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.

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.

Cuban prisoner Alan Gross settles lawsuit against Md. company

Lawyers filed a notice of the settlement Thursday in federal court in Washington. The settlement amount was not disclosed, and the agreement only covers Development Alternatives Inc., also known as DAI, not the government.

DAI’s chief executive officer said in a statement that settling the lawsuit, in which neither party admits fault, allows the company to work together with Gross’ family to bring him home.

Gross’ wife Judy, who has traveled to Cuba on several occasions to see her husband, said in the same statement that the family is “very pleased that DAI has committed to help address the injuries sustained by our family.

The $60million lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount.

Cuban officials have suggested they would be willing to free Gross in exchange for the men. Four of the men remain in prison in the United States. One man who completed his sentence but was serving probation in the U.S. was recently allowed to return to Cuba permanently.

Since the US is not amiable to releasing the four, will Havana take the cash instead?

[Title typo corrected]

Brazil plans to hire 6,000 Cuban doctors to serve in remote parts of the country where medical services are deficient or nonexistent, despite controversy over the quality of their training.

The Brazilian foreign minister, Antonio Patriota, said negotiations were under way involving the Washington-based Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) to allow the Cuban doctors to practice in Brazil.

Brazilian medical associations have opposed Cuban-trained doctors practicing in their country, arguing that standards at Cuba’s medical schools are lower than in Brazil and equivalent in some cases to a nursing education.

In exchange for the Cuban indentured doctors,

He said Brazil would pay for the modernisation of five airports in Cuba, where Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht is already building a container terminal at the port of Mariel.

On Monday, Brazil’s trade minister Fernando Pimentel signed an agreement in Havana setting conditions for a $176m (£113m) loan from its giant development bank BNDES to upgrade and expand the airports of Havana, Santa Clara, Holguín, Cayo Coco and Cayo Largo.

Sounds to me like the powers that be are counting on an expansion of trade and travel once Fidel & Raul are no longer of this world.