Fausta's Blog

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.

The head of the coca growers union can stay on:

Bolivia court says Evo Morales can run a 3rd time

Bolivia’s constitutional court says President Evo Morales can run for a third term in elections set for December 2014.

The court says language in the country’s 2009 constitution that allows for only a single re-election does not apply retroactively to Morales’ first term.

It’s the Bolivarian revolution way.

Last week Venezuela’s acting president and presidential candidate Nicolas Maduro officially inaugurated his campaign by publicly stating that Hugo Chavez had spoken to him in the form of a bird (but apparently not as a parrot). In the spirit of the occasion (all puns intended), and in keeping with a red Chavista shirt theme, I’m illustrating this week’s Carnival with the most famous red bird of all, the Angry Bird, instead of the usual map.

ARGENTINA
Argentina floods ‘catastrophe’ for La Plata, Buenos Aires
Emergency workers in Argentina continue to try to rescue residents stranded by flooding in Buenos Aires and La Plata

Pope Francis calls for aid for Argentina flood victims
Pope Francis has appealed for “civil and ecclesiastical institutions, as well as people of good will”, to provide help to the victims of devastating flooding in Argentina that has left dozens dead.

Fears Ease of a Default by Argentina

BOLIVIA
Colombianos manejan una red de préstamos en Santa Cruz de la Sierra

BRAZIL
Rio Charges Three Men With Attack on American, French Visitors
Rio de Janeiro police said they have arrested a third suspect and sidelined two police officers after the rape of an American woman over the weekend.

CHILE
Smoking in Latin America
Stubbed out
A bastion of tobacco addiction introduces a ban

COLOMBIA
Santos´ invisible and elitist cabinet

CUBA
Religious persecution in Cuba rises in 2012

Beyonce, Jay-Z turn heads in Havana

Washington’s 51-year embargo makes it illegal for U.S. citizens to visit Cuba for mere tourism, although tens of thousands of Americans travel there each year on academic, religious, journalistic or cultural exchange licenses.

Social Security says benefits can’t be sent to Havana
The U.S. Social Security Administration makes it clear that benefits cannot be collected in Cuba.

ECUADOR
Chevron Embargo Would Not Affect YPF Deal -Ecuador Plaintiffs
A freeze on Chevron’s funds in Argentina would not include any future investments the company would make in the country, according to a lawyer representing the Ecuadorian plaintiffs in the case behind the freeze.

GUATEMALA
Guatemala strongman trial hears litany of horrors

MEXICO
Are the Kaufman County Murders Connected To The Mexican Drug Cartels?

REPORT: MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS BEHIND INCREASING VIOLENCE IN THE UNITED STATES

Mexico’s new president
Peña’s promising start
A lot done, and quickly, but much more still to do

PARAGUAY
Paraguay’s electoral alliances and land deals

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico-Born Labrador Top Republican on Immigration

Puerto Rico moves to overhaul public pensions

URUGUAY
Controversia por dura frase de presidente de Uruguay sobre Cristina Fernández
El mandatario uruguayo no se dio cuenta que los micrófonos estaban abiertos y se escuchó en la transmisión en vivo de una conferencia de prensa al sentenciar: “Esta vieja es peor que el tuerto”

VENEZUELA
Venezuela’s snap election still pretty much all about Chavez

Nicolás Maduro Decide Solamente Decir “Chávez” Hasta Que Acaben Las Elecciones

Denuncian a Maduro de ser un agente de Cuba, fotos, video y audio

The week’s posts and podcast
Venezuela: And now the Macarapana curse

Uruguay: Open-mic fail

Cuba: Beyonce’s no-no

Maduro: Cuba’s Venezuelan Pawn

Cuba: More repression

Thursday night tango and blogging

Yoani Sanchez in Jaime Bayly’s show: en español

Crazy cult campaigning in Caracas: The shrine

Venezuela: Maduro opens his campaign by saying he talked to Chavez, who is now a bird UPDATED

Uruguay: Same-sex marriage approved by Senate

Argentina: Cristina’s discomfort

Podcast: Silvio Canto‘s

Cholitas are Bolivian women wrestlers, and they kick butt,

Bolivia’s Wrestlers
In the wrestling rings of Bolivia, skirts fly as cholitas fight back!

And now the Fighting Cholita is a collectible

Madame Alexander dolls new 8-inch fully articulated Fighting Cholita-Bolivia, with a Latin skin tone, brown eyes and long brunette braids with bangs, may be a female wrestler but she¹s a pretty one. She¹s dressed in a red and white micro check shirt, calf-length turquoise dirndl, pale green bolero style jacket, multi-color striped shawl and her black molded bowler hat. Metallic gold sandals and a guitar shaped like an armadillo completes the overall look for Fighting Cholita-Bolivia.

Don’t know about a “Latin skin tone,” since the wrestlers are women of Aymara, not Latin, descent, but you can buy two and hold your own wrestling match without anyone getting hurt.

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. This week’s big story: Pope Francis, the first Latin American Pope.

ARGENTINA
Behind the Campaign to Smear the Pope
Argentines who want their country to be the next Venezuela see Francis as an obstacle.

Francis

Pope Francis appears for first angelus
Pope Francis appeared before more than 100,000 people massed in St Peter’s Square on Sunday for his first Angelus prayer and asked the faithful to pray for him.

Muchas gracias for a ‘triple first’ of a Pope

Popes and Dopes
Some journalists are remarkably ignorant–or at least think their readers are.

Vatican denies Dirty War allegations
The Vatican has denied that Pope Francis failed to speak out against human rights abuses during military rule in his native Argentina.

Video: Will Pope Francis go left on economics?

Jaime Bayly on the Pope (in Spanish)

BOLIVIA
Earth to Evo Morales

BRAZIL
Brazil’s oil royalties
Counting the barrels

CENTRAL AMERICA
Presidential elections in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama

CHILE
Exhumation of Pablo Neruda’s remains set for 8 April
A court in Chile has set a date for the exhumation of the remains of the Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda, as part of an inquest into his death.

National Science Foundation Celebrates Inauguration of Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile

COLOMBIA
Colombia’s Peace Process Sans Chávez

CUBA
In First U.S. Trip, Cuban Dissident Yoani Sanchez Vows To Turn Up The Heat

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Report Grand Jury Investigating Robert Menendez

ECUADOR
Ecuador preacher sentenced for homophobic comments
The former Ecuadorean presidential candidate Nelson Zavala has had his political rights suspended for a year and been fined for homophobic comments.

FALKLAND ISLANDS
The Falklands referendum
Loud and clear
The islanders seek to sway world opinion by voting to stay British

British Media Focus on Bergoglio’s Falklands Remarks

This Map Helps Explain the Falklands Dust-Up

HONDURAS
Chicken and avocado stuffed naan

MEXICO
Chavez’s legacy is worse than Calderon’s

Spicy, Spicy

Mexico’s Education Breakthrough
Why February 2013 may be remembered as a turning point for Mexican schools.

PANAMA
FERIA INTERNACIONAL DE DAVID 2013

PUERTO RICO
Contrary to prior reports, Paulson Not Planning a Move to Puerto Rico

VENEZUELA
Body of Chavez makes final journey
The body of Venezuela’s late president Hugo Chavez is being escorted to its resting place in a Caracas museum. For now, that is.

Chavez madcap wake

Venezuela says permanently embalming Hugo Chávez’s body faces ‘technical’ difficulties

Latin America after Chávez

The Narrative of the Dead

Lukoil learns the hard way

ROS-LEHTINEN: Venezuela after Chavez: What comes next?
U.S. dithering won’t encourage democracy

The week’s posts and podcasts:
Yoani Sanchez in NYC

Crazy in Venezuela

At BlogHer, Francis I: The First Latin American Pope

Pope Francis I loves tango

BREAKING: New Pope elected – an Argentinian porteño

Falklands: The votes are in, but Cristina can’t believe it

Hugo’s mummy

Podcasts:
Silvio Canto’s

Willie Lawson’s

ARGENTINA
Pensions in Argentina
Now or never
The government drags its feet over compensating pensioners for inflation

BOLIVIA
Bolivia: Morales criticises Chile over sea and soldiers
Bolivia’s President Evo Morales has renewed his calls for the release of three soldiers arrested in Chile.

BRAZIL
Brazil’s zombie politicians
Unstoppable?
Despite serial corruption allegations, the old guard just keeps coming back

CHILE
Chile’s Sebastian Pinera visits wildfire victims

COLOMBIA
Colombian Farc releases two hostage policemen
Colombia’s largest rebel group, the Farc, has released two hostages held captive since 25 January.

CUBA
Cuban dissident blogger prepares ‘victory’ tour abroad

ECUADOR
Why Ecuador Matters

Assange: Total cost to police Ecuadorian embassy hits £2.9 million

FASHION

JAMAICA
Jamaica agrees $750m IMF loan terms
Jamaica has agreed terms with the International Monetary Fund to receive a new $750m (£483m) loan.

MEXICO
Mexico’s new president
Tearing up the script
Three months after taking office, Enrique Peña Nieto is rewriting his reform agenda

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rican food, beyond rice and beans

US POLITICS
“Cruz has taken the wear-their-scorn-as-a-badge-of-honor approach with his liberal critics.”

VENEZUELA
Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez in first post-surgery images

Devaluating the devaluation

The Gran Inquisitor by Miguel Angel Santos

The week’s posts,
Hugo Chavez reportedly back in Venezuela

Colombia: Good news on the Casona

Mexico develops cheap energy; USA not quite

Pope decided to resign after visiting Cuba and snubbing the Ladies in White

Podcast:
The US & violence in Central America

ARGENTINA
Energy in Argentina
Sparks in the dark
A half-hearted policy retreat

BOLIVIA
VIDEO SURFACES OF BOLIVIAN LAWMAKER ALLEGEDLY RAPING WOMAN INSIDE PARLIAMENT

Nationalising utilities in Bolivia
From tap to socket
Can the government do a better job than the private sector?

U.N. ruling heartens Bolivian coca growers

BRAZIL
Wrong numbers
More inflation, less growth

COLOMBIA
Colombian Rebels Kidnap Five Mining Workers

As Colombia aims for peace, some see the guerrillas diversifying
As Colombia and the FARC guerrillas negotiate peace in Havana some fear the rebel group is diversifying beyond the drug trade.

COLOMBIA
Central America’s tiny states caught in deadly crossfire of battle with cartels
Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and even tourist-friendly Costa Rica are now caught up in the drugs trade

CUBA
On revolutionary icons and news not fit to print

ECUADOR
IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF DARWIN

FALKLAND ISLANDS
Falkland Islanders to hold referendum on their future March 10-11

LATIN AMERICA
COUNTERING IRAN: A BILL SIGNED, SEALED, BUT WILL IT DELIVER?, via Joel Frewa.

MEXICO
China Plan Raises Ire in Mexico

Plans to build a large, permanent exposition center for Chinese-made goods near Cancún have triggered an outcry from Mexican industrialists who struggle to compete with Chinese manufacturing.

NICARAGUA
Nicaragua sentences 18 Mexicans to 30 years

PUERTO RICO
Despite Advocates’ Claims, No Clear Consensus on Puerto Rican Statehood

Puerto Rican Stars Gear Up for World Baseball Classic, via Dick.

VENEZUELA
Pablo Medina denuncia presencia de 4.500 militares cubanos en Fuerte Tiuna

Is Hugo Chavez Schrödinger’s Cat?

Chávez’s useful idiots
The demagogue of Caracas has helped sustain a long tradition of left-wing fellow travelling

Another day, another scandal. Or is it all planned provocation?

ezuela’s presidency
Brotherly love in the Bolivarian Republic
With the president ill, who is really running the country?

Tweet of the week:

Dios bendiga a Venezuela que tiene ahorados presidentes… uno maduro y el otro podrido..

— Willie Colón (@williecolon) January 16, 2013

The week’s posts:
Venezuela, Cuba: Chavez deathwatch.

Holder withholding Fast & Furious docs

Ampuero now in translation

In Silvio Canto’s podcast

Hagel on Cuba: Feel the love

ARGENTINA
UK rebuffs Argentina on negotiations over Falkland Islands

The enemy within
A weakened president falls out with fellow Peronists

BOLIVIA
Duck Hunting of a Sort

BRAZIL
Brazil Plans Shift in Strategy
Brazil is shifting gears in its effort revive its troubled economy, away from aggressive currency and interest-rate policies to a more hands-off approach, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said in an interview.

Must have been a no-news week at the Beeb: Cat ‘arrested’ for break-in at Brazilian prison.

CHILE
Chile land owners killed in ‘arson attack’
A Chilean landowner and his wife, who were involved in a land dispute with a local indigenous group, have been killed in a suspected arson attack.

Victor Jara murder: Chile arrests ex-army officers

COLOMBIA
COLOMBIA FIRM MAKES ARMORED CLOTHES FOR KIDS

CUBA
The EU’s Immoral Ambassador to Cuba

How Castro Rules Venezuela

Christopher Kennedy Lawford, JFK’s Nephew: Fidel Castro Was ‘An Amazing Guy’

HAITI
Still waiting for recovery
Three years after a devastating earthquake, the “Republic of NGOs” has become the country of the unemployed

HONDURAS
Honduras investigates Bogota embassy Christmas party
Honduras has said it is setting up a commission to investigate reports that a wild Christmas party was held at its embassy in the Colombian capital.

PANAMA
The Popeil Pocket Fisherman and the Croc

PUERTO RICO
Notable 2012 Art Exhibitions in San Juan, Puerto Rico

URUGUAY
After Years in Solitary, an Austere Life as Uruguay’s President

VENEZUELA
WEEKEND AT HUGO’S

Matilda He Take The Money and Ruin Venezuela

OLIVER STONE: CHAVEZ REPRESENTS ‘THE THINGS OBAMA STOOD FOR IN OUR COUNTRY IN 2008′

VENEZUELA SLAMS ‘PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR’ OVER CHAVEZ HEALTH

Venezuela: Split leadership

Venezuela National Assembly meets amid Chavez crisis

The week’s posts and podcast:
Cuban regime orchestrating Venezuelan transition

Report: Iran’s spy network

Argentina: Diplomacy by advert

Chavez on life support

Podcast: US-Latin America: The year in review

ARGENTINA
Argentina Court Declines Intervention in Media Case

Argentina Congress hosts “Islam for peace” seminar

Muslims sense of belonging in Argentina, ratifying their right and proud to be Argentine citizens, challenges the sense of injustice that the Muslim community faces, unjustly, in the 21st century-world.

via Gates of Vienna

BOLIVIA
Spain’s Iberdrola Has 4 Units Taken Over by Bolivian State

Coca Licensing Is a Weapon in Bolivia’s Drug War

BRAZIL
High Stakes in Brazil After Outage
A day after power outages left travelers at Rio de Janeiro’s international airport in the dark, President Dilma Rousseff tried to calm fears that Brazil was facing the kind of energy shortages that upended national politics a decade ago.

Corruption in Brazil
A healthier menu
As the historic trial of those guilty of a legislative votes-for-cash scheme draws to a close, Brazilians digest the verdict

Obituary: Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribiero de Almeida de Niemeyer Soares Filho, architect, died on December 5th, aged 104

COLOMBIA
Sister of Colombian Drug Cartel’s Founder Killed

CUBA
We came, we saw, we were appalled

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Hillary shall remain concussed while in Punta Cana

ECUADOR
Banana Republic v. Chevron

LATIN AMERICA
Latin America, the Mideast, and the Pope

MEXICO
Cartels Clash in Mexican Town
Armed men stormed a town in the mountains of the western state of Sinaloa on Christmas Eve and shot nine men, then dumped their bodies as part of a war between Mexico’s two most powerful cartels.

Old PRI, new PRI? In Mexico, a New Approach to Stanching Drug Violence

Mr. Peña Nieto’s six-point program includes better government planning; increased intergovernmental coordination; protection of human rights; more social investments and crime-prevention programs; additional evaluation of government programs; and institution building.

It also proposes a 10,000-member force to secure municipalities and states where law enforcement is powerless against organized crime. The administration has said it will focus on street gangs and criminals employed by the cartels, a shift from former President Felipe Calderón’s emphasis on eliminating top drug trafficking bosses.

PARAGUAY
Paraguay’s awful history
The never-ending war
How a terrible but little-known conflict continues to shape and blight a nation

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico Introduces New Guidelines for Hate Crimes

USA
Latino Muslims are shaping a new US identity, via Gates of Vienna

VENEZUELA
Seven more Years!

The week’s posts:
Mexico: 120-yard tunnel near the Nogales entry into Arizona

Where will Assad go?

Argentina: Squeeze and “creativity”

ARGENTINA
Looting Tests Leader in Argentina
President Kirchner’s Social Policies Are Criticized After Raids Spread to Several Cities; Government Blames Union Leaders; thing is, once you run out of other people’s money, you don’t have money to pay the unions.

Argentina looting spreads to Buenos Aires province
Two people have been killed in Argentina’s third city, Rosario, as a wave of looting spreads.

BOLIVIA
A tale of two churches

Senadora que demanda Justicia es amedrentada por el Fiscal y exige garantías

BRAZIL
Kerry Has Investments in Companies Accused of Violating Iran Sanctions

CHILE
Copahue volcano eruption puts Argentina and Chile on alert

COSTA RICA
Costa Rica: Security Chief Suggests Firearms Ban

CUBA
Teacher’s Day

ECUADOR
Ecuador top banker’s fake degree
The governor of the Ecuadorean Central Bank, Pedro Delgado, resigns after admitting that he lied about finishing a degree in economics.

GUATEMALA
Mayan temple damaged in tourist ‘apocalypse’ frenzy

LATIN AMERICA
John Kerry’s Record in Latin America
It isn’t that he opposes U.S. intervention. It’s that somehow he often ends up backing the bad guys: Sandinistas, Cubans, FARC, Zelaya.

MEXICO
Jon Hammar back on U.S. soil

Mexico Takes On Teachers Over School Control

PUERTO RICO
US and Puerto Rico Sign Police Reform Agreement

VENEZUELA
Chavez death watch intensifies

Chávez Is Conscious and Recovering, His Vice President Says

Dr. Marquina says no,

Doctor Marquina: Presidente Chávez no muestra ninguna mejoría del cuadro clínico – tinyurl.com/d6vmmy4

— Noticias Venezuela (@NoticiasVenezue) December 22, 2012

Chávez Faces Infection
President Hugo Chávez is in stable condition after facing a respiratory infection following cancer surgery in Cuba, Venezuela’s information minister said.

Pobre hijita de Papi…

Is There Any Silver Lining For The Venezuelan Opposition From Sunday’s Elections?

Say what?

BONUS: MISS UNIVERSE
Photos: Miss Universe 2012’s Most Bizarre National Costumes
On Dec. 19, women from around the world competed at the 61st annual Miss Universe pageant. Here’s a look at the contestants’ wacky—and occasionally tacky—national ensembles

The week’s posts:
John Kerry for Secretary of State

Mayans, schmayans

Venezuela: Chavistas take all the states except 3