Fausta's blog

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.



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

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

Today's big story: Bill Richardson's trip to Caracas to ask Hugo Chavez, who has given $300 million dollars to the FARC, to negotiate for the release of three American FARC hostages.

Simon Romero of the NY Times reports,

The meeting itself was exceptional, marking a rare personal encounter between and a prominent American official and Mr. Chavez, following a sharp deterioration of political relations between the Bush administration and Venezuela’s government.

It's not clear whether Richardson is ignorant of or indifferent to the anti-American propaganda Chavez spews weekly on TV.

Video: Bill Richardson habló después de reunirse con Chávez, video in Spanish:


IBD Blogs commented on the visit. Others blogging about it:
Richardson working hard for his VP spot with Obama
Foreign policy by BDS
Gov. Bill Richardson Meets With Hugo Chavez
No thugs left to pander to
I also posted about it yesterday.

Another big story from last week, the body of Beatriz Porco, a 22-year-old Bolivian who won a scholarship to study medicine in Cuba two years ago, was returned to her family on April 2, minus several internal organs, including the girl's brain, kidneys, lungs, and uterus. Humberto Fontova writing at NewsMax notices that this is not the first time this has happened under the Cuban "free healthcare" system.

LATIN AMERICA
NAFTA is working

ARGENTINA
Argentina Farmers Ready to Revolt Again

Official: Argentine economy minister resigning

BOLIVIA
Morales sees threat from 'separatist' groups

Bolivia's Morales: End Capitalism to Save the World

Once more to the brink

BRAZIL
Brazil Oil Finds May End Reliance on Middle East, Zeihan Says

Brazilian Assumptions of a McCain Victory 'Premature,' 'Reckless'

COLOMBIA
What's at Stake in Colombia

Colombia denuncia nuevo ataque de las FARC desde Ecuador

Guerrilleros de las FARC atacaron con armas no convencionales desde Ecuador a tropas de Colombia que prestaban seguridad a una petrolera, que cumple actividades de exploración en la frontera binacional, denunció el sábado el comandante del Ejército colombiano, general Mario Montoya.

Cousin Mario: "Parapolitics" touches the first family

FARC computer reveals more South American ties

CUBA
WaPo Editorial: No Space for Dissent

Parallel Universes

The Elian Gonzalez Case

As usual, it's fidel's fault

Fins ain't wot they used to be

ECUADOR
Official: Laptop reveals ties to Ecuador

New documents from computers seized in a March raid on a FARC camp in Ecuador show that the guerrilla group may have ties to a prominent Ecuadorean politician.

Dictator Correa is Indeed an "Outrage to Democracy"

Southcom: Air base in Ecuador will not be replaced

"My Hands are Clean and Bloodless, Something Uribe Can't Say"

GUATEMALA
The Indian/Guatemalan Tuk-Tuk Connection?

MEXICO
Mexico's Calderon Makes Fierce Defense Of NAFTA

Kidnappings soar in Mexico as drug gangs seek new income

Editorial: Calderón can't expect unconditional aid

Mexico’s Hugo Chavez wannabe

PARAGUAY
Paraguay wants to renegotiate Itaipu treaty with Brazil

Paraguay’s historic election

Latin America’s Latest Marxist Leader Takes Power in Paraguay

Fernando Lugo, Hugo's latest buddy

PERU
EEUU instalará base militar en Iquitos en reemplazo de la de Manta, revelan

VENEZUELA
Gary Casparov on Chavez

Chavez according to Caballero

Venezuela's Chavez wants government monitoring of news

Abridged world history of lie

Cattle Call in Venezuela

Venezuela nationalisations show disarray

Video
HACER's Eneas Biglione was a guest on "Four Corners" of Press TV, making the case for NAFTA and Free Trade Agreements.

BLOGGING ABOUT THE CARNIVAL
Obi's Sister



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Labels: Argentina, Bill Richardson, Bolivia, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Hugo Chavez, Latin America, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela

From the looks of it, Paraguay's new president Fernado Lugo is Hugo Chavez's latest buddy. As you can read in Bridget Johnson's article, Latin America’s Latest Marxist Leader Takes Power in Paraguay, Marxist former Bishop Fernando Lugo is the latest of Hugo's friends to come to power with the help of Hugo's oil money. He joins Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, Bolivian President Evo Morales, and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa in the choir paid for by Hugo's money. And I'm not including those suitcases full of money Hugo was sending Argentina's Cristina Kirchner.

This means the least competitive economy in South America is now in Chavez's pocket.

Paraguay has elected former Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo in spite of the fact that the Paraguayan constitution prohibits ministers of any faith from standing as a political candidate. Lugo claims to have resigned from his position, but unfortunately for him, the Catholic Church isn't amenable to resignations by ordained clergy since ordination is a Sacrament and carries a lifetime commitment. He may be defrocked.

Here is Lugo's BBC profile, which says that Lugo's ready to put the squeeze on Brazil:

In particular he wants Brazil to pay Paraguay a lot more money for the electricity it buys from their jointly-owned Itaipu dam, the world's biggest hydroelectric plant. He says he will take Brazil to the World Court in The Hague if necessary.

He also wants to establish relations with China

Lugo fits the populist cookie-cutter:

They are protectionists, rejecting Washington's proposals for free trade throughout the Western hemisphere, and preferring to build up a South American bloc as a counterweight to Nafta.

They are populists, using public projects to buy support. They are nationalists, picking fights with the US, the World Bank and, when all else fails, each other.

They are, if not anti-democratic, at least anti-parliamentary, articulating their peoples' contempt for politicians: Bonapartists, if you like.

Monsignor Lugo fits the mould neatly. He is a brilliant orator, whether in Spanish or in the indigenous language, Guaraní.

While he recently tempered his anti-yanquismo, he none the less attacked Washington's unhappy record of backing dictators. And, for all his ideological proximity to Brazil's leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, he played on anti-Brazilian nationalism.

Lugo's victory completes the triumph of the radical Left in South America.

Which makes Paraguay ripe for Hugo's Bolivarian Revolution.

The Latin Business Chronicle urges Lugo to follow Chile's example because of the dismal economic conditions after sixty-one years of Colorado party rule:

Paraguay needs to follow Chile's - not Venezuela's - example as a way to reduce the country's poverty and corruption.
...
First and foremost, Lugo should realize that Paraguay's status as the poorest nation in South America is not due to Capitalism, but rather the lack of true free markets. Even after Paraguay became a democracy nearly 20 years ago, the country continued to be dominated by corruption and the rule of influence instead of transparency and the rule of law.

Paraguay has the least competitive economy in all of Latin America, according to the 2007 Global Competitiveness Index from the World Economic Forum. It ranks 121 worldwide among the 131 nations the survey looked at. Its low rank was due to such factors as weak institutions, inefficient infrastructure, insufficient macro economic stability, little innovation and low technology readiness. Paraguay is among the countries with the lowest Internet and fixed telephony penetration in Latin America, according to the 2007 Latin Technology Index published by Latin Business Chronicle, which ranked its overall technology level at 15th out of 20 nations in the region.

Meanwhile, the Milken Institute says that Paraguay ranks as the second-worst in Latin America when it comes to access to capital for entrepreneurs. Only Haiti ranks worse, according to the Capital Access Index released in February. Paraguay ranked in 94h place out of 122 nations worldwide.
...
Transparency International gave the country a score of 2.4 (with 10 being best) on its 2007 survey of corruption perception. That makes Paraguay the fourth-most corrupt nation in Latin America.

Lugo will be following Chavez's example,

n contrast, the radical-populist policies implemented in Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador have increasingly deterred foreign investment and in most cases spurred even more poverty. Corruption has also been growing. Venezuela's international ranking has fallen from 71st place (out of 90 nations) in 2000 - when Chavez became president - to 162nd place this year (out of 179 nations), according to Transparency International. Only Haiti is more corrupt in Latin America.

Unfortunately there possibly are dire consequences in the region's security, since Paraguay has significant organized crime and terrorist activity in the TriBorder Area (TBA), which continues to show in the terrorist radar where meetings attended by Hezbollah and al-Qaeda have recently taken place.



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Labels: al-Qaeda, Hizbollah, Latin America, Pajamas Media, Paraguay, terrorism, Venezuela

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



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

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean.

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

Last week's big story was Castro's resignation. I did a huge roundup and follow=up, but Babalu did an excellent job covering the story. Babalu's Val Prieto was in our podcast.

Let's start with some humor:
Top Ten Reasons Fidel Castro Is Retiring

MEDIA:
New Spanish TV channel – online and totally free

BAHAMAS
How Castro's Exit will Affect Cuba and the Bahamas

BRAZIL
Raul prefers Lula over Hugo? Lula and McCain are on the same page

Whodunnit? A strange theft of oil and gas secrets

COLOMBIA
Betancourt: 6 Years As Colombian Captive

Big Labor Can't Handle the Truth About Colombia

No Mas Farc, by Mario Vargas Llosa (in Spanish)

Kouchner in Colombia gets told by Uribe

Colombia rebels get foothold in Venezuela

COSTA RICA
Costa Rican National Parks, and Costa Rican Food.

CUBA
Freed dissidents expose Castro's brutal regime

Perhaps Michael Moore could talk with these gentlemen

Attention Gitmo protesters, the only one torturing political prisoners on the Isle of Cuba is Castro

RAUL CASTRO'S LONG HISTORY OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

Ending Embargo Won't Free Cuba

MARK FALCOFF: CASTRO RAISES A TOAST

Castro Resigns! Sanctions Work!

Council on Foreign Relations: Manners Over Life?

By Tottenpundit, Golf courses will return to Cuba

Cuba Warms to the US

Raul Disses Hugo

Cuba's Phony Transition: Fidel Resigns, Raul Reigns, also at HACER

Labels: Bahamas, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Trinidad Tobago, Venezuela

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. This week's top stories are the two released FARC hostages, and the increasing anti-Semitism in Venezuela, but don't miss the Strategy Page article on submarines and the drug trade in Colombia.

If you would like your post(s) to be included in the Monday Carnivals, please email me by Sunday morning at faustaw "at" yahoo "dot" com. As you can see, I don't have a limit on the number of countries or the subject of the posts, as long as the posts are informative and well written on the subject of Latin America.

SPANISH-LANGUAGE WEBSITE OF THE WEEK
Martha Beatriz Roque Info

PODCAST
Val Prieto, Siggy and I had the pleasure of talking with Carlos Eire last Wednesday night.

LATIN AMERICA
The LatinAmericanist has an excellent daily roundup of headlines from Latin American countries.

ARGENTINA/VENEZUELA
Suitcase of Cash Tangles U.S. and 2 Latin Nations in Intrigue

The Venezuela business model

ARUBA
Natalee Holloway: Mother of Former Suspect, Joran van der Sloot, Wants Investigation of Investigation


ARGENTINA
Italian Immigration to Argentina

Penguins and many other birds spill survive oil spill

BARBADOS
"Authentic"? Yes

Election fever peaks in Barbados

BOLIVIA
Bolivia: Energy profile

BRAZIL
Underwater oil discovery to transform Brazil into a major exporter

The granny from Ipanema So many more women on the beach than men

CHILE
The centre cannot hold Bachelet picks a new strongman

CUBA
AP Obit Paints Traitorous Ex-CIA Agent, Castro Apologist As Travel Agent

A traitor’s death

Death of a Traitor

Traitor dies, victim of Cuban healthcare system

Codepink's "big" protest

Cuba's Transition Begins

COLOMBIA
Drug Sub War Intensifies

The subs, made of fiberglass, are constructed by the drug gangs, using technicians and materials brought in for the purpose. This costs several hundred thousand dollars per boat. Which is not so bad when you consider that each voyage moves a cargo worth $100 million or more. The craft are from 50-80 feet in length, have a crew of three or four, and carry 3-10 tons of cocaine up the coast to Central America, or farther north.

These are not submarines in the true sense of the word, but "semi-submersibles". The fiberglass boats, powered by a diesel engine, have a small "conning tower" above the water, providing the crew, and engine, with fresh air, and permitting the crew to navigate the boat. A boat of this type is the only practical kind of "submarine" for drug smuggling. A real submarine would be much more difficult to build, although you can buy commercial subs for a million dollars or so. These, however, can carry only a few hundred pounds of cargo, and not for long distances.

The main problem with real subs is that they are not much more effective than the "semi-submersibles" that are coming out of Colombia (and even Europe). Submarines can only travel underwater, on battery power, for a short time. Otherwise, they are on the surface, or in a "semi-submersible" state, running on diesel power.

So the drug gangs had the right idea, but their "sub" was not stealthy enough to avoid detection all the time. However, it appears that these "semi-submersibles" do work, because the drug gangs keep using them. Most of them are apparently getting through. Delivery by sea is now the favored method for cocaine smugglers, because the United States has deployed military grade aircraft detection systems, and caught too many of the airborne drug shipments. The smugglers did their math, and realized that improvised "submarines" were a more cost-effective way to go.

Colombia's Uribe unmasks the FARC

Le "geste" des FARC confirme les relations étroites entre Hugo Chavez et les rebelles, qui disposent de centaines de camps de repli au Venezuela

L'ancien FARC déteste qu'on le mette dans le même sac que les "paramilitaires démobilisés"

Gloria Inmarcesible?
Bungle in the Jungle
FARC's 'Gift' To Hugo Chavez
Hugo and the FARC kiss and make up; Hugo sends helicopters
Freed Colombian hostage reveals ordeal

COSTA RICA
The Iguana Tease

CUBA
AP Obit Paints Traitorous Ex-CIA Agent, Castro Apologist As Travel Agent

A traitor’s death

Traitor dies, victim of Cuban healthcare system

En Cuba no hay judios, pero hay homosexuales

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
purification installation at Cure Hospital in Santo Domingo

ECUADOR
Headlines: "IT'S THE LIES & FAKERY, STUPID"

Evidence of Correa's corruption

MEXICO
Mexico's Drug Related Abductions Now Showing Up In Phoenix Area

From last month: 12-6-7
Merida Initiative NOT Plan Mexico

Of Mayas and Markets

NICARAGUA
The Heritage Foundation, on Daniel Ortega

Nicaragua's President Ortega: The Balancing Act After One Year

PANAMA
John McCain: Natural Born Citizen?

PARAGUAY
Rare birds at San Rafael National Park in Paraguay

PERU
Suffer the children Malnutrition amid growing plenty

PUERTO RICO
SCOTUS BLOG Analysis: Police, state sovereignty and the Constitution

Travel 2008: 33 hours from San Juan to Chicago

TRINIDAD TOBAGO
Trinidad's music pirates of the Caribbean

VENEZUELA
Hugo Chavez Knows Nothing About Economics, Part 2,843,971

A cynical Hugo Chavez tries to defend the undefendible
Chavez: the Colombian FARC is not a terrorist group
Better Yet, Call Them Activists

The "Hero"

Anti-Semitism in Venezuela

"Government Sponsored" Antisemitism Grows Under Chavez
VENEZUELA: JEW HATRED CHAVEZ STYLE

Venezuelan Jews Fear Growing Government Sponsored Anti-Semitism

VENEZUELA: US Neo-Cons Accuse Chavez of Anti-Semitism

Venezuela Is Facing A Mountain Of Problems And Crises . . .

A Chavez, Joe Kennedy and Oil Math

Why did Venezuela surrender to Chavez?

VIDEO
Whale watching in Los Cabos, Mexico


HUMOR
Not related to Latin America, but sent in for the Carnival Hillary Clinton denies steroid use. Please note that from now on I'll only post Latin America-related posts in the Carnival.
----------------------------------------------------------------
For more Carnival fun, visit SheBlogs Carnival hosted by Sex and the South.



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Labels: Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Chile, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela

Fresh from the Bloomberg newsfeed: Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay are joining Venezuela's Bank of the South, as expected.

Latin America Leaders Set to Inaugurate Chavez's Bank of South

The Bank of the South, a Latin American development bank fostered by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, will be inaugurated today, a week after the Venezuelan leader met his first political defeat in nine years at home.

It's a very modest bank:

The Venezuelan government has said the new poverty-fighting bank will have starting capital of around $7 billion. The governments involved haven't yet determined how they'll divide contributions to the bank or whether it will turn to capital markets to increase its lending power

Now comes the business part

None of the bank's supporters have an investment grade credit rating. Both the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank enjoy AAA credit ratings because of the backing of the U.S. The Corporacion Andina de Fomento has an A+ credit rating from Standard & Poor's.

The rating of any new multilateral lender would also hinge on the commitment of its member countries, said John Chambers, managing director of sovereign ratings at Standard & Poor's.

"It's important that the member countries provide strong backing for the institution and that they support its priorities," Chambers said.

The Bank of the South could be unsettled by disagreements about its role among its leading members. Chavez, who called President George W. Bush "the devil" in a speech last year at the United Nations, is followed in his anti-American stance by only Ecuador and Bolivia.

Lula's also not jumping in the deep end, to say the least:

Objections from Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva prevented Chavez from turning the Bank of the South into a rival to the International Monetary Fund, too, offering loans in the event of currency crises.

"Lula has a much more conciliatory, moderate attitude toward the U.S. and so I think that's going to create conflict with Chavez as they set up the Bank of the South," said Michael Shifter, a director at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based research organization. "This has already been seen in the way Brazil worked to prevent the new bank from also competing with the IMF."

Reading the news, The Husband, who is a financial guy, said, "If there's a bank you expect to fail, this one's it."



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Labels: Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela

In Paraguay, Piracy Bleeds U.S. Profits, Aids Terrorists

Some 25,000 Lebanese nationals live in the Tri-Border. American officials say Middle East terror groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah are receiving huge amounts of money from the region's illegal activities. So much that it has become a very important source of terrorist support. How important?

"It’s critically important from the standpoint of consistency," said Dennis Lormel, an investigator with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. "The tri-border area is probably the most lucrative area for Hezbollah outside of the state sponsors."
...
"We had agents specifically assigned who overlooked Hezbollah and they recognized very quickly that they needed to focus on the Tri-border area," Lormel said. "Certainly with the corruption in the area and all the demographics and logistics, the Tri-border are is a very attractive area to operate from."

Authorities say that from the Tri-Border, Hezbollah launched the terrorist attacks that destroyed the Israeli embassy and the Jewish Cultural Center in Argentina in the 1990s, killing 114 people.

The situation has drawn the attention of Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, who says hundreds of millions of dollars coming out of the region is being laundered through New York banks.

"Huge Flow of Money"

"Between $50 million to $500 million goes to Hamas and Hezbollah," Morgenthau said. "On a quiet day, $4 trillion goes through New York, so it's relatively easy to hide a million or a billion dollars when you have this huge flow of money."

Unfortunately,

In Paraguay, however, Hezbollah is not considered a terrorist organization, and there are no laws against donating to terror groups.

Background posts:
Hezbollah in Latin America: history
Hezbollah in Latin America
------------------------------------------------------------
This afternoon I'll be on The Gathering Storm's podcast at 3:30PM Eastern. The call-in number is (646) 915-9870. WC of The Gathering Storm blog and Always on Watch are the hosts.

Please join us!


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Labels: Latin America, Paraguay, podcasts, terrorism. Latin America

I must admit that I haven't been posting much about Venezuela because of personal reasons.

I blog because I greatly enjoy blogging. I enjoy not only posting at this blog, but also receiving emails, corresponding with readers and bloggers from all over the world, talking to other bloggers over Skype, and meeting with bloggers in person. When my family is out of town I go to New York and meet with other bloggers.

Through blogging I am also able to allow my visitors to participate in my thought process, something this guy realized way before I realized it myself (which is probably why he writes with the name of three dead shrinks. But I digress). And he's correct: a lot of times I figure out my own position on an issue as I write the post.

Obviously I'm not the most insightful of bloggers, but my research is solid and current, and I always welcome more information. As I said, I really enjoy what I'm doing. But some news do get me down.

Since I purposely try to convey a message of cautious optimism in nearly all of my posts, I have become most reluctant to post about Venezuela.

My reluctance, however, is also matched by my desire to continue to convey accurate information on a subject about which I have posted for the past 3 years. It is a subject of national interest, particularly in view of the current seditious leadership in Congress.

The feedback I get from people who are living in Venezuela, or have travelled recently to Venezuela, is uniformly glum. Things are bad with no end in sight. The prospect of another 50-year-long regime like Cuba's is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a good prospect. Make no mistake, the road to perdition is well marked.

This morning I wasn't planning on posting about Venezuela, but as I picked up the newspaper the headline, Farms Are Latest Target In Venezuelan Upheaval, continues to confirm that Venezuela is firmly positioning itself as Cubazuela:

Vicente Lecuna jabs a wall map of his Santa Isabel ranch so angrily that the map crashes to the floor. "I used to produce 10,000 tons of sugar cane a year," says the 67-year-old Venezuelan cattleman. "Now it's zero! Zero!" he shouts.

Two years ago, squatters seized about half of Mr. Lecuna's 3,000-acre ranch, setting up a cooperative named "Re-Founding the Fatherland." Far from being evicted, the squatters got loans and tractors from the government of President Hugo Chávez. They then uprooted the sugar cane and decided to try their hand at growing plantains.

Mind you, this is at a time where cane-sugar derived ethanol is increasingly becoming a resource for wealth creation.

By ruining the sugar industry, Chavez shot his country in the proverbial foot twice, not just because sugar-cane ethanol is now a commodity, but also because Venezuelan oil production declines as operational oil rigs are down.

But it's all in the name of the revolucion

If the rhetoric smacks of the 1960s, it's because Mr. Chavez dreams of transforming Venezuela just as Fidel Castro did Cuba. Mr. Chavez has already sharply cut private companies' role in Venezuela's lucrative oil industry, and uses the state oil company to funnel billions of dollars to his social projects. He has nationalized the leading telephone company and the main electric utility. He speaks of wanting to drive a stake through the heart of capitalism, limiting the role of money and installing a barter system.

Aside from destroying property rights, a cornerstone of democracy, one fact is ignored when dividing agricultural land into small parcels for the use of untrained people: Agriculture is a science, and as such it needs to be managed by well-trained personnel that know what they're doing.I learned this at a young age: my father owned a farm; my brother is an agronomist.

Farming looks deceptively simple because so much of the work involved can be done by unskilled labor. But agriculture is a science that involves a body of knowledge and the application of tested practices that will not respond to a command economy like Chavez is trying to bring about:

The chaos in the countryside has contributed to shortages in basic items like milk and meat, a paradox in a country enjoying an economic boom traceable to high oil prices. Also spurring the shortages are price controls on certain foods that keep them priced below the cost of production. Meanwhile, 19%-plus inflation - as oil revenue foods the economy - spurs panic-buying: purchasing price-controlled and other goods the shopper might not immediately need for fear of having higher prices in the future or not finding the items at all.

The article goes on, explaining how thousands of slum-dwellers are paid a monthly stipend

to learn a hodgepodge of Marxism, "ancestral" Venezuelan farming methods, and Cuban fertilizer-making techniques

The Cuban fertilizer is known as humus de lombrices, and was highly praised in the film I watched last Friday at the PHRFF. It is nothing more than a pre-Medieval technique of growing worms in cow manure within a cement trough.

I assure you, worm humus does not sustain the large-scale farming necessary for a country such as Venezuela to feed itself.

More mismanagement had turned the Hato Paraima, a 120,000 acre cattle ranch, into fallow land.

A related article in today's New York Times also mentions that there have been dozens of kidnappings of landowners by armed gangs in the last two years.

The bad news continues: Venezuela's climbing GDP deemed to be unsustainable due to the lack of production and investment. Hardly surprising, considering how Nationalisation sweeps Venezuela

On 1 May, Labour Day, he took control of the last remaining private oil companies in the country.

Next are CANTV, the main telecom company; the electric company, Electricidad de Caracas; and the banks.

While nationalizing the banks, Chavez wants to branch out into international banking: apparently Chavez is going ahead with the proposed Banco del Sur, involving not only Venezuela but also Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay. The countries involved, however, might not share Hugo's goals - particularly if Venezuela wants them to pull out from the World Bank and the IMF. As the article points out,

Pulling out of the IMF would amount to a technical default on Venezuela's bonds and would raise the cost of future borrowing. Leaving the World Bank would tear up bilateral investment treaties that Venezuela has signed with other countries (and which use the bank's investment-dispute machinery).

While the Minister of Finance stresses that "No trouble or inconvenience is expected with regard to Venezuela's scheduled repayment of the external debt, amortizations and interests to bond holders for an amount near USD 22 billion" if Venezuela leaves the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, it begs the question as to whose trouble and inconvenience.

The ministers involved have decided that the Banco will be just a development bank.

Development, indeed.

Update, Friday 18 May: The Wall Street Journal does Yaracuy, and The New York Times does Yaracuy. Don't miss Daniel's excellent essay on Land seizure in the bolivarian revolution

Update, Sunday 20 May: Hugo Chavez approaches the Mugabe level of economic mismanagement

Update, Monday 21 May: WSJ Americas columnist Mary Anastasia O'Grady predicts a gloomy outlook for Hugo Chavez's price controls

Labels: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cubazuela, economics, Ecuador, Latin America, news, oil, Paraguay, Venezuela, World Bank

Last week I posted that the US Treasury Dept. had

designated nine individuals and two entities that have provided financial and logistical support to the Hizballah terrorist organization. The designees are located in the Tri-Border Area (TBA) of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay and have provided financial and other services for Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) Assad Ahmad Barakat, who was previously designated in June 2004 for his support to Hizballah leadership.

I just found out that The Office of Foreign Assets Control has released the names, addresses, and passport numbers of those individuals. Click on the link for the full information.

Labels: Argentina, Brazil, Hizballah, Paraguay, TBA, Tri-Border Area