur
Chavez: Obama smells of sulfur, too
Chile’s new prosperity: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Chavez does Denmark
At Real Clear World:
Former Sinaloa Drug Lord Dead in Shootout

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean – a day late due to several work and family related reasons. Thank you for your patience.

LATIN AMERICA
The FARC and the ‘Peace Community’

Dead End America

The Latinobarómetro poll
A slow maturing of democracy: More Latin Americans now trust the government than the army

BOLIVIA
Bolivia’s presidential election
The explosive apex of Evo’s power: A triumphant Evo Morales has won a second term. But the going will not necessarily get any easier for his social revolution

Drug lords finding safe haven in Bolivia

BRAZIL
Muslim numbers soar in Latin America’s Islamic resurgence

CHILE
Elecciones en Chile trasncurren con tranquilidad
Tres horas después de iniciado el proceso, el 98.71% de las mesas receptoras estaban instaladas; eligen al sucesor de la presidenta Michelle Bachelet y un nuevo Congreso

Via Instapundit, Impotent futurism: the design of Allende’s cyber-utopian boondoggle

Free As In Beer: Cybernetic Science Fictions from Greg Borenstein on Vimeo.

CUBA
Via The Corner, Cuba detains contractor for U.S. government
American was handing out mobile phones, laptops to activists

The frog in the pot

ECUADOR
Ecuador: Correa Announces Restructuring Of Central Bank

Ecuador media moves create waves

GUATEMALA
Aunque no renazca de sus cenizas

HONDURAS
Alas, I will *not* be asking how to say in Spanish…

Opinion: On Hondura’s Vote – by Otto Reich

MEXICO
Cartels stealing Mexican oil

Behold the Conquering Hero

PANAMA
Nice-looking eggplants

PARAGUAY
Paraguay’s president
Loose-lipped Lugo: Giving offence and receiving it

VENEZUELA
Banking in Venezuela
Fall of the Boligarchs: Hugo Chávez cracks down on allies

Ahmadinejad, Chavez and Mugabe Will Speak at UN Junk Science Summit

Venezuela: Bank Nationalizations

Purga política detrás de ofensiva contra banqueros

Venezuela: Agents Raid Brokerage Firm

Police commit 20 percent of Venezuela crimes—minister

Venezuelan government takes over farms

Cooling Hugo Chavez

DIALÉCTICA DE LA GUERRA CIVIL (claves para evitarla…)

The week’s posts and podcasts:
The Tehran-Caracas Nuclear Axis
The Venezuelan banks takeover: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Curly, Larry and Moe at Copenhagen Climate Talks next week
Orquesta Kef: Entry denied
Blogburst/blogacción: Free Darsi Ferrer NOW!
Honduras: Zelaya may be heading to Mexico? UPDATE: Nope.
Venezuela’s new Continental Bolivarian Movement: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Venezuela: “Thousands of Russian missiles” coming
The Panama Canal expands: 15 Minutes on Latin America