On Monday, Guatemala’s Constitutional Court ordered the trial of Efraín Ríos Montt overturned and reset to an earlier point in April when it was challenged by another judge. Mr. Ríos Montt, who ruled Guatemala for 17 months in 1982 and 1983, had been sentenced to 80 years on genocide and crimes against humanity for his role in the country’s 36-year civil war.

After the ruling, Mr. Ríos Montt was briefly sent to jail before being moved to a military hospital. On Tuesday, he was set to return to house arrest, as he was during his trial.

The ruling came after a public push by Guatemala’s powerful business chamber to overturn the verdict, a development analysts said on Tuesday called into question the court’s independence.

Guatemala has a history of trials of military men being blocked through appeals to higher courts that are manipulated by the small country’s powerful elites, said Anita Isaacs, a professor at Haverford College. “There is a link between the court system and powerful economic interests in Guatemala,” she said.

Additionally,

The court’s annulment of the sentence also points to weaknesses in the case itself, which became highly politicized in Guatemala. Michael Waller, a foreign-policy expert who worked in Central America in the 1980s, said the judge had overreached with her genocide conviction. “It was a nasty war in Guatemala but it wasn’t genocide,” he said.

More on the case here.

Reaction:
Weiner Makes It Official: Thrusts Himself Into NYC Mayoral Race

Sources say NY Post, Daily News execs signed order early this a.m. allowing headline writers to tap National Strategic Penis Jokes Reserve.

— Nick Confessore (@nickconfessore) May 22, 2013

UPDATE:
For some NSFW fun, check out #WeinerHeadlines on Twitter

The big news for the past day or two has been a leaked tape of a conversation between Mario Silva, the hardcore Chavista spokesman anchorman of “La Hojilla” [The Razor] (a TV show on state-run TV channel VTV), and Aramis Palacios, a lieutenant colonel of Cuban G2.

Caracas Chronicles paints the picture-by-the-numbers

In it, Silva suggests that the military – at the prodding of Diosdado Cabello – is plotting against Maduro.

Plus, in the scorecard,

100 points to Diosdado Cabello for being Darth Vader AND Hannibal Lecter on the same day. And then showing up at Miraflores just to mug for the cameras and rub it in Maduro’s and Silva’s face. Cue in Destiny’s Child “Survivor.”

And finally, a negative 857 points to the Venezuelan people, for if Diosdado gets his way and it’s true that he has, to quote Mario Silva, “all the power without being President,” we are about to enter a world of pain that no Cuban doctor can cure.

Caracas Chronicles concludes,

What’s clear, folks, is that Diosdado Cabello is untouchable. He is the pillar upon which “chavismo sin Chávez” is built. The evidence that Cabello is undermining the Revolution with his corrupt ways is staring Maduro in the eye just as clearly as that picture in the Museo Militar. When faced with the choice of throwing Silva or Cabello under the bus, Maduro chose Silva.

Indeed, Mario Silvia is off the air “for health reasons“, the Latin American equivalent of “spending time with his family.”

A couple of weeks ago, I said,

Most observers predict that Maduro’s regime will not last long. So here’s the question: Who will succeed him, Capriles . . . or Cabello?

The signs point in that direction.

Related:
“Fidel Told Me He Did Not Understand Why Commandante Chavez had Not Finished with Bourgeois Elections”

A few years ago I audited Dr. John V. Fleming’s class on Chaucer, a most wonderful treat, since he’s not only the foremost scholar on the subject but also a great guy. He graciously gave me a poscast interview (transcribed here 1 2 3) a year or so later. Like many of his students, we’ve kept in touch over the years.

Recently, Dr. Fleming went to The Cloisters to listen to Pomerium’s Renaissance music concert that included Spem in Alium. Read his brilliant account here.

ARGENTINA
Comparing Argentina And The United States

Argentina’s dollar tourists
A vacation from inflation

Argentina ex-military leader Jorge Rafael Videla dies
Former Argentine military leader Jorge Rafael Videla has died aged 87 while serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity.

BELIZE
What the hey? Mayan Pyramid Bulldozed for Gravel
The government in Belize said it is pursuing an investigation into a road-building company after the near destruction of one of the largest Mayan pyramids.

BRAZIL
Trafficking gang ‘smuggled Bangladeshis into Brazil’
Brazilian police say they have identified a gang specialising in trafficking Bangladeshi nationals into the country.

CHILE
Chilean Company Wants to Sell Glacier Water to Middle East

COSTA RICA
Costa Rican president in jet scandal
Revelations that Costa Rica’s president used a jet belonging to a Colombian with alleged links to drug trafficking have led to three resignations.

ECUADOR
President Send Urgent Reforms For Mining Law to Congress

GUATEMALA
Justice in Guatemala
The genocide question
A former dictator’s conviction may not be the end of a tragic story

HONDURAS
What happened here?

MEXICO
Understanding Pena Nieto’s Approach to the Cartels

Mexico Grows at Slowest Pace in Three Years
Mexico cut its growth forecast on Friday after the national statistics agency reported the economy had expanded at its slowest pace in three years, clouding optimism surrounding the president’s introduction of an aggressive reform agenda.

NICARAGUA
POLL NUMBERS!!! No significant opposition party in Nicaragua

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico Governor Weighs Raising Taxes for Highway Agency

Puerto Rico Sets Plans for Bond Sales
Puerto Rico aims to sell more than $3.4 billion in municipal bonds this year, it told investors, highlighting the fiscally troubled island’s reliance on credit markets.

VENEZUELA
Scarcity was much cooler under Chávez

The Crappiest Economy?
Sucks to be Venezuelan: the country has run out of toilet paper, thanks to price controls straight out of a Woody Allen movie. Daniel Gross on Bolívar’s backward business legacy.

How food shortages are dividing Venezuela

La Lista de Maduro

Revisionismo económico chavista, próximos pasos

The week’s posts and podcast:
Guatemala: The Gen. Rios Montt decision

Pacific Alliance vs. Mercosur

Cuba: Alan Gross’ family may now have enough to pay for his ransom

Brazil: MDs don’t want uncertified Cuban medics

Argentina: The bond extortion

Venezuela runs out of toilet paper

En español: Bayly entrevista a Guillermo Fariñas

Mexico: Waiting for Popo

4 items on Cuba: Mariela, Fariñas, Pittsburgh, and Barbara

Podcast: (audio starts immediately) Repression in Cuba plus US-Latin America issues

Read the whole article.

ALL I want to do is watch “Breaking Bad.”

For weeks I’ve been clicking on Netflix and waiting for a new episode to show up on my flat screen, sitting alone on the couch in a darkened room night after night. I confine myself to a single episode at a time; it’s too draining to watch more. Too much adrenaline, too much bloodshed, too much heartbreak, too much darkness. But I can’t wait to see it either. Ten minutes before the end of an episode I’m already feeling let down: soon, too soon, it will be over, and I’ll have to do something else with my life.

And now the moment I’ve long feared has arrived: I’ve just finished the last episode, No. 13, of Season 4. (The numbers seem biblical: 13.4.) I missed the first half of Season 5, and the second half — another eight episodes — won’t be shown until August.

Go ahead, you know you want to!

You can watch it right now.

The trailer for Welcome to New York is no longer available on YouTube, but Gerard Depardieu played the part of Dominique Strauss-Kahn for free,

He’s doing it for the pleasure of working with Abel Ferrara.

And perhaps a cut of the ticket office, no?

Maybe not.

Dèdè

said he took the role because he does not like Strauss-Kahn. During an interview at the time, Depardieu called the former IMF chief “unpleasant” and “arrogant.”

Considering his current avoirdupois, if I were a casting agent, I’d suggest that he play a nice guy, send him a fleece jacket, & have him star as governor of NJ.