Fausta's Blog

ARGENTINA
The president and the potbangers
Times are getting tougher for Cristina Fernández, but she is not beaten yet

BRAZIL
Corruption in Brazil
Worth the wait
The supreme court makes graft riskier

CHILE
Chile’s economic statistics
For richer—or poorer
Re-crunching the numbers—whatever they might be

COLOMBIA
Uribe Outbursts Act As Misguided Obstacles to Colombian Peace Talks

CUBA
Journalists reporting on Lignano murder arrested in Cuba (h/t GoV)

“That *!&^*%$#@! blockade…” (or why the Castro dynasty loves people-to-people exchanges)

ECUADOR
VIDEO starts immediately: Rescued tourists describe Ecuador kidnap ordeal
A British and Australian tourist kidnapped in Ecuador while visiting a remote nature reserve in the Amazon jungle speak following their rescue by Ecuadorean authorities on Saturday.

GUATEMALA
Asylum Granted to Guatemalan Massacre Survivor

GUYANA
Sunday Reminisces: Dinner and Guns at the Whorehouse with my Wife

MEXICO
The Paradoxes of Felipe Calderón
The Mexican president who fought the drug war leaves behind a growing economy and says the U.S. should consider ‘market alternatives.’

Univision: The untold story of what ‘Fast and Furious’ wrought in Mexico
Sunday evening, Univision airs an investigative report on how the botched ‘Fast and Furious’ program resulted in a deadly toll in Mexico when US authorities allowed guns to ‘walk’ across the border. Instapundit,

I don’t think this operation was “botched” or “deeply flawed.” I think it worked as planned, except for the part about being caught. Still, even if you aren’t troubled by the too-close nexus with the Administration’s preferred gun-control narrative, there’s this: “In order to reach the target of the operation, which was identifying the drug traffickers who were using the guns, [ATF agents] were waiting for the guns to be used. And how are guns used in Mexico? Killing people. I talked to an ATF agent who said there was no other way to explain it.”

Bullets Follow Guns to Mexico
Ammunition Is Easier to Buy and Hide Than Weapons; Smuggling Is Harder to Stop

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico Ex-Senator Jorge de Castro Font Pleads Guilty to 93 Charges

Puerto Rico jury rejects death penalty in drug dealer case

Puerto Rico First Lady Luce Fortuño to stump for Romney along I-4 in Florida.

VENEZUELA
Venezuelan Elections: sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words

Venezuelan Bond Soar On Higher Probability Of A Capriles Victory

Chávez accused of election dirty tricks

A Thug’s Comeuppance? Hugo Loses The Lead

Breaking new ground for the future
Since his election in the primaries as the candidate for the opposition Unified Democratic Panel (MUD), he started a frantic nationwide tour for Venezuelans to know him “face to face”

Venezuela’s presidential election
The autocrat and the ballot box
A united opposition and discontent over government mismanagement mean a genuine electoral challenge for Hugo Chávez

A Serious Challenger for Chávez
Henrique Capriles has been drawing roaring crowds. Hugo Chávez? Not so much.

Video in Spanish of yesterday’s Capriles rally (via Carlos); slide show here [VIDEO MOVED TO BELOW THE FOLD SINCE IT STARTS RIGHT AWAY]

The biggest electoral march / rally / event in the history of the Americas

Venezuelan youth could decide if Chavez remains in power; IMO it’s going to take a lot more than the youth vote.

Do Richard Holloway and other Leftist class warriors realise that El Sistema has links with Opus Dei?

As Venezuelan Vote Looms, Skeptics Anticipate Last-Moment Chávez Victory

The week’s posts & podcast:
Fast & Furious on @Univision

Tonight on @Univision: Fast and Furious

A week from the election, Putin send Chavez “Stalin’s dog”

Brazil: Google chief detained, Court Bans Anti-Islam Video

In Silvio Canto’s podcast

Venezuela: Yet another fire at a refinery

(more…)

ARGENTINA
Argentina releases Falklands report

Argentina warns of legal action

Ezequiel Vazquez Ger: Argentina joins ALBA in War Against Free Press

BRAZIL
Brazil’s pension system
Tick, tock
The Senate debates a small measure to help disarm an economic time bomb

CHILE
Chile’s GDP Expanded 6% in 2011

Powerful quake hits central Chile coast; no immediate reports of deaths or major damage

COLOMBIA
Colombia Forces Kill 33 FARC Rebels in Arauca

Colombia’s oil industry
Gushers and guns
A boom, and threats to it

CUBA
Cuba and Iran Work Together

Signs?

Revolution in retreat
Under Raúl Castro, Cuba has begun the journey towards capitalism. But it will take a decade and a big political battle to complete, writes Michael Reid

Cuban Spy Granted Visitation Rights, in Cuba

Why Socialist Cuba Prohibits Social Media
The regime fears Cuban-to-Cuban chatter even more than it does communication with the outside world.

GUYANA
Area businesses finding opportunities south of the border

MEXICO

In Mexico, Pope Benedict decries ‘evil’ behind drug violence
Pope Benedict XVI, beginning a Latin American visit, urges Mexico’s Catholics to resist the lure of the drug cartel lifestyle. He also calls for change in Cuba, his next stop.

Evangelicals are swooping on long-ignored regions of Mexico

Depends on Your Perspective

Mexico: Tremor Occurs During Earthquake Drill

PANAMA
Another Healthcare Experience

Panamanian ex-president sues newspaper for $5.5 million

PUERTO RICO
Politics of Romney’s Puerto Rico win

VENEZUELA
Silencing Dissent 101

Contingency plans

Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez says stitches removed, recovering well after cancer surgery

The trouble with authoritarian joint energy ventures….

The week’s posts,
Mitt on Puerto RicoCuba: Communist regime summons Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet
Pope and politics
Latin America: A mini-carnival
The Pope’s trip to Cuba: a gamble
Puerto Rico: Mitt gets all the delegates

In the Green Room,
Latin America update: Malia in Mexico UPDATE 7.9 EARTHQUAKE STRIKES MEXICO CITY. I believe this is the first time an earthquake hit at the very moment I was writing a post about the country affected.

ARGENTINA
Stop trying to intimidate Falklanders, Hague tells Argentina

Video: Argentinian protesters burn Union flag outside UK embassy

Argentines Continue to Eat Less Beef

BOLIVIA
Bolivia signs anti-drug deal with US and Brazil
Bolivia has signed an agreement with the US and Brazil to help reduce the production of illegal cocaine

Bolivia is the world’s third biggest cocaine producer, and the main supplier to Brazil.

The deal was signed after months of negotiations and repeated delays as Bolivia sought changes to the document.

Bolivian Interior Minister Wilfredo Chavez said Bolivia had insisted on respect for its sovereignty as well as for the traditional consumption of coca leaf, which is used for medicinal and ritual purposes.

Reminds me of one of my relatives, who died of alcoholism, and used to say “it’s for purely medicinal purposes” as he swigged down from a flask.

BRAZIL
Fernando Henrique Cardoso on Brazil’s future
More personal security, less inequality

Brazil’s Emerging Market: Crack
Hampered in the U.S., Drug Traffickers Find a Replacement; Skeletal ‘Zombies’ Rule São Paulo’s Cracolândia After Dark

CHILE
Chilean government puts a stop to bill that would have allowed warrantless access to media archives

COLOMBIA
Colombia’s Farc rebels destroy radar station
Farc rebels in Colombia have destroyed a radar installation, disrupting civil aviation in the south and west of the country, the government says

CUBA
Maritza Peregrino, widow of slain Cuban prisoner of conscience, being harassed by Castro State Security to stay quiet

Cigars and Law Schools in Havana

ECUADOR
Gov. Cuomo’s ex wife Kerry Kennedy in $40 million anti-oil deal

GUATEMALA
Guatemala’s new president
Quick march
A former general must move fast to meet expectations

GUYANA
The Loneliness of the Guyanas

HAITI
In Haiti, former dictator ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier is thriving

HONDURAS
Honduras named murder capital of the world
An unholy alliance of cops, crooks, prisoners and politicians has turned the nation into a shooting gallery.

Most violent city in the world award goes to …

MEXICO
Mexico’s do-nothing legislature
The siesta congress
Reforms languish while overpaid, underworked lawmakers bicker

Mexico’s drug war
Not so fast
The simmering controversy over Operation Fast and Furious

Mexico’s 2012 vote is vulnerable to narco threat

Two die of A(H1N1) swine flu in Mexico: official

What If: The Greatest Threat – An Al Qaida-Drug Cartel Alliance

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico to Boot Dozens of Politicians

VENEZUELA
Venezuela and international arbitration
Ick-SID

Chávez appointment – a slap to Colombia?

Chávez Gets Bluster Back and Reclaims the Spotlight, as if he didn’t have it all along.

Is Leopoldo López Venezuela’s Rick Perry?

Virgin Islands refinery shutdown to hit Venezuela hard
This week’s announced shutdown of a major oil refinery in the Virgin Islands could have major ramifications for the Venezuelan oil company, PDVSA.

Video: Ezra Levant talks about why the Keystone Calamity benefits Venezuela the most , via Babalu and Gerard,

Another Lie, Another Cynical Day For PDVSA’s President Rafael Ramirez

The week’s posts:
Cuba: Building collapse kills 4
Where the coke comes from

ARGENTINA
Don’t Cry For Me Ameritina

BOLIVIA
Britain and Bolivia

BRAZIL
Health care in Brazil
An injection of reality
Brazil’s pioneering state-run health system needs reform if it is to achieve its constitutional mandate of guaranteeing high-quality care for all

Seja simpática, faça o que pedem

CHILE
Escondida Workers Reject Bonus Offer; Strike Continues

COLOMBIA
Joe Arroyo, Star of Salsa and Colombian Music Giant, Dies at 55

Joe Arroyo, a Colombian songwriter, singer and bandleader whose pan-Caribbean salsa hybrids and historically conscious lyrics made him one of his country’s most respected musicians, died on Tuesday in Baranquilla, his adopted home city in Colombia. He was 55.

Here he is, singing, En Barranquilla me quedo,

CUBA
Lázaro Marlon Mesa Romero, Cuba Political Prisoner of the Week, 7/31/11

The Remittance Conundrum, via Babalu

An academic study released over the weekend shows that nearly half of all Cubans that receive remittances from abroad have absolutely no interest in leasing a self-employment license (ownership remains prohibited) from the Castro regime, while another 34% would only “think” about it. That leaves few that actually have or would.

US State Dept.’s Background Note, and Estudio: cubanos que reciben remesas no desean invertir

Five years

Two More Cuban Airports to Receive Charter Flights from U.S.

ECUADOR
Ecuador’s autocrat cracks down on media freedom

Censorship in Ecuador
Lèse-presidente
Rafael Correa seeks to bankrupt his media foes

HAITI
Book review: Broken and broken-hearted

GUYANA
No Fatalities in Guyana Air Crash

HONDURAS
A Prince of the Coffee Bean
Honduras Becomes Central America’s Top Producer, Helping to Fuel Its Economy

MEXICO
17 killed in prison fight in northern Mexico

Bloodthirsty! 1,500 murders ordered by leader of Mexican Murder, Inc.

Mexico: A Zeta Narcorepublic?
US Dept. of the Treasury Fact Sheet: New Executive Order Targets Significant Transnational Criminal Organizations

La Familia Michoacana cartel battered by U.S. agents

PERU
Humala Day 1: Changing constitutions (maybe)

Humala’s challenges

PUERTO RICO
Cuba-Puerto Rico Flights to Return After 53 Years

VENEZUELA
They bark, Sancho…

Chavismo’s strategy. Well, sort of…..

Another Day, Another Bond Issued, this time by the Republic of Venezuela

Hugo Chavez’s opponents see an opportunity

The week’s posts,
Those “evil corporate jet owners” will be buying Mexican, after all
Is the FARC in retreat?
Who knew about Fast and Furious?
Mexican cartels expand into human trafficking
Carlos Eire pulls out the big stick

At The Conservatory,
Chavez Says He’ll Cheat Death and Leave Presidency in 2031

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. This week’s top story: The ATF’s Fast and Furious disastrous scheme. Mary O’Grady writes,
A Drug-War Plan Goes Awry
Frustrated ATF agents testify that their bureau’s ‘Operation Fast and Furious’ let weapons get into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

One of the frightening things about the U.S. government’s war on drugs is that it is being waged by federal bureaucracies. The legend of Elliot Ness notwithstanding, this implies that it is not only fraught with ineptitude but that before it is all over, there are going to be a lot of avoidable deaths.

Witness “Operation Fast and Furious,” a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms plan that allegedly facilitated the flow of high-powered weapons into Mexico in the hope that it might lead to the take-down of a major cartel. It did not. But it may have fueled a spike in the murder rate and led to the death of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

Go read every word. More on this under the Mexico heading below.

ARGENTINA
Cristina Kirchner’s pathetic rant against Britain: Argentina’s president needs to back off over the Falklands

Corruption in Argentina
The mother of all scandals?
A once-revered human-rights group runs into a controversy

BOLIVIA
Bolivian soldiers expelled from Chile on Sunday after being arrested for illegally entering country

CHILE
Chile’s politics
How the mighty have fallen

CUBA
Castro dictatorship at war with husband-wife freedom fighters

Wife of “Antúnez” being denied medical care

Winds of Change in Cuba

ECUADOR
¿De qué nos preocupamos?

GUYANA
Security Fail… Illegal Immigrant With Stolen ID Discovered Working As Flight Attendant

HONDURAS
Free electricity

Secret cable shows Honduran president plans to take country on the path to Chavez-style socialism

Honduran Leader’s Secret Pact with Hugo Chávez

Zelaya’s Return to Honduras Darkens Honduran Democracy

MEXICO
Mapping the Dead from Mexico’s Drug War

ATF gunrunning update

WSJ: ATF Chief Likely To Be Ousted Over Gunwalker

Don’t make Melson a Fast and Furious scapegoat

PERU
Peru’s Humala turns to the right

PUERTO RICO
Llega con promesas, se va con los bolsillos llenos (fotos)

Obama’s Trip to Puerto Rico Has Its Risks

VENEZUELA

The National Guard at El Rodeo Prison

Venezuelan politics
Troubles on two fronts
The president will need to overcome his own health problems and a vigorous opposition to win re-election

Cuban agents working for Chavez regime illegally intercepting emails of Venezuelan exiles, diplomats, human rights groups

The week’s posts
Good luck with that, Italy
Fidel’s daughter favors “Dutch-style sex ed”
Rangel sells house in Dominican Republic; did he make the restitution?
Gunwalker: Will the Justice Department be held to account for arming lethal Mexican cartels?
Live feed to Obama’s PR visit

At Real Clear World,
Hugo Chavez Still in Cuba

At Pajamas Media,
Obama in Puerto Rico: How Will His ‘PR’ Stunt Play Out?
Expect a raucous welcome, but knowledgeable Puerto Rican voters in the U.S. know the island’s Republican governor has their economy recovering via his austerity measures.

ARGENTINA
Kirchner presiona a los jueces de la Corte por la Ley de Medios

BRAZIL
President’s Chosen Successor Widens Lead in Brazil Poll

Still on top

American brothers

CHILE
The trapped Chilean miners

COLOMBIA
Colombia’s new president
Opening gambits
Juan Manuel Santos takes charge

His own man

Colombia, Venezuela Reestablish Diplomatic Ties

El Gobierno heroico de Álvaro Uribe

Colombia and Venezuela to restore political ties

CUBA
CUBAN BLOGGER ARRESTED BY REGIME

Audio evidence of the Castro regime’s brutal repression of Reina Luisa Tamayo Otro domingo de represión contra Reina Luisa Zapata Tamayo y sus familiares.

Cuba’s Cash-for-Doctors Program
Thousands of its health-care missionaries flee mistreatment.

Cuba’s Fidel Castro
A ghost reappears
Fidel’s return is a mixed blessing for his brother

The desperate “Cuba Expert”

Six freed Cubans demand refugee status; say they will sue Spain if they don’t get it

The Wait

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Human Rights Commission expresses concern over threats to Dominican journalist

ECUADOR
Ecuador’s Chevron shakedown
Environmental case designed to grab billions

GUYANA/USA
2 Are Convicted in Plot to Bomb Kennedy Airport

HAITI
Clouds gather over Wyclef Jean’s Haiti bid

Sean Penn questions Wyclef Jean bid for Haitian presidency

HONDURAS
La Influencia Militar Alemana en Honduras

La Gringa’s Cinnamon Ice Cream

En la cocina

Don’t forget to check out what’s new at Honduras blogs, where I found the superfantastic May-hem

MEXICO
Mexico and drugs
Thinking the unthinkable
Amid drug-war weariness, Felipe Calderón calls for a debate on legalisation

Fox vs. Calderón, Round Six Million

Obama, Border Security and The Emerging Failed State of Mexico

Mexican Police Protest Corruption in Ciudad Juarez

MEXICO UNDER SIEGE
Mexico drug cartels thrive despite Calderon’s offensive
Nearly four years after President Felipe Calderon launched a military-led crackdown, the cartels are smuggling more narcotics into the U.S., amassing bigger fortunes and extending dominion at home.

NICARAGUA
Quote of the day: Nicaragua

PANAMA
Should a road be built to connect Panama and Colombia?

Volvo Gets Order For 1,000 Buses To Panama City

PARAGUAY
Doctors confirm Paraguay’s Lugo has cancer. Let’s hope the SOB pays his child support: New paternity test for Paraguay’s President Lugo
Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo has been ordered to take a DNA test to see if he is the father of a two-year-old boy, as the child’s mother claims

PERU
Tensions Over Chinese Mining Venture in Peru

Peru stock market integration with Colombia, Chile faces obstacles, says analyst

URUGUAY
Sonia Breccia trafico de influencia con Tabare Vasquez

VENEZUELA
San Pedro Alejandrino, as much a place of reckoning as ever

Latin American brawl

The Case of the Vanishing Monetary Base Data

Barrio de lejos, barrio de cerca, barrio cara a cara…

Military Prosecutor goes after retired General for denouncing Cuban presence in Armed Forces

The Human Wrongs of Hugo Chavez

IMMIGRATION
Florida Attorney General Proposes Stricter Immigration Law

On ICE

Sheriffs unhappy with ICE chief visit

The Laredo Truthers Ride Again Laredo “invasion” nonsense rides again

RADIO
Conservative Hispanic radio show debuts in Dallas; KVCE live feed here

Interesting set of connections in this article:
2 Are Convicted in Plot to Bomb Kennedy Airport (emphasis added):

A federal jury found two Guyanese men guilty on Monday of conspiring to blow up Kennedy International Airport, concluding a month-long trial that centered on the men’s plan to set off a series of explosions along a fuel pipeline that cuts through the city.

But the plot never advanced beyond the conceptual stage, and the planning sessions, some of which were recorded by a confidential informant, were at times grandiose and absurd. Suggestions of destroying the American economy vied with calls for a “ninja-style attack.”

The defendants, Russell M. Defreitas and Abdul Kadir, had been monitored from an early stage in the plot by the informant, who posed as a member of the group, which included a number of other participants. The informant, Steven Francis, had recorded the men during surveillance missions to the airport and on international trips to secure financial and logistical support for the attack.

The recordings were used by federal prosecutors to portray Mr. Defreitas, a United States citizen and a former cargo handler at the airport, as the “homegrown extremist” who was the mastermind and driving force behind the plot.

Mr. Kadir, a prominent Guyanese politician who served in parliament and as mayor of a major city, initially emerged as a secondary figure, one of several co-conspirators portrayed as facilitating the plot by providing advice and contacts. But in testifying in his own defense, he later opened himself to questions about whether he had spied for Iran.

Iran, you say?

But once on the stand, he was confronted with evidence of his ties to Iran, including letters he wrote to the Iranian ambassador to Venezuela and to an Iranian diplomat who has been accused of leading a major terrorist plot in South America.

For background on Venezuela and Iran, check out Getting it right about the Chavez – Iranian Connection.

Welcome to this week’s Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. The Carnival today is named after a new holiday proposed by a guy in Argentina – SOB day. A holiday we can all celebrate.

ARGENTINA
Clarin denounces Argentine government’s increase in press harassment

A new holiday in Argentina? SOB day!

BRAZIL
Petrobras Debt Risk Rises More Than Pemex on Deep-Water Drill Costs Climb

Brazil’s Petrobras Eyes 2011 Start-Up for Ethanol Pipeline

CHILE
Entrevista a Alejandro Gutierrez, arquitecto ARUP: “Yo creo que debiera haber un Alcalde Mayor”

Alejandro Gutierrez _ Desafíos para Santiago from Plataforma Urbana on Vimeo.

COLOMBIA
U.S. denies visa to Colombian journalist Hollman Morris, citing Patriot Act

Giving a new shade to the meaning of bitch: Ingrid Betancourt sues the Colombian state

COSTA RICA
Legislators Appeal To Constitutional Court To Stop U.S Warships From Entering Costa Rican Waters

CUBA
Hardly surprising: Spain begins to qualify prisoner release terms

At first, Spain’s foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos assured everyone that the 52 Cuban prisoners of conscience that are supposed to be released and shipped to Spain can return to Cuba whenever they like. The release was not a forced exile, he declared to reporters.

Now, however, he is beginning to qualify that statement by saying that Spain cannot guarantee that the Cuban dictatorship will authorize their return.

France offers to resettle deportees

Hollywood Mourns Their Castro Connection

Cuba to release 52 political prisoners, Catholic Church says

The Elian Gonzalez case 10 years on

Obama says: Cuba Si!, Gulf Coast No!

Saturday chuckle, in Spanish with all the dirty words you can fit in three minutes:

The First Sip of Water

Probably Still There to Join in the Fun

ECUADOR
Chavez, Correa Boost Cooperation

As part of those efforts, Venezuela and Ecuador on Tuesday will carry out their first binational transaction through the Unique System for Regional Equalization (SUCRE), to reduce costs and avoid dependence on the U.S. dollar.

Yeah, right.

GUATEMALA
How Guatemala nearly went ‘narco’

Hiring: héroes para Guatemala

GUYANA
Guyanese man pleads guilty in JFK bomb plot

Guyana recommits to peaceful resolution of border issue with Venezuela

HONDURAS
La Gringa is looking for Honduras Blogs.

MEXICO
Mexican president’s allies lead in key elections

Somewhere over the rainbow in Mexico’s elections

Mexicans Vote in State Elections

Mexico’s Culture of Racism

The myth that the border can’t be secured

Longer-term Impact of the Alliances

Drugs Aren’t the Only Problem

Mexique : Allah au pays des Mayas

Islamists in Mexico (report in Spanish:

PANAMA
South Korea investing big into Panama

Protests in Changuinola, Bocas del Toro Province

PERU
Peruvian Drug Dealers Hid Dope In Vuvuzelas

Catching up with Peru’s fight against narcoterrorists

Pisco to Lima gas pipeline in Peru may take three years

VENEZUELA
Venezuelans oppose Chávez attempt to nationalize private food company

VICEMINISTRO DE CHAVEZ SE QUEJA DEL OLOR DEL CAVIAR…

Stone’s Reel Mission

But Stone also revealed at Friday night’s showing in Santa Monica that the documentary wasn’t about box office returns. No, he’s more concerned about showing it through “the cultural circuit” to impressionable audiences with little knowledge of Latin America.

“We’ve got demand from a lot of universities,” Stone said, for “as many as possible to see it.” It’ll play on TV next year too, he said.

Hugo Chavez belongs in the rogues’ gallery: Compare him to the world’s worst dictators

Not so Random Chavismo Target of the week: Twitter

IMMIGRATION
Lawyer for American Taliban to Head DOJ Arizona Case

Brewer To Boston: MYOB

So, Will Holder Tell Arizona that the States Are Pre-empted from Defending Themselves from Hezbollah, Too?

HUMOR
During the floods in Brazil that kept Lula from the G20 (h/t Roissy, who looks at the betaness of it all, I think the guy carrying the girls would have carried the day had he used a Rhett Butler technique.)

The week’s posts and podcasts:
Cuba to expel 52 political prisoners: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Cuba to expel political prisoners
Hezbollah honcho busted at his Tijiuana Mx home
Two parties win in Mexico, but does it matter?
In Silvio Canto’s podcast
Obama: we can’t secure the border

LATIN AMERICA
Connecting the dots: Internal developments in Latin America & regional security

Military Spending in Latin America, 2009

Secretary Clinton’s Upcoming Travels to Latin America and Barbados

CARIBBEAN
Green passport no longer accepted for intra-regional travel

ARGENTINA
Argentines Engage in a Labor of Love on a Railroad to Nowhere
Volunteers Fight Weeds, Wasps and Highways in Hopes a Train Will Come Back, Someday

Turkish PM Cancels Visit to Argentina

Argentina Boudou: Debt Swap Advancing As Expected

China, Argentina Said Unable to Reach Deal on Soy Oil

Trade Balancing

BOLIVIA
Bolivian Indians Who Killed Cops Seek License to Smuggle

BRAZIL
Hillary: Brazil Growing Like Crazy

Hillary’s revealing tax gaffe

Brazil Election to Slow Investment, Real Forecast Cut

Ahmadinejad’s Sugar Daddy
How Brazilian ethanol could help Iran outwit American sanctions.

Rousseff, Serra Tied in Run for Brazil Presidency, Poll Shows

CHILE
Lo mejor de flickr en plataforma urbana

COLOMBIA
Bid for Green-Left Alliance Fails in Colombia

Colombia sticks with Santos
Buoyed by the party machine and rural voters, a win for Juan Manuel Santos means an uphill battle for Antanas Mockus

Colombians Opt For Strong U.S. Ties

CUBA
37 arrested in Cuba crackdown
Two major Cuban dissident groups have been raided in Havana in the past two days and 37 members were arrested, group leaders said.

Dylan, but sanctioned by the deadly regime: Cuba’s ’Dylan’ Plays Carnegie Hall as U.S. Boost Cultural Trade

Cuban singer Silvio Rodriguez last played New York City in February 1979, when Jimmy Carter was president and the Cold War defined international politics.

Romanticizing Misery

Long embraces

Atención Venezuela: lo que se prohibe en Cuba

Diosdado González Marrero, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 6/6/10 (UPDATED x2)

ECUADOR
Ecuador plans to curb Cubans’ resort to fraudulent marriages to obtain citizenship

GUATEMALA
Geologists baffled by what to do with giant Guatemala sinkhole
Scientists say filling the giant Guatemala sinkhole isn’t as simple as just dumping in gravel and dirt. First, geologists have to understand the conditions that caused it.

GUYANA
QUIEBRAN EMPRESAS DEL ALUMINIO EN GUAYANA: OTRO IMPRESIONANTE LOGRO DE LA REVOLUCIÓN

HONDURAS
Honduras is in a state of emergency

Honduras Trying to Attract Foreign Investment is Good, but, What About Honduran Investment?

JAMAICA
Jamaican Suspect Eludes Capture
Security Forces Search for Alleged Drug Lord on Fourth Day of Violence

Jamaica’s national security ministry says 35 bodies identified so far

PANAMA
Clave Card Advisory

PERU
Peru Frees Radical Marxist From Prison

PUERTO RICO
Stealth task force on Puerto Rican statehood moving bill forward

URUGUAY
Alberto Breccia trafico de influencia

VENEZUELA

VIDAS QUE NO FUERON COLGANDO DE UN CABLE, DE PEREZ I A CHAVEZ III

Chavismo Meets the Market

So what else is new? Filmmaker Oliver Stone admires Hugo Chavez
Oliver Stone and his fight against terrorists

Venezuela creates agency to control and classify information

Another one for the annals of Chavista idiocy

If the 60,000 Tons of rotten food is so little, how come there is hunger and malnutrition in Venezuela?

The week’s posts and podcasts:
Mexico’s Zeta drug cartel plotted to blow up Falcon Dam
Mexico’s re-organized crime: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Van der Sloot arrested in Chile
Chile hunts Holloway suspect over Peru killing VIDEO and podcast
The new drug route: Liberia?
Sunk in Guatemala
Chavez backs Mexican leftist guerillas

Welcome to this week’s Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean.

LATIN AMERICA
Republics and Monarchies

Drugs in Latin America

Latin America Waits for Obama to Deliver

Barack Obama’s “Red” Spiritual Advisor, via Gates of Vienna.

Arizona’s Real Problem: Drug Crime
The vicious violence the border states are experiencing is not committed by migrant laborers.

ARGENTINA
Argentine government doubles ad spending in 2009

Argentine MPs pass gay marriage bill

BOLIVIA
BBC Allows Bolivian Vice-President to Claim that Forces Opposed to the Evo Morales Government Include “Officials From the U.S. Embassy”

Another Bolivian nationalisation
Power grab
Evo Morales’s allies grow restive

BRAZIL
Lula and the Brazilian moment

Is Brazil Developing the Bomb?

U.S. Govt, Soros Fund Offshore Drilling in Brazil

Brazil Bond Sales Fizzle as Odebrecht, Cruzeiro Delay Issues

IAPA pushes for Brazil to solve two longstanding journalist killings

¿Por qué no te callas?: Archbishop Dadeus Grings

Brazil’s booming economy
Too hot for comfort
The Central Bank raises interest rates for the first time since 2008

CHILE
Contemplando Santiago desde uno de los edificios más altos de Sudamérica. views of Santiago from one of the tallest buildings in South America.

COLOMBIA
Colombia’s presidential election
The maths of a Green revolution
Antanas Mockus is in many ways the opposite of Álvaro Uribe, the popular outgoing president. So why are the polls saying the upstart might replace him?

Colombia Coffee Growers Say April Output Jumped 88%

COSTA RICA
Costa Rica inaugurates first female president

CUBA
Freedom for what?

Another arrest in Cuba

Mother’s Day in Cuba for the Ladies in White, via Babalu.

Rockers For Stalinism & Segregation!

Rosa Diaz’s iPhone

Miami Company Seeks U.S. OK to Charge More for Cuba Phone Service

ECUADOR
Ecuador a choice destination for emigrants from Cuba, that is.

EL SALVADOR
El Salvador denuncia a México por malos tratos a inmigrantes

GUATEMALA
Guatemalan Suspected in 1982 Massacre Arrested in Florida

GUYANA
Can Ghosts Bring Life to Jonestown Cult Compound?

Jim Jones’s Tenured Apologist
Thirty years after Jonestown, Rebecca Moore tries to rehabilitate Peoples Temple.

HAITI
Gangs become father, mother to Haiti’s forlorn orphans

HONDURAS
Honduras, la Union Europea y UNASUR

MEXICO
“Cuba Si! Arizona No!” Says Mexican President Felipe Calderon

Mexico Peso Rises Most in Year as Europe Announces Loan Package

NICARAGUA
Daniel Ortega’s Nicaragua
The show goes on
More blows against democracy

PANAMA
US Ambassador For Panama to Visit Boquete May 20

PARAGUAY
Guerrillas in Paraguay
The “people’s army” under siege
Paraguay’s leftist president institutes emergency laws to fight an insurgency

URUGUAY
Uruguay Lifts 2010 GDP Growth Forecast to 5.1%, Lorenzo Says

VENEZUELA
Venezuelan Prices Surge to 7-Year High on Food Hikes

Venezuela: Inflation, speculation and irresponsibility

Currency Woes Dog Venezuelans After Devaluation

La Carolina, 5 days after Chavez stole it

Madres chavistas enfrentan chavistas corruptos

Chavez’s Threats May Make Economy Worse, Ramos Says

The week’s posts and podcasts:
Chavez needs 200 people to manage his Tweeter
Dania Virgen Garcia released from jail
Raul Baduel, the guy who sprung Chavez from jail, sentenced to jail
Today’s headlines: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Venezuela’s ongoing economic crisis
Casualties of war
Better get insurance for that “free” Cuban healthcare

At Pajamas Media:
Puerto Rico and the Recurring Plebiscite
Congress quietly passed HR 2499, the Puerto Rico Democracy Act. But why? And does anyone understand what’s in it?

At Real Clear World:
Venezuela: Baduel Sentenced to Eight Years