The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

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