Fausta's Blog

A brief Carnival this week,
BOLIVIA
NY Hasid resorts to hunger strike after nearly a year in Bolivian prison

BRAZIL
Brazilian politics
What Lula did next

CUBA
There’s a lot of public relations recently on Communist William Morgan:
George Clooney’s making a movie about him, George Clooney Puts on His Directing Helmet to Help Castro’s Cuba with ‘Comandante’, based on the New Yorker article, The Yankee Comandante
A story of love, revolution, and betrayal. Humberto Fontova‘s more realistic,

Something also tells me the film will be devoid of any input by Roberto Martin Perez and others who suffered the longest terms of political incarceration in modern history because of Morgan’s treachery. After all, their anti-Castro plot, as the New Yorker article explains (echoing Castro) had nothing whatsoever to do with restoring Cuba’s freedom. Instead it was inspired by the wicked dictator Rafael Trujillo.

According to Armando Lago about 2000 Cubans were murdered by firing squad while Morgan loyally served Castro. Indeed in 1959-60 many of the men and boys cramming La Cabana’s galeras were were there because of Morgan’s treachery.

Morgan lived in a mansion during this time, had a fancy car and owned a frog farm. Might it occur to Clooney to ask how this AWOL GI, deadbeat-Dad and ex-con managed to acquired these luxuries? In fact they were all stolen at gunpoint from their rightful Cuban owners. “Bienes Malversados”–INDEED!

O’Grady: Castro Endorses Obama
The dictator’s daughter gets a visa to make speeches here while the regime continues to hold an American hostage.

Another Cuba-related Law Heads to Court

HONDURAS
Honduran sourdough bread

MEXICO
Mexico election diary
How important is the tactical vote really?

Eric Holder’s sizzling summer
Attorney general on hot seat for probes on gun-running, child exploitation funds

PERU
Peru Leader Faces Outrage, Defections on Mining Plan

Peru searchers find bodies in Andes chopper crash

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico Borrowing Costs Rise on Rating Concern: Muni Credit

Puerto Rico Schools to Expand Instruction in English

SURINAME
Suriname’s president
Catch me if you can
Legal troubles? Run for office

VENEZUELA
Venezuela opposition floods streets in support of presidential candidate
Leader Hugo Chávez vowed to flood the streets with supporters as hundreds of thousands turned up in Caracas to rally for his rival

Chavismo Pulls Dirty Trick On Podemos And Patria Para Todos (And Ultimately On Capriles)

Capriles smashing launch: le ladró en la cueva

Fading Chávez Rouses Markets

The week’s posts,
Funereal erection, while “Chavez’s days are numbered,”

Leaks and islands

Remember that dry offshore Cuban oil well? UPDATED

Romney names Hispanic Steering Committee, “Juntos con Romney”

Romney targets Hispanics on jobs

ARGENTINA
The Star: Argentina overtakes Venezuela as South America’s biggest default risk

Argentina’s economy
The blue dollar
Another step towards a siege economy

Argentine official denies devaluation planned

El joven Borges y Argentina
Por Edwin Williamson
Se ha querido ver en Borges a un escritor poco interesado en la política y ajeno a los problemas de su país. Sin embargo, como cuenta en este ensayo su biógrafo Edwin Williamson, el joven Borges estuvo atento a las grandes corrientes ideológicas de su tiempo y participó en las grandes disputas políticas, y singularmente históricas, de la Argentina del siglo XX

BOLIVIA
Obama Administration Fails Jewish-American Citizen Detained in Bolivia

Bolivian Drug Accuser Seeks Asylum in Brazil

The stakes are high. Bolivian drug trafficking has become a domestic issue for Brazil, which has become one of the world’s biggest consumers of cocaine amid a decadelong economic boom. Brazilian officials say much of the cocaine consumed in Brazil either originates or passes through Bolivia.

CARIBBEAN
Caribbean integration
Centrifugal force
Half a century of small islands with big egos

CHILE
Codelco v Anglo American
Ore war
A mineral battle in business-friendly Chile

Chilean power firm Colbun puts project on ice
One of the two firms planning to build the giant HidroAysen dam in Chilean Patagonia has frozen the project, citing lack of government backing.

COLOMBIA
FARC leader lives at Chavez’s brother’s house: Priest

In an interview with RCN Radio, priest and Venezuelan journalist, Father Jose Palmar, said FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño, alias “Timochenko,” and two other members of the FARC secretariat frequently spend the night at the estate of Adam Chavez, brother of President Hugo Chavez and governor of the Venezuelan state of Barinas.

“Part of the FARC Secretariat live in Venezuela,” said Palmar who is a priest in the Venezuelan city of Maracaibo and often crosses the border. “That I can assure you,” he added.

Palmar is an open critic of the Chavez government and swears that the 19th, 41st and 59th fronts of the FARC operate with impunity in the Venezuelan state of Zulia. It is from here, he claims, that they organize raids in Colombia, such as the attack by the 59th Front Monday which killed 12 Colombian soldiers in the department of La Guajira.

Colombian volcano spouts ash

CUBA
Mariela Castro hopes Cuban-U.S. relations can normalize in Obama second term

ECUADOR
Journalism in the Americas: Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa asks citizens to boycott press

HONDURAS
Despite Deaths in Honduran Raid, U.S. to Press Ahead With New Antidrug Policy

Honduras sets up anti-corruption body
The Honduran government has set up an anti-corruption commission to target rogue officials in the judicial system and police force.

MEXICO
The Economist Debate: Mexican Elections.

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico bets on American tourists to repay debt

VENEZUELA
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi: Hugo Chavez is wearing Fentanyl Patches and Diapers

Dan Rather says Chavez’s cancer is “at end stage”.

Aponte Aponte is singing like a bird: Fugitive Venezuela judge helps elite U.S. anti-drugs unit

USA Today: Venezuela’s PDVSA oil company is bloated, ‘falling apart’

One thousand car bodies deteriorate in Venezuelan-Iranian auto plant
The National Assembly is investigating whether the Venezuelan-Iranian auto plant Venirauto is causing “property damage” to the South American country

Venezuela bans private gun ownership
Venezuela has brought a new gun law into effect which bans the commercial sale of firearms and ammunition.

The week’s posts:
Property rights are human rights

Smart diplomacy: Fast and Furious ‘poisoned’ Mexican public opinion of US – UPDATED

Brazil power: Spain out, China in.