Fausta's blog

Monday, May 05, 2008

The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean: Say no to Evo and Hugo

UPDATE
Via Instapundit,
Interpol Confirms Authenticity Of Raul Reyes's Computer Files

Welcome to this week's Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. If you would like your posts on Latin America and the Caribbean included in the next Carnival, please email me: faustaw2 "at" gmail "dot" com. Please send only posts directly related to Latin American and Caribbean news and politics, not to commercial endorsements and advertising of resort areas and the like.

This week's big story:

Santa Cruz, Bolivia's largest province with 1.5 million inhabitants which Simon Romero describes as

a boomtown in the fertile lowlands. There avenues of glistening office buildings house some of Bolivia's largest private companies and the headquarters of most foreign corporations operating in the country.

Besides finance and resource extraction, Santa Cruz is also home to agribusiness concerns that produce much of the nation's food.

has voted for autonomy from the central government by an 85% margin, thereby rejecting Evo Morales's and Hugo Chavez's socialist plans:

"I hope the government will hear the call of its people now, and not the call of [Venezuela's left-wing President Hugo Chavez] and will start choosing its own course and accept this autonomy and decide it's time to sit down and talk", former president and leader of the opposition Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga told the BBC.

Evo Morales, who has taken steps to increase state control of the economy by ordering foreign energy and telecommunications companies to give control to the government, is not taking this well and rejected the autonomy vote claiming that as many as half the ballots were invalid. There was some rioting following the vote.

Three other eastern states - Beni, Pando and Tarija - hold autonomy votes next month.

More links and details below in the Bolivia section.

WEBSITE OF THE WEEK
Financial Times' Americas

LATIN AMERICA
Waving, not drowning: Cocaine now moves by submarine

ARGENTINA
Cristina in the land of make-believe

Argentina rattled by Falkland drilling plans

BOLIVIA
Santa Cruz Autonomy Vote Passes In Bolivia-- Morales Supporters Promise War

Santa Cruz de la Sierra: Arriesgandolo todo por la autonomía

Via Babalu, Los Ponchos Rojos

At least 21 injured in Santa Cruz autonomy referendum

Bolivia region 'chooses autonomy'

Viva La Revolución

BRAZIL
Good news from Brazil: S&P's rates it "Investment grade', but the big story in the country was that soccer star Renaldo got caught with three transvestite prostitutes because of "psychological problems due to his knee injury."

CHILE
Thousands evacuated as Chile volcano spews ash

Chile: One, two, three,...FOUR times a lady!

COLOMBIA
Colombia captures drug dealer wanted by US

Southern Exposure

CUBA
'This the Development of the World'

Via Babalu, Babalu, Art Deco Havana:

Committee of elders Raúl institutionalises a gerontocracy

ECUADOR
Ecuador considers enshrining women's right to sexual pleasure. Maybe they'll meet up with some of the older Chileans?

The sins of legitimizing terrorists

JAMAICA
A new face

MEXICO
Democrats stalling on Mexico aid to fight drug insurgents

Mexico's Revolutionary: Felipe Calderon's Multi-Front War for Modernity

PARAGUAY
Via Maria, IRAN'S WINNING LATIN POWER PLAY

Paraguay wants to renegotiate Itaipu treaty with Brazil

PERU
Alan García: Peru's Born-Again Free Marketeer

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rican superdelegates back in the news

VENEZUELA
Hugo's All-Too-Predictable Shortages

Party in the House of Pain: Tout le Seattle Will Be There Sans Moi Bien Sur

Is Chavez a CIA agent?

Unfraternal: Squabbles in the ruling party

US Democrats: Hugs for Hugo

Hugo, we're watching you

Break out the Champagne!

US Terror report cites Venezuela, Iran Syria

Special thanks to Maggie, Maria, Eneas, Larwyn, and GM Roper.

Share on Facebook

Labels: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Jamaica, Latin America, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela

Monday, April 21, 2008

Today's Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. If you would like your posts included in next week's Carnival, please email me: faustaw2 "at" gmail "dot" com.

The big story this week? Barack Obama's Communist ties, which may include the FARC. More thoughts on that at American Thinker.

Another important story just developing right now: Opposition victorious in Paraguay

Former Roman Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo has won Paraguay's presidential election, ending more than six decades of rule by the Colorado Party.

More at the link.

BLOG OF THE WEEK
LatinAmericaBlog

LATIN AMERICA
Democrats are shaping Latin America policy in dramatic ways

Do Border Walls Cause More Harm Than Good?

ARGENTINA
Argentine president orders probe into massive fires

BOLIVIA
Cloning Chavez

BRAZIL
Brazil warns FARC to stay out, but...

Two from the Economist: The Delights of Dullness
Oil: More Bounty. Could Brazil become as big an oil power as it is an agricultural one?

COLOMBIA
Via Roger, Travel writer tells newspaper he plagiarized, dealt drugs

The Uribe Temptation. America stiffs its best friend in Latin America. How much will he really care?

The case for Colombia: the Washington Post takes side for Colombia and against Venezuela

A Conversation With Alvaro Uribe

South America's Most Troubled Border

Obama's trade pandering

which brings us to Today's cartoon:
Via ECrisis:

CUBA
Remembering the Bay of Pigs: April 17, 1961

The sudden shock of cold water

Cuba and the Vatican

ECUADOR
Banana Republic and Friends

Something Good This Way Comes

JAMAICA
Dual But Unequal: The dual citizenship debate

MEXICO
Mexico's Unfinished Reform
President Calderón tackles the state oil monopoly -- and the anti-democratic forces that support it.

PARAGUAY
Liberation Politics: The Colorado Party's 61-year grip on power may be at an end (see also top story above).

PERU
A strange tale out of Peru on bird flu.

PUERTO RICO
US Justice Department probes shipping practices to Puerto Rico

Pre-Raphaelites from Puerto Rico

VENEZUELA
Chavez helps out Haitians, continues to ignore Venezuelans

Hugo Chavez Supporter Bundled $50,000 Donation For Barack Obama

Venezuela is now the biggest importer of foreign weapons in South America, and ninth world-wide

Caracas is more dangerous than Baghdad

A First Nations chief from southern Manitoba is asking Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for $1 million to fight for pipeline royalties.

The Simpsons are back

Chavez helps out Haitians, continues to ignore Venezuelans

Errors, Lies and Manipulations on education in the times of Chavez and his brother

Hugo needs the money, pronto

Share on Facebook

Labels: Argentina, Barack Obama, Bolivia, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela

Monday, March 17, 2008

The Saint Patrick's Day Edition of the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Welcome to the Saint Patrick's Day Edition of the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. Starting the week in a festive mode, today's big story is the concert at the Venezuela-Colombia border.

Juanes, other stars stage concert for peace on Colombian-Venezuelan border

Tens of thousands of Colombians and Venezuelans flocked to a border bridge on Sunday for a free concert that Grammy-winning rocker Juanes organized to help heal the worst crisis in Andean relations in decades.

Held atop the Simon Bolivar bridge connecting the northeastern Colombian town of Cucuta with San Antonio in Venezuela, the show also featured Colombian singer Carlos Vives, Dominican Juan Luis Guerra and Spain's Miguel Bose and Alejandro Sanz on the playbill.

As you may recall, Alejandro Sanz had cancelled a concert in Venezuela due to pressure from Chavistas.

The BBC has more

If you would like your posts included in the Monday Carnivals, please email me the link: faustaw "at" yahoo "dot" com.

LATIN AMERICA
Rice Urges South America To Keep Terrorists Out

Bush and Uribe v. Chavez and Correa

A natural gas disaster

The FARC Files

U.S.: An unreliable ally
Center for Strategic and International Studies (pdf file) Tension in the Andes

Tension in the Andes

BOLIVIA
Bolivia court suspends constitution vote

BRAZIL
Portrait In Red: One of the world's most successful AIDS programmes faces new problems

CHILE
Chile: Palestinians look for a new future in South America

COLOMBIA
Bush to push vote on Colombian FTA?

Colombia Has Earned Its Trade Pact

Peace in our time, on the box, But it may well prove to be as phoney as the war

Obama and FARC

The pattern of pursuit

FARC looking for anti-aircraft missiles

Chiquita Sued By U.S. Families for Support of the FARC

COSTA RICA
Costa Rica finds FARC funds

CUBA
Babalu Blog has been on the story about the Defecting Cuban soccer players
7 Cuban soccer players abandon free health care

La amnesia del Vaticano by Maria Werlau of Cuba Archive

Cuba Lifts Ban on Computers, Other Electronics

Wall Street Journal reports Cuban link to FARC

Center for Security Policy's study (PDF file) Implications of the recent Change in Cuban Leadership

DOMINICA
Dominica: The Caribbean's Next 'Terror Island'?

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
La lección de diplomacia de Alvaro Uribe ante el 'pobre patán' de Rafael Correa

ECUADOR
Introducing U.S. Congressional Directives Resolving to Tell the Truth about Chavez's FARC Cartels

Guardian Angels of Evil

Correa calls on to establish new OAS without U.S. participation

JAMAICA
Crown and Anchor: The staying power of the British monarchy in its Caribbean ex-colonies

MEXICO
The Mexican milk problem

Opposition Party May Tone Down Radical Voice

Canuck Cook Caged in Guadalajara

Mexico police capture top Tijuana hitman

PERU
Peru meteorite may rewrite rules

PUERTO RICO
Fortuno Wins Puerto Rico Primary

TRINIDAD TOBAGO
Joseph: American paid $55m for police reform

VENEZUELA
Hugo's own Emperor's Club

Sad acts of anarchy surface in daily life in confrontational Venezuela

Le discours belliqueux du Lt. Col. Chavez permet de resserrer les rangs et de disqualifier les opposants, aussitôt accusés de trahison de la patrie

An important week for Hugo Chavez

The American Friends of Hugo Chavez

Pedro M. Burrelli:
What do we do now with Mr. Chavez?

Smuggling is thriving despite Chávez policies
One of President Hugo Chávez's key efforts to prevent smuggling and put food on the shelves in western Venezuela is failing.

The FARC's Guardian Angel

US considering adding Venezuela to states sponsoring terrorism list Venezuela & the terror supporters list: Pros and cons

Gobiernos auspiciadores de terrorismo

PODCAST
Raices de Esperanza interview

Special thanks to Maggie, Larry, Larwyn, Siggy, Armando and Eneas

Share on Facebook

Labels: Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Trinidad Tobago, Venezuela

Monday, January 28, 2008

The last-Monday-in-January Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The ongoing maletagate case, where a suitcase full of Chavista money for the Argentinian Kirchner campaign was intercepted, continues to be at the top of the headlines. A Colombo-americana's perspective (who I had the pleasure of meeting yesterday) has stayed on top of the story and has the latest here.

Chavez continues to threaten Colombia, claiming that Colombia and the US are about to invade Venezuela (see more links under both countries), while he also threatens Guayana. If that weren't enough, he's seizing food shipments.

If you would like your links on Latin America to be included in the Monday carnivals, please email me by Sunday evening: faustaw "at" yahoo "dot" com.

VIDEO
Isabella Rossellini talks about La fiesta del chivo