Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

Archives for January 2014

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Puerto Rico: 6.4 earthquake

Minor damage, since the epicenter was north of the island and did not cause a tsunami.

“Dozens of people reported fallen items in their homes”; I have friends in Chile who think of this as their daily jolt.

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Mexico: “Shame and Name”, Blacklisting for taxes

Coming soon to the USA?

Mexico’s Tax Black Lists Prove Controversial
Mexico’s new practice of publishing lists of people and firms that it says have ongoing tax problems is being called faulty and unfair by some

The first black list, posted in early January on the website of the Tax Administration Service, or SAT, named about 89,000 people and firms for a variety of alleged violations or debts, and included TV stars, a major soccer team, and the Roman Catholic diocese in Acapulco.

On Friday, the SAT published another list of 163 companies or people who allegedly issued false invoices for tax purposes, or who weren’t found at their tax addresses.

You can get blacklisted if the tax collector says you’re “unlocatable.”

The article does not state whether there’s an appeal process.

Here in the USA, The IRS Scandal, Day 248. If you don’t think the IRS scandal matters, you may have already bought a bridge.

And, an appeal: Dear Uncle Sam: Don’t Accept the World’s Bad Ideas
The pet food tax? The meat-pasty levy? The gigantic tax on big earners? Beware dumb concepts from abroad, says Joe Queenan.

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Colombia: When El Dorado is the gateway to freedom

Note:
All links except Carlos Eire‘s are in Spanish.

Like something out of The Terminal (video in Spanish):

Six Cubans Ask for Asylum in Colombia, Remain in Airport Limbo

Their names are Ángel, Briam, Edualdo, Greisy, Yoanker and Nayip, and they say in unison: “Nosotros no nos vamos para Cuba, queremos quedarnos en Bogotá” (We won’t return to Cuba, we want to stay in Bogotá).

All six –one woman and six men — are under the age of 41, as their Castro era names attest, and they have been asking for asylum since the first of the year.

The would-be refugees have been camping out in the airport, refusing to move, rejecting all offers to fly them back to Castrogonia. The Colombian government, in turn, has refused them asylum, and now the United Nations is getting involved.

How they got into this predicament is still being figured out. And no one seems to know how it will be resolved.

They claim that they left Castrogonia for Ecuador with all of the right papers, but were refused entry. After arguing their case for six days at the airport in Ecuador, they were sent back to the Castro Kingdom via Colombia, but when they reached the Bogotá airport they refused to board their flight back to the slave plantation.

Five other Cubans returned to Havana.

The Colombian government declined asylum since the Cubans had not filed a formal application while they remained at El Dorado airport in Bogota (link in Spanish – my translation, please link & credit me if you use it):

The Ministry’s statement said that the refugees’ intention to seek asylum, which they have expressed through the media, “can not be processed” since Colombian law directly prohibits it when it involves foreigners in international transit zones. “According to the law, they haven’t entered national territory,” it explained.

According to the statement, “Colombian Immigration has had no access to their passports” since they are in the international transit zone.

When I first read about this, my question was, is there a Colombian immigration lawyer who would be willing to take their case (most likely on a pro bono basis)? If they have legal representation, would they be able to apply for asylum?

Yes.

This morning Colombian daily El Universal reports that Colombian Immigration has granted the six Cubans safe-conduct for five working days so they can file a formal asylum request through the Foreign Relations Ministry. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is filing the application and transferred them to a shelter.

There may be a happy ending to this story!

Related:
Jaime Bayly interviewed Andrés Carrión, the Cuban dissident who hollered “Down with Communism” during Pope Benedict’s 2012 visit to Cuba (in Spanish), which highlights the importance of garnering international attention:

UPDATE:
Linked to by Carlos. Thank you!

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Venezuela: Aftermath of the Spears murder

Killers arrested:

Beauty queen’s killers nabbed, Venezuela says

EXCLUSIVE: Father of Miss Venezuela shot dead in brutal robbery vows to win custody of granddaughter, 5, and take her to the US as it is revealed brave girl ‘will attend funeral’
-Maya Spear was orphaned when her mother Monica Spear Mootz and father Thomas Berry were gunned down in front of her in their broken down car in Venezuela
-Her father, Rafael, today told MailOnline he will fight to take her out of the country and to the US
-But parents of beauty queen’s husband, who live in Venezuela, say plans are still to be decided
-Maya was also shot, but has left hospital and is expected to attend her parents’ funeral after being told the shattering news
-Monica, who won the Miss Venezuela title in 2004, had joined her 39-year-old estranged husband on a drive holiday
-The killings have convulsed the crime-ridden country and sparked protests
-Police revealed that Spear’s camerabag was today found in possession of a woman believed to be in gang behind the murders

Censorship:

Opponents also cite what they call the government’s efforts to limit press coverage of the problem. Courts in August fined newspaper El Nacional the equivalent of 1% of a year’s revenue for publishing a gruesome picture of a Caracas morgue in 2010 to underscore the country’s crime problem.

The government said the images violated decency laws designed to protect children.

Advocacy groups blame corruption in the police ranks, widespread availability of arms and impunity for rising crime.

Streets of major cities such as Caracas are typically barren at night, their residents fearing crimes such as muggings and kidnappings for ransom, which are common.

How did Venezuela become so violent? Fusion panel:

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Chile: Somebody didn’t read the instructions for the #CauCau bridge

A slight drawback! Chile’s first drawbridge delayed after engineers realise at least one traffic deck has been fitted upside-down
Chilean President Sebastián Piñera blames Spanish developers for mistake
Bridge connecting Valdivia with Teja Island was set to open this month
Gaffe becomes a laughing stock among Chileans using social media(emphasis added)

The mistake emerged when inspectors getting ready for opening day found that either one or two of the traffic decks were installed backwards, authorities said.

Azvi, the Spanish infrastructure company behind the bridge development, did not immediately comment. A new opening date has not been announced.

#CauCau Tweets followed:

‘And don’t miss the road sign the “excellent” were going to put up by the bridge exit:
NORTH —>
SOUTH —>’

‘Leak of the blueprints for the Cau Cau bridge in Valdivia.’

‘One of the first tenders won by the goofs that made the bridge in Valdivia.’

‘Exclusive: We visit the home of the architect who designed the bridge’


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Panama: no deal on Canal overruns

The Panama Canal expansion is way over budget, and the situation for now is at an impasse, but at least the construction continues. . . until January 20th.

Talks Fail to Resolve Dispute Over Panama Canal Expansion Costs
Canal Authority, Construction Consortium Offered Competing Proposals

The GUPC consortium, which also includes Italy’s Impregilo, Belgium’s Jan De Nul and Panama’s Constructora Urbana SA, outbid Bechtel Group Inc., San Francisco, Calif., for the project in 2009. While the contract itself was for $3.1 billion, the Panama government has said the total cost of expanding the canal likely will top $5 billion.

So far, the scheduled completion date has been pushed back to to June 2015 rather than the original completion date of October of this year.

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