American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture
President Obama gave a rare press conference today and covered several topics, including immigration reform, budget negotiations, and the investigation into the attack last year on our diplomats in Benghazi.
With Rick and PJ Media’s Washington insider Bill Straub.
Listen to it live or at your convenience.
The head of the coca growers union can stay on:
Bolivia court says Evo Morales can run a 3rd time
Bolivia’s constitutional court says President Evo Morales can run for a third term in elections set for December 2014.
The court says language in the country’s 2009 constitution that allows for only a single re-election does not apply retroactively to Morales’ first term.
It’s the Bolivarian revolution way.
Racial slurs, insults, build up to the ambassador’s wife slapping one of the women, and the ambassador, Rodrigo Riofrio Machuca, joining in and kicking the women. The eyewitnesses say that the women fell to the ground and he continued kicking. When the police showed up and refused to arrest him, the women followed him and saw him enter the Ecuadorian embassy.
Video from the security cameras is missing.
Apparently the only people investigating are the journalists. One witness gave them an 8-minute video of the incident.
The Peruvians want their president to expel this ambassador.
As Drudge says, developing . . .
UPDATE,
Supermarket Scrap Has Ecuador Envoy in Trouble
The mother says he called them “ignorant Peruvians” and made a disparaging reference to the country’s large indigenous population.
Ummm… no; the mother in the video asserts that the ambassador made a racial slur against indigenous Peruvians, and then blamed them for the (bad) state of things.
A reader emailed asking how come I’m not doing weekly posts on Mad Men as I did during the prior seasons.
The answer is simple: I’m just not interested in the characters anymore.
At least Pete Campbell has his moments. Here’s an interview with Vince kartheiser.
The women’s clothes have gone, as they did then, from Dior-inspired to Mod, but not that well. For instance, adding upholstery beads and red sleeves to Megan’s gown made it ugly, not “of the upmost high style couture.”
Pairing it with your grandma’s 1950s mink stole doesn’t go with Megan’s character. Bill Blass and a mink jacket would have been a better choice. Better yet,
Megan’s coloring and build would look best in clothes inspired by Anouk Aimée (seen in 1965 in this photo, or in 
1963), but then we’re talking real couture.
Let’s hope Megan finds Halston before the next formal event.
Back to the Mad Men, I’ve gone from underwhelmed to bored, and now have the show on if I remember, mostly while doing other things (such as making to-do lists). The WSJ still has their Speakeasy, and even their panelists are not posting right away.
Maybe if they brought back Sal and Conrad Hilton…
UPDATE:
Linked by Dustbury. Thank you!
Belkis Cantillo, second from the left.
Cuba’s Communist regime has telegraphed a message to dissidents Orlando Luis Pardo @OLPL, Yoani Sánchez @yoanisanchez, Rosa María Payá @RosaMariaPaya, and any others who were allowed to travel outside the country:
One week after returning to Cuba, Lady in White is missing after being beaten and arrested by Castro State Security
Yesterday, the Castro regime carried out its usual Sunday of violent repression against members of Cuba’s peaceful human rights group the Ladies in White when they joined together for Sunday church services as they do every Sunday. As the women stepped out of the church after Sunday mass in the town of Palma Soriano, they were met by Castro State Security agents who began to viciously punch them and beat them with umbrellas before placing them under arrest.
Among the Ladies in White victimized by the violence of the Castro dictatorship was Belkis Cantillo, a Lady in White who just a week ago was in Brussels to take part in the long overdue acceptance of the Sakharov Prize the group had won in 2005. Ms. Cantillo was one of the women who was beaten and arrested by the Castro political police before being arrested and taken away. As of this morning, her physical condition and whereabouts are unknown.
In record time, From Brussels to a Cuban Prison in just one week.
In Italy, Yoani Sánchez was “greeted” by this,
A meteor lit up the night last Sunday in Argentina, but the big news wasn’t the meteor, it was the courts. Mary O’Grady writes on how Kirchner Targets Argentina’s Judiciary
Congressional midterm elections are set for October and the kirchneristas are desperate to win a majority so that they can change the law to allow the president to run for a third term. To reach that goal, the government decided that more cooperation from the courts is in order.
Mrs. Kirchner’s government drafted and Congress has now approved a law that, among other things, does away with existing rules for picking members of the magistrate council, the body that chooses and can impeach federal judges. Those rules ensured that the council would be made up of a politically mixed group of individuals chosen by politicians, judges, lawyers and academics.
In their place, the reform stipulates that the council will be elected by popular vote in the same election that chooses the president—raising the likelihood that the executive will control the judiciary. If 51% of voters want judges who will strip the other 49% of their property, so be it. The reform also limits to six months any injunction against a government policy, conveniently destroying the protection that Clarin now enjoys. There will also be new appellate courts with judges appointed by the council.
Caudilla Cristina: divide the opposition, take control of all the institutions, demonize a foreign country to create a common enemy.
ARGENTINA
36 Hours in Salta, Argentina
BRAZIL
‘Problems’ as Maracana stadium reopens in Rio
CARIBBEAN
US tries new aerial tools in Caribbean drug fight (H/T DP)
COLOMBIA
Colombia’s FARC guerrillas thank US lawmakers for supporting Havana peace process
CUBA
Rosa Maria Paya, you have the Castro dictatorship’s attention
Note to AP: Mariela Castro is a Cuban Regime Official
Woman indicted in Cuba spy case is in Sweden and out of U.S. reach
ECUADOR
Government of Ecuador to sue newspaper La Hora for a third time
MEXICO
USDA/Mexico Spanish-language flyer: Get kids on food stamps without showing documents
PANAMA
Fossil of “most ancient” monkey of Americas found in Panama Canal
PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico Teams Take Top Spots at 20th NASA Great Moonbuggy Race
St. LUCIA
‘Miracle’ survival after St Lucia fishing boat sinks
Viceroy Maduro swears fealty to his supreme overlord King Raul
General Carlos Julio Peñaloza
CUBA CONTROLÓ ELECCIONES MEDIANTE RED SECRETA, pag.14
Escuchen a Diosdado Cabello dando instrucciones contra Capriles en reunión privada en Margarita
The Cubanization of Venezuela: Cuba creates 5-million Venezuelan voters out of thin air
Chavismo: from XXI century socialism to XXI century fascism
The week’s posts and podcast:
Venezuela: Maduro has US citizen arrested
Argentina: The high cost of not doing business
Venezuela: Persecuting Capriles
Mexico: Striking teachers dig in their heels
Venezuela: You call that an audit?
Podcast:
In Silvio Canto’s podcast, talking to Jon Perdue.
Hundreds of migrants sat on the roofs of railroad cars in Arriaga, in southern Mexico, waiting for the train to take them north toward the United States. Washington’s immigration overhaul would tighten border security between Mexico and the United States to stem illegal crossings. But Mexico’s other border, with Central America to the south, makes the task even harder. A growing number of Central American migrants heading to the United States cross freely under the gaze of Mexican authorities.
NYTimes report:
In Trek North, First Lure Is Mexico’s Other Line
In Washington, the biggest immigration overhaul in decades would tighten border security between Mexico and the United States to stem the flow of illegal crossings.
But there is another border making the task all the more challenging: Mexico’s porous boundary with Central America, where an increasing number of migrants heading to the United States cross freely into Mexico under the gaze of the Mexican authorities. So many Central Americans are fleeing the violence, crime and economic stagnation of their homes that American officials have encountered a tremendous spike in migrants making their way through Mexico to the United States.
American arrests of illegal crossers from countries other than Mexico — mostly from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador — more than doubled along the southwest border of the United States last year, to 94,532 from 46,997 in 2011.
Read the rest and check out the slideshow.
The judicial system is compromised: borrowing a page from Chavismo, Argentine Legislature Extends President’s Control Over the Judicial System
Argentina’s Congress passed legislation giving the president and political parties greater control over the judicial system, just days after hundreds of thousands of Argentines took to the streets to protest the measures.
President Cristina Kirchner’s populist, left-wing ruling coalition approved the changes that limit injunctions against government policies and create three new appellate courts.
Within a week or two, Congress is also set to change the Magistrates Council that appoints and impeaches judges, subjecting its members to popular elections. That likely will give Mrs. Kirchner’s party control over the council, which will be able to impeach judges by a simple majority, instead of the two-thirds vote required now.
Mrs. Kirchner says the new laws will make the legal system less beholden to special-interest groups. The sweeping changes come less than a month after Mrs. Kirchner submitted the legislation to Congress.
No more separation of powers,
Legal experts say the revisions will make it hard for individuals and companies to challenge laws and presidential decrees, especially those expropriating private property. Rights groups Human Rights Watch and Transparency International have warned the legislation would give the executive branch unprecedented control over the courts.
This gives free hand to the government to act or seize assets before a case is solved.
For commentary in Spanish, please read Monólogo de una República Perdida, by Agustín Ulivarri Rodi.