Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

Archives for April 2015

April 22, 2015 By Fausta

Venezuela: Censorship all around

Dictatorship control on all,

The Economist:
Maduro’s muzzle
Not content with harassing the press, the regime censors itself

Under Nicolás Maduro, who succeeded Chávez as president in 2013, the government is supplementing its relentless propaganda with self-censorship. The apparent goal is to hide from Venezuelans bad news that might weaken their already shaky faith in the regime. The health ministry, for instance, has not published a weekly epidemiological bulletin since early November, despite concurrent outbreaks of three mosquito-borne diseases. Last May Venezuela saw its first cases of chikungunya, a disease originating in Africa, which causes very high fevers and severe joint pains. It took the authorities five months to declare chikungunya a notifiable disease. The most recent bulletin still fails to include it.
…
Self-censorship is not confined to the health authorities. The National Statistical Institute (INE) has not published poverty data for 2014. No one has provided production figures for PDVSA, the state oil corporation, for the past three months. When officials explain their silence, which is not often, they talk of a need to avoid “political manipulation” of statistics.

Not that this should come as a surprise to long-term readers of this blog: For years I have mentioned that

The International Monetary Fund keeps a List of IMF Member Countries with Delays in Completion of Article IV Consultations or Mandatory Financial Stability Assessments Over 18 Months. As of the writing of this post, Venezuela hasn’t held an Article IV consultation with the IMF in 99 months.

Let me translate that into plain English: The Venezuelan government has not allowed its own numbers to be verified for almost a decade.

It also stopped reporting a number of standard indicators several years ago

About the only thing that’s new is Nicolas Maduro’s latest conspiracy theory.

By the way, why is Venezuela still considered a hybrid regime?

States that fit the hybrid regime profile can be identified based on the following characteristics:
– elections which are not too flawed and which have the potential to make a difference;
– significant levels of corruption, particularly in the judicial and electoral arenas;
– a lack of vital components of democratic quality, such as checks and balances and government accountability;
– a problematic press freedom situation, typically including incumbents’ desire to control the media, particularly television;
– a poor civil liberties situation, including limits on freedom of expression and the freedom to form organisations and trade unions; and
– a problematic rule of law situation, including a lack of judicial independence.

The elections were rigged.

Carlos Rangel posts on Muzzling a country

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Filed Under: Communism, Fausta's blog, Venezuela

April 21, 2015 By Fausta

Cuba: Strawberries can get you jailed

Over three million foreign tourists went to Cuba in 2013 and 2014, and Cuba last year received $300million + in trade with the U.S., but after easing U.S. sanctions, the average Cuban is sent to the clink and loses everything over strawberries (h/t Babalu):
Any farmer caught selling to the general population the strawberries that he cultivates will be fined 1000 CUP* (national currency) and have his land confiscated.

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Filed Under: Communism, Cuba Tagged With: Fausta's blog, smart diplomacy

April 21, 2015 By Fausta

Argentina: Prosecutor drops #Nisman’s case

The only surprising thing about this is that it went this far:
Argentine Prosecutor Drops Case Against President Cristina Kirchner
Javier De Luca argued that accusations were spurious
(emphasis added),

In a 27-page decision, prosecutor Javier De Luca argued that Mr. Nisman’s case against Mrs. Kirchner and others was spurious. “The constitution prohibits the initiation and continuation of a criminal investigation simply to determine if a crime has been committed when it is readily clear that no crime has been committed,” Mr. De Luca wrote.
. . .
The prosecutor is a member of a pro-Kirchner group, Legitimate Justice, which some members of the judiciary say is focused on protecting government officials. The group’s leaders say they are trying to reform a judiciary that had become too close to big corporations and vested interests. Argentina ranks 127 out of 144 countries in the World Economic Forum ratings on judicial independence.

De Luca also argued that the negotiations with Iran with members of Cristina’s inner circle cannot be considered a crime since conspiracy is not included in the Argentine Penal Code.

Nisman’s writ: strike III and out?

Although the judges from that tribunal can question the grounds of De Luca’s decision they cannot take up the complaint itself, sources from the court told the Herald yesterday.
. . .
De Luca’s dismissal came the same day that Nisman’s mother, Sara Garfunkel, along with a group of opposition politicians and intellectuals filed a writ before the Supreme Court to keep her son’s complaint afloat, something that is not likely to happen at the influential Comodoro Py courthouse.

As Capt. Louis Renault famously said,

UPDATE:
Carlos Hos has a list of unanswered questions regarding Nisman’s murder (in Spanish)

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Filed Under: Argentina, corruption, crime, Iran Tagged With: Alberto Nisman, Capt. Louis Renault, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Fausta's blog

April 20, 2015 By Fausta

Bolivia: Dumb. And dumber.

No, not these guys,

This guy:

Dumb:
Gay and bald? Evo Morales thinks you ate too much chicken
Bolivian president causes homophobia storm by blaming ‘deviant’ men on hormone-reared fowl

Dumber:
Evo Morales’s political party aims to become the country’s only political party: El partido de Evo Morales ahora busca ser el único en todo el país. Just two weeks ago, his party suffered serious setbacks in local and regional elections in Bolivia, with unofficial results showing it losing the capital of La Paz and several key governorships.

The head of the coca growers’ union doesn’t like competition. Who knew!

UPDATE:
Linked to by Grouchomarxistas. Thank you!

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Filed Under: Bolivia, cocaine, Evo Morales

April 20, 2015 By Fausta

The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Following last week’s VII Summit of the Americas, the hemisphere media showed an endless parade of Cuba propagandists touting “Cuba’s moral victory” over the U.S.

ARGENTINA
Argentina launches lawsuit against Falkland oil drillers

Tact gone, Britons living in the Falklands are like Chinese in Chinatown, says Argentine ambassador
Alicia Castro has likened British sovereignty over the archipelago to Chinese claims to the Soho district of Chinatown, as Argentina’s minister for Falklands affairs spells out the legal action his government is taking against British firms

BOLIVIA
Pope Francis will visit Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay

BRAZIL
Olympics: thousands of dead fish at Rio de Janeiro rowing venue
Thousands of dead fish wash up at Rio de Janeiro lagoon that will host rowing and canoeing events

COLOMBIA
Intel Leak: FARC Outgun Venezuelan Military to Poach Coltan Mines
Colombian Guerrilla De Facto Rulers in Amazonas Region

Colombia’s Santos Wants to Set Deadline for Peace Process

CUBA
OBAMA REMOVES CUBA FROM TERROR SPONSOR LIST, CUBAN SUPPORTED TERROR GROUP KILLS 10

Americans Murdered By Terrorists, Do Not Matter

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Hillary Clinton Decided to Run at Oscar de la Renta’s Dominican Republic Beachfront Mansion

ECUADOR
Janet Hinostroza: “Justice Has a Very High Price in Ecuador”
Ecuadorian Journalist’s New Documentary Uncovers Deadly US Judicial Failure

JAMAICA
Report: Jamaica’s Parliament In Bottom Half Of World’s Effective Law-Making Bodies

MEXICO
Mexico confirms capture of Gulf Cartel leader

NICARAGUA
BACK FROM LIBERIA
U.S. downplays Nicaragua’s concerns about embassy staffer infected with Ebola

PANAMA
In Panama, Restoring Streets And Reforming Gangs At The Same Time

PARAGUAY
Paraguay activists ensure government’s oil ambitions will be no walk in the park
The threat of oil drilling in Defensores del Chaco national park, where potentially extensive reserves have been uncovered, is causing growing unease in Paraguay

PERU
Pre-Inca mummy dumped at Peru rubbish site discovered by cleaners

PUERTO RICO
Treasury Officials Increase Efforts With Finances of Puerto Rico

URUGUAY
Pope Francis’ iPad Fetches $30,500 at Auction in Uruguay

VENEZUELA
VenEconomy: The Sovereignty of Hunger in Venezuela!

The week’s posts and podcasts:
Today’s must-read

Venezuela: May the farce be with you

Cuba: “We’ll pay Spain”

Is ISIS at the US-Mexico border?

Today’s vision of hell, airline travel edition:

Venezuela: News from Poyais

Mexico: Radioactive material stolen

Cuba off Sponsors of Terrorism list; how’s that working so far?

Mexico: ISIS at the border?

Harvard hosts racketeer . . . twice

Breaking: Cuba off Sponsors of Terrorism list

Cuba: Victory lap at the VII Summit

Brazil: The demonstrators are not going away

More at the circus: Correa & Obama, BFFs

Podcasts:
Rick Moran’s RINO Hour of Power, Hillary announces: Should we even bother to count the votes? with Rich Baehr.

Silvio Canto’s The Panama summit and other US Latin America stories of the week with Roger Mailhot.



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Filed Under: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela Tagged With: Falkland Islands, Fausta's blog, Pope Francis I

April 18, 2015 By Fausta

Today’s must-read

Cuba still sponsors terrorists, says man whose dad’s killer is harbored there

Guillermo “William” Morales, a U.S. fugitive, in Havana, where he has been living. Morales escaped from police custody in the 1970’s, after being sentenced to 89 years. He was the architect of bombings in New York City that claimed lives, including that of Frank Conner, showed in the inset photo with his son Joseph.

H/t Babalu

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Filed Under: Barack Obama, Communism, Cuba, Puerto Rico, USA

April 18, 2015 By Fausta

Venezuela: May the farce be with you

The VII Summit of the Americas ended last week but the clowns are still parading. Endless propaganda articles from Leftist media extolling “the new defeat for US” continue to pop on my news alerts, but every so often you get one worth reading: For instance, Daniel Lambert-Rodríguez’s account of Nicolás Maduro’s body double (you read it right, body double) hi-jinx,
In Venezuela, One President Too Many

The international media lying in wait outside the Panama City Sheraton Hotel last Saturday were momentarily misled when a stocky individual, sporting Maduro’s trademark mustache, strode out presidentially. Hand-in-hand with a petite woman somewhat reminiscent of Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores, the pair seemed headed in the direction of the Atlapa Convention Center, accompanied by a red-bereted honor guard and other sundry officials.

Embarrassingly, the performance proved short-lived. Fuller of figure than his presidential counterpart, with a wider nose and a distinctly rounder hairline, Budget Maduro didn’t fool the paparazzi for long. They wised up in time to film the real Maduro scurrying into a nearby vehicle which promptly took off, tires screeching.

To dig himself deeper, Maduro then called CNN “a network of lies”. You can’t make up this stuff if you try,

Not just his own, but also his wife’s,

From a historical standpoint, the list of world leaders who’ve resorted to hiring decoys for themselves reads a bit like a who’s who of mustachioed madmen — Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Saddam and Uday Hussein – individuals with a reasonable expectation of mortal danger at every turn. Not everyone is cut out for such theatrics. The act of picking out one’s own body double must be greatly discomfiting: Every unconscious mannerism, each nagging bodily insecurity must be spotlighted, and considered objectively, if the ruse is to be a success. And while wrestling with one’s own inner demons is one thing, picking out a body double for your wife seems a particularly dangerous game — particularly for a man so clearly concerned with his own mortality.

Caracas Chronicles posted on that farce. Venezuela News and Views looked at the other farce, that of the 10 million signatures: Fake signatures in lieu of votes, popular clamor in lieu of democracy.

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Filed Under: Communism, Venezuela

April 17, 2015 By Fausta

Cuba: “We’ll pay Spain”

One for three big lies* joke:

Cuba to compensate Spanish firms that stayed loyal in “difficult years”
Havana makes pledge to Spain’s top trade official as he leads investors’ delegation

  • Cuba recompensará a las empresas españolas fieles “en los años difíciles”
  • Spaniards keen to invest further in Cuba before US lifts trade embargo

The pledge was made to Jaime García-Legaz, Spain’s secretary of state for trade, who this week has been leading a delegation of Spanish business people representing 43 companies to Cuba in search of investment opportunities.

The Spanish companies can now adapt the joke* to 1. The check is in the mail, 2. I’ll respect you in the morning, 3. I’ll pay you what I owe you.

* The three big lies joke (NSFW):
[Read more…]

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Filed Under: Communism, Cuba Tagged With: Fausta's blog

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