The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Welcome to this week’s Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean.

LATIN AMERICA
Republics and Monarchies

Drugs in Latin America

Latin America Waits for Obama to Deliver

Barack Obama’s “Red” Spiritual Advisor, via Gates of Vienna.

Arizona’s Real Problem: Drug Crime
The vicious violence the border states are experiencing is not committed by migrant laborers.

ARGENTINA
Argentine government doubles ad spending in 2009

Argentine MPs pass gay marriage bill

BOLIVIA
BBC Allows Bolivian Vice-President to Claim that Forces Opposed to the Evo Morales Government Include “Officials From the U.S. Embassy”

Another Bolivian nationalisation
Power grab
Evo Morales’s allies grow restive

BRAZIL
Lula and the Brazilian moment

Is Brazil Developing the Bomb?

U.S. Govt, Soros Fund Offshore Drilling in Brazil

Brazil Bond Sales Fizzle as Odebrecht, Cruzeiro Delay Issues

IAPA pushes for Brazil to solve two longstanding journalist killings

¿Por qué no te callas?: Archbishop Dadeus Grings

Brazil’s booming economy
Too hot for comfort
The Central Bank raises interest rates for the first time since 2008

CHILE
Contemplando Santiago desde uno de los edificios más altos de Sudamérica. views of Santiago from one of the tallest buildings in South America.

COLOMBIA
Colombia’s presidential election
The maths of a Green revolution
Antanas Mockus is in many ways the opposite of Álvaro Uribe, the popular outgoing president. So why are the polls saying the upstart might replace him?

Colombia Coffee Growers Say April Output Jumped 88%

COSTA RICA
Costa Rica inaugurates first female president

CUBA
Freedom for what?

Another arrest in Cuba

Mother’s Day in Cuba for the Ladies in White, via Babalu.

Rockers For Stalinism & Segregation!

Rosa Diaz’s iPhone

Miami Company Seeks U.S. OK to Charge More for Cuba Phone Service

ECUADOR
Ecuador a choice destination for emigrants from Cuba, that is.

EL SALVADOR
El Salvador denuncia a México por malos tratos a inmigrantes

GUATEMALA
Guatemalan Suspected in 1982 Massacre Arrested in Florida

GUYANA
Can Ghosts Bring Life to Jonestown Cult Compound?

Jim Jones’s Tenured Apologist
Thirty years after Jonestown, Rebecca Moore tries to rehabilitate Peoples Temple.

HAITI
Gangs become father, mother to Haiti’s forlorn orphans

HONDURAS
Honduras, la Union Europea y UNASUR

MEXICO
“Cuba Si! Arizona No!” Says Mexican President Felipe Calderon

Mexico Peso Rises Most in Year as Europe Announces Loan Package

NICARAGUA
Daniel Ortega’s Nicaragua
The show goes on
More blows against democracy

PANAMA
US Ambassador For Panama to Visit Boquete May 20

PARAGUAY
Guerrillas in Paraguay
The “people’s army” under siege
Paraguay’s leftist president institutes emergency laws to fight an insurgency

URUGUAY
Uruguay Lifts 2010 GDP Growth Forecast to 5.1%, Lorenzo Says

VENEZUELA
Venezuelan Prices Surge to 7-Year High on Food Hikes

Venezuela: Inflation, speculation and irresponsibility

Currency Woes Dog Venezuelans After Devaluation

La Carolina, 5 days after Chavez stole it

Madres chavistas enfrentan chavistas corruptos

Chavez’s Threats May Make Economy Worse, Ramos Says

The week’s posts and podcasts:
Chavez needs 200 people to manage his Tweeter
Dania Virgen Garcia released from jail
Raul Baduel, the guy who sprung Chavez from jail, sentenced to jail
Today’s headlines: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Venezuela’s ongoing economic crisis
Casualties of war
Better get insurance for that “free” Cuban healthcare

At Pajamas Media:
Puerto Rico and the Recurring Plebiscite
Congress quietly passed HR 2499, the Puerto Rico Democracy Act. But why? And does anyone understand what’s in it?

At Real Clear World:
Venezuela: Baduel Sentenced to Eight Years