Archive for the ‘Colombia’ Category

Venezuela: Bayly entrevista a Capriles, 2a. parte

Friday, May 31st, 2013

Segunda noche en MegaTV, de la entrevista en Colombia,

1.

2.

3.

4.

Bayly dice que Humala no va a recibir a Capriles por haber aceptado dinero chavista. Veremos.

Venezuela: Capriles travels to Colombia

Thursday, May 30th, 2013

Henrique Capriles to set off the alarms before international bodies
Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles Wednesday condemned the “non-compliance” with the election audit requested by the opposition alliance and endorsed by the Union of South American Nations (Unasur). He lambasted the steps taken by Venezuelan electoral authorities

“An agreement was reached with Unasur to conduct a (comprehensive) election audit. The audit did not take place. What they (Venezuelan electoral authorities are doing is a farce.”

The Maduro regime is furious that Colombia’s president Santos met with Capriles,

The Maduro government has vilified Capriles as a “fascist” trying to stir a coup in Venezuela, and powerful Congress head Diosdado Cabello, who is also the No. 2 in the ruling Socialist Party, was the first to complain about the meeting in Bogota.

“Colombia must clarify if the government is with Capriles’ coup intentions, or with the people of Venezuela and with the legitimate, sovereign and constitutional government of comrade Nicolas Maduro,” Cabello told state media.

“President Santos is putting a bomb in the good relations that President Chavez urged so much … He is receiving a murderer, a fascist right there in his palace.”

Considering Venezuela’s ever-increasing reliance on Colombia for food, Cabello would do well to measure his words.

As a side news, Santos apparently has been comparing Alvaro Uribe to Caligula. An unwise slip of the tongue, considering how Uribe retired from the presidency with a 75%+ approval rating, but I digress.

Jaime Bayly traveled to Colombia on Tuesday to interview Capriles (videos in Spanish), which aired on MeagaTV and Capriles.tv last night.

Here’s the first hour.

Part 1,

Part 2,

Part 3,

Part 4,

Bayly will broadcast the second hour tonight on MegaTV, which posts the Bayly programs on YouTube the following morning. I’ll post the YouTubes tomorrow.


The Memorial Day Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Monday, May 27th, 2013

LatinAmerARGENTINA
Are We Becoming Argentina?
The Republican Party is taking America down a dangerous path.

Alan Faena’s Argentine Residence
The restoration of the businessman’s Argentine estancia is a touchstone for an ambitious new real estate development that he hopes will change Miami.

Jorge Rafael Videla
Death of a “Dirty War” criminal

BOLIVIA
Bolivia Enacts Law Allowing Morales to Seek 3rd Term

BRAZIL
Brazilians
Portuguese for the perplexed

Brazil ‘cancels’ most African debt
Brazil says it will cancel or restructure almost $900m (£600m) worth of debt owed by African countries, to boost economic ties with the continent

Brasilia, immigrants from Bangladesh forced to work in slave-like conditions (h/t GoV)

CHILE
Barrick Gold fined for Chile project
Chilean authorities fine the world’s largest gold mining company, Barrick Gold Corp, more than $16m for environmental offences at an Andean mine.

COLOMBIA
Colombian welfare: Family Subsidy by the Box

CUBA
Cuban activist Alexander Tamayo arrested

ECUADOR
Ecuador president starts third term
Ecuador’s President, Rafael Correa, is sworn into office for an unprecedented third term in the capital, Quito

GUATEMALA
Guatemala extradites ex-leader Alfonso Portillo to US
Guatemala’s former President Alfonso Portillo has been flown to the United States to face corruption charges.

HONDURAS
Rhinoceros beetle

LATIN AMERICA
Hunger Strikes End in Several LatAm Countries

MEXICO
Mexican Billionaire Wants Probe of Activists
Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim says protests by an activist group in the U.S. have the trappings of an orchestrated campaign against him and his mobile phone companies and is asking California to investigate the group.

Soldiers re-occupy Mexico’s Hot Land

PANAMA
Great Time – No Photos

PERU
Corruption in Peru
A widening web

PUERTO RICO
‘Las Caras Lindas’: To Be Black And Puerto Rican In 2013

Six Cuban Rafters Rescued from Puerto Rican Islet

URUGUAY
Uruguayan Official Defends Drug Policy During Mexico Visit

VENEZUELA
The Cuban elephant in the room

Mario Silva and our daily abjection

Mario Silva’s Gossip Tape Aimed at Discrediting Chavismo/Madurismo

Good luck with that: Venezuela’s PdVSA Gets $1 Billion Credit Line From Schlumberger
State energy monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PdVSA, will receive a $1 billion revolving credit line from oil-service provider Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB), the South American country’s oil minister said Friday.

The week’s posts and podcast:
Argentina’s K Decade: 10 years of Kirchnerismo

Cuba: Dissidents meet exiles in Miami

Venezuela launches missile

Guatemala: Ríos Montt conviction thrown out

Venezuela: The Silva tape

Podcast (Audio starts immediately): US-Latin America issues of the week


The kidnapping Mexican teachers Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Monday, May 13th, 2013

LatinAmerYes, Mexican students studying to be teachers are holding hostages in protest against president Peña Nieto’s proposed changes. Mary O”Grady reports on Mexico, Where Teachers Take Hostages
President Enrique Peña Nieto needs to show the country that he will defend the rule of law.

Mexican students studying to be teachers released a hostage on Wednesday—in the municipality of Nahuatzen—due to concerns about his health. But they continue to hold five others. The students are supported by the Michoacán State Teachers Organization, which warned that the remaining captives, who are state policemen, would be freed only when a demand for 1,200 new teaching jobs is met.

ARGENTINA
Argentina Peso Trades on Black Market Above 10 to USD
Argentina’s currency traded above 10 pesos to the U.S. dollar for the first time on the black market, with Argentines desperate to acquire greenbacks for travel and savings paying a premium of 93% over the official exchange rate
.

BRAZIL
Brazilian will be the first Latin American to head the WTO

Brazil judge suspends stadium deal
A judge suspends a deal giving control of Brazil’s biggest stadium to a private consortium, saying there were irregularities in the bidding process.

CHILE
Alert Status Raised at Chile’s Copahue

COLOMBIA
Bojayá massacre, Uribe and Plan Colombia

CUBA
Fidel Castro may be America’s most famous illegal immigrant

Cuban spy, back in Havana after years in U.S. prison: No regrets

HONDURAS
Tribute to a fallen police officer – Edgardo Galdámez

LATIN AMERICA
Olavo de Carvalho on socialism: A thousand combat fronts which do not advance the socialist cause ostensibly, but erode the moral and cultural values of capitalist society

MEXICO
Vatican declares Mexican Death Saint blasphemous

The PRI’s long tail
A battle is brewing between Enrique Peña Nieto and the dinosaurs in his party

The Rise of the ‘Aztec Tiger’
Under a charismatic new leader, Mexico is roaring toward a turnaround

Barack Obama’s visit to Mexico
The unmentionables

Thermo Sold Plant Overrun by Drug Cartel, Suit Alleges
Lab-equipment maker Thermo Fisher allegedly hid information that a Mexican facility it sold as part of a broader deal last year was overrun by a drug cartel, according to claims in a lawsuit filed by Opengate Capital.

PANAMA
Proof Of Life

Panama orders power rationing as drought continues
The Panamanian government has ordered schools to close and government offices to reduce their opening hours as the country suffers from a power shortage.

PERU
The Father and Son Business Meeting: Plutocrats and their progeny
A secretive fathers-and-sons knees-up for billionaires

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico to end inmate transfer program with US

1/3 Population of Puerto Rico Gets Food Stamps from U.S. Gov’t — $2 Billion in 2012

TURKS & CAICOS
Arrests of vacationing Americans in Turks and Caicos spark concern

VENEZUELA
Venezuela’s election aftermath
Cry havoc
As political and economic crises deepen, the army waits in the wings

The week’s posts and podcast:
Guatemala’s historic decision

Venezuela: Photo of the week

Should Argentina dollarize?

Lady in White met Pope in white

Blogger call on tomorrow’s CSP conference

Venezuela: no US access to Timothy Hallet Tracy

Turkey’s mustache business

Argentina: El Tejar moves to Brazil

Podcast,
Mexico and other US-Latin America issues

The new Venezuelan Fascism Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Monday, May 6th, 2013

LatinAmerThe 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 meteor Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Monday, April 29th, 2013

LatinAmerA 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.

The the post-Venezuelan “election” Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

LatinAmerLatin Leaders Abandon Democracy in Venezuela
Despite serious election irregularities, they rush to recognize Nicolás Maduro as president.

In a better world such repression would have provoked objections from the Organization of American States. Its Democratic Charter is a pledge by all members to stand up for democratic principles throughout the hemisphere. Yet since the charter was ratified in 2001, the OAS has done nothing to stop the destruction of institutional checks and balances by left-wing caudillos like Chávez. It has used its power, under the leadership of Secretary-General Miguel Insulza (a Chilean socialist) since 2005, to beat up on countries that push back against what Chávez called “21st century socialism.”

ARGENTINA
Argentines Protest Fernandez’s Bid to Increase Grip on Courts

Argentina, Where Dollars Are the New Drugs

BRAZIL
Inflation in Brazil
Behind the curve
The Central Bank acts belatedly to bring prices back under control

CHILE
Education in Chile
Beyer gets the boot

COLOMBIA
Santos announces stimulus package

More information from government would facilitate and legitimize peace process, and strengthen role of media

Colombia seizes drug lord’s villas
Properties and goods worth more than $25m (£16m) belonging to notorious Colombian drug lord Madman Barrera are seized in a police operation.

CUBA
Two American Hostages in Two Terrorist States

HONDURAS
Honduras: Attorney General Is Suspended

LATIN AMERICA
Video from HACER: Amigos de la Libertad: Carlos Alberto Montaner (in Spanish)

MEXICO
Mexican Drug Cartel Power Shift, More Americans Becoming Their Smugglers

Mexican President Outlines his Future Foreign Policy Agenda

Mexico drops charges against general
Prosecutors in Mexico dismiss the case on drug charges against ex-assistant defence minister Gen Tomas Angeles.

Mexico’s First Lady among the best dressed… and that’s about it for now

PARAGUAY
EVO MORALES, CONTENTO CON TRIUNFO DE CARTES? CARTES INCLUIDO EN RED DE LAVADO DE DINERO

Candidate Disparages Gays in Paraguay, Stirring Dispute

Paraguay holds key presidential election
Voters in Paraguay go to the polls on Sunday in a presidential election seen as key to restoring the country’s democratic credentials.

PUERTO RICO
Son of US Judge Faces Murder Trial in Puerto Rico

VENEZUELA
Maduro’s lousy start
A narrow, tainted election victory is a fitting epitaph for his rotten predecessor. But Venezuela is on the brink

The week’s posts and podcast,
Fonseca flash mob on Times Square!

Argentina: Creditors say “no”

Venezuela: The inaugural crasher

Venezuela: Electoral council agrees to audit itself UPDATED

Puerto Rico: Doctors moving to the US mainland

Venezuela: No recount, says Supreme Court

Venezuela: US not so sure

Venezuela: the military ask for recount?

Venezuela: For the short term, more moving to FL

Podcast,
Mexico & other US-Latin America issues

Fonseca flash mob on Times Square!

Sunday, April 21st, 2013

Overlooked in this week’s news, Colombian Fonseca played live at Times Square, with flash mob dancing last Thursday, April 18,



Fonseca and the dancers are celebrating the positive changes in Colombia, according to a press release from the Comité Colombiano.

Fonseca’s currently on a tour of of 16 cities in the USA. The tour dates are listed at Fonseca.net and you can follow him on Twitter @Fonseca

Jaime Bayly interviewed the Grammy winner recently (in Spanish),

The rigged Venezuelan election Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Monday, April 15th, 2013

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),

Watch live streaming video from venezuelasomostodos at livestream.com

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,

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.

The Hugo Chavez bird Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Monday, April 8th, 2013

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