Fausta's Blog

ARGENTINA
Argentina dispatch: the troubled reign of Queen Cristina of Argentina
Beset by economic stagnation, Argentines are growing weary of President Cristina Kirchner’s obsession with the Falklands, reports Philip Sherwell

In Spanish (audio starts right away), HACER: Agustín Rangugni y Eneas Biglione entrevistan a Gonzalo Blousson, Presidente del Partido Liberal Libertario, sobre actualidad y desafíos que enfrenta Argentina

BRAZIL
Andres Oppenheimer: Brazil should stop being self-absorbed giant

A Visit Angers Brazil’s Pro-Cubans
Protests Greet Havana Dissident, Highlighting Latin America’s Still-Strong Love Affair With Castro

CHILE
Chile’s Gen Pinochet ‘tried to cling to power’ in 1988
Pinochet wanted to hold on to power when he lost a referendum on his rule in 1988, newly declassified documents in the US suggest.

Russian inmate joins Chilean club
A Russian inmate is allowed to remain in Chile and play for a local football club after serving three-year prison sentence for drug smuggling.

CUBA
The Old Act of Repudiation

Cuba under Raúl: He’s tinkered but it’s the same old machine

The spirit of freedom is strong in my hometown of Antilla, Cuba

Why Is UN Praising the Castro Regime?

20 Of The Most Embarrassing Moments In The History Of The Democrat Party

11) The Bay of Pigs (1961): After training a Cuban militia to overthrow Castro, Kennedy got cold feet and didn’t give the men all the air support they were promised. As a result, they were easily defeated by Castro’s men and today, Cuba is still ruled by a hostile, anti-American dictatorship.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
If Only CNN had the resources that the Daily Caller Does…

ECUADOR
Ecuador’s presidential election
More of the same, please

EL SALVADOR
Memories of Stolen Children

HAITI
UN rejects Haiti cholera compensation claims
The United Nations has formally rejected compensation claims by victims of a cholera outbreak in Haiti that has killed almost 8,000 people.

JAMAICA
Lenten diet

MEXICO
Will Mexico Welcome Wildcatters?
The new finance minister says his country needs entrepreneurs to find untapped energy reserves.

Mexico’s disappeared
Into thin air

Brewer: Border not Secure, Drug Cartels ‘Ready to Come Across’

PANAMA
Amazing!

PERU
Sendero Luminoso, fragilidad institucional y socialismo del Siglo XXI en el Peru

PUERTO RICO
Bond Investors Wade Back Into Puerto Rico

José Aponte Votaría Por Reforma Legislativa Si Le Hacen Otra Tarja

URUGUAY
Uruguay’s culture of impunity continues to rear its head
Judge Mariana Mota’s transfer shows that the country’s culture of impunity for the crimes of dictatorship still endures.

VENEZUELA
A Mixed Message From Chavismo On President Chávez’ Health

Will they dare to swear in Chavez in the dark?

300 officials from the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Force (FAR) are taking part in strategic decisions made in security and defense in Venezuela.

LETTER FROM CARACAS
SLUMLORD
What has Hugo Chávez wrought in Venezuela? The Tower of David, among other things.

Venezuelan Information Minister Ernesto Villegas: “The president holds firm to C
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is still suffering breathing problems following his return from Cuba where he was treated for cancer, officials say.

The week’s posts and podcasts:
Remembering Brothers to the Rescue

Next thing you know, she’ll be sending Hugo Chavez a get-well card

Ted Cruz and guns

Two questions re: Hugo Chavez

Podcast: US-Latin America: Chavez, and other issues

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
Argentina’s Betrayal
The Kirchner government has decided to whitewash Iranian terrorism

The IMF and Argentina
Motion of censure
The fund blows the whistle

BRAZIL
U.S. Corn-Ethanol Producers: Curb Imports From Brazil
The U.S. corn-ethanol industry is urging the Obama administration to cut down on imports of a different type of ethanol from Brazil, in a bid to reduce competition and improve its bottom line.

CHILE
Chile orders Neruda exhumation
A Chilean judge orders the exhumation of the remains of the poet Pablo Neruda, as part of an investigation into claims he was poisoned in 1973.

COLOMBIA
Colombia’s peace talks
Trying to stay the course

ECUADOR
Ecuador’s election
The man with the mighty microphone
Having mixed the good, the bad and the ugly during six years in power, Rafael Correa is heading for another term

Ecuador’s Permanent Mob-Rule Campaign
By demonizing opponents and changing voting law, President Rafael Correa assures his re-election.

LATIN AMERICA
Annals of government intervention: Pemex, Argentina, and Brazil

More Bayly, in Spanish,

MEXICO
Some good and bad news from Mexico

A Poor Decision…

NICARAGUA
Nicaragua Aims to Become New Luxury Hotspot

PARAGUAY
The last caudillo
Lino Oviedo’s death may help the Colorados return to power

PERU
Peru, Chile and Bolivia hit by floods after heavy rain

PUERTO RICO
36 Hours in San Juan, Puerto Rico

VENEZUELA
Venezuela’s economy
Out of stock
The cost of postponing an inevitable devaluation

The week’s posts & podcast:
Venezuela: Pining for the fjords?

Ecuadorian minister lies about Cory Booker

The real scandal in the Menendez story…

Podcast:
The latest from Spain & Latin America

The blinders come off:
Gaddafi was praised by the UN’s Human Rights Councila, and now Raul Castro is president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States:

Cuba will lead CELAC until early 2014, when Ecuador will take over.

But should we be surprised? After all,

The organization was founded in Caracas in 2011 as a brainchild of the Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. It groups 33 nations of Latin America and the Caribbean but excludes the United States and Canada. Many people see it as Chávez’s challenge to the Organization of American States, which is based in Washington and includes the United States and Canada among its members.

Notch it up as a success of the Cuban dictatorship.

Several years ago my cousin, who lives in Chile, insisted that I read Roberto Ampuero’s novel, Nuestros años verde olivo (link to Kindle version). Finding the book took some doing, and, when I finally got it, could not put it down.

“Nuestros años” is semi-autobiographical. Like Ampuero, the Communist protagonist had to get out of Chile in a hurry after the fall of Allende. He headed to East Germany, where he met and married the daughter of a Cuban general, and later they moved to Cuba.

And then he got screwed.

Today the Wall Street Journal has an article on Ampuero:
A Literary Ambassador

His autobiographical novel “Nuestros Años Verde Olivo,” or “Our Olive Green Years,” a reference to Cuban military fatigues, chronicled Cuba’s reality of scarcity and secret-police paranoia, and became a sensation in Latin America.

The novel, published in 1999, is one of a handful of texts by disillusioned Latin American leftists critical of Cuba and communism in general. “Latin Americans who knew real socialism from the inside or saw how it fell apart, mostly opted for silence,” says Mr. Ampuero.

The book put Mr. Ampuero on Havana’s black list. “Neither Ampuero or anybody who remotely looks like Ampuero will ever be able to travel to Cuba,” the Cuban ambassador in Chile said after the book was published, according to the writer.

Ampuero has written crime novels since, among them “El caso Neruda” (“The Neruda Case”), which, like Il Postino, features real-life writer Pablo Neruda in a fictional setting,

Brulé, the neophyte detective in “The Neruda Case,” could be a fun-house mirror image of his creator. The detective is a Cuban-American émigré who falls in love with a revolutionary Chilean student he meets in Miami, and follows her to Chile just in time to experience the bloody 1973 coup against socialist President Salvador Allende.

Just before the coup, Brulé takes on his first case on behalf of Pablo Neruda, the Nobel Prize-winning poet and Communist Party politician. In the book, Neruda is dying of cancer and wants to find a loved one who has been missing for decades.

The Neruda Case is now available in Kindle; so is Ampuero’s latest, El último tango de Salvador Allende. I’m adding them to my wish list.

ARGENTINA
Defence chiefs prepare new plans to defend Falkland Islands
Defence chiefs have drawn up new contingency plans designed to prevent hostile action by Argentina towards the Falkland Islands.

Falklands Redux: Is President Kirchner South America’s Biggest Troll?

P&O cruise firm stops Argentine port stops
Passengers due to embark on the Southampton-based ships were told last month
A cruise firm has put a temporary halt to stops at three Argentine ports after continuing tensions with the country over the Falklands.

BOLIVIA
Presidente en ejercicio afirma: indígenas “libre pensantes” pueden irse

BRAZIL
From last year, Brazil: Landowners Declare War against Indigenous Guarani-Kaiowá in Mato Grosso do Sul

Tax in Brazil
Nothing is certain
Brazilian firms fight huge and unpredictable tax bills

Chinese Tech Titans Eye Brazil
Chinese consumer-technology firms are dominant at home but have struggled overseas. Now, in a bid to change that, they’re charging into Brazil and other emerging markets.

Drug addicts light up the night in Brazil’s ‘cracolandias’
Crack epidemic and related violence are reminiscent of Washington or New York in the 1980s.

CHILE
Background on the Mapuche, from 2004: Mapuche Indians in Chile Struggle to Take Back Forests, and from last year: Attacks on Chile’s Indigenous Peoples Thwart Efforts at Land Reparations

Indigenous rights in Chile
Unhappy new year

COLOMBIA
Latin American local government
A load of rubbish
Another unpopular mayor for Colombia’s capital

COSTA RICA
Mothers in Breastfeed Protest at Costa Rica Mall

CUBA
A Silent Mariel

Seventh circle of Hell gets a wee bit more crowded

Oppenheimer: Cuba’s role in Venezuela may grow — for now

As Hugo Chavez fights for his life, Cuba fears for its future
Venezuela is not the only Latin American nation that is monitoring every moment of president Hugo Chavez’s illness. His ally Cuba has relied on him for economic help, and that could soon come to an end.

EQUADOR
Ecuadorian President Warns of Possible ‘CIA Attack’ Before Elections

GUATEMALA
As Biofuel Demand Grows, So Do Guatemala’s Hunger Pangs

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

HONDURAS
La Ceiba, Honduras, airport sign translation

MEXICO
Recent violence in north-central Mexico reportedly kills dozens

PANAMA
As Panama Canal gets bigger,U.S. ports race to keep up

PERU
Two killed in Dakar rally crash involving British team
Two people have been in killed in Peru in a head-on collision involving a support vehicle for the Dakar rally.

Peru boom spurs middle-class growth
Asian demand for copper and gold has put disposable income in the nation’s pockets.

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico Beauty Queen Faints, Uses Crutches

TURKS & CAICOS
British to seek extradition of ex-Turks and Caicos premier from Brazil
Turks and Caicos says that British authorities will soon formally ask Brazil to extradite the island’s former premier as part of the ongoing criminal investigation in the island chain.

VENEZUELA
Venezuela’s ‘Weekend At Bernie’s’ Inaugural A Sign Of Chavez’s Tottering Regime

The Chávez Legacy in Venezuela
Autocratic rule, economic ruin, and South America’s highest murder rate.

To Understand Today’s TSJ Decision, Let’s Look At Motive

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

Now what? Looking at the 2013 Venezuelan calendar

Venezuela Inflation Jumps Sharply as Shortages Rise
Venezuela’s consumer prices surged in December at the fastest pace in nearly three years as the oil-rich South American country grappled with severe shortages of consumer goods, the central bank reported.

Controversy aside, there is no denying Hugo Chavez redefined Latin American politics
The leader of Venezuela’s social revolution has undergone a fourth operation for cancer and was unable to attend his inauguration after being elected for a fourth term as president.

The week’s posts:
Dead or alive?

Oh, peachy, now the Obama admin’s cozying up to Maduro

Venezuela: Chavez swearing-in can be delayed

Weekend at Chavez!

Venezuela: Twitter raid UPDATED

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
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

ARGENTINA
Argentina Media Group Suffers Reversal in Court

Ghana Ordered to Release Argentine Ship

BRAZIL
Brazil’s Graft Probe Now Targets Ex-Leader
Da Silva Denies Wrongdoing in Vote-Rigging Scheme Under His Tenure, but Supreme Court Justices Call for Another Look

CAYMAN ISLANDS
Cayman Islands leader arrested in corruption probe

CHILE
Mysterious mass whale graveyard unearthed in the Chilean desert
Scientists are baffled after finding fossil remains of 75 whales that died within yards of one another, more than a kilometer away from the sea.

COLOMBIA
El riesgo populista

COSTA RICA
30 Years Of Recipes Down The Drain: Ex-Pats in Costa Rica Try Cooking Up A New Life

CUBA
Al-Jazeera Shames the U.S. Media By Telling the Truth About Cuban Repression

Jailed Spanish activist Angel Carromero may leave Cuba

Obama’s Vision for Cuba Turns a Blind Eye Towards History

Cuban political prisoner Calixto Ramon Martinez ends hunger strike

Projects Fair

EL SALVADOR
MS-13 Leader Sentenced in Juvenile Prostitution Case

HONDURAS
Press freedom group in Honduras denounces “censorship” of radio ad supporting the democratization of the broadcast spectrum

‘Technical’ coup against Supreme Court (Part 2)

MEXICO
Obama Ignores Ex-Marine Wrongly Held In Mexican Jail

Mexico’s crime wave has left about 25,000 missing, government documents show

NICARAGUA
Back in Sandinista Days . . .
John Kerry now talks a moderate game; but what does the record say?

Today’s Video: Telenovelas for Change

PANAMA
Panamanian held in Spain with cocaine breast implants
A Panamanian woman has been arrested in Spain with fake breast implants that turned out to be plastic bags containing 1.4kg of cocaine.

PARAGUAY
Children discover Mozart in Paraguay landfill, playing instruments made from recycled garbage

PERU
IPYS condemns change in law that classifies national security information in Peru

PUERTO RICO
Moody’s downgrades University of Puerto Rico bonds

Puerto Rico family mourns death of girl, 6, in Connecticut school shooting

URUGUAY
Mujica reconoció haber estado internado en un psiquiátrico porque se “figuraba voces”

VENEZUELA
Will the State Department Legitimize a Narco-Authoritarian Regime in Venezuela?

Chávez’s Outlook Darkens, Doctors Say
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s cancer is most likely terminal given the disease’s recurrences, say several leading cancer specialists not involved in the treatment.

With Hugo Chavez cancer-stricken, regional elections in Venezuela suddenly hugely important

Trying (Not) To Look At Venezuela’s Sunday’s Gubernatorial Elections

Post Chávez Surgery, Venezuela Warns of ‘Difficult’ Days

Nicolas Maduro, bus driver turned vice president, could succeed Hugo Chavez

Post Chavez scenarios

The week’s posts:
BBC Four – La Confiteria Ideal

Iran, McAfee, Litvinenko in the news; and don’t overdo the Gangnam

Post-Chavez Venezuela: Corruption and chaos

Chavez: “I do not surrender political power, I delegate it.”

ARGENTINA
Argentine bonds
Argy-bargy
EVER since Argentina defaulted on $81 billion of debt in 2001, it has been thumbing its nose at its creditors.

Argentine Court Grants Reprieve To Media Group

BRAZIL
Brazil’s economy
Stalled
A long-awaited recovery still fails to materialise

CHILE
Chile clashes over Freirina smelly pig processing plant
Police in northern Chile have clashed with protesters angry at the government’s decision to reopen a huge pig processing plant

COLOMBIA
Colombia Kills 20 FARC Fighters in Bomb Raid

CUBA
Pay no attention to the dictators behind the curtain

Cuban Government Pulls Plug on “Cubatón”

ECUADOR
Corrupt Judgment Against ChevronTexaco Takes Hemispheric Dimensions

Este es el documental que revela las conexiones Rafael Correa – Hugo Chávez – FARC

GUATEMALA
McAfee Hospitalized in Guatemala After Asylum Denied

My Own Darwin Award Nomination: Captured

MEXICO
Jenni Rivera, norteno and banda singer and Mun2 TV star, dies in plane crash in northern Mexico
43-year-old musician, born and raised in California, was a star of Spanish-language television

Obituary: María Santos Gorrostieta
María Santos Gorrostieta Salazar, former mayor of Tiquicheo, was found dead on November 15th, aged 36

Mexico’s new government
With a little help from my friends
The new president believes that he has broad political agreement to change his country

13 BODIES FOUND IN VEHICLES IN NORTHERN MEXICO

PANAMA
Panama and Israel: A special relationship

PARAGUAY
Footballer Diego Mendieta’s death prompts Indonesia row
The death of a Paraguayan footballer owed months of back pay from his club in Indonesia has sparked outrage among fans and the global players’ union.

PUERTO RICO
Caiman Invasion in Puerto Rico

TURKS AND CAICOS
Turks and Caicos ex-PM Michael Misick held in Brazil
Police in Brazil have arrested the former prime minister of the Turks and Caicos islands, Michael Misick.

VENEZUELA
Venezuelan politics
The invisible president

Chávez Back in Venezuela After Cuba Treatment

And he is back….

Important Dates To Keep Up With, Given All The Rumors Flying Around Venezuela

The week’s posts:
Mexico: Mayan apocalypse tourism

Venezuela: Hugo’s baaack

Assuming Assad asks asylum…

Unarmed in Mexico

Cuba: US won’t swap 5 spies for Alan Gross