The Iran-Venezuela Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. The week’s big news: Iran’s nuclear development, and its ties with Venezuela,
and Mel Zelaya’s arrival at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, from where he’s calling for a final offensive against the government.

Mary Anastasia O’Grady explains Brazil’s role, in today’s WSJ,
Honduras Just Wants an Election
The U.S. demand that Mr. Zelaya be returned to power before a vote is destructive.

Last Monday former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, who was arrested, deported and legally deposed from office on June 28, made a stealth return to Tegucigalpa and sought shelter at the Brazilian Embassy. Mr. Zelaya told a Honduran radio station that his plan to return was hatched in consultation with Mr. da Silva and Foreign Minister Celso Amorim. Brazil says it had nothing to do with smuggling Mr. Zelaya into the country, which is tantamount to calling the former Honduran president a liar. On that point, many Hondurans would agree.

Mr. Zelaya has corruption charges pending against him in Honduras but “noninterventionist” Brazil refuses to hand him over to authorities. Instead it is allowing him to use the embassy as a command center from which he has been calling his violent supporters into the streets.

Mr. da Silva’s sympathies with the extreme left and his friendship with Fidel Castro are legendary. At home he doesn’t engage in the leftist militancy of the 1970s because Brazilians won’t have it. He is constrained by institutions, economic reality and public pressure. His admiration for communism even waned a bit when Venezuela and Bolivia tried to nationalize Brazilian investments. Yet he has to feed crumbs to his notoriously left-wing foreign ministry and that’s where Honduras comes in handy.

This practice of moderation at home and extremism abroad is not unique to Brazil. Many Latin American presidents do the same thing. What is frightening is that the U.S. seems to be adopting a similar policy.

LATIN AMERICA
Today’s must-read: the Congressional Research Service’s Honduras: Constitutional Law Issues

El Banco del Sur ya es una realidad, pero sin Colombia ni Perú

The Foreign Policy Initiative Afternoon Round-Up: September 25, 2009

Nuclear Kumbaya

BOLIVIA
ALERTA : Irán: ¿tras el uranio de Bolivia?

Bolivia’s uranium

BRAZIL
No Nukes? Then Allow IAEA Inspectors Full Access in Brazil

Lula confirms signing an agreement to build an oil refinery with Venezuela’s oil monopoly PDVSA, Anunció firma de acuerdo para la construcción de refinería con Pdvsa

Brazil’s risky role in Honduras crisis

COLOMBIA
Law and politics in Colombia: His own worst enemy
The president misses an opportunity to stake out the high ground

Honduras’s power struggle: Zelaya swaps exile for embassy
The unexpected return of the ousted president (pictured below, with his signature hat) highlights the failure of the region’s diplomats to reverse a coup

CUBA
The Iran-Cuba Axis

Cuba, PA sign agreements

Danny Glover: spokesman for the slavemaster

Bosé y Juanes reconocen que cumplieron con “todo, todo, todo” lo que les impuso el regimen

Fidel has 10+ children, new book says

Fidel Castro’s Cuba full of his offspring after years of womanising by El Commandante
Fidel Castro, Cuba’s long-standing dictator, has fathered at least 10 children by a string of women, according to a new book.

Cuba to Experiment with Ending Free Meals at State Workplaces

ECUADOR
He’s back – Judge Núñez Reinstated to Preside over Chevron/Ecuador Case

HONDURAS
Honduras suspends constitutional rights

Citizens’ demand concerning the Honduran elections

Manuel Zelaya’s strange prison

Honduras Issues Deadline to Brazil Over Zelaya

Honduras to Brazil: this Zelaya thing’s getting old.

Honduran Government to Brazil: Fish or Cut (the Zelaya) Bait

Zionist Radiation Beams? Yup, Sounds Like Zelaya

Honduras puts off OAS delegation
The Micheletti government in Honduras delays a visit by OAS foreign ministers. The U.N. Security Council warns against any violation of the Brazilian Embassy.

“CRS Report” on Honduras “Coup”

WashPost: go forward with elections

UNSC in NY Discusses Honduras

MEXICO
Mexico’s southern border: Lawless roads
Where migrants meet criminals

PANAMA
Tango in Dos Rios

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico cuts more government jobs

Puerto Rico Teachers Slam Deteriorating Working Conditions

VENEZUELA
After Chavez left the UN he headed to the South America-Africa Summit, where he and Gaddfi criticized the West. You don’t say.

Venezuelan oil exports to the USA: You say you want a revolution…

Iran Helping Venezuela Find Uranium Deposits

In the mail

It’s love for Hugo

Kiss Chavez, boost carreer

Marxist Leader Hugo Chavez Praises Obama & Slams FOX News During UN Interview

Reverse racism?

Radioactive

Venezuela Promises First Compensation in One Cement Nationalization

This week’s posts and podcasts:
Iran Helping Venezuela Find Uranium Deposits
Venezuela bans “Family Guy”
“Chavez orchestrated Zelaya’s return”
Stirring up chaos inside Honduras: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Meanwhile at the UN
Special thanks to the Baron, Bill, Dick, Eneas and Maggie