Fausta's Blog

Just what the country doesn’t need,
Ousted Leader Is Set to Return to Honduras

Former President Manuel Zelaya is expected to return to Honduras within a month, ending an exile that began nearly two years ago when he was ousted in a coup, an aide and a key supporter said Wednesday.

Conditions are right for Mr. Zelaya to return from the Dominican Republic after the Honduran Supreme Court dropped corruption charges against him, said Rasel Tomé, a senior aide of the former president.
…
Mr. Zelaya’s return could pave the way for Honduras to be reincorporated into the Organization of American States, which suspended the country after the coup in June 2009.

The United States and many other countries in the hemisphere have long since restored diplomatic ties with Honduras, but some nations, including Venezuela and Brazil, have declined to do so.

Honduran President Pepe Lobo says Honduras will be readmitted to the OAS before June 5.

Hugo Chavez will be gloating this weekend on his cadenas.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she was confident that the O.A.S. would restore Honduras.

LATIN AMERICA
Latin America’s housing boom
It’s not all froth
Big price hikes at the top end reflect a new, richer reality

Adios, We Hardly Knew You

FreedomHouse’s report PRESS FREEDOM IN 2010: SIGNS OF CHANGE AMID REPRESSION

Americas: In the Americas, 17 countries (49 percent) were rated Free, 14 (40 percent) were rated Partly Free, and 4 (11 percent) were rated Not Free for 2010. The region’s population is almost evenly split between those living in Free (41 percent) and Partly Free (42 percent) media environments, with the remaining 17 percent living in Not Free countries. These figures are significantly influenced by the open media environments of the Caribbean, which tend to offset the less rosy picture in Central and South America. There were two negative status changes, with Honduras and Mexico joining the ranks of Not Free countries, as well as a number of significant numerical declines. Not since 2006 have so many countries in the region been designated Not Free. The regional average score worsened compared with 2009, with the bulk of the decline occurring in the political and economic categories.
Press freedom conditions remain extremely restricted in Cuba, which has one of the most repressive media environments worldwide, and Venezuela, where the government of President Hugo Chávez continued its efforts to control the press. Further pressures were placed on independent V enezuelan broadcast outlets during the year, including the revocation of licenses, and the head of a major television station, Globovisión, fled into exile.
Ongoing deterioration in Mexico and Honduras tipped both countries into the Not Free range in 2010. Mexico’s score worsened from 60 to 62 due to the country’s escalating drug wars, which have taken their toll on journalists. Violence and intimidation by criminal groups have steadily increased in a climate of impunity, leading to heightened self-censorship by the profession as a whole as well as the murders of more than 60 journalists over the past 10 years. During 2010, the nature of drug gangs’ control over the news agenda expanded from prohibitory censorship to concerted attempts to place propaganda or press releases in selected media outlets. This was typically achieved through a combination of threats and bribery. In Honduras, political conditions stabilized somewhat in 2010 following a coup in 2009, and some legal and constitutional protections for press freedom that had been suspended the previous year were reinstated. However, journalists’ ability to work safely was severely compromised by a sharp rise in harassment and attacks in early 2010, including the killing of six journalists in March alone. The aggression and intimidation came from both sides of the political divide. This increase in violence, coupled with a climate of impunity in which journalists’ deaths were not investigated thoroughly or in a timely manner, pushed Honduras’s score from 59 to 61, placing it just inside the Not Free bracket.

Following a series of declines in recent years, Ecuador and Bolivia experienced significant downgrades in 2010. Ecuador’s score fell five points, from 47 to 52, to reflect an increasingly polarized media environment and a rise in negative rhetoric and actions against news outlets by the administration of President Rafael Correa. Pressures on the media included a growing number of criminal defamation suits, raids and shutdowns of broadcast outlets, government advertising boycotts, and official attempts to influence the news agenda through the establishment of state-owned or controlled outlets. Meanwhile, Bolivia’s score moved from 43 to 46 due to the approval of several new laws that allow the government to impose fines, withdraw operating licenses, and imprison journalists under loosely defined criteria. The legislation led to an increase in self-censorship by journalists. More modest declines were registered in Argentina as a result of continued tensions between the government and oppositionist news outlets. Journalists faced increased attacks and harassment, and there were officially sanctioned attempts to restrict the production and the distribution of newspapers, particularly those associated with the Clarín media group.
The only significant positive numerical movement in the Americas for 2010 took place in Colombia, whose score improved from 60 to 56 due to progress in ending impunity for past attacks on journalists. Charges were filed in a number of cold cases, and previously closed investigations were reopened.

Related to the above article, Special Report: The 10 Tools of Online Oppressors

ARGENTINA
Excellent report on how Argentina Firing of Inflation Expert Signaled Start of Dubious Price Data after 2007.

IAPA warns that press freedom in Argentina is in a “state of deterioration”

The Week in Buenos Aires, Argentina – May 8, 2011

BRAZIL
Skin-Deep Gains for Amazon Tribe

Mantega Says Brazilian CPI Peaked in April After Exceeding Target Range

COLOMBIA
Security in Colombia
New names, old games
Criminal gangs led by former paramilitaries have become the biggest threat facing the new government

CUBA
Inventories, Appropriations

Harvard Professor Unfazed by Tyrants

Abhorrent

El por qué de los silencios de Fidel Castro

Eager to modernize its army, Cuba invites Russia to share in profits from oil venture

Castro and Che’s Foiled (and Forgotten) 9/11

Razones ciudadanas 4 from Yoani Sanchez on Vimeo.

ECUADOR
Ecuador Votes on Bid to Give More Control to President

HAITI
Haiti cholera strain may have links back to peacekeepers, says U.N. panel

HONDURAS
Truth and reconciliation in Honduras
A road back for Zelaya?

MEXICO
President calls on Mexicans to back war on drugs

Siesta? What siesta? Mexicans work longest hours in world

AMLO agrees

Are Tougher U.S. Immigration Policies Responsible for Mass Murder Along the Mexican Border?

Families along U.S.-Mexico border face tough school choices

PANAMA
U.S. Embassy Travel Alert

PERU
The Leftist Threat to Peru’s Prosperity
Presidential candidate Ollanta Humala’s party platform talks of nationalizing strategic ‘activities’ and ‘revising’ trade agreements.

Peruvians wary of Humala

Peru to gain 4,300 kilometers of international waters in agreement with Ecuador

PUERTO RICO
Moody’s Warns Puerto Rico Of $28B Rating Cuts

In addition to assessing recent proposals by Gov. Luis G. Fortuno for addressing the island’s underfunding of its retirement system, Moody’s said it also will look at his proposed budget to determine if it moves the island closer to structural balance and if it believes revenue and expense forecasts are reasonable.

URUGUAY
Carlos Curbelo Tammaro lavado de activos del narcotrafico

VENEZUELA
Is Hugo Chavez an idiot?

Fascism forges ahead in Venezuela: the army declares journalists “military objectives”

CEPtic Shock

The strange case of Joaquin Perez Becerra, the Man Chavez Personally Extradited to Colombia

The week’s posts,
What we can learn from Chile
The Middle East-Latin America Terrorism Connection
Hezbollah setting up camp in Mexico
The growing Chilean economy
NY City cabs to be built in Mexico
Peru: Ollanta Humala’s new PR face

Hugo Chavez hosted ousted Honduran president Mel Zelaya at the presidential residence in Caracas. The report (link in Spanish, if you use this translation, please credit me and link to this post) reads,

The purpose of the meeting is normalizing relations with Honduras. According to the President {Chavez], Zelaya and [current Honduran President Pepe] Lobo have reached an agreement which will be formalized in a document.

Earlier last week Chavez had officially recognized Lobo as the legitimate President of Honduras. Clearly, there are deals in the making.

Indeed, it sure looks like Hugo is the owner of the circus, and Lobo is talking to the owner of the circus.

Well, the US has been canvassing for his return and Pepe Lobo says he wants “a legal solution allowing for his return”, so now the arrest warrants are dropped,
Honduras drops arrest warrants for ousted Manuel Zelaya

The move allows Mr Zelaya to return without detention to Honduras, where he was ousted in a coup in June 2009.

Judge Oscar Chincilla said Mr Zelaya still faced corruption charges over his plan while president to hold a vote on changing the constitution.

Mr Zelaya has said the charges are politically motivated and he wanted them dropped.

He now lives in the Dominican Republic.

President Porfirio Lobo has said he would like to see a legal solution that would allow Mr Zelaya’s return.

Mel is not happy with the decision and says it’s “absurd” that the judge let corruption charges stand.

Can’t wait for Jimmy Carter to drop by one of these days and work his magic.

The entire hemisphere is listening to the news on Japan. The LatinAmericanist has a roundup of LatAm ”desaparecidos” in post-earthquake Japan

LATIN AMERICA
Buoyed by Recovery, Migrants Send Home More Money

Tsunami waves graze Latin America’s Pacific coast

ARGENTINA
Peronists seek to stifle Vargas Llosa

Why is a segment, perhaps the majority, of the Argentine electorate insensitive to these violations of the law and moral standards? In my view, for three reasons:
• Because, 60 years ago, Peronism introduced a practice of patronage politics in which the militants give their support in exchange for some privilege or gift given by the politicians. They vote with their stomachs, not with their hearts or heads.
• Because a cynical attitude prevails towards the democratic system, built on the false premise that “all politicians are equally corrupt.” (That’s not true; in Argentina there are honest politicians and officials.)
• Because many Argentines, after several generations of continuous apathy, are willing to flout the law if they obtain some benefit from it. That makes a mockery of the republican ideal of a society of thoughtful citizens, voluntarily placed under the authority of the law. That responsible attitude simply does not prevail in a country where it’s common to boast about breaking the rules.
It’s no wonder that this lamentable civic climate nurtures an atmosphere conducive to the use of fascist tactics inimical to republican virtues, a habit of using some degree of violence against those who report violations of law, or simply express opinions contrary to the official current.

Bones and human rights
Identifying skeletal remains

BRAZIL
Brazil’s labour laws
Employer, beware
An archaic labour code penalises businesses and workers alike

CHILE
Chile-Japan nexus

COLOMBIA
22 Oil Workers Are Freed

Marxist guerrillas have freed 22 of the 23 oil workers for Canadian energy company Talisman Energy Inc. who were kidnapped late Monday, Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera said Tuesday.

Mr. Rivera said one of the 23 was released or escaped Monday night, while the 21 others were freed early Tuesday because of heavy pursuit by Colombia’s armed forces.

Managing cities
Bogotá’s rise and fall
Can Enrique Peñalosa restore a tarnished municipal model?

Tehran says is keen to cement ties with Colombia

CUBA
Biscet freed, sent home

Gaddafi and Castro, Solidarity Between Despots

A little less Che & a little more Tea for Cuba?

Continue reading on Examiner.com: A little less Che & a little more Tea for Cuba? – Portland TEA Party | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/tea-party-in-portland-me/a-little-less-che-a-little-more-tea-for-cuba#ixzz1GaMNN1c3

ECUADOR
Tsunami waves hit the Galapagos,

HAITI
Homecoming for Haitians
After the new president is elected, the prospects for reform may hinge on returning emigres.

HONDURAS
Narcolaboratorio podría ser de cartel de Sinaloa
Ministro de Seguridad reveló que ya se tienen pistas de involucrados hondureños. Expertos colombianos determinarán cuánta droga se producía

Honduras and its former president
Why a pariah may return
Many now have reason to want Manuel Zelaya to come home

MEXICO
Dallas News report: Path of Destruction, via Silvio Canto.

Suicidal: Obama Sends 20 More ICE Agents to Mexico… Unarmed, article also at the Washington Examiner, Obama sending more unarmed agents into Mexico

Current Mexican law bans foreign law enforcement agents from carrying weapons, even when working on an investigation–a policy over which President Obama recently expressed his approval.

American Professor Kidnapped in Mexico

ATF Let Guns “Walk” Into Hands Of Mexican Drug-Gangs?

ATF Lied, Mexicans Died, via Doug Ross.

Should Mexico Go the ‘British Way’?

México tuvo menos homicidios que varios países, incluyendo a Venezuela

los países que están por arriba de México son Brasil (con 25,3 homicidios por cada cien mil habitantes), Jamaica (32,4), Belice (32,7), Colombia (37,3), Venezuela (48,0), Sudáfrica (49,6) y El Salvador (61,0).

PBS Documentary, U.S. mayor, police chief charged with smuggling guns to Mexico

Wanted: Officers to Retake Mexico

The Storm that Swept Mexico, airing on May 15,

TRAILER – The Storm That Swept Mexico from Paradigm Productions on Vimeo.

PERU
Peru elections shaken by reports of drug money

PUERTO RICO
Third U.S. Tsunami Center May Be Headed to Puerto Rico

Walking a tightrope 60 feet above the ground, El acróbata Rick Wallenda imita en Puerto Rico la hazaña en la que murió su abuelo

VENEZUELA
BFFs

Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez loses Libya stadium honour
A stadium in eastern Libya named in honour of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been stripped of its title, opposition groups say.

OAS monitor concerned with gov’t attacks on press in Venezuela

The week’s posts and podcasts,
After the Gross sentence: More concessions from Obama?
Cuba: Alan Gross sentenced to 15 yrs in prison
Congress must pass the FTAs with Colombia and Panama
Why the Obama administration’s silence on Chavez and Castro? UPDATED with VIDEO

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. The week’s big news: Venezuela’s Chavista-controlled lame-duck National Assembly granted Hugo Chavez the power to rule by decree for the next eighteen months, essentially voiding the results of last September’s Congressional election.

ARGENTINA
Noche de Librerías en Buenos Aires atrae a 40 mil
La ciudad argentina se llenó de actividades gratuitas en las que participaron músicos y escritores

New Squatter Violence in Argentina Prompts Call for Evictions

BOLIVIA
Bolivia recognizes Palestine as independent state

Bolivia: ¿Militarización de Tarija? – EJU.TV

CHILE
Pinochet officials sentenced to jail in France
A French court has handed prison sentences of between 15 years and life to officials who served under Gen Augusto Pinochet in Chile.

COLOMBIA
GOP House Will Link Colombia and South Korea Trade Deals

Obama Lets Colombia Hang
The White House says it won’t submit the free trade pact to Congress.

CUBA
Diplomatic Cable leak: Cuba banned Moore’s “Sicko”

Moore: Hey, Cuba loved my movie!

Cardinal Ortega has his ‘promises,’ Cuba political prisoners have their sufferings

Ethics Slepping

What to Buy?

Wikipedia a la Cubana

ECUADOR
Chevron Forces Legal Change
Recent Moves in Ecuador Oil-Pollution Suit Have Plaintiffs Revamping Approach

HONDURAS
WikiLeaks, Honduras and the U.S.
Released cables make it clear that the U.S. knew Manuel Zelaya was a threat to democracy in Honduras.

Guest blog: Wikileaks and the Honduran Crisis
Second life for abandoned computer parts

JAMAICA
Jamaicans using patois version of Bible’s Luke

MEXICO
Thieves provoke pipeline explosion, killing 27

Mexico: Activist Mother of Brutally Murdered Teen Gunned Down

Mexico: mass jail-break near US border

PANAMA
A Leak Forms In the Panama Canal

Panama’s Ambassador to US Quits Due To Wikileaks Revelations About Panama Canal Expansion Bid

Another mega project for Panama

PARAGUAY
Paraguayan Senators would not allow Venezuela to join Mercosur since the country not a full democracy, Paraguay: Senadores explican que Venezuela no ingresará al Mercosur porque no es una democracia plena , following the Venezuelan National Assembly move granting Chavez the power to rule by decree for 18 months.

PERU
Army chief rejects Wikileaks drug claims

President García says “I’m not offended” by WikiLeaks personality profile

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico lures visitors with natural, manmade attractions

VENEZUELA
Chavez defends plan for Internet regulations

Venezuela’s armed forces in the middle of coups and voting
When saying that a potential victory of the opposition would not be accepted by Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), General Henry Rangel Silva put the army in a dilemma of using force to keep Chávez in office

Aqui no pasa nada

For events developing in Sur del Lago, where the military may intervene, follow Milagros Socorro’s tweets.

A democratic test for Venezuela

As Chávez Gets Decree Powers, NYT Admires ‘Political Sagacity,’ Press Avoids Dictatorial Details

Venezuelan President Chavez’ Teflon popularity fraying at the edges

Towards a Worker’s Paradise

Weeding

La verdadera conspiración (actualizada)

The Chavez dictatorship

A Resident of the El Peonio farm tells Hugo Chavez what a farce his revolution is

The week’s posts and podcast,
Chavez to rule by decree UPDATED
Sicko banned in Cuba for portraying Cuban medical apartheid
Chavez, not allowing a disaster to go to waste, seeks dictatorship
Chavez’s steaming bucket of urea

LATIN AMERICA
Unilateral escapism
A collective state of misjudgment has swept across Latin America.

Why Latin America turned

Iran’s Dirty Game in the Western Hemisphere is a Symptom

ARGENTINA
Squirrel Alert in Buenos Aires!

CHILE
Chile Prison Fire Kills 83

Chile’s prison tragedy

COLOMBIA
WikiLeaks: Colombia’s Uribe reached out to FARC

Colombia’s foreign policy
Seeking new friends
Juan Manuel Santos tries diplomacy

CUBA
Via Melanie Phillips and ShrinkWrapped, United Nations: It’s Okay to Kill the Gay (emphasis added)

The tiny West African nation of Benin (on behalf of the UN’s African Group) proposed an amendment to strike sexual minorities from the resolution. The amendment was adopted with 79 votes in favor, 70 against, 17 abstentions and 26 absent.

A collection of notorious human rights violators voted for the amendment including Afghanistan, Algeria, China, Congo, Cuba, Eritrea, North Korea, Iran (didn’t Ahmadinejad tell the world there were no gays in Iran?), Egypt, Malaysia, Pakistan, Russia, Sudan, Uganda, Vietnam, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.

Add to this Bahamas, Belize (where you get 10 years for being gay), Jamaica (10 years of hard labor), Grenada (10 years), Guyana (life sentence), Saint Kitts and Nevis (10 years), Saint Lucia (10 years), Saint Vincent (10 years), South Africa (Apartheid? What apartheid?), and Morocco (ruled by a gay monarch!). They are all on the list of nations that do not think execution of gays and lesbians is worthy of condemnation or investigation.

Just Back: On a Cuban guilt trip

Vatican worries about ‘bloodshed’ in Cuba
Cites political tensions and ‘disastrous’ economy

Wikileaks and empty archives

WIkiLeaks Bombshell: Cuba To Be Bankrupt in 2-3 Years

Osmany and the ‘other scars’

ECUADOR
Ecuador to auction oil fields of companies it forced out

EL SALVADOR
Finally, Wikileaks says something interesting about Venezuela: how it intervenes in Salvadoran affairs

HAITI
Haiti’s election
Whomever they voted for…
…the government plans to win

Haiti’s Preval Tries to Steal an Election
In the aftermath of presidential election fraud, violent protests erupt in Port-au-Prince. Where is Hillary Clinton?

Palin: Haiti needs ‘military airlift’ of supplies. Meanwhile, the HuffPo is throwing a snit because Bristol Palin dared touch her mother’s hair.

HONDURAS
THE must-read: Wikileaks: The real Manuel Zelaya

“Llueven” denuncias contra los especuladores

MEXICO
Altered Corn Slowly Takes Root in Mexico

Mexican Suspect Got School Salary

Servando “La Tuta” Gómez, a reputed leader and spokesman for the La Familia drug cartel, held a tenured position at an elementary school in the central state of Michoacán and has received paychecks for 15 years.

In Mexico, a legal breakdown invites brutal justice

Another Capo Killed?

Cancun ends with modest climate deal

All deals are off

Cancun carbon footprint by the numbers

Alejo Garza Tamez and the restoration of Mexico’s sacred narrative

PANAMA
Nationwide Emergency Number for Panama: 088

PERU
Constitutional Court prohibits Peruvian media from using secretly recorded phone calls

Peru-China ties better than ever, says Chinese Ambassador

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico Slaps Tax on Products by Companies Headquartered Elsewhere

VENEZUELA
Venezuela Threatens Takeover of Large Banks

President Hugo Chávez threatened to take control over the local unit of Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA and other large financial institutions if they don’t ensure that homes and apartments they finance are occupied immediately.

Mr. Chávez, who has brought his own brand of socialism to Venezuela, has nationalized more than 200 companies this year from various sectors of the economy.

Wikileaks:
Chavez is a brute and a clown, Evo an ignoramus and Ortega a ding bat dixit the Spanish foreign service
Hugo Chávez’s ex-wife gives Washington insights into strongman’s psyche: WikiLeaks

More on Venezuela and Iranian missiles

Venezuela gets 1800 shoulder fired anti air craft missiles from Russia

Superfluous Authoritarianism

¿ES QUE 12 AÑOS DE PACIENCIA NO BASTAN?

Recent posts and podcasts:
Venezuela acquired 1,800 antiaircraft missiles from Russia last year
Today is National Tango Day in Argentina
Cold in Cancun
Bonding, Iranian style
Criminal capitalism: 15 Minutes on Latin America
At Real Clear World,
Iranian missiles in Venezuela?

Welcome to this week’s Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. As the title indicates, it’s been a year since Mel Zelaya was thrown out of office. He and his teddy bear are also gone from his tin foil-lined room at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa.

ARGENTINA
Collateral damage

Cristina se reunió con empresarios antes del comienzo de la cumbre del G20

Seventy-five years ago today

BARBADOS
Barbados and Panama sign double taxation agreement

BOLIVIA
Bolivian Bottles Build Houses

BRAZIL
Brazil’s foreign policy
An Iranian banana skin
Lula has little to show for his Tehran adventure

Lula’s adventure in Tehran smacks of the overconfidence of a politician who basks in an approval rating of over 70% and who sees the Iraq war and the financial crisis as having irreparably damaged American power and credibility. But the United States is still Brazil’s second-largest trading partner. Although some American and Brazilian officials are keen to prevent ill-will over Iran from spoiling co-operation in other areas, it nevertheless may do so. The United States Congress may be even less willing to support the elimination of a tariff on Brazil’s sugar-based ethanol, for example.

Lula wants the UN reformed to reflect today’s world, with Brazil gaining a permanent seat on the Security Council. But by choosing to apply his views on how the world should be run to an issue of pressing concern to America and Europe, and in which Brazil has no obvious national interest, Lula may only have lessened the chances that he will get his way.

Lula skips G20 summit due to deadly Brazil floods

CHILE
Piñera’s (dis)approval

Entrevista a Josep Montaner, “El rol de la sociedad civil ha de ser activo en cualquier situación” Video in Spanish,

Josep Montaner _ Rol de la sociedad civil from Plataforma Urbana on Vimeo.

COLOMBIA
THOMSON: Santos sweeps to the presidency
Platform for security, stability and development win b

Good news from Colombia, but does Obama appreciate it?

Ros-Lehtinen: Recognizing Colombia’s presidential election and the U.S.-Colombia alliance Ros-Lehtinen Resolution on Colombia Elections Passes House

Will Washington treat Colombia’s Santos as an ally?

COSTA RICA
Father’s Day in Costa Rica

CUBA
When Learning Turns to Dust

“Cuba experts”

Ramiro on a hunger strike?

Syrian president due in Havana on Sunday

Interviews With Dr. Darsi Ferrer and Juan Juan Almeida

ECUADOR
UPDATE: Filmmakers Argue Against Ruling In Chevron Case

HONDURAS
A year without Mel Zelaya

More intromission by US Ambassador Llorens and G-16

JAMAICA
Mr Coke turns himself in

Jamaican drug lord captured

MEXICO
Mexican Violence Crosses Borders; Attracts Media Attention

Mexico Represents Single Biggest Drug Trafficking Threat to U.S.

NICARAGUA
Nicaragua’s Sandinistas accused of paying for power
Daniel Ortega’s ruling Sandinistas Front is using strong-arm tactics to limit opposition, observers say.

PANAMA
Washington Post on retiring to Panama

PARAGUAY
Journalists in the crosshairs of Paraguayan People’s Army

PERU
Peruvian Franken-Corn Defamation Case Update

Keiko Fujimori Leads Peru Presidential Poll, El Comercio Says

Keiko Fujimori says “I will be in the second round” for president of Peru in 2011

Peru judge rules Van der Sloot confession valid

PUERTO RICO

Students approve strike pact. Back in the olden days when I was a student at the UPR they were striking, too, but no one slept in cute little tents on campus. Either way, the strikes are a total waste of time.

VENEZUELA
Today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern: UN: Most of the cocaine going to Europe passes through Venezuela

The report launched by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) expresses concern about Venezuela due to the existence of cells of armed insurgent groups, such as the Bolivarian Liberation Front and civilian militias supported by the government.

WDR 2010 website. PDF file: full report.

Syrian president meets with Chavez in Caracas

Revolutionary Rot, But News It’s Not: AP Ignores Venezuela’s ‘Battle for Food‘, also at BizzyBlog

Como el paternalismo crea dictadores

A radical shift to the radical left in Venezuela

Ollie Loves Hugo & Hugo Loves Ollie

Le Monde criticizes the selling out of Venezuela to Cuba, Chavez gets revenge by taking away a minor farm of Diego Arria and Letter from Diego Arria to Hugo Chavez

VenEconomy: Venezuela Dominated By & Split Up Into Ghettos

Commie Despot Renegs On Debts, Seizes Oil Rigs

Today’s Video: Oligarchs vs. Bolivarians

Maria Conchita Alonso on Oliver Stone’s South of the Border (VIDEO)

HUMOR
My cousin sent this, Por que Cuba No fue a el Mundial Los Pichy Boys

The week’s posts and podcasts:
How about, Sayonara, Citgo?
Venezuela to nationalize U.S. firm’s oil rigs
Venezuela’s fast-track doctors
Jamaica: Dudus Coke in the can
Mexican gangs’ lookouts in Arizona
Rum war?
Obama Secretary of Labor: Illegals Have a Right to Fair Wages VIDEO
In Silvio Canto’s podcast.
In Rick Moran’s podcast.

Oh, yes, Zelaya, who took shelter in a tin foil-lined room at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa.

Nicholas sent this link to Neoneocon’s post, Remember Honduras? Obama does, and he hasn’t given up trying to destabilize the country, which links to Mary O’Grady’s article in today’s Wall Street Journal (emphasis added),
The U.S. vs. Honduran Democracy
The administration is pushing a policy that divides Honduras and bolsters a chavista.

Last year, the U.S. tried to force the reinstatement of deposed president Manuel Zelaya. When that failed and Team Obama was looking like the Keystone Cops, it sent a delegation to Tegucigalpa to negotiate a compromise.

Participants in those talks say Dan Restrepo, senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council, let slip that the U.S. interest had to do with American politics. The Republicans, he said, were using the administration’s support for Mr. Zelaya, an ally of Venezuelan Hugo Chávez, against the Democrats. It’s not going to work, Mr. Restrepo is said to have informed the other negotiators, because “we have the power” and would be keeping it for a long time.

It can’t have been comforting for Hondurans to learn that while their country was living a monumental crisis, fueled by U.S. policy, Mr. Restrepo’s concern was his party’s power. For the record, an NSC spokesman says “Mr. Restrepo didn’t say that.” But my sources are more plausible considering what has transpired since.

Four months after a presidential election, reports from Honduras suggest the Obama administration remains obsessed with repairing its foreign-policy image by regaining the upper hand. The display of raw colonialist hubris is so pronounced that locals now refer to U.S. ambassador Hugo Llorens as “the proconsul.”

Washington’s bullying is two-pronged. First is a maniacal determination to punish those involved in removing Mr. Zelaya. Second is an attempt to force Honduras to allow Mr. Zelaya, who now lives in the Dominican Republic, to return without facing any repercussions for the illegal actions that provoked his removal. Both goals are damaging the bilateral relationship, polarizing the nation and raising the risk of a resurgence of political violence.

The U.S., as represented by Mr. Llorens, has been at the center of the Zelaya crisis all along. People familiar with events leading up to Mr. Zelaya’s arrest on June 28 say that had the U.S. ambassador not worked behind the scenes to block a congressional vote to remove the president a few days earlier, the dramatic deportation would never have happened.

The State Department denies this allegation. But numerous sources maintain that Mr. Llorens’ interference allowed Mr. Zelaya to push ahead with an unconstitutional referendum.

And it’s not over:

Now more trouble is brewing: Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes, according to press reports, has said that Mr. Lobo made a promise, in front of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Mr. Funes, that Mr. Zelaya could return “without fear of political persecution.” Mr. Lobo subsequently announced that Mr. Zelaya is free to enter the country. In exchange, it is expected that foreign aid flows to Honduras will resume. But the minister of security maintains that if Mr. Zelaya returns he will be arrested.

“Smart diplomacy”, tin foil-lined room version:

Following Pepe Lobo’s inauguration, Mel Zelaya left the country, but promises to return.

I’ll talk about this in today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern, and you can also read my post at Real Clear World.

Related reading:
La Gringa’s Outside interference and Honduran reaction.