Fausta's Blog

Forty miles southeast of Mexico City, Popocatepetl is acting up:
Mexico’s ‘Popo’ volcano spews ash, molten rock

“Popo,” as the volcano is known, has displayed a “notable increase in activity levels” in the last few days, including tremors and explosive eruptions, according to a statement from the federal government.

Webcams have shown large chunks of molten rock spewing from the crater, and ash has rained down on the nearby city of Puebla. On Sunday, Mexico’s National Center for Disaster Prevention elevated its warning level to “Yellow Phase 3,” the fifth stage of a seven-stage warning scale.

“Don Goyo”, Popo’s other name was throwing red rocks.

Popo’s twin, Iztaccihuatl, remains dormant.

And, no, don’t ask me how to pronounce Iztaccihuatl.

Yes, 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

así estaba el volcán copahue a las 3.30 de la madrugada twitter.com/claucaviahue/s…

— claudiacarrasco (@claucaviahue) May 9, 2013

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

Grandson of Malcolm X Killed in Mexico City

Labor activist Miguel Suarez, who was traveling with Shabazz, told The Associated Press that his friend was beaten up at a bar near Plaza Garibaldi, a downtown square that is home to Mexico City’s mariachis.

Plaza Garibaldi is popular with tourists, but the pair were at a bar across the street from the plaza in an area of rough dive bars tourists are warned against going to.

Suarez said he and Shabazz were lured to the bar on Wednesday night by a young woman who made conversation with the American in English. The Palace bar is on one of Mexico City’s busiest avenues.

“We were dancing with the girls and drinking,” said Suarez. Then the owner of the bar wanted them to pay a $1,200 bar tab, alleging that they should pay for music, drinks and the girls’ companionship.

His family is claiming his remains. Let’a lift them in our prayers.

Talking about Mexico and other US-Latin America issues with Alfredo Corchado of the Dallas Morning News and author of Midnight in Mexico: A Reporter’s Journey Through a Country’s Descent into Darkness, and Michael Prada.

Listen live now, or to the archived podcast at your convenience.

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.

Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoȋt Nadeau, authors of The Story of Spanish, point out that Cinco de Mayo No Hecho en México, Actually
Cinco is as American as apple pie. So is the U.S. Hispanic melting pot.

Exactly how Cinco de Mayo turned into the signature celebration of the United States’ 52 million Hispanics is a bit of a mystery—especially since it is hardly celebrated in Mexico outside of the State of Puebla. Cinco de Mayo has no association with Mexican independence. It commemorates a battle on May 5, 1862, in which the Mexican army vanquished the well-equipped French forces of Napoleon III.

No one knows exactly why Hispanics in California began celebrating Cinco de Mayo at the end of the 1860s.

It was a good excuse for a party?

What we do know is that in the 1970s cultural organizers in San Francisco selected Cinco de Mayo from among a slate of holidays as the best pan-national Latino celebration in the U.S. It was a savvy choice. Most Mexicans had never heard of the holiday, so it didn’t carry the risk of pitting different Hispanic nationalities against one another.

I had never heard of cinco de mayo until quite recently, either. Neither had several friends and acquaintances from Latin America, who found out about it once they moved to the USA.

What does The Most Interesting Man in the World have to say about this?

By the way, Bronx native Jonathan Goldsmith is The Most Interesting Man in the World.

Buy the book, drink the beer. Skol!

UPDATE,
The article’s author left a comment! Thank you!

[post updated with info on TMIMitW]

After visiting Mexico and giving a speech, President Obama went to Costa Rica where he vowed to Shift Focus on Central America to Economy:

Obama arrived in Costa Rica yesterday from Mexico, where he said the U.S. relationship with Latin America must be focused on fostering economic growth on both sides of the border. He said it was time to set aside stereotypes of the region as a source of illicit drugs and immigrants fleeing to the U.S.

The president’s visit comes as Costa Rica is pressing to join negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade accord that now include the U.S., Mexico and nine other nations.

it remains to be seen as to whether he believes that this fostering of economic growth on both sides of the border should be accomplished through private enterprise or through more government intervention.

Key issues on Obama’s Mexico trip: Trade, immigration and drug war.

On immigration, Obama

To sell his immigration overhaul back home, he needs a growing economy in Mexico and a Mexican president willing to help him secure the border.

On trade

Border crossing takes so long in large part because of inadequate infrastructure and inadequate staffing for the amount of traffic, she says. It also results from significant bureaucracy – duplicate customs forms and other procedures.

The capacity of the border entry points to clear trade traffic into the USA has not kept pace with the increase in trade in the border region. In addition, the 9/11 attacks in 2001 prompted added security measures, which slow things down and raise expenses for businesses.

Among the ideas to improve commercial traffic are better use of shipper screening programs that allow low-risk shipments and carefully investigated shippers faster access over the border, say analysts, and should be on the agenda of the two presidents.

On drugs, Mexico’s Curbs on U.S. Role in Drug Fight Spark Friction

shortly after Mexico’s new president, Enrique Peña Nieto, took office in December, American agents got a clear message that the dynamics, with Washington holding the clear upper hand, were about to change.

“So do we get to polygraph you?” one incoming Mexican official asked his American counterparts, alarming United States security officials who consider the vetting of the Mexicans central to tracking down drug kingpins. The Mexican government briefly stopped its vetted officials from cooperating in sensitive investigations. The Americans are waiting to see if Mexico allows polygraphs when assigning new members to units, a senior Obama administration official said.

In another clash, American security officials were recently asked to leave an important intelligence center in Monterrey, where they had worked side by side with an array of Mexican military and police commanders collecting and analyzing tips and intelligence on drug gangs. The Mexicans, scoffing at the notion of Americans’ having so much contact with different agencies, questioned the value of the center and made clear that they would put tighter reins on the sharing of drug intelligence.

Peña Nieto’s focusing on managing the violence, rather than on confronting the cartels.

Tomorrow Obama will visit Costa Rica, returning to the US on Saturday.

A 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.

Hundreds of migrants sat on the roofs of railroad cars in Arriaga, in southern Mexico, waiting for the train to take them north toward the United States. Washington’s immigration overhaul would tighten border security between Mexico and the United States to stem illegal crossings. But Mexico’s other border, with Central America to the south, makes the task even harder. A growing number of Central American migrants heading to the United States cross freely under the gaze of Mexican authorities.

NYTimes report:
In Trek North, First Lure Is Mexico’s Other Line

In Washington, the biggest immigration overhaul in decades would tighten border security between Mexico and the United States to stem the flow of illegal crossings.

But there is another border making the task all the more challenging: Mexico’s porous boundary with Central America, where an increasing number of migrants heading to the United States cross freely into Mexico under the gaze of the Mexican authorities. So many Central Americans are fleeing the violence, crime and economic stagnation of their homes that American officials have encountered a tremendous spike in migrants making their way through Mexico to the United States.

American arrests of illegal crossers from countries other than Mexico — mostly from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador — more than doubled along the southwest border of the United States last year, to 94,532 from 46,997 in 2011.

Read the rest and check out the slideshow.