Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

Archives for August 2014

August 27, 2014 By Fausta

Argentina: Enter Soros

A new player enters the litigation picture:

Argentina default: George Soros sues US bank in London over $500m payment
Hedge funds take legal action against Bank of New York Mellon for freezing payment by Argentina, which has also banned the lender from operating in the country

The billionaire investor, who famously “broke the Bank of England” after shorting the pound, is joined by Knighthead Master Fund, RGY International and Kyle Bass’ Hayman Capital Master Fund in the lawsuit against Bank of New York Mellon.

According to Bloomberg News, the group owns more than 1.3 billion of euro-denominated bonds.

Bank of New York Mellon said: “The suit is without merit. BNY Mellon has consistently followed the binding court orders that govern its actions as trustee in this matter.”
In a further twist, Argentina banned Bank of New Mellon from operating in the country, arguing that the lender “isn’t complying with its operational objectives”.
Bank of New York Mellon declined to comment on the ban.
Argentina is attempting to replace Bank of New York Mellon as trustee with state-run Banco Nacion

Soros has invested heavily in Argentina, particularly in YPF SA and Adecoagro SA.

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Filed Under: Argentina, business Tagged With: Fausta's blog, NML Capital v. Argentina, Republic of Argentina v. NML Capital

August 26, 2014 By Fausta

Peña Nieto goes to LA

to “demand justice” for illegal aliens, that is, the aliens who enter and remain in the U.S> in defiance of U.S. laws; aliens who do that in Mexico get an altogether different brand of “justice.”

Of course Jerry Brown joined in,

Brown signed a bill into law last year that will enable migrants to get driver’s licenses next year. He said he got the message after a visit to a Monterey artichoke field where the workers yelled “licencia, licencia.”

No word as to whether Brown “demanded justice” for Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, who has been in jail – while being jerked around by the Mexican authorities – in Mexico since late March when he accidentally drove into the country with three legally purchased firearms after he made a wrong turn. Peña Nieto’s in Sacramento today, where a rally in support of Tahmooressi is taking place right now,

Organized by Assemblyman Tim Donnelly (R-San Bernardino), the rally is set for 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. outside the Leland Stanford Governor’s Mansion Museum.


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Filed Under: illegal immigration, immigration, Mexico Tagged With: Andrew Tahmooressi, Enrique Peña Nieto, Fausta's blog

August 26, 2014 By Fausta

Colombia: Was military intelligence hacked?

Latest headlines in Colombia,
Detained Colombia hacker outlines alleged political plot against peace process
Andrés Sepúlveda, an alleged computer hacker who was detained in May, says political rivals of President Santos were using classified information to derail Colombia’s peace process.

The FARC certainly has been doing enough derailing on its part, but here’s the story at hand: President Santos ordered authorities to conduct a thorough investigation

The reaction comes after Andrés Sepúlveda, an alleged hacker who has been in custody since May, told Semana in a jailhouse interview that he had been hired by Uribe’s Centro Democrático party to help undermine the talks and support the presidential bid of the party’s candidate Oscar Iván Zuluaga.

In the interview, Sepúlveda said he was ordered to use his skills to turn the armed forces and public opinion against the peace process with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas in Havana. To do that, he said he purchased classified information from military intelligence and other groups that he fed to party officials.

So what was it? Did Sepúlveda actually hacked, or was he buying information? If he was buying information “from military intelligence,” why the need to turn the armed forces against the FARC negotiations?

Here comes the more interesting part,

Sepúlveda said that he provided members of Zuluaga’s campaign information about the FARC’s negotiating team, including private emails. But he said the Centro Democrático party was also receiving classified information gleaned from the hacked communications of government negotiators in Cuba.

Considering how Santos has thrown the towel and wants the FARC in congress without being elected, that information should be released to the public.

Indeed,

The discovery of Sepulveda’s spy operation came three months after Semana exposed a covert military intelligence scheme to monitor both government and FARC representatives to the peace talks in Havana as well as journalists covering the negotiations.

However, Sepúlveda alleges that he hacked the military, a whole different thing altogether.

Other reports say that

Sepulveda claims to have bought information from the military’s “Andromeda” intelligence program, a CIA-funded covert wiretapping operation exposed earlier this year and also accused of spying on the peace talks.

Buying information is the old-fashioned George Smiley way; not hacking.

Now

Sepulveda’s brother has testified that the alleged hacker is “receiving pressure” from “high officials” of the Prosecutor General’s Office to speak out against “certain individuals,” a claim that has also been issued publicly by Sepulveda’s wife.

To answer the question, was Colombian military intelligence hacked?, Sean Mullholand, Brigadier General of the US Southern Command, has asserted a definite no, insisting that there is no chance it was hacked.

On his part, Santos claims, “what existed and exists is a criminal enterprise,” which really leaves no room for the benefit of the doubt.

Álvaro Uribe is striking back, and hard,

Santo’s hacker advisor always: in campaigns, in infamies, and in smokescreen to hide the drug traffic campaign money

Hacker siempre asesor de Santos: en campañas, en infamias y en cortina de humo para tapar dinero del narcotráfico a la campaña

— Álvaro Uribe Vélez (@AlvaroUribeVel) August 26, 2014

Santos also has released his agenda for the day he allegedly met the hacker,

2. Fuente: Fuerza Pública, seguridad: agenda para reunirme con el hacker? pic.twitter.com/uQjB1I6oec

— Álvaro Uribe Vélez (@AlvaroUribeVel) August 26, 2014

 

Let’s not forget that Uribe accused Santos Santos of electoral fraud, buying votes, and allowing the FARC to intimidate voters to obtain re-election.

As Drudge says, developing.

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Filed Under: Alvaro Uribe, Colombia, crime, elections, FARC Tagged With: Andrés Sepúlveda, Fausta's blog

August 25, 2014 By Fausta

The prehistoric seals Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

LatinAmerThere you have it: Seals helped Europeans wipe out Native Americans
Europeans have long been blamed for wiping out 95 per cent of Native Americans by bringing foreign diseases to the New World. But a new study suggests seals could be partly to blame

The research shows that tuberculosis is likely to have spread from humans in Africa to seals and sea lions, who then carried the disease to South America and transmitted it to Native populations long before Europeans landed on the continent.

ARGENTINA
Argentina Presents Plan to Bypass U.S. Courts, Pay Creditors; later, Argentina debt plan ruled ‘illegal’
Argentina’s plan to ask investors holding defaulted bonds to swap them for new locally issued debt is ruled “illegal” by a US court.

Companies fear radical turn in Argentina

The government’s unorthodox economic management came under further scrutiny on Thursday when beef exports were suspended to combat inflation, despite dollar shortages.

BOLIVIA
Bolivia Exports More Than 20,000 Metric Tons of LPG in 1H 2014

BRAZIL
Brazilian Police Officers Acquitted of Murder Charges
A jury has acquitted four police officers of murder charges in the 2012 shooting death of a suspected car thief, a case that attracted attention to the lethality of Brazilian police.

CHILE
Rerun time: Peru in Diplomatic Squabble With Chile
Map Shows Triangle of Land as Belonging to Peru

COLOMBIA
Rebel Attacks in 2014 on Colombia Oil Infrastructure Cause $531 Million in Losses

[The president of the Colombian Petroleum Association, Francisco Jose Lloreda] called on the government to provide security guarantees irrespective of whether a peace deal is reached with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group in talks in Havana dating back to 2012.
. . .
The FARC and ELN have carried out numerous attacks in recent months on oil infrastructure, particularly pipelines and tanker trucks in the northern provinces of Arauca and Norte de Santander, which border Venezuela, and in Putumayo, which borders Ecuador

CUBA
Moringapalooza Cretin Summit 2014: Caracastan’s Maduro visits his master Nosferatu in Havana

Must-Read: Cuban Catholic Youth Activists Write Pope Francis

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Miley Cyrus Banned from Performing in Dominican Republic on ‘Morality Grounds’

ECUADOR
Ecuador President Rafael Correa Seeks Law Allowing Perpetual Re-Election
Popular Leader Setting Stage for Expected Fourth Run in 2017

Top-Down Digital Currency Coming to Ecuador, with Ban on Competition
Imminent Prohibition Covers All Unofficial Physical, Digital Currencies

EL SALVADOR
Saving El Salvador: Why The Vatican Needs To Make Archbishop Romero A Saint; I disagree.

GUATEMALA
General Dies in Crash
A top Guatemalan general and four other officers were killed on Wednesday when the helicopter they were in crashed near the country’s northern border with Mexico, Guatemala’s government said.

“Meet the Press” covered Rand Paul’s pro bono eye surgery in Guatemala and larded it with impugnment of his motives. Paul has been doing pro bono work for decades.

HONDURAS
In Honduras, U.S. deportees seek to journey north again

LATIN AMERICA
ALBA Meets UN Security Council Over Gaza

Why the Pacific Alliance Puts Mercosur to Shame
Protectionist Panderers No Match for Liberal, Free-Market Integration

Build the Border Fence Already!

MEXICO
Mexico Unveils New Police Force
President Enrique Peña Nieto inaugurated a 5,000-strong unit of the federal police that is tasked with protecting key parts of Mexico’s economy from violent drug gangs.

Are we supposed to believe that Mexican authorities are keeping track of who’s crossing? Mexico Dismisses Perry Claim Islamic State Could Have Crossed U.S. Border
The Mexican embassy in Washington Friday dismissed Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s claim that “there’s a very real possibility” extremists from the Islamic State have already snuck into the U.S. over the southern border.

"They were just never heard from again." A Mexican cartel incinerated hundreds of victims: http://t.co/h2KiBto0hX pic.twitter.com/MQ5p1jhMMz

— VICE News (@vicenews) August 17, 2014

NICARAGUA
Nicaraguans, safe at home, feel little reason to flee to U.S.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/08/18/4296029/nicaraguans-safe-at-home-feel.html#storylink=cpy

PANAMA
New Challenges for Panama Canal at 100

PARAGUAY
Paraguay seizes nearly one ton of cocaine in DR Congo-bound rice

PERU
Peru’s Congress Rejects Prime Minister’s Cabinet for Second Time
Various Lawmakers Demand Changes to President Ollanta Humala’s Administration

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico to Use Old Traffic Network to Lay Fiber-Optic Cables

URUGUAY
The Rights Abuses Uruguay Doesn’t Want You to Know About
A small South American country has been making big strides in human rights. But it’s still got some work to do.

VENEZUELA
VenEconomy: Venezuelan Government Goes for More Censorship, Barbarism

Got Shortages? Chavistas Sic “Operation Queue Killer” on Cash Registers
Pricing Superintendent Rebukes Defective Checkouts, Announces Biometric Rationing

The week’s posts and podcast:
Ecuador’s new fake currency

Good luck with that!

TSA: Illegals without ID can fly with ‘Notice to Appear’

Argentina’s shell game

Colombia: Luis Carlos Cervantes murdered

Is Populism beatable?

Would “gender mainstreaming” fix the border crisis?

Argentina: “Qui cum canibus concumbunt cum pulicibus surgent”

Briefly interrupted

The Panama Canal Centennial roundup

At Da Tech Guy Blog
Biometrics and the police state

Podcast
Panama Canal, Argentina, Mexico & US-Latin America stories of the week


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Filed Under: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, FARC, Guatemala, Honduras, Latin America, Mexico, news, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela Tagged With: ALBA, ELN, Fausta's blog, Pacific Alliance, Rand Paul

August 25, 2014 By Fausta

Ecuador’s new fake currency

And it’s not even bitcoin.

Mary O’Grady writes about Ecuador’s Phony Bitcoin Ploy
President Correa’s new ‘electronic currency’ will make it easier to engage in monetary devaluation.

This year Ecuador will run a fiscal deficit, including debt service, of some $9.2 billion, more than 9% of GDP. That’s what happens with budgeting that forecasts that oil prices will grow to the sky. It will be hard to shrink bloated state payrolls and subsidies, and the cost of servicing rising debt levels isn’t getting any cheaper.

To return this year to the international capital markets with a $2 billion 10-year bond, Ecuador had to pay a whopping 7.95% coupon. It also took out a $400 million three-year loan from Goldman Sachs against Ecuadorean gold to meet budget shortfalls. China holds $11 billion in Ecuadorean debt, not including billions of dollars in loans from Beijing secured by future oil shipments at an undisclosed price.

Now Mr. Correa is planning for when he runs out of other people’s money. The central bank says its new money will be a parallel currency backed up by dollars or the “equivalent” and used to pay its 500,000 bureaucrats in a “hygienic” manner. But if so, why not use dollars? In today’s world, there’s nothing special about transferring money electronically. Implying that this is a “virtual” currency is an attempt to lend Bitcoin-like cachet to what will essentially be IOUs issued by a country with a rather dodgy credit history.

And, if you think Ecuador may be a good place to retire, keep in mind that

Ecuadoreans are not free to speak against this threat to their earnings and savings. Mr. Correa is well known for using the judicial system and the army to threaten and silence his critics. Earlier this month he won the passage of a new law that makes it a crime—punishable by up to seven years in prison—to “publish, broadcast or spread” news that creates “economic panic.”

Panic indeed.

A “parallel currency backed up by dollars”? Don’t be the next Lord Crawley.

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Filed Under: economics, Ecuador, Rafael Correa Tagged With: Fausta's blog

August 24, 2014 By Fausta

And now for the #ALSIceBucketChallenge I can embrace

My kind of ice bucket "@SirPatStew: #ALSIceBucketChallenge https://t.co/sXhuNvjpfY”

— Fausta (@Fausta) August 23, 2014

100% class.

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Filed Under: Patrick Stewart Tagged With: #ALSIceBucketChallenge, Fausta's blog

August 23, 2014 By Fausta

Good luck with that!

Brazilians can vote for their own ‘Barack Obama’
A congressional candidate for the ruling Worker’s Party in Brazil is running under the name Claudio Henrique Barack Obama

But wait! There are more!

According to the PBR documentary, Brazil has several other Barack Obama’s as political candidates. This unofficial elections website has a list of a few of them.

Yes, but how many of them play golf?


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Filed Under: Barack Obama, Brazil Tagged With: Claudio Henrique Barack Obama, Fausta's blog

August 22, 2014 By Fausta

Biometrics and the police state

My latest, Biometrics and the police state, is up at Da Tech guy Blog.

Please read it, comment, and hit da tip jar!

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Filed Under: Communism, Venezuela Tagged With: Da Tech Guy Blog, Fausta's blog

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