Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

April 26, 2010 By Fausta

The “Ortega & the Axis of Evil” Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

LatinAmerWelcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Today’s top story:
Ortega Tries to Join the Axis of Evil
Nicaragua’s president employs street violence to do an end-run around the constitution and assure his election.

Nicaragua now hangs in the balance—and there is a lot at stake. Mr. Chávez wants a permanent, reliable ally in Central America. He hoped that would be Honduras. Now his chips are on Nicaragua, with the goal of making the Sandinista paradise part of the 21st-century Bolivarian utopia. Cuba, with its long history of repression, is a valuable partner in this effort. Its armed forces and elite guards are already working with the Chávez government as noted in a press conference last week by retired Venezuelan Gen. Antonio Rivero. Specifically he complained of “courses in sniper training in which Cuban professionals participate.”

If Mr. Ortega gets tenure in Nicaragua you can bet he will be eager to promote the values of his close allies, Cuba and Venezuela, on the isthmus in exchange for their help in holding onto power. Iran will also want to join the cause. An unclassified report from the Pentagon released this month says that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force “maintains operational capabilities around the world” and “recent years have witnessed an increased presence in Latin America, particularly Venezuela.” Mr. Ortega re-established diplomatic relations with Iran after his election in 2006.

But Mr. Ortega’s term is up in January 2012, and according to Article 147 of the constitution he is barred from running for president again. For three years he tried to get Congress to change that. He failed. So in October he went to Nicaragua’s Supreme Court alleging that since congressmen can be re-elected, he’s the victim of discrimination.

The Sandinista judges on the court’s constitutional panel waited until the opposition judges had gone home for the day, called in three Sandinista judges from other court panels as alternates and held a vote. The court ruled the prohibition on re-election “inapplicable.” Mr. Ortega promptly declared himself a candidate for 2011.

Even so, the wannabe dictator still has a problem: He is unlikely to win a fair election. That’s why he wants to hand-pick the electoral council, which is charged with ensuring a level playing field and is up for renewal in June. And that’s why he is locked in mortal combat with Congress.

LATIN AMERICA
Via Katie, Photo Essay: 15 Stunning South America Pics by David Shepherd.

21st Century Socialism
The attempt to destroy democracy in Latin America.

Miss Me Yet? The Freedom Agenda After George W. Bush
Dissidents in the world’s most oppressive countries aren’t feeling the love from President Obama.

ARGENTINA
China threatens retaliation in Argentina trade dispute-Xinhua; Brazil ‘Ready’ to Profit on China, Argentina Soy Spat

Mrs. K talks about moral and ethics by Teodoro Petkoff

Argentina’s bond swap
Eating their words
The government unveils a new offer to the holdouts from its 2005 debt restructuring

BRAZIL
Petrobras to Spend $75 Billion on Oil Rigs by 2020, Folha Says

Energy in Brazil
Power and the Xingu
A huge Amazon hydropower project shows how hard it is to balance the demands of the environment and of a growing and prospering country

Brazil’s presidential election
Another Silva
A celebrated environmentalist pitches for the presidency

CHILE
El Financiamiento de la Reconstrucción de Chile

Rebuilding Chile
Taxing times
A balanced reconstruction plan

COLOMBIA
For Colombia, Ash Threatens to Stem Key Mother’s Day Export

Colombia condemns Venezuela’s FARC statues

Colombia’s Mockus Says He May Win Presidency in First Round

CUBA
Military delegation arrives in China after a two-week tour of NKorea, Russia, Vietnam

Elections? What for?

Dania Virgen García, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 4/25/10

Baseball Scout’s Ordeal: 13 Years in Cuban Prison

Ernesto Hernandez-Busto at the Human Rights and Cyber Dissidents Conference

ECUADOR
Ecuador: Dengue cases in El Oro doubling daily

The silence is remarkable

Rafael Correa Warns on Attempts to Turn LatAm into a Middle East

HAITI
U.N.’s Ballooning $732 Million Haiti Peacekeeping Budget Goes Mostly to Its Own Personnel
The United Nations has quietly upped this year’s peacekeeping budget for earthquake-shattered Haiti to $732.4 million, with two-thirds of that amount going for the salary, perks and upkeep of its own personnel, not residents of the devastated island.

HONDURAS
Honduras’s Removal of Manuel Zelaya Was No Coup, via La Gringa.

Resistencia and Democracy in Honduras

La Gringa went to paradise

Lobos, Ovejas, Pastores y Cazadores

MEXICO
Arizona Does Federal Government’s Job

Drug war violence appears in Mexico’s northeast, near Texas border

Mexico hobbled in drug war by arrests that lead nowhere

Mexico’s culture wars
Metrosexuality
As the capital grows more liberal, conservatives are rallying elsewhere

Mexico’s population
When the niños run out
A falling birth rate, and what it means

NICARAGUA
Military coup vs Mob coup

Ortega’s Thugs Start Civil War In Nicaragua

PANAMA
Evac Americas

PARAGUAY
Paraguay invites UN and IAPA to analyze nation’s press freedom

Paraguay enacts emergency powers to go after rebels

PERU
Railways in Peru
On the track of a monopoly
The battle to reach Machu Picchu

Jaime Bayly amenazado de muerte,

Arte Para la Gente: Peru’s powerful poet, video in Spanish,

PUERTO RICO
US detains ‘no-fly’ passenger in Puerto Rico

URUGUAY
Argentina and Uruguay
A paper settlement
A ruling by the International Court of Justice should end a nasty dispute

VENEZUELA
Top Venezuelan Army General Resigns to Protest Cuban Influence

Chavez revolution losing steam in Venezuelan slums

Facing a test in September legislative elections, Chavez risks losing ground in his main bastions of support where garbage piles up, sewers leak and running water becomes scarce higher up the hillsides.

Chavez calls Colombia’s Santos threat to region

Lines, shortages, rationing and those wonderful things the Chavez revolution has given us

MUD as the mouse that roared

IMMIGRATION
Courtesy of Arizona, immigration moves higher on Obama’s agenda

The week’s posts and podcasts:
Argentina, USA
Argentina, USA
Iranian shock troops in Venezuela
Hillary speaks the truth, for once

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Filed Under: Argentina, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, FARC, Haiti, Honduras, Hugo Chavez, Iran, Latin America, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela Tagged With: Dania Virgen García, Fausta's blog, Jaime Bayly

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